special issue number THE FORUM FOR CONTEMPORARYCONTEMPORARY HISTORY )5 • Opposing views on the question that keeps coming back:

Should we reopen the investigation? Was the Warren Commission right? Are the "conspiracy" theories plausible? Is there any new evidence? Featuring: Bernard Fensterwald James J. Kilpatrick Sylvia Meagher David Belin Robert Sam Anson Skeptic Forum

811101111M. HANDBOOK How the assassination changed your life skepit FORUM FOR CONTEMPORARYtic rt5TCRY •

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WHO KILLED MI? ISSUE NO. 9

SKEPTICAL EYE Is a breakthrough imminent? The Question That Keeps Coming Back See page 8. Henry B. Burnett, Jr. 4 If Oswald wasn't alone, who helped him? The government knows, claims INTERVIEW WITH BERNARD FENSTERWALD attorney Bernard Fensterwald in an Ron Ridenour 8 interview with SKEPTIC, and what's more, the American people may soon ARTICLES learn the truth. The Warren Commission Was Right t3,1-1-. -2 Q David W. Belin Doctored evidence: 12 a new hypothesis. The Greatest Cover-up of All Q See page 25. Robert Sam Anson, from New Times 17 The Warren Commission never Discounting the Critics / W. David Slawson and resolved serious conflicts between the Richard M. Mosk, from Los Angeles Times 21 reports of doctors in Dallas and those Did Someone Alter the Medical Evidence? of the autopsy physicians at Bethesda. Fred T. Newcomb and Perry Adams 25 These conflicts suggest that someone The Dissenters Ask Too Much altered the President's wounds. James J. Kilpatrick 29 Should we reopen the inquiry? Finishing the Commission's Unfinished Business See page 34. Sylvia Meagher, from Esquire 31 What do legislators think? How about presidential candidates? What is SKEPTIC FORUM the consensus of those who served the Should the Investigation Be Reopened? Commission? How does the Kennedy Richard E. Kipling family feel? What's the opinion of 34 Arthur Schlesinger, Tom Hayden, SURVIVAL HANDBOOK Clare Boothe Luce, Melvin Belli, Sam How JFK's Murder Changed the Presidency... Ervin, President Gerald Ford? and Your Life / Sandra Stencel 37 Agenda for a new investigation. See page 31. DEPARTMENTS The next investigation could pick up Skeptic Backgrounder: Assassinations from where the Warren Commission left off Nizam al-Mulk to Robert F. Kennedy 6 — by interviewing a number of Who's Who 7 potentially important witnesses the Reading Guide 43 Commission never heard, and by Letters following up several evidential leads 65 that the Commission either ignored or SKEPTIC is the journal of the Forum for Contemporary overlooked. History. an independent, non-political, non-partisan Oswald did it. organization formed to provide opportunities for the free See page 12. expression of controversial and divergent points of view. Critics notwithstanding,the fact Each issue of SKEPTIC examines a topic of current remains that the evidence pointed to interest through articles and interviews which represent a Lee Harvey Oswald and no one else - broad spectrum of viewpoints. SKEPTIC exists to help and eyewitness testimony provided clarify the most important issues of our time... to help more than enough corroboration. readers understand the pros and cons. organize their Oswald was guilty beyond a reason- thinking and develop their own opinions. able doubt.

Skeptic 3

• - ske7tical eye

f-ENRY rBURNETT JR .

Some say that we have always been hooked on conspiracies and conspiracy theories (we're still speculating about the Lincoln assassination). Some explain this tendency as a need to reassure ourselves THE by supplying rational explanations for what are random, irrational acts that mock our notions of an ordered world. Others maintain that the credibility of the QUESTION Commission's findings has been worn away over the years by critics — the "assassination buffs" who once were dismissed as cranks, crackpots and paranoids. Some no doubt deserved the labels, but it turns out that a good many of the critics are THAT KEEPS serious scholars who are responsible for much of what we know today about the contents of the Report and the Commission's methods and proce- dures. Now the Zapruder film of the assassination has COMING been shown on television and hawked on the lecture circuits. Public skepticism about the Commission's findings — for whatever reasons — has increased to the point where the Kennedy assassination has become a matter of public policy. At issue now: BACK whether the investigation should be reopened. Two resolutions to do so have been introduced in the House of Representatives. Reputable people have acknowledged doubts about the Commission's ho killed John F. Kennedy? Nearly conclusions and called for a new inquiry. Candi- eleven years ago, the Warren Com- dates for national office in 1976 probably will find it mission answered the question: Lee difficult to avoid taking a position on the issue. Harvey Oswald was the assassin, and Whe acted alone. Even some former staff members of the Warren By and large, the news media accepted this verdict Commission have recommended reopening the uncritically. Some Americans may have found it investigation, not out of heresy but to put to rest hard to believe that Oswald could have engineered widespread doubts about the Commission's perfor- the assassination by himself, but most were inclined mance. not to challenge this conclusion. Who, after all, had The Commission is not without defenders. a better answer? President Ford, who was a Commission member, For that matter, who has a better answer today? reaffirmed recently that he stands behind the Although conspiracy theories abound, they remain Warren Report. Senator Edward Kennedy and his theories; no conclusive evidence has been brought family say they are satisfied with the official forward and no link between Oswald and any findings. David Behr', assistant counsel for the alleged conspirator has been established. Warren Commission and executive director of the Rockefeller Commission, insists that the case Why, then, does the question of who shot JFK keep coming back — if indeed it ever went away? against Oswald was proved beyond a reasonable Because most Americans don't believe the Warren doubt. In a recent television interview, Commission Commission's answer. member John McCloy commented that he had "never seen a case more completely proven." Some attribute this to a change in the political climate: after Watergate, Vietnam and the CIA The case against Oswald is persuasive, if not revelations, Americans are prepared not only to airtight. And the problem that still confronts the believe the worst about officialdom, but to reject critics is that there isn't a shred of evidence out of hand officialdom's pronouncements. More- connecting anyone else to the crime. Only surmise, over, we are in a mood to probe for the truth, speculation, inference and hypothesis. The chal- consequences be damned. lenge flung down years ago by Commission member and former CIA director Allen Dulles —"If they've

4 Skeptic found another assassin, let them name names and produce evidence" — has not been met. To be against reopening the investigation does not, of course, require that one be a defender of the Warren Commission. Columnist James Kilpatrick, for example, admits that puzzling questions remain unanswered, but that given a choice between the conspiracy theories and the Warren Report, he'll stick with the latter. Some say that a new investigation isn't warranted unless new evidence is turned up. Some believe that a new investigation cannot be justified because the chance is too remote that it can find out any more than the Warren Commission found out. Some think that the best thing for the country is to let the matter rest. The critics contend that the Commission's function was more political than investigative, that its real purpose was to put an end to the rumors and speculation about conspiracies; that the Commis- sion assumed that Oswald was the lone assassin, ignored evidence and testimony to the contrary, and constructed an improbable explanation of how Kennedy was killed in order to support what was, in fact, a foregone conclusion. The Commission found that just three shots were fired, all from behind and above the President and all by Lee Harvey Oswald. Although the endless arguments about the number and origin of the shots may seem trivial and academic, they are right to the point. For if there had been more than three shots (or, of course, if any shots had come from a direction other than behind and above the presiden- tial limousine), there must have been another gunman because Oswald's single shot rifle could not have been fired more than three times in the seconds between the first and last hits on the President (the timing has been determined from the Zapruder film). If there was another gunman, there was a conspiracy of some sort. Doubts about the Commission's findings on the _ number and origin of the shots — and about questions are asked that are answerable but are numerous other areas of the Commission's inquiry, unanswered in the report ..." and that a new notably the autopsy — are far from frivolous. inquiry is not only justified, but imperative. Responsible citizens, including legislators, attor- What is at stake? Is the point of a new neys, forensic pathologists and law enforcement investigation to satisfy our need for the truth? How officers, believe the Commission's findings are open important is that need? Important enough to to serious question. override other considerations, such as the reputa- Does this mean the investigation should be tions of valued public servants and the peace of reopened? If one starts with the proposition that the mind of the Kennedy family? is it enough to know purpose of the Commission, according to President that the democratic process was subverted by Johnson, was to determine the truth "as far as it can bullets — or must we spare no effort to ensure that be discovered," one might reasonably agree with we have found out why? Does democracy demand Alexander Bickel that "...important legitimate that of us?ea

Skeptic 5 skeAic backgrounder

ASSASSINATIONS: FROM NIZAM AL-MULK TO ROBERT F. KENNEDY A capsule history of assassinations, with special The three decades prior to World War I were a heyday emphasis on the circumstances surrounding those in the for assassins.2 Between 1881 and 1914 ten heads of state United States. were murdered, including two American Presidents, It was the twelfth day of Ramadan in the year 1092. The James Garfield in 1881 and William McKinley in 1901. Persian minister Nizam al-M ulk was being carried from The other victims were Tsar Alexander II of Russia the place where he granted audiences to the tent of his (1881), President Carnot of France (1894), Premier harem. Suddenly a man disguised as a mystic leaped from Canovas of Spain (1897), Empress Elizabeth of Austria the crowd and plunged a golden dagger into the minister. (1898), King Umberto I of Italy (1900), King Carlos of The murderer belonged to a secret religious order, Portugal (1908), Premier Canalejas of Spain (1912), and followers of Sheik Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah, who undertook George I of Greece (1913). murders of their political opponents as a sacred duty, The culmination of this deadly era was the assassina- As an inducement for murder, these terrorists were tion of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of given hashish (a concentrated form the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on of marijuana) and thus came to be June 28,1914. The Archduke and his known as hashshasitin.1 It is from wife were fatally wounded in Saraje- this term, plural of the Arabic word vo, capital of the recently annexed for hashish user, that our word provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovi- assassin is derived. na, by a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo The hashshashin gave their name Princip. The crime, which triggered to a crime that goes back at least to the outbreak of the First World the ancient Greeks and Romans, War, was engineered by a secret who were said to have condoned terrorist society which hoped to assassination if it was against a loosen Bosnia's ties with the Empire tyrant. Similar justifications for and bring about its unification with assassination were offered up by Serbia. certain Christian philosophers dur- A majority of assassinations were ing the Middle Ages. In Policraticus, for example, John impelled explicitly by political motives. of Salisbury declared that tyrannicide was a "lawful and Julius Caesar, for example, was killed by a group of friends and Senators glorious act." In the modern world, however, attempts to who feared the consequences of his dictatorial powers. justify assassination on moral grounds have come mainly Thomas a Becket was assassinated as a result of his from assassins themselves. resistance to the efforts of King Henry II to limit the A listing of prominent assassinations through the power of church law. Jean Paul Marat, one of the leading centuries could almost serve as an outline of world figures of the French Revolution, was stabbed to death in history. Among the victims during the Middle Ages were his bath by a young follower of an opposing political cleric Thomas A Becket (1170), Holy Roman Emperor faction, the Girondins, shortly after Marat had ordered Albert I (1308), King James I of Scotland (1437), and the arrest of the Girondin leaders. Russian revolutionary three kings of England — Edward 11 (1327), Henry VI Leon Trotsky was assassinated in 1940, while in exile in (1471) and Edward V (1483). Among those assassinated Mexico, to silence his criticisms of political rival Joseph during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were notables Stalin. such as Alessandro de Medici, Duke of Florence (1537), Different Pattern in the U.S. William 1 of Orange (1584), two kings of France, Henry The pattern of assassinations in the United States has Ill (1589) and Henry IV (1610) and King Gustavus III of been somewhat different. In most cases, attacks against Sweden (1792). (continued on page 44) Bernml Lewm, 77re .4.rassnil. A Retheal Sfe I .1 Lame I Basic Boer,. 14681. John Wiiiiam,, N,,th,) Anar.sin, 1W4I,,m Heinemann, 1953)

a Skeptic whds who

THE WARREN COMMISSION Eisenberg is presently professor of law at J. D. Tippit was shot by Oswald, whom he Earl Warren. Appointed head of the Boalt Hall, University of California at had stopped for questioning less than three Commission by President Johnson. For- Berkeley. quarters of an hour after the assassination. Burt W. Griffin. Assistant Counsel. Now mer Governor of California, Warren John B. Connally. Then Governor of served 16 years as Chief Justice of the judge at the Ohio Court of Common Pleas Texas, Connally was riding in the presiden- Supreme Court before retiring in 1969, He in Cleveland, Griffin has said that he wants tial limousine at the time of the assassina- died in 1974. "an appropriate public forum" to reassert tion. He sustained serious injuries from John Sherman Cooper. When he served what he believes to be the Commission's wounds which, according to the Commis- an the Commission, Cooper was a Repub- overwhelming case. sion Report, came from the first bullet lican Senator from Kentucky. In 1974, he which passed through President Kennedy's became the first U.S. Ambassador to East neck. Connally, now a Houston attorney, Germany. claims that he was hit by a separate second Richard B. Russell. Democrat Russell bullet but endorses the findings of the served on the Commission while Senator Commission. from Georgia. In 1970, he expressed Jack Ruby. A nightclub owner, Ruby shot doubts that Oswald could have planned the Oswald in the Dallas police station before a assassination by himself. Russell died in national television audience. Ruby was 1971. tried, found guilty and sentenced to death, Hale Boggs. Congressman Boggs, a Loui- but died of cancer before his sentence could siana Democrat and Majority Whip, had be carried out. begun to express reservations about the Commission's conclusions before his death in a light plane crash in Alaska in 1972. Gerald R. Ford. Then a Republican congressman from Michigan's 5th District, President Ford supports the Commission's findings, Allen W. Dulles. Director of the CIA from 1953 to 1961, Dulles was instrumental in building the Agency to the powerful force it has become, He died in 1969. • a✓ MARGUERITE de MARINA OSWALD

Lyndon B. Johnson. As Vice President. Johnson rode two cars behind the Presi- dent in the motorcade. It was President Johnson who convened the Warren Com- mission "to ascertain, evaluate and report upon the facts relating to the assassina- ■■ 411r% tion..." But in an interview shortly before 441f1,-,1„. his death, Johnson voiced his belief that the entire assassination story had not been

0,•.11,11.C11111L1 told. 1,1111 CD •Ulal.I4 DI DC -CII Ralph Yarborough. As a Democratic John J. McCloy. McCloy had previously senator from Texas, Yarborough rode in been U.S. Commissioner in postwar the Johnson limousine during the motor- Germany, President of the World Bank cade. Never wholly satisfied with the and Chairman of the Board of Chase Commission's findings, Yarborough, now Manhattan Bank. He is now an attorney in practicing law in Austin, has called for a New York. new investigation. STAFF OF THE COMMISSION WITNESSES WARREN COMMISSION Marguerite Oswald. Lee Harvey Oswald's J. Lee Rankin. General Counsel of the mother. Mrs. Oswald maintained that her Commission, Rankin was Solicitor Gener- SPE R TT son was a government agent and has al under President Eisenhower. He is now steadfastly proclaimed his innocence. The an attorney in New York. Arlen Specter. Assistant Counsel. Specter has repeatedly defended the Commission's Warren Commission considered her a most David W. Belin. An Assistant Counsel. "uncooperative" witness. Belin has been one of the Commission's case against the cntics. He now practices Marina Oswald. Oswald's Russian-born most vocal defenders. Earlier this year, he law in Philadelphia, where he was once District Attorney. widow, now living in the Dallas area with served as General Counsel of the Rocke- her third husband. in its efforts to link feller Commission to Investigate CIA ASSASSINATION Oswald with the rifle and establish a Activities. Belin is an attorney in Des AND AFTERMATH pattern of suspicious behavior, if not a Moines, Iowa. J. D. Tippit. According to the Warren motive, the Commission relied heavily on Melvin A. Eisenberg. Assistant Counsel. Commission Report, Dallas Police Officer Marina Oswald's testimony.

Skeptic 7 ske?tic interview INTERVIEWER: RON RIDENOUR BERNARD FENSTERWALD

Who killed President Kennedy? The government knows, claims Warren Commission critic Bernard Fensterwald, and it probably won't be long before the American people find out

n a few months, a clutch of presidential candidates will hit the campaign trait accom- panied by squads of Secret Service agents. IBut despite the elaborate precautions that will be taken to protect them, none will be safe from a determined assassin. According to Bernard Fensterwald, one of the most respected critics of the Warren Commission, it is primarily for this reason — the threat that bullets may again decide who governs America - that we must reopen the investigation and solve the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Fensterwald is convinced that there was a conspiracy, that the conspiracy was covered up to conceal the truth from the American people, that the government knows the truth and that the case shouldn't be particularly difficult to crack, even at this late date. He offers no opinion on the identity of the conspirators; he believes that the job of the critics "is simply to demonstrate clearly that the Warren Commission's solution is a fairy story..." In the course of his 18 years in Washington, Fensterwald, 53, an attorney and specialist in international law, has worked for the State Department (in Washington and at the United Nations), defended the State Department's "old China hands" against the McCarthy committee and served as counsel and foreign policy advisor to

Skeptic Senators Estes Kefauver, Edward Long and Thomas Hennings. He was James McCord's attorney in the Watergate investigations, and he currently represents James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King. For reasons that go well beyond his personal stake in the case against James Earl Ray, Fensterwald believes that there should be new investigations of the murders of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, and of the attempt on George Wallace's life. To further this cause — and bring together many of the assassination critics — Fensterwald formed in 1969 the Committee to Investigate Assassina- tions, an organization devoted mainly to research, study and exchange of information, Time and the relentless digging of the assassina- tion critics have eroded the authority of the Warren Commission and its report. Today, less than one quarter of the population believes the Commission's findings. Even some of those involved in the Dallas trip and the investigation itself have expressed discontent with the official version. Jesse Curry, the former Dallas police chief who rode near the front of the motorcade that fateful day, acknowledged recently that "No one has been able to put (Oswald) in that building with the gun in his hand." How likely is a new investigation? Interviewed by SKEPTIC Contributing Editor Ron Ridenour, Fensterwald is optimistic not only that the hearings will be reopened, but that this will happen before the coming election. SKEPTIC: Who do you think killed John F. Kennedy? FENSTERWALD: I haven't the faintest notion. SKEPTIC: Was Lee Harvey Oswald involved? FENSTERWALD: I don't think there's any question that Oswald played a role in it. But there's no clear evidence whether he did or did not fire a gun that day. One thing is clear — if he was one of the gunmen, he was aided by at least one other because of the number of shots that were fired.

"From statements made by President Johnson in the period after he left office until he died, it's quite clear that he feared a nuclear war, deliberately set about covering up what hap- pened in Dallas and talked the Chief Justice into helping him."

9 SKEPTIC: All the conspiracy theories are have hit Governor Connally, who was sitting based, in part, on trying to refute the Warren directly in front of Kennedy, in the right armpit. Commission's finding that President Kennedy was To do that, the bullet would have had to stop in shot from the back by Oswald. Could he have done midair, take a 90-degree turn to the right, stop two it? feet later, take a 90-degree turn to the left, and then FENSTERWALD: If he fired a gun at all, go through the Governor. I'm sure the Commission Oswald fired a Mannlicher-Carcano, which is a regretted saying that, because there has not been poor $19.95 World War II Italian rifle. There are one ballistics expert in the country who has said it millions around the world. It's a single shot, bolt was possible. Even those who have tried to defend action rifle. So he would have had to reload and the Commission say that they simply can't explain aim after every shot. The world's greatest experts it and it just didn't happen that way. Furthermore, have tried duplicating the feat within the 5.6- there's no lead missing from the "magic" bullet second time span prescribed by the Warren except the bit taken for testing. In other words, Commission. They have done it, although under Commission exhibit number 399 is a phoney. much different conditions than Oswald supposedly SKEPTIC: What are your theories about the did. But no one has been able to reload and fire a assassination? fourth shot within that length of time. We know FENSTERWALD: I don't have any theories. I that if the Warren Commission is correct, there don't think it is the job of Warren Commission had to be only three shots. In fact, there were at critics, particularly private citizens who don't have least four and probably more. One shot hit subpoena powers, to come up with answers about Kennedy in the back. In all likelihood, that is the who is responsible. Our job is simply to demon- shot that exited from his throat. Many people will strate clearly that the Warren Commission's argue that he was hit in the front of the throat. But solution is a fairy story and that the case has to be in any event, there is an entry wound in his back. reopened and properly investigated. Another shot went through his head some seconds SKEPTIC: What in your opinion was the later. One shot, a third, hit the curb, splattered and Warren Commission's role? injured a bystander. And at least one shot hit FENSTERWALD: Its role was to cover up. Governor Connally, went through his chest, broke That's all it was supposed to do. The conclusion a rib, went through his wrist and then into his was reached immediately after Ruby shot Oswald, thigh. if not before. The story was to be that there was SKEPTIC: Doesn't the Warren Commission one lone nut killer, and the Commission was to claim Connally was hit by a bullet which went first gather evidence to support that. It took the through Kennedy? evidence that supported the thesis and ignored FENSTERWALD: If you look at a picture of everything that didn't fit: the magic bullet; the the Kennedy automobile and if you look through witnesses who saw Jack Ruby at various places the scope of a rifle from "Oswald's" window, it would have to be the shot that hit Kennedy in the back and exited his throat — coming downward and to the left — because the other bullet hit him in the head. Most of it is still there. The first bullet, if that was the one that went straight on through and exited the neck, either would have hit Mrs. Connally or the floor or the side of the car, depending on what the angle was. But it would not

"I don't think it is the job of Warren Commis- sion critics, particularly private citizens who don't have subpoena powers, to come up with answers about who is responsible. Our job is simply to demonstrate clearly that the Warren Commission's solution is a fairy story ..."

10 Skeptic "I think Hoover knew a great deal more about this murder than he ever said. The FBI did not operate in a normal fashion during the in- vestigation, I guess, because the Bureau itself was one of the "defendants" in the case."

conspiracy was much wider. There were a number of unusual things that took place at the time. Nearly the whole cabinet was out of the country on a flight to Hawaii. Besides the President and the Vice President, who were in Dallas, only Robert Kennedy and one other cabinet member were here. After the murder, everyone in the U.S. armed forces throughout the world was put on immediate alert. where the Commission says he wasn't; the SKEPTIC: Within three years of the assassina- witnesses who heard more than three bullets, some tion, 17 witnesses — all of whom had evidence coming from directions other than the Texas contrary to the Commission's conclusions, were School Book Depository building. found dead in various circumstances. The actuarial SKEPTIC: Wouldn't a number of people find it odds against that happening apparently are 100 hard to accept the idea that the widely respected trillion to one. Isn't this something the government Supreme Court Chief Justice was a principal in a should look into? coverup? FENSTERWALD: If the government were to FENSTERWALD: He happened to be one of admit that any of these deaths were other than my idols, and I was very fond of him. I talked to accidents, it would have to reopen the whole case. him about the Commission, but he wouldn't Whether the government had anything to do with discuss any of the details of its work. the murders or not, there would be a clear SKEPTIC: Why do you think Earl Warren admission that there was a conspiracy. A case in played this role? point is James Garrison's chief target, David FENSTERWALD: From statements made by Ferrie. Ferrie had known Oswald since he was President Johnson in the period after he left office about 15. Ferrie died in New Orleans of unknown until he died, it's quite clear that he feared a causes in the middle of the night. On the same nuclear war, deliberately set about covering up night about 1,500 miles away, in Miami, one of what happened in Dallas and talked the Chief Ferrie's close friends, Eladio del Valle, also died. Justice into helping him. Johnson had strong Valle owned a plane which Ferrie flew over Cuba suspicions that Oswald had foreign connections, on bombing and leafletting missions. He was shot and that if it had come out that he wasn't a lone nut through the heart and had his head cleaved open that Fidel Castro or the Russians were behind with a machete. And that has been an unsolved him — the thing could have escalated into World murder on the books of the Miami police ever War III. I don't know if that's a logical conclusion, since. but Johnson did cut off a Senate investigation and Ferrie was to have been arrested, arraigned and the Texas investigation. He cut off every investiga- charged with conspiracy in the death of President tion except his own. Kennedy. He had been under investigation and SKEPTIC: Do you consider it possible that strain. A week before he was due to be arrested he Johnson thought Oswald was working for an asked Garrison for protection. Garrison put him in American government agency, such as the CIA or a hotel with guards. Ferrie's nerves calmed down FBI? and he left the hotel. Soon after returning to his FENSTERWALD: There's a great deal of apartment, he was found dead. One of the evidence that he had some connection with those strangest things about it was that a reporter from agencies. Johnson was very fearful that the (continued on page 48)

Skeptic Assassination sensationalists notwithstanding, Oswald was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt THE WARREN COMMISSION WAS RIGHT David W. Belin

The assassination critics have suc- vocal supporters of the Commission cessfully duped a large body of world but the critics' number one bete noire. opinion into questioning the validity Belin, who practices law in Des and veracity of the Warren Commis- Moines, served recently as executive sion's findings, claims David W. Belin. director of the Rockefeller Commis- The evidence pointed to Lee Harvey sion. This article has been excerpted Oswald and no one else, and eyewit- from his book November 1963: You ness testimony provided more than Are the Jury, which was published on enough corroboration. the tenth anniversary of the assassina- As an assistant counsel to the tion and from which Belin has donated Warren Commission, Belin contribut- all royalties to charity. The book is ed significantly to the part of the written in the format of a jury trial in Report which deals with "determina- which Behr: asks the reader to serve as tion of who was the assassin." He a member of "the jury of world stands behind his work and word, and opinion." has become not only one of the most

he Rosetta Stone to the Calvin Brewer testified that he saw solution of President Kenne- Oswald duck into Brewer's storefront dy's murder is the murder of area as police sirens approached and T Officer J. D. Tippit. To then saw him leave and sneak into the paraphrase Professor Hugh Trevor- Texas Theater, Brewer followed Os- Roper, once the "hypothesis is admit- wald into the theater and had the ted" that Oswald killed Patrolman J. cashier call the police. As a policeman D. Tippit, there can be no doubt that approached, Oswald pulled out a the overall evidence shows that Lee revolver. Harvey Oswald was the assassin of Carrying a concealed gun is a crime. John F. Kennedy. The fact that Oswald had such a The murder of J. D. Tippit is weapon in his possession and drew it is virtually an open-and-shut case be- in itself highly suspicious. Irrefutable cause Oswald was apprehended with scientific evidence proved that this the murder weapon in hand. Johnny revolver to the exclusion of all other Reprinted by perroboiem of QuadrangletThe Yew York Timm Rook Company from November 1967: weapons in the world was the weapon Yu. Ore the Jury by David W, &lin, EN. • 1973 by Dakiif W klelin that discharged the cartridge cases that

12 witnesses saw the murderer of Officer Tippit toss away as he left the scene of the murder. Taxicab driver W. W. Scoggins testified that he saw the murder and hid by the side of his cab as Oswald trotted by within 12 feet of Scoggins. Ted Callaway testified that he gave chase to Oswald, and Sam Guinyard, along with Callaway and Scoggins, identified Oswald as the gunman in a police lineup. Helen Markham, who witnessed the murder from across the street, and Barbara Jeanette Davis and Virginia Davis, who saw Oswald cut f across their lawn and toss cartridge at" cases in the bushes, also identified Oswald as the gunman. The combination of Oswald's ac- tions at Brewer's shoe store and in the theater and the scientific ballistics testimony linking this gun with the I murder of Tippit would of itself be sufficient. When you add to all this the positive identification by six independ- ent eyewitnesses, there can be no doubt

that Oswald killed Officer Tippit . With the knowledge that Oswald had the capacity to kilr, and with the additional knowledge that the pistol used in the Tippit murder was pur- chased by mail order under the same alias and sent to the same post office box in Dallas as the Kennedy assassi- nation rifle, No. C-2766, the evidence in the murder of John F. Kennedy is placed in clear perspective. The starting point is the testimony of Howard Brennan, who saw the gunman take aim and fire the last shot. Brennan's testimony is reinforced by the newsmen in the motorcade, includ- ing Robert Jackson and Malcolm Couch, who saw the rifle being withdrawn. It is also reinforced by Amos Euins, who saw the rifle, and by the testimony of the three employees watching the motorcade on the fifth floor, below the assassination window. Harold Norman heard the cartridge cases hit the floor above him and also heard the bolt action of the rifle. His

/3

testimony is reinforced by the testi- which came no closer than seven paper into the Depository — a mony of Bonnie Ray Williams and blocks from the house. And when that package that Frazier thought con- James Jarman. Jr. vehicle became stalled in traffic, he got tained curtain rods. However, the As Brennan and Euins reported out and hailed a taxicab that took him room where Oswald was staying their observations to the police, the near his rooming house in the Oak already contained both curtains and Texas School Book Depository was Cliff section of Dallas, where he curtain rods. searched. In the southeast corner of undoubtedly picked up his pistol and At the assassination window at the the sixth floor immediately above then left hastily toward an unknown southeast corner of the sixth floor of Harold Norman, three cartridge cases destination. the Depository a large homemade were found. In the northwest corner of The absence of Oswald from the paper bag was found. The paper was of the sixth floor near the stairway, a 6.5 Depository was first noted by his the same type used to wrap books in mm. Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, serial fellow employees. They called this to the Depository. It was of sufficient size No. C-2766, was found stuffed be- the attention of the police officers to carry the disassembled rifle and it tween boxes. In the presidential searching the crime scene; the officers contained a fingerprint and palmprint limousine, two bullet fragments of went to the police station, intending to of Lee Harvey Oswald. sufficient size to be ballistically identi- A number of days after the assassi- fiable were found. In Parkland Memo- nation, the clipboard that Oswald used rial Hospital, a nearly whole bullet to fill orders of books was found with rolled off a stretcher used to carry some unfilled book orders dated Nov. Governor Connally. When 22. The clipboard was found in the Scientific ballistic evidence proved you put all of these facts northwest corner near the back stair- that the cartridge cases found at the way — only a few feet from where the southeast corner of the sixth floor of together and couple these rifle, No. C-2766, had been discovered. the Depository, the two ballistically facts with the evidence President Kennedy was struck twice identifiable bullet fragments in the showing Oswald murdered — the first shot striking him in the front seat of the presidential limou- back of his neck and exiting from his sine, and the bullet found at Parkland J. D. Tippit, there can be throat and the second striking him in Memorial Hospital all came from that no reasonable doubt that the back of his head. The fibers on the rifle, No. C-2766, to the exclusion of back of President Kennedy's coat were all other weapons in the world. Lee Harvey Oswald pointed inward and the fibers on the Who was the owner of that weapon? murdered John F. front of his shirt were pointed out- Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald had Kennedy. ward. The autopsy physicians traced purchased the rifle through the mail the path of the bullet through the from Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago. He used the alias of A. J. President's neck and the autopsy X- send other officers to Oswald's resi- rays disclosed that there was no missile Hidell, the same alias used to purchase dence to pick him up for questioning. inside the President's body. Wound the pistol. This same man, Oswald, When the officers got to the police closely met the physical description of ballistics tests showed that the bullet station, they found him already there; that struck President Kennedy's neck Howard Brennan as Brennan saw the he had been apprehended in connec- gunman fire the last shot. Oswald had had entered at a velocity of approxi- tion with the murder of Officer Tippit. ready access to the sixth floor of the mately 1,900 feet per second and exited Oswald's rifle had been stored, at a velocity of nearly 1,800 feet per Depository, and he was the only wrapped in a blanket, in a garage of the second. Where did that bullet go? employee who was inside the building Ruth Paine residence in the Dallas It did not hit the presidential at the time of the assassination who suburb of Irving. Oswald's wife and had access to the sixth floor and who limousine, because any missile of that children were staying with Ruth Paine velocity striking the limousine would left the building shortly after the and ordinarily Oswald would visit assassination. have caused substantial damage. The them on weekends. However, on only damage to the limousine was Where did Oswald go? He boarded a Thursday night, Nov. 21, Oswald relatively minor and included damage bus. But instead of waiting for a bus to varied his regular pattern and rode pass in front of the Depository, he to the inside of the front windshield, home with Buell Frazier. Oswald said further evidence that the shots had walked seven blocks east to board one. he wanted to pick up some curtain rods The bus he boarded was not the one come from behind. for the room in which he stayed during At the time the first shot struck that went right by his rooming house. the week. The next day Oswald carried Rather, he took the first available bus, President Kennedy, the presidential a long package wrapped in brown limousine was approximately 180 feet

14 Skeptic 1

from the southeast corner window of who operated on Governor Connally's only employee known as "Junior" was the sixth floor of the Depository. The wrist and thigh. James Jarman. Jr., who was watching four-power scope on the rifle made the Some witnesses at the scene of the the motorcade from the fifth floor. actual distance appear to be only 45 assassination thought they saw a puff Despite Oswald's denials that he feet — 15 yards. of smoke near the grassy knoll. shot Officer Tippit and President The autopsy showed that the second However, no one saw a rifle, except in Kennedy, when you put all of these shot to hit President Kennedy came the upper floor of the Depository; no facts together and couple these facts from the rear and above. At the time one found any cartridge cases, except with the evidence showing Oswald the fatal shot struck President Ken- on the sixth floor of the Depository; murdered J. D. Tippit, there can be no nedy, the presidential limousine was and the only bullet or bullet fragments reasonable doubt that Lee Harvey 265.3 feet away from the southeast found came from that rifle, to the Oswald murdered John F. Kennedy. corner window of the sixth floor of the exclusion of all other weapons in the We found no evidence of any Depository, or approximately 88 world. conspiracy involving any third party, yards. Through a four-power scope, When the Dallas police came to the particularly Jack Ruby. We found that this made him appear only 22 yards Irving residence and asked about the Ruby was truthful in his testimony and away. The trajectory was almost a in his polygraph examination when he perfect line shot as the limousine said that he had shot Oswald to save slowly headed down Elm Street Jacqueline Kennedy the hardship of toward the freeway at a speed of 11.2 going to Dallas and testifying at a trial miles per hour. There never of Oswald. We found innumerable Sitting directly in front of President instances of "happenstance," all of Kennedy was Governor Connally. At was any question in my which reinforced our conclusion that the time the shots were fired Governor mind that the seven Com- there was no conspiracy. Connally was in the same trajectory missioners, as well as all But what about the assassination line as President Kennedy, with sensationalists who say there was a relation to the southeast corner win- the lawyers working with rifleman shooting a rifle that no one dow of the sixth floor of the Deposito- the Commission, had sees and that leaves no cartridge cases ry. All of Governor Connally's physi- absolute integrity in and leaves no bullets? This is the heart cians agreed that he was struck by one of the claims of assassination sensa- shot tired from above and behind. seeking the truth. tionalists typified by the film produ- Governor Connally's physicians, as cers Lane and deAntonio. I was con- well as the wound ballistics experts at tacted by these producers in a letter Edgewood Arsenal, agreed that location of a rifle, Marina Oswald dated July 7, 1966: Governor Connally's wrist had not pointed out a blanket roll in the been struck by a pristine bullet. The garage. When the blanket was opened, Dear Mr. Behr', trajectory line of the shot, coupled the rifle was gone. Also found were We are completing a film on the with the medical testimony, the autop- two photographs and a negative of a assassination of President Kennedy, its sy testimony and the wound ballistics picture taken of Oswald holding the aftermath, and "The President's Commis- experiments, and the fact that Gover- sion on the Assassination of President John rifle and having a pistol at his side. F. Kennedy." The film, which is composed nor Connally was sitting directly in Scientific evidence showed that the of interviews with witnesses in Dallas as front of President Kennedy led to the picture negative was taken from well as stock footage, attacks both the obvious conclusion: The bullet that Oswald's camera, to the exclusion of methods and conclusions of the Commis- -exited from the front of President all other cameras in the world. sion. Kennedy's neck at a velocity of nearly We offer to screen a pre-release version When Oswald was interrogated, he of the film for you, and also offer you the 1,800 feet per second struck Governor denied owning a rifle; he denied having opportunity to rebut the film on camera - Connally. purchased the rifle from Klein's with the understanding that anything you The bullet that hit Governor Con- Sporting Goods; he denied that the say on camera will be used intact without any cuts, additions or deletions on our nally was the nearly whole bullet found picture of him with the rifle and pistol at Parkland Memorial Hospital. The part. was a true picture but rather said it was Sincerely, total amount of material from the a composite; he denied having carried js/ Mark Lane; Emile deAntonio bullet that remained in Governor a long package into the Depository on Connally was measured in micrograms the morning of Nov. 22; and he said Because all of us who served with the — less than one grain in total, that at the time of the assassination he Warren Commission were familiar according to the reports of physicians was having lunch with "Junior." The (continued on page 51)

Skeptic /5 ; . . Why the Warren Commission deserves to be disbelieved THE GREATEST COVER-UP OF ALL Robert Sam Anson

What the Warren Commission had pressure of inspired scrutiny. going for it, in the opinion of Robert In this article, condensed from the Sam Anson, was not what it said but April 18, 1975 issue of New Times, the distinguished members who said it. Anson reviews and sums up the case That kind of authority doesn't carry against the Warren Commission. Now much weight with most Americans at work on a book of his own about the these days, not after Watergate and Kennedy assassination, Anson is Vietnam. But all the authority in the Executive Producer of Special Events world may not have saved the Com- for WNET Public Television in New mission, whose contentions have York and a contributing editor for tended to disintegrate under the New Times.

t was one of those coincidences. slowly gliding toward the tunnel that No one could have known that lies just beyond a grassy knoll. The the bus would be stopping in wife of the governor turns toward him Ifront of Jacqueline Kennedy's and smiles. "You can't say the people apartment at precisely the moment she of Dallas don't love you, Mr. Presi- would be walking through the front dent." There is no answer, only a door on her way to yet another funeral, sharp, popping noise, a sound like but there bizarrely, macabrely, it was: firecrackers. In that moment every- the bus with the big ad spread across its thing changes. side, announcing in two-foot-high The furies that were released with letters that "Lee Harvey Oswald Was the assassination of John Fitzgerald innocent." For a moment, there was Kennedy have never gone away. Nor an embarrassed silence. All that have the doubts that have surrounded indicated recognition was a slight the circumstances of his killing. The widening of the eyes and an almost Warren Commission's verdict that a imperceptible tightening of the mus- "deranged" young man named Lee cles of her face. And then she was gone, Harvey Oswald, acting alone, mur- disappearing in her limousine. dered President Kennedy and serious- Even now, 111/2 years since that ly wounded Governor John Connally, sunny day in Dallas, it is the murder no only to be killed himself two days later one will ever forget. Two Presidents by another deranged, lone assassin have come and gone, a war, rebellions, named Jack Ruby, raised as many changes without number. And still the questions as it answered. Two years image persists. A young President, after the publication of the Commis- pledged "to do better," riding in an sion's findings — a report and 26 open limousine, waving to cheering volumes of documents and testimony, crowds. A turn, then another turn, and based on 25,000 interviews — the the car is heading past a tall building, Gallup and Harris polls found that Reprinted %vitt, permission of 1.41.0 rirrtrs. April 1/1. 1975. nearly two-thirds of the American

17 people disbelieved its conclusions. Mark Lane and Sylvia Meagher, assassination. A petition backing it has They were not the only doubters. author of the seminal Accessories collected more than 250,000 signatures Lyndon Johnson, who had appointed After the Fact — at all. By 1967, the on the West Coast alone. A bootlegged the Commission, went to his grave holes in the Warren Commission copy of the long-suppressed Zapruder believing that his predecessor had been Report had become so numerous and film, showing President Kennedy the victim of a "communist" conspira- obvious, and the public furor about being driven violently backward by a cy. John Connally loudly proclaimed them so great, that several congress- shot that rips off the top of his head, his objections to the Commission's men were demanding a new investiga- has been shown on national television finding that he had been wounded by tion. Then, another one of those twice. Perhaps most significant of all, the same bullet that had allegedly coincidences. In New Orleans a district the Justice Department, according to passed through the President's throat. attorney named Jim Garrison, a figure reliable sources, has very quietly begun The Commission's version of Connal- of large ambition and unsavory repu- a high-level, internal review of Os- ly's wounding was crucial, since, as one tation, indicted Clay Shaw, director of wald's background. In the past, ru- Commission lawyer put it, "more shots the New Orleans Trade Mart, for mors have circulated that Oswald was means more assassins." Several mem- conspiracy to murder John Kennedy. an agent of one or more intelligence bers of the Commission itself were less agencies, perhaps including the FBI. than convinced of the accuracy of the Now, the rumors are taking on some report they signed. Representative substance. Hale Boggs of Louisiana, a Commis- The Much of the evidence that is being sion member, was particularly upset strongest selling point gone over today is precisely the same by many of the findings and wanted to ground that the critics went over a issue a minority report, until the of the Warren Commis- decade ago. What has changed is Commission agreed to insert "prob- sion is not what it said belief. The strongest selling point of ables" in front of many items that had but the people who said the Warren Commission is not what it been marked certainties. Similarly, the said but the people who said it: some of late Senator Richard Russell, who had it: some of the most the most respected men in the land, been placed on the Commission in respected men in the among them the chief justice of the deference to his power as chairman of land... United States, a director of the CIA the Armed Services Committee, made and a man who a decade later would slight secret of his disenchantment assume the presidency, Gerald R. with the Commission's report and Garrison claimed that Shaw was the Ford. If a senior public figure stated encouraged private investigators to ringleader of a CIA cabal. He proved something in 1964, there was a challenge its findings. "I never believed only that Clay was a devotee of kinky tendency to take him at his word. In that he [Oswald] did it without any homosexuality. After a ludicrous trial, the aftermath of Watergate and consultation or encouragement what- in which Garrison made almost no Vietnam, few people are prepared to soever," Russell said in 1970. "Too attempt to produce evidence, Shaw believe anything that comes out of many things caused me to doubt that was acquitted. Subsequently, Shaw Washington. he planned it all by himself." And then died and Garrison was driven from The proposition that Oswald wasn't there were the witnesses to the assassi- office. The Warren Commission's acting alone has always seemed a little nation itself. Fifty-two of them insisted critics were scattered in disarray. crazy. Because, if he wasn't, then there that at least some of the shots that Now the critics have returned, must have been a conspiracy, a word killed President Kennedy came from in stronger than before. Armed with that does not go down easily among front of him, from the direction of the sophisticated new technology and a many Americans. And, if there was a infamous grassy knoll. The Commis- graft of Freedom of Information conspiracy, then there must have been sion discounted all of them. ,lawsuits, they have uncovered addi- an effort to cover it up, an effort so Small wonder, then, that the Com- tional evidence pointing to the exis- monumental that it would have had to mission's report proved a breeding tence of a conspiracy — a conspiracy include the Dallas police, the CIA, the ground for skeptics. In the years in which Lee Harvey Oswald was not Secret Service, the FBI and, yes, immediately following the assassina- involved, if indeed there ever was a Lee possibly the President of the United tion, 26 books and dozens of articles, Harvey Oswald. Within the last few States. Ten years ago, that was a little some of them serious, some simply months, Congressman Henry Gonzal- hard to swallow. Even now, it is a story scurrilous, challenged the finding that ez, a Democrat from San Antonio, has one would rather not believe. But there Oswald acted alone or, in the opinion introduced a resolution calling for a are the questions that won't go away. of many of the doubters — including congressional investigation of the And there is Watergate: a conspiracy

18 Skeptic involving the CIA, the FBI, the Instead, the Commission's junior times in the 5.6 seconds between the Department of Justice and, yes, the lawyers came up with their own theory first time the President was hit and the President of the United States. Sud- of the assassination, one contradicted final, fatal shot. denly, it becomes possible. by ballistics findings, autopsy results The trouble began when the Com- and the testimony of every witness to mission attempted to duplicate Os- The Commission the actual event. In time, it came to be and the Critics wald's alleged marksmanship. First, called "the magic bullet theory." they found that the rifle was fitted with Impossible, said the Commission, Simply stated, the Commission a left-handed scope; Oswald was right- from the moment it began its work. found that three bullets were fired that handed. Then, too, shims had to be Conspiracy was the one thing the day in Dealey Plaza, all from the rear. inserted to make the scope accurate. Commission did not want to hear, The final, fatal shot hit the President in Ignoring the fact that Oswald's Marine much less discover. Earl Warren, who the back of the head. The second shot records showed him to be a poor shot, had accepted the chairmanship of the missed completely and struck the the Commission had three master Commission only after considerable pavement, wounding a bystander. The marksmen from the National Rifle arm-twisting from President Johnson, Association recreate the events in made it clear at the first, secret staff Dallas by hitting a level, stationary meeting of the Commission that his target. None of them could. Of course, mission and theirs was more political Oswald could have been lucky. As for than investigatory. He had taken the The the one and a half seconds that elapse job, Warren told the Commission, most serious investi- between the time the Zapruder film because the President had convinced gators of the assassina- shows the President to be hit and him that if rumors about a conspiracy Governor Connally bunching up and were not squelched, it could conceiva- tion are reluctant to slumping over, the Commission sug- bly lead the country into war. point a finger anywhere. gested that Connally was merely Thus, under extreme political pres- They are also the most experiencing a "delayed reaction" to sures, the Commission set about its having his chest torn open by a high- task. With no investigative staff of its pessimistic that the powered rifle bullet. own, it relied on the FBI and CIA to do real murderers of John Totally inexplicable is how the its field work for it. At times, the Kennedy will ever bullet that purportedly did all this reliance proved embarrassing, as when damage (and was later conveniently the FBI report came in stating that be found. discovered on the governor's stretcher President Kennedy and Governor in a corridor of Parkland Hospital) Connally had been wounded by emerged so miraculously intact, virtu- separate shots. The FBI version of the first, the "magic" bullet, struck Presi- ally undeformed, with only 2.5 grains President's wounds also differed dent Kennedy in the back just below missing from its normal weight. The sharply, from the Commission's ver- the neck, passed through his neck into Commission itself had a similar bullet sion, which later was condemned by the back of Governor Connally's rib fired into the wrist bone of a cadaver the American Academy of Forensic and out his chest below his right and found that the bullet was mangled. Pathologists as being so incomplete nipple, and continued on to strike his The most damning evidence, and sloppy as to be no autopsy at all. wrist, finally winding up in Connally's though, comes from the most unlikely The FBI's placement of the President's thigh. In short, one shot, seven holes. source: J. Edgar Hoover. In a letter to wounds — one in the head, another If there were only one assassin, the Commission not included in the some six inches below the neck - firing from the sixth floor of the original 26 volumes of evidence and made the Commission's scenario of School Book Depository, the Com- testimony, Hoover reveals that the events untenable. Secret Service men mission's theory made sense. Indeed, it magic bullet and bullet fragments were who witnessed both the shooting and was the only theory that could account subsequently subjected to spectro- the autopsy also placed the back for a lone assassin, since the alleged graphic analysis. That test, Hoover wound well below the neck, as did the murder weapon, a 1940 vintage reports, was inconclusive. However, autopsy doctors' own diagram. The Italian-made Mannlicher-Carcano, there was an additional test, a neutron President's jacket and shirt also was a clumsy, single shot, difficult-to- activation analysis. a highly sophisti- showed a bullet hole just beneath the operate weapon. Tests conducted by cated technique that measures the shoulder. Faced with such evidence, the Commission determined that it differences in material that has been the Commission chose the only practi- was physically impossible to shoot and bombarded with radiation down to cable course: it ignored it. load the Carcano more than three (continued on page 53)

Skeptic 19

Despite the deluge of conspiracy theories, the case against Oswald is still totally convincing DISCOUNTING THE CRITICS W. David Slawson and Richard M. Mosk

Understandable as the renewed Warren Commission staff, review the speculation on the Kennedy assassina- evidence and conclude that the critics tion may be in the light of recent have produced nothing which lends revelations about the CIA, the fact credence to any conspiracy theory, or remains that the case against Lee which should warrant reopening the Harvey Oswald was thoroughly con- investigation. vincing. In this article condensed from Slawson is now a professor of law at the Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1975, the University of Southern California W. David Slawson and Richard M. and Mosk practices law Mosk, who were attorneys on the in Los Ange- les.

here were always those who gone to Dallas when he did and passed believed there was a conspir- the building in which Oswald was acy to assassinate President working. At the time Oswald took his Kennedy, and many of these job, there was no way of knowing that Tpersons brushed aside the report of the the presidential parade route would go Warren Commission, which found no right by the building in which he evidence to support the conspiracy worked, or that there would be a theory and concluded that Lee Harvey presidential parade at all in the Oswald acted alone. foreseeable future in Dallas. Recently, talk of plots to assassinate The night before the assassination, foreign leaders and investigations into Oswald hitched a ride with a friend out what role, if arty, the American CIA to a suburb to see his wife, Marina, may have had in such plots, has re- from whom he was then separated. vived speculation over the Kennedy He begged her to come back and live with assassination. him. He offered to rent an apartment The conspiracy theory persists part- in Dallas for the two of them ly. because some persons find it the next day. She refused. The next morning difficult to believe that such a momen- Oswald left his wedding ring and tous act could be done so capriciously, almost all his money on the dresser, and by such an insignificant, hapless and departed with the same friend for man as Lee Harvey Oswald. View from the sixth floor window of work, with the rifle dismantled and Few persons not familiar with the the Texas School Book Depository as concealed in a package. Kennedy Warren Report realize the large seen through a 35 mm camera mount- might be alive today had Marina number of chance occurrences under- ed in front of a four power telescopic relented. lying the assassination. It is very gun sight, the kind found on Oswald's Allegations concerning CIA activi- unlikely that Oswald rifle. The car and passengers are at would ever have ties in the late 1950's and the 1960's killed Kennedy had the President not approximately the same position on have created added doubts, because Elm St. as was the President's car when • 1975 Ism .411grirt the CIA assisted the Commission in its the fatal shot was fired. up,

Skeptic 21 investigation. However, the CIA was that the hole in the throat was an exit Oswald was a former Marine and hunt- only one such outside source of wound, which would demonstrate that er. He practiced with the rifle when assistance, and it was not the most the bullet came from the rear where he was a civilian. Tests showed that important one. (The most important Oswald was located. his rifle was sufficiently accurate. The was the FBI.) Moreover, the Commis- Quite apart from eyewitnesses, the shot was not particularly difficult. It sion double-checked and cross- evidence supporting Oswald's guilt is was from a stable, prepared position checked all significant information overwhelming. Ballistics evidence at a target moving 11 m.p.h. almost among a variety of sources — govern- demonstrated that Oswald's rifle was straight away at a range of 177 to 266 mental and private. the murder weapon; Oswald's prints feet. The rifle had a telescopic sight. 1 he principal reason for the criti- were on the rifle; hand-writing analysis The voice stress analysis has not cisms and conspiracy theories, how- of order forms and pictures of Oswald achieved general acceptance as a ever. is the breadth of the Warren with the rifle demonstrated that the reliable lie detector test. Report. The published materials com- rifle was his; the rifle was found in the Most critical commentaries focus on prise 27 volumes. The National Ar- building where Oswald worked and suggestions that there had to be at least chives contain additional material, where Oswald was seen shortly before two gunmen. which has for the most part been made the shooting; his prints were located in One of the oldest claims is that public. Critics of the report, by Oswald could not have fired three selective and inaccurate citations, have shots in the time he had and have two turned this vast amount of material of them hit the President. The Com- against the Commission. mission utilized the film of the event by The Commission took testimony The con- Abraham Zapruder to determine that from over 500 people. Thousands spii acy theory persists the interval between the two hits was more were interviewed or gave affida- party because some persons between 4.8 and 5.6 seconds (the exact vits. The FBI alone conducted approx- time is not determinable since the first imately 25,000 interviews. As is true find it difficult to believe shot hit the President while a road sign with even the simplest accident case, that such a momentous was between him and Zapruder's some people's reactions, memories, act could be done so cap- camera). observations and actions were imper- Some have said that 4.8 to 5.6 fect. riciously, and by such an seconds is too short a time for three For example, critics have claimed insignificant, hapless man shots to be fired and two of them to hit. that one of the doctors who worked to as Lee Harvey Oswald. But the time interval is between two save the President's life said the wound shots — the two that hit — not three. on the President's throat was an entry The Commission found the evidence wound, which if true would prove that the part of the room where the rifle and inconclusive as to whether, of the three there was a second gunman since spent cartridges were found and from shots fired, it was the first, second or Oswald was behind the President. which witnesses saw the rifle protrud- third that missed. Since the time What these critics fail to disclose is ing at the time of the assassination; X- interval is that between the two shots that the doctor, at a raucous news rays, photographs and the autopsy which hit, Oswald had all the time he conference right after the President show that the bullet came from the needed to fire the first shot. A period of died, said that it was possible that a area where Oswald was located; after 4.8 to 5.6 seconds is ample time for bullet had entered the throat. He later the shooting, Oswald promptly left the aiming and firing one shot — the testified that at the time he made the premises and resisted apprehension by second one that hit. remark, he had not seen the wounds on killing a policeman. Finally, he lied The evidence concerning the the back of the President. Although about a number of facts during his wounds conclusively dispels the idea of the throat wound could not thereafter interrogation. shots from the front, another part of be definitely analyzed, because of the Thus, the claims that the rifle was the conspiracy theory. The wounds tracheotomy which this doctor, among inaccurate, that the shot was difficult, both slanted downward from Kenne- others, had performed, other doctors that Oswald was a poor shot and that dy's back. This is clear beyond doubt later said the wound probably was an stress analysis tests of Oswald's voice from the autopsy and from the exit wound. allegedly show him to have been telling photographs and X-rays of the body. The Commission, on the basis of the truth when he denied his guilt are The photographs and X-rays are still this and other expert testimony, fiber all unpersuasive in light of so much un- not open to public view, because of analysis of the clothes, the location of controverted evidence. These claims, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' wishes. bullets and other evidence concluded even in isolation, are misleading: but to doubt the evidence of the

11 Skeptic 1

wounds is to label as liars the doctors because, presumably, when the Presi- bullet be recovered without being who examined the body, the pictures dent was sitting in the car his clothing greatly distorted, it must be brought to and the X-rays for the Commission. was slightly bunched up his back. a slow and gentle stop. By going The inward pointing of the threads of Critics have criticized the "single- through two men, and by tumbling end the back of Kennedy's clothing and the bullet theory." which is the Commis- over end through flesh and muscle and outward pointing of the threads in the sion's conclusion that the first bullet by glancing off, rather than penetrat- front of his clothing demonstrate that passed through the President and also ing, large bones, the bullet was the bullet which first hit him entered hit and eventually came to a stop in brought to a slow and gentle stop and from the rear and exited from the Governor Connally. Why anyone so was able to emerge in a relatively front. Since the car was approaching a should think it unlikely that a rifle unscathed condition. low underpass, a bullet from any bullet should go through one man and The photographs supposedly show- direction would in all probability have hit another, when the men were sitting ing shadowy outlines of gunmen in the been going downward, and would close together, escapes us. bushes or trees actually show this only have hit the car after leaving Kennedy. Of course, it was difficult for the to someone with a wild imagination. All the bullet damage to the car was in Commission to reconstruct exactly What they really show are only front of Kennedy, which is consistent shadows such as can be seen on almost with a bullet entering from the rear. any photograph taken from a distance A great deal of publicity has been of trees or shrubbery. given recently to the claim that Kennedy must have been hit from the * * * front because the Zapruder film shows The fact his head jerking back. that the recovered bullet The time has come for everything on A careful analysis of the film, frame that apparently went through the assassination in the National by frame, demonstrates that, in fact. Archives to be made available to the the head jerks back not when the bullet both Kennedy and Connally public, unless its disclosure can be hits it but slightly later. Actually, at the was not greatly distorted shown to be definitely detrimental to time of the hit, the President's head itself actually supports the national security. However, out of appears to move slightly forward and deference to the Kennedy family and the sprayed flesh also moves forward. the single-bullet theory. common decency, no one should be The jerk, therefore, cannot have been a permitted to make duplicates of the X- momentum reaction. It must have rays or photographs of the President's been a neural or muscular reaction body. caused by either bullet or by a reaction what the path through both men was, We do not believe that a reopening to some other stimulus. but a reconstruction proved possible, of the inquiry, in the sense of establish- Many critics have pointed to a and the conclusion that it was a single ing a new commission to carry on its rough sketch of the location of the bullet which hit both men makes, by own investigation or to hear argument neck wound and to the location of the far, the most sense in the context of all from private investigators, would bullet hole in the President's shirt and the other evidence. No bullet was left serve any useful purpose. suit jacket as proving that the rear inside the President; the nature of the The legitimate interest of the Ameri- wound was lower on the President's President's wound shows that the can people in knowing as surely as body than the wound in front. From bullet that made it was hardly slowed possible that they have found out the this it follows, supposedly, that some down and so must have been stopped whole truth can be served, we think, by other gunman must have been firing in by something else, but there was no the creation of special limited new a downward direction from the front. appreciable damage to the car in front investigations if and when a need for But the best evidence of the wound's of the President; the films show one of them arises. For example, location is the autopsy records and the Connally to have been hit at or near investigations have ensued into the photos and X-rays of the body itself. the same time as the President; the question as to whether the CIA may These unambiguously show the rear nature of Connally's wounds show have failed to disclose fully all relevant wounds higher than the wound at the that he. too, was hit from the rear. information to the Warren Commis- front. The rough sketch was just that: The fact that the recovered bullet sion in an effort to cover up its own rough. The holes in the shirt and jacket that apparently went through both involvement with an assassination seem to indicate a low wound on the Kennedy and Connally was not greatly attempt on Castro. body only because the clothing, when distorted itself actually supports the photographed, was laid flat and single-bullet theory. In order that a

Skeptic 23 NO MEMORIAL HOSPITAL ,RKL/► 4.-Se 1

o 11/4TE AND HOUR: ri /22 l3

"3/1•104-€A.e&C- ,-/Ar The Warren Commission's most serious error ... and a hypothesis that can be tested DID SOMEONE ALTER THE MEDICAL EVIDENCE? Fred T. Newcomb and Perry Adams

When Warren Commission mem- led to the assassination conspirators bers relied on the Bethesda autopsy themselves. report and testimony of the autopsy Perry Adams, editor of Probe, an physicians instead of examining the investigative newspaper in Santa evidence themselves, they made what Barbara, and Fred T. Newcomb of may be their most serious mistake. In Van Nuys. California, an advertising doing so, they failed to resolve dramat- art director, have devoted nine years of ic conflicts between the doctors at independent study to their theory, Parkland Hospital in Dallas and those which they explain and document in at Bethesda Naval Hospital. These their manuscript, Murder from Within contradictions either discredit or (1974). In this article, they discuss the implicate some of the doctors, or point core of their theory — the evidence to a conspiracy by others to alter that the President's wounds were President Kennedy's wounds, thus altered — and show how their conclu- eliminating evidence which could have sions can be put to a simple test.

resident John F. Kennedy The Warren Commission was sup- once said, "Before my term posed to have settled the matter. It has ended, we shall have concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald ptested anew whether a nation shot the President and that there was organized and governed such as ours no evidence of a conspiracy. But after can endure. The outcome is by no years of intensive study and investiga- means certain. The answers are by no tion, innumerable critics and inde- means clear." pendent researchers contend that there He was far more prophetic than he must have been at least one other imagined. The nation was tested gunman and therefore a conspiracy of severely in Dallas on November 22, some sort to assassinate the President. 1963, and in the years that followed. Such theories usually have resulted The outcome is by no means certain, f rom closely reasoned challenges to the not as long as the threat remains that Commission's findings that there were our government can be changed by just three shots, all from Oswald's rifle. bullets and the truth concealed from Our research indicates that the the public. And the myriad questions Commission's findings are vulnerable posed by the events of that day have in another important respect, and that never been satisfactorily answered. by inference, the presumption of a

Skeptic 25

conspiracy to assassinate is even more about the throat wound as an entrance "Dr. Perry said the entrance wound - compelling. It is possible to follow a wound resulting from a pistol shot at which is the medical description — the trail of evidence and testimony which close range. Dr. Malcolm 0. Perry of entrance wound was in the front of leads inescapably to the conclusion the Parkland said that the wound was only head." The Secret Service was sup- that there must have been a conspiracy "a few millimeters in diameter" (a posed to furnish the Warren Commis- to alter the most important single piece millimeter is equal to 4/ 100ths of an of evidence — the President's body — sion with media recordings of the press inch). Dr. Perry made a cut of a few conference, but apparently it never and thus disguise the nature and origin millimeters across the throat and into of his wounds, did. Furthermore, according to the the windpipe in order to insert a National Archives, "No tape record- Support for this conclusion comes tracheotomy tube. But even after the from the Warren Commission's hear- ings or transcripts of the interviews tracheotomy, the wound in the neck with doctors at Parkland Memorial ings and exhibits. Verification lies in was recognizable as a gunshot wound the National Archives; it is necessary Hospital, Dallas, Texas, have been (Figure 2). only for the right people to see certain found in the Commission's records." Rear Admiral George G. Burkley, The Bethesda autopsy report men- evidence. President Kennedy's physician, veri- tions no wound in the front of the head

Adam's Apple

Wound Figure 1. Neck wound as it appeared before Figure 2. Neck wound after tracheotomy cut by tracheotomy at Parkland Hospital: referred to Figure 3. Neck wound described by doctors at Dr. Perry at Parkland Hospital. as an "entrance" wound by Dr. Akin and Dr. Flethesda Naval Hospital. Warren Commission

Perry. concluded that it MIS an "exit" wound. Conflicting Medical Reports fled the President's death but failed to at all, let alone a wound of the left One of the Warren Commission's mention the throat wound in the temple — even though a chart of the most serious errors is that it failed, as Certificate of Death he signed. President's skull sketched by autopsy the Journal of Forensic Sciences put it, At Bethesda, autopsy physicians physician J. Thornton Boswell (Figure to "...attempt to establish a chain of described the same wound as nearly 4) may indicate not only its presence, evidence to discover whether or not the three inches long, "...with widely but also the fact that it was enlarged to body arrived at the Bethesda Naval gaping irregular edges" (Figure 3). three centimeters (about an inch). Hospital in largely the same condition They recognized that a tracheotomy Wound in Right Rear of Head as it left Dallas (as any court would be had been done, but one of the three According to Dr. Charles J. Carrico required to do)..." autopsy physicians, James J. Humes, at Parkland, the bullet exited on the Had the Commission done so, it had to telephone Dr. Perry at Park- right rear side of the head, taking away could scarcely have failed to note the land to find out if the neck wound was scalp and skull some numerous and dramatic conflicts two inches in caused by a bullet. diameter. At Bethesda, Dr. Humes between the observations and medical Wound in Left Temple observed that the diameter of this reports of doctors at Parkland Hospi- Dr. Robert N. McClelland of Park- wound was tal and those of doctors who per- five inches. No doctor land, in his medical report, stated that reported performing any surgery on formed the autopsy at Bethesda.* "the cause of death..." was from the head. But two FBI agents who were Throat Wound "...a gunshot wound of the left assigned to attend the autopsy report- At Parkland, doctors found a small temple." Dr. Marion T. Jenkins ed that "...surgery of the head area, wound in the front of the President's testified that he saw blood in the namely, in the top of the skull" had neck, centered below the Adam's apple hairline of the left temple. The priest been performed. So much of the skull (Figure I). Dr. Gene C. Akin talked who administered the last rites to the was missing that the brain could be President, Oscar L. Huber, also saw 91 the new Premiern and the Secret Service had followed I e411. lifted out without further surgery. No [the oniy law which then appliedl. the uutopsy would have the wound over the left eye. Back Wound been performed at the mor.ve in Parkland Hospital The Secret Regarding the news conference at Service was 1121711r4Cd a this by the Dallas coroner. hen The Warren Commission concluded acsert heirs, sewed the Preeident's holy and removed It to Parkland on the afternoon of Novem- Meillesd. N...1 Hosporal. that the hack wound was the entrance ber 22, the Associated Press reported, wound and that it aligned with the

26 Skeptic throat wound. The Parkland doctors shot from behind. found no back wound. But a very equally possible — and somewhat The autopsy report supported the shallow hole, penetrating the back at a more plausible — to assume that the latter conclusion (though visual evi- depth of about a linger length, was doctors in each group were telling the dence of the assassination — the reported in Bethesda. It lacked any truth about what they observed'? Zapruder film — failed to confirm it). metallic fragments. According to And that the President's body was The autopsy doctors submitted their Admiral Burkley, Dr. Boswell and the altered after it left the view of the individual reports and charts to FBI agents, the location of the hole Parkland doctors and before it Admiral Burkley, who was by then was at the third thoracic vertebra - reached the autopsy doctors at Beth- President Johnson's physician. Bur- about a fourth of the way down the esda? back — and matched the holes in the President's shirt and coat. Dr. Flumes was skeptical about this Vorner cru back wound. When he talked by al ,A"— IONA rl or. 1 e4,4 3 crn Featlure through Moor telephone with Dr. Perry about the ./..A t throat wound, he asked if Parkland Tje.k.+" -141 doctors "...had made any wounds in 0/0,1 bone Inv, etin SIAM the back." Orelf. rM Caranal bad% Later, the position of the wound changed. Rear Admiral Calvin B. Galloway, commanding officer of the Bethesda autopsy physicians, located it four inches higher (which aligned it with the throat wound). Admiral Burkley and Dr. Humes concurred

with Admiral Galloway. The autopsy 3150 pictures — ostensibly of the President, (tkull MVO blasted away) but not identifiable as such or techni- C011/10.... cally authenticated — which were 1.000.1.1 viewed by a panel of doctors in 1968 COMMISSION SP.!! SIT 397 AUTHOR'S INTERPRETATION reflect Admiral Galloway's position- Figure 4. Top view of President's skull drawn by Dr. J. Thornton Boswell, one of the three autopsy ing of the back wound. physicians at Bethesda, showing three-centimeter wound in left forehead. No mention of this wound appears in the autopsy report.

k ley authorized changes and approved How Truthful How This Theory revisions of these documents. How Can Be Tested Were the Doctors? many rewrites were necessary before The Secret Service had custody of There are other conflicts, too num- an acceptable report was produced is erous to explore here, between what the body during this period. But who unknown. We do know that Admiral the doctors at Parkland and those at had access to it? lf, as it appears, the Burkley "accepted and approved" Dr. Bethesda saw. What seems clear is that wounds were altered to disguise the Humes' destruction of "...certain the reports of the Parkland doctors origin of the shots, whose interests preliminary draft notes..." Unac- would not have sustained the conclu- would have been protected or served? countably, Burkley's handwritten au- sion that the President was shot from Find those beneficiaries and you find thorization was removed from the the back — the conclusion which lies, the conspirators. published documents although it Had the Warren Commission been of course, at the very heart of the remains on the original which is on file Warren Commission's contention that struck by the contradictions among at the National Archives. The Warren the assassination was the work of Lee the medical observations and alert to Commission failed to take testimony Harvey Oswald alone. the implications, it might logically from Admiral Burkley and never have asked the same questions. But the On the other hand, after the alleged asked Dr. Humes why he burned his Commission, apparently, either failed alterations were made, the nature of notes or what they contained. the wounds (i.e., whether they were to note the discrepancies or discounted To some, the foregoing may suggest them. In any case, although the entrance or exit wounds) became that one of the groups of doctors either Commission could have examined the sufficiently ambiguous to allow for a lied, tampered with the evidence or case to be made that the President was autopsy materials and pictures first was grossly incompetent. But isn't it (continued on page 61)

Skeptic 27 JOHN SHERMAN COOPERELL ENT'S COMMISSION HALE BOGGS ON THE GERALD R FORD ASSASSINATION OP PRESIDENT KENNEDY JOHN J. Mc CLOY J. LEE RANKIN, ALLEN W. DULLES 200 Maryland Ave. N.E. lef.i (, Washington, D.C. 20002 Telephone 543-1400 0

September 24, 1964 The President The White House Washington, D. C.

Dear Mr. President:

Your Commission to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, having completed

its assignment in accordance with Executive Order No. 11130

of November 29, 1963, herewith submits its final report.

Respectfully,

Ea

Ri

per

Hale Boggs

4 Ge

Al en W. Dulles Are the conspiracy theories really any more believable than the Warren Report? THE DISSENTERS ASK TOO MUCH James J. Kilpatrick

Important questions about John the Warren Report." Besides, he asks F. Kennedy's assassination remain in his May 27, 1975 column, if a new unanswered, but in view of what inquiry were to be made, where would the conspiracy theorists ask us to be- we find an investigative body objective lieve, syndicated columnist James J. enough to satisfy both the defenders Kilpatrick is inclined "to stick with and the critics?

l ohn F. Kennedy, had he lived, "There is no question in the mind of would have been 58 on May any member of the Commission that 29. He died, as we know, all the shots which caused the Presi- nearly 12 years ago, the victim il dent's and Governor Connally's of assassination. The anniversary of wounds were fired from the sixth floor his birth offers an opportunity for a window of the Texas School Book few observations on the burgeoning Depository. The shots ...were fired by demands for a new investigation of his Lee Harvey Oswald .... The Commis- death. sion has found no evidence that either These demands are cropping up Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby was everywhere — in Congress, on college part of any conspiracy, domestic or campuses, in popular magazines. foreign, to assassinate President Ken- Watergate left a fertile soil behind: it is nedy." just right for the growing of cover-up These conclusions were strongly theories. These have taken root, and attacked when the Warren Report first they are flowering. appeared. After a few years of quies- Kennedy died of bullet wounds cence, the controversy now has been suffered at 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 22. revived. Non-believers contend that 1963, as he was riding in a motorcade Kennedy was slain by a conspiracy; in Dallas. Shortly before 2 p.m., that Oswald did not act alone; that the following the fatal shooting of police ultimately fatal shot was not fired from officer J. D. Tippit, police arrested Lee a building behind the President, but Harvey Oswald and charged him with from a point in front of his limousine; both crimes. Less than 48 hours later, that the Warren Commission collabor- Oswald himself was slain by Jack ated in a massive cover-up to prevent Ruby, a night club operator. the truth from coming out. They want One week after the assassination, the investigation reopened. President Johnson named a seven- Some of the critics' arguments strike man investigating commission, headed me as persuasive. Some purported by Chief Justice Earl Warren. The ballistics evidence, if credible, would Commission made its report in Sep- appear to provide convincing proof tember of 1964. The report advanced that another rifleman was involved. these conclusions: Many puzzling questions remain n Washington Star Syndicate (continued on page 61)

Skeptic 29

A new investigation should start with the most important uncalled witnesses, unfollowed-up leads and unasked questions FINISHING THE COMMISSION'S UNFINISHED BUSINESS Sylvia Meagher

Investigators, researchers, critics, within the framework of an adversary scholars, assassination buffs — and proceeding. future historians — will forever be in She proposes a list of witnesses (not Sylvia Meagher's debt. She indexed heard by the Warren Commission) the Warren Commission Report and who should be called by any new the entire 26 volumes of Hearings and investigation and a list of evidential Exhibits, an awesome accomplish- leads (ignored or overlooked by the ment that helped to earn her a Commission) which should be fol- reputation as the best scholar among lowed up. assassination researchers. Mrs. Meagher is a researcher at an Probably better than anyone (in- international health agency in New cluding members of the Commission), York. This article has been condensed Mrs. Meagher knows what those — with her consent and updating — volumes contain. Her research con- from her book Accessories After the vinced her that the official version of Fact: The Warren Commission, the the assassination is ''a deliberate, Authorities & the Report (1967) and outright, demonstrable fraud" and her article in the December 1966 issue that the hearings ought to be reopened of Esquire.

iscrepancies, distortions and Commission's Report leaves the case misrepresentations of cru- against Oswald wide open. cial points of evidence are Although the evidence showed that sufficient, even on a selective Oswald had no motive, no means Drather than a comprehensive basis, to (marksmanship of the highest order), condemn the Warren Report. The and no opportunity (his presence on Commission has issued a false indict- the second floor of the Book Deposito- ment. It has accused Lee Harvey ry little more than a minute after the DEA LEY PLAZA. DALLAS. Oswald, after first denying posthu- shooting, which to the men who Circles show the position of the alleged mous defense and then systematically encountered him at that time eliminat- assassin in the Texas School Book manipulating the evidence to build the ed him from suspicion, constitutes an Depository and of the presidential case against him. Even so, the Warren alibi), there is no indication in the vast limousine at the time of the assassina-

Reprinted by pernuesion of Esq.rre Magaune. • I bbd by collection of documentation that the tion. The "grassy knoll" is at center Eat/Lure. Inc Commission at any time seriously left.

Skeptic 31 considered the possibility that Oswald Report who examined the photo- minutes. was not guilty, or that he had not acted graphs and X-rays in 1972 found them 6. Re-auditing of the police radio alone. inconsistent with the official conclu- log to make an authoritative transcript No more time need be devoted to sions.) Such a reevaluation must take which would resolve the conflicts denouncing those who are responsible into account the fact that the Warren among the three transcripts made for for this frustration of justice. What Commission, at its executive session of the Warren Commission. must now be done is to set about Jan. 27, 1964, discussed an autopsy 7. Auditing of tapes of statements finding the assassins. Such a new report completely inconsistent with to the press by Parkland Hospital investigation, if it is undertaken, must the undated autopsy report subse- doctors describing the President's be performed by a competent and quently published as an appendix to wounds (tape of the first press confer- impartial body, and in the light of the the Warren Report. ence is said to be "lost"). bitter lesson learned from the Warren 2. Rifle and marksmanship tests on 8. Tracing of Tippit's clipboard, Report, the new investigation must be the basis of a reenactment of the shots never requested by the Warren Com- in the framework of an adversary from the Depository, using dragged mission although it is visible in a proceeding. car and dummies, and riflemen whose photograph of his car before it was The new investigative body should removed from the scene of the shoot- first attack the evidence against Os- ing. wald presented in the Warren Report 9. Scrutiny of all test bullets fired in and the Hearings and Exhibits, and here is the wound-ballistics experiments with present an objective and scientific T human cadavers, goats, and gelatin evaluation of that evidence so that the no indication in the vast blocks (260 rounds of ammunition ambiguity about his role in the collection of documen- were obtained for use in those tests but assassination will, if possible, be tation that the Commis- only two of the test bullets are shown dispelled. The new body must also be by the Warren Commission for com- given access to the suppressed docu- sion at any time seriously parison with the stretcher bullet). ments of the Warren Commission. The considered the possibility 10. Examination of all unpublished 75-year time vault must be opened and that Oswald was not films and photographs of the assassi- its contents must be put before the new nation (i.e., the missing Zapruder body — and, at the appropriate guilty, or that he had frames; the Moorman photograph moment, before the public, within our not acted alone. encompassing the Depository; the lifetime. The leads and clues which Betzner photos showing the fence area were not followed up by the Warren on the grassy knoll; the Robert Hughes Commission, or which were incom- capabilities correspond with Oswald's film showing the sixth floor window). pletely investigated, now must be level of skill. (The Warren Commis- 11. Investigation of the reposition- pursued with vigor, by independent sion used experts.) ing and ultimate disappearance of the investigators and not by the govern- 3. Tracing of the rifle obtained by Stemmons Freeway sign which ob- mental agencies compromised by their Robert Adrian Taylor to determine scured the President from Zapruder's role in the protection of the murdered whether the weapon was ever in the camera for some fifteen frames of the President. possession of Oswald or persons film. associated with him. Taylor claimed 12. Tests of authenticity of the palm RESTUDY THE EVIDENCE, that Oswald had given him a rifle in print lifted from the rifle barrel. STAGE NEW TESTS lieu of payment for car repairs in the I3. Examination of all withheld spring of 1963. FBI and Secret Service reports of The Commission's failure to follow 4. Tracing of laundry tag on the interviews with witnesses, including up leads, its dependence on unrealistic jacket discarded near the Tippit scene Parkland Hospital personnel (some 30 tests and its omission of vital evidence (number "B 9738") to determine interviews with the doctors and others, necessitate further research, such as: whether Oswald or someone else had none of which is published in the I. conclusive reevaluation of the A it cleaned. Exhibits). autopsy photographs and X-rays, 5. Reenactment of Oswald's taxi 14. Examination of all transcripts which have been reviewed by succes- ride, in a metered vehicle, to determine of off-the-record passages of testi- sive panels appointed by the govern- the actual time. In reenactments mony. ment and by a urologist-apologist for performed for the Warren Commis- 15. Conclusive evaluation of the the Warren Report. (A forensic pa- sion the estimate was progressively neutron activation analysis of the thologist and critic of the Warren reduced from eleven to nine to six bullet and bullet fragments which was

32 Skeptic carried out at the request of the passengers just after Oswald had killer, the movements of the suspect, Warren Commission but was com- debarked, which was before anyone and the actions of the eyewitnesses. pletely suppressed from the published noticed Oswald's absence from the The following people could have given Report and from the Hearings and Depository. important information. Exhibits. This will determine once and Sandra Styles, Depository office T. F. Bowley, the only witness at the for all whether the stretcher bullet employee: With Victoria Adams, she Tippit scene who looked at his watch actually caused Connally's wounds (as ran down the back stairs of the to check the time when he saw Tippit's the Warren Report says), and thus Depository immediately after shots body. Bowley said in an affidavit taken whether the single bullet, lone assassin were fired but did not encounter by the Dallas police that Tippit was thesis is tenable. Oswald — supposedly running down already dead at 1:10 p.m., while the at that time — nor Roy Truly and Commission says that he was shot at CALL THE IMPORTANT policeman M. L. Baker, supposedly 1:15 p.m. If Bowley was correct about WITNESSES NOT HEARD running up. the time, Oswald could not have BY THE COMMISSION walked from his rooming house to The Shots and Related East 10th Street in time to kill Tippit. Oswald's Activities Circumstances Radio-car patrolman R. C. Nelson; Pierce Allman, television newsman: James Chaney, motorcycle police- Tippit drove to central Oak Cliff, Oswald had said that someone had man: He rode in the motorcade and supposedly on a simultaneous instruc- approached him outside the Deposito- tion to him and Nelson. But Nelson ry after the shooting and had asked to went to the Depository, casting doubt be directed to the nearest phone. on whether either of them was really Oswald's account corresponds with here is ordered to Oak Cliff. the actual experience of Pierce All- T Radio-car patrolman H. W. Sum- man, and this conflicts with the considerable confusion and mers: He obtained a description of the Commission's reconstruction of Os- contradiction about the Tippit suspect from an unknown wald's "escape." time that Tippit was shot, bystander — who said that the suspect Mary Dowling, waitress at Dobbs had "black wavy hair," was 5 feet I House: She told the FBI that Oswald the description of the inches tail, and carried a .32 automatic and Tippit were in the restaurant at the killer, the movements of pistol. same time, two days before the the suspect, and the actions Marie Tippit, widow of 1. D. Tippit: assassination, and that Tippit especial- She probably saw her husband about ly noticed Oswald when he complained of the eyewitnesses. an hour before he was killed, when he about his food. The Warren Report came home for lunch. Also, she could says that the two men were not have given information on such things acquainted and had never even seen reportedly saw Governor Connally hit as their unlisted phone and Tippit's one another. by a separate bullet after the President "work at home" in the evenings. John Rene Heindel, ex-Marine was first shot. This conflicts with the Frank Wright and his wife: They acquaintance of Oswald's: Heindel Commission's single-bullet theory. lived across the street half a block from was known by the nickname "Hider Julia Mercer; About 75 minutes the spot where Tippit was killed. Mr. to Oswald and to other Marines. The before the assassination, while driving Wright heard the shots, saw a man Warren Report says that there is no toward the triple underpass, she saw a standing right at Tippit's car who "ran real "Hidell" and that it was only an man walk up the grassy knoll carrying as fast as he could go," got into a small alias invented by Oswald for his own what appeared to be a rifle case. old grey 1950-1951 coupe, and "drove purposes. Approximately 196 people known away as quick as you could see." Mrs. Alonzo Hudkins, reporter for The to have witnessed the assassination at Wright phoned the police to report the Houston Post: He gave the Secret the scene who were never questioned shooting; it was her call that resulted in Service information suggesting that by the Commission. (Named in appen- the dispatch of the ambulance. Oswald was being paid $200 a month dix to Mark Lane's Rush to Judg- Ambulance drivers Clayton Butler by the FBI as an informant holding ment.) and Eddie Kinsley were never ques- assigned number "S172."• tioned either. Milton Jones. bus passenger: He The Tippit Shooting told the FBI that Dallas policemen had There is considerable confusion and Oswald's Arrest boarded the bus and searched the contradiction about the time that There are many unanswered ques- •I Ai. rerniocd -179 Tippit was shot, the description of the (continued on page 61)

Skeptic 33 ske?tic forum • RICHARD E. KIPtING SHOULD THE INVESTIGATION BE REOPENED? Skeptic Forum is an informal survey of comments, opinions and points of view on questions which lie at the heart of the Kennedy assassination controver- sy, and which public debate seeks to answer.

f the polls are right, for 12 years we have remained a country in doubt. In 1966, barely three years after John F. Kennedy's assassina- Ition and two years after release of the Warren Commission Report, two-thirds of the American people did not believe the Commission's conclu- sions. Now, nearly four out of every five harbor suspicions of a cover-up. The investigation of this assassination was one of the most important, difficult and emotionally charged tasks our government has ever had to undertake. The country, robbed of retribution by Jack Ruby's bullet, demanded in its place explana- tion, resolution and reassurance. That is what the Warren Commission tried to provide. But despite its 27-volume, 17,000-page Report, the shock, disbelief, rumor and suspicion remained. Why? Some say that we have a mass psychologi- cal need to believe in conspiracy, that we cannot accept the fact that one man, alone, could have murdered our President. Others point to the political origins of America, founded as it was on the premise that government E was not to be trusted, that the best government is that which "...governs least." Because govern- ments and the ambitions of those who governed were suspect, citizens were encouraged to remain vigilant against official lies, deceptions and en- croachments. That spirit has been revived by the BS L experiences of Watergate and Vietnam. Although two of every three Americans had doubts about the Warren Commission's findings in 1966. it didn't follow that two of three also wanted MAYB the investigation reopened. There were other concerns, among them the Vietnam War, civil rights, the visions and programs of the Great Society. Why is the climate more favorable now for reopening the investigation? Perhaps, after Water- gate and Vietnam, the American people are more willing to think the unthinkable and press for the truth. Perhaps they have become more skeptical of the official version of anything. Whatever the reason, the public seems inclined to move forward. Can the same be said of those in positions to influence reopening the investigation — the officials, legislators and opinion leaders who can not only help mobilize public attitudes but translate them into action? Do they think the investigation into President Kennedy's assassination should be reopened? For answers, SKEPTIC consulted a variety of sources — press releases, articles, transcripts of television interviews, the Congressional Record and the individuals themselves. * * . If the investigation is to be reopened, the impetus may well come from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (the Church Committee) whose chairman, Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho), has promised, "We'll have to look at the connection of the Warren Commission's investigation with the agencies we are presently inquiring into — the FBI, the CIA — to determine how much information these agencies possessed at the time, what part of it was turned over to the Warren Commission, if any part was withheld and if so, why. If this leads us to believe further that a reopening of the Warren Commission investigation is warranted, we would so recommend." At the same time, however, Church made clear that his committee is "not attempting to second-guess the conclusions of the Warren Com- mission." Other committee members offered different views. Senator Gary Hart (D-Colorado) preferred not to take a position before investigating; Senator John Tower (R-Texas) "cannot find any need to reopen the investigation"; Senator Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona) felt that he did not yet have enough information on the question to give a thoughtful reply. Two resolutions that call for reopening the investigation have been introduced in the House of Representatives. The Gonzalez Resolution, intro- duced by Representative Henry B. Gonzalez (D- Texas). calls for a committee of seven House members who would be "authorized and directed to

35 conduct a full and complete investigation and study Congressman Morris Udall (D-Arizona), also a of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of candidate for the Democratic presidential nomina- John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin tion, has reconsidered the matter recently: "One Luther King, and the attempted assassination of time I was satisfied that the truth about the murder George Wallace." Gonzalez believes that "It is time of President Kennedy had been learned by the that the circumstances surrounding these assassina- Warren Commission. In recent months 1 have tions and the near murder of Wallace be thoroughly begun to have some doubts. I had hoped that the investigated, and that they be assessed in terms of recent study by the Rockefeller Commission would what effects they had on the history and the national resolve these doubts. But after the Commission political life of this country. It is not just a matter of rejected the conspiracy idea we were told by forensic Finding out who, if anyone else, was involved in pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht that his testimony to these killings .... What we need to know more than the Commission was 'grossly distorted and deliber- anything is why they happened, and how we can ately misrepresented.' Dr. Wecht then reaffirmed prevent such events from happening again." his belief that there were two assassins. This is the Representative Thomas N. Downing (D-Vir- kind of incident that raises doubts in my mind about ginia) has introduced a resolution in the House the Kennedy death and the subsequent investigation calling for the creation of a select committee "to of it." conduct an investigation and study of the circum- A spokesman for Senator John Tunney (13- stances surrounding the death of John F. Kennedy." California) reported, "Based on alleged or so-called He became convinced that a new investigation was new evidence' that Senator Tunney has heard called for after viewing the Zapruder film of the about, there is no justified basis for reopening the assassination. investigation. He's open-minded to the point that if Representatives who have signed the Gonzalez some compelling new evidence should surface, Resolution include Ron Dellums (0-California) perhaps a new investigation would be in order." and Shirley Chisholm (D-New York). Dellums Tom Hayden, who intends to contest Tunney's believes "It is time that the circumstances surround- Senate seat, is unequivocal: "I firmly believe and ing the assassination of President Kennedy be support the public's right to know the truth about thoroughly investigated. The dense undergrowth of the assassination of President Kennedy, and I secret activities through which we subvert not only support reopening the investigation. I am among foreign nations but ourselves must be cleared away the millions of skeptics about the Warren Commis- if our system is to remain a democracy." sion. The whole truth was not brought out. I was Chisholm endorsed the resolution "not because I disturbed by the Rockefeller Commission's conclu- have any new evidence nor do I know of any. My sion that the investigation should not be reopened. concern is that there seem to be a great many new A new investigation should be in the hands of questions to which the American public deserves Congress, not the executive branch, and it should be answers. I have received numerous letters from done in full view of the public." constituents who want to know if there was a cover- Historian Henry Steele Commager believes that up by the Warren Commission. In the aftermath of "If you have in mind a formal investigation like the Watergate, a period which left grave doubts in the Warren Commission, that seems to me in the minds of Americans about the credibility of present circumstances profitless, in part because the government, perhaps we need to reassess that kind of commission that would be set up would be Report. If there was any suppression of evidence like the Rockefeller Commission. But aside from during the assassination investigation, if all the facts that, anybody can investigate things, and while not were not reported, then a new investigation is called anyone can get at all the material, after all is said for. If on the other hand the Warren Report is and done it is the journalists who seem to find out accurate, the investigation will serve to substantiate more these days than the official organizations. Mr. that." Seymour Hersh certainly found out more about the Fred Harris, former senator from Oklahoma and CIA than all the commissions of Congress which a candidate for the Democratic presidential were set up for the purpose." nomination, supports the Gonzalez Resolution: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., historian and former "The investigation into the Kennedy assassination Kennedy aide, offered: "If certain sober people should be reopened. It is the only way that we can believe there is evidence justifying a reopening of the clear the air and answer the questions and concerns case, then I think it should be reopened. But since I of the American people." (continued on page 62)

36 Skeptic

Sandra Stencel NOW MK'S MURDER CHANGED THE PRESIDENCY... AND YOUR LIFE ° NOW ASSASSINATIONS a single, savage act. It touches the CHAIM TIE PIESMDICY lives of all the people of the nationi 38 Few other events in contemporary NW ASSASSIIMINS history had as much impact on Americans as Lhe assassination of CHANCED 111E LAWS 39 President John F. Kennedy. Probably not since the Japanese attack on NOW IN =MT SERVICE Pearl Harbor had public sentiments BEALS WITH MEATS 40 been engaged so deeply by a happen- ing on the political scene. Even now, WHAT YMI CAN BO 12 years after his death, most adults TO MI INVOLVED 41 can recall exactly what they were doing when they first heard the news. Films of the assassination and the Probably no other form of domestic days of mourning that followed still violence — save civil war — causes bring many Americans to tears. The more anguish and uniuersal dismay unique character of the event derived among citizens than the murder of a in part from its suddenness and respected national leader. Assassina- unexpectedness, and in part from the dent. But another equally important tion, especially when the victim is a personality and youth of the Presi- factor was the extensive news cover- President, strikes at the heart of the age of the event. Never before, writes .Stacement an Aasaaatmthori issued in October 1969 democratic process. It enables one by the fietionel Commis ion en the Caused and Professor Wilbur Schramm, had such man to nullify the will of the people in Prevention of Vioienco, a large proportion of the American

Skeptic 37

I !IIIIKIID HAND13001( r people been able to feel so instantly ing each presidential candidate dur- years to improve and upgrade its and closely a part of events and deeds ing the 1972 election campaign alone methods of protecting the President. of great national significance.2 is estimated at $100,000 per month, Following the Warren Commission's But what seemed unique in 1963 excluding the salaries and benefits of advice they took steps to improve its became all too familiar during the the personnel involved). methods of collecting information on next decade. The assassination of potential threats to the President. To Sen. Robert Kennedy in June 1968 help other federal agencies decide came just two months after the what information should be passed murder of civil rights leader Martin HOW on to the Secret Service, a set of Luther King. The next victim was guidelines outlining this information Governor George Wallace — shot ASSASSINATIONS was issued in 1969. The list is no down while campaigning for the longer limited to persons communi- Democratic presidential nomination CHANGED cating actual threats to the President in May 1972. Although Wallace (see below). To handle this increased survived the attack, he was left THE PRESIDENCY volume of information the Secret paralyzed- Service added a computerized storage The assassination of President and retrieval system. This work was Kennedy raised serious questions done manually prior to the assassina- about the nature of the presidency. tion. The presidential limousine has Should the President be more protect- undergone extensive modifications to ed, more isolated from the hazards of make it as bullet proof as possible. travel or prevented from mingling The Secret Service is naturally reluc- with the people? The idea disturbed tant to discuss all its innovations in most politicians. "I believe that the protective techniques, but among the American people have too much good other changes that have been made in sense to do anything that would security procedures are these; impair in the slightest degree the essential, traditional character of the office," wrote former President Dwight D. Eisenhower shortly after. Kennedy was assassinated. Eisen- hower, went on to say that the Presi- dent must continue to be "free to ANDREW JACKSON Asfeesinetittn. attempted 1835 travel widely, to keep personally in touch with the people of the country, What was the impact of this series and to see with his own eyes what is of assassinations? How did they going on in the world." And while this change the way we think about might entail 'certain personal riaks," America, our government and our- they are risks which "must be accep- selves? Did the assassinations ted."3 change the course of history? Is there any way to reduce these The horror of the assassinations risks without making the President a ABRAHAM LINCOLN virtual prisoner in the White House? AIMEminateti 1565 went beyond the personal tragedy to ❑ the victims and the lose to the nation As part of their investigation into the Now when a presidential motor- of three of its most vital leaders. Fear circumstances surrounding Ken- cade proceeds through a big city, an of assassination has threatened the nedy's assassination, the Warren Army helicopter flies just above it. American way of choosing elected Commission examined the protective Trained observers in the copter scan officials. It has erected unwanted measures employed to safeguard him buildings and street crowds. The barriers between candidates and the and found much room for improve- observers are in constant radio com- electorate and discouraged potential ment. The Commission criticized the munication with Secret Service men Secret Service, and to a lesser extent in the motorcade. leaders from running for office. It has ❑ cost the taxpayers millions of dollars the FBI, for the methods then in effect In the Secret Service "follow-up to pay for additional security proce- for locating potential sources of car" just behind the President's dures and equipment to protect gov- danger to the President. vehicle, an armed guard now sits ernment officials the tab for protect- As a consequence, the Secret Ser- facing to the rear, This provides a vice has done much in the last 12 better chance of spotting and opening Sehrerrum,'"Consmonit-ation in Crone."' in fire on an assassin who might be The K.nnmiy Assassination and the America.] Public 'Hwight U. glnenhower, "When cho Higheet Office edited by Bradley S. Greenberg and Edwin B. Porker Chapelle Hinds," S.,turday Everung Post, DI.. 14, 1943, taking aim at the back of the Presi- t Stanford University Press. 19651, p.4. p l5 dent's head. .

38 Skeptic 17:551111A1. MAMBO 01 C

Police in cities visited by the The reluctance of American politi- request. In 1962 Congress further President have been asked by the cians to take security precautions enlarged the list of government offi- Secret Service to provide more cover- that would interfere with their access cers to be safeguarded, authorizing age from rooftops. to the people enormously complicates protection of the Vice President for 0 Police motorcycle escorts now the protective task, Under these the officer next in order of succession often include riders in front, in the circumstances, absolute security to the Presidency) without requiring rear, and along the sides of the against assassination is not possible. his request; of the Vice President- President's car. Before President But most politicians feel that this is a elect; and of a former President, at his Kennedy's death, less attention was risk worth taking in order to preserve request, for a reasonable period after given to "side riders" in the escort. the special character of American departure from office. The Secret Kennedy, in fact, often insisted that democracy. Service considered this "reasonable he wanted no escort at all.' period" to be six months. The extensive overhauling of Se- Bills making it a federal crime to cret Service techniques could not IOW kill the President had been introduced prevent the assassination of Robert as early as 1881, following assassina- Kennedy in 1968 or the attempted ASSASSINATIONS tion of President Garfield. But it was assassination of George Wallace four not until Aug. 28, 1965, almost two years later. At the time Robert Ken- years after the death of President nedy was shot, presidential can- CHANGED Kennedy, that Congress enacted a didates were not entitled to Secret law (PL 89-141) making it a federal Service protection. Kennedy had THE LAWS violation to assassinate, kidnap or declined an offer of protection from A long list of legislation can be assault the President, the President- the Los Angeles police force and his elect, the Vice President or the officer personal bodyguard, ex-FBI agent traced, directly or indirectly, to pres- idential assassinations. In fact, many next in the order of succession to the Bill Barry, was unarmed. Governor presidency, the Vice President-elect or Wallace. on the other hand, was under of the laws dealing with the physical protection of the President were any individual who is acting as unusually heavy guard. The Secret President under the Constitution and Service men assigned to guard him passed as a direct result of an assassi- were supplemented by personal body- nation or an assassination attempt. guards and county police. Wallace In the early days of the nation, there had addressed the crowd from behind was little concern for the safety of Presidents and consequently few measures were taken to protect them. Lincoln's bodyguard on the evening he was shot was a city policeman. Not until after the assassination of Presi- dent Garfield in 1881 did Congress even consider legislation concerning the protection of the President. After the assassination of Presi- dent McKinley in 1901 a Secret Service protective detail was provided for President Theodore Roosevelt. But congressional authorization for such protection was not forthcoming until 'EDDY ROOSEVELT Aeeeesiaation attempted 1012 1906. Following the election of Presi- dent Taft in 1908 the Secret Service laws of the United States. The law did began providing protection for the not apply to presidential candidates, President-elect. This congressional WI LLIAM MCKINLEY however. This loophole was closed by Aaeneeineted 19(11 authorization was not of a permanent a provision of the Civil Rights Act of nature, however, since it required. 1968 which, among other things, his own 600-pound bullet proof podi- annual review in the Treasury budget made it a federal offense to injure, um. But after the speech he stepped presentation. An attack on President intimidate or interfere with "any from the stage and went into the Truman in 1950 led to the enactment person because he is...a candidate crowd to shake hands. It was at that in 1951 of legislation that permanent- for elective office" in any federal point that he was shot. ly authorized the Secret Service to election. protect the President, his immediate ,See "Campaign Time — When Secret Service Worry On June 5, 1968, less than two Grows,- LIS. News & World Report, April 13.106.4. p p.63- family, the President-elect, and the months after the Civil Rights Act was 54. Vice President, the last upon his enacted, Attorney General Ramsey

39 9111111111111. 1111111)13001(1

Clark invoked this section to order the On June 6, 1968, the day Robert some other way attempting to com- FBI to assist California authorities in Kennedy died, President Johnson municate with him in a threatening or dealing with the assassination of pleaded with Congress "In the name abusive manner or with undue persis- presidential candidate Robert Ken- of sanity...give America the gun tence. The White House mailroom and nedy. Hours after Robert Kennedy's control law it needs." He proposed switchboard are the sources for much death Congress authorized the Secret federal registration of all firearms. of this information, some of which is T r C.oery • VU protect major presidential After months oflegielativr supplied by private citizens. 1 /LL12- and vice presidential candidates. ing and compromise, the Gun Control tion also is supplied by other federal In addition to prompting legisla- Act of 1968 became law in October of agencies, primarily the FBI. Guide- tion aimed at increasing the protec- that year. lines issued by the Secret Service to tion of Presidents, presidential candi- Two days after Governor Wallace other government agencies in 1969 dates and other government officials, was shot a Senate subcommittee list a wide range of information which assassinations have served as cat- voted to report out a bill outlawing the the Secret Service expects to be passed alysts in on-going political debates. sale of cheap handguns commonly on to them: called "Saturday Night specials." The bill passed the Senate on Aug. 9, 1972. However the House failed to act on the measure. Gun control is still very much alive as a political issue and another assassination could revive demands for stricter gun con- trol measures. Some of the earlier presidential assassinations also had an impact on legislation.The immigration law of An English bulldog, the weapon used by Republican 1904, which bars anarchists from Stalwart Charles Gutteau to assassinate President Garfield. entering the United States, was a direct result of the assassination of "After each assassination, groups President McKinley by a man who JAMES GARFIELD concerned with current political and sympathized with the anarchist Arekuntniart1 1881 social issues tried to use the public cause. The Pendleton Act of 1882 shock and anxiety evoked by the establishing a federal Civil Service O Information pertaining to a event to further their causes," write Commission followed the assassina- threat, plan or attempt by an individ- Murray Edelman and Rita James tion of President Garfield by a dis- ual, a group or an organization to Simon. "To some extent they suc- gruntled office seeker. physically harm or embarrass the ceeded in doing this, because people persons protected by the Secret Ser- transferred their concern about the vice or any other high U.S. Govern- assassination to whatever public HOW THE SECRET ment official at home or abroad. issues were already occasioning anx- O Information pertaining to indi- iety ... "5 viduals, groups or organizations who The attempted assassination of SERVICE DEALS have plotted, attempted or carried out Governor George Wallace on May 15, assassinations of senior officials of 1968 revived efforts in Congress to WITH THREATS domestic or foreign governments. enact tougher controls over hand- O Information concerning the use guns. The earlier assassinations of Since 1906 the Secret Service has of bodily harm or assassination as a John and Robert Kennedy and Mar- had and exercised responsibility for political weapon. This should include tin Luther King also had sparked the physical protection of the Presi- training and techniques used to carry demands for tougher gun control dent and also for the preventive out the act. laws. The gun is pre-eminently the investigation of potential threats O Information on persons who weapon of the assassin. Of the ten against the President. The latter insist upon personally contacting assassination attempts on American function is performed by the Office of high government officials for the Presidents or presidential candidates, Protective Intelligence. Their main purpose of redress of imaginary all involved firearms and all except job is to collect, process and evaluate grievances, etc. the assassination of President Ken- information about persons or groups O Information on any person who nedy were committed with handguns. who may be a danger to the President. makes oral or written statements Many persons call themselves to the about high government officials in 'Murray Edelman and Rita Jamas Simon. "Presidential attention of the Secret Service by the following categories: (1) threaten- Assassinations: Their !Amunt; and Impact on Ameri- ing statements, (2) irrational state- uan Society,- in Assousnation and the PoiirJrcii Order attempting to visit the President for edited by William .1. Crotty (Harper & Row, 1971), p. 46.1 bizarre reasons or by writing or in ments, and (3) abusive statements.

40 Skeptic 5111111111111.

❑ Information on professional often. The cases subject to periodic against threatening the President. gate crashers. review plus those cases in the higher Rogers was convicted and the deci- ❑ Information pertaining to "ter- risk category are filed on a geographic sion was upheld by an appeals court rorist" bombings. basis and can be conveniently re- in 1974. However the conviction was ❑ Information pertaining to the viewed by Secret Service agents reversed on June 17, 1975 by the U.S. ownership or concealment by individ- preparing for a presidential trip to a Supreme Court on technical grounds. uals or groups of caches of firearms, particular part of the country. In The case was sent back to the lower explosives, or other implements of addition the Office of Protective courts and Rogers could be retried,6 war. Intelligence maintains an album of Although the majority relied on ❑ Information regarding anti- photographs and descriptions of a purely technical aspects of the case in American or anti-U.S. Government small group of individuals who are reversing the lower court's ruling, demonstrations in the United States regarded as clear risks to the Presi- Justice Thurgood Marshall, in a or overseas- dent. Members of the White House concurring opinion, wrote "I would ❑ Information regarding civil dis- detail of the Secret Service are expect- ...interpret Section 871 to require turbances. ed to familiarize themselves with proof that the speaker intended his All material received by the Secret these individuals. statement to be taken as a threat, Service is separately screened by the What constitutes a threat against even if he had no intention of actually Office of Protective Intelligence. If the the President? What can't you do or carrying it out." material indicates some potential say? What risks do you run if you Your best guide in deciding whether danger to the President — no matter make a threat? The law states that to take a threat against the President how small — a file is begun under the anyone who knowingly and willingly seriously is your judgment and com- name of the individual or group of threatens "to take the life of or to mon sense. Did you take the threat individuals to whom that material inflict bodily harm upon the Presi- seriously when you heard it? If you dent of the United States, the did, then report it. To report a threat President-elect, the Vice President or or any other information which you other officer next in the order of think the Secret Service should know succession to the office of President of about, contact the Secret Service field the United States, or the Vice office nearest to your community. President-elect...shall be fined not Their phone number should be listed more than $1,000 or imprisoned not in the front of your local telephone more than five years, or both." directory. Or you can call the Secret People often say things in anger or Service Intelligence Division in in jest that they don't really mean, Washington, D.C. (202-W04-24811. including things that could be con- strued as a threat against the Presi- dent. How do you know when to take a WHAT YOU CAN threat seriously? A case which recent- FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT ly came before the U.S. Supreme Asenewinalum attempted 1932 Court sheds some light on the matter. DO TO GET In 1972 George Rogers, a 34-year-old related. Many of these cases receive unemployed carpenter with a ten-year INVOLVED no further investigation by the Secret history of alcoholism, wandered into The Warren Commission Report on Service. The files serve merely as a the coffee shop of the Holiday Inn in President Kennedy's assassination repository for information until Shreveport, La. He accosted several has been a source of controversy since enough has accumulated to warrant customers and waitresses, telling it was published in September 1964. an investigation. If an individual's them among other things that he was Large segments of the public ques- conduct warrants further scrutiny, Jesus Christ and that he was opposed tioned both the adequacy of the the Office of Protective Intelligence to President Nixon's trip to China Commission's investigation and its requests an investigation by the because the Chinese had a bomb that conclusion that Oswald acted alone. closest Secret Service field office. If only he knew about which might be But while millions of Americana the field office determines that the used against the people of this coun- doubted the official version of the case should be subject to continuing try. In the course of his various assassination only a few felt strongly review, the Office of Protective Intelli- outbursts Rogers announced that he enough to try to prove that it was gence establishes a file which re- was going to Washington to "whip incorrect. Some of the investigating quires a checkup at least every six Nixon's ass" or to "kill him in order to was done by professionals — journal- months. Individuals thought to rep- save the United States," The local ists, lawyers, forensic scientists, bal- resent a significant danger to the police were called and Rogers was listics experts and the like. Some of it President are placed in a special index charged with violating the law and their cases are reviewed more "Lot Angeles Dally Journal, July 7,1975.

Skeptic 41 $111111.:1 HANDBOOK I r was done by men like Mark Lane who in touch with those people already nard Fensterwald Jr. He wants to had become full-time critics. But involved in the crusade. Some of the reopen the investigations into the much of the work was done by Warren Report's early critics are no assassinations of Robert Kennedy ordinary citizens motivated by a longer very active in the field. But a and Martin Luther King, and the burning curiosity to find out what number of citizen lobbies have been attempted assassination of George really happened. These early assassi- formed in recent years to press for a Wallace, as well as President Ken- nation buffs included such people as reopening of the case: edy's death. Josiah Thompson, an assistant pro- The Citizens Commission of Inqui- Most of these groups are working to fessor of philosophy at Haverford ry (103 2nd Street, N.E., Washington, gain support for two resolutions College near Philadelphia; Sylvia D.C. 20002, 202-546-7500) was formed currently before the House of Repre- Meagher, a researcher at an interna- in mid-February 1975 by Mark Lane, sentatives which would establish a tional health agency in New York; a former member of the New York committee to study and investigate Shirley Martin, an Oklahoma house- State Legislature and a lawyer who is the circumstances surrounding the wife; Lillian Castellano, a Los An- now teaching law in Washington. The death of John Kennedy. House Reso- geles bookkeeper; Marjorie Meld, the purpose of CCI is "to make the lution 498 was introduced on May 22, wife of a Los Angeles stockbroker; American people, the media and the 1975 by Rep. Thomas N. Downing (17.1 Raymond Marcus, a Los Angeles Congress aware of the obfuscation by Va). House Resolution 204 introduced businessman; and Vincent Satan- CIA, FBI and other federal police on Feb. 19, 1975 by Rep. Henry B. dria. a Philadelphia attorney.? Gonzales (0 Texas) would also look On their own at first, and later into the assassinations of Robert through an informal network for Kennedy and Martin Luther King pooling information, these concerned and the attempted assassination of individuals tried to piece together the George Wallace. facts. Some of them went to Dallas to If you are interested in doing your personally interview witnesses to the own investigative or analytical work, assassination; some went to Wash- the best place to start is the 26 ington to examine documents and volumes of testimony, investigative evidence that had been turned over to reports and exhibits published by the the National Archives. They main- Warren Commission. It would be tained extensive files of articles, hel pful if you could obtain the index of newspaper clippings and photo- this material compiled by Sylvia graphs having to do with the assassi- Meagher, but it's out of print and nation. They spent countless hours difficult to obtain. Some of the evi- poring over piles of documents and dence is available for study at the examining films of the event. Most of National Archives in Washington. A HARRY S TRUMAN them purchased copies of the 26 Aaaahamittiun attempted 19511. few of the investigators have been volumes of testimony and exhibits successful in using the Freedom of that accompanied the Warren Report. organizations of the facts surround. Information Act to obtain data relat- These 17,000 pages contained some of ing the assassination of President ing to the assassination that has up to the most glaring inconsistencies John F. Kennedy" and to work for "a now been withheld from the public. discovered by the buffs. At first these Congressional investigation into the The FOIA provides that all records in men and women often turned their cover-up of these facts and the assas- the possession of the executive findings over to the professional sination itself." branch of the federal government assassination critics who already had The Assassination Information must be provided to anyone on re- a public following. Eventually they Bureau (63 Inman Street, Cambridge, quest unless the records are specifical- started to publish their own books Mass. 02139, 617-661.8411) has a ly exempted from disclosure by the and articles. Most of the arguments twofold purpose: (1) to disseminate act. For information on how to use the now being put forth by respectable information on President Kennedy's act see "Your Right to Government publications and influential people in assassination to as wide an audience Information" published by the Ameri- and out of government for reopening as possible through audio-visual can Civil Liberties Union (22 East the Kennedy investigation are those presentations to colleges and univer- 40th St., New York, N.Y. 10016) in that were first brought to light by the sities, high schools, and civic and February 1.975, and "The New Free- hard work of the assassination buffs. social organizations; and (2) to work dom of Information Act & National If you'd like to see the investigation with others who are calling for a new Security Information" published by reopened, what can you do? Where official investigation of the case. the ACLU and the Center for Nation- should you go for information? One of The Committee to Investigate As- al Security Studies (122 Maryland the first things you ought to do is get sassinations (927 16th Street, N.W., Ave., N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002) csieis WW1, '"The Buffs.- The Mew Yorker. June :O. Washington, D.C. 20005, 202-628- in February 1.975. L9 7 , p.4&' 3361 ) was founded by attorney Ber-

42 Skeptic reading guide

The controversy over the assassina- on time. The second book is Sylvia Demaris (New American Library tion of President Kennedy was Meagher's thoroughgoing critique, 1967), and in the earlier Trial of Jack launched with the release of the Accessories After the Fact (Bobbs- Ruby by John Waltz and John Kaplan Warren Commission's Report of the Merrill 1967). This book grew out of (Macmillan 1965). Jim Garrison President's Commission on the Assas- Meagher's Subject Index to the War- makes his own connections in A sination of President Kennedy (Gov- ren Report and Hearings and Exhibits Heritage of Stone (Putnam's 1970). ernment Printing Office 1964) and the (Scarecrow Press 1966), recognized as Garrison's story is further explored by accompanying 26 volumes of evidence the single most impressive scholarly Epstein in his Counterplot (Viking and testimony. accomplishment of any of the critics. 1969) and in Milton Brener's The Among the defenders of the Com- There are a number of other works Garrison Case (Potter 1969). mission is Commission member, then- that should be consulted. George For a narrative history of the days, Congressman and now-President Ger- OToole's The Assassination Tapes minutes and hours that led up to and ald Ford, whose book Portrait of the (Penthouse 1975) attempts to prove then engulfed the nation in assassina- Assassin (Simon and Schuster 1965) Oswald's complete innocence of the tion, two works are outstanding. uses Warren Commission evidence to murder charge through the use of a Asked by the Kennedy family to be the paint the picture of a resentful, new device, the Psychological Stress official assassination chronicler, Wil- embittered Oswald bent on killing the Evaluator (PSE), which O'Toole liam Manchester, author of The Death successful Kennedy. For a pithy claims can accurately measure stress of a President (Harper 1967), was able defense of the Commission and an to get through doors others found equally terse critique of the critics, see impassable. Jim Bishop's The Day John Sparrow's After the Assassina- Kennedy Was Shot (Funk and Wag- tion (Chilmark Press 1967). A compre- nalls 1968) traces in detail each hour of hensive, point-by-point argument for that fateful day in Dallas. the Report can be found in Warren lf, at this point, you find yourself Commission Assistant Counsel David awash in facts, figures and theories, the W. Belin's November 22, 1963: You following will help you step back for a Are the Jury (Quadrangle 1973). larger perspective: William J. Crotty's

Alfred H. Newman's The Assassina- ■■•■•••■••■•••■••••■••. edited Assassinations and the Political tion of John F. Kennedy (Potter 1970), Order (Harper 1971) and Task Force while essentially a defense of the Report Volume 8 Assassination and Commission, finds some of its conclu- Political Violence — of the National sions questionable. and thus truth-telling in the voice of Commission on the Causes and Pre- Of the many critics of the Warren individuals. His conclusion comes vention of Violence (Government Report, probably most vocal has been from PSE-testing the few taped inter- Printing Office 1969) are both excel- Mark Lane, whose book Rush to views with Oswald after his arrest. lent historical and sociological exami- .rte Judgment (Holt 1966, Dell 1975) was Josiah Thompson in his Six Seconds nations of the phenomenon of assassi- among the first to challenge the in Dallas (Bernard Geis 1967) and nation. The Politics of Assassination findings of the prestigious Commis- Richard Popkin in his The Second by Murray C. Havens et al (Prentice- sion. See also his A Citizen's Dissent Oswald (Avon 1966) both scrutinize Hall 1970) and Albert Ellis and John (Holt 1968) for further reflections and the Commission evidence and come up M. Gullo's Murder and Assassination questions and for answers to his critics. with two or more as:.assins. See also (Lyle Stuart 1971) probe its political Two books critical of the Commis- the following: Harold Weisberg's aspects. For an even longer perspec- sion are generally considered defini- Whitewash I and Whitewash 11 (Weis- tive, see Bernard Lewis' fascinating tive. The first, Inquest by Edward Jay berg 1965, 1966); Howard Roffman's exploration of the Moslem sect whose Epstein (Viking 1966), began as a Presumed Guilty (Farleigh Dickinson activities spawned the term, The master's thesis and ended as an incisive Press 1975); and the soon-to-be- Assassins (Basic Books 1968). His- critique of the way the Warren published The Assassinations: Dallas tory's political murders are further Commission conducted its investiga- and Beyond — A Guide to Cover-ups traced in Brian McConnell's The tion. Epstein, through the use of and Investigations, edited by Peter History of Assassination (Aurora interviews with staff members and Dale Scott et al (Vintage, January 1970) and John Williams' interesting other investigative techniques, de- 1976). depiction of late nineteenth century scribes the functional problems of a The Ruby connection is traced in assassination mania, Heyday for Commission high on prestige and low Jack Ruby by Garry Wills and Ovid Assassins (Heinemann 1958). FJ

Skeptic 43 Truman, who was staying there while worked there was missing. It soon was SKEPTIC BACKGROUNDER the White House was being remodeled. revealed that the missing employee (continued from page 6) and the man apprehended after the American political figures appear not In the melee, 27 shots were fired. Both shooting of Patrolman Tippit were one to have been politically motivated. The Torresola and White House policeman and the same — Lee Harvey Oswald. assassin may try to explain his actions Leslie Coffelt were killed. Collazo and Oswald, a former Marine who had in broadly political terms, but usually two other White House policemen gone to live in the Soviet Union in 1959 "the relationship between the act and were wounded. President Truman, and had returned to the United States the advancement of the political who was taking a nap, was not hurt. in 1962, was formally charged with the objectives specified is impossible to Collazo and Torresola were natives of murders of President Kennedy and draw on any rational basis," according Puerto Rico and ardent nationalists. Patrolman Tippit. On November 24, to William J. Crotty. "The connecting Their attack on President Truman was two days after the assassination, link then is assumed to be in the not motivated by personal hatred - arrangements were made to transfer fantasies of the assassins.") Truman, in fact, had done much to Oswald from the city jail to the Dallas Andrew Jackson, the first American advance self-determination in Puerto County jail. Newsmen crowded into President to be threatened by an Rico — but rather to dramatize the the basement of the municipal police assassin, was attacked by a man who cause of an independent Puerto Rico. building to record the event. As imagined himself to be King Richard The Assassination Oswald was being led from the Ul of England and who believed that of President Kennedy basement to a nearby armored car Jackson was part of a conspiracy which was to transport him to the preventing him from collecting a large Despite a long history of violent county jail, a man suddenly darted out sum of money owed to him by the U.S. assaults on our political leaders, of the crowd and fired one shot into Government. Jackson miraculously Americans paid little attention to the Oswald's abdomen. Millions of Amer- escaped death when both pistols of his political ramifications of assassination icans witnessed the event on television. assailant, Richard Lawrence, misfired. prior to 1963. Then came John Oswald died two hours later at President Garfield's assassin, Kennedy's assassination. President Parkland Hospital, the same hospital Charles Julius Guiteau, was incensed Kennedy was killed by an assassin's where President Kennedy had been by Garfield's refusal to award him the bullet on Friday, November 22, while pronounced dead. Oswald's murderer Paris consulship. Less than two riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Texas was identified as Jack Ruby, a Dallas months before he shot Garfield, Governor John B. Connally, who was night club owner. He maintained that Guiteau had sent him a vaguely riding in the President's limousine, was he had killed Oswald in a temporary fit threatening letter after he'd been wounded. The President. accompa- of depression and rage over the refused admittance to the White nied by his wife Jacqueline, had come President's death. Ruby, who was House. While campaigning for the to Texas the previous day to try to defended by attorney Melvin Belli, was presidency on the Bull Moose ticket in patch up differences between liberal found guilty of Oswald's murder on 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was shot and conservative factions of the Texas March 14, 1964 and sentenced to and wounded by a man who claimed Democratic party. At 2:38 P.M., 98 death. The sentence was never carried that the ghost of President McKinley minutes after President Kennedy was out. Ruby died of cancer on Jan. 4, — who had been assassinated in 1901 pronounced dead, Lyndon B. John- 1967. — appeared to him in a dream and son, who also had accompanied the Five days after Oswald was killed, accused Roosevelt of the assassina- President to Texas, was sworn in as the President Johnson announced the tion. In 1933 President-elect Franklin 36th President aboard the presidential creation of a seven-man commission D. Roosevelt was assaulted by an jet, Air Force One, by Federal District headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren Italian immigrant, Giuseppe Zangara, Judge Sarah T. Hughes. to investigate "all the facts and who blamed the capitalist system for a About 45 minutes after the assassi- circumstances relating to the assassi- stomach condition that plagued him nation another murder occurred in J. nation of the late President, John F. throughout his life. Dallas. The victim was Patrolman Kennedy, and the subsequent violent Of the ten assassinations and assas- D. Tippit of the Dallas Police. Wit- death of the man charged with the sination attempts against American nesses to the shooting saw the assailant assassination." President Johnson Presidents and presidential candidates enter a nearby movie theater where he instructed the commission "to satisfy only one was explicitly tied to a was soon arrested. Meanwhile, the itself that the truth is known as far as it particular political cause. On Nov. I, police had found a rifle equipped with can be discovered, and to report its 1950, Oscar Collazo and Griselio a telescopic sight on the sixth floor of findings and conclusions" to the Torresola stormed Blair House, in- the Texas School Book Depository, President, to the American people and tending to kill President Harry S which overlooked the site of the "to the world." 'William J Crotty. Ed.. Austennerten and the Podhirel Order assassination. While questioning the rateeper a Ro.. 19711. p. I Li Crotty roe co-director of the employees of the Depository, the The Commission held its first meet- Political Violence of the National Force on Mausination and police learned that one of the men who ing on Dec. 5, 1963. Before its ten- Commission on the Colon and Prevention of Violence.

Skeptic 44 month investigation was completed found not guilty by reason of insanity. lion in Buffalo, New York, had, in fact, the Commission heard more than 552 Yet some of Jackson's supporters tried to join an anarchist group in witnesses and examined hundreds of accused him of being part of a Whig northern New Jersey. But he acted so reports totalling tens of thousands of conspiracy against Jackson. strangely that they thought he was a pages submitted by the FBI, the Secret The assassination of President police spy and published a warning to Service, the Texas Attorney General's Garfield was said to have been staged that effect just a week before McKinley office, and other federal and state by the Stalwarts, a rival wing of the was shot. investigative agencies. The Commis- Republican party whose ranks in- There was no real evidence of an sion's final report, submitted to Presi- cluded Vice President Chester A. anarchist plot and Czolgosz insisted dent Johnson on Sept. 24, 1964, Arthur. The name most often men- that he had acted alone. But the contained the following conclusions: tioned as being the key figure in the conspiracy theory grew. Inflammatory ❑ "The shots which killed President conspiracy was Senator Conkling of newspaper editorials contributed to Kennedy and wounded Governor New York. Much of the impetus for the hysteria. Anarchist leaders were Connally were fired from the sixth this theory came from the assassin arrested. Local vigilante committees floor window at the southeast corner himself, Charles Guiteau. When asked were organized to seek out and destroy of the Texas School Book Deposi- why he had committed the crime, he anarchist communities. Congress, tory." declared, "I am a Stalwart and Arthur influenced by an impassioned plea by ❑ "There is very persuasive evidence will be President." But most historians the new President. Theodore Roose- ...to indicate that the same bullet believe that Guiteau's link with the velt, passed a series of laws that added which pierced the President's throat Stalwarts — like his conviction that he anarchists to the list of excluded also caused Governor Connally's was entitled to a government job - immigrants and restricted the activities wounds." was the product of his imagination. of anarchists already in this country. ❑ "The shots which killed President The story that circulated after Czolgosz did not testify at his trial, Kennedy and wounded Governor President McKinley's assassination which took place four days after Connally were fired by Lee Harvey was that it had been organized and McKinley's funeral. The trial lasted Oswald." directed by anarchists with worldwide hours and 26 minutes and the jury ❑ "The Commission has found no connections. The assassin, Leon Czol- brought in a guilty verdict after only 34 evidence that either Lee Harvey gosz, was said to be the pawn of a minutes of deliberations. No appeal Oswald or Jack Ruby was part of any highly sophisticated international was filed and Czolgosz was electrocu- conspiracy, domestic or foreign, to terrorist organization that had in the ted. As he as being strapped into the assassinate President Kennedy." recent past assassinated the heads of electric chair he said, "I killed the ❑ "All of the evidence before the state of several European countries. President because he was an enemy of Commission established that there was Czolgosz, who shot McKinley on Sept. the good people — the good working nothing to support the speculation 6, 1901 at the Pan American Exposi- people. I am not sorry for my crime." that Oswald was an agent, employee, On Feb. 15, 1933, Giuseppe Zanga- or informant of the FBI, the CIA or ra, an unemployed Italian immigrant, any other governmental agency." attempted to kill President-elect ❑ "On the basis of the evidence before Franklin Roosevelt while he was the Commission, it concludes that giving a speech in Miami, Florida. The Oswald acted alone." shots missed Roosevelt, but fatally The Warren Commission's findings, wounded Chicago Mayor Anton and particularly its conclusion that Cermak who was standing nearby. Oswald acted alone, have been a Zangara, who showed signs of mental source of controversy ever since they illness, freely admitted that he in- were made public more than ten years tended to kill Roosevelt to express his ago. resentment over the privileges of the rich. He had intended to kill President Conspiracy Theories Hoover, he said, but the opportunity Nothing New never presented itself. Despite Zanga- Put in historical perspective, how- It is one of the incidents of my ra's confession, rumors persisted that ever, the proliferation of conspiracy profession. he was actually the agent of a gangland theories about John Kennedy's assas- Umberto I of Italy conspiracy to kill Chicago Mayor sination is not at all unusual. Each of Comment after being shot at, Cermak. the presidential assassinations was 1897. (He was assassinated in The attack upon President Truman followed by speculation about "what 1900.) in 1950 actually was a conspiracy, really happened." Andrew Jackson's albeit a poorly conceived and execu- assailant, Richard Lawrence, was 9 9 ted one. The assailants were known to

Skeptic 45 Stanton himself drafted the charges be Puerto Rican nationalists trying to three other men, Paine escaped. Later against the conspirators although this draw attention to the movement for it would be charged that Booth had was not within the purview of his Puerto Rican independence. Nonethe- assigned George Atzerodt to kill Vice official responsibilities as Secretary of less, efforts were made to link the President Andrew Johnson, but that assassination attempt to a communist he had lost his nerve. War. The draft of charges in Stanton's handwriting makes no distinction conspiracy. The other persons arrested on conspiracy charges were Mrs. Mary between those involved in the kidnap- The Conspiracy To Kill Lincoln Surratt, owner of the boarding house ping plot and those involved in the Even the lapse of more than a where the conspirators met and moth- actual assassination.s er of another participant in the kidnap century has failed to quiet speculation The Assassinations about Abraham Lincoln's assassina- plot. John Surratt, who had escaped to Canada;' Dr. Samuel Mudd, an of Robert Kennedy tion. Lincoln was shot in the head on and Martin Luther King April 14, 1865 — just five days after acquaintance of Booth's who had Confederate General Robert E. Lee treated his broken leg; and Edward The controversy surrounding the had surrendered at Appomattox - Spangler, a stagehand at Ford Theater death of John Kennedy increased in while watching the play "Our Ameri- also alleged to have aided Booth's 1968 following the assassinations of can Cousin" at Ford Theater. He died escape. The eight were denied their his brother, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy the next day without regaining con- right to a trial by jury and instead were of New York, and civil rights leader sciousness. tried before a special military commis- Dr. Martin Luther King. Many people The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, sion. Mrs. Surratt, Paine, Herold and found it difficult to believe that the was a well-known actor who had Atzerodt were condemned to death by three slayings were unrelated. identified strongly with the Southern hanging. O'Laughlin and Arnold, who Robert Kennedy was shot on June 5, cause during the Civil War. Booth admitted being in on the kidnap plot 1968 in the pantry of the Ambassador managed to escape the theater after the but who could not be connected with Hotel in Los Angeles. He died the next shooting, but broke a small bone in his the assassination, were sentenced to day. At the time of his death, Kennedy left leg. Twelve days later, Union life imprisonment, as was Dr. Mudd. was a candidate for the Democratic troops discovered his hiding place at a Edward Spangler, who had held the presidential nomination and had just farmhouse owned by Richard Garrett horse on which Booth made his claimed victory in the California near Port Royal, Virginia. The troops getaway, drew a six-year sentence. primary. The assassin, Sirhan Birshara surrounded the tobacco shed in which The sentencing of the conspirators Sirhan, was a young Jordanian who Booth was hiding and when he refused did not end the speculation about "the was said to be angry at Kennedy to surrender, they set the structure on real story behind Lincoln's death." The because of his support for Israel. fire. Booth died from a bullet in the explanations ranged from a conspir- Sirhan, who shot five other people in head, probably self-inflicted, although acy directed by Confederate President the melee, went on trial in Los Angeles a soldier, Boston Corbett, claimed Jefferson Davis to treachery within his on Jan. 7, 1969. On April 17 the jury credit for it and was declared a hero. own cabinet. Secretary of War Edwin found him guilty of first-degree mur- Even before Booth died, the army Stanton was the person most often der and five counts of assault with a began rounding up suspected conspir- cited in this connection. The fact that deadly weapon. He was sentenced to ators. Eventually seven men and one Stanton was able to have the conspir- die in the gas chamber at San Quentin woman were charged with conspiracy ators tried before a special military Prison, but his life was spared when to murder the President. Five of the commission personally selected by the Supreme Court declared the death men, Lewis Powell (alias Lewis Paine), him, the speed with which the trial was penalty unconstitutional. In May 1975 a David Herold, George Atzerodt, conducted and the sentences carried the California Adult' Authority set Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laugh- out, and the fact that the conspirators Feb. 23, 1986 parole date for Sirhan. lin, had originally been assembled by were kept in solitary confinement, Rumors of a conspiracy in Kenne- Booth to participate in a plan to were all pointed to as evidence that dy's death began almost immediately kidnap Lincoln and hold him for Stanton was trying to cover up his role after the shooting.6 Several witnesses ransom in exchange for captured as chief conspirator. claimed they saw a girl wearing a Southern soldiers. After the war A new piece of evidence uncovered polka-dot dress run away from the ended, the plan was changed to the by the Library of Congress will no scene shouting "We've shot him. We've assassination of the President, vice doubt add fuel to the Stanton conspir- shot him." Many people wondered president and secretary of state. At acy theory. The document, which was whether Sirhan was connected with Al about the time that Booth shot discovered by manuscript reference Fatah or other Arab terrorist groups. Lincoln, Lewis Paine burst into the librarian Charles Cooney, reveals that Some people blamed right-wing home of Secretary of State William G. •Jnhn Surratt eventually escaped to Europe, when in 1867 he 'The Wathonrron Prat, Purrenre. June 29, 197S. p. S. we, recopnited. captured and sent back to the United States to "See Robert Riser Raiser, "R. F X. Mot Dir." A rtitfory of the Dutton Seward and attacked him with a knife. stand trial They jury could run epee on • verdict, however and Rohr,. ?Conned,. A srarrinatJun red Irs Afiremarh (EP. After badly wounding Seward and Sorrell finally went tree. & Co.. 19201. pp. 111-149.

46 Skeptic extremists or the Mafia; others con- he left a rifle and other evidence near Presidential assassins typically have cluded that the assassination was part the scene of the shooting, thus making been white, male, and slightly built. Nearly of a communist plot to divide and his capture inevitable. And where did all were loners and had difficulty making friends of either sex and especially in weaken America. A special investigat- Ray, who had not held a job since his forming lasting normal relationships with ing unit set up by the Los Angeles escape from the Missouri State Peni- women .... Normal family relationships Police Department investigated 17 tentiary on April 23, 1967, get the were absent or disrupted .... All of the separate conspiracy theories. But money to pay for his extensive travels assassins were unable to work steadily according to Detective Robert A. before and after the assassination? If during a period of one to three years before the assassination. All of the assassins Houghton, who headed the investiga- there was a conspiracy, who besides tended to link themselves to a cause or a tion, they found no evidence of any Ray was involved? movement and to relate their crime to some conspiracy.' Ray's version of the event is that his political issue or philosophy. All but Two days after Robert Kennedy's only role was to buy the rifle that was Oswald used a handgun. At great risk to death, James Earl Ray was arrested at found near the scene and to drive the themselves, nearly all chose the occasion of an appearance of the President amid London's Heathrow Airport as he was white Mustang used as a getaway car. crowds for the assassination attempt. preparing to leave for Brussels. Ray He claims that the actual shooting was was charged with shooting Martin done by a man he knew only as The next assassin to strike at a Luther King on April 4, 1968 in "Raoul" whom he met in Montreal the presidential candidate had many of Memphis, Tennessee. Ray's capture year before the assassination after his these characteristics. ended one of the largest manhunts in escape from prison." Arthur Bremer shot Alabama history. Ray was returned to Memphis Governor George C. Wallace on May to stand trial for murder. On Nov. 10, The Shooting 15, 1972 at a shopping center in Laurel, 1968, two days before he was originally of George Wallace Maryland. Governor Wallace, who scheduled for trial, Ray fired his Less than 24 hours after Robert was campaigning for the Democratic attorneys, Arthur Hanes Sr. and Jr., Kennedy was shot, President Lyndon presidential nomination at the time, and replaced them with Percy Fore- B. Johnson announced the appoint- survived the attack, but was left man. Ray had pleaded not guilty to the ment of a commission to "examine this paralyzed from the waist down. An charge of murdering Dr. King, but tragic phenomenon" of violence in the Alabama State Trooper, a Secret with the switch in counsel, he was national life. In a statement on Service agent and a campaign worker granted a trial postponement. On assassination issued in October 1969 also were wounded. Bremer, a 21 year March 10, 1969 Ray pleaded guilty the National Commission on the old from Milwaukee, had been stalk- and was sentenced to 99 years in the Causes and Prevention of Violence ing Wallace for weeks. His diary, state penitentiary. described the characteristics appearing portions of which were read at his trial, But almost immediately Ray began in presidential assassins: revealed that he first planned to shoot to change his tune. He claims that he 'See Al., M MacRoben. The Unsolved Riddle of lames Earl President Nixon. Failing that, he was coerced into pleading guilty by Ray." Rolling Stone, July 3, 1973. p. 27 Bynum Shaw. -Are You Sure Who Killed Marlin Lusher Rine' Erman., March chose Governor Wallace as his next Foreman and has spent years trying to p. 11.1.; Will1.11 Bradford Hole. He Slaw the Drearrter target. Three months after the shoot- get the courts to grant him a new trial. (Delmont Prem. 19681; and Gerald Frank. An American Deuh ing Bremer went on trial in Upper (Doubleday, 1972), The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Marlboro, Maryland, where his law- finally granted Ray an evidentiary yer pleaded him not guilty on the hearing before U.S. District Judge ground of insanity. On Aug. 4, 1972 Robert M. McRae. The hearing was 66f the jury found Bremer guilty of four held in Memphis in October 1974. But charges of assault with intent to on Feb. 27, 1975 Judge McRae ruled murder and five charges of weapons- that Ray knowingly elected to plead law violation. He was sentenced to 63 guilty and was intelligent enough to years in prison. know what he was doing. Ray's Speculation about possible conspir- lawyers — Bernard Fensterwald, acies in the Wallace shooting has been James Lesar and Robert Livingston - less prevalent than in some of the have appealed the case to the Sixth earlier assassinations and assassina- Circuit Court. tion attempts. Still, questions have If Ray is ever granted a new trial, the been raised. Some have wondered proceedings might answer many of the The ballot is stronger than the where Bremer, a part-time janitor and questions that still shroud King's death bullet. bus boy, got the money to finance his and Ray's role in it. Many people travels around the United States and Abraham Lincoln, 1856 wonder why, if Ray was acting alone, Canada as he stalked first President 'Robert A. tloughlon. Sprott! Ow Senator: The insanoganon Nixon and then Governor Wallace. of the Anastrnatron of Senator Reiff, F. Kenneth (Random 99 House. 19701. Attorney Bernard Fensterwald raises

Skeptic 47 the Kennedy family. some additional questions. He points random and capricious." SKEPTIC: One would think that out that political saboteur Donald the Kennedys would be most interest- Segretti was very active in Bremer's These phenomena were no doubt ed in finding out what really happened. hometown of Milwaukee. "Was it just present in the aftermath of each FENSTERWALD: They have dog- possible that he hired Bremer as either assassination attempt. But there was gedly opposed any investigation since an infiltrator or an agent provocateur, another aspect to the public's response November 1963. I don't know why. and that subsequently the young man to the assassinations. The official SKEPTIC: Jacqueline Kennedy was went wild and shot Governor Wallace versions of the facts often lacked on his own?" Fensterwald wonders. believability even in the specifics they closest to the President when he died. She would have seen the wounds. Yet "After all, E. Howard Hunt claims that attempted to explain; almost always much of her testimony before the Presidential Assistant Charles Colson they lacked credibility insofar as they Warren Commission is still secret. attempted to dispatch him to Milwau- attempted to explain the entire succes- Why? kee within one hour of the shooting, in sion of events surrounding an assassi- FENSTERWALD: I have no idea an effort to burgle Bremer's apart- nation. It was these sketchy and often ment. How did Colson find out so implausible explanations, as much as whatever, but I see no reason why any quickly who the killer was and where the assassinations themselves, which of the evidence of the Commission should be secret. The victims of the he lived? What did he want Hunt to fueled the conspiracy theories. cover-up are the American people. remove before the FBI arrived?"9 ,DaYol A Rothstein. 'Presidential Assassination Syndrome. A Nycbtutinc Study of the Threat. the Need. and the Message," in Regardless, the details are going to be edited by Witham i. AtunsInutiun and rhr Pohmruf Order. known. I hope that it will be done in a Why Do We Need natty. p. 165. To Look for Conspiracies? decent fashion. I can't think of SKEPTIC INTERVIEW a la Social scientists have tried to ex- anything worse than doing this (continued from page II) Watergate with four or five hours of plain the tendency of the public to attribute presidential assassinations to the Washington Post was with him an TV living color every night. This whole powerful, widespread conspiracies. hour before his death and never case could be resolved in a matter of days or weeks. The government could William Crotty suggests that many noticed anything unusual. people are willing and even anxious to SKEPTIC: What do you think of simply publish what happened. There's no question that they know. be convinced that a conspiracy exists Garrison's work? They seem to insist, though, upon it because the alternative is unbearable. FENSTERWALD: Garrison was being dragged out bit by bit. That's "People find it difficult to understand absolutely on the right trail until the going to be a terrible trauma, but at the how one lone, demented gunman can day Ferrie died. Clay Shaw was a very moment l don't see any way to avoid it. bring down the most powerful leader minor figure at best. A number of us An interesting piece of on earth," Crotty writes. "A pressing suggested to Garrison that he not go SKEPTIC: necessity exists to explain the murder forward without doing some more evidence which was not originally in broader and more acceptable terms. investigating, but he went ahead presented to the public was the letter Rather than a quirk happening, the act anyway. l think he was beaten from the from J. Edgar Hoover explaining that is reconstructed as part of a well- beginning. His chief suspect was dead the bullets had been subjected to conceived plan with important rami- and the Federal government gave him various analyses and that "minor fications.”10 Psychiatrist David A. no cooperation. He couldn't get a variations" were found between the Rothstein attributes the prevalence of single out-of-state witness by subpoe- fragments taken from the President's conspiracy theories to the human need na; not one governor would cooperate. body and from Connally. He discount- I ed the significance, however. Yet the to seek order in the universe: 4 Most people, at least in the news media, portrayed Garrison as a nut. Warren Commission never questioned But the people of New Orleans took a his report or him on this subject. Any In the absence of an explanation, or in radically different view of him. They explanation? the absence of an explanation acceptable FENSTERWALD: I think Hoover and believable to the person involved, it even reelected him. He was the only becomes necessary to generate one. More- public official in this country who tried knew a great deal more about this over the idea of a conspiracy may seem to to do something about the assassina- murder than he ever said. The FBI did some to offer more order and predictability tion. The fact that he failed doesn't not operate in a normal fashion during in the universe, since it would involve a lessen my regard for him. the investigation, I guess, because the group acting on rational motives in a man- Bureau itself was one of the "defend- ner understandable to the average man. SKEPTIC: Does the Kennedy While the idea of a lone assassin acting amity control who sees — and who ants" in the case. For example, Oswald from irrational, apparently unpredictable doesn't see — autopsy evidence at the had an address book. One page of the motives would seem more threatening and National Archives? book was taken up with the name, to leave the universe more would appear FENSTERWALD: Yes, they do. address, phone number and license

•Ikrnard Frnsterwald. -A Legacy of Suspicion," npure. Access is controlled by Burke Mar- plate number of his FBI contact in Sosember 1973. p. 265 shall, the personal representative of Dallas. Before the address book was "'Crotty. cc tic. p

Skeptic 48 given to the Commission that page was When you think about it, the last three a lot of members of Congress. It's very taken out. The Commission dis- presidential elections were decided by fashionable today to call anyone a nut covered this and finally did get the bullets, not ballots. In 1964, Lyndon who says that Sam Giancana's killing page. But the fact that it was taken out Johnson would never have been the was anything other than a Mafia is, I think, indicative of where the FBI nominee as long as John Kennedy was murder. But you've got to consider stands. alive. In 1968, Nixon would never have that Giancana survived 50 years of The Warren Commission was terri- been elected if Bobby Kennedy had rather rugged Mafia infighting with- fied of Hoover. For example, the been the Democratic candidate. in out getting himself harmed or killed. transcript of a meeting in January 1972, Nixon could not have been Yet when he was to be questioned 1964, when the Texas Attorney Gener- reelected, in my view, until George about the OA, while he was being al and some other Texas authorities Wallace was eliminated. So the last watched day and night by the FBI, he said they had evidence that Oswald three elections have not been decided suddenly got picked off. One of the was an FBI informer, has just been by the people but by gunmen. I don't problems is that people don't want to made public. The Commission, includ- know why it couldn't happen a fourth look at this. It would horrify people if ing Gerald Ford, didn't want to time. they thought that Giancana was investigate because they thought that if SKEPTIC: Wouldn't it be difficult killed ...not necessarily by the CIA, Hoover found out that they were to get committee members? but to be sure he didn't testify about investigating, he'd be terribly upset and FENSTERWALD: Yes. But I'm the CIA. the wrath of God would descend upon sure there are members of both houses SKEPTIC: If you were involved in a them. So they had a long conversation who would do it, although there won't new investigation, what would your on how to handle this terrible crisis. be a rush of volunteers. The recent strategy be? They weren't interested in what the shooting in Chicago was duly noted by FENSTERWALD: One thing I Texas officials had to say, only in how would be is ruthless. I spent ten years to squelch the information. as a counsel to various Senate commit- SKEPTIC: Do you think the inves- tees on similar investigations. We did a tigation should be reopened? lengthy investigation, for example, of FENSTERWALD: I certainly do. It wiretapping and electronic eavesdrop- will be reopened. ping by the FBI, CIA and other SKEPTIC: The comment has been government agencies. This was met made that a new investigation would with a great deal of hostility. When probably come to the same conclu- government witnesses didn't show up sions as the Warren Commission. That voluntarily, we issued subpoenas. The is, that the lone assassin theory is still senator who headed the investigation the most supportable. Do you think effectively ended his career by doing that's true? so. But you have to use subpoena FENSTERWALD: Yes, if we make power. And you have to ask the right David Belin chief counsel. But if we set In the ten years since John questions and insist on answers. You up any type of independent investiga- Kennedy's death not one impor- wouldn't have to call any more than tory body, whether in Congress or not; tant clue or fact has been added to four or five witnesses to show that the give it subpoena power; give it some that mountainous store so pains- Warren Commission Report was a investigators instead of corporation takingly and, on the while, fairy story. I'm not quite sure where to lawyers; and not kowtow to the FBI carefully inquired into by the go from there. If the government and CIA, who are suspects in the case; Warren Commission. Not one cooperated, the job would be easy. fact . . Theories have been pro- then we'll come up with the answer. It's However, if the government insisted pounded without number. Claim not a difficult case to crack at all. that it didn't know anything more, after claim has been advanced - SKEPTIC: Who would you want to conflicts of evidence, telltale clues then you'd have to use the Sam Ervin see on such a committee? overlooked or misinterpreted, approach and do it out in public. If the FENSTERWALD: Some who be- and misfeasance and malfeasance government wouldn't cooperate, then lieve that the Warren Commission was by the Warren Commission. But you'd have to get investigators and talk correct should be members. People of in all this pawing over the to hundreds of witnesses. You'd have different persuasions should be on it. It evidence — not one new fact has to insist that the CIA and others give should be non-partisan — this isn't a been turned up. you all the documents they have that partisan political question. It's impor- Harrison E. Salisbury relate to the case, not just what they tant that it be done soon, though, Introduction, You Are the Jury gave the Warren Commission. Above because I don't think any president or by David Berlin, 1973 all you'd have to be pretty ruthless - presidential candidate is safe today, the CIA and FBI don't take these and we do have an election coming up. things lying down.

Skeptic 49 SKEPTIC: There's a great clamor Earl Ray, 1 would be very much in the murders or the cover-ups? for another investigation, but there are favor of that resolution. Downing FENSTERWALD: I have no idea. I those who say that regardless of what from Virginia, a man of seniority and do know that immediately after each did happen in 1963 and regardless of more conservative than Gonzales, of these killings there is a tendency for who did it. an investigation would not would like to reopen just the Kennedy the Attorney General, no matter who be in the best interests of the country. case. But everybody agrees that the he is at the time, to say that people Do you agree? Kennedy case should be reopened first should be calm, that it was only a lone FENSTERWALD: If we had made in any event. So we're making an effort nut murderer who did it, and that it a different decision in 1963 we to see if those who prefer one course or will be thoroughly investigated and wouldn't be having a lot of the critical the other can get together. In that case, taken care of. The whole topic of problems we have now. 1 don't think we'd have in the neighborhood of 70 assassinations has a peculiar history in you can operate a democracy success- sponsors for a common bill. America. We insist that we are fully for any length of time when the SKEPTIC: As Ray's attorney, do different from other countries. When leaders of the country are changed by you think the three major assassina- the President of the United States gets force. In due time the whole fabric of tions and the attempt on George shot, it's always the work of a lone nut. government will unwind. And I know Wallace's life are linked? We have led the "banana republics" of of nothing that's going to stop whoever FENSTERWALD: We don't know. the world in assassinations in the last is behind these murders unless we I'm not even sure that the government 15 years, yet we insist that political bring the truth out. It's crucial. A lot of knows. We won't know until we look murder cannot happen here. respectable people refuse to be candi- at the various murders with an SKEPTIC: If the reopening of the dates today because they fear being objective investigation. There have Kennedy case or the other cases killed. When Ted Kennedy says he's been serious questions raised about pointed to a conspiracy, aren't there a not going to run, it seems perfectly whether Sirhan was the only killer of number of government people with a rational to me. Because even if there Robert Kennedy. There was a splendid great deal to lose if the truth were were nothing more than a lone nut autopsy done in that case. Robert known? involved, this rash of assassinations - Kennedy was shot by three bullets, and FENSTERWALD: Maybe, but the particularly against the Kennedys - all hit him from behind, in an upward people who had the most to lose are puts him in a great deal of danger. direction and from a maximum range dead — Lyndon Johnson, Earl War- SKEPTIC: Wouldn't a new investi- of six inches. There were 40-odd ren and J. Edgar Hoover. Half the gation be handicapped by the passage witnesses, and not one can put Sirhan members of the Warren Commission of time — witnesses dead, recollection in a position to fire those shots. are dead. There are others still alive of events dimmed, memories clouded, Ballistics weren't done on Sirhan's who would have something to lose by evidence gone stale? Could we really gun, but on another gun which was it, but not if they were to handle it have a satisfactory investigation? then destroyed. The Los Angeles properly. For example, if Gerald Ford FENSTERWALD: There will be police could get rid of these doubts, or were to refrain from engaging in any some questions left unanswered, but most of them, by taking Sirhan's gun, type of cover-up during a new investi- the key witnesses are still alive and the firing it and matching the bullets with gation, I don't think he'd be in any key evidence is still available, although those found in Robert Kennedy's deep political trouble. It is an embar- a lot of it is locked up. body. It would take five or ten minutes rassment he would like to avoid, but SKEPTIC: Do you think that if a to do it. if the bullets match, they'd be his role in the Warren Commission new investigation pointed to a conspir- rid of the critics. I'm convinced beyond was not that central. You've got to acy. the conspirators could be identi- any question that they've already done differentiate between the murder and fied? this and found that the bullets don't the cover-up, because complicity in the FENSTERWALD: I think they can match. cover-up can be rationalized on patri- and will be. SKEPTIC: Have you found, in otic grounds. You'll find a clear line of SKEPTIC: Are you encouraged by these major assassinations, that the distinction, as in Watergate, between the bills in the House to reopen the local police haven't done their job? those who were involved in the crime investigation? FENSTERWALD: The FBI is in on and those who were involved in the FENSTERWALD: I'm very hope- every one of these cases and you'll find cover-up. ful that proponents of reopening the in each instance that the local police SKEPTIC: What are the assassina- Kennedy case can get together on a participation was minimal. Virtually tion critics doing to reopen the case? single effort. At the moment, we have all of the investigatory work was done FENSTERWALD: Our committee two similar and parallel proposals — by the FBI. The cases are taken away is trying to get a commitment out of all one by Congressman Gonzales which from the local authorities until it candidates of both parties that who- would reopen the four major assassi- comes time to prosecute. ever is elected President will reopen nation cases. From my own viewpoint, SKEPTIC: Is it possible that the and solve the case. Most of the particularly since I represent James FBI has some vested interest either in candidates have agreed. Some have

50 Skeptic not. But I'm not at liberty to give you a committee or any senator or congress- would throw the letter in the wastebas- rundown on who has said what at the man we're convinced is serious. But we ket. We knew that Lane's claims were a moment. don't think that bruiting it about in the sham. And although I did not agree SKEPTIC: Have any of the Repub- press makes sense now. with every decision made during our lican candidates — or potential candi- SKEPTIC: Do you hope to make investigation, each of us felt that when dates — agreed? the assassination question the number we completed our investigation we had FENSTERWALD: Yes. This isn't a one campaign issue next year? determined the truth: Lee Harvey partisan question. FENSTERWALD: I don't see it as Oswald was the assassin, and the sole SKEPTIC: Just what will it take to that at all. There are many other assassin, of President John F. Ken- reopen the investigation? pressing problems which are certainly nedy, and Oswald was the killer of FENSTERWALD: It could be a going to be more important. However, Officer J. O. Tippit. slow process fueled mainly by the we can make it a major question and Of course, not everyone in the court media, all of whom are working very by the time we actually get two of world opinion agreed with these hard on it at this moment. Or it could candidates, we hope to have commit- conclusions, and this was to be be one dramatic thing such as a witness ments from both parties that if the case expected. In any democratic society it coming forward, or one piece of hasn't been solved they'll back some is important that we have doubters evidence that's unequivocal enough to kind of investigation to solve it. who are skeptical about every official demonstrate that the Warren Commis- SKEPTIC: You're optimistic that report. Unfortunately, most doubters sion Report is a fairy story. this will eventually happen? had not bothered to read the entire SKEPTIC: Will it be determined in FENSTER W ALD: I'm much more Report, and even those who studied part by the role of the activists — by optimistic that all of this will be done the Report did not have the intimate your Committee to Investigate Assas- before we get to the election. From the knowledge of the evidence as did we sinations and other such groups? viewpoint of the candidates it would be lawyers. FENSTERWALD: We certainly do very helpful if this could be done, The prevalence of relative ignorance our part to uncover pieces of evidence because the physical safety of many of of facts was a fertile breeding ground and to see that they're made public. We them — including Gerald Ford — may for the seeds of doubt cast by those have been cooperating with Senator depend on it. critics who used sensationalism as Church's committee and with others in their tool. There were speeches and Congress who are interested. Our THE WARREN COMMISSION newspaper articles, followed by maga- group does not have tax exemption so WAS RIGHT zine articles, followed by books. And we can lobby as much as we want. We (continued from page 15) at the top of the heap was the moving started in 1969 and have been engaged with Lane's methods, I felt that none of picture film that could reach an primarily in research and coordina- the seven Commissioners would an- audience in the tens of millions. Most tion. The Citizens Commission of swer the letter of Lane and deAntonio of the court of world opinion would Inquiry, headed by Mark Lane, has a and that most if not all other lawyers not have to bother to read a book. staff and is much more active than our who served with the Commission They could get a spoon-fed version of group. the assassination of President Ken- SKEPTIC: What new developments nedy. In turn, this would create more can you report? doubts. FENSTERWALD: For years, vir- I was on vacation when the letter tually nobody came to us with useful arrived at my law office. But on Aug. information. But we're getting so 15, as soon as I returned, I wrote the many informants these days that we first of ten letters in which 1 sought to can barely keep up. We have to be accept the offer. The first eight of these rather cautious about this because we letters went unanswered, except for do get a certain number of people one postcard received on Sept. 12, whose credibility we doubt and others 1966, from Emile deAntonio in re- who we suspect have been sent by the sponse to my third letter. Mr. deAnto- government to hamper our work. nio wrote: "Please write to Mark Lane. SKEPTIC: Has anything been said 178 Spring St., N.Y., N.Y. have sent to you recently that you can talk 1 am too much of a fatalist to take him your letters. He is in Dallas and about? any precautions against assassi- will return in 2 wks." On one occasion nation. FENSTERWALD: No. I find fre- when I learned Mr. Lane was sched- quently that if 1 talk, the lead disap- Napoleon Bonaparte uled to speak in Des Moines, 1 pears. This information will be very September 20, 1817 arranged to have a sheriff serve the useful when the case is reopened. We letters on Lane. Unfortunately, the make it available to any congressional 19 speech was canceled.

Skeptic 51 Finally, after my ninth letter, Mark offer of rebuttal. The reason is obvious: The last three sentences on the Lane- You are afraid...afraid of the truth. Lane replied on Dec. 19 and withdrew deAntonio film are ironic: Once again I challenge you, Mark Lane, his offer, using the following as a to thirty minutes on film that is all I need rationale: "Since not a single member to demolish your manufactured case. Having rushed to judgment, the Com- of the Commission has agreed to mission dissolved itself on Sept. 14, 1964, appear in the film and none of the Although I won the battle of the but that dissolution cannot bury the facts nor still the doubts. Our questions persist senior counsel have agreed either we letters, I unfortunately lost the war -- and we shall continue to go on asking them. have decided not to settle for bit for the film contains no rebuttal. Lane And if today we cannot know the whole players." never replied to my final letter of Dec. truth, at least we will know that truth which In the original letter to me, there 23, and wherever in the world the film can he known and we shall continue to ask were no strings attached. The offer to is shown there will be no rebuttal. and ask and ask. rebut was unconditional. It was made However, there is no doubt in my to David Belin, and no one else. When mind that in the long run of history If you listen to the claims of people 1 replied and accepted the offer, Lane truth will prevail. It is for this reason who attack fragments of the overall tried to hide, hoping that perhaps I that I have asked you to serve as a picture, you should not be content to would go away. But I persistently member of the jury of world opinion. merely let them "...continue to ask pursued the offer. And whenever 1 I have also wanted you to learn not and ask and ask." Rather, you should wrote to Lane. I enclosed in each letter only the heart of the evidence involved demand that they produce some Xerox copies of all of my prior in these two murders but also the answers of their own. correspondence. integrity with which we conducted our Where are any eyewitnesses who On Dec. 23,I replied to Mark Lane's investigation. saw a rifle at the time of the assassina- withdrawal of the original uncondi- Many times, members of the legal tion, except in the Depository? Where tional offer to rebut, starting my letter staff of the Warren Commission were is any physical evidence of any other with the simple factual statement: referred to as "brilliant" lawyers. rifle being used — empty cartridge "Your bluff has been called ..." However, brilliance is only secondary. cases? Bullets that did not come from The primary considerations in an the assassination weapon, serial No. ...True to form, you tried to hide from investigation of this kind are the same C-2766? the person who could best demolish your as in service of any governmental How do they reconcile that fact that fabricated case... body: integrity and sound judgment. the fibers of President Kennedy's You did not say that you had not The tragedy of Watergate is a direct clothing and the autopsy of President received any of the prior correspondence, Kennedy indicate that he was struck all of which was enclosed in my final letter. outgrowth of government servants You did not say that my request for thirty ignoring these criteria and compound- from behind? How do they reconcile minutes for rebuttal to your two-hour film ing this with placing as their highest the fact that all of the wounds to was too long. You did not say that my priority loyalty to a person instead of Governor Connally were caused by a request of fifteen days time to prepare my loyalty to our constitutional republic. single bullet fired from the rear and rebuttal was unreasonable. Rather, your rationale for reneging on There is a well-known axiom in the above and the fact that the wrist your original offer was your assertion that real estate business that the three most wound was not caused by a pristine the lawyer who took the testimony of important criteria for success in a real bullet? If a bullet struck President Howard Brennan, Roy Truly, Officer M. estate venture are location, location Kennedy in the front of the neck, since L. Baker, Lieutenant Day, Domingo and location. Similarly, the three most there was no exit point for that bullet, Benavides, William Seoggins, Johnny Calvin Brewer and William Waldman, the important criteria for governmental where did it disappear? If the shots lawyer who was one of the two men service of any kind must be integrity were not fired from the southeast concentrating in Area II, the lawyer who and judgment, integrity and judgment corner window of the sixth floor of the wrote the first draft of Chapter IV of the and integrity and judgment. Depository, how do you reconcile the final Warren Commission Report, the I disagreed with a number of the fact that the bullet fragments in the lawyer who was one of the two persons with more first-hand knowledge of the key decisions of my colleagues. I felt that front seat of the presidential limou- witnesses to the assassination of President some colleagues performed better than sine, the nearly whole bullet found at Kennedy than any other individuals in the others. But there never was any Parkland Memorial Hospital, the world, was not of sufficient stature to make question in my mind that the seven three cartridge cases found in the a rebuttal. To quote your language," ...we Commissioners, as well as all the southeast corner window of the sixth have decided not to settle for bit players." Although you are certainly entitled to lawyers working with the Commis- floor of the Depository, all came from your opinion that l was just a bit player, I sion, had absolute integrity in seeking Oswald's rifle, serial No. C-2766, to the would respectfully submit that I am fully the truth. There also is no doubt in my exclusion of all other weapons in the qualified as an expert on the facts sur- mind that the assassination sensation- world? How do you reconcile the rounding the assassination of President alists, in contrast, lack such integrity. damage to the inside of the windshield Kennedy and the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit. as illustrated by the examples you have of the presidential limousine? Mr. Lane. you have welched on your seen. And you can ask additional ques-

52 Skeptic 111

tions. Why was Oswald the only and was responsible for the delay of to give an inside view of the Warren employee who had regular access to Oswald's transfer, and all the other Commission and to display the im- the sixth floor of the Depository who matters which appear in Jack Ruby's portance of independent citizen parti- was inside the building at the time of testimony and which are summarized cipation in governmental agencies and the assassination and then left within a in the Warren Commission Report. commissions of all kinds; (3) to expose few minutes thereafter? Why did Finally, I hope that as you heard the the techniques of the assassination Oswald walk seven blocks east to get a evidence presented you will know that sensationalists — techniques of mis- bus when he could have boarded one in truth was my only goal and that our representation, fraudulent omission, front of the Depository? Why did Warren Commission Report was and smear that have become all too Oswald board the first bus that passed prepared "in recognition of the right of common in public life and discussion on Marsalis Street, instead of waiting people everywhere to full and truthful of issues, both in this country and for the Beckley bus which would have knowledge concerning" the events of abroad. taken him to his rooming house? Why the assassination of President Ken- We live in a great republic, a nation did Oswald leave the bus when it nedy. As we wrote in the beginning: where it is possible for an independent became stalled in a traffic jam as it citizen to become a part of a special approached the Depository and take a This Report endeavors to fulfill that commission investigating the assassi- taxicab? right and to appraise this tragedy by the nation of a head of state, a country Why did Oswald lie during his light of reason and the standard of fairness. where a citizen can freely write a book interrogation about owning a rifle? It has been prepared with a deep awareness of the Commission's responsibility to criticizing the chief judicial officer, the Why did Oswald lie when he was present to the American people an objec- highest law enforcement agency, and shown a picture of himself with a rifle tive report of the facts relating to the the head of state. and say that the picture was artificially assassination. To maintain such freedom is not an manufactured to incriminate him easy task. It requires an informed when it was determined scientifically In my book I have tried to combine three goals: (I) to bring the heart of the citizenry, and the information upon that the negative of that picture came which the people rely cannot merely be from Oswald's reflex camera, to the testimony of the primary witnesses before the jury of world opinion so a mile wide and an inch deep. We must exclusion of all other cameras in the have depth of understanding. that a true verdict can be reached world? Why did Oswald lie about If there is one thing that stands out having lunch with Junior Jarman at concerning who killed President Ken- nedy and who killed Officer Tippit; (2) in the minds of you jurors, I hope it is the time of the assassination? Why did the need for objective, in-depth explo- Oswald lie about the "curtain rods"? ration of all of the facts before deciding Why, when Oswald ordered the rifle, which or who is right or wrong. Mass- did he use an alias, A. Hidell? Why did media techniques, spoon-fed sensa- Oswald lie about the place from which tionalism, and demogoguery are all the he purchased his revolver? enemies of a free society. Why did Oswald duck into the lobby These enemies cannot exist in an of Johnny Calvin Brewer's shoe store environment where the constant quest as police sirens approached? Why did for accurate information on issues and Oswald, as he was approached by answers is at least as important as the Patrolman McDonald in the Texas quest for personal luxury and enter- Theatre, strike Patrolman McDonald tainment. We must be aware of the with one hand and pull out his revolver facts, for our ultimate judgments will with the other? Most important of all, be no better than the accuracy of the if Oswald was innocent of the assassi- information on which they are based. nation of President Kennedy, why did he kill Police Officer Tippit? do not believe there is any danger of... any assault upon my THE GREATEST COVER-UP When someone charges that Jack life...and if there were it would OF ALL Ruby was involved as a conspirator, be simple nonsense to try to (continued from page 19) you can ask additional questions, prevent it. for, as Lincoln said, including such matters as the poly- though it would be safe for a parts per billion and sometimes even graph examination of Jack Ruby, the President to live in a cage, it less. In his letter to the Commission, happenstance of Jack Ruby going to would interfere with his business. Hoover blandly reports that while mail some money on that Sunday Theodore Roosevelt "minor variations" were found be- morning at around 11:15 a.m., the Letter to Henry Cabot Lodge, tween the fragments taken from happenstance of postal inspector August 6, 1906 President Kennedy's body and those Holmes who, on the spur of the taken from Governor Connally's moment, went to Captain Fritz' office 55 body, those differences were not

Skeptic 53 seen in frame 413. toward the end of judged to be "sufficient." To the continues on, almost coasting down the film, as the presidential limousine layman, that explanation sounds Fine, the hill. Seconds pass. One one disappears behind some bushes before and certainly the Commission did not thousand, two one thousand, three one entering the tunnel. In those bushes is a question it. But the beauty of NAA is thousand, four one thousand, five one dark shadow that, to some, appears to that the size of differences between thousand, six .... And then, for a be the head and arms of a man with a particles are meaningless. Virtually fraction of an instant, the President's rifle. There are many doubts, even any difference, however minute, is not head is thrown forward a few inches, a among conspiracy theorists, over only "sufficient" but irrefutable. blur, lost in the sudden violent impact whether the shadow is actually a man. Unless atoms changed their structure that tears away the right side of his Final proof or disproof awaits image that day in Dallas, John Kennedy and head in a shower of blood and brains enhancement tests, which are currently John Connally were wounded by and throws him backward in the car at being conducted at Cornell University. separate bullets. a speed of 104 miles per hour. A clearer image of a man, pointing Perhaps the subtleties of neutrons Until recently, these pictures have what seems to be a gun, appears in a and atoms may have escaped the been seen by a comparative handful of film taken by Orville Nix, who was members of the Commission. Incredi- people. Life magazine, which bought standing across Elm Street from bly, no mention of the NAA test or Zapruder's film, suppressed the fatal Zapruder at the time of the assassina- Hoover's letter is to be found either frames for reasons of "taste." To most tion. Extreme blowups of the 8mm in the Report or the 26 volumes of researchers who have seen the Zaprud- frame, though very hazy, seem to show evidence (so far the FBI has refused to er film, the conclusion is obvious: the a man pointing what could be a long- release copies of the actual NAA final shot comes from the right and to barreled, sighted pistol from behind a findings). Far more graphic evidence, the front, and can only have been fired cream-colored Rambler station wagon however, was right in front of them: a from the grassy knoll. Josiah Thomp- parked behind the grassy knoll. Later, color film of the assassination itself. son, a Haverford College professor the picture was shown to Lee Bowers, a Abraham Zapruder, a Dallas dress who was hired by Life to work on its railroad worker, who witnessed the manufacturer, was standing with his investigation of the assassination (and assassination from a nearby switching secretary on a concrete pedestal then left when the editors would not tower and told the Warren Commis- immediately adjacent to the grassy accept his evidence of a conspiracy), sion he had seen unusual "commotion" knoll on November 22, 1963. A has studied the Zapruder film more near the stockade fence just as the supporter of the President, Zapruder closely and longer than anyone. His shots rang out. "That's exactly what I had brought his 8mm movie camera to conclusion, based on the film, is that saw," Bowers said of the picture. A few record the motorcade. What he saw there were at least four shots. The first, months later. Bowers was killed when through the viewfinder instead was the fired from the School Book Deposito- his car struck a bridge abutment. He most horrifying moment in modern ry, which struck the President in the had been driving in daylight, on an American history. back. The second, fired from the roof open road and at moderate speed, Though a few frames are unac- of the nearby County Records Build- when his car suddenly swerved off the countably missing, and though the ing, which hit Connally. And a final, side of the road. (Bowers was one of 17 film has been spliced twice, the 22- double impact: a third shot, which hits witnesses connected to the Kennedy, second Zapruder film is startling the President in the back of the head, Oswald or J. D. Tippit murders to die enough. We see the lead motorcyles and a fourth, which hits him in the under strange circumstances within turning onto Elm Street, and behind head and is fired from the front. three years of the assassination. Five them the President's blue Lincoln. Thompson's theory is based on died of what were officially listed as Kennedy is smiling, waving to the nothing more than a simple applica- "natural" causes; the other 12 were crowds. Then, for a few seconds, the tion of Newton's third law of motion: victims of murder, accidents or sui- car disappears behind a freeway sign. every action has an equal and opposite cide. The actuarial odds of such a When it emerges, Kennedy has been reaction. When bodies are hit from the string of deaths have been reckoned at hit. His hands are clenched, and he is rear, they move forward. When hit 100 trillion to 1.) bringing his arms up to his throat. from the front, they move backward. Connally, apparently unhurt, turns That is precisely what occurs in the The Grassy Knoll back to his right trying to see what has Zapruder film. The Commission ig- and Other Curiosities happened. He turns around and is nored it. To accept it would have been If the Commission was willing to beginning to turn to his left when his to say there had been a conspiracy. credit Oswald with extraordinary gifts cheeks suddenly puff, his hair goes Zapruder himself thought there had of marksmanship and mobility, it was askew, and he is driven downward in been one. He later testified that he had not quite prepared to admit he had the the car. In the rear seat Mrs. Kennedy heard shots whistle past his right ear. power of bi-location as well. Thus, the has now begun to lean over her His Illm, according to some investiga- possibility of an assassin or assassins stricken husband, who has begun to tors, not only records the assassination firing on the motorcade from the fall forward and to the left. The car but one of the killers. The "figure" is

Skeptic 54 direction of the grassy knoll to the Kennedy motorcade route, later re- go on at both the grassy knoll and the right of Elm Street was ruled out. ported that motorcycle outriders were Dal-Tex Building might well be To rule it out, the Commission had posted on "the left and right flanks of resolved by a thorough examination of to discount the testimony of more than the President's car" (a position that the wounds in President Kennedy's 50 witnesses, nearly a score more than would have made a cross-fire more brain. Just for this reason, the brain those who reported shots coming from difficult). But, as the films of the was removed after the autopsy and the School Book Depository. By and motorcade clearly indicate, the motor- "set" in Formalin. Eventually, it was large, the grassy knoll witnesses were, cycles were posted well to the rear of transported, along with other medical like Lee Bowers, quite positive about the President's car and, according to evidence, to the National Archives. what they saw or heard. More impor- the Dallas police, were positioned When Dr. Cyril Wecht, the coroner of tantly, many of their stories coincided there at Lawson's own instructions. Allegheny County, Pa., and one of the in crucial details, and the details were After the shooting, when the doors of few independent experts to examine quite specific. S. M. Holland, who the School Book Depository were the autopsy photographs and X-rays, observed the scene from the overpass, sealed, a man was "trapped inside" sought to locate the brain at the reported seeing a puff of smoke near who didn't belong there. He was James archives, he made a grisly discovery. It, the stockade fence immediately after W. Powell, an Army intelligence too, had disappeared. the shots; Bowers noted the presence agent. of several strange cars in the parking Across the street from the Book The Oswald Connection lot in back of the knoll. In one of the Depository is the Dal-Tex Building, In fixing blame for the assassina- cars, Bowers said, a man seemed to be and assassination theorists have long tion. the Commission ignored the speaking into something that resem- speculated that some of the shots on testimony of eyewitnesses and settled bled a microphone. the motorcade could have come from instead on a 24-year-old former Films back up some of the stories. there as well as from the Book Marine named Lee Harvey Oswald. The Nix film, for instance, shows Depository. The cops evidently had For a country still shaken by the Cold people running in the direction of the the same idea, too, because, after the War, Oswald lit the bill perfectly. He knoll immediately after the shots, shooting, they picked up a young man was a self-proclaimed Marxist who while two people on the knoll itself who had been in the building "without had, several years before the assassina- throw themselves to the ground, to a good excuse." as the police report tion, "defected" to the Soviet Union. avoid being hit by more shots. The film puts it. Just who the young man was is When he returned, he brought a also shows the two motorcycle officers impossible to say. While the records Russian wife with him. As it happened, who had been riding behind the show he was taken to the sheriff's her uncle was an official in the Soviet presidential limousine dismounting office, his name does not appear, nor Secret Police. Oswald had been born and one of them running up the knoll, does any alibi. Evidently, he just in New Orleans but had grown up in gun drawn. disappeared. the Dallas area, and it was to Dallas Another policeman who ran to the The debate over what did or did not that he returned. One month before knoll was Joe Smith, who had been the assassination, he had gone to work directing traffic at the corner of as a stockboy in the School Book Houston and Elm when he was Depository. summoned by a woman who cried, Oswald was arrested 75 minutes "They are shooting the President from after the President's murder, as he was the bushes." What Smith discovered sitting in a movie theater. Eventually, on the knoll is the most chilling story he was charged with the murders of of all. As he related his story to the President Kennedy and J. D. Tippit, a FBI: "1 pulled my gun from my holster Dallas police officer who was shot to and I thought, 'This is silly. I don't death not many blocks from the know who I am looking for,' and I put theater within an hour of the assassina- it back. Just as I did, he [the man at tion. The evidence that Oswald com- whom Smith had been pointing his mitted either crime is tenuous at best. weapon] showed me he was a Secret Physical evidence linking Oswald to Service agent." There is only one 1 never believed that Oswald the assassination was strangely incon- problem. The Secret Service's own acted alone, although I can clusive. A paraffin test turned up records show there were no Secret accept that he pulled the trigger. traces of nitrates on his hands but not Service men on the grassy knoll. Lyndon B. Johnson on his cheek, and was ultimately Indeed, a lot of people were where Interview in Atlanric Monthly. dismissed by both the FBI and the they shouldn't have been that day. July 1973 Commission as unreliable. A partial Winston Lawson, the Secret Service palm print was found on the weapon, agent responsible for the choice of the 99 but police were unable to prove it was

Skeptic 55 Oswald's. The gun itself had been The Commission's tolerance toward or more intelligence agencies. The purchased through the mail by an A. Marina is understandable. There were rumors were fed by the fact that the Hidell. Dallas police claimed that they few other witnesses who could put notebook Oswald was carrying with found Oswald carrying phony identifi- Oswald at the scene of either murder, him at the time of his arrest carried the cation for an A. Hidell, yet the and those who could, for one reason or name, license and telephone number of accompanying photograph does not another, were less than wholly credi- James Hasty, a Dallas-based FBI man look like Lee Harvey Oswald. ble. Only two witnesses, for instance, who had visited Oswald's household The day of the assassination, while claimed to have seen Oswald on the several times. There was no question rummaging through a garage where sixth floor shortly before the shots about the visits. Hosty himself con- Oswald kept some of his things, the were fired. One was Howard Brennan, firmed them, explaining that they were police also uncovered two snapshots of a 45-year-old steam fitter who was a routine part of keeping track of Oswald standing in a back yard. a standing directly across the street from known subversives. What was more revolver strapped around his hip. In the Book Depository. Minutes before troubling to the Commission was the one hand he holds some socialist the shooting, Brennan claimed he suggestion that Oswald was not only propaganda literature. In the other he glanced up and saw Oswald standing under the surveillance of the FBI but in hefts a long, scope-mounted rifle. The in a window on the sixth floor, gun in its employ. FBI, however, was unable to deter- hand. Later, however, Brennan was The rumors became formal allega- mine whether the rifle was the Carca- unable to pick Oswald out of a police tions when Waggoner Carr, the Texas no. Other researchers, notably Sylvia lineup, and the Commission itself attorney general, passed them on to Meagher, assert that the gun Oswald downplayed the significance of his the Warren Commission. Carr, who holds is 2.4 inches longer than the testimony. The other witness was said he had gotten his information Carcano. Charles Givens, one of Oswald's co- from reliable informants (they turned In any case, there is serious question workers. Shortly after the assassina- out to be on the staff of the Dallas whether the man holding the rifle is tion, Givens told the FBI that he had D.A.), said that Oswald collected 1;200 Lee Harvey Oswald at all. Several seen Oswald on the first floor 40 every month from the FBI as an professional photo analysts have flatly minutes before the assassination. For informer and that his Bureau identifi- branded the picture as a fake. When the next six months, Givens stuck to cation number was 179. the two back yard photographs are that story through several interroga- Carr's information sent shock waves laid next to each other, a startling tions. Not until Commission lawyer through the Commission. Just how inconsistency emerges. Though the David Belin interviewed him on April seriously the members of the Commis- body of the second photo is smaller 8, 1964, did Givens suddenly recall that sion viewed the story is shown in a than the first (since the picture was he had forgotten his cigarettes on the "TOP SECRET' transcript of a closed taken from farther away), the size of sixth floor and, when he went to Commission meeting. The recently the two heads is virtually identical. retrieve them shortly before noon, declassified transcript quotes an Either the pictures are fakes, planted spotted Oswald and exchanged a few alarmed J. Lee Rankin, chief counsel to incriminate Oswald in the assassina- words with him. for the Commission, saying, "We do tion, or Oswald managed to grow Oswald himself claimed that he was have a dirty rumor that is very bad for nearly half a foot in the few minutes eating lunch on the first floor of the the Commission ...and it is very between the taking of the first and the School Book Depository at the time of damaging for the agencies that are second pictures. the assassination. Within two minutes involved in it and it must be wiped out Against this evidence is the testi- of the actual shooting, police dis- insofar as it is possible to do so by this mony of Marina Oswald, who told the covered him calmly sipping a Coke on Commission." The problem, as Com- Commission she took the pictures. In the second floor. According to the mission member and former CIA this and other matters, Mrs. Oswald Commission, Oswald fled from his Director Allen Dulles quickly notes, is proved most cooperative; indeed, sniper's perch, rearranged the shield of how to go about it, since, if Oswald nearly three-quarters of the evidence boxes he had set up around the were an FBI agent, Hoover would against her husband comes from her window, wiped his fingerprints off the claim he wasn't. Or as Dulles aptly testimony. Except when it conflicted murder weapon, hid the rifle, ran puts it: "I think under any circumstan- with its own sequence of events, the down four flights of stairs, and bought ces... Mr. Hoover would certainly say Commission accepted Mrs. Oswald's a bottle of Coke — all within 80 he didn't have anything to do with this testimony at face value, despite numer- seconds. fellow .... If he [Hoover] says no, l ous warnings from Commission law- didn't have anything to do with it, you yers such as Norman Redlich that Secret Agent Man can't prove what the facts are." When "Marina has repeatedly lied to the Almost from the moment of Os- Dulles' fellow commissioners ask him Secret Service, the FBI and this wald's arrest, rumors wafted through whether he would lie, even under oath, Commission on matters which are of Dallas and Washington that the if he were put in the same spot, Dulles vital concern." accused assassin was an agent for one bluntly tells them yes, as would any

56 Skeptic official in the CIA. Russia, Oswald showed up at the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Once, For whatever it is worth, then, American Embassy to make two while distributing FPCC leaflets, Hoover and the CIA both dutifully startling declarations: he was re- Oswald became involved in an alterca- denied that Oswald had ever been their nouncing his American citizenship, tion with anti-Castro activists. After a agent. All that remains to contradict and he was going to turn over his brief brawl, Oswald was arrested for them is a series of unlikely events, knowledge of radar secrets to the disturbing the peace and hauled into a which, depending on how they are Russians. The revelations did not seem police station. He made one request: "I construed, make a powerful case for to cause a ripple of concern. In any want to see the FBI." An agent quickly coincidence or conspiracy. case, when Oswald applied for a new appeared, and Oswald was released the First, there is the matter of Oswald's passport two years later, it was next day after paying a $10 fine. Marine record. One of his duty routinely granted, along with a loan of If it is unusual for a self-proclaimed stations overseas was Atsugi, Japan, several hundred dollars to get home. "Marxist" to demand to see the FBI, it where he worked as a radar operator Back in Texas, Oswald and Marina is no more out of character than and learned Russian, or so it is said, in were taken under the wing of Dallas's Oswald's other labors on behalf of his spare time. According to those large and heavily CIA-infiltrated Castro's Cuba. Some of Oswald's familiar with the workings of the White Russian community. Despite leaflets, for instance, were stamped agency, Atsugi is one of the largest their aid, Oswald was apparently with the address "544 Camp Street." CIA bases in the world. If Oswald unable to get and keep steady work. At The Commission could find no evi- worked at Atsugi, the argument goes, least, that was the stated reason why he dence that Oswald ever kept an office he was almost surely an agency man. moved to New Orleans in April of at that address, but in its search it Then, there is the manner of 1963. Oswald did not fare much better found that an anti-Castro group had. Oswald's leave-taking from the Mar- on the job market, but he did come in That group was the Cuban Revolu- ine Corps. In September 1959 Oswald contact with some interesting people. tionary Committee, a CIA creation applied for a hardship discharge on the It was in New Orleans that Oswald put together by none other than E. ground that his mother had been became involved with the pro-Castro Howard Hunt. injured. (A box dropped on her foot at In late September 1963, Oswald left work; she was back at work a few days by bus from New Orleans to Mexico later.) The discharge was granted three City, where he hoped to obtain a travel days later — a record time, according visa to Cuba. On October 10 the CIA to Marine Corps officers. According sent a cable to the State Department to the critics, it was the CIA who set and the Office of Naval Intelligence, the record. informing them that a "reliable and Once home, Oswald spent three sensitive source" had reported that days with his mother before leaving for Leon "Henry" Oswald had been seen New Orleans, the first stop on a hegira entering the Soviet Embassy. The CIA to the Soviet Union. According to the said it had reason to believe that this Warren Commission, Oswald paid was the same L. H. Oswald who lived $1,500 plus for his passage from in Texas and had once defected to the money saved from the Marine Corps. Soviet Union, and requested that State But Oswald's bank account showed a Had times have come to our and ON I furnish pictures of Oswald so balance of exactly 5203. The question country, and one is moved to that the identity could be confirmed. is where the rest came from. look backward and ask where we In its cable the CIA describes Oswald Oswald supposedly took a ship to went wrong. There can be no as "approximately 35 years old, six feet single answer to that question; England and made the next leg of his tall, athletically built, with a receding there are too many different journey — London to Helsinki — by hairline." Later, the CIA released currents in the flow of human plane. Sylvia Meagher, who matched pictures of the Mexico City "Oswald." history. But the assassination of up the entry date stamped on Oswald's President Kennedy marks the The only resemblance between this passport in London with the time his point at which we took leave of "Oswald" and the Oswald arrested in commercial flight was said to have the truth. Unless we find and fix Dallas a month later was the receding departed for Helsinki, found that the this thing, we will never put hairline. So far, the best explanation plane left a day before Oswald arrived ourselves right. We must reopen the CIA has offered for the affair is in England. The only plausible expla- the case. that it was a "mixup." nation is that Oswald reached Finland George O'Toole If it were truly a mixup, it bears by noncommercial means. In the The Assassination Tapes. some explanation. Oswald did, in fact, minds of the critics, the CIA made the 1975 travel to Mexico City, and his name means available. appears on a visa application filed with Two weeks after his arrival in 99 the Soviet Embassy. Confirmation

Skeptic 57 T

comes from both embassy records and evidence that links either the CIA or he was having lunch in Washington. from one William G. Gaudet, whose the FBI to the planning and carrying Other details about Hunt and his name immediately follows Oswald's out of John Kennedy's murder. What circle of Cuban friends, however, are on the roster of Mexican travel Oswald's connections to U.S. intelli- not so easily explained. Hunt's path permits. The Oswald-Gaudet sequence gence do provide is a rationale for the and Oswald's have a curious way of is another one of those coincidences cover-up that followed the assassina- overlapping. The New Orleans address that seemed to have dogged Lee tion. For, whether or not Oswald was shared by the Hunt Cuban group and Harvey Oswald throughout his life. part of an assassination conspiracy, Fair Play for Cuba is merely one For Mr. Gaudet, who lists his occupa- there was, after his murder, no example. Another is Hunt's presence tion as editor of the Latin American convenient way for an intelligence in Mexico City, as the CIA's acting Traveller, is also an admitted former agency to explain that, while Oswald station chief, when Oswald showed up employee of the CIA. had been in their employ, he was not looking for a visa, the same visit that Another "mixup" that fascinates acting at their behest on the 22nd of touched off the mysterious CIA cables critics of the Warren Commission November, 1963. The "dirty rumors" about a look-alike Oswald who, in occurred during a news conference that so terrified the Warren Commis- fact, did not look like Oswald at all. held by Dallas D.A. Henry Wade sion would always exist. There re- while Oswald was in custody. Twice mained only one solution. The rumors, Too Many Oswalds during the conference, Wade an- as Rankin told the Commission, "must For a man who supposedly commit- nounced that Oswald was a member of be wiped out." Clumsily, stupidly, the ted the crime of the century, Lee the "Free Cuba Committee," a serious Warren Commission set out to do just Harvey Oswald behaved rather oddly. slip of the tongue, since that committee that. Before the assassination, he seemed to go out of his way to call attention to is a violently anti-Castro group. At The Ubiquitous Mr. Hunt last, though, a friendly voice in the himself — getting in fights, stirring up back of the room corrected Wade and Lee Harvey Oswald was not the only a fuss at a shooting range, boasting to a informed him that Oswald was, in fact, suspect the police arrested that day in car salesman that he would soon be a member of the Fair Play for Cuba Dallas. Nine other men were picked up coming into a "lot of money." These Committee. The friendly voice be- after the assassination and, after incidents have two things in common. longed to a strip-joint proprietor questioning, quickly turned loose. Oswald always identified himself quite named Jack Ruby. There is a photo of the cops leading loudly, and later the people he had Taken singly, any one of these away three of the men from the scene. been involved with had trouble identi- happenings can be written off to Just who they were is officially fying him. The incident with the car simple chance. Taken together, they unknown; they were released before salesman is especially interesting. form a mosaic of a man in, around, anyone bothered to take their names. First, Oswald did not drive. Second, aided and abetted by intelligence In the Warren Commission Report, on November 9, 1963, the day he was agencies of one sort or another they are referred to as "tramps." In the supposedly in a car dealership in throughout the last six years of his life. photo one of those tramps bears a Dallas, the Commission puts him at Deduction, however, is not proof. passing resemblance to Frank Sturgis, home in Irving, Texas, writing a letter And, in the absence of official explana- one of the Watergate Cubans. The to the Soviet Embassy. There are other tion, the common-sense linking of a older man looks remarkably like inconsistencies. On September 25, series of incredible occurrences is all America's favorite spy: author, bur- 1963, for instance, Oswald, according that is left to critics of the Warren glar, black-mailer, assassination devo- to the Commission, was riding a bus to Commission. The recent disclosures tee E. Howard Hunt. Mexico City. Yet, on the same day, a that the FBI was involved in the The resemblance is so striking that man calling himself Lee Harvey wholesale planting and buying of some assassination buffs, notably Oswald walked into the Selective double agents in radical groups during comedian Dick Gregory, have charged Service Office in Austin, Texas, saying the 1960's, coupled with the revela- that the photograph not only looks he wanted to discuss his dishonorable tions that the CIA was involved not like E. Howard Hunt but is E. Howard discharge. once but several times in assassination Hunt. The staff of the Rockefeller CIA In 1966 Richard Popkin, a college plots, provide added impetus to critics Commission, headed by David Belin, professor in St. Louis, concluded on who are ready, in any case, to blame obligingly promised to check the the basis of these and other strange most of the world's troubles on the matter out. Belin's eagerness to investi- occurrences that there were two machinations of U.S. intelligence. gate is understandable. For although Oswalds, and that the phony Oswald Lyndon Johnson himself termed the the photo of one of the tramps looks a had been employed to frame the real CIA's operations in the Caribbean "a bit like Hunt today, it resembles him Lee Harvey Oswald. Popkin's thesis damn murder incorporated." not at all 111/2 years ago. More to the has a certain tidy logic to it. For one All the same, there is, at this point, Hunt has an ironclad alibi. At thing, it explains how Oswald could moment, not a shred of credible the moment John Kennedy was killed, have been in two places at once. For

58 Skeptic another, it shows how a poor marks- differences is that there never was a been something related to the CIA," man could have hit a moving target at real Lee Harvey Oswald, or, if there says Slawson. "I can only speculate a range of 280 feet. For a third, it were, he died well before the first Lee now — but a general CIA effort to take explains how Lee Harvey Oswald, a Harvey Oswald, entered the Marine out anything that reflected on them man who did not know how to drive, Corps. From there on, the name and may have covered this up." took a car for a test spin at speeds of up persona of Lee Harvey Oswald became It is a chilling thesis, and, like so to 70 miles per hour. The "two an identity of convenience to be used much about Dallas, it makes just Oswald" theory also makes some sense by an intelligence agency or agencies enough sense not to be ruled out. out of the CIA's "mixup" in Mexico unknown, a common enough practice City. among intelligence groups around the Who Done It? Now, Peter Dale Scott, a professor world. There are no answers, of course, at Berkeley, and one of the most Bizarre as the hydra-headed Oswald only theories, and they range from the respected and meticulous of the notion sounds, it was taken quite unlikely to the obscene. There is a assassination theorists, has come up seriously by J. Edgar Hoover — two conspiracy to fit every taste and with a new wrinkle on the Popkin and a half years before the assassina- prejudice. The trouble is that, since thesis: not two Oswalds, but several. tion. On June 3, 1960, Hoover sent a Dallas, Vietnam and Watergate, few of Scott bases his conclusion on a confidential memorandum to the them can be easily dismissed out of study of Oswald photographs collect- Department of State, raising the hand. For a time, the CIA itself ed by the Commission. The photo- possibility that an imposter might be considered the possibility that Oswald graph on the passport Oswald used to using the credentials of Oswald, who was some sort of "Manchurian Candi- enter the Soviet Union is especially was then living in the Soviet Union. date," a sleeper assassin planted to go striking. It surely shows somebody, The Hoover memo sparked other off on command. The theory, like all but it does not appear to be Lee memos within the State Department. the others, made for interesting con- Harvey Oswald. The chin, facial, nose None of the correspondence on the versation around the watercoolers at and bone structure all are wrong. possibility of an Oswald imposter was Langley, but, if the CIA ever followed Scott has also collected the records ever forwarded to the Warren Com- up on the notion, there is no evidence. of Oswald's physical examinations mission. Instead, it was buried in the Variations of "foreign agents did it" from the time he enlisted in the Marine National Archives and only uncovered have long held considerable appeal for Corps to the autopsy following his recently. W. David Slawson, a lawyer a number of Americans, including the murder. They reveal some seemingly who checked out rumors about Os- unlikely duo of Lyndon Johnson and inexplicable dissimilarities. A Marine wald for the Warren Commission, of- Jack Anderson, both of whom pointed Corps medical examination conducted fers one explanation as to how the file the finger in the direction of Castro. on October 24, 1956, for instance, on the counterfeit Oswald managed to There is far more disposition, if no found that Lee Harvey Oswald was 5 disappear. "It conceivably could have more evidence, to blame the CIA, feet 8 inches tall, l35 pounds, with either the top leadership of the agency hazel eyes. Three years later, on or an ultra-right faction, which used September I I. 1959. another Marine the agency as a cover. exam puts him at 5 feet 11 inches tall, For one reason or another, none of 150 pounds, with grey eyes. Of course. these theories — these outrageous Oswald could have grown three inches, slanders — really washes. Besides the gained 15 pounds, and changed the lack of evidence, the "CIA did it" color of his eyes in three years, but it theory is simply "too pat," too easily seems unlikely. Altogether impossible tailored to existing prejudices. The is the change recorded on July 13, most serious investigators of the 1962, during a job physical Oswald assassination are reluctant to point a took at Leslie Welding Co. That finger anywhere. They are also the examination shows him to be 5 feet 9 most pessimistic that the real murder- inches tall— a loss of two inches in ers of John Kennedy will ever be three years. In the arrest bulletin that found. There is a growing suspicion went out for Oswald on November 22, Assassination has never changed that Oswald — or whoever he was - he was described as 5 feet 10 inches tall the history of the world. was merely the first of many "patsies," and weighing 165 pounds — the Benjamin Disraeli a word Oswald chose to describe description that is carried in the FBl Speech in the House of Com- himself. The CIA, whom both the right files as well. At his autopsy, Oswald mons on the assassination of and left have reason to hate, may be was found to be 5 feet 9 inches tall, 150 Lincoln, May 10, 1865 the next. pounds, with grey-blue eyes. In the classic murder, the assailant One possible explanation for these 99 must have motive, means and oppor-

Skeptic 59 read reports. Ruby's connections with tunity (another reason to doubt Asia; eventually the mob sold it as the mob and with the police were Oswald's guilt; he apparently had none heroin on American streets. In 1971, of them). There were many people, during a little-noticed trial of 11 common knowledge in Dallas. Even a former Dallas county sheriff detailed groups — and countries, for that members of a Cosa Nostra family in matter — that had reason to want federal court in New York, the defense Ruby's background; once again, the John Kennedy dead. But the means called a surprise character witness: the Commission ignored him. Instead, the Commission blandly asserted that and the opportunity must also be chief of the CIA's local office. The Ruby's friendships with criminals present. As a first step, the killers mobsters were not convicted. One "throughout his life...were limited would have to have been able to indication of the closeness of the largely to professional gamblers." neutralize the Dallas Police Depart- relationship between the agency and Ironically, there was one place where ment (more difficult than it seems). the mob is that the CIA maintains its Ruby truly was interested in gambling: They would have to have been of largest U.S. office (outside Washing- Havana, Cuba. sufficient stature to dissuade other ton) in little old Las Vegas. "You can Cuba, crime and the CIA. The three investigative agencies, notably the FBI bet," says one source close to the things that everyone connected to the and CIA, from going after them, agency, "that it isn't for the desert air." assassination had in common. The because their exposure would do The explanation for the CIA-Mafia three things the Warren Commission greater harm to the government and ties, says one veteran observer of the did not want to hear about. They had that wonderful catchall, "the public agency, is that the mob can perform their killer before the investigation interest," than their actual apprehen- certain "assignments" which the agen- started. If he lacked a motive, they sion. They would have to have had cy either cannot or is unwilling to would provide it. Oswald, according to access to skilled, sophisticated trigger undertake. In 1961 Robert Kennedy the Commission, killed Kennedy men. And that would have taken discovered that the agency had put out because of general feelings of inade- money, a great deal of money, without an assassination contract on Fidel quacy. At Gerald Ford's insistence, the subsequent accounting. Castro, and that the hit men were from Commission added Oswald's being a As it happens, organized crime fits the mob. Kennedy quickly stopped it. communist as a reason for murder. all these requirements exactly. Cer- Given that background, some critics Marina testified that it was all a tainly, there was motive. The loss of of the Warren Commission contend terrible mistake, that Lee really want- casinos and heroin connections in that the mob, after murdering Ken- ed to kill Connally, missed, and shot Cuba because of the regime Kennedy nedy, employed its long-standing Kennedy instead. The Commission refused to dislodge has been reckoned "immunity" to cut off CIA and other should have added that to the list as in the hundreds of millions of dollars a federal investigation of the assassina- well. It makes just as much sense. year. Robert Kennedy's pursuit of tion. It is a confusing, disheartening, organized crime had already seriously Unlikely as this scenario sounds, it ultimately maddening business, this damaged the mob, especially in New dovetails nicely with the unanswered search for the killers of John Fitzger- Orleans, the terminus for the Cuban questions about Jack Ruby. Accord- ald Kennedy. The people who look are drug connection. And there were ing to the Warren Commission, Ruby strange, obsessive types, as people indications that the Kennedy brothers was a rather innocent, if highly should be who have worked in a grave were going to hit Nevada next. deranged, saloon keeper whose most so long. As for means, the mob has both the noticeable vice seems to have been a bit Fortunately, the disbelief is spread- guns and the money to hire them. The of social gambling. The Commission ing. It is the little old ladies, not just the opportunity was there for the taking. flatly rejected the oft-repeated accusa- The agency and the mob have tion that Ruby had ties to organized crazies, who are asking questions now. enjoyed a cozy relationship since crime. The Commission ignored testi- Where once the Commission could World War II, when the Cosa Nostra mony before it by a Dallas police count on the name and probity of its protected U.S. ports from Axis sabo- detective that he "regarded Jack Ruby chairman to certify a preposterous tage, as well as aided in the Allied as a source of information in connec- scenario of events, today the mention invasions of Sicily and Italy. The tion with his investigatory activities." of Earl Warren's Commission brings agency returned the favor in various In short, Ruby was, as Peter Dale laughter on college campuses. Ironi- ways. In the late '50's Robert Kennedy, Scott notes, a police informant, cally, the media have been the last to then an investigator for the McClellan specifically in the area of narcotics. question the official version of events. committee, encountered a mobster in Scott also points out that the Commis- The New York Times, which published Las Vegas who boasted, "You can't sion ignored a report to the FBI seven its own edition of the Warren Commis- touch me, I've got immunity" from the years before the assassination that sion Report and a follow-up volume CIA. Incredulous, Kennedy checked; Ruby was providing the okays from entitled The Witnesses (from which the mobster was telling the truth. the mob for independent operators to nearly all the dissenting testimony had Later, during the Vietnam war, CIA move drugs in and out of Dallas. At been carefully excised), continues to aircraft ferried opium out of Southeast that, the Commission hardly needed to stoutly defend the Commission's

60 Skeptic Report. Time Inc., which owns the conspiracy theory whole, and my substance than moonbeams. original and hence clearest copy of the present inclination is to stick with the If a fresh investigation were to be Zapruder film, keeps it locked away in Warren Report. made, who would make it? The a vault. On television the most com- During the course of its investiga- doubters would scorn a commission by prehensive defense of the Commission tion, the Commission took testimony President Ford (he served as a con- has come from four one-hour specials from 522 witnesses. The FBI conduct- gressman on the Warren Commis- produced by CBS. The correspondent ed 25,000 interviews and submitted sion). A congressional commission was that Watergate tiger, Dan Rather. 2,300 reports amounting to 25,000 also would be establishment tainted. It may be changing. With Watergate pages. The Secret Service conducted At this late date a new grand jury in behind them, the investigative report- 1,550 interviews and made 800 reports Dallas seems unlikely. The dissenters ers are having a second look. As one of 4,600 pages. This tremendous mass themselves are too zealously commit- assassination researcher puts it: "We of material simply cannot be discarded ted to their conspiracy theories to have are one Seymour Hersh story away as so much whitewash. any appearance of objectivity. from a new investigation." In order to believe the conspiracy Yes, the critics have raised some America is different now than it was theory, one must believe that all these troublesome doubts, but great crimes in 1963. Castro is a curiosity. The were parties to a gigantic cover-up: inevitably produce great doubts. doubts don't need to be laid to rest. The Commission members, the Com- Whole schools of scholars still sift the The "dirty rumors" have become all mission staff, the slain President's assassination of Lincoln. You can hear too true. What hasn't changed is the brother Robert, the President's succes- arguments on the role of Brutus in the loss. We need to know why. ta sor in office, the FBI, the Secret assassination of Caesar. I wouldn't gag DID SOMEONE ALTER Service, the CIA, and the Dallas the dissenters for the world — we THE MEDICAL EVIDENCE? police. That is for starters. One must ought always to pursue truth — but for (continued from page 27) discount the sworn testimony of the moment, I wouldn't buy the hyped- hand, there is no record that any ballistics experts, the evidence of up conjectures they're trying to sell. member ever did so. The Commission Oswald's fingerprints, and the testi- IJ mony of eyewitnesses. elected to rely instead on the autopsy FINISHING THE COMMISSION'S report and the testimony of the The dissenters ask too much. The UNFINISHED BUSINESS disillusioning experience of Watergate autopsy physicians. (continued from page 33) That could be the most serious error may have taught us that criminal tions as to who pointed Oswald out to committed by this august group. conspiracies can be formed in high the police, who drew a gun, whether Commission member John J. McCloy places, but the bugging of a Democrat- Oswald tried to shoot an officer, and may have acknowledged as much in ic chairman truly cannot be equated what was said by whom. The following 1967 when he told Walter Cronkite, "I with the slaying of a President. The witnesses present at the theatre might think that if there's one thing I would gauzy speculations that tie in Gordon have thrown light on those matters: do over again, I would insist on these Liddy, E. Howard Hunt, the Mafia Bob Apple, insurance investigator. photographs and the X-rays having and "Texas millionaires" have no more Detective Paul Bentley: He found a been produced for us." forged "Hidell" card on Oswald. Bob * s * Barrett, F141 agent. Jim Ewell, report- er. Detective E. E. Taylor: He stayed The error is not irreversible. The behind at the theatre after the arrest to questions can still be answered. And make a list of the names and addresses the conclusion that the President's of the patrons. The list is not among body was altered will itself submit to a the Commission's exhibits. simple test: Allow the Parkland Police officers Bagger:, Bunk, Cun- doctors to examine the autopsy mate- ningham, Lyon, Stringer, and Toney. rials and pictures in the National Archives and to comment publicly on Oswald's Interrogation their findings. Incredible as it seems, Although Dallas Police Captain no Parkland doctor has ever seen this If they've found another assassin, Fritz "kept no notes" or transcript of evidence. r4 let them name names and pro- the interrogation of Oswald. and the THE DISSENTERS duce their evidence. reports submitted by Fritz and federal ASK TOO MUCH Allen W. Dulles agents (primarily from memory) were (continued from page 29) July 1966 incomplete and in some vital respects unanswered. But it takes a very contradictory — e.g., Oswald's trip to accommodating gullet to swallow the 99 Mexico, where he was at the time of

Skeptic 61 the shooting, and his "Hidell" alias — service station attendant (see above). reopened. I still haven't read the the following persons present were not The Warren Report mistakenly asserts complete Warren Report, and if you asked to submit reports or to testify: that Taylor retracted his identification haven't read the Report, it is very Jim Allen, former Assistant District of Oswald. difficult to pass a judgment." Attorney: Secret Service agents Gram, R. W. Westphal and other Dallas San Francisco lawyer Melvin Belli Howard, Kunkel, Patterson, and policemen prepared reports immedi- defended Jack Ruby against charges Warner; FBI agent Joe Myers; U.S. ately after the assassination in which that he murdered Oswald. Does Belli Marshall Robert Nash; Chuck Web- Oswald's old Elsbeth Street address think the investigation should be ster. Professor of Law. was specified when the police had no reopened? "No, not to find out any known access to that address and information or to get a different The Autopsy although they claim they had no answer. But yes, in order to put to rest In view of the conflicting descrip- record of Oswald before November 22, everyone who seems to have some tions of the wound in the President's 1963. doubt about it. There is no doubt in my back by the FBI and the autopsy mind that everything has been told, surgeons, witnesses who saw the body Names Unknown but there are some things that are odd. could have given crucial information. About ten or more witnesses present However, I have been through too Admiral George Burkley, presiden- at the Texas Theatre when Oswald was many criminal and civil cases after 40 tial physician: He was in the motor- arrested, named on a list compiled by years of practice not to suspect that the cade, then at Parkland Hospital, and detective E. E. Taylor. proximate cause was like the sun, later at the autopsy, and he received Caterer at the Depository, who sold which is always visible." the autopsy report submitted by the lunches to employees and might have Former senator Ralph Yarborough, pathologists. sold lunch to Oswald on the day of the whose intrastate feud with fellow Francis X. O'Neill, Jr., FBI agent: assassination or on other occasions. Democrat John B. Connally was what He was present throughout the autop- "No. 279 (Unknown)" who, accord- brought President Kennedy to Texas, sy and his description of the wound in ing to the Dallas Police radio log, shared Lyndon Johnson's limousine in the President's back conflicts with the actually found the jacket discarded the presidential motorcade. He ob- official autopsy report. near the Tippit scene, although the served the shooting from a vantage James W. Sibert, FBI agent: Same Warren Report credits Captain West- point that made him an important as O'Neill above. brook with the discovery. witness. On the "Goodnight America" John T. Stringer, Jr., medical pho- Post office employees at the main television show, Yarborough com- tographer: He photographed the office, where Oswald maintained P.O. mented, "There should be another President's body. Box 2915, who were not questioned investigation — not reopen the same Fourteen other armed forces or about specific records or recollections Commission but another investiga- federal officials named in the FBI of the delivery of packages addressed tion. Some people say it would be report, andfour funeral-home workers to "A. Hidell" containing the rifle and terrible on the Kennedys, and it would. who prepared the body for burial. the revolver. But that family has already laid three Inmates, County Jail, who were per- of four gifted brothers on the altar of The Stretcher-Bullet mitted to watch the motorcade from a their country as human sacrifices and 1 Richard E. Johnsen, Secret Service window and may have observed think we owe it to our 213 million agent: He was handed the stretcher significant happenings at the sixth- people — to them and to the world bullet by 0. P. Wright. chief of per- floor or other Depository windows. to dig wherever the facts will lead us. I sonnel at Parkland Hospital, before Gunsmiths, Aberdeen Proving have no special theory of what hap- the presidential party departed. Grounds and Klein's Sporting Goods, pened, but I think we should go Wright was not called either. inc., concerning the opinion by the wherever the facts lead us and find out Aberdeen gunsmith that the scope on what they are and enter this with no A Possible Conspiracy the assassination rifle "was installed as predetermined conclusions as to how it FBI agent Warren De Brueys: if for a left-handed man" (Oswald was happened, who encouraged it, or Before the assassination he reported right-handed). IN what." on Oswald's activities in New Orleans; Clare Boothe Luce, author, play- SKEPTIC FORUM he was present at Oswald's interroga- wright, former ambassador and a (continued from page tion; and he investigated allegations 36) long-time participant in government suggesting that Oswald expected to have no judgment myself as to whether affairs, warned that there might be receive a large sum of money. such evidence has emerged, I thus have reasons that justify not going where Robert Adrian Taylor, former no judgment on whether it should be the facts lead us: "If the objective were

62 Skeptic to show that the CIA was in on it, that thor and editor of National Review, Those on the congressional commit- is the most awful rubbish. It would approaches the question from the tees would just inflate things as they wind up without having allayed the opposite end of the political spectrum normally do." suspicions of people who are deter- from Dellinger. Commented Burn- Former congressman Allard K. mined to be suspicious. There could ham, "The question really ought to be Lowenstein has been in the forefront have been no reason to conceal phrased, 'How should the investiga- of those pressing to reopen the anything about that assassination tion be reopened?' If there is any investigation of the Robert F. Ken- unless it was thought that foreign serious evidence — as against propa- nedy assassination. He advised, "What conspirators were involved — say gandistic and ideological rhetoric - is crucial is that when the investigation Mexicans or Cubans — knowledge of which calls for a reopening of the into John F. Kennedy's death is which might have started a war. That is investigation, then it seems to me that reopened, it focus on the questions the only possible explanation for it should be done in a careful way, a which are most central and most concealing anything. Ultimately, noth- non-headline way, through the proper answerable. The purpose of the War- ing but harm will come from digging sort of institutions we have set up for ren Commission was to lay to rest into it, since the truth has probably such things. As things stand now, the doubts about the assassination. If already been told." issue is being raised primarily on an anything is clear, it is that that purpose Dave Dellinger, one of the Chicago ideolgical basis. And it is being used to has not been achieved. Whatever is Seven and now an editor of Seven inflame public opinion in much the discovered by a new investigation, it Days, thinks the investigation should same way as a number of alleged facts would be better to have the investiga- be reopened "because the aim of the in connection with the CIA have been tion than to have the doubts continue Warren Report was to reassure the used, not with the real aim of finding to proliferate and intensify. One thing public, not to discover or tell the out what they are and correcting I've learned from the investigation of truth." How would Dellinger go about abuses, or improving our intelligence the assassination of Senator Kennedy reopening the investigation — and operations and strengthening the — and I want to emphasize the who should undertake it? "That's a real country, but just to raise ideological necessity of reopening that as well — is dilemma. I do not have confidence in hell. This has become a kind of that there are answerable questions any investigating committee appoint- habitual activity in a considerable that have not been adequately dealt ed by President Ford. After all, he was section of our media." Which estab- with. To continue to refuse to deal with part of the original cover-up, and he lished institutions are best equipped to them is to risk conclusions being has indicated that even in relation to deal with such an investigation? Says reached which may be incorrect and the CIA assassinations abroad, some Burnham, "My own feeling is that the may be much worse than the facts material should be withheld from the court system is perfectly adequate to justify. Such confusion will leave the public." How can an open investiga- handle this and much more suitable. whole matter of the future of the tion be assured?"1 haven't worked that country, of how political decisions are all out in my mind, but I think we need arrived at in this country, under a to experiment with putting the power cloud. There is too much at stake in the of government back in the hands of the future of electoral politics to allow people. Perhaps a special grand jury of these questions to corrode and add to ordinary citizens could bring in ex- the general mistrust that has been one perts to testify and perhaps even hire of the prices we've paid for Vietnam experts to question witnesses. By the and Watergate." How would Lowen- way, such an investigation shouldn't stein go about reopening the investiga- be limited to the big three — the two tion? "The best way would be to set up Kennedys and Martin Luther King. a select committee of the Congress. I Malcolm X's assassination should would want to be sure that the staffing definitely be included in the inquiry. of any investigative commission was in But there is a danger in such inquiries if the hands of people committed to people are caught up in something too Assassination is the extreme form finding out the truth, and independent far removed from their daily lives. The of censorship. of the kind of connections that have assassination business, though very drawn such suspicions in the past. To George Bernard Shaw necessary, should not deflect people The Rejected Statement. have David Belin, counsel to the from the real problems of everyday 1909 Rockefeller Commission, investigat- life." ing his own performance as counsel to James Burnham, philosopher, au- 99 the Warren Commission, does little to

Skeptic 63 allay suspicions." case more completely proven." He to the Commission who is now a judge Lawyer Mat k Lane, author of Rush added that "there wasn't a scintilla of in Ohio, has stated, "At some point to Judgment, was one of the earliest evidence that came along to the there should be an appropriate public critics of the Commission. He con- Warren Commission" that even hinted forum in which the general public can tends that "There is no way to reopen of conspiracy. In fact, McCloy said, he understand the Commission's over- the investigation of the assassination as well as other Commission members whelming evidence on this and com- of John F. Kennedy, since there never "went down to Dallas thinking there pare it to the claims of the Commis- has been an investigation. The Warren must have been a conspiracy. Here the sion's critics. I do not believe that the Commission saw as its obligation the President was shot and a couple of CIA promoted a conspiracy or that insurance of domestic tranquility days later the fellow that shot him was there is any new evidence that would rather than arriving at the facts killed. A strange sort of thing. But compel a conclusion that a conspiracy concerning the President's death. In when we got down there we couldn't existed to assassinate President Ken- order to have some understanding of find any connection, and I don't think nedy. In my mind there is no doubt the past decade, I think it is essential to anybody else could. And the direct that Lee Harvey Oswald was the only discover who killed John Kennedy, evidence was so overpowering that I assassin." why he was killed, and if the institu- didn't have any doubts about it when 1 Former senator Sam Ervin, an tions or individuals who played a part got through." experienced hand at investigating in that assassination are still making President Gerald R. Ford was a conspiracies, observed, "I do not policy for the people of this country." Republican congressman from Michi- myself have all that many questions How would Lane recommend an gan when he served on the Commis- about the original investigation, but investigation be conducted? "I think sion. He hasn't changed his mind there are quite a few people who do. So it's clear that no one who knows about the Commission's conclusions, my feelings are that I would favor anything about the last decade trusts according to the statement released by reopening the investigation by a another executive commission. The his press secretary: "The President congressional committee, at least to Rockefeller Commission is but anoth- feels, on looking back at the findings of satisfy those people who keep raising er example, another executive com- the Warren Commission, he has seen the questions about the original re- mission with some of the same person- no evidence that would cause him to port." nel and all of the same tactics - believe the findings were incorrect." George Wallace, crippled by a near- ignoring vital witnesses, taking testi- Burt W. Griffin, an assistant counsel fatal assassination attempt, believes mony from nonvital witnesses, putting (according to a source close to him) it behind closed doors, marking it top "that if the evidence warrants it, he secret, giving us conclusions rather would certainly favor reopening the than facts, and ending up with the investigation. The same goes for any of same conclusions as the Warren the other assassinations." Commission. The only way to find out Senator Edward M. Kennedy who killed John Kennedy and why it stated, through his press secretary, was done is to encourage the Congress that "He and his family are satisfied to set up a committee with subpoena with the Warren Commission Report, power and with members who are and they have therefore not urged concerned about learning something Although Mrs. Jacqueline Ken- that the investigation be reopened." about this portion of American histo- nedy made the final selection ry. Give the American people open from several designs submitted to * * * public hearings with relevant ques- her, the John F. Kennedy memo- tions asked of relevant witnesses and, rial stamp touched off a con- Should the investigation be reop- troversy of its own. The macabre in my judgment, in a few weeks we'll ened? Once, not so very long ago, this inappropriateness of cropping learn more about this country than was a fringe question, debated in small the top of the President's head we've learned in the last 200 years." may have slipped past Mrs. auditoriums by passionate assassina- Do members of the Warren Com- Kennedy and the designers (the tion buffs. There may be no definitive mission — and the Warren Commis- New York firm of Raymond answer yet, but from SKEPTIC's sion staff — believe that they've Loewy; William Snaith, Inc.}, survey emerges the clear impression - answered the questions? John J. but the public noticed it. The no, conviction — that the matter has MeCloy, Commission member and stamp was issued on May 29, moved from small auditoriums into former U.S. high commissioner in 1464, the 47th anniversary of the large arena of public policy. Which postwar Germany, commented in a J F K's birthday. is probably where a debate on an issue recent CBS interview, "1 never saw a of this consequence belongs. hi

64 Skeptic letters

The editor cordially invites readers to directly, but also what I condone by Kissinger to practice his particular comment on the issues and arguments failing to oppose the actions of groups brand of deceit, and finally, (6) allow raised in SKEPTIC. Write to the to which I belong. Just as I would not the growth of the non-human type of Editor, SKEPTIC, 812 Anacapa St., appreciate a gift from an individual man who practices demagoguery. Santa Barbara, CA 93101. which had been obtained through distortion, trickery, theft or force, Id° Leif Hanser not appreciate anything obtained for Paradise, California my country by such means. The spirit of our bicentennial year is Guilt by Association clouded for me by seeing how far we have pulled away from the principles Lock, Stock and Blue- Arthur Schlesinger contends [in of our early leaders. We no longer have SKEPTIC No. 8] that those in this the faith of Abraham Lincoln that Ribbon Committee country who see policies as good and right makes might. My pride in our evil rather than wise and foolish are in having gained independence from our 1 am merely a citizen, and therefore the majority today (which I regretfully colonial ruler is dampened because we not a stranger to having truths kept doubt) and yet he would have the would not recognize the desire of the from me. It is my belief that 1 and the majority's consciences violated by the Vietnamese people to free themselves rest of the American people are being officials elected to represent them. No from foreign domination. My personal "had" again. wonder so many citizens are cynical philosophy is that doing wrong will in The release of the Rockefeller and disillusioned about our govern- the long run — possibly quite late and report, with hazy conclusions and ment. indirectly — react against the well- omissions even more damaging than Like many others, Mr. Schlesinger being of the wrongdoer, be it individu- charges of domestic spying, is an confuses the issue by failing to distin- al or nation. Therefore I cannot believe instant replay of twelve years ago. If guish the difference between moral that any immoral foreign policy can these issues, such as assassination and religious decisions. "Moralism in truly be in our "national interests." attempts, deranged case officers run- foreign policy concludes in fanati- ning around handing out contracts to cism," he says, citing the Crusades and Frances A. Graves the Mafia etc., are not forced, any extermination of the infidel. Those Kirkland, Washington pertinent evidence could end up blots on history were caused not by destroyed in someone's fireplace or moralism but by religious bigotry. The locked up in the National Archives for wholesale slaughter of people for A Lack of 75 years in the name of "national merely holding different religious security." views has never been morally right. Understanding It has been implied that delving into All of us who opposed the war in reports of "executive action" could Vietnam on moral grounds are insult- It was with a great deal of dismay embarrass "previous administrations, ed when he says that at the beginning that 1 read your Special Issue No. 8. even back as far as fifteen years ago." that war was fought primarily for The whole idea of one country being This is uncomfortably close to the moral reasons. While many ordinary better than another country is a form Kennedy administration, but I consid- citizens believed we fought in Vietnam of bigotry that for the past couple of er this too big a tree not to be chopped for moral reasons, that was only thousand years has been able to down along with the rest. because they believed distortions and accomplish the following: (1) insure I might have been able to maintain lies by the officials they trusted. that wars will always be fought, (2) my neutrality had such a dirty tactic A nation is not an entity apart from segregate people from all ideas and not come from the White House itself. its people — it is the people. I see no ideologies that may broaden their This man, who once sat on a commis- logic in a number of people (from a outlook, (3) reinforce the idea that sion supposedly to find out who killed small group like a lynch mob to a one's own nation is "superior" to any a beloved President, has blown it, lock, nation of millions) absolving them- other nation, (4) allow trillions of stock and blue-ribbon committee. selves from guilt merely because they dollars to be used for "defense" of each acted together. My personal con- nation in order to prove its superiority, Shelley M. Angleton science involves not only what I do (5) allow a man such as Henry Rome, New York

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