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Home , Nellie Connally, The Death of a President

The Assassination

• COVER STORIES Was Connally the Real Target? Yes, says a forthcoming book, because Oswald blamed the Texan for stripping him of the only thing he ever really valued

BY JAMES RESTON JR.

On the 25th anniversary of the Navy. The former was a case of assassination of President John treason, however: FORT WORTH F . fascination remains DEFECTOR CONFIRMS RED intense with the many loose ends BELIEFS. of the mystery. New theories about Oswald had dropped out of the crime are regularly proposed, high school after his freshman and old ones gain new adherents. year to join the Marine Corps. Was just one person responsible His three-year hitch in the corps for the murder? Or was a wider included electronics and radar conspiracy involved? And if so, training and concluded with a who was behind it, and what was tour in Atsugi, Japan, at a base the motive? What follows is an ex- from which U-2 aircraft took off cerpt from a forthcoming book for Russia. The Fort Worth about John B. Connally suggest- Star-Telegram reported in 1959 ing that was that the turncoat had read Das not gunning for J.F.K. but for the MARINA OSWALD'S PHOTO OF HER "HuNrEs. FOR FASCISTS" Kapital as he defended freedom Governor of . in Japan, had saved all his mon- ey—S1,600—to travel to the So- THE ASSASSIN viet Union, and had thought of nothing besides defection. Through his campaign in the fall of 1962, with his victory and his Once on Soviet soil, Oswald told his Intourist agent, a stolid accession to the governorship in January 1963, and with his first woman named Rimma, that he wished to apply for Soviet citi- bold speeches as the chief executive of Texas, zenship. Rimma helped him with his letter to the Supreme Sovi- epitomized the big man of Texas. He was a taunting, polarizing et. A few days later on Oct. 21, 1959, Oswald wrote in his diary: figure, engendering strong feelings of love and hate, of intense "Meeting with single official. Balding, stout, black suit, fairly loyalty and passionate contempt. good English, asks what do I want. I say Sovite citizenship. He Not long after Connally returned to Texas for his political tells me `USSR only great in literature and wants me to go back race, another Texan, who was his very antithesis, also returned. home.' I am stunned. By contrast, Lee Harvey Oswald was a small, wiry, homely lon- "Eve. 6:00. Recive word from police official. I must leave er, 22 years of age. Like Connally, he considered Fort Worth to country tonight at 8 P.M. as visa expirs. I am shocked! I have be his home, and he had left his hometown with a splash. In No- 5100 left. I have waited for 2 year to be accepted. My fondes vember 1959 the departure was big news, every bit as big as dreams are shattered because of a petty offial. would be the news a year later that President Kennedy had ap- "7:00 P.M. I decide to end it. Soak wrist in cold water to pointed Fort Worth oilman John Connally as Secretary of the numb the pain. Then slash my left wrist. Than plaung wrist into

01988 by James Reston Jr. From a forthcoming book, THE GREAT EXPECTATIONS OF JOHN CONNALLY, to be published in the autumn of 1989 by Edward Burlingame Books/Harper & Row , 0 TIME, NOVEMBER 28, 1988 bath tub of hot water. I think when Rimma comes at S to find an apartment with a view overlooking the Svisloch River, and he me dead, it will be a great shock.' Somewhere a violin plays, as I raked in 1,400 rubles a month, twice the salary of workers on his watch my life whirl away. I think to myself. 'how easy to die' and level. Seven hundred rubles of this was a supplement from a mys- 'a sweet death' (to violins) terious branch of the Red Cross. "about 8:00. Rimma finds my unconscious (bathtub water a But with the approach of his first, undramatic Russian win- rich, red color) She screams. [Later] I tell her to go home (my ter, Oswald developed a melancholy and then a dread of the cold mood is bad) but she stays. She is my friend. She has a strong and the darkness. He began to resent the compulsory attendance will. Only at this moment, I notice she is preety." at the boring factory meetings. He was horrified at the poor qual- Upon his release from the hospital, Oswald again con fronted ity and the cost of necessities like clothes and shoes. The dreary the daunting face of Soviet bureaucracy. His passport did not routine of the worker's life began to undercut his operatic dream. seem to be enough for them, so Oswald presented them with his The turning point for Oswald was not political but emotion- most prized possession, a laminated card that displayed his hon- al. He had had a few "light affairs" with Russian girls. In early orable discharge from the Marine Corps. Lee Harvey Oswald January he fell in love with a comrade at the factory named Ella, defined himself through his Marine Corps service. The corps had but after a dalliance she spurned him. To his diary, he declared shaped him, It proved his importance. Later, it would provide that he was "miserable," and a few weeks later he wrote, "I am him with his animus toward John Connally. starting to reconsider my desire about staying. The work is drab. He slipped out of the hotel and took a cab to the The money I get has no where to be spent. No nightclubs or American embassy. There he presented himself petulantly to bowling allys. I have had enough." So much for the fervor of his a wry and experienced professional named Richard Snyder. commitment. It had foundered on the absence of a bowling alley. Oswald demanded the right to renounce his American citizen- At a "boring" trade-union dance in March he met Marina, a ship. Snyder asked him why he was doing it. "I am a Marx- stubborn, blond pharmacist with a French hairdo. Where Ella ist!" Oswald replied. "Well, then," said Snyder, "you're had snickered at the awkwardness of his marriage proposal. Ma- going to be very lonesome in the Soviet Union." rina did not make him "miserable." In April they were married, Oswald would not be de- and in his diary he declared, terred. Finally Snyder seized "In spite of fact I married Ma- the bureaucrat's final retreat: rina to hurt Ella, I found my- the embassy was technically self in love with Marina." closed that afternoon, and the In July 1961 the Oswalds applicant would have to come applied for an exit visa and back in a few days. Oswald hoped to return to America. stormed out. His "Red Cross" allotment of Oswald's attempt to re- 700 rubles a month stopped. nounce his citizenship had He had never told anyone of been meant to impress the So- his supplement, for he had viets, and it apparently known for some time that it worked. It remains one of his- came from the secret police. tory's ironies that had the CRUSHING BLOW American consul not been so sensitive about the perils of In January 1962 Oswald was precipitous, emotional renun- attempting to control his ex- ciation, Oswald would never citement over the imminence have been permitted to re-en- of' the birth of his first child ter the U.S. and the prospect of returning In his interview with Sny- to the U.S. Two weeks later, der, Oswald had made one the blow struck. He received a threat that could not be ig- JACKIE WAS THE JEWEL ON THE MORNING OF THE TRAGIC DAY letter from his mother Margue- „ •, • nored. He promised to turn rite: the Marine Corps. had over all the military secrets he changed his discharge from had learned in the Marines to the Soviets. As a radar operator honorable to dishonorable. In fact, the downgrading had actual- with a secret clearance, be had access to the radio frequencies of ly stopped one notch short of "dishonorable," at "undesirable," all squadrons, the relative strength of squadrons, the number and but anything less than an honorable military discharge is a curse type of aircraft in each, the authentication code for entering and in America, especially for a working man. The action had been exiting the Air Defense Identification Zone, and the range of prompted by Oswald's request for Soviet citizenship, the "dis- Marine radar and radio. As a result of this threat, never carried honor" that this had brought on the Marine Corps, and by Os- through, codes, aircraft call signs, radio and radar frequencies in wald's threat to turn over military secrets to the Soviets. the range of Oswald's knowledge were changed. Lee Harvey Oswald was crushed at the news. His military As Oswald moped around the Metropol Hotel, his sole link service gave meaning to his life, and it was the only thing that to America and to his past was his older brother Robert. Robert did. Despite two courts-martial (for possessing an illegal weapon Oswald had reached Lee by telegram in early November, calling and for fighting), despite proclaiming himself to be a Marxist the decision to defect a mistake. On Nov. 26 Lee replied angrily and gaining the barracks nickname of "Oswaldskovich," he had in a long letter. "In the event of war I would kill any American made it through. His reward was an honorable discharge. who put on a uniform in defense of the American Government— On Jan. 31, 1962, Oswald wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, any American. My mother and you are not objects of affection, a man whose name was, he thought, John Connally. He wished but only examples of workers in the U.S. In truth, I feel I am at to call the Secretary's attention to a case "about which you may least with my own people." have personal knowledge since you are a resident of Fort Worth Permitted to remain in the Soviet Union, Oswald receded as am I." The Fort Worth papers, he wrote, had blown his case into the proletariat. The KGB took no interest in him. He was into "another turncoat sensation" when, in fact, he had come to considered "not very bright," and the authorities were requested Russia to reside "for a short time, much in the same way E. to keep an occasional eye on this eccentric, lest he turn out to be Hemingway resided in Paris." some sort of "sleeper agent." As a checker of metal work in a ra- "I have and aliways had the full sanction of the U.S. Embas- dio factory in Minsk, he found the work easy. He was assigned sy, Moscow, USSR," he lied, and when he returned to the U.S., "I TIME. NOVEMBER 28, 1988 31 The Assassination

shall employ all means to right this gross mistake or injustice to a "Was President Kennedy ever mentioned?" counsel asked. boni-fied U.S. citizen and ex-serviceman.- He asked Connally to "Never, never," Alexandra replied. "It was the Governor of "repair the damage done to me and my family." Texas who was mentioned mostly. For some reason. Lee just Connally had resigned as Secretary of the Navy six weeks didn't like him. I don't know why, but he didn't like him." earlier. What the ex-serviceman got from the ex-Navy Secretary Did Connally come up in connection with something about a month later was a stale promise to pass the problem on to his Lee's discharge from the Marines? counsel prodded. successor. Oswald had been spurned by a fellow Texan, and he "Maybe it was the dishonorable discharge. All I know is that resented it. He embroidered it into a personal antipathy. Con- it was something he didn't talk about. And there was a reason nally came to take on enormous symbolic significance in Os- why he did not like Connally, but he never ever said a word wald's mind. Connally was the U.S. Government, and its unfair about Kennedy." action fortified his bitterness against the U.S., and a man named In October Oswald applied for a job in the photography de- Connally would become the repository of that bitterness. partment of a printing concern in called Jaggars-Chiles- Finally, in late May 1962, the Oswalds got out of' Russia. Stovall. The subject of his military career came up. "The Ma- They arrived in Fort Worth only a few weeks before Connally rines," Oswald said brashly. "Oh, yes—yes," the employer said. won the Democratic primary for the gubernatorial nomination. "Honorably discharged, of course?" "Oh, yes," Oswald replied They bad no money and a six-month-old baby. The husband with technical truthfulness. Oswald was once again seized with had no qualifications for employment. Worse than that. The rage. Was this going to come up every time? His anxiety that his Fort Worth paper had reported the return of the turncoat. lies might be found out was intense. The wife spoke no English, and her husband seemed deter- Oswald used the Jaggars facilities alter hours to forge a new mined to keep it that way. Their isolation and hopelessness Marine Corps discharge and draft a classification document in might have been worse but for the small Russian émigré commu- the name of Aleck James Hidell, the name under which he or- nity in the Dallas-Fort dered his first weapon, a Worth area, about 50 peo- Smith & Wesson pistol, by ple who had gravitated to mail, and his second, a

Texas mainly after World .011V1 high-powered Italian Mannlicher Carcano rifle.

War IL They were anti- ZVV1 Communist. In early April, six The community had a SIAIN months after arriving at titular leader, a kind and Jaggars, Oswald brought energetic gentleman in his his dismissal upon himself late 50s named George by flaunting a Soviet publi- Bouhe, who had fled Russia cation at work. He could in 1923. Bouhe took an in- say that he was fired for po- terest in the Oswalds and litical reasons rather than helped them get settled by for his own shortcomings, providing them with a little including inefficiency and cash here and there, $10 or quarreling with employees. $20. For his pains, he got TAKING AIM only insults from Oswald. Bouhe persisted, mainly be- Three days into his first cause Marina seemed to week of unemployment, him a "lost soul." To Bouhe, April 10, Oswald made an attempt on the life of for- 1 Oswald was a simpleton and a boor and, soon FROM BEHIND, THE TARGET COULD HAVE BEEN KENNEDY OR CONNALLY mer General Edwin Walk- enough, a wife abuser. er, an ultraconservative and Lying about his Marine a onetime candidate for record worked at first. A month after his arrival, Oswald got his Governor of Texas against John Connally. Oswald missed Walk- ii first job, at a Fort Worth welding company as a sheet-metal er's head by about an inch. In choosing Walker as a target, Os- worker, on his application, he cited sheet-metal work in the Ma- wald's murderous instinct was turning upon the figure of the rine Corps as a qualification. pure right. His frustration had now taken its full form of vio- But Oswald was terrified of being found out. Bouhe had ex- lence. Coiled spring that he was, it was a question of what event, perienced Oswald's fixation with his military discharge and had what figure, what farfetched fantasy might set him off. seen how his lying about it launched him into a state of high Only one person knew about the attempt on General Walker anxiety. After the assassination, knowing that Oswald was tor- and how dangerous Oswald had become: Marina Oswald. When mented by the bad discharge at the very time when Connally her husband confided his awful secret to her, she understood his was about to be promoted to the pinnacle of Texas government, capability to kill for political reasons and was horrified. She, Bouhe put the pieces together for the . "If above anyone else, appreciated his murderous instinct. anybody asked me, did Oswald have any hostility toward any- On Sunday, April 21, the headline in the Dallas Morning body in government, I would say Governor Connally." News read NIXON CALLS FOR DECISION TO FORCE REDS OUT OF The notion of Connally as the emotional spark for the assas- CUBA. It reported a lashing speech that former Vice President sination is strengthened by the testimony of others in the émigré had made in Washington excoriating Kennedy community. In early October 1962, Oswald quit his job because for being "defensive" of Fidel Castro. Oswald withdrew into an he hated welding. Marina and the baby took up residence in the adjacent room. When he re-emerged, he was dressed in a tie and home of Alexandra De Mohrenschildt, the daughter of another white shirt. His pistol was shoved into his best gray pants. Russian émigré in Dallas. a flamboyant loudmouth named "Where are you going?" Marina demanded, sensing danger. George De Mohrenschildt, who toyed with Oswald in uneven in- "Nixon is coming to town. I want to go have a look." tellectual games. A year and a half later, Alexandra De Moh- "I know what your 'looks' mean," she said. She pleaded with renschildt came before the Warren Commission to talk about him not to go and at last he agreed. Actually, Nixon was not in her acquaintance with Oswald_ town at all and Oswald knew it. He had said "Nixon" because it 32 TIME. NOVEMBER 28, 1988 was Nixon's picture that was on the front page of the paper. It the Governor of Texas. I feel that the reason that he had Connal- was John Connally who was coming. He was scheduled to open a ly in his mind was on account of his discharge from the Marines conference of space scientists in Dallas. and various letters they exchanged between the Marine Corps General Walker, Richard Nixon and John Connally melded and the Governor's office, but actually, I didn't think that he had into one amorphous, maddening profile for Oswald. The senti- any idea concerning President Kennedy." ments they expressed were the very ones that Oswald despised. In 1978. testifying before the House Assassinations Commit- They were interchangeable parts of the radical right. During this tee, Marina told of how Connally's brush-off letter in February time Marina Oswald had taken a picture of Oswald with his re- 1962, the origin of the grudge, had arrived at their Minsk apart- volver on his hip and his rifle held skyward in his right arm. ment in a big white envelope. On the front was the smiling face Turning her fear into mockery, her best tool to control him, Ma- of John Connally. advertising his candidacy for Governor of rina had scrawled across the picture "Hunter for fascists . Ha Texas. ... ha .. . ha." it was the laughter of terror and despair. On Sept. 24 or 25. while Oswald was seeking a job in New Marina Oswald was to say that her husband had never ut- Orleans, he departed for Mexico City. He was going to contact tered a harsh or angry word against Kennedy; if he had any neg- the Russians through the Cubans to let the Soviets know that his ative emotion, it was envy. In the year before the assassination, delicate balance between America and Russia had tipped back Oswald avidly read 's biography of Kenne- in their favor. He wanted to explore the possibility of returning dy. Portrait ea President, and Kennedy's own book, Profiles in to Russia. But in Mexico City the Cuban and Soviet embassies Courage. He had become fasci- crushed his romantic dream of a nated by the lives of great men, heroic return. Oswald's trip to for in his mind he was one him- Mexico was such a blow that it self. Once to Marina he predict- cancels any possibility that in ed that he would be "prime min- two months' time he would pick ister" of America in 20 years. He up his Mannlicher Carcano rifle told Marina that J.F.K. deserved with the motive to promote the to be President. Cuban or Soviet cause. After the assassination, Oswald's problems were George De Mohrenschildt, who more mundane than that. Since despised Oswald. was the best August he had ceased to search witness on the question of what for employment. It was just too moved—and did not move—Os- hard and too embarrassing. wald. De Mohrenschildt was That he had been arrested in overcome with guilt for his tri- New Orleans for distributing fling with Oswald, and in 1977 pamphlets for the Fair Play for he committed suicide after pro- Cuba Committee made him claiming that he was a moral even less likely to be employed. conspirator in the assassination Still, the one constant thorn with of Kennedy. which he was preoccupied was In 1978 the House Select the outrage of his downgraded Committee on Assassinations discharge. If only that could be discovered a manuscript De corrected as it should be, things Mohrenschildt had been writing might be different. to work out his metaphysical re- The Warren Commission sponsibility before he took his was to receive persuasive testi- life. "Lee actually admired Pres- mony that on his way to Mex- ident Kennedy in his own re- ico City, Oswald stopped for an served way," the memoir said. afternoon in Austin. He went to "One day we discussed Kenne- see Governor Connally. This dy's efforts to bring peace to the time Oswald got the brush-off world and to end the cold war. orally. He was told that the Gov- 'Great! Great!' exclaimed Lee. ernor did not handle military 'If he succeeds, he'll be the matters. Oswald went off to the greatest President in the history MARINE CHWALDSROVICH, RIC3HT, IN THE rHILIPPINES ( 15(]5) bus station and on to Mexico of this country.' " As he spoke of City, clutching his military rec- these warm sentiments toward ords to show to the Cubans and Kennedy, he spoke equally of Oswald's torment over his mili- the Russians. He was unprepared, as always, for their tary-discharge downgrade. It explained Oswald's "hatred of indifference. John Connally." Marina Oswald, in the first of her three appearances before A CHAT WITH the Warren Commission, regretfully acknowledged that she ac- In Dallas on Oct. 4, a Dallas man named Carroll Jarnagin was cepted her husband as the President's murderer. Why had he celebrating his birthday. Jarnagin, a divorce and a 37-year-old done it? Her husband wanted to become a memorable figure of lawyer with moderately liberal political views who had twice run history. In her second appearance, in June 1964, she remem- unsuccessfully for the state legislature, was with an "exotic danc- bered the "Nixon incident." Her third appearance took place in er" whose stage name was Robin Hood and who had appeared Dallas only three weeks before the Warren Commission Report en deshabille at such lively spots in Dallas as the Carousel Club. was released, and so its conclusions were already set in stone. Robin Hood proposed that they stop by the Carousel Club be- Then she said out of thin air, "1 feel in my own mind that Lee did cause she wanted to talk to the owner, a beefy man named Jack not have President Kennedy as a prime target when he assassi- Rubenstein, also known as Jack Ruby. about returning to his nated him." stage. They arrived at the Carousel around 10 p.m. Jamagin was "Well, who was it?" she was asked. mellow but by no means insensate, and the couple took a table "I think it was Connally," she replied. "That's my personal not far from the ticket booth at the head of the stairs. opinion—that he perhaps was shooting at Governor Connally, Not long after they were settled, Jarnagin noticed a diminu- 36 TIME, NOVEMBER 28,1988 The Assassination

tive, wiry man in his 20s at the ticket booth who was demanding erybody, if we can open up this state." to see Ruby. The bouncer appeared and directed the arrival to "How do you know that the Governor won't work with the owner. Ruby and his visitor took the table next to them and, you?" as Jarnagin later carefully reconstructed from memory and sub- "It's no use. He's been in Washington too long. They're too sequently was to tell the FBI, the following conversation ensued. straight up there. After they've been there awhile they get to "What are you doing here?" Ruby asked. thinking like the Attorney General. The Attorney General. Now "Don't call me by my name," the visitor said testily. there's a guy the boys would like to get, but it's no use. He stays in "What name are you using?" Washington too much." "H.L. Lee." "A rifle shoots as far in Washington as it does here, doesn't "What do you want?" it?" Lee said. "I need some money. I just got in from New Orleans. I need a "Forget it. That would bring the heat on everywhere, and the place to stay, and a job." reds would get into everything." "I noticed you hadn't been around in two or three weeks," "Killing the Governor of Texas will put the heat on too, Ruby said. "You have a family, don't you? Can't you stay with won't it?" them? "Not really, they'll think some crackpot or Communist did "They're in Irving, and they don't know I'm back. I want to it, and it will be written off as an unsolved crime." get a place to myself." There was a distraction, and Jarnagin missed some inter- "You'll get the money after the job is done," said Ruby. changes. Then he heard Lee say, "There's really only one build- "What about half now, and half after the job is done?" Lee ing to do it . from, the one that covers Main, Elm and said. Commerce." "No. But don't worry. I'll have the money for you after the "Which one is that?" Ruby asked. job is done." "The schoolbook building, "How much?" close to the triple underpass." "We've already agreed on The following day, Oct. 5, that," Ruby said, and then CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE Jarnagin called the Texas De- leaned forward to whisper ARMED FORCES OF T HE UNITED STATES partment of Public Safety and something that Jarnagin did related the conversation. He not bear. requested that the Governor "How do I know that you be informed, and he felt his can do the job?" Ruby asked. • report to the authorities had "It's simple. I'm a Marine ended his civic duty. sharpshooter." TI.*IS , 5 10 cE.RtIP`e 10A7 After the assassination, Are you sure that you LEE HARM OSWALD 1653230 Jarnagin recognized Oswald can do the job without hitting • in the newspaper as the HONOR". Ell Y HVED ON AC TIVE 0111 V IN 'T HE anybody but the Governor?" • "Lee" at Ruby's table. He "I'm sure. I've got the • sat down, carefully recon- equipment ready." United gStates Marine Corps structed the conversation "Have you tested it? Will and mailed it special deliv- you need to practice any?" DO FORM 217 MC I JAN SI ery to J. Edgar Hoover at "Don't worry about that. I THE LAMINATED CARD THAT MEANT EVERYTHING TO THE KILLER the FBI. Thereafter, be was don't need any practice. When interviewed by more than 18 will the Governor be here?" investigators. He never al- "Oh, he'll be here plenty of times during campaigns." Ruby tered his story, nor had he recanted it 25 years later. replied. THE THREE FURIES •.. "Where can I do the job?" Lee asked. "From the roof of some building" The origin of President John E Kennedy's trip to Texas in No- "No, that's too risky. Too many people around." vember 1963 is a subject that has passed through the prism of "But they'll be watching the parade. They won't notice you." shame and collective guilt and emerged as a blur of garish, unde- "Afterwards they would tear me to pieces before I could get fined color. With its terrible results, it appears that nobody want- away." ed it. J.F.K. was irritated to have to make the trip. John Connally And then Oswald said, "How about giving me half of the had stalled it and argued against it, and when he could no longer money just before the job is done, and then you can send me the resist it, tried to drop Dallas from the itinerary. It was laid on other half later?" without Lyndon Johnson's counsel, and when the Vice President "I can't turn the money loose until the job is done. If heard about the final arrangements he resented them. there's a slipup and you don't get him, they'll pick the money Even. the purpose of the trip remains in dispute. Was Kenne- up immediately. I couldn't tell them I gave half of it to you in dy going to raise money for his 1964 campaign? Was he going to advance. They'd think I double-crossed them I would have to heal a rift between the factions of the Texas Democratic Party return all of the money. You'll just have to trust me. Remem- represented by liberal Senator Ralph Yarborough and Connal- ber, they want the job done just as bad as you want the ly? Did Lyndon Johnson need the presidential trip to ensure that money." he would remain on the ticket the next year? The survivors of "Not that it makes any difference, but what have you got Elm Street agree on one thing: no one was to blame. And no one against the Governor?" Lee asked. is to blame, for no one wanted . "He won't work with us on paroles. With a few of the right San Antonio, and Austin looked fine to White boys out, we could really open up this state, with a little coopera- House advanceman Jerry Bruno, but with Dallas and Fort tion from the Governor. The boys in Chicago have no place to Worth there were problems. Three decisions had to be made, operate. They've clamped the lid down in Chicago. Cuba is and had they been made differently they would have changed closed. Everything is dead. Look at this place—half empty. If we the course of history. They are the Three Furies of Dallas. can open up this state, we could pack this place every night. Re- The first had to do with an honorary degree being conferred member, we're right next to Mexico. There'd be money for ev- on Kennedy at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Ken

TIME, NOVEMBER 28,1988 37 The Assassination

nedy was pleased, since a degree from a Protestant university House announced that the Trade Mart had been approved. I met would further bury the fears over a Catholic President. After the with fiCennethl O'Donnell and [Bill] Moyers who said that Con- midmorning degree ceremony, the President would motor 30 nally was unbearable and on the verge of canceling the trip. miles to Dallas for his speech to Dallas businessmen. It was un- They decided they had to let the Governor have his way." Con- likely that there would be time for a motorcade through down- nally had "won." town Dallas, or if there was, it would follow a different route to the luncheon site from the one eventually chosen. PREMONITIONS Bruno got a call from Connally. He was sorry, but T.C.U. had On the surface, the stop in San Antonio was routine in its decided against conferring the degree. The faculty senate and warmth, its dignity, its tumultuousness. With her fragile beauty the student senate would have to approve the degree, and there and her poignancy, Jackie Kennedy was the instant star. She was not enough time. What was the real reason? "Well, he's a glided ethereally alongside her husband through the receiving Catholic, you know," Connally told Bruno. line. From a distance, Texas Congressman Henry Gonzalez There was no reason to go to Fort Worth now. But Connally watched as Kennedy strode to the fence to work the crowd. To ••*\'4'i'v called back and announced that the Fort Worth Chamber of his companion he said, in the first of the premonitions, how easy Commerce would like to give the President a breakfast. There it would be—how easy. were now two hours in the morning with nothing to do. It was The jewel of Jackie Kennedy was the object of everyone's decided that Kennedy would fly from Fort Worth to Dallas. All fascination as the morning of Nov. 22 broke. She alone was mak- the motion to and from airports would consume time. From the ing a success out of apparent failure. Without her, the bickerings Dallas airport to the luncheon, the motorcade route was re- of the politicians would have been even more glaring and dis- drawn—and lengthened— tasteful. On the eighth floor through . of the Texas hotel in Fort The second Fury Worth, the President had an watched over the motorcade early meeting with Lawrence itself. Connally opposed it O'Brien. Kennedy sat by the vigorously. If he did not want window, his feet propped up to advance the cause of Ken- on the radiator, as he looked nedy liberalism in Texas, nei- out upon the parking lot ther did he want the Presi- where he would soon speak. dent to flop. Kennedy should "Just look at that plat- be rested. A motorcade, Con- form," he said, gazing down nally knew, was hard work. at the naked structure in the The Governor also feared an middle of the parking lot. embarrassment in Dallas. "With all these buildings The motorcade was an around it, the Secret Service invitation. couldn't stop someone who The liberals and the really wanted to get you." White House felt that if the In Dallas the assassin left President was speaking at for work at about the time his Connally's exclusive busi- victim was considering a ri- nessmen's lunch, his expo- fleman's angle from his hotel sure to Yarborough's people room to the parking lot in must be in the streets. Fort Worth. Oswald wrapped Moreover, Kennedy attrib- his weapon in brown paper. uted part of his success and when his fellow worker against Richard Nixon in MI: ACT THAT INTENSIFIED THE MYSTERY picked him up and Oswald 1960 to his mingling with put the hideous package in the people by means of a the hack seat, he mumbled motorcade. On this point, the liberals "won." something about curtain rods. Oswald had undoubtedly seen The last Fury presided over the site for Kennedy's luncheon Wednesday's paper with the parade route and the news that the speech in Dallas. Connally wanted the Trade Mart, a commer- President and the Governor would be riding in the second car. cial complex just off Stemmons Freeway, where the hall was The Kennedys arrived back in their hotel suite after break- about the right size for the audience. The alternative was the fast for what might have been their last few minutes of privacy. Women's Building at the State Fairgrounds. The Secret Service Kenneth O'Donnell came in. He had been shown an ad in the and the White House preferred it. The Women's Building had a Dallas Morning News with a funereal black border, a sarcastic hail large enough to accommodate a feast for more than 4,000, heading of welcome to the President, sponsorship by H.L. Hunt and this was more in the Kennedy and Yarborough populist and Dallas John Birchers, and imprecations that Kennedy was style. secretly in league with American Communists. The President The Secret Service liked the Women's Building for other rea- handed it to his wife. "Can you imagine a newspaper doing sons. The route of the motorcade would be more direct, continu- that?" he said in disbelief. "We're headed into nut country now." ing straight down Main Street, picking up speed as it entered He was overcome again with dread and premonition. "Last Dealey Plaza and zipping through the small park at 40 to 50 night would have been a hell of a time to assassinate a Presi- m.p.h., one full block away from a building known as the Texas dent," he said, gazing out the window. "If anyone wants to shoot School Book Depository. if the Trade Mart was the spot, the mo- a President, it's not a very difficult job. All one has to do is get on torcade would have to slow nearly to a stop to make a right turn a high building and a telescopic rifle, and there is nothing any- onto Houston Street, and then a left turn at the next street, Elm, body can do." at the corner dominated by the Book Depository building. It was At about the time of this interchange, Oswald took a break the deceleration to a crawling speed that concerned the Secret from filling orders at the Book Depository in Dallas, where he Service. had been employed since Oct. 15. He too was gazing out a win- On Nov. 15, Bruno made this entry in his diary: "The White dow at the crowd beginning to mill about in Dealey Plaza. Os- 40 TIME, NOVEMBER 28,1988 The Assassination wald asked a fellow worker with forced naiveté what all the com- any more. We must have been a horrible sight flying down that motion was about, and his comrade told him. Which way were freeway with those dying men in our arms and going no telling the President and the Governor coming? Oswald asked. Along where. John said nothing. Once, I saw one little moment when (I Houston Street to Elm. "Oh, I see," he said. thought) maybe he was still alive, and I kept whispering to him, As the motorcade entered downtown, the crowds grew to be 'Be still. It's going to be all right.' But she did not believe it. She throngs, and when it turned onto Main Street, pointing down the thought he was dead. canyon of sparkling glass and steel and granite, the throngs be- At Parkland Memorial Hospital. Connally's pallor was ash- came a multitude. Connally had never seen anything like it, a en, due to loss of blood and to his difficulty in breathing, but his quarter-million people packed into a space of a few city blocks. On pulse was steady and his blood volume was adequate. His the edge ofDealey Plaza, the car slowed nearly to a stop to make its wounds were terrible. On his right shoulder, in his back there right turn. By the courthouse, turned to the Presi- was a regular, 3-cm perforation. At an angle of 30' downward, dent in a tone resonating with her excitement. "Well, Mr. Presi- below the right nipple, there was a ragged 5-cm wound—"a hole dent, you can't say that Dallas doesn't love you!" she said. in his chest you could pack a baseball into," said the surgeon who "No, you certainly can't," Kennedy replied, with a smile. treated him, James ("Red") Duke. This was a "sucking wound," which Dr. Duke closed with his hand, and it, along with the pos- "OH, No, No, No!" sibility that the bullet had passed through the heart and the great In the shadow of the Book Depository, at the cross hairs of Elm and vessels, represented the danger to Connally's life. Houston, the car made its slow left turn and started down the slope Here, he enjoyed his first piece of luck. When Nellie had into the abyss. As they edged past a tree, approaching the freeway pulled him into her lap and held him, his arm had fallen across his sign, Connally's mind thrust chest and bad pressed against ahead to the luncheon, only the wound. partially holding five minutes and an eternity in his air and permitting him away. to suck air in. The ride to the At the crack of the rifle, hospital had taken eight min- he knew instantly what it was. utes. If it had taken eight His head turned sharply to more, he would have been the right, but he could not dead. swivel his body that way be- At. 1:35 p.m., almost ex- cause of the car's bulkhead, so actly an hour alter the monu- he swung back swiftly the mental insult to his body, other way, and then he felt the Connally went into surgery. hammer strike his back. As He had, of course, no com- his swivel continued, he saw prehension of what was tran- that his lap was spattered spiring on the floor below: a with his gore. He was hit- priest performing the last badly—fatally, he supposed. rites, a coroner standing His head tilted skyward. "Oh, upon the rules and threaten- no! no! nor' he screamed, as ing to block the removal of be crushed a bouquet of roses. the President's body, nurses "My God! They're going to insisting on the signing of kill us all!" endless forms. an oak casket Two, three men were out too heavy to be lifted by ordi- there, shooting with an auto- nary men, and a blood-caked matic weapon, he thought. widow, frightened as a rabbit. Nellie's glance riveted on him Efts closest friend, Lyndon as she heard him scream. She Johnson, was seized with ter- reached out in horror, pulling ror, thinking the Assam; nation him down into her lap. The was the precursor to a Soviet President was hit too, she nuclear attack. For the drive sensed, but he uttered no AT Axons WS Ant FORCE BASE, THE TRIP NO ONE WANTED ENDS from the hospital to Love sound, and be still sat strange- Field, Johnson comsnan- ly upright, a more distinct tar- decred a police cruiser. He lay get now. He had upon his face, as his widow would later say, a down on the floorboards in the back and ordered an officer to lie "quizzical look," as if he suffered from a "slight headache." on top of him. Another shot landed as if in a water-filled balloon, spraying Twenty minutes into Connally's operation, the doctor told them with the fine mist of the President's intelligence Connally his aide, Bill Stinson, that the bullet had missed the great vessels knew what this was. Upon his trouser leg he saw a piece of blue and the Governor would live. Stinson left and found Nellie, dis- brain, the size of his thumb. consolate and weeping, in the hallway. Nellie held her husband. Sbe now was the only remaining "He'll make it," he said, and she collapsed on his shoulder. stationary target. The car jerked as the driver instinctively hit "Thank God." the brake, contradicting his training. "Get out of line," Connally On Sunday, Connally's first full day of consciousness, Os- heard the agent-in-charge shout. "Get us to a hospital quick!" He wald was shot and brought to Parkland. Ironically, Stinson did not hear Jacqueline cry out with her love for her husband or took charge of the emergency room as Oswald was brought hear her scramble over the backseat. He heard only Nellie's in, and secured it with state patrolmen. Stinson watched as comfort. "Be still now," she was saying. "Don't worry, you're go- they worked to keep the wretched killer alive. Oswald had ing to be all right." She kept saying it over and over, beyond the only a small perforation in his belly, but the eyes in his mis- point under the freeway where he lost consciousness. shapen, sallow face never flickered open. Stinson watched, "The only thing I could think to do was to pull him out of the hoping for a deathbed confession, but it never came. line of fire," she was to say. "Maybe then they wouldn't hurt him What had been let loose in America? No one was sure. ■ TIME, NOVEMBER 20,19SS 41

The Assassination

Did the Mob Kill J.F.K.? Other theories persist, but several new books say the President and his brother angered the underworld, prompting vengeance

BY ED MAGNUSON theory is that the Mafia arranged the Presi- turned as a homicidal tool of the KGB; that dent's murder and the silencing of Oswald when he tried to go back to the Soviet ome portentous voices out of the by Dallas strip-joint owner Jack Ruby. This, Union via Cuba in September 1963, Fidel underworld a quarter-century ago: of course, clashes with the Warren Commis- Castro's embassy in Mexico City encour- S sion's conclusion that Oswald acted alone aged him to kill Kennedy. The reason: "Kennedy's not going to make it to the for his own twisted reasons and that Ruby Castro knew that the CIA bad plotted with (1964,1election—he's going to be hit," impetuously killed the assassin to spare Jac- Chicago mobster Sam Giancana and Hol- —Santo Trafilcante, the top Flor- queline Kennedy the ordeal of a Dallas trial lywood boss John Roselli to kill him. ida mobster, to an FBI informer in August of her husband's slayer. Support, of a sort, for the Castro-as- 1962. As the excerpts from James Reston mastermind theory recently came from You know what they say in Sicily: (f Jr.'s forthcoming book show, there are David W. Beim a top counsel for the you want to kill a dog, you don't cut off the new twists on the lone-assassin conclusion Warren Commission. In his new book, Fi- tail, you cut off the head." as well. His contention that Oswald may nal Disclosure, Belin says that "it is possi- —Carlos Marcello, Mafia boss in have intended to kill Texas Governor ble" Oswald was part of a Cuban conspir- New Orleans, to an acquaintance that John Connally rather than Kennedy was acy. It may have developed, Belin writes, same month, explaining why President rather perfunctorily dismissed by the when Oswald visited Mexico City, John Kennedy, not Attorney General Warren Commission. Although Marina But wait. For the Mafia-did-it advo- Robert Kennedy, would be killed. Oswald had testified to this belief, the cates, the plot is much thicker. In their "There is a price on the President's commission's lawyers found her generally view, the man who rode a bus to Mexico head. Somebody will kill Kennedy when he inconsistent and discounted much of what City before the assassination, talking to comes down South." she said. The commission relied on Texas travelers about his plans to meet Fidel —Bernard Tonle, a New Orleans prosecutor Henry Wade for evaluation of Castro and then raising a ruckus at the restaurant owner allegedly associated the alleged conversation between Oswald Cuban embassy, probably was not Os- with Marcello, within hearing of one of and Ruby, overheard at Ruby's Carousel wald. More likely, he was an impostor, his employees in April 1963. Club by Dallas lawyer Carroll Jarnagin. dispatched by Mafia schemers so that Wade found Jarnagin sincere in thinking when the real Oswald killed the Presi- Out of the mouths of such sinister char- he had heard Oswald offer to kill Connally dent, a Cuban-Soviet connection would be acters the assassination-conspiracy theo- so that gangsters could open up the state readily assumed. The existence of some- rists of the 1980s have fashioned the latest in for their rackets, but he told the commis- one posing as Oswald would, of course, be a long-running series of explanations of sion that the lawyer nonetheless had proof in itself of a conspiracy. what may forever remain unexplainable: failed a lie-detector test on the subject. The possibility of an Oswald double is why Lee Harvey Oswald killed John E Other theories persist: that Oswald, emphasized by the recent pin-it-on-the- Kennedy in Dallas on Nev. 22, 1963, exact- an avowed Marxist who had gone from Mob authors: John H. Davis (Mafia King- ly 25 years ago this week. In an anniversary service as a U.S. Marine to spend more fish: Carlos Marcella and the Assassina- spate of books and TV specials, the trendy than two years in the Soviet Union, re- tion of John F. Kennedy) and David E.

PLOT PLAYERS Mobster Sam Giancana was executed gangland style after helping the CIA try to kill Fidel Castro. New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello swore vengeance after Robert Kennedy had him dumped in Guatemala. Jimmy Hoffa, with Bobby at 1959 hearings, feuded with him for years; Hoffa was slain in 1975. Castro warned in 1963 that any at- tempt to kill him might be reciprocated. Scheim (Contract on America: The Mafia Mob. Bobby also undertook a personal New Orleans gangsters thus may have Murder of President John F. Kennedy). vendetta against Hoffa, who was convict- been aware that the much publicized for- Earlier, G, Robert Blakey and Richard ed of jury tampering and pension-fund mer Marine defector was in their midst. N. Billings suggested that underworld and fraud in separate trials in 1964. That summer, when Oswald passed anti-Castro schemers had joined to use Robert Kennedy's crusade against the out leaflets for his one-man chapter of the Oswald as a handy fall guy (The Plot to lesser-known Marcella, whose Mob terri- Fair Play for Cuba Committee, his litera- Kill the President). tory embraced Texas, was almost as in- ture listed 544 Camp Street as the chapter As evidence that someone was mak- tense. Born in Tunisia of Sicilian parents office. That building housed the offices of ing sure that the real Oswald would be who moved to the U.S. in 1910, Marcella Guy Banister, a private investigator and pinned to the crime of the century, Davis later used a phony Guatemalan birth reg- former FBI agent. Banister had been hired cites long-familiar sightings of "Oswald" istration to avoid deportation to Italy. by Marcella to help him fight court battles. in the Dallas area before the acses.sina- Fully aware that Marcello was not a Gua- Working for Banister was David Ferric, a tion: practice shooting at a rifle range, temalan, Kennedy in 1961 nevertheless former airline pilot who had publicly be- acting rude while buying ammunition, had Immigration agents hustle him rated Kennedy for the failure of the Bay of test-driving a car and claiming he would aboard a 78-seat jet as its lone passenger Pigs invasion of Cuba. In 1955 Ferrie head- soon have "a lot of money" to buy it (Ma- and deposit him in Guatemala City. Mar- ed a New Orleans squadron of the Civil Air rina insists that he did not drive). cello and his American lawyer were later Patrol. One of his cadets was Oswald. Some Scheim and Davis readily accept this Hawn to El Salvador, where soldiers witnesses thought they saw the two togeth- Oswald as an impostor. But both conve- dumped the two expensively dressed men er in Clinton, La., in September 1963. niently tend to consider other alleged in the mountains. Marcella claimed he On the two weekends before the Ken- sightings of Oswald as genuine: sitting in a fainted three times and broke several ribs nedy assassination, Ferrie huddled with New Orleans bar with an associate of before finding his way to a small airport. Marcello at a farmhouse on the mobster's mobster Marcello's and taking money un- Slipping secretly back into New Orleans. delta property. Ferrie later told the FBI that der the table; traveling with another Mar- he vowed revenge against the Kennedys. he was helping Marcello map strategy for a cello crony three months before the assas- perjury and conspiracy trial then under sination. In this selective reasoning, ut if the Mafia had a strong motive way. (Marcello was acquitted on the day of neither author seems to consider that to kill the President, where are the the assassination.) On the night of the as- some or all of the witnesses could be mis- Bconnections to Oswald, the execu- sassination Ferrie drove 350 miles through taken, their memories swayed by the TV tioner, and Ruby, the silencer? They are a rainstorm to Houston, arriving at about 4 images of the assassin's face. almost too numerous to count, if you ac- am, He later insisted that this was a hunt- Yet, as most of the books explain, the cept the claims of Scheim, a manager of ing trip, but he spent hours making calls Mob had ample reason to want Kennedy computerized information at the National from public phones at a skating rink. out of the way. As early as 1957, he sat an Institutes of Health. He seems to have To the conspiracy writers, all this the Senate Rackets Committee chaired by amassed every reference ever printed meant that Marcello had been using Fer- Arkansas' John McClellan; Robert Ken- about the J.F.K. assassination figures and ric to help plot the killing of Kennedy. nedy was its chief counsel. The Kennedys mobsters, then woven these threads to fit Ferrie's hasty trip, they imply, was to joined in the committee's stiff grilling of a Mafia-hit theory. make sure, from telephones beyond Mar- such gangsters as Los Angeles' Mickey Some of the connections are provoca- cello's haunts, that Ruby killed Oswald. Cohen, Louisiana's Marcello and Team- tive. Take Oswald. His father Robert died As for-Ruby, his gangster role is magni- sters president Jimmy Hoffa, whose of a heart attack in August 1939. Lee, born fied by the recent books that go beyond the underworld ties presumably led to his two months later, spent much of his first Warren Commission's portrayal of a strip- murder in 1975. three years with Lillian and Charles Mur- show proprietor and police buff. Some au- After Robert Kennedy became Attor- ret, his aunt and uncle, in New Orleans. In thors see him as a small-time hood in Chica- ney General in 1961, the Justice Depart- April 1963, while looking for a job in New go who worked his way up in what had been ment waged a war against organized Orleans, he stayed with the Murrets. Al Capone's outfit_ He was sent to Dallas in crime. Despite the foot dragging of FBI Charles Murret was a bookmaker in a 1947, they say, with other Chicago gangsters Director J. Edgar Hoover, who had long gambling operation run by Marcella, and to take over that city's rackets. Other reports claimed there was no Mafia, the Justice for a few months Oswald allegedly collect- had Ruby being exiled to Dallas by the Chi- Department indicted 116 members of the ed bets for his uncle. Marcell° and other cago Mob. Yet Marcella retained control of The Assassination

Dallas operations, working mainly through the two radio channels used during the he had been stalking Oswald, why was he local boss Joseph Civello. The new books motorcade. After tests in Dealey Plaza, the in a Western Union office wiring $25 to claim that Ruby was close to him and other scientist concluded that sounds on the belt one of his strippers. Karen Carlin. at Dallas gangsters active in prostitution, nar- came from an escorting motorcycle with 11:17 a.m. that Sunday? Not even the cotics and slot machines. its microphone stuck open, that four shots Dallas police knew when their interroga- Telephone records show that as the as- could be detected on the belt and that there tion of Oswald would end and when he sassination date approached, Ruby made was a fifty-fifty probability that one of would be transferred to custody of the numerous calls to relatively high Mob fig- them came from the knoll. Blakey called county sheriff. In fact, a U.S. postal in- ures in Chicago, New Orleans and Los in two other experts, who raised the esti- spector had unexpectedly dropped in on Angeles, as well as to two associates of mate to 95%. The committee then con- the questioning and joined the quizzing. Jimmy Haifa's. He later told the FBI that cluded that a conspiracy was "probable." That held up the transfer by at least half the calls were made to get union help in In 1982, however, the National Acad- an hour; without the delay, Ruby would stopping other Dallas clubs from using emy of Sciences examined the same re- have been too late. His televised shooting amateur strippers. Yet the gangsters he cording. Its experts detected cross talk of Oswald occurred at 11:21 a.m. called would not seem likely to trouble from the other police channel on the belt, The resourceful Warren Commission themselves with such petty problems. chatter that it identified as occurring one critics have a solution to that dilemma However, if Oswald were mere- too. They note credible reports ly a "patsy," as he claimed, it is diffi- that Ruby visited police headquar- cult to understand why, after leaving ters, where Oswald was being held, the Texas School Book Depository twice on the night of the assassina- tion, even attending a press confer- building and picking upa revolver at Did Ruby, auditioning a stripper, use one his rooming house, he gunned down ence at which Oswald was exposed officer J.D. Tippit, who was about to of them as an alibi in the Oswald slaying? to photographers. Ruby sat at the question him. Six witnesses identi- back of the room, allegedly carry- fied Oswald as Tippit's killer. Three ing his handgun. He was spotted in watched him discard empty car- a crowd outside the building about tridges. The cartridges matched the 3 p.m. on Saturday, when the gun he was carrying when police transfer originally had been sched- seized him in a theater. uled. On Sunday morning, three Nor, despite the decades of TV technicians reported seeing sarcasm by earlier critics, has the him near their van overlooking the basic evidence that Oswald killed transfer ramp well before 11 a.m. Kennedy been shaken. Fragments This pattern, these writers of the bullets that hit Kennedy say, fits a stalking of Oswald. But were matched with the rifle found why did Ruby go off to Western on the sixth floor of the Deposi- Union at a crucial moment? It tory. Oswald's fingerprints were on was a prearranged plan to make the rifle barrel. Fibers from the the killing look spontaneous, they clothes he wore when arrested reply. Someone signaled Ruby were caught on the rifle butt. That when Oswald's move began. morning he had brought a long, They imply that a cop did this; thin package to work from the they do not say how. house in Irving where he spent Warren Commission critics weekends with Marina. He ex- point out that its members had nev- plained to the co-worker who gave er been told about the on's schem- him a ride that it contained curtain ing with mobsters to assassinate rods for his Dallas apartment, even minute after the shooting. "The acoustic Castro, even though Castro had warned though his flat had a full set. analyses," the Academy experts reported, publicly on Sept. 7, 1963, that "U.S. leaders One other problem for a conspiracy: "do not demonstrate that there was a should think that if they are aiding terrorist Oswald got his job at the Depository on grassy-knoll shot." Moreover, three pan- plans to eliminate Cuban leaders, they Oct. 15; the Secret Service did not decide els of independent experts examined the themselves will not be safe." Alien Dulles, on the motorcade route past this building materials from Kennedy's autopsy. All a member of the commission who had been until Nov. 14. It was not in Dallas news- concluded that he had been hit only by the CIA director when the plots were papers until Nov. 19. shots fired from behind him. hatched, did not disclose this secret to the Most of the conspiracy writers con- One conspiracy writer, David Ulan, investigators. The CIA had told Robert tend that there was another gunman in offered a way out of these inconvenient Kennedy. but he too kept this information Dealey Plaza, firing from a grassy knoll in findings: in his 1981 book, Best Evidence, from the commission. Bobby's apparent front of the presidential motorcade. Nu- he contended that conspirators had al- acquiescence in the attempts to kill Castro merous witnesses, including some officers. tered the President's body to conceal evi- may have added twinges of guilt to his deep thought they heard shots from that direc- dence of an entry wound from the front. grief over his brother's death. tion. Still, as the House Assassinations Others note that Kennedy's brain has not Clearly, those plots were something Committee neared the completion of an been examined by anyone, except superfi- the commission had every right to know exhaustive two-year reinvestigation of the cially by the autopsy doctors. Robert about. If alerted to the CIA-Mafia entan- Kennedy murder in December 1978. it Kennedy did not turn it over to the Na- glement, it might have worked even hard- approved a tentative conclusion that tional Archives with other autopsy evi- er to close some of the investigatory gaps there had been no conspiracy. dence in 1966. He presumably did not through which, 25 years later, the conspir- But then Blakey, its chief counsel, want it preserved as a grisly artifact. acy advocates still rush with a welter of found an acoustics expert who examined a The timing of Ruby's assault on Os- accusations, speculation and, so far, a police Dictabelt recording made of one of wald also fails to fit any tidy conspiracy. If dearth of conclusive evidence. •

44 TIME, NOVEMBER 28, 1981