ENTERTAINMENT FOR MEN FEBRUARY 1967 • 75 CENTS YB Playboy: Feb. 1907 p. 41 — Playboy interview: (no byline) 1' 110s! RUSH TO JUDGMENT AL1113 0.-i- - MARK LANE REVEALS NEW FACTSJ ''...,v. ON THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION_ IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW -FICTION BY LEN IJEIGHTON. iIRWIN SHAW AND JEROME WEIOMAN 011Ik PLUS U S. CONGRESSMAN THOMAS • ' CURTIS ON ENDING THE DRAFT PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: MARK LANE a candid conversation with the fiery attorney and author of "rush to judgment," the documented, best-selling indictment of the warren report News of the assassination of John and racist circles, by those who cannot prestigious Presidential Commission, Fitzgerald Kennedy had hardly reached a stomach any step aimed at the easing of headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, to stunned world when the inevitable ques- international tensions and the improve- investigate the assassination. Serving un- tion was asked; Is this part of a conspir- ment of Soviet-American relations." der Warren were former CIA Director acy? When Lee Harvey Oswald, charged In other countries, too, rumors of con- Allen Dulles; John McCloy, former As- with the assassination, was in turn assassi- spiracy abounded. The London Daily sistant Secretory of War; Senators Rich- nated, the whispers of doubt swelled to a Telegraph's Dallas correspondent re- ard Russell and John Sherman Cooper; chorus. Scripps-Howard columnist Rich- ported on November 26 that "World and Representatives Gerald Ford and ard Starnes summed up the feelings of opinion as much as American is not fully Hale Boggs. - J. Lee Rankin, former Solici- many Americans when he wrote: "Our satisfied about this terrible affair. This tor General of the United States, was credentials as a civilized people stand has resulted in an elephantine attempt appointed as the Commission's Chief suspect before the world . but the real on the part of the local authorities con- Counsel, directing a staff of 14 lawyers. depth of the disaster that has befallen us cerned to cover up for one another." The very appointment of such a blue- cannot yet be imagined. In its 188th On November 27, the conservative Lon- ribbon investigative body allayed many year, the Republic has fallen upon don Daily Mail declared editorially that fears, at least in America. Ten months unspeakably evil days, and great mischief "facts can be produced that a right-wing after the assassination, when the IVarren is afoot in the land. It remains to be plot against the President had caused his Commission released its findings, Ameri- seen whether more convulsions will rack death." French press opinion was even less cans heaved a national sigh of relief. us before it is over . ." restrained. Paris Jour carried a front-page There had been no conspiracy, the Com- Starnes' jeremiad was echoed abroad, article entitled "Oswald Cannot Have mission concluded. Lee Harvey Oswald, where it was generally assumed that Been Alone in the Shooting," while acting alone and irrationally, had mur- the murders of Kennedy, Oswald and Liberation wrote that "There is no doubt dered the President. Jack Ruby had killed Officer J. D. Tippit were all pieces in that President Kennedy fell into a trap. Oswald on his own and without premedi- monstrous, conspiratorial jigsaw puzzle. He was the victim of a plot. And in this tation. The verdict was in, and it was The Communist nations were quick to plot it is evident that the Dallas police, almost unanimously accepted—in the allege that the President had been mur- protectors of gangsters like Ruby, played United States. Two months later, when dered by a plot originating within his a role one can only describe as question- the Commission released its 26 vol- own Government, and that Oswald had able. They created a defendant, then umes of supporting evidence—a massive been silenced before he could incriminate allowed one of their stool pigeons to 17,815 pages—the case appeared for- other members of the cabal. Tess cabled kill him." ever closed. A grateful public hailed the from Washington to Moscow on Novem- In hasty pursuit of a scapegoat, con- Commission for settling its gnawing ber 25, 1963, just three days after the servatives and reactionaries—at home as doubts and clearing the air of poisonous assassination, that "All circumstances of well as abroad—were eager to blame liber- rumors. Harrison Salisbury, assistant President Kennedy's death allow one to als and leftists, who returned the charges. managing editor of The New York assume that this murder was planned and To dispel such divisive speculation, Times, echoed popular sentiment when carried out by the ultra-right-wing, fascist President Johnson appointed an ultra- he wrote in the Times: "No material IIIk* mon "History may come to know the Warren "There were 90 witnesses to the assassina- "There were at least two assassins. The Report as the 'Warren Whitewash'; it tion who were questioned and were able evidence is conclusive on that score. But may be ranked with Teapot Dome as a to give an assessment of the origin of the the Commission wanted to disprove a synonym for political cover-up and cyni- shots. Of those, SS said they came from conspiracy, and this desire defeated its cal manipulation of the truth." behind the fence on the grassy knoll." investigative function." 41 question now remains unsolved so far as This barrage of books prompted The them should prove to be significant, then the death of President Kennedy is con- New York Times to comment editorially the work of the Warren Commission will cerned. The evidence of Osseold's single- on September 1, 1966, that "Debate on be judged by history to be a scandal handed guilt is overwhelming." the accuracy and adequacy of the Warren worse than Teapot Dame." But historians know that often enough, Commission's work is now approaching The hub of all this controversy. the more they study a complex event, the the dimensions of a lively small industry Mark Lane, was born 39 years ago in less they know about it. For each ques- in this country." The original band of New York City, where he has lived most tion answered, seven MOM' spring up to lonely doublers had multiplied to a small of his life. Currently, however, he travels take its place. The Warren investigation, army. So drastically had the climate through Europe and America lecturing with an unlimited budget, a full-time changed that The New York Times' on the assassination, frequently appear- staff of 26 and complete access to the White House correspondent, Tom Wick- ing on TV and radio talk shows, and massive investigative apparatus of the er, commented on September 25, 1966: stopping off occasionally in Denmark United States Government, was the larg- "A public discussion group in New York with his young wife, whom he met while est historical inquiry ever undertaken. sought to hold a round-table session in Copenhagen three years ago. They Inevitably, it would produce a paper about the Warren Report. The ma- plan to settle in California shortly. mountain of conflicting reports, contra- jor difficulty for the group was in finding After serving in Army Intelligence dictory testimony, expert disagreement anyone of stature who was willing to during World War Two, Lane attended and unanswered questions. By publishing defend the Warren Report and its Long Island University and received his the 26 volumes of hearings and exhibits riaiFir t,gs." Wicker went on to demand law degree from Brooklyn Law School. —containing considerable evidence con- appointment of a new Commission to For 12 years he practiced law from a tradicting its own findings—the Warren investigate the assassination. On Septem- storefront in East Harlem; then, in 1958, Commission implicitly acknowledged the ber 28, New York Congressman Theo- he gained local prominence when he inscrutability of fact. Doubts were to be dore R. Kupferman, citing the slew of charged that young people confined in expected; it's surprising only that they critical books on the Report, asked the New York State homes for the mentally took so long to surface. Discussions of House of Representatives to establish a defective were being brutally treated by their validity may occupy scholars for Senate-Howe Committee to conduct its attendants. Governor Rockefeller opened generations—or even centuries. own investigation of the Warren Report. hearings on the issue, and a number of The ripples preceding the wave of Shortly thereafter, Life also called for a guards were dismissed. In 1960, Lane criticism came first from England. The reopening of the investigation. In the was elected to the New York State Assem- day the Report was issued, Lord November 1966 issue of The Progressive, bly, representing the black-and-white Bertrand Russell denounced it as a white- Harrison Salisbury, who had earlier felt ghettos of East Harlem and Yorkville. wash and subsequently formed a "Who that "no material question remained un- He ran with the strong endorsement Killed Kennedy?' committee to pursue solved," reversed his field and wrote that of Eleanor Roosevelt and Senator Her- its own investigation of the assassination. he was convinced "there are questions— bert Lehman, with whom he had And late in 1964, Hugh Trevor-Roper, some of them of major importance— earlier-helped establish a reform move- Regius Professor of History at Oxford which must be answered." ment within the New York Democratic University, published a scathing attack The one man most responsible for Party. He also had the endorsement on the Commission in the pages of Eng- these doubts and demands is New York of Senator John F. Kennedy, who land's establishmentarian London Sun- attorney Mark Lane. He has been inves- moved into the White House at the same day Times.