My new book, "Into the Nightmare"

[Joseph McBride]

Joseph McBride,

I want to make clear that I meant no disrespect with regard to mentioning "Who Killed Kennedy?" I have always thought that it made sense Tippitt was involved in the plot on some level. Can I take it from your non response that you weren't aware of the '64 book's claim and it didn't inspire your research? Perhaps I am ignorant and there is a long tradition of suspicion falling on Tippitt.

If you don't reply I still am ordering your book and look forward to reading it. I have your Capra book and found the research masterful.

Matthew,

Thanks for your questions. I didn't think you were being disrespectful but asking good questions
about a key early researcher. Thanks too for your comment on my book FRANK CAPRA: THE CATASTROPHE OF SUCCESS -- I appreciate it. That was another huge
research job and a most revealing one.

Buchanan's 1964 book anticipated some later revelations, though he engaged in speculation, and parts of it don't hold up. He was a journalist and computer technician living in Paris and followed the news analytically. He said he also had some sources in Texas and elsewhere.


His book WHO KILLED KENNEDY? does not name Tippit as a shooter in Dealey Plaza (although Léo Sauvage thought Buchanan had originally hinted that in the articles on which the book was based), but the book names Tippit as an accomplice in the conspiracy. Buchanan refers to a theory that Tippit was meant to help Oswald escape, thinking he was a minor criminal, and doublecrossed him when the officer learned that the president had been shot. In this theory, Tippit was then shot by Oswald. The theory was proposed by Serge Groussard, a French journalist. Buchanan, however, leans toward the theory that Tippit was assigned to provoke a shootout with Oswald and kill him in the process. Buchanan points to problems with the official theory of the case that lead him to doubt that Oswald murdered Tippit.


What is most remarkable in the midst of Buchanan's mostly speculative and convoluted scenario is that he speculated that Tippit "knew where Oswald had been and where he was going" and was tailing him. Buchanan writes that Tippit died "while attempting to obey the orders which he had received from his superiors in the Dallas Police Department." In the course of my long investigation of the Tippit murder, I was able to find evidence to prove that hypothesis in INTO THE NIGHTMARE, although I also don't believe that Oswald shot Tippit.