The Lingering Shadow...

This document is a reprinf from The Dallas Times Herald Sunday, June 25, 1967. It is a scholarly report, prepared by Bernard Gauzer and Sid Moody, Associated Press writers, on Warren Report critics and their claims. It is offered as a public service. Warren Report... Doubts Dispelled

The one slain has not died. Doubt will where the commission saw chance; doubt a death in the hearts of the nation. It was not let him. the commission saw fact. murder at the heart of the national struc- Doubt asks: "How did you fall? By Are these seekers ture. Assassination unsolved is assassination whose hand?" Doubt has heard an answer scavengers, as Texas at large, possibly free to strike again, cer- Gov. John B. Connall —"Lee Harvey Oswald did it"—from doc- y has called them? tainly free to poison and corrode by sus- Or are they tors, lawyers, government; from police, impassionedned skeptics, refusing picion, mistrust, fear. i friends, foe. to take it is most likely" for an answer? So it is not mere curiosity, not just to Are they creators of doubt? Or are they But doubt does not believe. Not quite. add a footnote to history, to ask who killed creatures of it? It is not always clear. Doubt knows the stature of the seven Kennedy. To preserve the absolutely vital But if the Warren. Report is now doubt- trust of the people in their leaders and somber men of the Warren Commission, ed by many, it is because of the books the breadth of their investigation, the institutions, the question must be answered. written by these few seekers. If their num- depth of their report. But doubt is not And stay answered. ber is small, Their impact is not. The very The quest may be long. It is still asked: appeased. Not quite. existence of a printed page has an aura Who killed Lincoln? John Wilkes Booth is Doubt has heard of the rifle, the shells, of authenticity above and beyond what it not the answer to all seekers. Nor is Lee the fingerprints, the handwriting, the states. As the critics' books are increas- Harvey Oswald. Lincoln, however, is for blunted bullets, the people who said they ingly read, they are increasingly believed. the archivist. The wound from Dallas is still saw. But doubt is not assured. Not quite. It is far easier to read one book from a red. It is tender to questions of who or Why is this so? single critic than a whole shelf of books why. It may ever be. Because doubt was denied the certain- by a commission. So doubt takes root. The Or, perhaps, the wound may have been ty of a trial. Because not all is known. Be- shelf lies fallow. salved all along. Perhaps the first investi- cause not all is answered and may never One could protest the whole argument gation need be the last. be. And because there have been other is macabre-ghoulish. John F. Kennedy is Or, perhaps, the pain of doubt may seekers than the commission. They have gone. Talk won't bring him home. But this throb the less if one were to ask the doubt- seen what the commission did not see: dif- was a president. The people he led have ers of their proof, ask of the askers: What ferent shots from different places; plots a right—nay, an obligation—to know what have you found, what news can you bring where the commission saw none; design struck him down, and why. It was not just us? The Warren Commission Report and Its Critics By BERNARD GAVZER and men blinded by the fear of Leo Sauvage, in "The Oswald EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN, in SID MOODY what they might see, the prec- Affair," has said: "It is logical- "Inquest," has said: "The con- Associated Press Writers edent of the Warren Commis- ly untenable, legally indefensi- clusions of the Warren Report sion Report will continue to im- ble and morally inadmissable must be viewed as expressions The critics of the Warren peril the life of the law and dis- to declare Lee Harvey Oswald of political truth." Commission Report have made honor those who wrote it little the assassin of President Ken- And the commission has stood grave charges. They have more than those who praise nedy." mute. made uncertainty. They have it." And the commission has stood It considered its first words; have made money. And the commission has stood mute. published in 27 volumes in the Have they made a case? mute. Have they proved that the most extensive murder investi- • gation in the nation's history, directed by some of its fore- mast citizens, was wrong, dead wrong? Was the commission guilty of haste, of bias, of a coverup and Lee Harvey Os- A. Public Service wald innocent of murder? Do Publication of the exhaustive documentary, The Lingering Shadow, is made events such as those recently in New Orleans indicate justice possible by the support of several Dallas institutions and individuals—some has not been cl9ne? desiring anonymity. It is presented on these pages as a public service. 14.116 suggest increasing num- bers of people think so. Book after carefully footnoted Dallas Clearing House Assn. Greatamerica Corp. book says so. The Warren Re- Dallas Times Herald Sanger-Harris port was once on the best- seller lists. Now Mark Lane's Frito-Lay Julius and Phil Schepps "Rush To Judgment" is. Which has spoken truth? The Industrial Properties Sears, Roebuck and Co. critics say they have. And the Ling-Temco-Vought Titche's commission has stood mute. Mark Lane has said: "As long as we rely for information upon The Warren Commission, 1-r: Rep. Gerald Ford, Rep. Hale Boggs, Sen. Richard Russell, Chief Justice Earl Warren, Sen. John Sher- man Cooper, John J. McCloy, Allen Dulles, J. Leo Rankin, chief counsel. fall of 1964, to be its last. It and bullets recovered from Tip- Delgado said something else. said no. The test indicated this has disbanded. pit's body. On the rifle range he said response was "true." Oswald "didn't give a darn. He Is such evidence relevant to The public, in the jury box, LANE SAYS NICOL "ap- may wonder at the commission's just qualified. He wasn't hardly why the commission felt Daniels peared less than certain" the going to exert himself." merited little credence? Lane work. But it must also ask after shells came from Oswald's gun. the critics'. Is it true where There is a footnote in the pas- And Walker himself testified evidently thought not. the commission's is not? Are sage referring to Volume III of that his assailant "could have One of Epstein's major points the critics innocent of the guilt the hearings, Page 511. Few been a very good shot and just concerns the report of the au- they charge the commission of: readers have the volumes, much by chance the bullet hit the topsy on Kennedy. It concluded distortion, sly selection of con- less the time, to check Lane's woodwork of a window. There he had been shot in the back of venient fact, editing of truth? thousands of citations. A pity. was enough deflection in it to the neck and the back of the miss me." head. An FBI report submitted On Page 511, Volume III Dec. 9, 1963 contradicted the 'Oversimplified' Nicol is asked by commission DON'T THESE PASSAGES doctors in several important Mark Lane wrote that the com- counsel Melvin Eisenberg if he have some bearing on Oswald's areas. Epstein makes much of mission "cited evidence out of was "certain in your own mind markmanship? Epstein evident- the difference. context, ignored and reshaped of the' identification" of the ly didn't think so. They don't Inquiry by the writers, how- evidence and which is worse shells. appear in his book. ever, has established that the oversimplified evidence." Lane devotes several pages to Nicol replied: "Yes; the FBI wrote its original report Did he? the testimony of a former Dallas marks on the firing pin partic- before getting that of the Lane and the other critics patrolman, Napoleon J. Daniels, ularly were very definitive. Ap- doctors, which reached the have produced little in the way who said he saw a man resem- parently this firing pin had been agency Dec. 23, 1963. The FBI of new evidence. What they bling Jack Ruby enter police subjected to some rather severe nonetheless stuck to its original have done is use what the com- headquarters lost before he shot abuse, and there were numerous version in a supplemental re- mission provides in its 26 Oswald. Lane takes issue with small and large striations which port Jan. 13, 1964. The agency volumes of testimony and exhib= the commission for deciding could be matched up very felt duty bound not to alter a its—but to different conclusions•. easily." Daniels' testimony "merits little The critics' case rests on the report by its agents—its custo- Yet Lane says Joseph D. Nicol credence." same bedrock as the commis- mary policy—even though other appeared "less than certain." In But nowhere does Lane men- sion's—the Warren Report. reports might contain other his book Epstein questions the tion that Daniels was given a facts. How have the critics used, or commission's conclusion that lie detector test. Daniels was abused, it? Oswald was a good shot. He asked if he had told the com- IT WAS THE commission's On page 199 of the hardcover mentions the shot at Maj. Gen. plete truth. He said yes. He task to choose between the FBI edition of "Rush to Judgment" Edwin A. Walker which missed. was asked if he had deliberately agents — laymen who reported Lane mentions an Illinois bal- He mentions the testimony of made up any of his story. He what they had overheard the listics expert, Joseph D. Nicol. Nelson Delgado, a fellow Marine answered no. The lie detector autopsy doctors say—and the Nicol testified before the com- who had watched Oswald on the indicated both responses were doctors themselves who were mission on Oswald's pistol, the firing line. Oswald, Delgado "false." He was asked if he making the one authorized ex- shells found at the scene of the testified, got a lot of "Maggie's thought the person he saw enter amination and full report. It slaying of officer J. D. Tippit drawers" — complete misses. the building was Jack Ruby. He chose the doctors. Shouldn't a critical appraisal testimony that their first inter- is, a magazine writer, and Law- wouldn't take this. You'd be of the commission have made pretation of Kennedy's wounds rence Schiller, a photo-journal- fools if you did. But the press such an inquiry? If Epstein did, was not their final one. ist. has an obligation to examine it is not recorded. The commission presented all each book as it comes out and Such lapses of the critics do the evidence it could find. The Lawyers Speak present it to the public as a not prove or disprove that critics did not. As a group they And while the commission, al- searching for truth. And I think Oswald murdered. But do these have found the commission beit disbanded, has not spoken this might go on for 50 or 100 lapses, and many others to be wrong on almost anything but as an organization in its de- years. As long as people can cited later, have some bearing the fact of assassination itself. fense, many of its staff lawyers make a quarter or a half-million on the objectivity the critics One critic, George C. Thom- are now willing to do so. The dollars, we're going to have claim for themselves and deny son, doesn't even agree on that. writers interviewed 11 of the these books. the commission? He claims five persons were commission's 15 senior coun- "The mass media devote time Did the critics, not the com- killed that day in Dallas. None sels. to the Lanes and the Epsteins They spoke of the contradict.. mission, "cite evidence out of of them was John F. Kennedy, because it sells. Coming up with ing eyewitnesses: those w h o context, ignore and reshape who Thomson says is alive and the establishment viewpoint thought the shots came from the doesn't have much mileage." evidence? last winter attended Truman They did. Texas School Book Depository One staff member talked of Capote's famous masked ball. and those who didn't, those who They have sat in judgment the charge that the commission Space does not permit a foot- didn't agree on what Tippit's entered the investigation with a of the Warren Commission and note analysis of the critical slayer was wearing or what he preconceived belief of Oswald's found it wanting. But they are books, although this was done looked like. not judges. They have been with several of them in prepar- guilt. "Nonsense. We looked for "I've had a lot of trial ex- the incredible as well as the prosecutors, making a case. ing this report. The notes made perience," said one of the key credible. A lot of us were young Where fact has served, they on Mark Lane's book alone run members of the commission to 50,000 words. lawyers. What greater feather have used it. Where it has not, staff. "I• know witnesses don't could it be in our caps to prove they have not. The intention, rather, is to agree. If you have testimony focus on several key issues in the FBI was wrong." If they have read all the evi- that has uniformity, you have contention and compare what to look out for perjury." dence, they have not quoted it the commission volumes said Adversary Plan all. They have taken evidence The staff lawyers talked of with what the critics said they some of the puzzling testimony A senior counsel discussed the to form theories, to launch wisdan of having used an ad- said. Such comparison is often that may never be resolved: the speculation. But they have not illuminating. Such a comparison versary system in the invectiga- gunsmith who said he fixed a taken all the evidence. may not convince the two-thirds ton, with a prosecuttiOn against gun for someone n am e d Os- They have said "perhaps" of those questioned in a recent and a defense for Oswald. "It wald; the men who saw some- and "it seems" and "it is likely." poll who said they doubted the would h-ive been most unequal; one who looked like Oswald at But they must say more. They commission's conclusions. the government all on one side. a firing range; the persons who must say here is the evidence. But, at the least, it may serve The report WOUIID have to have asked of the critics what saw Oswald driving a car (the sounded like a brief for the pro- And as yet, such evidence has commission decided he couldn't not been forthcoming. they have asked of the com- secutlibn. mission—the facts. All of them. drive); the woman in Dallas who "The gaff was instructed to The irony of the Warren Re- said Oswald had been introduced proceed in each instance on the port is that it is based on the SURELY, ONE CAN fault the to her as an anti-eastroite who possibility that Oswald was not same evidence as the books that commission. Why didn't it call thought Kennedy should be shot; involved. If they tidnit want to attack it. The commission pro- this witness, investigate more the people who thought they saw proceed on that basis, the com- vided in the 26 volumes of testi- deeply in that area? When there Oswald in Jack Ruby's night mission didn't want them to con- mony and exhibits and additional was doubt, too often the com- club. tinue." matter in the National Archives mission spoke, needlessly, in We were beneficiaries to One lawyer, Wesley J. Liebel- the results of its investigation. more positive language than the fraud," said one of the senior er, talked of Oswald as a marks- And this is the heart of the facts allowed. Maybe it should attorneys without mentioning man. "I took the position that critics' case. Their witnesses have behaved more as a court any specific examples. "The you, well, you couldn't tell. The were the commission's. Their than a commission. thing that shocked me was the evidence that Ckswahl was able evidence was the commission's. Maybe it would have been people who wanted to get in- tio shoot the President was that he did. He was lucky. Oswald But, again, not all of it. better for Oswald to have been volved in this great event. I do represented posthumously by had something in his sights that A doctor said Kennedy was appreciate this can happen, but he knew he was never gOing to shot from the front. A man saw counsel. Maybe the commission I thought people would have too did have an have again. I suspect he was a puff of smoke from some eye on the political much regard for the nature of up for it." clock in turning in its report what we were trying to do." Liebeler talked of the "grassy trees ahead of the motorcade. while some investigation was The man, and others who saw knoll" where Lane and others still under way. Maybe. Maybe. THEY TALKED of why the think shots came from, in pant smoke, were commission wit- Maybe. nesses. The doctor, and others commission had not defended it- because people ran in that di- Without question the commis- rectlon after the gunlare. who thought Kennedy's throat sion was not infallible. But it self. wound was one of entrance, were has too long been the target of "If we were to answer the "WOULD PEOPLE DO this? commission witnesses. And they critics who have not received Lanes and the Sauvages, who Would you if you knew or appear for the critics. the same scrutiny they gave the would believe us? We had all thought someone was firing Warren Report. This does from there? It dependS upon in- kinds of suggestions. One was BUT NOT ALWAYS in the credit to no one. stantaneous reaction. I might critics' books does one read of But recently books have be- that Chief Justice Earl Warren, run after the motorcade. I might the people who saw a rifle in gun to appear attacking the himself, come out in defense of run for cover. But I'm sure the window of the Texas School critics, one by Charles Roberts the report. most people would run to get Book Depository. Not always of Newsweek magazine and an- "I don't think that means any- out of the way." does one read the doctors' other by Richard Warren Lew- thing. If I were in the press, I Joe Ball, another staff mem- Lane also suggests it is "cur- ber, talked of the rifle found on the sloth floor of the depository ions" that a Dallas police of- building which police first identi- ficer found a print on the rifle fied as a Hauser. Later it was and "lifted" it off the weapon determined to be a Mannlicher- and that an FBI expert was un- Carcano, an Italian weapon. able to find any trace of the print Critics have implied this switch on the gun several days later. suggests the weapon w a s The reader might also find it planted. curious that Lane does not men- "Evidence shows that Sey- tion that subsequent FBI photo- mour Weitzman, who found the graPhs of the lifted print rifle, never handled it and saw showed minute gaps. They ex- it from five feet aWay. Weitz- actly matched nicks and pitting man and Deputy Sheriff Eugene in the metal of the rifle from Bloone both testified lit seemed which the print was taken. to them to be a Hauser. Another staff member talked of rt IS a 'Left's make it Clear. Lane's book. Mouser. lit is built on German patents and the Hauser refers "He attempts to discredit the to the bolt action. But Dane nev- er dares to go so far as to say commission o n hundreds of that Weitzman or Boone in any counts and to suggest such an way suggest this is not the gun enormous level of incompetence which was found on the sixth or dishonesty as to make h i s floor and which has been found beyond all douibt to have fired entire argument ridiculous. Had the bullets." someone set out co design a com- This is not quite accurate. mission of the incompetence Lane, on Page 120 of the hard- Lane attributes to it, I doubt cover edition of "Rush to Judge- very seriously that it could ever cover edition of "Rush to Judg- have been done. Had he focused Weitzman, was shown the Mann- upon some weaknesses of t h e licher-Carcans which he was un- commission or the report, he able to idently as the weapon might have had an area of ar- Weitzman hid found." gument." Boone said no such thing. He And the staff agrees there Was shown the rifle and testi- were weaknesses. Simile were of fied: "lit looks like the same canission: the coanunission incist rifle. I have no way al being pow:live." certainly could have called to Any why wasn't he potitive? testify witnesses who had only Because he said he never han- given statements to law offi- dled the rifle. cials. Some weaknesses. were Of Ball talked of Epsitebi. commission: the report could "He said I said Norman Red- easily have been more explicit lich, one of the staff, used about the autopsy conflict. Some turgid law review style.' I wrote were inevitable: no one will EpStein's publisher and said I ever be able to say With Aso- never used the word 'turgid' in —AP WIrephoto k)te certainty whitb bullet pro- my life. I had to go the dic- duced the. fragments that were tionary and look it up. Volumes of Warren Report and various books writ- found in Kennedy's car or just "His statement that the law- ten by the critics. what struck a bystander in the yers walked as part-time con- cheek or why Oswald dkl it or sultants is a lie. I made my even, perhaps, if he did it un- residence in Washingfbon, D.C., The prOfeSsor replied to one that aided. permanently from January to Dallas Police "experience has shown that all But to read the report; ail df July 1964. I was allowed to come too often when a person is "Well," said Liebeler, "we had to my home in Long Beac h, shown his own words on paper to consider that in view of the ft, is to appreciate the depth of Calif., once a month, and I did. he is inclined to state that he performance of the Dallas Police the irweStigaltion. Perhaps the Epstein quotes me 39 times and did net make those remarks." Department, God rest their commission should have had its I didn't talk to that man for Experienced showed this in souls, were they so devilishly own investigatory staff, regard- over half an hour and that was EpEitein's case, anyway. clever that they could have less of the Mtge expense. But in a New York hotel lolbby." Lieheler talked of finger and taken Oswald's print and planted that is to suggest that the FBI palm prints. it on the rifle and then taken it and tho Secret Service and oth- NINE OF THE 10 staff mem- Oswald's palm print found on off again, or that they could er investigative agencies on bers quoted by Epstein that the rifle had little probative val- have handed the rifle to Oswald which it relied were somehow these - writers interviewed ue, said Lane, "especially since to get the print? Of course, that not to be trusted. charge him with missItatements. local and federal police officials would involve the judgment of SOME CRITICS suggest that Several of them wrote letters of who issued inaccurate s t a t e- Oswald, and do you think any protest to his professor f a r ments ... were alone with Os- one could have gotten Oswald to they were not trustworthy: eith- whom he wrote what became wald and the weapon." The im- touch that rifle with a 10-f o o t er subomnsdiously they sought to "Inquest" as a 'master's thesis. plication seems obvious. pole? Of course not." defend their professionalism by Chi-trit'lly treating evidence and criticism of many of the com- use to topple the theory and ture instead of fact. And when witnesses or, fat worse, they mission's methods. This is argu- discredit the report. they dig into the report for evi- were involved in a superplbt. Df able. Both ways. But he raises The theory was reached af- dence, they do not describe all the latter were the case, it his questions from facts in the ter the commission staff was that is on the shovel. would mean, because of the in- commission volumes. Sometimes confronted with two pieces of For example: tricacy and range of the in- not all the facts. And sometimes conflicting evidence: Mark Lane contends the "al- vestigation, a conspiracy of al- not facts at all. 1—That the first wound suf- leged" assassin rifle — the most universal ditnensitons. As Lane — Lane's name predom- fered by President Kennedy and Manricher - Carcano — was yet, there is no such evidence. inates. He has made a movie Texas Gov. John B. Connally planted. His evidence: the de- The report valumos them- based on his book and given evidently occurred within a span pository rifle was first de- selves are an irritating thing. numerous lectures here and of 1.6 seconds; 2—that the mur- scribed in press reports as a abroad. At the very end of his The first 15 are testimony, most der weapon could not be fired "Mauser." Lane also relies book he files a disclaimer ex- of it taken by the commissibn faster than once every 2.3 sec- heavily on an affidavit by Con- plaining why he accepted mate- onds. stable Seymour Weitzman as de- staff. The remaining EL, which rial contrary to the commission's lamentably have no central in- What was the answer? scribing the weapon as "a 7.65 conclusions and rejected mate- dex, are as tidily packed as a The commission decided that Mauser bolt action." Lane em- rial that supports it. So, on al- one bullet went through Ken- phasizes that Weitzman was a beatnik's driffie bag. There is most his last page, Lane iden- Tittle or no order. A search for nedy's neck, traveled four feet rifle expert. What is the fact? a specific statement or affidav- tifies himself: he is a prosecu- forward and struck Connally, Weitzman testified he never tor, using the defendant com- it can take hours. One of the inflicting wounds of his chest, handled the weapon and has mission's own witnesses and tes- intense coterie of assassination wrist and thigh. A second bul- since said that the word "Maus- timony. But not all of it. buffs, SylVia Meagher, has let struck Kennedy at the back er" describes the bolt action. made an index on her own. But of his head and killed him. A The Italian Mannlicher-Carcano, "I HAVEN'T FOUND any- third bullet missed. as mentioned, was manufac- it, too, is falliblee. thing of theirs that even makes Yet the volumes, particularly tured with the patented German a positive contribution," said Central Theory Mauser bolt action, and the the testimony, have a certain one of the senior commis- Any argument that Lee Har- Italians rechambered it for 6.5- fasc'inati'on. The range of char- sion counsels of the critics. vey Oswald was the lone as- mm ammunition. acters is TOIstoyan. There is the One can assume the commis- sassin or he wasn't stems from President of the United States, Epstein claims the autopsy sion staff would stand by its this theory. report on Kennedy is suspect. the secretary of state. And a work. Its statements should be The theory is central to these prostitute. There is a dashing, commission conclusions: His evidence: a dot on an au- considered with that in mind. topsy sketch indicates a bullet Russtan-horn oil man who knew One, however, should approach 1—That all the shots fired at entry below Kennedy's shoul- both Oswald and Jacqueline the critics with similar dispas- the President and governor were Kennedy and whose amatory sion. Read them. But read what fired from Oswald's sniper der, which means the bullet troubles with a Latin beauty are they criticize as well. If it is perch on the sixth floor of the couldn't have emerged to hit truly comic. And there is a ironic that the report is their Texas School Book Depository, Connally. What is the fact? The Iriborer who told the august foundation, it is also convenient. overlooking Dealey Plaza in Dal- dot is off the mark. But the las—and from no other place. descriptive detail with it locates members of the- commission in One can read and compare. 2—That all the shots were the neck wound precisely. So blunt tennis of the locker room Epstein presumably read. He fired from a 6.5mm Mannlicher- does the testimony of the path- what he thought often he heard found the commission had ut- Carcano rifle, owned by Oswald, ologists as well as the autopsy a rifle go off aibuve his head tered "political truth." It sought and found on the sixth floor af- report itself. in the depository building. to dispel rumor and keep Amer- ter the assassination — and no Weisberg claims the film taken ica clean, not to determine fact. other weapon in the world. Two Oswalds But neither Edward Jay Ep- by a spectator, Abraham 3—That all the shots were Zapruder, shows Kennedy w a s The critics are equally di- stein nor Earl Warren is the fired by Lee Harvey Oswald— jury. The public is. And there is wounded much earlier than the verse. There is Harold Weis- and no other person. commission says, and this means berg, a Maryland poultryman more to the case for the govern- In arriving at the single bul- ment than the public may have there had to be another gunman who was once National Barbe- let theory, the commission itself in another firing position. H i s heard. laid the groundwork for its pos- cue King and claims his "Geese evidence is obtained by pruning for Peace" campaign got the The public may know of the sible challenge by saying in the single bullet theory. It is a report: Zapruder's testimony. Just how Peace Corps its first good pub- and to what effect will be dis- licity b r e a k. Weisberg, who chain of circumstance, linked "Although it is not necessary cussed further. knows the report as an evange- by assumptions. It is n chain to any essential findings of the The impact of their attacks list knows his Bible, has pub- that leads to Lee Harvey Os- commission to determine just lished two books, "Whitewash" wald as the assassin. But it is which shot hit Gov. Connally, has had telling effect, but the and "Whitewash II," is planning vulnerable, as all chains. If one there is very persuasive evi- most jarring challenge to t h e a third and thinks there were of its links breaks, it does not dence from the experts to in- single bullet theory came from two Oswalds, one a lock-alike hold. . . . dicate that the same bullet one of the victims, Gov. Con- stand-in. BULLET 399 . . . The firing which pierced the President's nally. Sauvage, a French journalist, time of a mail-order rifle . . . throat also caused Gov. Con- "I AM CONVINCED beyond argues with Gallic logs, no in- An amateur motion picture . . . nally's wounds." any doubt that I was not struck dex and membership in the A governor's wounds . . . A pres- by the first bullet," says the "perhaps" and "it seem s" ident's autopsy. BUT IF THAT didn't happen, governor. He recites his recol- school. He raises some pointed It was from these elements the theory teeters — and so lection of the sequence in which questions in areas where uncer- that the Warren Commission does the case against Oswald he heard a shot and then felt tainty is and may remain for- constructed what has become as the lone assassin. himself shot — and since a bullet ever. known as the "single bullet the- travels faster than sound how Epstein makes much of the ory." The critics have assaulted the could he have heard the same doctor-FBI autopsy discrepancy. And it is these elements which theory. But not with new evi- shot that hit him? It is answerable. He makes a critics of the Warren Report dence. They have used conjec- But tho VOITUtitsion found it •.yE ~ frrir-; s. UTTINT NNNNN *1 ir? t

—AP 4vire;:.i.J.0 The assassination scene shows the School Book Deposifory. Witness saw gun- man firing from window (A). Window (B) is where he saw several persons watching motorcade. One of those testified hearing shells hit floor above his head. could hot be so certain. There Uncertainty I turned to look at the same of the Zapruder film, picked frames 231 to 234 as those repre- was other evidence which indi- There also was uncertainty due time, I recall John saying, "Oh, no, no, no.' Then there was a senting the moment he believes cated the governor could be in to the testimony of Connally and error about his reconstruction, second shot, and it hit John, and he was hit. Scrutiny of these his wife Nellie. The governor The governor was clear about as he recoiled to the right, just frames shows the governor's being, hit in the chest. But he testified that Kennedy was hit crumpled like a wounded animal hands are rather high, certainly did not know until the next day and had his hands at his throat. to the right, he said, "My God, above the point at which the that a bullet had gone through And then, he said, he was hit by they are going to kill us all.' " bullet exited.from the governor's his wrist and hit his thigh. He a second shot. His wife agrees. If the governor is correct that chest — a point two inches below thought there were 10 to 12 sec- "I immediately, when I was he said "Oh, no, no, no" as soon the center of the right nipple. bullet caused a chest onds between the first and last hit, I said, 'Oh, no, no, no.' And as he was hit, and if Mrs. Con- Since the shot s. But analysis of the then I said, 'My God, they are nally is correct that he said this wound from back to front at a 25 Zapruder film indicated that going to kill us all,' " Connally before she heard a second shot, degree downward angle, it would there were 5.6 seconds during testified then the commission's assump- have been necessary for the bul- which one shot wounded Ken- But Mrs. Connally testified: tion stands on reasonable ground. let to then make an upward turn nedy and another killed him. "As the first shot was hit, and The governor, viewing frames to go through the top of his right wrist and then come down to a WEISBERG SAYS the compu- The commission did say that two rounds fired from that rifle, point five inches above his left tations are meaningless. He says 207 was the FIRST point at and 2. three bullets could not knee. there is evidence the president which Connally could have been have been fired within 5.6 sec- was hit earlier. He cites Zapru- hit, consistent with his wounds. HAD THERE NOT been the onds. But when then was the gover- Zapruder film, it is possible that der's testimony in Vol. VII, Page Epstein, examining the firing that investigators might have 571. Zapruder was being ques- nor hit? On the basis of computa- tests by three experts, says they tions and the visible movements reached a simple e q u a t io n: tioned by Liebeler and was de- used stationary targets and of the governor, it was deter- three wounds — three bullets. scribing details regarding differ- that the time was measured Three used shells near the ent frames. In reference to the mined that at the very latest, he from the sound of the first re- could not have been hit after port to the sound of the third sixth-floor window of the deposi- movement of the limousine, tory fortified the conclusion Zapruder says "It reached about Frame 240. That would m e an report and thus had unlimited there were three shots. And of — I imagine it was around here that if the president was hit at time to aim the first shot. This is a significant factor. the 205 persons who gave state- — I heard the first shot and I Frame 210 and the governor at ments regarding the number of saw the president lean over and Fr a m e 240, it would have oc- For example, if it is assumed it took the assassin one second to shots, 119 said they heard three, grab himself." curred within a span of 1.6 sec- seven heard two or more and 39 "Lawyers know very well that onds. react, aim and pull the trigger, heard "some." Eleven said they such words as 'here' in testi- This time element is important then he had only 4.6 seconds not heard four and a handful said mony relating to a location re- to the commission — and the 5.6 seconds to fire," Espstein says. there were even more. fleet nothing on the printed page. critics. In analyzing the Zapruder When they want the testimony film, the commission found that clear, they ask the witness to FIRING TESTS of the Mann- MARK LANE MAKES the at the most there was a 1.6 sec- identify the spot meant by 'here.' licher-Carcano showed that same contention and adds to it a ond time span during which Zapruder was not asked to ex- three master riflemen couldn't detailed attack in which he says the tests themselves were in- Kennedy and the governor were plain where 'here' was," Weis- fire it and work the bolt and get valid, the ammunition was unre- first wounded. berg says. And then he says: off another round in less than 2.3 liable, the weapon was of poor This was determined by meas- "But the startling meaning of seconds. quality and Oswald was an in- uring the operating speed of the Zapruder's testimony is t h i s: If the time span between the ferior marksman. camera. Zapruder's exposed 18.3 He saw the first shot hit the Kennedy and Connally wounds Wesley Liebeler says that "if frames per second. Other evi- president. He described the pres- is reduced too radically, the you assume Lane is right on all dence — the shells and rifle in ident's reaction to it. Had the critics' argument might falter be- of this, what does it change? the depository, the rifle seen president been obscured by the cause the shorter time w o u l d The fact is that that rifle was protruding through the window, sign, Zapruder could have seen support the plausibility of one owned by Oswald, he was in the nature of wounds, and so on none of this. Therefore, the pres- bullet hitting both men. But the the depository, the empty shells —established that the sixth floor ident was hit prior to Frame critics tend to support Connal- were fired by that weapon, the of the depository was one fixed 210, prior to Frame 205, the last ly's contention that he m o s t recovered bullet was fired by point. The almost foot-by-foot one that shows the top of his likely was hit during Frames head ... " 231 to 234. that weapon. The best evidence movements of the presidential that the rifle was capable of Frame 225 Arlen Specter, now district at- limousine — as demonstrated by delivering the shots and that Os- torney of Philadelphia, was the the Zapruder movie and other Turn to page 574 of the same wald was capable of hitting the commission counsel generally photographs — provided other volume and there is Zapruder president and governor is that it described as chief architect of fixed points. did and he did." being specific. He is shown the single bullet theory. He and But the Zapruder film h a d Specter challenges the time Frame 225, which is the first Wesley Liebeler both say that one drawback: the progress of interpretations by the critics, one in which the president can the Zapruder film shows that on the limousine was obscured for saying: Frame 230 the governor's right approximately seven-tenths of a be seen as the limousine emerges "The would-be critics of the arm can be seen above the side second by a road sign. So there from behind the sign. The presi- commission report all make the of the car and that he was prob- is no pictorial evidence in t h e dent appears to have his hands same mistake in interpreting the film showing exactly when Ken- ably in his delayed reaction to possibility of fitting three shots in moving toward his throat, and nedy was first hit. The fatal shot his wounds at t ha t point. On a 5.6 seconds time-span because is clearly seen later in the film. Zapruder, looking at this frame, that premise, there was little they count the first shot. Investigators positioning them- says: more than a second between the "When you fire three times, the time the president and governor selves in the sniper's window "Yes; it looks like he was hit first shot is not taken into ac- we re hit. It can be reduced perch *mild determine when —it seems — there — somewhere count in the timing sequence. further when it is considered that Look at it this way: aim is Kennedy or Connally were prob- behind the sign. You see, he is the president may not have been taken and there is the first shot. ably in position to be targets. still sitting upright." hit until just before Frame 225. Then 2.3 seconds passes while Since the foliage of an oak tree Edward Jay Epstein tends io There is agreement among crit- the bolt action is worked and blocked the line of fire until the confuse the commission's inter- ics and commission about one the next shot is fired. Then an- limousine had gone past the de- pretation of the Zapruder film thing the Zapruder film does other 2.3 seconds for the third pository on its way to Stemmons show: the shot that killed the shot: The t h r e e shots can be by saying that because foliage president. The impact of this fired within 4.6 seconds range of Freeway, it was determined that of an oak tree blocked the view hit is clear in Frame 313. The time." the president could not have been . . the commission concluded running time from Frame 210 to Lane, Epstein and Weisberg struck at the base of the neck that the earliest point the presi- Frame 313 is 5.6 seconds. also introduce another element until Frame 210 of the Zapruder dent could have been first hit The agreement ends there. Be- in challenging the capability of was film Frame 207." No. If that film. At this point, the limousine cause of the limited firing capa- the Mannlicher - Carcano: a happened, the president would is already moving behind the city of the Mannlicher-Carcano, fourth shot. Patently, the rifle have had a head wound then, road sign, traveling at a rate of the critics say 1. the president as t e s t e d, could rot have de- since his neck was blocked from 11.2 miles an hour. and governor could not have livered four shots in 5.6 seconds. a line of fire until Frame 210. been hit within 1.6 seconds by But where is their evidence? The commission considered such a possibility, but found no credible evidence for more than three shots. It might seem that die com- mission would find added sup- port in the firing demonstration by a British Royal Marines sergeant appearing on a BBC television show Jan. 30, 1967. Lane and Specter were there as participants in a debate about the controversy and saw the sergeant, using a Mannlicher- Carcano of the same vintage as Oswald's, aim at a target and get three rounds off in 2.6 sec- onds. BY THAT MEASURE, it could have been possible that separate rounds could have hit the presi- dent and governor in close or- der. But if that happened, more riddles are posed: if one bullet alone went through the presi- dent's neck, how did it vanish without striking anyone else or anything else? If the governor was hit separately, what sort of wounds would he have suffered, and could they then have been from Bullet 399? This was the bullet, in an al- most undamaged condition, which was found in Parkland Memorial Hospital, where both the president and governor were , . . taken. The commission says it is the bullet which passed through the president's neck and struck the governor in the chest, wrist and thigh. Mark Lane describes it in a chapter entitled "Magic Bullet." Epstein calls it "The stretcher bullet." "The so-called 'found' bullet," Weisberg says,

In these films by Abraham Zapruder, President Kenne- dy is shown wounded in the top photo. Gov. Connally has turned forward but said later he did not think he had yet been hit. The Warren Commission, how- ever, concluded that the shot that hit Kennedy in the back probably hit Con- nally also. Connally says he was hit about the time the 'bottom frame was made. If so, however, all his wounds came from one bullet which hit his back at a downward angle, changed direction to go through his right wrist, then changed direction again to his left thigh. (Life Magazine— Copyright Time, Inc., via AP Wirephoto.l ". . . could, for example, have said any knowledge he had nally's stretcher. of blood, and returned with him been planted in the hospital." about damage to the rib was Epstein here goes back to Col. to the second floor where Con- Experts put the bullet under "only hearsay from Dr. Shaw, Finck, saying his testimony nally was in surgery. He then scientific tests which they said that's all." Shires was next "cannot be dismissed merely be- made several trips between the proved it was fired by the Mann- asked whether he knew whether cause it collided with the hypo- ground floor and second floor licher-Carcano rifle. there were any bullet fragments thesis that Bullet 399 was found before discovering the bullet. The 6.5mm copper-jacketed in the chest, and he replied: on Connally's stretcher. Since bullet weighed 158.6 grains. Its "No, again except from post- Flick's categorical statement Trauma Room 1 standard weight would be 160- operative X-rays, there is a that this bullet could not have Nurse Diana Hamilton Bowron 161 grains. This would mean small fragment remaining, but caused Connally's wrist wound testified she was in Trauma that Bullet 399 lost between 1.4 the initial fragments I think Dr. was never challenged, disputed, Room 1 with the president until and 2.4 grains. Shaw saw before I arrived." or corrected, it can only be con- his body was taken off the Lane and Epstein each cite cluded from the evidence that stretcher and placed in a casket. three particular witnesses for Shaw Testifies Bullet 399 did not come from The stretcher, she said, was their conclusion that Bullet 399 stripped of its sheets and then lost too little weight to have Shaw, who treated the gover- Connally's stretcher." wheeled into Trauma Room 2. caused the wounds received by nor's chest wounds, testified Epstein should turn to Vol. V, about this in no uncertain terms. which was empty. Connally. One is Col. Pierre page 90, where he will find the Finck, one of the autopsy sur- "We saw no evidence of any Nurse Margaret M. Henchliffe testimony of Dr. Alfred G. Oliv- geons, who ruled out the bullet metallic material in the X-ray gave similar testimony and was "for the reason that there are that we had of the chest, and ier, an expert on bullet wounds. asked: too many fragments described we found none during the oper- This exchange took place: "Is it possible that the stretch- in that Connally's wrist." An- ation," Shaw said. He had also "Q. Do you have an opinion er that Mr. Kennedy was on testified that an X-ray made was rolled with the sheets on it other is Cmdr. James J. Humes, as to whether, in fact, Bullet 399 the chief autopsy pathologist, seven days after the shooting down into the area near the who testified "this missile is disclosed nothing except evi- did cause the wound on the gov- elevator?" ernor's wrist, assuming if you basically intact; its jacket ap- dence of healing. "No sir." will that it was the missile found pears to me to be intact, and "Are you sure of that?" Shaw was responsible for the on the governor's stretcher at I do not understand how it could statement there were three "I am positive of that." possibly have left fragments in Parkland Hospital?" grains of metal in the wrist Nurse Doris Mae Nelson testi- either of these locations - "Dr. Olivier: I believe it was. wound. But as he stated in his fied she was standing near the wrist and thigh." A third is Dr. That is my feeling." testimony, he did "not accurate- entrance to Trauma Room 2 Robert Shaw, who operated on There also was testimony from when the president's stretcher, the governor's chest, and who ly examine" this wound. That was Gregory's job. Drs. Shaw, Shires and Gregory clear of sheets, was moved into testified there were three grains that they thought one bullet it. None of the critics mentions, left in the governor's wrist. caused all of Connally's wounds. Exhibit 392, containing Park- incidentally, that the discovery These conflicts were cleared up Shires testified that Drs. Robert land Hospital records, has a in other testimony, but the com- of Bullet 399 was not entirely McClelland, Charles Baxter and statement saying that the presi- mission was remiss in not re- unanticipated. For it occurred Ralph Don Patman concurred. dent was taken out of the hospi- to Gregory during the operation solving the conflicts when they The critics each say that be- tal in a casket about 2 p.m. that such a search should be arose. cause of the movement of the Testimony from the doctors and made. He says in his testimony: stretchers it could not be deter- hospital personnel says the There was "some speculation THE CRITICS do not detail mined to a certainty that the the president remained on on our part, on my part, which the specific testimony regarding bullet came from Connally's the stretcher until his body was these fragments. was voiced to someone that stretcher or didn't come from placed in the casket. Wesley What was it? some search ought to be made the president's stretcher. Darrell Liebeler, who has gone further Dr. Charles F. Gregory, who in the governor's clothing or Tomlinson, the Parkland Hos- into this question, says he has treated the governor's wrist perhaps in the auto or some pital engineer who found the bul- since determined from nurse wound, testified X-rays dis- place, wherever he may have let, could not identify the stretch- Doris Nelson that the time was closed "three metallic flakes" been, for the missile which pro- er positively. There were two closer to 2:10 p.m. Either way, there, and he added: "I would duced this much damage was stretchers in the corridor where it would be long after the bullet estimate that they would be not resident in him." the bullet was found. had been discovered. weighed in micrograms, that Could it have been planted, it is something less than the BULLET 399 had already been EPSTEIN SAYS, "Since all as Weisberg suggests? weight of a postage stamp." Not found, unknown to Gregory, stretchers were eventually re- To buy that, it is necessary to three grains, as Dr. Shaw said. when he said this. It was dis- turned to this area to be remade, conjure a being of superior in- Dr. George T. Shires, who covered shortly after 1 p.m., the key question was: Was Ken- telligence, craftiness and proph- treated the thigh wound, testi- when the president was pro- nedy's stretcher returned before esy who could have designed a fied no bullet fragments were nounced dead, on a stretcher or after the bullet was found? bullet which would not be too recovered from it but that a in the corridor near the ground This question was never an- heavy or light to conform to small one, discernible on X-ray, floor emergency rooms. swered." fragments found in the gover- remained in the femur. He was At first, it was thought this Not so. nor's wounds; that would have asked its weight, and answered bullet came from the president's Tomlinson had testified he had had the proper condition had it "maybe a tenth of a grain." stretcher. And that fit in with come to the elevator area at gone through the president's Critic Harold Weisberg says the speculation that a bullet had around 1 p.m. and found a neck alone, and p e r ha ps that "the report refers to no hit the president in the back and stretcher which had some sheets smashed into the limousine. And fragments elsewhere. Shires says exited during external heart on it. He pushed this stretcher what if another bullet had also there is still one in the chest." massage. But the autopsy was from the elevator into the corri- been found? But examine Shires' testimony to show that this didn't happen. dor. Then he took the elevator to in Vol. VI, Page 112, and you The commission determined the second floor, brought down IF THERE was one way to ex- discover that Shires had just that the bullet came from Con- a man who picked up two pints plode the single bullet theory, it remained in the results of the Parkland Memorial Hospital 2—"There were members of autopsy report, which will be who failed to make clear that the staff who out of trial ex- examined in detail. If Lane, doctors were speculating in de- perience felt that the X-rays and Epstein or Weisberg can dem- scribing the presideneg throat photos were vital documents in onstrate that this report is at wound as an entry wound. presenting evidence. There was fault and that the president nev- The critics — most notably a feeling that the chief recog- er suffered a back - to - front Mark Lane, Edward Jay Ep- nized the value of this evidence neck wound, out goes the theory stein and Harold Weisberg - but that the decision to keep — and along with it the case drew their own meanings from them under seal came from Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was against Oswald as the lone as- these things to make the autopsy then the attorney general. It sassin. findings suspect or tarnished. was Bobby's decision," said an- So the autopsy doctors did The autopsy report states con- other. their work. They examined. clusively that Kennedy was They drew diagrams. They pho- struck by two bullets. One went —AP WirePholo No Comment tographed. They drew a dot. through his neck. It was a Neither the chief justice nor And now there are those that This bullet found in wound doctors say he would Connally's stretcher, the senator will comment about claim the dot and the photo- have survived. The second bul- not Kennedy's as critics this or any other aspect of the graphs show the doctors didn't let struck his skull. It was fa- claim. Bullet came report. The only thing Sen. Ken- do their work at all. Or the tal. from Oswald's rifle, nedy has said publicly was a commission didn't. THESE FINDINGS are cen- test showed. statement he made in Poland The Warren Commission did tral to the single bullet theory. dramatic, are in the evidence, that he was satisfied that Os- make a mistake. It had com- This theory is that a bullet went wald was the assassin. passion. through the president's neck and and the testimony is quite pre- cise. While most staff members of There was some evidence went on to wound Gov. Connally. the disbanded commission have Seeing the holes through the which could have been made If not, the single bullet theory refused to publicly answer the part of the record, but was not: eyes of Lane, Epstein and Weis- collapses. And so does the War- critics or defend the report, at X-rays and photographs taken ren Report conclusion that Lee berg, it might seem that the at the autopsy of President John Harvey Oswald alone fired the bullet which made them could least two—Joseph A. Ball of not have hit the president in F. Kennedy. bullets, Long Beach, Calif., and Wesley the base of the neck. But put a Had these photographs been The critics have constructed jacket and shirt on any grown J. Liebeler of Los Angeles— introduced as commission exhib- their machine of destruction by man with reasonably well-devel- have said they felt from the be- its, the commission may have selection of parts of testimony oped shoulders, measure 5% ginning that the X-rays and been bound to publish them - and parts of evidence from the inches below the top of the col- photographs should have been as it did with other nonsecret Warren Report. Some of it has lar and a bit to the right of the introduced. exhibits. been clever — and some absurd. seam, have him raise his right In interviews with 11 of the In the heartsick atmosphere What could be more absurd arm slightly as the president's 15 counsel and four of the 10 after the assassination, t he r e than the way they see the holes was and mark the spot with a staff members, the writers have were those who felt this was in the president's suit jacket and pencil point or chalk. Where learned that a majority now unnecessary, that the evidence shirt? Neither Lane, Epstein nor does this touch the body? The feel the secret label should be could be placed under lock and Weisberg challenges the Warren base of the neck. removed because of the doubt key for historians of the future Report evidence that there was created by the critics. None and that the sworn testimony of a hole in the jacket "5% inches THE PRECISE location of the thinks that the commission need autopsy surgeons would now be below the top of the collar and president's wounds is described be re-established. One sugges- sufficient. 1% inches to the right of the in the autopsy report. But the tion was that some nongovern- center back seam of the coat" decision not to introduce the mental body, such as a group Time of Critics and a hole in the shirt "5% autopsy X-rays and photo- of university presidents or a But who could have reckoned inches below the top of the col- graphs — which would show law society, should select fo- there would be the time of the lar and 1.3,;. inches to the right those wounds — contributed to rensic pathologists to view and critics? Who could have antici- of the middle of the back of the today's controversy. Who would analyze the evidence. shirt." have known three years ago that pated the commission findings SEVERAL AGREED with "That evidence is compatible they would.? would be painted with suspi- the idea expressed by one for- with a bullet passing through And who made the decision? cion? mer assistant. counsel: the president's hack, inches be- There are two major versions, were other acts and in- "I think they should be open There low the neck," Lane says in his both of which writers of this cidents which the critics could to any qualified expert who book. report have gleaned from mem- seize upon and emphasize and bers of the commission staff: wants to see them whether he place out of focus. They did. Weisberg lowers the hole a is chosen by a college president few inches by describing it in 1—"Chief Justice Earl War- There was a pathologist who ren, who was chairman of the or Mark Lane himself." made an inexact dot on an au- his book as • "six inches down While the autopsy X-rays and from the collar. Not in the commission, is a very humane topsy sketch representing a bul- and sensitive man. Out of def- photographs were not introduced let entry; there were two FBI neck." He drops the key words formally, it does not mean that "top of." erence to the Kennedy family, agents who reported the specu- especially to Mrs. Kennedy, they were not seen and that Epstein, in his book, publishes they did not show the wounds lative conversation of patholo- Caroline and John-John, he de- photographs which show the as described in the autopsy re- gists without knowing the whole cided it would be awful if they garments on a hanger. The holes port. The critics make the point story; there were the three were introduced as evidence and can be seen clearly. "These pho- the photographs were pathologists who left a corrob- then published. He first deter- that tographs . . were omitted handed undeveloped to the Se- from the Warren Report and the mined informally that this evi- orating detail of evidence out cret Service -and that they were dence was not absolutely neces- of the autopsy report; there was 26 volumes of supporting evi- transmitted that way eventually sary because the autopsy path- a pathologist who burned a draft dence," he says. He got them to the care of Robert Kennedy. of the autopsy in his fireplace; from the National Archives. But ologists could testify as to de- Albert Jenner, an assistant there were harried reporters at other pictures, not nearly as tails," said one. counsel now in Chicago. says he saw some of the autopsy photo- graphs. Arlen Spectet, currently district attorney of Philadelphia, has stated having seen at least one purported color photograph. They also were examined and authenticated last Nov. 1 by four men intimately connected with the autopsy: Cmdr. James J. Humes, sen- ior pathologist at Bethesda Naval Hospital; Cmdr. J. Thornton Boswell, chief pathologist at Bethesda; Capt. John Ebersole, the radiologist who took the X-rays, and John T. Stringer Jr., a medical photographer at the National Naval Medical Cen- ter, who took the photographs. Various Views "We authenticated each item," says Boswell, who is now in private practice. "As Dr. Humes looked over my shoulder, 1 m- itialed each of the color and black and white photographs. Capt. Ebersole initialed each of the X-rays. There are various views of all the wounds, as we described them, and some of the photographs were taken so that the president's face is vis- ible." The National Archives says there are 26 color and 25 black and white photographs and 14 X-rays. Mark Lane surrounds the epi- sode regarding the X-rays and photographs with language un- supported by testimony. He says, on Page 60 of the hard- cover edition of his book: "The X-rays and photographs were taken from Dr. Humes and given to the Secret Service; indeed the photographs were seized before they were devel- oped. Humes testified that not even he had seen the photo- graphs ostensibly taken to as- sist him and the other doctors." Then on Page 62, he refers to them again, saying ". federal police agents confiscated the crucial photographs and X- rays . ." Confiscated? Seized? HUMES TESTIFIED they were taken to help the doctors This was Oswald's rifle, a Mannlicher-Carcano were "turned over" to the Se- that night of the autopsy. which has, in fact, a Mouser type action. cret Service, but nowhere does But Humes is clear about it he say they were demanded or in his testimony on Page 373, that he objected to releasing Vol. II: that there was an autopsy "draft pared and then burned by Com- them. "The X-rays were developed I personally burned in the fire- mander Humes after the au- in our X-ray department on the place of my recreation room." topsy." Lane need not have been so spot that evening, because we In two of three references to Epstein says Humes "des- evasive or uncertain as to why had to see those right then as this, Lane drops the word troyed by burning certain pre- the photographs were made - part of our examination, but the "draft." On Page 66, it becomes liminary notes relating to" the photographs were made for the "his admission that he destroyed "ostensibly to assist him—Dr. autopsy. "Draft" was dropped. Humes and the other doctors", record and for other purposed." original notes relating to the Lane, Epstein and Weisberg autopsy." On Page 385, Lane as he puts it. By his construc- Epstein then later raises a see something highly suspi- says: "Destroyed evidence in- question about the original au- tion, it would seem the photos cious in the statement of Humes cluded the original notes pre- topsy report. Weisberg writes: "If the com- there was a shallow back wound, gram the entrance wound is bullet to have exited at the left mission had any questions about and not a neck wound. And much farther below the collar side of the President's skull, the burning of any kind of his- that would mean that the throat line. Thus, although Command- for he placed an arrow pointing toric paper s, especially un- wound was an entrance wound. er Humes testified in March to the left upon a mark evident- described 'preliminary draft And THAT would mean another that the entrance wound was ly signifying a bullet entry notes', the transcript does not firing position and another as- above the throat wound, during wound." reveal it." sassin. the autopsy he marked the en- How could he know what No one seems to wonder' why The sketch which Lane, Ep- trance wound below the throat Humes "apparently believed"? Humes need have told anyone stein and Weisberg refer to is wound." No such stated belief is to be about it since he did it while he the "A utopsy Descriptive Wrong. Humes didn't make found in Humes' testimony. And was alone in the privacy of his Sheet," which is part of Com- the mark. And Humes' testi- Lane has admitted in a pub- home. If he wanted to conceal mission Exhibit 397, the written mony conformed exactly with lished interview that he wrote something, would he raise sus- draft of the autopsy report. This the written descriptive details Humes but received no reply. picion by certifying that he sheet is a standard form—NMS on the diagram. Boswell made the arrow. burned a preliminary draft he PATH 8 1-63—and has the out- Weisberg refers to this same What does it signify? had written of the autopsy re- lined anatomical form of the material as "suppressed." He "The arrow is meant to imply port? male body in front and rear points out that the sheets were that this wound of entry went The critics make this draft views. It was one of the work- not published in the Warren Re- from external to internal in an seem part of the autopsy notes ing papers during the autopsy. port, which was a summation upward and inward slr nting di- themselves. Those notes are Lane, Epstein and Weisberg of evidence. But they are in rection," says Boswell. identified as part of commis- each are in error in saying that Vol. XVII, Page 45 of the sup- Epstein says there is other the markings on the outlines were sion's Exhibit 397. And if the porting volumes. Suppressed? evidence that a bullet never commission wanted to hide any made by Humes. On what is went through the president's revisions in the autopsy report this based? Humes did not testi- Errant Dot neck from back to front. For which it published, why then fy he made the marks. In fact, To Mark Lane that errant dot this conclusion, he turns to the he testified, regarding this autopsy itself. would it have published the is proof of a below the shoulder sketch and another hand-drawn "The fact that the autopsy sur- autopsy report in Humes' hand- back wound. He constructs a writing which shows those revis- sketch: "I notice now that the geons were not able to find a conclusion that the commission ions? handwriting in some instances path for the bullet is further evi- is not my own, and it is either recognized this but had to evade dence that the bullet did not THERE APPARENTLY was that of Cmdr. Boswell or Col. it because it would upset the pass completely through the one corroborating piece of evi- Finck." lone assassin conclusion. president's body," Epstein says. dence which was inexplicably "A back entrance wound was One of the things on which he BOSWELL HAS since cleared left out of the autopsy report, therefore inconvenient, and, bases this is Humes' testimony up this question. He made the the writers learned. That was the though evidently corroborated that pathologists were unable marks. He admits the dot is result of a microscopic examina- beyond doubt by the Humes "to take probes and have them not precise. tion of tissue removed from the autopsy diagram and corrobo- satisfactorily fall through any rear neck wound. "The dot was just meant to rated by the holes in the jacket path at this point." But Epstein "We conducted microscopic ex- imply where the point of entry and shirt, it disappeared," Lane leaves out Humes' statement amination of tissue removed was," he explains. ' "The notes contends. But as the report says, that "attempts to probe in the from the neck wound area and imply where the point of entry it was never there — except vicinity of this wound were un- found foreign substances such as are near this mark and give pre- to such scrutinizers as Lane. successful without fear of mak- fiber particles," says Boswell. cise measurements giving the Weisberg goes further. Insist- ing a false passage." This would further show that exact location of the wound." ing that the error admitted by The path was determined dur- the bullet which made the holes It is a hallmark of the critics' Boswell is no error at all, he ing the autopsy through recog- in Kennedy's jacket and shirt general scholarship that in zero- says: nized pathological procedure. carried some material with it ing in on this sketch none of The hole at the back of the them points out that although neck was characteristic of an into the neck. "UNLESS THE commission is Why wasn't this in the autopsy the dot is wrong, the description entry wound. The hole at the is clear: 14 centimeters down prepared to prove that this orig- throat did not then have the report? inal working paper of the au- "It was an unfortunate over- from the right mastoid process, characteristics of an exit wound which is the bony point behind topsy is wrong—not just a little because it had been used in sight. It was not intentional," wrong but grossly and inexcus- the right ear, and 14 centi- Parkland Hospital for a trach- Boswell says. "I would say ably wrong—wrong in a manner meters in from the right acro- eotomy when doctors were trying that three years ago we didn't that can never be expected from mium, which is the tip of the to give the mortally wounded presume that it would have been such eminent experts in both shoulder joint. That point, on a president an air passage. necessary to substantiate o u r pathology and forensic medi- man of Kennedy's size, is at But Lane, Weisberg and Ep- findings." cine, its entire report is a mon- the base of the neck. stein won't buy that, not when Boswell contributed to the con- strous fake." troversy regarding just what the And so the critics plunge they have the FBI summary re- ahead constructing their case By the same logic, showing autopsy sketch shows because it the errors and wrongs of "White- port of Dec. 9, 1963, to play with. was he who had placed a dot— against the Warren Report. Two FBI agents, James W. Here's Epstein, handling the wash"—as the writers are doing indicating the entry of a bullet- here—would amount to proving Sibert and Francis X. O'Neill, in an inexact spot. It is below descriptive sheets: were in the autopsy room. So "The fact sheet shows front Weisberg is right in his charges. the shoulder and to the right of Lane also saw something else were some Secret Service the spine. and back diagram of the presi- agents. dent's body." Wrong. They are in the autopsy diagrams. There Star Exhibit outlines of a human male and is an arrow• on the back of the head, which is very plain. Lane The critics treat this sketch not specifically the president. TUE FBI SUMMARY -report; sees it this way: as a star exhibit. And it is "On the front diagram, the which was not published in the on this dot they have stood pat. throat wound is just below the "The diagrams . . . show that Warren Report or its support- They claim it as proof that collar line; on the back dia- Humes apparently believed a ing volumes — thereby provid- —AP Wit ephoto Secret Service man jumps on back step of presiden- shot. Mrs. Kennedy, comforting her mortally tial limousine seconds after President Kennedy was wounded husband, is at right. ing other fodder for the critics - and published by the commis- 1963. So the FBI couldn't have J. Humes, ciiief autopsy sur- said, in part: sion, however, does not permit given it careful study, as Lane geon, located what appeared to "Medical examination of the the conclusions offered by the says. be a bullet hole in the back president's body revealed that FBI. Indeed it flatly contradicts And when the FBI did see it below the shoulder and probed one of the bullets had entered them." and turned out a supplemental it to the end of the opening just below his shoulder to the report, Jan. 13, 1964, no change with a finger. The examining right of the spinal column at an Autopsy Report was made because of the FBI physicians were unable to ex- practice and tradition of report- angle of 45-60 degrees down- Was the report undated? plain why they could find no ing what its agents say. ward, that there was no point of In a certificate dated Nov. 24, bullet or point of exit. Unknown This Jan. 13 report said, exit, and that the bullet was not 1963, which is part of Commis- to agents, the physiclant even- "Medical examination of the in the body." sion Exhibit 397, containing the tually were able to trace the president's body revealed that Lane says this report had to written autopsy report, Humes path of the bullet through the the bullet which entered his be the correct version of the certifies that "all working pa- back had penetrated to a dis- autopsy findings. pers associated with Naval One technique which the crit- tance of less than a f inge r "Clearly Hoover — FBI Di- Medical School Autopsy Report ics use to discredit the autopsy length." rector J. Edgar Hoover - A63-272 have remained in my report is what might be called As J. Edgar Hoover was to would not presume to summar- personal custody at all times. reverse English. explain later: ize the medical examination of Autopsy notes and the holograph In a usual medical situation, the president's body — the au- draft of the final report were "The FBI reports record oral statements made by autopsy if a person died during an opera- topsy report — in so vital a handed to commanding officer, tion, say for removal of a wart document unless the autopsy re- physicians while the examina- U.S. Naval Medical School, at on his finger, the cause of death port had been studied carefully. 1700, 24 November, 1963." tion was being conducted and would be determined by an au- The undated autopsy report pre- Also, the FBI did not receive before all the facts were known. topsy. If the autopsy attributed pa— 3. by the military phy;icians the autopsy report until Dec. 23, They reported that Dr. James death to heart failure, critics such as Lane, Weisberg and Ep- Asked about what questions he the doctors. Lane's treatment closed cardiac massage was in- stein — if they are judged by was asked and what replies he of this deserves a close look. stituted, which made it impos- their performance — would say made, Perry testified: "These eight physicians exam- sible to inspect his back." ignore the autopsy, look at the "Well, there were numerous ined the right occipital-parietal Was this done after the presi- wart. questions asked, all the questions area; each testified that he did dent died? No. Not one doctor This is what they've done on I cannot remember of course. not see a bullet hole which the ever said this was done. Why focusing on what happened when Specifically, the thing that commission said was there," not? Carrico was asked. Lane writes. Then he gives this the president was taken to seemed to be of most interest "I suppose nobody really had version of the questioning of Dr. Parkland Memorial Hospital. at that point was actually trying the heart to do it." William Kemp Clark, director Again, they show how they to get me to speculate as to the It happened in a small park picked and chose to get what direction of the bullets, t h e of neurological surgery at Park- land Memorial Hospital: called Dealey Plaza, named in they did — an entrance wound number of bullets, and the exact honor of a famous Dallas pub- at the throat. cause of death. "Q: Now you described the massive wound at the top of the lisher. Its c e n t r a.1 landmark "The first two questions I used to be a bronze statue of president's head, with the_ brain LANE NEEDS THIS to sup- could not answer, and my reply that citizen, George B. Dealey. protruding; did you observe any port his argument that there to them was that I did not know, Now there are others: the yel- other hole or wound on the pres- was a shot or shots fired from if there were one or two bullets, low brick mass of the Texas ident's head?" the grassy knoll — the greens- and I could not categorically School Book Depository and, "Dr. Clark: No, sir; I did ward parallel to the presidential state about the nature of the dose by, an embankment now not." motorcade — rather than solely neck wound, whether it was an called "the grassy knoll". And that is where Lane stops. from Oswald's perch on the entrance or an exit wound, not But not Clark. His answer was: Some saw a rifle in a build- sixth floor of the Texas School having examined the president "No, sir; I did not. This could ing window. Book Depository. further — I could not comment have easily been hidden in the The Warren Commission de- "Although every doctor who on other injuries." blood and hair." cided it was from there the as- had seen the throat wound prior Dr. Charles R. Baxter. He sassin fired. to the tracheotomy and helped with the tracheotomy. On Good Reason Some saw a puff of smoke on expressed a contemporaneous Page 52 of his book Lane writes: a grassy knoll. opinion had said that it was a "Dr. Charles R. Baxter told None of the seven other doc- Critics have decided it was wound of entrance," Lane says commission counsel that "it tors saw such a hole. But none from there an assassin fired. on Page 53 of his book, the would be unusual for a high said there was no such hole. The grassy knoll is a slope of commission chose to dismiss And there is good reason — a velocity missile to cause an exit greensward running southwest- these as erroneous conclusions reason the critics elect to ig- wound possessing the character- erly away from the Texas stemming from a doctor's ob- istics of the president's throat nore: The president remained on his School Book Depository. There servations to the press. wound." But Lane left out most is an arcade on its ridge, then back, with great care taken not Let's see. of the sentence on Page 42, Vol. a picket fence, shoulder high. Dr. Charles T. Carrico. Lane VI, which was a reply Baxter to move his head, all the time The knoll runs along the north doesn't name him as one of the made to a question. It says: he was at the hospital. side of Elm Street on which doctors saying there was an en- "Although it would be un- Why wasn't the president Kennedy was slain. It ends at trance wound at the throat. But usual for a high velocity missile turned over at Parkland? a railroad overpass which Elm Carrico was the first doctor to of this type to cause a wound as Street goes beneath. see the president. In a written you have described, the passage Carrico testified: through tissue planes of this den- "This man was in obvious dis- .Several men on the overpass report dated at 4:20 p.m. on the saw smoke near the fence as sity could have well resulted in day of the assassination, Carri- tress and any more thorough the president fell. If the smoke the sequence you outline; name- co described the wound as a inspection would have involved came from the assassin's rifle, "small penetrating wound of the ly, that the anterior wound does several minutes — well, several Kennedy could not have been neck in the lower 1-3." "Pene- represent a wound of exit." —considerable time which at shot in the back, as the autop- trating" in medical terminologY sy doctors decided. It is as sim- can mean either entrance or DR. RONALD C. JONES. His this juncture was not available. ple as that: he was facing ob- exit. In his testimony, Carrico report described the wound as A thorough inspection would liquely toward the knoll. further said that "not having an entrance wound. He testified have involved washing and If he was shot from the knoll, completely evaluated all the as to his reasons for this belief, cleansing the back, and this is the throat wound must be one of wounds, traced out the course and Lane quotes his testimony not practical in treating an entry, not exit even though doc- of the bullets, this wound would from Page 55, Vol. VI — up to a acutely injured patient. You tors said it was of exit. The fab- have been compatible with point, an important point. In have to determine which things, ric of the hole in the back of his either entrance or exit wounds Lane's book, Jones says in part: which are immediately life jacket could not have been bent depending upon the size, the ve- inwards, even though it was. " 'You would expect more of an threatening and cope with them, Gov locity, the tissue structure and explosive type of exit wound, before attempting to evaluate . Connally could not have been shot in the back by the so forth." with more tissue destruction than the full extent of the injuries." "Q: Did you ever have oc- same bullet, even though doctors this appeared to have' ". Three said he was. Lee Harvey Os- Entry Wound words were then dropped after casion to look at the president's wald would not have been a Dr. Malcolm Perry. He per- "have." They were ". . on su- back?" lone assassin. formed the tracheotomy, so he perficial examination." "Dr. Carrico: No sir. Before The commission gave less at- saw the wound before it had Lane doesn't mention that —well, in trying to treat an tention to the knoll than it did been touched. In a press con- none of the doctors knew there acutely injured patient, you the overpass. It ruled out the ference in which he had the was a wound at the back of the have to establish an airway, overpass in favor of the deposi- burden of trying to answer most neck. adequate ventilation and you tory as the assassin's lair for of the questions — "It was bed- Lane and Weisberg also em- have to establish adequate cir- many reasons, one being that no lam," he later testified — he phasize that the little entrance culation. Before this was ac- was quoted as saying the throat hole on the back of the presi- complished the president's car- one on the overpass saw a ri- wound was an entry wound. dent's skull was not seen by diac activity had ceased and fle being fired from there. No one saw a rifle fired from the knoll, either.

YET THE KNOLL abides. It does so because critics stress what people saw and heard there. They have not, however, stressed everything that people heard or saw tfiere. Or did not hear or see. Consider S. M. Holland. Holland was standing on an overpass above Elm Street as the motorcade approached. The grassy knoll was slightly to his left in the foreground. The Texas School Book Depository, from which the commission says the shots were fired, was also slight- ly to his left but behind the presidential limousine. Holland heard a noise like a firecracker. "I looked toward the arcade and trees and saw a puff of smoke come from the trees." That is what H olfan d told sheriff's deputies right after the assassination, and that is how Mark Lane quotes him in "Rush to Judgment." But there is more to the sen- tence, although Lane does not include it. It reads: ". . . And I heard three more shots after the first shot, but that was the only puff of smoke I saw." If one puff of smoke suggests someone shot a gun from the knoll, what does the absence of three subsequent puffs suggest? The jury, the reading public, from a spot just west of the —A? Wirephoto was not asked to decide. Mark Texas SChool Book Depository." AP Writers Sid Moody, left, and Bernard Gavzer Lane did it for them. He decided Reilly: "The shots came from with Warren Report and critics' many books. not to raise the question. that park where all the shurbs is before he could mention the cm- smoke came from a ,motorcycle Epstein wrote ". . . Six out of up there, to the north of E 1 m cial observation contained in his abandoned near the spot by seven of these witnesses on tne Street, up the slope." affidavit." Dallas policemen." Who, does it overpass who gave an opinion Foster: "It — the sound - Actually, at the end of his in- seem, is dismissing,.what? as to the source of the shots came from back in the corner of terrogation, during which he in- The other four who Lane says indicated that the shots had Elm and Houston streets." The deed did not mention any smoke, saw smoke — Richard Dodd, come from a 'grassy knoll'." depository is at the corner of Miller was asked if he could add Walter Windborn, Simmons and They did. Elm and Houston. anything "that might be of any Murphy — were interviewed by The six cited are James Sim- Holland, who also picked the help to the commission or to the him in 1966. Whatever they told mons, Austin Miller, Thomas knoll, testified he immediately investigation of the assassins-- Lane then, only one — Simmons Murphy, Frank Reilly, J. W. ran to that area. He saw no one tion." —mentioned smoke to the FBI Foster and Holland. suspicious. Miller: "Offhand, no sir, I when questioned during the as- This is what they say in the Those are the six who "indicat- don't recall anything else." May- sassination investigation. report volumes: ed the shots came from a 'grassy be he forgot the smoke, maybe knoll'." Two, actually, picked the not. But it is hardly accurate to 'Exhaust Fumes depoitory area. One who indi- Simmons paraphrased by the convey the impression that the Simmons said he thought he FBI: "He advised that it was cated the knoll also thought the commission had trrned Miller saw "exhaust fumes" of smoke his opinion that the shots came shots sounded like they came off before he c-uld give testi- near the embankment in front from the direction of the Texas from Kennedy's car. mony a g a ins t tl: depository of the Texas School Book De- School Book Depository." theory by "disco sing" him. pository. He ran toward that BESIDES HOLLAND, Lane Lane goes on. "Cl ,mon John- building with a policeman, first Miller: "It sounded like it says six others on the overpass son told FBI agents th-t he had looking over the knoll fence. came from the, I would say saw smoke. Austin Miller is one. observed 'white smok-?." That Two years later the "exhaust from right there in the car. In an affidavit Nov. 22, 1963, he is ALL he says about Clemon fumes" by the depository have . Would be to my left, the way said he saw "smoke or steam" Johnson. But Johnson's full state- become "a puff of smoke" near I was looking at him, over to- coming from the knoll area. When ment as paraphrased by the FBI the fence. Lane saves the read- ward -that incline — the knoll." Miller was later questioned by was: "Johnson stated that white er the trouble of having to de- Murphy: "These shots came commission counsel, Lane smoke was observed near t h e ode which recollection is accur- writes, Miller was "dismissed pavilion arcade but he felt this ate. The first, given to the FBI, is not included in his book. Whether they saw smoke or not, it apparently did not aid Dodd or Windborn in placing the source of the shots. They told the FBI they couldn't tell where they came from. There are three other aspects of smoke, not dwelled upon by Lane or Epstein in connection with the knoll. 1—There was a steam pipe in the area. 2—FBI tests showed the al- leged assassination rifle pro- duced only a "small amount" of smoke when fired: modem mili- tary gunpowder is smokeless. 3—NONE of the approximately 200 assassination witnesses ques- tioned other than the four on the overpass mentions seeing ANY smoke anywhere. Lane says only those on the overpass could see smoke from the' knoll because of its elevation and the bushes around it. But those per- sons on the south side of Elm Street should have seen it, if there was any. They, not those on the overpass, were in a di- rect line of fire. None of them mentioned smoke. Lane cites what people heard as well as saw to pinpoint the knoll. He quotes 0. V. Camp- bell, vice president of the de- pository, who believed the shots came from "the railroad tracks —AP Photo near the viaduct overpass." from some of their statements. Sen. John Sherman Cooper, R-Ky., walks with This could be construed as the It is also not always easy to pin- Dallas officials during Warren Committee hear- knoll area. point the more than 60 witnesses Sheriff CAMPBELL WAS standing in ings in Washington. L-R, Cooper, Deputy who thought the shots came Eugene Boone, Patrolman M. N. McDonald, Deputy front of the depository, as Lane from the depository. Sheriff Luke Mooney and Patrolman Marion Baker. mentions. He does NOT men- Such as: the Dallas mayor's wife, who Cabells and Bob Ia.cksons in tion that at his elbow stood Mrs. F. Lee Mudd—"From the di- looked towards the depository at mind when he said there is Robert Reid, a fellow employe. rection of t h e depository." the sound of shots and "saw a "some evidence" shots came Lane does NOT mention that Charles Hester—"It appeared projection" in an upper window. from the depository. There is "some" evidence. No one saw a Mrs. Reid testified: to be a building on the corner Or Bob Jackson, a press pho- puff of smoke there. Only a "I turned to Mr. Campbell and of Elm and Houston streets." tographer, who also looked up I said, 'Oh, my goodness, I am rifleman. Charles Brehm—"One of two at the depository and told col- afraid those sounds came from buildings on Elm and Houston." leagues in a motorcade press our building' because it sound- 10 Witnesses car "There is the gun!" Or ed like they came just so di- Marion Baker—"H i g h up, James Crawford, who looked up Epstein thinks there is "com- rectly over my head." pretty sure from the deposi- at the sound of the third shot pelling" evidence shots were Two witnesses. Two versions. tory." and "saw a movement" in the fired from the depository. But he Both appear in the Warren Re- T. E. Moore—"From a high faults the commission for not area." southeast window of the sixth port. Only one does in "Rush to looking more thoroughly into the Allan Sweatt—"Vicinity of floor of the depository and told Judgment." possibility of the knoll. He asks Elm and Houston." a friend "If those were shots, "Many other persons scattered why the commission did not call Or the 15 people of the motor- they came from that window" throughout Dealey Plaza through and then advised police to the 10 witnesses who stood be- which' Elm Street runs and the cade itself who thought the shots search around some boxes he tween the knoll and the presi- knoll and depository overlook came from the "right rear." saw in the window. Police did. dent's car because nine of them placed the origin of the shots on Since none of such witnesses "thought the shots had come They found three rifle shells that the knoll," Lane observes. And is mentioned in Lane's book; from the knoll directly behind were fired by a rifle also found perhaps that is why he felt no them." so they did. Jean Hill did. Billie on that floor — by that rifle and Joe Lovelady did. William New- need to mention such others no other. Bullet fragments found If the commission did not call whose testimony is helpful in lo- them, it did have their state- man did. John and Faye Chism in Kennedy's car also came cafing the source of the shots. ments. did. Roy Truly did. from that rifle and no other. At least 34 people did, al- This is what they said: though it is difficult to pinpoint SUCH AS MRS. Earle Cabell, Maybe Lane had the Mrs. A. J. Millican: He said he heard three shots from the de- pository area, two from the ar- cade and three more from the arcade but further away. Charles Hester: He said "the shots sounded like they definite- ly came from in or around the depository building." Abraham Zapruder: "I thought it—the shots—came from in back of mq. Of course you can't tell when something is in line—it could be from anywhere." "Q: Did you form any opin- ion about the direction from which the shots came by the sound . . .?" "A: No, there was too much reverberation. There was an echo which gave me sound all over."

MARY ELIZABETH Wood- ward: She told the FBI the shots came "from possibly behind her" or from the overpass. How- ever, because of the loud echo, she could not say where the shots had come from other than they had come from above her head. Mrs. Hester: She was stand- ing near the overpass approxi- mately in line with Kennedy's car and the depository. She said she could give no position for the shots other than to tell the FBI she believed she and her husband were in the line of fire. The other four of the nine Ep- stein said identified the knoll did, indeed, think the shots came from there. Epstein continues: "E i g h t witnesses were standing across the street from the all eight said they thought the shots hod come from the knoll." Actually, four of them did. One said she couldn't determine the source. Two thought the shots came possibly from the depository area. One said they c7rne from one of two build- ings at the corner there, one the depository. In the second chapter of his book, Lane writes: "Twenty-five —AP Wirephoto witrcs7es are known to have tory. Two indicated it could given statements or affidavits have been either. Photo and inset show location of bullet hole in Ken- on Nov. 22 and Nov 23 — the There is a witness mentioned nedy's coat. Arm was upraised when bullet struck, day of and the d ty after the in another context by Lane nicking possible trajectory of bullet through neck. assassination — about the origin whose testimony has some rele- school book depository building Bowers: "Yes: I had worked of the shots. Twenty-two said vance as to the conflicting opin- or near the mouth of the triple this same tower for some 10 !hey believed that the shots ions of where the shots came underpass." or 12 years, and was there dur- came f-em the knoll." Q: "You were not able to from. He is Lee E. Bowers. He ing the time they were renovat- Should one check the com- was working in a signal tower tell which?" ing the school depository build- mission volumes, he wculd find in the railroad area behind the Bowers: "No, I could not." that, yes, 23 people did give knoll. His testimony is in Vol- Q: "Well, now, had you had ing, and had noticed at that statements to law officials on ume VI. any experience before being in time the similarity of sounds those two days. Nine cited the Bowers: "The sounds came the tower as to sounds coming occurring in either of those two knoll. Twelve cited the deposi- from either from up against the from these various places?" locations." Bowers' testimony doesn't rule "I just talked to a guy up left this area just about 12:25 testifying the assassin was out the knoll. It doesn't rule out here who was standing close to p.m." The assassination occur- standing while firing and "the the depository. It does help it and the best he could tell red at 12:30 p.m. fact that Brennan had lied at the it came from the Texas School Bowers also said he saw two police lineup." those investigators trying to ex- Book Depository." men watching over the f e n c e Epstein notes, correctly, that plain why witnesses to the as- Deputy Allan Sweatt couldn't about the time of the shots Brennan testified the assassin sassination gave conflicting op- tell which way to run because which arouses Lane's sus- was standing in the window as inions as to the sound of the one man told him the shots picions. Not, however, to the ex- he shot. He does not note that shots. If Bowers was helpful in came from toward the knoll tent of mentioning Bowers saw Brennan also thought that three this regard to Lane or Epstein, and another said the deposi- "at least" one of them still onlookers a floor beneath the they didn't mention it. tory. A colleague with hint there as police began fanning assassin were alSo standing. Apart from what witnesses stayed at the depository while out over the area. They weren't. They were kneel- In any event, patrolman heard or did not hear from the he ran on toward the/ knoll. ing. So must the assassin have knoll, Lane attaches significance Deputies Jack Faulkner and A. Charles Polk Player searched been to fire through the win- cars in the lot for two hours. to what they DID there. D. McCurley ran toward the dow. A small point. A small He didn't report finding any-, railroad yards behind the knoll rebuttal—too small, evidently, to thing. Several hoboes found in "MANY OFFICERS said that because they saw other officers include in "Inquest." as soon as the shots were fired, running there. Officer D. V. freight cars were questioned. At a police lineup the day of they ran directly to the knoll Harkness went to the railroad Seymour Weitzman found foot- the assassination, Brennan said and behind the wooden fence yards because he saw "every- prints "that didn't make sense he could not positively identify and began to search the area, body hitting the ground" there. because they were going differ- Oswald as the assassin. Four some passing the book deposi- ent directions." Holland saw months later, he told the com- tory on the way." In other words, people were muddy footprints on a car bump- mission he could. He said he running in many directions for er. Had an assassin stood there? Why did people converge on hadn't done so earlier because many reasons. Most of the sher- the knoll? No one had seen one. If he he feared Communist reprisal. iff's deputies had been in front of had, he had been able to gather The Hesters ran TOWARD it Epstein uses this discrepancy to their office around the corner up any shells from the ground to seek shelter from the gun- attack Brennan's credibility. He when the shots were fired and in the brief time before police fire. Miss Patricia Ann Law- doesn't mention that the com- ran in the directions they did be- arrived because none was found. rence, who had been standing mission agrees with him. cause of what bystanders t o 1 d No rifle was found. at Elm and Houston, ran "along them, because they saw others Because Brennan declined to with the crowd" to where the running that way or because of make positive identification of president's car had been when where they thought the sounds Puff of Smoke Oswald at the lineup, the com- he was hit. So did Mrs. Charles came from. Nothing . . . Nothing to add mission said it "does not base its conclusion concerning the Davis. "I just ran along with "Everybody was just running to what some people said they identity of the assassin on Bren- them," said Danny Arce. around in circles," said Deputy heard and saw around the knoll: nan's subsequent certain identi- Curtis Bishop, on the over- Eddy Raymond Walthers. some shots and a puff of smoke. pass, saw people "running in fication." After searching the knoll area The commission, however, every direction." Geneva Hine, UNDENIABLY, THE KNOLL for a while, Weitzman went over on the second floor of the de- does not question Brennan's area was widely searched by to help at the depository. On credibility that he saw a man pository, saw people running officers immediately after t h e the sixth floor, behind some EAST on Elm, away from the firing a rifle from a depository shots. And what was found? boxes, the officer found a rifle window because near that win- knoll "There wasn't anything over with a telescopic sight. The gun dow were found not only a there," said patrolman E. L. had been purchased by some one rifle but shells and fingerprints Ran to Overpass Smith. named A. Hidell whose hand- of Lee Harvey Oswald. "We didn't see anything writing was identical with Lee Ralph Walters, a deputy sher- It might also be noted, al- there," said Deputy Luke Harvey Oswald's. though Epstein does not, that iff, ran toward the overpass Mooney, who thought the shots where he had last seen the presi- while on Nov. 22 Brennan said came from the knoll. Two persons said they saw he could not make positive iden- dential limousine. "We couldn't a rifle being fired from the John and Faye Chism, stand- tification, he did then say that get any information." sixth floor of the depository. One ing in front of the knoll, had No. 2 in the lineup "most closely L. S. Smith, another deputy, was Howard Brennan. To looked around when they heard resembled" the man he saw in ran toward the depository. A weaken the case for the deposi- the shots. They saw no one. the window. Lee Harvey Oswald woman said the shots came tory, it is important for the Harold Elkins, another deputy, was man No. 2. from the knoll. So Smith ran ran into Bowers in the railroad critics to weaken Brennan's tes- there. John Wiseman, a deputy, yard. Bowers said he had seen timony. This they try to do. ran to the knoll where he saw three out-of-state cars driving Epstein says Joseph Ball, a THERE IS also more to Ep- police having trouble with a around the parking area behind commission lawyer who investi- stein's allegation that Ball was motorcycle. Then a woman the knoll just before the assas- gated the identity of the assas- "extremely dub iou s" about pointed to the depository. So he sination. Two drove off before sin, "had several reasons to Brennan's testimony. ran there. Deputy W. W. Mabra the shots. Lane mentions this. doubt Brennan's testimony." "Epstein says that I told him saw people running toward the And the third. Lane leaves him when we constructed the epi- overpass area "so I ran that near the knoll and leaves the sode that Brennan 'had diffi- way." Motorcycle patrolman reader to conjecture what the EPSTEIN LISTS them: Bren- culty seeing a figure in the win- Clyde Haygood drove toward driver might or might not have nan's "difficulty seeing a fig- dow.' I never ,said that. In the the overpass area "because peo- done there. ure" in the depository window first place, we didn't have Bren- ple were pointing." Then a man "The last I saw of him he during a re-enactment of the nan at the reconstruction to mentioned the depository and was pausing just about in — just assassination; Brennan's failure see whether he could see. We at 12:34 p.m., four minutes after above the assassination site." to identify Oswald on "promin- had him there so that he could the assassination, he radioed Lane has this quote of Bowers. ent points" of his clothing; mark positions on a photo. He the police dispatcher: He doesn't have this one: "He Brennan's "major error" in quotes me as being 'extremely dubious.' I never said that. It didn't happen." So spoke Joseph Ball. Finally, as would any good defense attorney, the critics question Brennan's ability to see anything. "Perhaps poor eyesight ac- counted for Brennan's inability to identify the man at the win- dow," says Lane. 'Brennan ad- mitted that his eyesight was 'not good' when he testified be- fore the commission.' Brennan, indeed, so testified. He said this was so because his eyes had been accidentally sand- blasted. That happened two months after the assassination. In a footnote of Page 90 of the hardcover edition of "R u s h to Judgment" Lane mentions the injury. Seemingly, there the matter would rest: that Bren- nan testified he was farsighted up until an injury two months after the assassination and that thereafter his eyesight was "not good." Yet by Page 269 Howard Bren- nan has become "weak-eyed Brennan, who claimed he saw Oswald in the window." After 170 pages maybe the author had forgotten how—or when—Brennan became "weak- eyed." Or maybe the reader had.

LEE HARVEY OSWALD: The lone, withdrawn child . . . The lone reader of Marxist thunder in hushed libraries . . . The lone rejector of his homeland . . . The lone prodigal returned to friendless frustration . . . But, hunched in the depository window, still alone? The Warren Commission nev- er said: Lee Harvey Oswald, alone, murdered John F. Ken- nedy, period. It actually said: "The com- mission has found no evidence that Oswald was involved with any person or group in a con- spiracy . . . If there is any such evidence, it has been beyond the reach of all the investigative agencies and resources of the he was a fall guy, that he was —AP Wirephoto United States and has not come involved with Jack Ruby or Ber- This was recreation of scene of view through scope to the attention of the commis- nard Weissman or the FBI or from School Depository building. sion." Communists or Texas oil inter- There the matter has not rest- ests or racists. False Scents scents that confuse the hunt for ed. A court of law will decide in truth. In New Orleans Dist. Atty. New Orleans. But the other ver- The Warren Commission, un- What other construction can Jim Garrison has claimed to sions of conspiracy are not and fortunately, did not answer all one put, for instance, on Mark have found what the conunis- quite possibly never will be be- the questions. Some, however, Lane's innuendo that there sion did not: conspiracy. On the fore a judge and jury. But they bookshelves of the nation are are before the jury of public are probably unanswerable. But might have been a connection volumes that claim the same: opinion. They will be for some some are not questions at all. between Ruby and the right that Oswald was innocent, that time. They are innuendoes — false wing of Dallas'? The commission made an the prominent people in Dallas er Waldo, a reputable journalIt. man was a white, male Ameri- hour - by - hour probe of Ruby's . . . but did not know Lamar Counsel, however, did not ask can who was 26 in 1963 and actions from Nov. 21 to Nov. 24, Hunt." Waldo about the meeting." Who, if he had been at the Car- 1963, to determine if he was in- Ruby left her at the ground Not in so many words. For ousel "a. number of occasions," volved in a plot. floor elevator. He never did get how was counsel to know what had nonetheless been in Dallas "The commission found that to go up and meet Hunt. Miss Thayer Waldo knew since Lane only 10 days. Ruby's activities and associa- Trammel didn't get the job. But had refused to tell the commis- Lane reports that several wit- tions were innocent," Lane the reader might get a dearer sion, much less counsel, about nesses said Ruby knew Tippit. writes in "Rush to Judgment." picture of the Ruby-Hunt "asso- Waldo or any other source? One that he cites was Dallas po- "An objective analysis of the ciation" from Commission Ex- But at the end of Waldo's in- lice Lt. George C. Arnett. What record might yield a somewhat hibit 2291 than from "Rush to terrogation, which covered other Arnett actually told the FBI was different evaluation of Ruby's Judgment." matters, counsel did ask if he that he did not recall to what conduct." Such handling of evidence by could add any information about extent Ruby MAY have known Lane mentions an instance on the critics happens too often to anything else. Waldo said no, he police officer J. D. Tippit but Nov. 21 when the commission be mere oversight. couldn't. added that "he does not believe had said Ruby "visited with a Consider the alleged meeting he was more friendly with Tip- young lady who was job hunt- in Ruby's Carousel Club Nov. 14, IF NOT WITH Waldo, the pit than the average officer." ing in Dallas." 1963, between Ruby, J. D. Tip- commission did inquire into the Arnett, in other words, did not "Contrary to the commission's pit, the officer the commission Carousel meeting with other wit- say positively whether Ruby did unassuming summation," says said was shot by Oswald, and nesses. One was Larry Crafard, or did not know Tippit. Lane, "Ruby did not merely Bernard Weissman. Weissman a carnival worker hired by Ruby visit with a young lady who was Ruby Quoted job hunting. Commission Ex- Lane says Crafard and An- hibit 2270, an FBI report of an drew Armstrong, Ruby's bar- interview with Connie Trammel, tender and handyman, both the young lady in question, di- heard Ruby say he knew Tip- vulges the fact that Ruby drove pit when he learned the officer her to the office of Lamar Hunt, had been shot. Lane does not say the son of H. L. Hunt." that Armstrong also told the FBI: "From what I gather later LANE DROPS THE matter at on, Mrs. Grant, Ruby's sister, that point. Ruby is left at the told me it was a different Tip- office of Lamar Hunt, whose pit that he know. In other words, Texas-rich father is a strong there was two officers that had supporter of ultraright causes. the name of Tippit." The reader of "Rush to Judg- Actually, there were t h r e e. ment" is left to make what he And Ruby did know one of them. may of this suggested link be- He said he knew a detective tween Ruby and the Dallas right Gayle Tippit, who worked in spe- wing. For clarification, however, cial services. Lane's book has he might turn to a commission this. It mentions that Gayle exhibit. Not 2270. Try 2291. Tippit said his "contacts in It also is a statement by Miss recent years with Ruby have Trammel, now Mrs. Penny, to —AP Wtrephoto been infrequent." the FBI. In it she says she once That is taken from Commit- had a long talk with Ruby when Three critics of Warren Report, Leo Sauvage, tee Exhibit 1620 in which Gayle she and some classmates from Mark Lane and Edward Epstein. the University of Texas visited Tippit also said that in the his Dallas strip club. Ruby 1950s he "became very well asked if she wanted to work for was the young Easterner who to do odd jobs around the club. acquainted with Jack Ruby." him. She didn't. But Ruby kept had helped place an ad critical The commission volumes have a Lane does not quote that part of Kennedy in the Dallas Morn- statement by Crafard in which of Exhibit 1620. calling. The last time was Nov. ing News the day of the assassi- he told the FBI he recognized Lane writes that the com- 21, 1963. nation. a picture of Weissman as a man mission might also have inter- During that phone conversa- Weissman had arrived in Dal- he had seen at the club "on a rogated Harold Richard Wil- tion, Miss Trammel mentioned las Nov. 4 to try and set up a number of occasions." liams. Williams told Lane he she was seeking a public rela- new conservative party by in- Lane has this quote. He does had seen Ruby and an officer tions job at a bowling alley she filtrating right-wing groups, one not mention that Crafard also be identified as J. D. Tippit had read Lamar Hunt owned. of which he said never accom- told the FBI he had a "very in a patrol car when he was ar- She had an appointment to see plished more than "running vague recollection" of having rested in November :1963. Lane him that very day. She said she around burning baskets from heard Ruby mention the name warns his readers that Wil- didn't have a car. Ruby offered Yugoslavia." Weissman, that he believed liams' testimony "should be as- to drive her to the bank building Lane. himself, had told the Weissman was a Dallas detec- sessed with a degree of cau- where Hunt had his office, since commission about the meeting. tive whose first name may have tion" since he was not a wit- he had business to transact at He declined to reveal his source been Johnny and that he "could ness and under oath. He might the bank. for the story because the source have my recollection of a Mr. also have notified his readers, "During the trip . . . to the had not given him permission Weissman mixed up with some- but didn't, that Tippit was sta- bank, Ruby seemed impressed to do so. one else." tioned in the Oak Cliff section of with the amount of money that "But," he wrote in his book, Lane does not mention that Dallas all the way across town Lamar Hunt had made," Miss "if the commission had wanted Crafard thought Weissman was from where Williams said he Trammel told the FBI, "and had his name, it need only have a "white male American," 38 to was arrested. mentioned that he knew most of asked one of its witnesses, Thay- 43 years of age. Bernard Weiss- Two witnesses said that on Nov. 14, the night of the meet- the chief witness against Shaw tion the foregoing in claiming the FBI she went back to looking ing, Weissman was in their so far is a man who first con- commission "relied entirely on at television. home trying to sell them car- tacted Garrison two days AFT- the FBI to disprove the rumor" 2—Patrolman Jimmy Valentine peting until 9:30 p.m. or 10 p.m. ER the district attorney said the of Oswald's FBI connection. had Car 207 that afternoon. He Mrs. Tippit said her husband case was solved. The witness Another conspiracy rum o r: had been at headquarters when was a homebody devoted to his testified after being given "truth Ruby entered the Dallas police he heard of the assassination family. Lane, nonetheless, says serum" and undergoing hypno- headqurters to shoot Oswald not at about 12:45 p.m. He drove the commission should have sis. by accident but by design. In to the depository all the way asked her what Tippit was It should-be mentioned anoth- accord with some superplot, the across town through heavy doing the night of Nov. 14 and er witness reportedly said he assassin had to be assassinated. traffic. This would put him at asked Weissman what he did was offered a bribe by the dis- One incontestable fact of time, the building close to the after 10 p.m. that same eve- trict attorney's office to give however, must be considered. ments Oswald dashed into the ning. favorable testimony. The wit- The exact time of Oswald's rooming house several miles LANE SAYS the question to ness' lawyer said a lie detector transfer depended on when po- away. Valentine turned the keys Weissman was "never even test verified the bribe attempt. lice were done questioning him. over to a sergeant. posed." It may not have been At the time that was decided, This does not mean, Lane posed to his liking, but Weiss- GARRISON has said he has Ruby was driving downtown to argues, that the car itself man was asked by commission evidence that Oswald was work- send a money order to one of his couldn't have been driven by counsel: "Did you at any time ing for the Central Intelligence strippers. The time he handed some other officers. Mrs. Rob- while you were in Dallas ever Agency. Others have said Oswald the money order across the erts saw two in the car. But have a meeting with or sit in was working for the FBI after Western Union counter was the men would have had to get the Carousel Club with officer his return from the Soviet Un- punched by a time clock: 11:17 the keys from the sergeant who Tippit?" ion for a fee of $200 a month. a.m. Oswald was shot at 11:21 said he didn't release them un- a.m. It takes several minutes to til 3:30 p.m., drive through "No," he answered. He said That rumor apparently came walk from Western Union to the heavy traffic around the depos- he had never been in Ruby's from a Houston reporter, Alonzo police basement where Oswald itory to the rooming house in club and didn't know him. Hudkins. Hudkins has since was slain. suburban Oak Cliff, honk twice Mrs. Tippit was less exact. told Charles Roberts of News- A commuter catching a train and drive away again. She said she had never heard week that he believes J. Edgar would scarcely cut his corners And for What purpose? Lane her husband mention being in Hoover's denials that Oswald Ruby's club. so finely. Would a man en- doesn't suggest one. was an FBI informant. B u t gaged in a superplot to do so? The point is not so much Epstein takes the commission to Deputy's Testimony whether such a meeting could or Particularly if he knew in some task for relying solely on the Lane also notes testimony of not have taken place. The point unexplained way his only chance word of an agency investigating would come at 11:21. Deputy Sheriff Roger D. Craig. here is that Lane, who present- itself. ed the rumor to the commis- THE SUPERPLOT elsewhere He said that 15 minutes after sion, did not present all the evi- Why, he asks in "Inquest," was running a very tight sched- the assassination he saw a young dence to his readers. For in- didn't the commission on its own ule. When Oswald dashed in and man he later identified as Os- stance, neither Mrs. Tippit's interrogate Hudkins and his re- out of his rooming house a half- wald run from near the depos- nor Weissman's denial and-or ported source for the story, Dal- hour after the assassination, itory and get into a light colored lack of knowledge of the meet- las Deputy Sheriff Allan Lane says a "rather mysteri- Rambler station wagon driven ing is presented in his book. Sweatt? It is a legitimate ques- ous" incident occurred. A Dal- by a Negro. Later that after- But what if, evidence to the tion. las police car stopped and noon Craig said he recognized contrary, such a meeting did But it is also legitimate to ask honked twice and drove off, said Oswald in the office of homicide take place? What was its pur- how Epstein can state "no ef- Earlene Roberts, the housekeep- Capt. Will Fritz. pose? Lane doesn't suggest one. forts were made by the commis- er. Craig said Oswald stood up Neither does any evidence in sion or its staff to investigate the Dallas police said there was and said: "That station wagon the Warren volumes. rumor itself." That simply no patrol car in the vicinity at belongs to Mrs. Paine, don't try the "inves- Nor is there evidence in the isn't true. the time. Lane says to tie her into this . . Everybody The commission, itself, DID in- tigation" consisted of nothing will know who I am now." volumes to indicate a conspiracy more than the statements of in New Orleans. The commis- vestigate in some detail reports The commission, as Lane of money orders Oswald report- police regarding car and officer notes, decided it "could not ac- sion and the FBI investigated assignments. several of the people that have edly had received while in Dal- cept important elements of figured in Garrison's case. They las. It turned out to be baseless. One might ask who would Craig's testimony." Lane does found no conspiracy. The commission, itself, DID in- know better than police the not note the reasons why. quire why FBI agent James whereabouts of a police car? One is an affidavit from Fritz. Hosty's name was in Oswald's Lane notes commission evi- He recalled a man telling a Shaw Case address book. Oswald told h i s dence that a patrolman had story similar to Craig's. This, This is not to deny the possi- wif e to take it down after driven Car 207 to the deposi- however, occurred in his outer bility of one. It should be Hosty had visited her at Ruth tory "just after 12:45 p.m.," gave office. Oswald was in his inner mentioned, however, that the Paine's where she was living. the keys to a sergeant and re- office. indictment against Clay Shaw, The commission DID investigate mained in the building several "Had I brought this man into a New Orleans businessman, through the Internal Revenue hours. my inner office I feel sure I says he conspired with Oswald Service Oswald's finances after A log of the travels of Car would have remembered it," to assassinate Kennedy. But it his return from the Soviet Union. 207 should, however, have this Fritz said. He didn't remember does NOT say the assassination His known and assumed out-go information which the report Oswald jumping up and saying was the one that took place Nov. remarkably approximated h i s provides—and Lane does not. what Craig said he said. Neither 22, 1963 in Dallas. Nor does it income down to the cash balance 1—Police Car 170, driven by did any one else there. say it wasn't. Garrison has said he had when arrested. acquaintances of hers, often Furthermore, Mrs. Paine he doesn't want to get involved The commission did NOT take owned a two-tone Chevrolet sta- in honked outside the house, Mrs. "semantics" over wording. at face value the denials of the Roberts said. When she saw tion wagon, not a light colored It should be mentioned that FBI. And Epstein did NOT men- the car was 207, she told the Rambler. ANOTHER CONSPIRACY: And there is a report of an McKeown. But is it of Nancy a phone call to a woman in Ruby was somehow involved in interview with attorney Cy Vic- Rich? And if one interprets it Houston that same evening. It Castroite activity. At length Lane torson who represented Mrs. as such, where does it all tie can't be determined whether the quotes the testimony of Nancy Rich on a vagrancy charge. He Ruby into an assassination su- call was local or not. Perrin Rich. She said' in 1962 said she told stories "so ridicu- perplot? Do surplus Jeeps in Epstein says the visit to Mrs. she and her late husband had lous that no one could possibly 1959, an unverified meeting in Odio occurred "the day before met several times in Dallas with believe them." 1962 add up to assassination in he Oswald left on his trip to others including an Army colonel Lane does not ask why Paul 1963? Mexico." This disregards Mrs. whose name she did not -recall Rayburn or Cy Victorson were Lane doesn't answer the ques- Odio's testimony. She said the and someone named Dave C.— not called by the commission. tion. He merely asks it. visit occurred Sept. 26 — when "I think it was Cole, but I He did not use their statements, Another conspiracy: Oswald, Oswald had already crossed the couldn't be sure." the admitted Marxist who want- border — or the 27th — when he either. After all, they did not ed fair play for Cuba, was act- had reached Mexico City and Mrs. Rich's husband had discuss Ruby or gun-running. ually in the anti - Castro un- asked $25,000 to shuttle a boat registered at a hotel. Were They only mentioned the one derground. someone's dates wrong? Ep- carrying guns into Cuba and witness who said she saw it all refugees out. Negotiations stein doesn't even mention there happen. THE SOURCE of this was is a conflict between him and stalled. Says Lane: "About so clan- Sylvia Odio, an anti - Castro the testimony. "A knock comes on the door destine an operation as smug- Cuban. On Sept. 26 or 27, 1963, and who walks in but my little gling weapons to Cuba and evac- two Cubans or Mexicans called Bus Ticket friend, Jack Ruby," said Mrs. uating exiles, however, one at her apartment in Dallas with Rich who had been a bartender He does not mention a com- would expect to find corrobora- a third person introduced as mission statement from E. P. at the Carousel Club. "Ruby had tion only with the greatest diffi- Leon Oswald, she said. The men a bulge in his pocket. He went Hammett, a Houston bus ticket culty, if at all." He indicates he told her they had recently come agent. Hammett told the FBI into another room and returned found it in Robert McKeown. from New Orleans and were minus the bulge," Mrs. Rich that in late September a man McKeown had been arrested in friends of her father, a prisoner said. She assumed the bulge was "strongly resembling" a photo- 1958 for conspiracy to smuggle of Castro. graph of Oswald asked him payoff money, although she guns to Cuban Prime Minister The next day one of the men, about bus travel to Laredo and never saw nor heard that money Fidel Castro. had changed hands. who said his name was Leo- Mexico City. Epstein does NOT McKeown told the FBI that in poldo, phoned Mrs. Odio and mention the man eventually Negotiations improved. But 1959 a man who identified him- bought a ticket to Laredo. Ep- Mrs. Rich finally "grabbed my said he wanted to introduce Os- self as Rubenstein, Ruby's orig- stein does NOT mention that it old man and cleared out" when wald into the Cuban under- inal name, had phoned him of- was the only such ticket sold she later thought she recognized ground. Leopoldo said Oswald fering $15,000 to get Castro to that night to Laredo or that it a new participant as Vito Geno- had been in the Marines, was release three of .his prisoners. was the only one of its kind vese's son. She based this on an excellent shot and felt "the Three weeks later McKeown sold from Sept. 24 through his resemblance to a photograph Cubans didn't have any guts . . . said a man asked him to write because President Kennedy Sept. 26. she had seen of the Mafia a letter of introduction to Castro should have been assassinated Epstein does NOT mention chieftain. because he had some Jeeps to after the Bay of Pigs and some that the commission, after a Commission counsel Leon Hu- sell Cuba. The deals never came Cubans should have done lengthy check, established that bert then asked Mrs. Rich if to pass. that . . ." Oswald had cashed an unem- Dave C., who she said had been assassination a ployment check in New Orleans, a bartender at the Dallas Uni- Offer Reported After the versity Club, could be one Dave stunned Mrs. Odio recognized almost certainly some time af- McKeown told the FBI he pictures of Lee Harvey Oswald ter 8 a.m. Sept. 25. He does Cherry. "That's it," she replied. "feels strongly that this individ- Lane wonders why this po- as the man who came to her NOT mention that the commis- ual was in fact Jack Ruby . ." home. So did her sister. sion checked air lines and found tentially corroborating witness Lane quotes this. He does not was not called to testify. "The The commission .maintained no indication that Oswald had quote another part of the state- that Oswald could not have been flown from New Orleans to Dal- FBI's summary of an interview ment in which McKeown "re- with Cherry was in the commis- in Dallas Sept. 26 or 27. He was las. marked he is not certain that in Mexico. sion's possession, but Cherry the above-described telephone IF OSWALD had been in Dal- was not called as a witness." ". . . The issue was never re- caller from Dallas or the man las on the 25th, he could have Indeed, he was not. But the solved," wrote Epstein. That is who personally appeared . . debatable. caught a bus from there to FBI "summary," which Lane was identical with the Jack Alice, Tex., in time to be on does not quote, might explain Records show that Oswald Ruby who killed Lee Harvey the Houston-Laredo bus on why. In it Cherry denies knowing crossed into Nuevo Laredo, - any colonel "who was supposed Oswald. Mexico between 6 a.m. and 2 which he was seen. But no tick- ets were sold by the bus line to have been running guns into Lane takes a partial quote to p.m. Sept. 26. Two passengers Cuba." He did know Nancy Per- show strong identification of on a Houston - Laredo bus said connecting Dallas and Alice for rin Rich whom he said had been Ruby by McKeown rather than they saw Oswald on board short- Laredo between Sept. 23 and 26. barred from the club and who a whole one which shows some- ly after they awoke at 6 a.m., He could, the commission he thought was "mentally de- thing less. He need not have. Sept. 26. concedes, possibly have driven ranged." Ruby said he once was interest- The commission said there New Orleans-Dallas-Alice route ed in a Jeep deal. He thought, was strong evidence that Os- although the Warren Report says wald had left Houston on a bus it "would have been difficult." ALSO IN THE commission t h o u g h, the intermediary's name was Davis. His sister, Eva for Laredo at 2:35 a.in. that Tight scheduling again for the record is a statement by Dallas Grant, told the FBI she believed morning. It noted a bus had left superplot. detective Paul Rayburn who her brother had an option on New Orleans, where Oswald had knew Mrs. Rich and thought her Ultimately, the FBI located eight war surplus Jeeps some been livi,ig, at 12:30 p.m. Sept. "a psychopathic Ear who got a Californian, Loran Eugene time around 1960. 25 arriving at Houston at 10:50 Hall, who said he had called on great delight out of telling wild p.m. that evening. Oswald made tales." This could be corroboration of Mrs. Odio in Dallas in Septem- This historic moment when Jack Ruby fired the fatal bullet into Lee Harvey Oswald was captured in this Pulitzer award photograph by Times Herald pho- tographer Bob Jackson. ber with two other men. The point is well taken. proves nor disproves the com- commission that presented all two denied it. Hall later altered Despite the vast scope of the mission conclusion about Mrs. the evidence about Lamar Hunt his story. Warren investigation, the Odio Odio. Epstein says the matter and Ruby, about Nancy Perrin In its report, the commission matter has given the critics am- was never resolved. But, in ef- Rich, about Jeeps, about Mc- stated that the FBI had not munition to charge the commis- fect, it was. As much as it ever Keown, about Oswald's finances. completed its investigation of sion with haste, with lack of can be. The commission was The critics did not. Hall at the time the report went thoroughness. faced with a choice: the testi- to press. Yet it concluded in mony of Mrs. Odio and her sis- One may interpret what the the report that Oswald had not Haste? Quite possibly, al- ter against the evidence they commission found, and the been at Mrs. Odio's that Sep- though the commission denies were mistaken. It chose the evi- critics have, abundantly. But tember. it. But thoroughness? Who was dence. while, as of this date, there "Is it too fastidious to insist thorough in detailing the Odio Yet it was the commission may be doubters, books and that conclusions logically fal- investigation? The commission that presented all the evidence speculation, the critics have yet low, not precede, an analysis of or Epstein? pro and con about Mrs. Odio. to produce that one essential all evidence?" Lane asks. The The Hall evidence neither The critics did not. It was the of proof—evidence.