27-04-2014, 09:43 PM
November 29 (Friday)
Joseph Alsop wrote in his column that the "old New York crowd" will turn to Nixon as the future of the GOP if Nelson Rockefeller "does not make the grade."Paul Nitze becomes Secretary of the Navy. JFK "didn't like Paul Nitze very much...didn't please the President very much in some of the answers he gave at the time of the Cuban missile crisis." (RFK oral history interview 2/27/1965)
President LBJ meets with Central Intelligence Agency director, John A. McCone and Presidential assistant for National Security Affairs, McGeorge Bundy.
LBJ met with Roy Wilkins of the NAACP.
White House phone logs show numerous phone calls today.
LBJ - Sen. Mike Mansfield, 11:10 AM
LBJ - Cong. Hale Boggs, 11:30 AM
LBJ - Sen. Everett Dirksen, 10:47 AM
In a telephone conversation with Everett Dirksen, LBJ says: "These investigations in the House and Senate on this Dallas affair ... Hoover's a little concerned about [them] reflecting on him. He's making a very full report on it. The [Texas] attorney general's gettin' an inquiry - a state inquiry [going on] he's a very young, and able, and effective man. And we don't wanna ... we got some international complications that could come up to us if we are not very careful." TKAT
LBJ - Speaker John McCormack, 12:04 PM
LBJ - James Farley, 12:27 PM
LBJ - Cong. Hale Boggs, 1:11 PM
LBJ - Abe Fortas, 1:15 PM
LBJ - David McDonald, 1:29 PM
Dallas Police take photographs of the backyard behind the Neely St. house. (CE 712, 713) The small plant at left foreground with bare branches is not in the "Oswald" backyard photos.
1:40pm (EST) J. Edgar Hoover phone call with LBJ.
LBJ: Are you familiar with this proposed group that they're trying to put together on this study of your report and other things - two from the House, two from the Senate, somebody from the Court, a couple of outsiders?
Hoover: No, I haven't heard of that...I think it would be very, very bad to have a rash of investigations on this thing.
LBJ: Well, the only way we can stop them is probably to appoint a high-level one to evaluate your report and put somebody that's pretty good on it that I can select...and tell the House and the Senate not to go ahead...because they'll get a lot of television going and I thought it would be bad.
Hoover: It would be a three-ring circus.
LBJ: What do you think about Allen Dulles?
Hoover: I think he would be a good man.
LBJ: What do you think about John McCloy?
Hoover: I'm not as enthusiastic about McCloy...I'm not so certain as to the matter of the publicity that he might seek on it.
LBJ: What about General Norstad?
Hoover: Good man.
LBJ: I thought maybe I might try to get Boggs and Jerry Ford in the House, maybe try to get Dick Russell and maybe Cooper in the Senate.
Hoover: Yes, I think so.
LBJ: ...Me and you are just going to talk like brothers...I thought Russell could kind of look after the general situation, see that the states and their relations -
Hoover: Russell would be an excellent man.
LBJ: And I thought Cooper might look after the liberal group...Do you know Ford from Michigan?
Hoover: I know of him, but I don't know him.
LBJ: You know Boggs?
Hoover: Oh, yes, I know Boggs.
LBJ: He's kind of the author of the resolution. That's why. Now, Walter tells me - Walter Jenkins - that you've designated Deke to work with us, like you did on the Hill, and I tell you I sure appreciate that...We consider him as high-class as you do...We salute you for knowing how to pick good men.
Hoover: That's mighty nice of you, Mr. President, indeed. We hope to have this thing wrapped up today, but could be we probably won't get it before the first of the week. This angle in Mexico is giving us a great deal of trouble because the story there is of this man Oswald getting $6,500 from the Cuban embassy and then coming back to this country with it. We're not able to prove that fact, but the information was that he was there on the 18th of September in Mexico City and we are able to prove conclusively he was in New Orleans that day. Now then they've changed the dates. The story came in changing the dates to the 28th of September and he was in Mexico City on the 28th. Now the Mexican police have arrested this woman Duran, who is a member of the Cuban embassy...and we're going to confront her with the original informant, who saw the money pass, so he says, and we're also going to put the lie detector test on him...There is no question but that he [Oswald] is the man now - with the fingerprints and things we have. This fellow Rubenstein down there - he has offered to take the lie detector test...
LBJ: Have you got any relationship between the two yet?
Hoover: No, at the present time we have not. There was a story down there...that this fellow had been in this nightclub that is a striptease joint, that he had. But this has not been able to be confirmed. Now, this fellow Rubenstein is a very shady character, has a bad record - street brawler, fighter, and that sort of thing - and in the place in Dallas, if a fellow came in there and couldn't pay his bill completely, Rubenstein would beat the very devil out of him and throw him out of the place...he didn't drink, didn't smoke, boasted about that. He is what I would put in a category of one of these "egomaniacs." Likes to be in the limelight. He knew all the police in that white-light district...and he also let them come in, see the show, get food, liquor and so forth. That's how, I think, he got into police headquarters...we've tied Oswald into the Civil Liberties Union in New York, membership into that and, of course, this Cuban Fair Play Committee...
LBJ: How many shots were fired? Three?
Hoover: Three.
LBJ: Any of them fired at me?
Hoover: No.
LBJ: All three at the president?
Hoover: All three at the president and we have them. Two of the shots fired at the president were splintered but they had characteristics on them so that our ballistics expert was able to prove that they were fired by this gun...The president - he was hit by the first and third. The second shot hit the governor. The third shot is a complete bullet and that rolled out of the President's head. It tore a large part of the President's head off and, in trying to massage his heart at the hospital on the way to the hospital, they apparently loosened that and it fell off onto the stretcher.
LBJ: Were they aiming at the President?
Hoover: They were aiming directly at the President. There is no question about that. This telescopic lens, which I've looked through - it brings a person as close to you as if they were sitting right beside you. And we also have tested the fact that you could fire those three shots...within three seconds.
LBJ: How did it happen they hit Connally?
Hoover: Connally turned to the president when the first shot was fired and I think in that turning, it was where he got hit.
LBJ: ...if Connally hadn't been in his way?
Hoover: Oh yes, yes, the President would no doubt have been hit.
LBJ: He would have been hit three times.
Hoover: He would have been hit three times from the fifth floor of what that building where we found the gun and the wrapping paper in which the gun was wrapped...and upon which we found the full fingerprints of this man Oswald. On that floor we found the three empty shells that had been fired and one shell that had not been fired...He then threw the gun aside and came down. At the entrance of the building, he was stopped by a police officer and some manager in the building told the police officer, Well, he's all right. He works there. You needn't hold him.' They let him go...and then he got on a bus...He went out to his home and got ahold of a jacket...and he came back downtown...and the police officer who was killed stopped him, not knowing who he was and not knowing whether he was the man, but just on suspicion...Then he walked another two blocks and went to the theater, and the woman at the window selling the tickets, she was suspicious the way he was acting, she said he was carrying a gun...He went into the theater and she notified the police and the police and our man down there went in there and located this particular man. They had quite a struggle with him. He fought like a regular lion...he was strongly pro-Castro, he was strongly anti-American...This woman, his wife, had been very hostile. She would not cooperate, speaks Russian only. She did say to us yesterday down there that if we could give her assurance that she would be allowed to remain in this country, she might cooperate. I told our agents down there to give her that assurance...
LBJ: Did anybody hear, did anybody see him on the fifth floor or -
Hoover: Yes, he was seen on the fifth floor by one of the workmen there before the assassination took place.
LBJ: Do you have a bulletproof car?
Hoover: Oh yes, I do.
LBJ: You think I ought to have one?
Hoover: I think you most certainly should have one...
LBJ: ...you're more than the head of the Federal Bureau. As far as I'm concerned, you're my brother and personal friend...I've got more confidence in your judgement than anybody in town."
Hoover also told LBJ in this phone call: "You see, there was no Secret Service man standing on the back of the car. Usually the presidential car in the past has had steps on the back, next to the bumpers, and there's usually been one [agent] on either side standing on these steps … [ellipsis in text] … Whether the President asked that that not be done, we don't know."
From Hoover's Memorandum for Messrs. Tolson, Belmont, and Mohr, November 29, 1963: "… there was no Secret Service Agent on the back of the car; that in the past they have added steps on the back of the car and usually had an agent on either side standing on the bumper; that I did not know why this was not donethat the President may have requested it …."
In his biography of Warren, writer Ed Cray reported that he had spoken to an unnamed friend of Warren's, and that this friend had claimed that Warren had confided "There was great pressure on us to prove, first, that President Johnson was not involved, and, second, that the Russians were not involved."
FBI interview of Philip Geraci, 29 Nov 1963. Bringuier had mentioned the 15-year-old Geraci as a possible associate of Oswald's. Weisberg notes that Geraci's connection with Bringuier had to do with the illegal sale of bonds.
FBI interview of Mrs. C.L. Connell, 29 Nov 1963. Mrs. Connell told the FBI that Ms. Odio had phoned her the previous day and stated that Oswald had "made some talks to small groups of Cuban refugees in Dallas," that she "personally considered Oswald brilliant and clever," and that New Orleans-based Cuban associates considered Oswald to be a "double agent."
Today, Ms. C.L. Connell of the Catholic Cuban Relief Committee informs the FBI that Sylvia Odio has called her and has said that she knew Lee Harvey Oswald. The FBI will not interview Odio until December 19, 1963. Ms. Connell also states that he is suspicious of someone everyone calls "Mr. Martin," a contact man from "Uruguay" who has tried to obtain guns for anti-Castroites in the Dallas area. NOTE: When James McCord is caught, along with the group of burglers trying to bug the Democratic National Committee Office in the Watergate he is using the name Edward J. Martin. E. Howard Hunt is using the code name Mr. White. An ex-political informant for the Los Angeles Police Department, Louis Tackwood, will say at a press conference held several months before Watergate, that he had been indirectly approached by a Mr. Martin and a Mr. White and been asked to incite a riot at the 1972 Republican Convention. CDIA
LBJ - Sen. John Pastore, 2:16PM
LBJ - Sen. Leverett Saltonstall, 2:22 PM
(From later WC testimony)
Mr. BALL. We have some pictures here from the crime laboratory as we have marked Exhibits 712, 713, and 714. The witness has already identified a picture of Oswald. I show you this, Captain, can you tell me which one of these pictures on Exhibit 714 that you showed to Oswald the day when you interrogated him, asked him it that was his picture?
Mr. FRITZ. It is the one with the two papers in his hand.
Mr. BALL. The one to the right. Did you ever show him the one to the left?
Mr. FRITZ. I don't think so.
Mr. BALL. We offer 713, 712, and 714 as two pictures taken.
Mr. FRITZ. These are the pictures I told about a while ago.
Mr. BALL. They were taken by your crime lab?
Mr. FRITZ. Our crime lab took these pictures when I went over there with Mr. Sorrels.
Mr. BALL. Where were they taken?
Mr. FRITZ. In the backyard of the Neely Street address. If you will note, you will see in this picture, you notice that top right there of this shed. Of course, this picture is taken up closer, but if you step back further you can see about where the height comes to on that shed right there. Not exactly in the same position.
Mr. BALL. I offered these.
(Commission Exhibits Nos. 712, 713, and 714 were admitted.)
Mr. FRITZ. It shows the gate.
Mr. BALL. Indicating the location of the picture taken--this set will indicate the pictures were all taken at the Neely Street backyard.
Mr. DULLES. You recall the date of these pictures, in April?
Mr. FRITZ. I believe they will be dated on the back of them.
Mr. DULLES. April, so the trees would be about the same.
Mr. BALL. When were the pictures taken by your crime lab?
Mr. FRITZ. I am not sure but I believe the date will be on the back of the picture. November 29, 1963. Picture made by Officer Brown who works in the crime lab.
LBJ - Sen. Hugh Scott, 2:26 PM
Sometime after 3 PM today, LBJ learns that Chief Justice Earl Warren is adamant about not wanting to serve on a commission investigating JFK's assassination. LBJ requests that Warren come to the Oval Office at 4:30 PM to discuss an urgent matter. LBJ intends to administer a healthy dose of what is well known on Capitol Hill as the "Johnson treatment." TKAT
The palm print sent by Lt. Day arrives at the FBI lab in Washington. The FBI would determine that the print had come from the rifle barrel. (WR) The incriminating palm print of Lee Harvey Oswald's, taken off the rifle butt in Dallas, arrives at Washington's FBI lab. This is 3 days after all other Dallas police evidence has been turned over to the Bureau on orders from President LBJ. Why didn't the lift of the palm print arrive to the Washington FBI until November 29, whereas the other prints--from cartons in the Book Depository--arrived and were examined on November 27? Why the delay?
Around this time period - a week after the assassination - RFK sends Bill Walton, a trusted Kennedy family intimate, to Moscow with a secret message for the Soviet government from RFK and Jackie. The message is personally delivered to Georgi Bolshakov - a Russian agent RFK has used before to get private information delivered to Khrushchev. Walton's message to Bolshakov is that RFK and Jackie believe that JFK has been killed by a large political conspiracy. "Perhaps there was only one assassin, but he did not act alone," Walton tells Bolshakov. He also tells the Russian agent that "Dallas was the ideal location for such a crime." RFK wants the Russians to know that he will eventually run for President and resume his brother's quest for detente with the Soviet Union. Bolshakov immediately delivers RFK's message to his superiors at the GRU, the Soviet military intelligence agency. Author David Talbot suggests that, at this time, RFK seems to be placing more trust in the Soviet government than the one he serves. (Brothers)
Jackie Kennedy interview with Theodore White: "… Clint Hill, he loved us, he was the first man in the car …." White's notes were released May 26, 1995. (White wrote The Making of the President 1960, the Camelot article for the December 6, 1963 Life magazine, and his own memoirs entitled In Search of History, among others.)
New Orleans: Jack Martin is interviewed by the Secret Service today in his "small, run-down apartment," as his residence is described by the reporting agent. Apparently terrorized, Jack Martin reverses himself, telling Secret Service Agents Rice and Gerrots that he suffers from "telephonitis while drinking and that it was during one of his drinking sprees that he telephoned Assistant District Attorney Kohlman and told him this fantastic story about David William Ferrie being involved with Lee Harvey Oswald."
A. C. Greene, editorial page editor of the Dallas Times Herald states: "Within a week after the assassination, everything that was sent to the editor or to the [Dallas]Times Herald came to me. We got literally thousands of letters from all over the world, especially from all over the United States, and a lot of them had money for Jacqueline Kennedy, but most of the money was for Officer Tippit's wife, and then Marina Oswald. From the Times Herald through me, from various readers all over the world, I sent Mrs. Tippit over $200,000. I sent Marina Oswald about the same amount." PKHBS
As soon as LBJ appoints his seven commissioners to report on the assassination, Hoover orders his aides to compile secret dossiers on each member of the Commission, so he will have adequate dirt in his files, if a need arises.
LBJ - David Lawrence, 3:14 PM
LBJ - J. Waddy Bullion, 3:37 PM
LBJ - Sen. Russell Long, 3:45 PM
4:05pm (EST): LBJ called Sen. Richard Russell regarding the proposed Commission.
Lyndon B. Johnson: I talked to the leadership on trying to have... about a seven-man board to evaluate Hoover's report... I think it would be better than.. having four or five going in the opposite direction.
Richard Russell: I agree with that, but I don't think that Hoover ought to make his report too soon.
Lyndon B. Johnson: He's ready with it now and he wants to get it off just as quick as he can.
Richard Russell: Oh-oh.
Lyndon B. Johnson: And he'll probably have it out today. At most, on Monday.
Richard Russell: Well, but he ain't going to publish the damned thing, is he?
Lyndon B. Johnson: He's going to turn it over to this group and there's some things about it I can't talk about.
Richard Russell: Yeah, I understand that, but I think it be mighty well if that thing was kept quiet another week or ten days. I just do.
Lyndon B. Johnson: They're taking this Court of Inquiry in Texas and I think the results of that Court of Inquiry, Hoover's report, and all of them would go to this group.... Now here's who I'm going to try to get on it... I don't think I can get any member of the Court. I'm going to try to get Allen Dulles. I'm going to try Senator Russell and Senator Cooper from the Senate...
Richard Russell: Oh no, no, no, get somebody else now.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Now wait a minute, now I want to try to get...
Richard Russell: I haven't got time.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Jerry Ford. It is not going to take much time but we've got to get a states' rights man in there and somebody that the country has confidence in. And I'm going to have Boggs in... I think that Ford and Boggs would be pretty good. They're both pretty young men.
Richard Russell: They're both solid citizens.
Lyndon B. Johnson: And I think that Cooper as a Republican and you're a good states rights' man. I think we might get John McCloy . . . and maybe somebody from the Court.... Who would be the best then if I didn't get the Chief?
Richard Russell: I know you wouldn't want Clark hardly.
Lyndon B. Johnson: No, I can't have a Texan.
Richard Russell: Really, Mr. President, unless you really think it would be of some benefit, it would really save my life. I declare I don't want to serve.
Lyndon B. Johnson: I know you don't want to do anything, but I want you to. And I think that this is important enough and you'll see why. Now, the next thing: I know how you feel about this CIA, but they're worried about having to go into a lot of this stuff with the Foreign Relations Committee. How much of a problem would it give you to just quietly let Fulbright and Hickenlooper come into your CIA committee?
Richard Russell: As long as it is confined to those two, it wouldn't present any problem at all.
(Gap in the transcript.)
Richard Russell: Now you're going to let the Attorney General nominate someone, aren't you?
Lyndon B. Johnson: No. Uh-uh.
Richard Russell: Well, you going to have Hoover on there?
Lyndon B. Johnson: No, it is his report.
Richard Russell: Oh, that's right, that's right. It wouldn't do. ... Let me see, if I think of a judge in the next thirty or forty minutes...
Lyndon B. Johnson: What do you think about a Justice sitting on it? You don't have a President assassinated but every fifty years.
Richard Russell: They put them on the Pearl Harbor inquiry, you know.
Lyndon B. Johnson: I know. That's why he's against it now.
Richard Russell: Afraid it might get into the courts?
Lyndon B. Johnson: I guess so, I don't know.
Richard Russell: That's probably the theory of it....
Lyndon B. Johnson: Give me the arguments why they ought to.
Richard Russell: The only argument about it is that, of course, in a matter of this magnitude... the American people would feel reassured to have a member of the highest Court... If you would have some top-flight state Supreme Court Chief Justice - but they're not known all over the country... This thing in television and radio has narrowed the group of celebrities. I don't know. You've got some smart boys there around you who can give you the name of some outstanding Circuit Court judge.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Okay. You be thinking.
LBJ - A. Philip Randolph, 4:17 PM
4:30pm (EST) Earl Warren received a call from Katzenbach and Archibald Cox; they met with him and said LBJ wanted him to head a presidential commission to investigate the assassination. Warren declined on constitutional grounds. About 90 minutes later, LBJ himself called and asked Warren to come to the White House. They met privately at 4:30pm for 20 minutes in the Oval Office. Johnson told him that if Castro was behind the assassination, the US could face a catastrophic world war. Johnson poured on the flattery until Warren gave in, reportedly in tears. Johnson also falsely told him that the other members of the Commission were already lined up, but would serve only if Warren headed it. (Chief Justice p415) The Chief Justice reportedly leaves the Oval Office in tears. Once Warren agreed, LBJ got on the phone and began rounding up the other members.
LBJ - Speaker John McCormack, 4:55 PM
LBJ - Sen. Everett Dirksen, 5:10 PM
5:32pm (EST) LBJ called Hoover.
5:40pm (EST) LBJ called Dulles. 5:41 PM LBJ calls Allen Dulles to say he wants Dulles to serve on the commission. Dulles agrees to do so.
5:41pm (EST) Hoover called LBJ.
LBJ - Allen Dulles, 5:41 PM
LBJ - Abe Fortas, time unknown
LBJ - Sen. John Sherman Cooper, 5:45PM LBJ called Cooper again around 6pm?, urging him to be on the WC.
5:55pm (EST) McCloy calls LBJ.
LBJ - Cong. Les Arends, 6:15 PM
LBJ - Sen. Hubert Humphrey, 6:20 PM
6:30pm Lyndon Johnson has a phone conversation with Congressman Charles Halleck: "This thing is getting pretty serious and our folks are worried about it ... it has some foreign implications ... CIA and other things ... and I'm going to try to get the Chief Justice on it." Johnson adds that "we can't have Congress, FBI and others saying that Khrushchev or Castro ordered the assassination:" "This thing is so touchy from an international standpoint .... This is a question that could involve our losing 39 million people."
Telephone conversation between Lyndon B. Johnson and Charles Halleck, House Minority Leader (6.30 pm, 29th November, 1963)
Lyndon B. Johnson: Charlie, I hate to bother you but... I've got to appoint a commission and issue an executive order tonight on investigation of the assassination of the President because this thing is getting pretty serious and our folks are worried about it. It's got some foreign complications - CIA and other things - and I'm going to try to get the Chief Justice to go on it. He declined earlier in the day, but I think I'm going to try to get him to head it....
Charles Halleck: Chief Justice Warren?
Lyndon B. Johnson: Yes.
Charles Halleck: I think that's a mistake....
Lyndon B. Johnson: I'd be glad to hear you, but I want to talk to you about - he thought it was a mistake till I told him everything we knew and we just can't have House and Senate and FBI and other people going around testifying that Khrushchev killed Kennedy or Castro killed him. We've got to have the facts, and you don't have a President assassinated once every fifty years. And this thing is so touchy from an international standpoint that every man we've got over there is concerned about it....
Charles Halleck: I'll cooperate, my friend. I'll tell you one thing, Lyndon - Mr. President - I think that to call on Supreme Court guys to do jobs is kind of a mistake.
Lyndon B. Johnson: It is on all these other things I agree with you on Pearl Harbor and I agree with you on the railroad strike. But this is a question that could involve our losing thirty-nine million people. This is a judicial question.
Charles Halleck: I, of course, don't want that to happen. Of course, I was a little disappointed in the speech the Chief Justice made. I'll talk to you real plainly. He's jumped at the gun and, of course, I don't know whether the right wing was in this or not. You've been very discreet. You have mentioned the left and the right and I am for that.
LBJ - Sec. Dean Rusk, 6:30PM
LBJ - Cong. Carl Albert, 6:37 PM
LBJ - Cong. Les Arends, 6:43PM
6:52pm (EST) LBJ calls Gerald Ford and asks him to serve on the commission. Ford agrees to do so. LBJ then releases the press statement and text of the executive order prepared by Abe Fortas. The news just barely manages to make the Saturday morning editions of several major East Coast newspapers. TKAT
LBJ - Joe Alsop, 7:00PM
LBJ - Sen. James Eastland, 7:03 PM
LBJ - Sen. William Fulbright, 7:11PM
LBJ - Sen. Thomas Dodd, 7:15 PM
LBJ: "How are you getting along?"
Dodd: "Hello Mr. President…fine, couldn't be better."
LBJ informs him of his intention to appoint the WC. "Well, you're my man on that Committee. You know I put you on it cause I couldn't get you on Appropriations. I put you on there and damned if you haven't done more there than…"
Dodd: "I'm a Johnson man, you know that."
LBJ - Sen. Bourke Hickenlooper, 7:20PM
LBJ - Cong. Carl Albert, 7:36 PM
7:45pm (EST) Johnson signed the formal order setting up the Warren Commission.
LBJ - Gov. Allan Shivers, 7:45PM
LBJ - Katherine Graham, 7:50 PM
LBJ - Sen. Thomas Kuchel, 8:25PM
8:30 PM-2 AM Hyannis Port, Mass.
Kennedy's 34-year-old widow spoke to the writer, Theodore H. White, for four hours, urging him to tell the world -- through LIFE magazine on Dec 6 -- that Kennedy was truly "a man of magic," that his presidency was truly special, that the era was, to use the words she borrowed from a Broadway musical, "one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot." Author Theodore White will later write: "The magic Camelot of John F. Kennedy never existed. Of all the figures of the New Frontier," he believes JFK to be the "toughest, the most intelligent, the most attractive - and inside, the least romantic." Pierre Salinger will say: "Camelot is a fraud." Roger Hilsman will say: "Camelot was an invention of my good friend Teddy White, using Jackie's romanticism after the president's death. If Jack Kennedy had heard this stuff about Camelot he would have vomited." K&N Jackie says: "I want John-John to be a fine young man. He's so interested in planes; maybe he'll be an astronaut or just plain John Kennedy fixing planes on the ground." AC Vol. 1, Issue 3
8:55pm (EST) LBJ telephones Senator Richard Russell and informs him that he has announced the formation of the commission and Russell will be a member.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Dick, I hate to bother you again but I wanted you to know that I made that announcement.
Richard Russell: Announcement of what?
Lyndon B. Johnson: Of this special commission.
Richard Russell: Oh, you have already?
Lyndon B. Johnson: Yes. May I read it to you? (reads from the statement)...
Richard Russell: I know I don't have to tell you of my devotion to you but I just can't serve on that Commission. I'm highly honoured you'd think about me in connection with it but I couldn't serve on it with Chief Justice Warren. I don't like that man. I don't have any confidence in him at all. So you get John Stennis.
Lyndon B. Johnson: It has already been announced and you can serve with anybody for the good of America and this is a question that has a good many more ramifications than on the surface and we've got to take this out of the arena where they're testifying that Khrushchev and Castro did this and did that and chuck us into a war that can kill 40 million Americans in an hour. And you would put on your uniform in a minute. Now the reason I've asked Warren is because he is the Chief Justice of this country and we've got to have the highest judicial people we can have. The reason I ask you is because you have that same kind of temperament and you can do anything for your country. And don't go to giving me that kind of stuff about you can't serve with anybody. You can do anything.
Richard Russell: It is not only that. I just don't think the Chief Justice should have served on it.
Lyndon B. Johnson: The Chief Justice ought to do anything he can to save America and right now we've got a very touchy thing. And you wait until you look at this evidence.... Now I'm not going to lead you wrong and you're not going to be an Old Dog Tray.
Richard Russell: I know that but I have never...
Lyndon B. Johnson: You've never turned your country down. This is not me. This is your country... You're my man on that commission and you're going to do it! And don't tell me what you can do and what you can't because I can't arrest you and I'm not going to put the FBI on you. But you're goddammed sure going to serve - I'll tell you that! And A.W. Moursund is here and he wants to tell you how much all of us love you. Wait a minute.
Richard Russell: Mr. President, you ought to have told me you were going to name me.
Lyndon B. Johnson: I told you! I told you today I was going to name the Chief Justice when I called you.
Richard Russell: You did not. You talked about getting somebody from the Supreme Court. You didn't tell me you were going to name him.
Lyndon B. Johnson: I told you! I told you I was going to name Warren...
Richard Russell: Oh no! ... I said Clark wouldn't do.
Lyndon B. Johnson: No, that's right, and I've got to get the highest Justice I can get. He turned Bobby Kennedy down! Bobby and they talked to him and he just said he wouldn't serve under any circumstances. I called him down here and I spent an hour with him and I begged him as much as I'm begging you. I just said, "Now here's the situation I want to tell you."
Richard Russell: You've never begged me. You've always told me.
Lyndon B. Johnson: No, I haven't. No I haven't.
Richard Russell: Mr. President, please now...
Lyndon B. Johnson: No! It is already done. It has been announced.
Richard Russell: You mean you've given that...
Lyndon B. Johnson: Yes sir. I gave the announcement. It is already in the papers and you're on it and you're going to be my man on it and you just forget that. Now wait a minute. A.W. wants to say a word to you and I'll be back.
A.W. MOURSUND: Hello, Senator. We were just sitting here talking and he says, "I've got one man that's smarter than all the rest of them put together."
Richard Russell: You don't have to butter me up.
MOURSUND: I ain't buttering you up. Senator. You know I'm not that kind of a fellow. I just heard that and I wanted you to know it. Hell, he's depending on you. You know that.
Richard Russell: I don't know when I've been as unhappy about a thing as I am this.
MOURSUND: I know, but you can take them. God Almighty, you've taken it for years and the hard ones and the tough ones, and you can take care of it and you can take care of yourself.
Richard Russell: How are things down in Texas? Kill any deer down there?
MOURSUND: But you come see us. But don't say you can't do anything 'cause you're the best can-do man there is.
Richard Russell: Oh, no, oh, no.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Dick? Now we're going into a lot of problems... I saw Wilkins today and had a long talk with him. Now these things are going to be developing and I know you're going to have your reservations and your modesty.
Richard Russell: Oh...
Lyndon B. Johnson: Now, wait a minute! Wait a minute! Now your President's asking you to do these things and there are some things I want you in besides civil rights and, by God, you're going to be in 'em, because I can't run this country by myself.
Richard Russell: You know damned well my future is behind me, and that is not entering into it at all.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Your future is your country and you're going to do everything you can to serve America.
Richard Russell: I just can't do it. I haven't got the time.
Lyndon B. Johnson: All right, we'll just make the time.
RUSSELL: With all my Georgia items in there.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Well, we'll just make the time. There's not going to be any time, to begin with. All you're going to do is evaluate the Hoover report he has already made.
Richard Russell: I don't think they'll move that fast on it.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Okay, well then, we won't move any faster than you want to move... The Secretary of State came over here this afternoon. He's deeply concerned, Dick, about the idea that they're spreading throughout the Communist world that Khrushchev killed Kennedy. Now he didn't. He didn't have a damned thing to do with it.
Richard Russell: I don't think he did directly. I know Khrushchev didn't because he thought he'd get along better with Kennedy.
Lyndon B. Johnson: All right, but we've...
Richard Russell: I wouldn't be surprised if Castro had.
Lyndon B. Johnson: All right then, okay. That's what we want to know. And people have got confidence in you and you can be just surprised or not surprised. They want to know what you think...
Richard Russell: You're taking advantage of me...
Lyndon B. Johnson: No, no, no. . . . I'm going to take a hell of a lot of advantage of you, my friend, 'cause you made me and I know it and I don't ever forget. And I'll be going to be taking advantage of you a good deal. But you're going to serve your country and do what is right and if you can't do it, you get that damned little Bobby up there and let him twist your tail and put a cocklebur under it. Where is he?
Richard Russell: I don't know. He's in Atlanta tonight.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Well, you just tell him to get ready because I'm going to need him and you just tell him that.
Richard Russell: I saw he and Vandiver this afternoon for about thirty minutes. They came by here.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Just tell either one of them that I just would like to use them anyplace because I'm a Russell protege and I don't forget my friends and I want you to stand up and be counted and I don't want to beg you, by God, to serve on these things....
Richard Russell: I know, but this is a sort of rough one.
Lyndon B. Johnson: No, it is not rough. What is rough about this? They had a full-scale investigation going, Dick, with the TV up there. They had the House Un-American Activities Committee in it.
Richard Russell: They shouldn't have done it.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Of course, but how do I stop it? How do I stop it, Dick? Now don't tell me that I've worked all day and done wrong.
Richard Russell: I didn't say you'd done wrong. I just said... it could have been stopped some other way. . . .
Lyndon B. Johnson: What do you think I've done wrong now by appointing you on a commission?
Richard Russell: Well, I just don't like Warren.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Of course, you don't like Warren, but you'll like him before it is over with.
Richard Russell: I haven't got any confidence in him.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Well, you can give him some confidence. Goddamn it! Associate with him now... I'm not afraid to put your intelligence against Warren's. Now by God, I want a man on that commission and I've got one!
Richard Russell: I don't know about the intelligence, of course, and I feel like I'm being kidded, but if you think...
Lyndon B. Johnson: Well, if you think now Dick, do you think I'd kid you?
Richard Russell: If it is for the good of the country, you know damned well I'll do it and I'll do it for you, for that matter...
Lyndon B. Johnson: Dick, do you remember when you met me at the Carlton Hotel in 1952? When we had breakfast there one morning?
Richard Russell: Yes, I think I do.
Lyndon B. Johnson: All right. Do you think I'm kidding you?
Richard Russell: No, I don't think you're kidding me. But I think - well, I'm not going to say any more, Mr. President. I'm at your command and I'll do anything you want me to do.
Lyndon B. Johnson: You damned sure going to be at my command! You're going to be at my command as long as I'm here.
Richard Russell: I do wish you be a little more deliberate and considerate next time about it but... if you've done this, I'm going to... go through with it and say I think it is a wonderful idea.
Lyndon B. Johnson: I'm going to have you on a good goddamned many things that I have to decide.... I've served under you and I don't give a damn if you have to serve with a Republican, if you have to serve with a Communist, if you have to serve with a Negro, or if you have to serve with a thug - or if you have to serve with A.W. Moursund.
Richard Russell: I can serve with a Communist and I can serve with a Negro. I can serve with a Chinaman.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Well, you may have to serve with A.W. Moursund!
Richard Russell: And if I can serve with A.W. Moursund, I would say, "Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to serve with you, Judge Moursund." But - we won't discuss it any further Mr. President. I'll serve.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Okay, Dick, and give Bobby my love and tell him he'd better get ready to give up that fruitful law practice he's got.
Richard Russell: He's been appointed to the Georgia Court of Appeals. Now, you see, I got him on there. He's making as much money as I am.
Lyndon B. Johnson: What about Vandiver?
Richard Russell: Well, he's running for Governor next time and he'll be elected.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Who in the hell is going to help me besides you?
Richard Russell: Those boys will help you if you need them.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Well, I need 'em.
Richard Russell: Goddamn it, they're harder for you than I was - remember?
Lyndon B. Johnson: No, nobody ever has been more to me than you have, Dick - except my mother.
Richard Russell: (laughs scoffmgly)
Lyndon B. Johnson: No, no, that's true. I've bothered you more and made you spend more hours with me telling me what's right and wrong than anybody except my mother.
Richard Russell: You've made me do more things I didn't want to do.
Lyndon B. Johnson: No, no, I never made you do anything that was wrong. I never...
Richard Russell: I didn't say "wrong." I said more things I didn't want to do. But Bobby and Ernie are two of the most loyal friends you've got on earth.
Lyndon B. Johnson: I know that.
Richard Russell: They both called me up and said, "You've just got to do whatever Mr. Johnson says."
Lyndon B. Johnson: No ... I just want to counsel with you and I just want your judgment and your wisdom.
Richard Russell: For whatever it's worth, you've got it.
Lyndon B. Johnson: I'm going to have it 'cause I haven't got any daddy and you're going to be it. And don't just forget that.
Richard Russell: Mr. President, you know - I think you know me.
Lyndon B. Johnson: I do. I do. I know you're for your country and - period. Now you just get ready to do this and you're my man on there.
Richard Russell: If you hadn't announced it, I would absolutely be...
Lyndon B. Johnson: No you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't.
Richard Russell: Yes, I would. Yes, I would.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Warren told me he wouldn't do it under any circumstances. Didn't think a Supreme Court Justice ought to go on... He said a man that criticized this fellow that went on the Nuremberg trial - Jackson. And I said, "Let me read you one report." And I just picked up one report and read it to him, and I said, "Okay, now, forty million Americans involved here."
Richard Russell: I may be wholly wrong. But I think Mr. Warren would serve on anything that would give him any publicity.
Lyndon B. Johnson: You want me to tell you the truth? You know what happened? Bobby and them went up to see him today and he turned them down cold and said, "No." Two hours later, I called him and ordered him down here and he didn't want to come. I insisted he come. He came down here and told me no - twice. And I just pulled out what Hoover told me about a little incident in Mexico City and I said, "Now I don't want Mr. Khrushchev to be told tomorrow - and be testifying before a camera that he killed this fellow and that Castro killed him and all I want you to do is look at the facts and bring in any other facts you want in here and determine who killed the President. And I think you put on your uniform in World War I, fat as you are, and would do anything you could to save one American life. And I'm surprised that you, the Chief Justice of the United States, would turn me down." And he started crying and he said, "I won't turn you down. I'll just do whatever you say." But he turned the Attorney General down!
Richard Russell: You ought not to be so persuasive.
Lyndon B. Johnson: I think I ought to.
Richard Russell: I think you did wrong in getting Warren, and I know damned well you did wrong in getting me. But we'll both do the best we can.
Lyndon B. Johnson: I think that's what you'll do. That's the kind of Americans both of you are. Good night.
President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (Warren Commission) established by LBJ (Executive Order #11130) "to ascertain, evaluate and report on" the assassination. The members were:
Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, Congressman Gerald Ford (R-Michigan), former CIA Director Allen Dulles, former World Bank president John J. McCloy, Congressman Hale Boggs (D-Louisiana), Senator John Sherman Cooper (R-Kentucky), Senator Richard Russell (D-Georgia).
The Church Committee found that "each time Hoover received word that a particular person was being considered for the Commission staff, he asked 'what the Bureau had' on the individual..." (Church Report)
Dr. Shaw was quoted by Martin Steadman that the doctors were "baffled" by the throat wound since the assassin was supposed to be behind JFK; "yet the bullet entered at the front of his neck. Mr. Kennedy must have turned to his left to talk to Mrs. Kennedy or to wave to someone." (Houston Post)
Jack Martin was interviewed by the FBI and SS and admitted that he had been drunk when he made up the story about Oswald and Ferrie. (SS Report)
LBJ met with McCone and George McBundy. (NY Times 11/30)
Silvia Duran was released from custody.
A letter is delivered to Arnold Johnson, an official of the Communist Party, a week after the assassination. The letter is from Oswald and is postmarked November 1, 1963 - exactly four weeks before it arrives at Johnson's address in New York City. Oswald writes in the letter that he has attended a right-wing meeting at which General Walker has made a speech and then a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union. Johnson considers the four-week delay in the delivery of the letter to be "beyond all normal procedure." The lateness, it should be noted, covered a period of three weeks before Oswald's arrest and cannot be attributed to his sudden notoriety on Nov. 22. Johnson will testify: "... something odd about the whole letter...For instance, you have a different kind of ink in two places here. It seems that way to me. But that's pretty hard to say with modern pens. The way he signs his name and the way - that could be a problem, because he didn't always sign it the same...I would just as soon leave that to a handwriting expert...It may be worthwhile to check it with a handwriting expert..." There is no indication that the letter was submitted to handwriting analysis or that any inquiry was made into the four-week delay in its transit. AATF
11/29/63: URGENT TO DIRECTOR [J. Edgar Hoover] AND SAC, BOSTON [unknown] FROM SAC, DALLAS [J. Gordon Shanklin] ON THE MORNING OF NOVEMBER TWENTY-THREE, LAST, A SNUB NOSE THIRTY EIGHT CALIBER SMITH AND WESSON, SERIAL NUMBER EIGHT NINE THREE TWO SIX FIVE [893265], WITH THE WORD QUOTE ENGLAND UNQUOTE ON THE CYLINDER WAS FOUND AT APPROXIMATELY SEVEN THIRTY AM., IN A BROWN PAPER BAG IN THE GENERAL AREA OF WHERE THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY TOOK PLACE."
This weapon is the same type weapon which has been allegedly taken from accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald at the time of his arrest in the Texas Theater. The serial numbers of the two guns are the only basic difference. The so-called Oswald pistol bears the serial number V510210.
Memo from Walter Jenkins to LBJ: "Abe [Fortas] has talked with Katzenbach and Katzenbach has talked with the Attorney General. They recommend a seven man commission-two Senators, two Congressmen, the Chief Justice, Allen Dulles, and a retired military man (general or admiral). Katzenbach is preparing a description of how the Commission would function."
Cable sent from CIA HQ to the White House, FBI, and State Department:
NONE OF THESE SOURCES HAD ANY PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF ANY VISITS THAT LEE OSWALD MAY HAVE MADE TO THE CUBAN EMBASSY IN MEXICO CITY OR OF ANY BUSINESS HE MAY HAVE TRANSACTED. [DIR 85670 of 11-29-63, at RIF #104-10404-10144]
The key phrase here may be "personal" knowledge, as opposed to what these informants learned from other employees. HSCA investigators Ed Lopez and Harold Leap found and interviewed these two informants, without permission from the CIA. According to another HSCA investigator, Gaeton Fonzi, the informants told Lopez and Leap that "the consensus among the employees within the Cuban Consulate after the Kennedy assassination was that it wasn't Oswald who had been there." [Gaeton Fonzi, The Last Investigation, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1993, p. 294] The informants also said that they had reported this fact to the Agency.
1:39 Hoover wrote a memo to his Assistant Directors. He must have taped his phone call with LBJ because the memo is almost a verbatin repeat of it. (First disclosed by the Church Committee; HSCA 3 476)
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
WASHINGTON, D.C.
1:39 p.m. November 29, 1963
MEMORANDUM FOR MR. TOLSON MR. BELMONT MR. MOHR MR. CONRAD MR. DE LOACH MR. EVANS MR. ROSEN MR. SULLIVAN
FROM: J. EDGAR HOOVER
The President called and asked if I am familiar with the proposed group they are trying to get to study my report - two from the House, two from the Senate, two from the courts, and a couple of outsiders. I replied that I had not heard of that but had seen reports from the Senate Investigating Committee. The President stated he wanted to get by just with my file and my report. I told him I thought it would be very bad to have a rash of investigations. He then indicated the only way to stop it is to appoint a high-level committee to evaluate my report and tell the House and Senate not to go ahead with the investigation. I stated that would be a three-ring circus. The President then asked what I think about Allen Dulles, and I replied that he is a good man. He then asked about John McCloy, and I stated I am not as enthusiastic about McCloy, that he is a good man but I am not so certain as to the matter of publicity he might want. The President then mentioned General (Lauris) Norstad, and I said he is a good man. He said in the House he might try (Hale) Boggs and (Gerald R.) Ford and in the Senate (Richard B.) Russell and (John Sherman) Cooper. I asked him about Cooper and he indicated Cooper of Kentucky whom he described as a judicial man, stating he would not want (Jacob K.) Javits. I agreed on this point. He then reiterated Ford of Michigan, and I indicated I know of him but do not know him and had never seen him except on television the other day and that he handled himself well on television. I indicated that I do know Boggs. The President then mentioned that (Walter) Jenkins had told him that I have designated Mr. DeLoach to work with them as he had on the Hill. He indicated they appreciated that and just wanted to tell me they consider Mr. DeLoach as high class as I do, and that they salute me for knowing how to pick good men. I advised the President that we hope to have the investigation wrapped up today but probably won't have it before the first of the week as an angle in Mexico is giving trouble - the matter of Oswald's getting $6500 from the Cuban Embassy and coming back to this country with it; that we are not able to prove that fact; that we have information he was there on September 18 and we are able to prove he was in New Orleans on that date; that a story came in changing the date to September 28 and he was in Mexico on the 28th. I related that the police have again arrested Duran, a member of the Cuban Embassy; that they will hold her two or three days; will confront her with the original informant; and will also try a lie detector test on her. The President then inquired if I pay any attention to the lie detector test. I answered that I would not pay 100% attention to them; that it was only a psychological asset in investigation; that I would not want to be a part of sending a man to the chair on a lie detector test. I explained that we have used them in bank investigations and a person will confess before the lie detector test is finished, more or less fearful it will show him guilty. I said the lie detector test has this psychological advantage. I further stated that it is a misnomer to call it a lie detector since the evaluation of the chart made by the machine is made by a human being and any human being is apt to make the wrong interpretation. I stated, if Oswald had lived and had take a lie detector test, this with the evidence we have would have added that much strength to the case; that there is no question he is the man. I also told him that Rubenstein down there has offered to take a lie detector test but his lawyer must be consulted first; that I doubt the lawyer will allow him to do so; that he has a West Coast lawyer somewhat like the Edward Bennett Williams type and almost as much of a shyster. The President asked if we have any relationship between the two (Oswald and Rubenstein) as yet. I replied that at the present time we have not; that there was a story that the fellow had been in Rubenstein's nightclub but it has not been confirmed. I told the President that Rubenstein is a very seedy character, had a bad record - street brawls, fights, etc.; that in Dallas, if a fellow came into his nightclub and could not pay his bill completely, Rubenstein would beat him up and throw him out; that he did not drink or smoke; that he was an egomaniac; that he likes to be in the limelight; knew all of the police officers in the white light district; let them come in and get food and liquor, etc.; and that is how I think he got into police headquarters. I said if they ever made any move, the pictures did not show it even when they saw him approach and he got right up to Oswald and pressed the pistol against Oswald's stomach; that neither officer on either side made any effort to grab Rubenstein - not until after the pistol was fired. I said, secondly, the chief of police admits he moved Oswald in the morning as a convenience and at the request of motion picture people who wanted daylight. I said insofar as tying Rubenstein and Oswald together, we have not yet done so; that there are a number of stories which tied Oswald to the Civil Liberties Union in New York in which he applied for membership and to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee which is pro-Castro, directed by communists, and financed to some extent by the Castro Government. The President asked how many shots were fired, and I told him three. He then asked if any were fired at him. I said no, that three shots were fired at the President and we have them. I stated that our ballistic experts were able to prove the shots were fired by this gun; that the President was hit by the first and third bullets and the second hit the Governor; that there were three shots; that one complete bullet rolled out of the President's head; that it tore a large part of the President's head off; that in trying to massage his heart on the way into the hospital they loosened the bullet which fell on the stretcher and we have that. He then asked were they aimed at the President. I replied they were aimed at the President, no question about that. I further advised him that we have also tested the fact you could fire those three shots in three seconds. I explained that there is a story out that there must have been more than one man to fire several shots but we have proven it could be done by one man. The President then asked how it happened that Connally was hit. I explained that Connally turned to the President when the first shot was fired and in that turning he got hit. The President then asked, if Connally had not been in his seat, would the President have been hit by the second shot. I said yes. I related that on the fifth floor of the building where we found the gun and the wrapping paper we found three empty shells that had been fired and one that had not been fired. that he had four but didn't fire the fourth; then threw the gun aside; went down the steps; was seen by a police officer; the manager told the officer that Oswald was all right, worked there; they let him go; he got on a bus; went to his home and got a jacket; then came back downtown, walking; the police officer who was killed stopped him, not knowing who he was; and he fired and killed the police officer. The President asked if we can prove that and I answered yes. I further related that Oswald then walked another two blocks; went to the theater; the woman selling tickets was so suspicious - said he was carrying a gun when he went into the theater - that she notified the police; the police and our man went in and located Oswald. I told him they had quite a struggle with Oswald but that he was subdued and shown out and taken to police headquarters. I advised the President that apparently Oswald had come down the steps from the fifth floor; that apparently the elevator was not used. The President then indicated our conclusions are: (1) he is the one who did it; (2) after the President was hit, Governor Connally was hit; (3) the President would have been hit three times except for the fact that Governor Connally turned after the first shot and was hit by the second; (4) whether he was connected with the Cuban operation with money we are trying to nail down. I told him that is what we are trying to nail down; that we have copies of the correspondence; that none of the letters dealt with any indication of violence or assassination; that they were dealing with a visa to go back to Russia. I advised the President that his wife had been very hostile, would not cooperate and speaks only Russian; that yesterday she said , if we could give assurance she would be allowed to remain in the country, she would cooperate; and that I told our agents to give that assurance and sent a Russian-speaking agent to Dallas last night to interview her. I said I do not know whether or not she has any information but we would learn what we could. The President asked how Oswald had access to the fifth floor of the building. I replied that he had access to all floors. The President asked where was his office and I stated he did not have any particular place; that he was not situated in any particular place; that he was just a general packer of requisitions that came in for books from Dallas schools; that he would have had proper access to the fifth and sixth floors whereas usually the employees were down on lower floors. The President then inquired if anybody saw him on the fifth floor, and I stated he was seen by one of the workmen before the assassination. The President then asked if we got a picture taken of him shooting the gun and I said no. He asked what was the picture sold for $25,000, and I advised him this was a picture of the parade showing Mrs. Kennedy crawling out of the back seat; that there was no Secret Service Agent on the back of the car; that in the past they have added steps on the back of the car and usually had an agent on either side standing on the bumper; that I did not know why this was not done - that the President may have requested it; that the bubble top was not up but I understand the bubble top was not worth anything because it was made entirely of plastic; that I had learned much to my surprise that the Secret Service does not have any armored cars. The President asked if I have a bulletproof car and I told him I most certainly have. I told him we use it here for my own use and, whenever we have any raids, we make use of the bulletproof car on them. I explained that it is a limousine which has been armor plated and that it looks exactly like any other car. I stated I think the President ought to have a bulletproof car; that from all I understand the Secret Service has had two cars with metal plates underneath the car to take care of hand grenades or bombs thrown out on the street. I said this is European; that there have been several such attempts on DeGaulle's life; but they do not do that in this country; that all assassinations have been with guns; and for that reason I think very definitely the President ought to always ride in a bulletproof car; that it certainly would prevent anything like this ever happening again; but that I do not mean a sniper could not snipe him from a window if he were exposed. The President asked if I meant on his ranch he should be in a bulletproof car. I said I would think so; that the little car we rode around in when I was at the ranch should be bulletproofed; that it ought to be done very quietly. I told him we have four bulletproof cars in the Bureau: one on the West Coast, one in New York and two here. I said this could be done quietly without publicity and without pictures taken of it if handled properly and I think he should have one on his ranch. The President then asked if I think all the entrances should be guarded. I replied by all means, that he had almost to be in the capacity of a so-called prisoner because without that security anything could be done. I told him lots of phone calls had been received over the last four or five days about threats on his life; that I talked to the Attorney General about the funeral procession from the White House to the Cathedral; that I was opposed to it. The President remarked that the Secret Service told them not to but the family wanted to do it. I stated that was what the Attorney General told me but I was very much opposed to it. I further related that I saw the procession from the Capitol to the White House on Pennsylvania and, while they had police standing on the curbs, when the parade came, the police turned around and looked at the parade. The President then stated he is going to take every precaution he can; that he wants to talk to me; and asked if I would put down my thoughts. He stated I was more than head of the FBI - I was his brother and personal friend; that he knew I did not want anything to happen to his family; that he has more confidence in me than anybody in town; that he would not embroil me in a jurisdictional dispute; but that he did want to have my thoughts on the matter to advocate as his own opinion. I stated I would be glad to do this for him and that I would do anything I can. The President expressed his appreciation.
Very truly yours,
J. E. H.
John Edgar Hoover
Director
Date: November 29, 1963
To: Director of Intelligence and Research Department of State
From: John Edgar Hoover, Director
Subject: ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY, NOVEMBER 22, 1963
"Our Miami, Florida Office on November 23, 1963 advised that the Office of Coordinator of Cuban Affairs in Miami advised that the Department of State feels some misguided anti-Castro group might capitalize on the present situation and undertake an unauthorized raid against Cuba, believing that the assassination of President John F. Kennedy might herald a change in U.S. policy, which is not true.
"Our sources and informants familiar with Cuban matters in the Miami area advise that the general feeling in the anti-Castro Cuban community is one of stunned disbelief and, even among those who did not entirely agree with the President's policy concerning Cuba, the feeling is that the President's death represents a great loss not only to the U.S. but to all Latin America. These sources know of no plans for unauthorized action against Cuba.
"An informant who has furnished reliable information in the past and who is close to a small pro-Castro group in Miami has advised that those individuals are afraid that the assassination of the President may result in strong repressive measures being taken against them and, although pro-Castro in their feelings, regret the assassination.
"The substance of the foregoing information was orally furnished to Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency and Captain William Edwards of the Defense Intelligence Agency on November 23, 1963, by Mr. W.T. Forsyth of this Bureau."
FBI memo from Hoover stated that "George Bush of the CIA" would be assessing reaction to the assassination by the Cuban-exile community. (The Nation 7/1988) It's a memorandum of FBI director J Edgar Hoover to the State department, dated 29 November 1963. It describes a meeting, one day after JFK's murder, between FBI and CIA officials talking about the reaction of the Cuban exile community to the Kennedy Assassination. The last paragraph states that the "the substance of the foregoing information was orally furnished to us and George Bush of the Central Intelligence agency". When asked by journalists, President Bush initially stated "It's not me, must be another Bush!" This was checked and found to be NOT true. When asked again, a spokesperson for Bush declined to comment any further. The obvious question is: Why does Bush need to lie about it? This FBI document identifying George Bush as a CIA agent in November 1963 is first published by Joseph McBride in "The Nation" in July 1988, just before Bush receives the Republican nomination for President. McBride's source observes: "I know [Bush] was involved in the Caribbean. I know he was involved in the suppression of things after the Kennedy assassination. There was a very definite worry that some Cuban groups were going to move against Castro and attempt to blame it on the CIA."
FBI document Dallas 89-43 dated Nov. 29, 1963, and first publicly released in 1968, stated brown wrapping paper in the Texas School Book Depository "was examined by the FBI Laboratory and found to have the same observable characteristics as the brown paper bag shaped like a gun case which was found near the scene of the shooting on the sixth floor…" This was incriminating evidence against Oswald, as he worked in the building and had access to the wrapping paper. However, in 1980, another document labeled Dallas 89-43 and dated Nov. 29, 1963, was found in the National Archives which was identical to the 1968 version except it stated the wrapping paper "was examined by the FBI Laboratory and found not to be identical with the paper gun case found at the scene of the shooting."
FBI Quigley memo of 29 Nov 1963. FBI Special Agent Quigley interviewed Martello, who talked about a handwritten note in Russian and English in Oswald's wallet. FBI Quigley report of 29 Nov 1963. This report contains a much more detailed description of Martello's account of his interview with Oswald after the New Orleans arrest.
[B]A right-wing Munich new