Deep Politics Timeline

[Tracy Riddle]

• 9/1/1964 The Commission wrote to the FBI requesting certain additional information about the lifted print (the actual letter does not appear in the Exhibits). (Meagher)
  
• 9/1/1964 Wesley Liebeler memo to Howard Willens: "...it reflects badly that Marina Oswald still had material on August 26 not known to the FBI." (Inquest)
  
• 9/2 or 9/3/1964 RFK resigns as Attorney General.
  
• 9/2/1964 Jackie Kennedy and her children move, this month, to live in New York City.
  
• 9/4/1964 In a JCS meeting, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Harold K. Johnson argued that air strikes against the North wouldn't have much effect. Johnson's dissent was not mentioned to McNamara. (In Retrospect p152-3)
  
• 9/4/1964 CE 2637: Letter from Hoover to Rankin about the palm print found on the rifle: "This palm print lift has been compared with the assassination rifle in the FBI laboratory. The laboratory examiners were able to positively identify this lift as having come from the assassination rifle in the area of the wooden foregrip. This conclusion is based on a comparison of irregularities in the surface of the metal of the barrel with the impressions of these irregularities as shown in the lift." Sylvia Meagher: "On September 4, 1964, J. Edgar Hoover replied, stating that the palmprint lift had been compared with the assassination rifle in the FBI Laboratory, and that the laboratory examiners had positively identified the lift as having come from the assassination rifle on the basis of a comparison of irregularities on the surface of the metal of the barrel with the impressions of those irregularities as shown in the lift. (CE 2637) The authentication was obtained not in sworn testimony, but in a letter, and no inquiries were made to determine whether those "irregularities" could have been imposed or superimposed on the lift. Obviously, the authenticity of the lift cannot be taken as proved unless the possibility of the imposition of the rifle markings can be ruled out. The possibility of fabrication still exists--and becomes all the more apparent on returning to Latona's testimony and his 12 points of identity between the lift and the inked palmprint. An arrested person having his fingerprints and palmprints taken holds his inked hand flat, on a police record form. A person who handles a rifle curls his hand around the barrel. The curving of the hand would almost certainly, it seems to me, distort the lines and loops [of the impression] so that the resulting print would differ markedly from a print made by the flat of the hand. Nothing in Latona's testimony suggests the lifted palmprint had any characteristics indicating that the print was made by a curved hand. On the contrary, Latona found 12 points of identity between the lift and a palmprint made by a hand in flat position. (Accessories After the Fact, Vintage Books Edition, New York: Vintage Books, 1992, reprint, p. 127)
  
• 9/4/1964 Galley proofs of the Warren Report were circulated among the Commission and staffers for final comments. (Inquest)
  
• 9/4/1964 Washington - Review of Robert Kennedy's three years in office; obliquely deals with RFK - J. Edgar Hoover frictions, including fact that RFK made the first real effort in years to bring FBI and its powerful director under effective direction and to turn its attention to such law enforcement problems as civil rights and organized crime. New York Times, Anthony Lewis
  
• 9/5/1964 William Bradford Huie wrote about the Mississippi murders in the Saturday Evening Post: "What makes this lynching a high crime against humanity is the role of the police. The three young men were not criminals. They were unarmed. They were well-intentioned. They were peaceful and peace-loving. Mississippi requires no visa for an American citizen to visit it."
  
• 9/5/1964 Memo from Melvin Eisenberg to Norman Redlich: "Subject: Neutron Activation Analysis. The following questions should be asked of the FBI: 1.A description of the neutron activation test. 2.When the test was performed on the paraffin cast. 3.How much barium and antimony were found on the cast. 4.Were any significant elements of other than barium and antimony found? 5.How rare are barium and antimony as compared with nitrates or other oxidozing agents which can cause a reaction to the paraffin test? 6.Were barium and antimony found on both sides of the paraffin cast of the cheek? 7.If so, doesn't that indicate that the casts were contaminated so that the whole test was worthless? 8.What is the meaning of the statement in the letter from the FBI that there was more barium and antimony on the cast than might normally be expected to be found on a person who had not fired a weapon. Does this mean that there were more barium and antimony than would be present on a person's hands even if he had handled some of the items listed in the letter from the FBI setting forth items containing barium and/or antimony? If not, what is the validity of the statement?" (Post-Mortem p447)
  
• 9/6/1964 26-page memo from Liebeler to Rankin attacking the Warren Report chapter on the identity of the assassin; it was revised again. (Inquest) He argued that "...the best evidence that Oswald could fire as fast as he did and hit the target is the fact that he did so." He admitted that the "fact is that not one person alive today ever saw that rifle [the Carcano] in the Paine garage in such a way that it could be identified as that rifle." He complained about how the Commission equated Oswald's hunting in Russia with a shotgun, to his experience with a rifle: "Under what theory do we include activities concerning a shotgun under a heading relating to rifle practice, and then presume not to advise the reader of that?" He feared that the Report was too strongly biased against Oswald and would end up looking like a prosecution brief: "To put it bluntly, this sort of selection from the record could seriously affect the integrity and credibility of the entire report...Gaps cannot be filled by ignoring them." He noted that Frazier's description of Oswald carrying the rifle bag cupped in his hand agreed with his estimation of the length of the bag. Liebeler also warned that relying on Helen Markham's testimony would leave the Report open to criticism from critics. He felt it was "dishonest" not to mention the misaligned scope, or evidence that Oswald was a poor shot, and leave the reader with the impression that the shooting was easy to accomplish. When Liebeler gave this memo to Rankin, the latter complained, "No more memorandums! The Report has to be published!" Redlich also complained about Liebeler's criticisms, saying, "The Commission judged it an easy shot, and I work for the Commission." (Inquest) Liebeler also warned that "some question might be raised when the public discovers that there was only one person who saw Oswald kill him. All the rest only saw subsequent events. Mrs. Markham is nicely buried here, but I predict not for long."
  
• 9/6/1964 Sen. Richard Russell led a small expedition to a US Naval Air Station in Dallas to interview Marina Oswald. Russell presided, with Boggs and Cooper in attendance. Rankin was there along with two interpreters. (WC Vol. V, p. 589) "I feel in my own mind that Lee did not have President Kennedy as a prime target when he assassinated him." Representative Boggs asks, "Well, who was it?" Marina replies, "I think it was Connally. That's my personal opinion that he perhaps was shooting at Governor Connally, the Governor of Texas." From the beginning of his examination of Marina Oswald, Russell makes two things clear. First, he has thoroughly digested the past record of her interrogations. This includes her relationship with Ruth Paine, who he once called Marina's alter ego and "one of the most charitable people we have." (12/16 Commission meeting, p. 41) Second, unlike Bugliosi and others, he has real doubts about Marina's testimony concerning her husband and about Oswald's real reasons for going to Russia. For instance, he asked the following: if Lee had told Marina that Russia was such an outstanding communist country to live in, and that is why he moved there, then why did he decline citizenship in Russia? (ibid) Some of Marina's answers make little sense. She actually says that Oswald was unhappy with his living quarters and his wages. (ibid p. 590) Yet most observers know that Oswald was granted a very nice domicile at a low rent and was given a fairly good job. Clearly, as far as living standards went, this is as good as it got for Oswald once he left the service. Russell then went on to address the possible Cuban connection with Oswald. He asked if Oswald knew any Cubans while in Russia, New Orleans or Texas. (ibid) He asked her about his joining a gun club in Minsk and got her to admit that he only went hunting there once. (ibid p. 591) Russell then probed for any connections between Marina and the KGB or the Soviet military. The CIA had written a memo in March 1964 that stated, "In practice, permission for a Soviet wife to accompany her foreign national husband abroad is rarely given. In almost every case available for our review, the foreign national was obliged to depart the USSR alone and either return to escort his wife out or arrange for her exit while he was still abroad. In some cases, the wife was never granted permission to leave." Following this proven record, Russell asked Marina who she saw in the military to get her exit visa out of Russia. He then asks another pointed question: Did she know any other Russian citizen who left Russia with a foreign national? (ibid p. 592) Clearly, Russell is skeptical about why she was allowed to leave Russia at the height of the Cold War. In fact, this line of questioning got Marina so on the defensive that she actually volunteered that she was never given any assignment by the Soviets or the Americans! Even though she was never asked that specific question. (ibid p. 604) Russell also uncovered the fact that Marina, with Priscilla Johnson's help, found a ticket stub to Mexico in the middle of a television program guide. (ibid p. 602) Conveniently, right after this discovery, Wesley Liebeler happened to call her with questions about Oswald in Mexico. And she told him about this ticket stub that she and Priscilla had miraculously discovered nine months after the police first searched the Paine residence. (ibid p. 602) Russell also discovered that Marina was planning on publishing her memoirs at the end of 1964. (ibid p. 600) She didn't. So the timely appearance of the eventual co-writer Ms. Johnson helped delay her plans for about 13 years. Sen. Cooper also pressed the ease with which she gained an exit visa from the Soviets. (ibid p. 604) And it is here that Marina denied any "assignment" for the Soviets or Americans. Cooper also probed her relationship with Ruth Paine. (ibid p. 607) In trying to discern a motive, Boggs asked her questions about how Oswald felt about Kennedy. (ibid p. 606) He was so persistent in this line that he got her to admit she was thoroughly rehearsed on this point in her previous Commission appearance. (p. 607) The questions also focused on Marina's facility with the English language. Russell seemed to doubt her need for an interpreter. (ibid p. 600)
  
• 9/6/1964 Max Taylor cabled from Saigon that "only the emergence of an exceptional leader could improve the situation and no George Washington is in sight."
  
• 9/6/1964 16 Questions on the Assassination By Bertrand Russell The Minority of One, 6 September 1964
  
• 9/7/1964 Bundy statement in State Dept bulletin: "We seek no wider war...it is clear enough that anything in the nature of attacks on North Viet-Nam of a systematic character by the South Vietnamese or ourselves would involve very grave issues and we would, therefore, prefer to pursue the policy we are now pursuing of maximum assistance in South Viet-Nam."
  
• 9/7/1964 Few people know that the day after Russell's interview with Marina Oswald, he visited Dealey Plaza with Boggs and Cooper. He took an unloaded rifle up to the sixth floor and simulated firing at JFK. In light of what Corso had told him, he commented rather wryly that "Oswald must have been an expert shot." Which, of course, he knew he wasn't. (Flagpole Magazine, 11/19/03, "Sen. Richard Russell and the Great American Murder Mystery") Russell also consulted with was Colonel Philip Corso, a retired Army Intelligence officer who had been on the staff of the National Security Council under Eisenhower. Corso did some investigating for the Commissioner and found out some interesting tidbits. He concluded that the Mannlicher-Carcano could not have performed as the official story leads us to believe. He also concluded that there was a Second Oswald. Further, that Oswald had gone to Russia as part of a fake defector program being run out of the Office of Naval Intelligence. After doing all this inquiry he told Russell that his opinion was the assassination was a project of rogue CIA agents and anti-Castro Cubans. Russell tended to agree with him but he said he could never get the other members of the panel to believe him. (On the Trail of the JFK Assassins, Dick Russell)
  
• 9/8/1964 Republican Vice Presidential candidate Rep. William Miller of New York wrote: "We estimate that if the President gets his way, and the current immigration laws are repealed, the number of immigrants next year will increase threefold and in subsequent years will increase even more ... shall we, instead, look at this situation realistically and begin solving our own unemployment problems before we start tackling the world's?" (The New York Times, Sept. 8, 1964, p. 14.)
  
• 9/8/1964 A WC lawyer wrote a memo warning that "eight months' work of the Commission and staff is in serious danger of being nullified because of the present impatience to publish [the Report]...Staff members are becoming increasingly unwilling to discuss change or refinement, which would cause a printing delay." (Inquest)
  
• 9/8/1964 Dr. Howard P. Rome of the Mayo Clinic wrote the WC about Oswald's spelling and grammar; he concluded that LHO "had a specific learning disability…" (H 26 812-7)
  
• 9/8/1964 (Telex from J. Edgar Hoover to RCMP): "URGENT ... appreciate knowing if you have on record any reference to one NORMAN SIMILAS of Toronto Canada being an eye witness within ten feet to the assassination of President Kennedy on Nov. 22/63. Urgent wire reply collect."
  
• 9/9/1964 In a meeting, the top military leaders split over whether to launch air strikes on North Vietnam; Wheeler, Johnson, Westmoreland and Max Taylor were opposed to it. Everyone present (which included LBJ, McCone, McNamara, and Rusk) agreed that Hanoi could not be allowed to win, but no one had any solution to prevent it from happening.
  
• 9/9/1964 LBJ authorized NSAM 314, okaying US retaliation against North Vietnam for any "special" attacks against US units by Hanoi or the VC.
  
• 9/10/1964 DeLoach letter to Bill Moyers, commenting on the success of the "operation in Atlantic City."
  
• 9/10/1964 (Memo to RCMP from FBI Liaison Officer): "The President's Commission has requested that the author of this article (from Liberty Magazine) be contacted and the photograph referred to be obtained, if possible. The Commission has also requested that the name of the presumably Dallas Times reporter referred to in the article be determined in order to ascertain whether such a picture ever existed."
  
• 9/11/1964 The FBI hastily interviews the superintendent of the Book Depository regarding the cartons on the sixth floor and particularly those cartons at the "sniper's perch." The report contains the statement that "there were no cartons on the sixth floor ... which could not have been handled by one man." This interview takes place because someone apparently became concerned that the "cardboard cartons" piled around the sniper's window to ensure seclusion might have been too heavy to be moved by one man. It is determined that the cartons weighed approximately 50 pounds apiece.
  
• 9/11/1964 (Memo to Commanding Officer of the RCMP branch in Toronto from the RCMP Commissioner in Ottawa): "FBI advise article appearing in July issue of Liberty Magazine by Norman Similas (address unknown) suggests Similas took photo which shows two persons at window from which fatal shots fired at late President Kennedy. Article also indicated reporter from Dallas Newspaper present when photo taken. Ascertain (a) whether such photo exists (b) identity of Dallas reporter."
  
• 9/11/1964 Lady Bird Johnson began a tour of the South to meet with various governors (except for George Wallace).
  
• 9/13/1964 A failed coup in Saigon by Catholics in the military who felt that Khanh was too friendly with the Buddhists. The NY Times today reported that Khanh "has accepted in general and in detail an immediate Buddhist formula for reforming his government along new civilian lines."
  
• 9/14-18/1964 CIA provides most of its information to the Warren Commission on these dates. Questions have been posed to the Agency by the Commission months earlier. The report will be officially presented to LBJ in only six days. The CIA is in the process of amassing what will be something on the order of 300,000 pages of info on LHO. (The public will see little of this material until August 1993.)
  
• 9/14/1964 (Memo to RCMP from FBI Liaison Officer): "One Robert H. Jackson, a photographer for the Dallas Times was interviewed in this matter last year and stated that upon hearing the shots, he looked up at the Texas School Book Depository window in time to see the barrel of a rifle being pulled inside the window, but could not see the person holding the rifle. He also recalled seeing two Negro individuals looking out of the windows immediately below the window in which he saw the rifle."
  
• 9/14/1964 The theologian Reinhold Neibuhr receives the Medal of Freedom.
  
• 9/14/1964 UC Berkeley officials announce a new policy prohibiting political action at the campus entrance at Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue. (SF Chronicle 6/9/02)
  
• 9/14/1964 The Warren Commission By Maurice Rosenberg The Nation, 14 September 1964, pages 110112
  
• 9/15/1964 The last person to testify before the Warren Commission, John F. Gallagher, gives testimony to Norman Relich.
  
• 9/15/1964 (Internal RCMP memo from Criminal Investigation Branch to Operations Division): "Kindly endeavor to obtain a copy of the August, 1964 issue of Liberty Magazine. The FBI have requested that this matter be treated as urgent."
  
• 9/15/1964 The CIA responded to the WC's February request for information by saying that "an examination of Central Intelligence Agency files has produced no information on Jack Ruby or his activities. The Central Intelligence Agency has no indication that Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald ever knew each other, were associated, or might have been connected in any manner." (H 26 466).
  
• 9/16/1964 Sen. Richard Russell wrote a 2-page dissent for his files about the single-bullet theory. It was later found in his private papers. Russell disagreed with the Warren Report view that JFK and Connally were hit by the same bullet, and also disagreed with the Report's conclusion of no conspiracy. In Russell's judgment, the insufficiency of the evidence gathered against Oswald "preclude the conclusive determination that Oswald and Oswald alone, without the knowledge, encouragement or assistance of any other person, planned and perpetrated the assassination."
  
• 9/16/1964 FBI interview of Loran Hall, 16 Sep 1964. In this interview, Loran Hall said he had visited Ms. Odio's apartment in late September 1963 with Lawrence Howard and William Seymour. International Anti-Communist Brigade soldier of fortune Loran Hall allegedly tells FBI agents that it was her, William Seymour and Lawrence Howard who visited Silvia Odio in Dallas. The WC uses the FBI conclusions in its report to dismiss her story. Later, both Seymour and Howard contradict Hall. Hall later tells the HSCA he never told FBI of any visit. (Fonzi chronology)
  
• 9/16/1964 Two RCMP officers pay a visit to the home of Norman Similas. They take down the following statement: "The position I finally took (for picture taking) was approximately 250 or 300 yards west of the Texas School Book Depository building. Approximately five minutes later the autocade appeared at the corner of Main and Houston. I took my first picture as the lead motorcycle passed in front of me. At the same time as I took the first picture I heard the first shot fired. I didn't take any more pictures until a bus carrying the Presidential Press Party came into view. I took a bus from Dallas to Chicago as I was unable to make airline reservations. En route I picked up a newspaper in St. Louis and noticed a story which was published on the day of the assassination and which was written by a Dallas reporter. His account of the assassination indicated that he observed two people and the rifle barrel being withdrawn from the window in the building. At Chicago I contacted T.C.A. Reservations where I received a message to call a local Chicago number. I called and a Ray Jefferies answered. It was the Associated Press Office. They sent a car for me and I gave him the rolls of film less one of which I did not know the locale. They developed the film there and advised me that they had coverage of most of the pictures that I had. I arrived in Toronto at about 10 PM on November 23rd. Almost immediately on my arrival at home, I was contacted by a reporter from the Toronto Telegram who advised they received word from the AP in Chicago that I had negatives that they might be interested in. He arrived in my home in five or ten minutes. He then examined the negatives, and while examining them he exclaimed, "there looks like two people at this window." I then went over and looked at the negative and I agreed that there were two objects in the window on the 6th floor southeast corner of the building. This window differed from the others in that it had an alcove above the window as opposed to the others on the 5th and other floors, which were square frame. The two objects appeared to be people and the Telegram reporter thought he saw what appeared to be a rifle barrel between them. I did not make any comment on this upon looking at it as it blended into the shadow of the object to the left. This negative was one of a strip of three and this strip plus another of three was handed over to this reporter. The following Wednesday, my wife telephoned me at work and told me a letter had arrived from the Telegram. This letter apologetically explained that they had lost the negatives. In a matter of a few days I received a cheque for $50.00 from the Telegram. Since that time I have heard nothing further from the Telegram."
  
• 9/16/1964 Disillusioned with Johnson's push for civil rights legislation and his sending troops to Vietnam without a clear goal of victory, Strom Thurmond left the Democratic Party and in a state-wide television speech today, told South Carolina voters that he was backing Goldwater. Explaining his reasons for leaving the party: The Democratic Party has forsaken the people to become the party of minority groups [and] power-hungry union leaders....'
  
• 9/17-18/1964 this night, US destroyers Morton and Edwards were on patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin; they picked up numerous radar contacts of enemy boats and the Morton began firing at them. A Navy review board 9/21-22 concluded that the destroyers had not actually been attacked by North Vietnamese craft.
  
• 9/17/1964 One of the two investigating officers files a report on Norman Similas. This is his statement: "During the course of this interview SIMILAS struck me as being a cocky, brash, individual who was quite anxious to create the impression of the "big-shot". When we began to question him on specifics he lost some of his composure and became extremely nervous and unsure of himself. It was not until Nov. 23rd, 1963 when he and a Toronto Telegram reporter were examining the negatives of photos he took, that the idea that two persons may have been in the window came up. SIMILAS went on to say that it was this reporter who drew it to his attention, and SIMILAS is very careful to point out that the reporter said "two people". I have attempted to verify the loss of the negatives by the Toronto Telegram newspaper as alleged by SIMILAS and inquiries at the Photo Department have failed to produce them. The photographer who took this picture is one Colin Davis however, I have been unable to contact him to date, as he is on assignment and only reports in to the office when he has something for publication. [signed] C.A. Beacock RCMP Sgt."
  
• 9/18/1964 Final WC executive session instigated by Sen. Russell. Russell helped Harold Weisberg track down the transcript to this meeting. He recalls that they had discussed problem areas in the WC's findings during that meeting. He "was shaken" when Weisberg told him that the transcript he received (prepared under the direction of Rankin) made no mention of the discrepancies Russell and other members had pointed out that day. Apparently the only transcript that existed was a fake one prepared by Rankin. Soon after this revelation, Russell "broke his long friendship with Lyndon Johnson and resigned the chairmanship of the Military Affairs Committee so important to him and his district..." (Whitewash IV p20-22; Washington Post 10/11/1968)
  
• 9/18/1964 Conversation between President Johnson and Warren Commissioner Richard Russell. In a taped call of that day, they both said that they did not believe the single bullet theory. Russell said, "I don't believe it" and LBJ replied with "I don't either." They also talked about the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and both express skepticism about what happened.
  

Richard Russell: That danged Warren Commission business, it whupped me down so. We got through today. You know what I did? I... got on the plane and came home. I didn't even have a toothbrush. I didn't bring a shirt.... Didn't even have my pills-antihistamine pills to take care of my em-fy-see-ma.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Why did you get in such a rush?
Richard Russell: I'm just worn out, fighting over that damned report.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Well, you ought to have taken another hour and gone get your clothes.
Richard Russell: No, no. They're trying to prove that the same bullet that hit Kennedy first was the one that hit Connally, went through him and through his hand, his bone, and into his leg... I couldn't hear all the evidence and cross examine all of them. But I did read the record.... I was the only fellow there that ... suggested any change whatever in what the staff got up.' This staff business always scares me. I like to put my own views down. But we got you a pretty good report.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Well, what difference does it make which bullet got Connally?
Richard Russell: Well, it don't make much difference. But they said that... the commission believes that the same bullet that hit Kennedy hit Connally. Well, I don't believe it.
Lyndon B. Johnson: I don't either.
Richard Russell: And so I couldn't sign it. And I said that Governor Connally testified directly to the contrary and I'm not gonna approve of that. So I finally made them say there was a difference in the commission, in that part of them believed that that wasn't so. And of course if a fellow was accurate enough to hit Kennedy right in the neck on one shot and knock his head off in the next one - and he's leaning up against his wife's head - and not even wound her - why, he didn't miss completely with that third shot. But according to their theory, he not only missed the whole automobile, but he missed the street! Well, a man that's a good enough shot to put two bullets right into Kennedy, he didn't miss that whole automobile... But anyhow, that's just a little thing.
Lyndon B. Johnson: What's the net of the whole thing? What's it say? Oswald did it? And he did it for any reason?
Richard Russell: Just that he was a general misanthropic fellow, that he had never been satisfied anywhere he was on earth - in Russia or here. And that he had a desire to get his name in history.... I don't think you'll be displeased with the report. It's too long.... Four volumes.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Unanimous?
Richard Russell: Yes, sir. I tried my best to get in a dissent, but they'd come round and trade me out of it by giving me a little old threat.

• 9/18/1964 CE 2676 memo from Richard Helms to Rankin: "Subject: Lee Harvey Oswald. In response to your request, I forward information regarding Lee Harvey Oswald's stay in Helsinki. According to a reliable source, Oswald stayed at the Torni Hotel in Helsinki from 10 to 11 October 1959 and then moved to the Klaus Kurki Hotel, where he stayed until 15 October, apparently waiting for a visa to be issued him by the Soviet Consulate in Helsinki. He traveled to the USSR by train, crossing at Vainikkala on 15 October." "Subject: Lee Harvey Oswald's Arrival time in Helsinki on 10 October 1959. 1. In response to your memorandum of 25 May 1964, we have established that the only direct flight from London to Helsinki on 10 October 1959 was Finn Air flight 852 which arrived in Helsinki at 2333 (11:33pm.) If Oswald had taken this flight, he could not normally have cleared customs and landing formalities and reached the Torni Hotel downtown by 2400 (midnight) on the same day. This is based on the judgement of officers in this Agency familiar with the Helsinki airport. 2. We are presently attempting to determine if Oswald could have taken a more circuitous flight from London, with a stop at Stockholm, Copenhagen or some other city. Any additional information received will be forwarded to you promptly."
  
• 9/18/1964 Dr. King has an audience with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican.
  
• 9/18/1964 FBI interview of William Seymour, 18 Sep 1964. Seymour disputed Hall's account and called him a liar.
  
• 9/18/1964 In an FBI report dated this day, Special Agent Wallace R. Heitman reveals the identity of "George Perrel" (known to the FBI since before the assassination). Heitman explains that the reason "Perrel" -- aka Fermin de Goicochea Sanchez -- couldn't be interviewed until the month the Warren Report is published is because Agent James Hosty was too busy investigating the JFK assassination.
  
• 9/18/1964 During the fall of this year, JFK Jr. moves from Washington to New York, where he attends a Catholic private school, then the Collegiate boys' school.
  
• 9/19/1964 RCMP Sgt. Beacock interviews the Toronto Telegram reporter regarding Norman Similas: "Further to previous report in this regard I interviewed Mr. Colin Davies, reporter and photographer of the Toronto Telegram. Davies stated that Similas was very excited at the time of this interview. While viewing the negatives Similas was said to have pointed out the window and asked Davies if he didn't think there were two people there. Similas drew his attention to the article written by a Dallas reporter in which two people were mentioned as being in the window. Davies said he felt that it was the power of suggestion and that Similas wanted to see two people in the negative so badly that he actually believed that he did. It was Davies opinion that the negatives were worthless from a news standpoint, but due to Similas' state of excitement he didn't have the heart to disappoint him. Davies decided to take the negatives and let the Photo Editor decide what should be done. During the next day or so, the negatives somehow became lost and the Telegram, feeling responsible, sent Similas a cheque to pay for them. I questioned Davies as to his impression of Similas and his story and he replied that he had no doubt that Similas has witnessed the assassination, but "he was sure going to get a lot of mileage out of the story." There appears to be a complete reversal of the roles played by SIMILAS and DAVIES depending on whose story you hear.
  
• 9/19/1964 Memo from acting CIA Deputy Director for Plans Thomas Karamessines to Rankin. "Information Concerning Jack Ruby and His Associates. Reference is made to your memorandum of 19 May 1964, requesting that this Agency furnish any information in its files relative to Jack Ruby, his activities and his associates...An examination of Central Intelligence Agency files has produced no information on Jack Ruby and his activities...no indication that Ruby or Lee Harvey Oswald ever knew each other, were associated, or might have been connected in any manner."
  
• 9/20/1964 FBI interview of Lawrence Howard, 20 Sep 1964. Howard similarly disputed meeting Sylvia Odio, but he did tell the FBI of a trip to Dallas in September to obtain "supplies" and funds.
  
• 9/20/1964 FBI interview of Loran Hall, 20 Sep 1964. On September 20 Hall retracted his original account.
  
• 9/21/1964 The body of Jim Koethe, a young Dallas reporter, is found swathed in a blanket on the floor of his bachelor apartment. Police say the cause of death is asphyxiation from a broken bone at the base of the neck --- apparently the result of a karate chop. Robbery appears to be the motive, although Koethe's parents believe he has been killed for other reasons. Whoever ransacked his apartment, they point out, was careful to remove his notes for a book he was preparing, in collaboration with two other journalists, on the Kennedy assassination. Within a week a 22-year-old ex-con from Alabama named Larry Earl Reno will be picked up selling Koethe's personal effects and held on suspicion of murder. Reno's lawyers will be Mike Barclay and Jim Martin, both friends of Jack Ruby's room mate George Senator. Martin and Senator were with Koethe at a meeting on the evening of November 24, 1963 in Ruby's apartment. When the Reno case comes before the grand jury, District Attorney Henry Wade secretly instructs the jurors not to indict---an extraordinary move for a chief prosecuting officer with as strong a case as he has. The grand jury returns a no-bill. Reno, however, remains in jail on a previous charge. When they finally spring him, in January 1965, he is rearrested within a month for the robbery of a hotel. This time the prosecution, led by a one-time law partner of Martin's has no qualms about getting an indictment, and a conviction. Reno is sentenced to life for the hotel robbery. At the trial, his lawyers call no witnesses in his defense.
  
• 9/21/1964 RCMP Statement by Kenneth G. Armstrong, editor of Liberty Magazine regarding Norman Similas: "On our first meeting (with Similas) we discussed his visit to Dallas and the events leading up to the assassination. There were two subsequent meetings at which I got the remainder of the information that I wanted for my story. Similas offered to supply me with pictures which were taken prior to and during the assassination. These were to be used to illustrate the story. It was my understanding that one of these pictures was the one in which two persons and the gun barrel could be seen, and these were to be forthcoming when developed. I phoned Similas a day or so later and he said they had been mailed to me from a Post Office on Yonge St. After a week had gone by Albert Plock, Art Director of Liberty, and I went through the entire amount of mail received during the previous week but we found nothing. I mention this because it was so important to the story to have that picture which contained the two faces at the window. We still held out hope that they might arrive in time for the second installment, however, they never did arrive."
  
• 9/22/1964 Conclusion of report submitted by RCMP Stg. C.A. Beacock regarding Norman Similas: "The foregoing statement indicates that SIMILAS knowingly deceived ARMSTRONG into buying the story by promising him pictures which he knew to be nonexistent. The paragraph of the July issue which states "a picture I took showed two figures beside a gun barrel" was actually the main point of interest of this story. From all the inquiries here I doubt that such a picture ever existed and it is a certainty that is does not now exist. It was pointed out to me that had SIMILAS taken the picture showing the assassin or assassins, it would have been an exclusive and every medium in the world would be after it. SIMILAS told ARMSTRONG that he mailed this photograph along with others to the Liberty Magazine fully three months after he had been paid for the pictures lost by the Toronto Telegram and which supposedly contained this picture. SIMILAS' story to me, and to both Davis and Armstrong contains too many inconsistencies and outright lies to be taken seriously. I feel he was an opportunist who saw a chance to cash in on the fact that he had witnessed the assassination and in order to do so he had to make the story as convincing as possible. It is unfortunate that by a coincidence the negatives which would prove the lie have been lost." The RCMP sent their report down to the FBI and closed the books on Norman Similas.
  
• 9/22/1964 A CIA bulletin stated that around the world there was a widespread suspicion that Kennedy had been killed as a result of a political plot. "Covert assets should explain the tragedy wherever it is genuinely misunderstood and counter all efforts to misconstrue it intentionally…communists and other extremists always attempt to prove a political conspiracy behind violence." (Kelin; ARRB)
  
• 9/23/1964 Letter from Hoover and Rankin: "On September 22, 1964, during a discussion by you with J.R. Malley, the matter of information relating to the assassination of President Kennedy continuing to be referred to the FBI and subsequent investigations made as a result of these referrals was discussed in some detail. Particular reference was made to the necessity of this Bureau, as the investigating agency, being able to refer results of its investigation to some authority designated for such purpose after the termination of the President's Commission. It is quite possible that information relating to the assassination of President Kennedy will continue to be received for an indefinite period of time and the FBI will continue to fulfill its responsibilities in checking out to the fullest all information which is received. It would be appreciated if you would advise the name of the appropriate authority to receive such investigation conducted by this Bureau following termination of the President's Commission." (Post Mortem p315)
  
• 9/23/1964 Assassin or Fall Guy? - Book Reviews Victor Perlo, American Journalist New Times, No. 38, 23 September 1964, pp. 30-31.
  
• 9/24/1964 The Warren Commission's report is submitted to LBJ by Chief Justice Earl Warren. Of the $1.2 million allocated to the investigation, $608,000 went to the cost of printing the report and the 1500 copies of its 26 volumes.
  
• 9/24/1964 Spanish freighter Sierra Aranzazu carrying a shipment of toys for Cuba is attacked seventy-five miles off Cuba. Captain and two crewmen killed in the attack.
  
• 9/24 or 9/29/1964 "Mr Hoover, after reading a Washington Post article captioned 'Praise is Voiced for Staff Engaged in Warren Report,' directed that the Bureau's files on the eighty-four staff members listed in the article 'be checked.'" The "derogatory information" was then given to him 10/2/1964. (Church Report)
  
• 9/24/1964 Gus Russo: "Although Moynihan declined to divulge any information [about the Kennedy family's investigation of the Secret Services], other sources, albeit second-hand ones, have disclosed that Bobby Kennedy's next foray into the mystery of his brother's death came after the release of the Warren Commission Report. At that time, Kennedy said, "I just can't believe that guy [Oswald] acted alone. I'm going to contact someone independent of this government to get to the bottom of this." Bobby then contacted a lifelong friend of the Kennedy family, then working in Britain's intelligence agency, known as MI6. The friendship dated back to the days when Papa Joe Kennedy was the US Ambassador to England. Undertaking this highly secretive mission, the MI6 agent contacted two French intelligence operatives who proceeded to conduct, over a three year period, a quiet investigation that involved hundreds of interviews in the United States. One agent was the head of the French Secret Service, Andre Ducret. The second was known only as "Philippe" -- believed to be Philippe Vosjoly, who was a former French Intelligence Chief in the United States. Over the years, Ducret and Philippe hired men to infiltrate the Texas oil industry, the CIA, and Cuban mercenary groups in Florida. Their report, replete with innuendo about Lyndon Johnson and right-wing Texas oil barons, was delivered to Bobby Kennedy only months before his own assassination in June of 1968. There is no information concerning Bobby's reaction to the document. After Bobby's death, the MI6 agent contacted the last surviving brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, inquiring as to what to do with the material. Teddy said the family wasn't interested. The agent proceeded to hire a French writer by the name of Herve LaMarre to fashion the material into a book. Published in Europe and authored under the pseudonym of "James Hepburn," the book was entitled Farewell, America. It contains highly exaggerated prose combined with a large dose of poetic license. Because the anecdotes about LBJ and others could be considered downright libelous, the book was never published in America. Over the years, however, through private dealers, the book obtained an "underground" distributorship in the United States. One of the dealers approached Dave Powers, Kennedy intimate and curator of the John F. Kennedy Museum, for his opinion of the book. Echoing Moynihan, Powers responded, "I can't confirm or deny the European connection, but Bobby definitely didn't believe the Warren Report." (Al Navis, interview by author, 19 November 1993. In the 1980's, Navis conducted inquiries about RFK's investigation with members of the Kennedy family inner-circle.)
  
• 9/25/1964 Adm. Sharp cabled Wheeler that "the political situation in RVN is now so unstable as to raise some serious questions about our future courses of action...Conceivably the decision could be one of disengagement."
  
• 9/25/1964 FBI agent Harry Whidbee reported on the interviews of the previous week, including the retractions. Note that this report is dated one day after the delivery of the Warren Report to President Johnson.
  
• 9/25/1964 September 25, 1964 THE STATE OF TEXAS vs. JACK RUBENSTEIN -- Defense counsel files second motion for extension of time to file statement of facts. Judge Brown grants thirty-day extension.
  
• 9/25/1964 LBJ, dedicating a dam in Oklahoma, said, "There are those that say you ought to go north and drop bombs, to try to wipe out the supply lines...We don't want our American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys...and get tied down in a land war in Asia."
  
• 9/26/1964 FBI report of 26 Sep 1964. This report recorded more details from the follow-up interviews with Howard, Seymour, and an associate named Celio Sergio Castro Alba.
  
• 9/27/1964 This evening, CBS aired a two-hour news special titled, "November 22 and the Warren Report," hosted by Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Eddie Barker; it was produced by Les Midgely. George O'Toole later commented: "while not openly challenging the Warren Report, [it] seemed to carry strong undercurrents of doubt about the official conclusions." John Connally was interviewed, and he insisted he wasn't hit by the same bullet as Kennedy. Interviews (done by Eddie Barker) were conducted with numerous witnesses. Marguerite insisted her son worked for US intelligence. Ruth Paine repeated almost verbatin the story she told in her first televised interview. Jesse Curry said that LHO was not in the Dallas police "subversive files." Wesley Frazier recalled that Oswald said he wouldn't need a ride home on Friday night. Malcolm Price and Garland Slack were interviewed, but then it was explained that the Warren Commission discounted their stories. CBS had originally agreed to give Mark Lane and de Antonio access to their 9/1964 documentary outtakes; the company's film librarian had given them this assurance. They viewed enormous amounts of outtake footage and had wanted to purchase large quantities of it for use in their film, but higher-ups at CBS soon vetoed this idea. They were told that this footage would not be sold, and would soon be destroyed. CBS had had very good relations with the WC during its existence; Inquest reported (p136) that the WC had originally decided not to mention Howard Brennan in the Report because of the inconsistencies in his testimony. CBS' planned documentary therefore would exclude Brennan. But when the WC decided to include him as an important witness, CBS also included him in their program, interviewing him at the last moment. The outtake footage that Lane and de Antonio saw included interviews with witnesses making statements contrary to the official story. When a witness was finally prompted to say that he thought the shots came from the Depository, only that bit of footage was used. (Citizen's Dissent 75-78)
  
• 9/28/1964 The Warren Report is made public. It is a 469-page document, supplemented by eighteen appendices. Although more than thirty persons had a hand in writing it, the work was mainly written by Norman Redlich and Alfred Goldberg. William L. O'Neill, Professor of History at Rutgers University, wrote in his history of the Sixties, Coming Apart (1971): "Solitary maniacs who assassinate Presidents are a national tradition. The idea of a conspiracy, so logical to European minds, was alien to Americans. Then too, if even one more suspect was uncovered the whole ghastly matter would have to be reopened with unpredictable consequences. No one wanted that. It was much better all around to accept the Warren Report...For all its bulk, the report was a sloppy piece of work, carelessly researched and based on a priori judgements...Evidence that cast doubt on the single-killer hypothesis was ignored, so was material pointing to other possibilities...There was no proof that Oswald was such a marksman, considerable evidence that he was a poor shot, yet the Commission insisted that he was expert and the shot itself an easy one...There was much reason to doubt [the single-bullet theory], little to believe it, yet the Commission clung to it desperately." Hugh Brogan, British historian and author, wrote in his 1985 book, The Penguin History of the United States of America: "An official investigating commission, headed by Chief Justice Warren, found that the President had been shot by a solitary psychotic, like Lincoln and McKinley before him; but it tortured the evidence to arrive at this conclusion. It seems more likely that the assassination was the work of a small-time, semi-criminal, semi-political conspiracy, but the truth has never been satisfactorily established. Whatever it may be, the event was a reminder of all the ugly, chaotic forces in American life..." (p654).
  
• 9/28/1964 A special request, on behalf of LBJ, is made to the Archivist of the United States that the seventy-five year ban on the Warren Commission files be waived wherever possible and that much of the material be opened to the public. Following approved guidelines, all the agencies involved in the investigation are to review their files and declassify everything except pages containing the names of confidential informers, information damaging to innocent parties, and information about the agencies' operating procedures. There is to be a periodic review by all the agencies concerned. This request, made on behalf of LBJ and the approved guidelines are made by McGeorge Bundy.
  
• 9/28/1964 In a telephone conversation with Mike Mansfield, LBJ says: "I wouldn't have this repeated to anybody - my judgment is that they're [the Secret Service] more likely to get me killed than they are to protect me ... They're just not heavy thinkers. They're just like the average cop and they don't plan. Hoover's the one that's put me in an [armored limousine] ... [and] he doesn't object to my shakin' hands with high school kids or people along a fence at Billings, Montana."
  
• 9/28/1964 Robert Kennedy issued at his campaign headquarters in New York a formal statement that said: "As I said in Poland last summer, I am convinced that Oswald was solely responsible for what happened and that he did not have any outside help or assistance. He was a malcontent who could not get along here or in the Soviet Union. I have not read his (sic) report nor do I plan to. But I have been briefed on it and I am completely satisfied that the Commission investigated every lead and examined every piece of evidence. The Commission's enquiry was thorough and conscientious."
  
• 9/28/1964 The day the Warren Report was published, The New York Herald Tribune carried an article by its star reporter Jimmy Breslin entitled "A Brother Who Won't Read the Report..." based on an interview Mr. Breslin had obtained from Robert Kennedy the night before while driving with him in a car through Manhattan. Here are a few significant excerpts from this article which throws a disturbing light both on the Report and on the workings of Bobby's mind:
  

"The Warren Report comes out tomorrow," he was told.
"Yes, I know," he said.
"Is this going to put the thing right back into your mind all over again?"
No," he said slowly. "I don't need the reminder. There are a lot of other things to remind me. I don't need the report."
"Have you read it?"
"No. I know what is in it. I'm not going to read the report."
"Not at all? I thought it is history and you have a sense of history …"
"He said no again, (Breslin continues) and when he said it his head began to shake quickly from side to side and his eyes were looking out somewhere into the streetlights on 86th Street. For blocks, Bobby Kennedy sat in silence with his head shaking quickly and there was something about the day he had his lips, despair or trying to forget or trying to say something that would change everything."

• 9/28/1964 In a speech in Manchester, New Hampshire, LBJ criticized Republicans for urging that the war in Vietnam be brought to the North.
  
• 9/28/1964 CIA reported that the regime in Saigon was likely to continue to disintegrate.
  
• 9/28/1964 Thomas Buchanan, Detective By Leo Sauvage The New Leader, 28 September 1964, pages 1015
  
• 9/28/1964 Radio Havana criticized the WR and argued that if Oswald had been a genuine Marxist, he wouldn't have engaged in assassination. "But it's already clear that it is a document that tries to cover up, tries to sweep the mess under the rug, and fails to get at the facts."
  
• 9/28/1964 The NY Times reported on its front page that "the Commission analyzed every issue in exhaustive, almost archaeological detail." The editorial page commented, "the facts - exhaustively gathered, independently checked and cogently set forth - destroy the basis for conspiracy theories that have grown weedlike in this country and abroad." The New York Times had favorable coverage of the WR by Anthony Lewis and James Reston. The Times printed the entire Report in a 48-page supplement on this day. C.L. Sulzberger expressed relief at the report's conclusions. "It was essential in these restless days," he wrote, "to remove unfounded suspicions that could excite latent jingo spirit. And it was necessary to reassure our allies that ours is a stable reliable democracy." In addition the Times collaborated with the Book of the Month Club on a hard-bound edition and with Bantam Books on a soft-bound edition of the report (with a laudatory introduction by Harrison Salisbury in the latter). By the end of the first week Bantam had printed 1,100,000 copies. Ironically the Times would later imply that the critics of the report were guilty of exploitation because of the "minor, if lucrative industry" that arose from their challenges to the official version of the assassination. In the Washington Post it was praised by Robert Donovan, Roscoe Drummond and Marquis Childs; an editorial said the WR "deserves acceptance as the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
  
• 9/29/1964 Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy, the President's mother, declared at a news conference in Montreal, Canada, on Sept. 29, 1964, that she had no intention of reading the Warren Report. The UPI dispatch reporting this gave no indication, however, as to whether she, too, believed Oswald to have been the killer.
  
• 9/29/1964 Mr Hoover, after reading a Washington Post article captioned 'Praise is Voiced for Staff Engaged in Warren Report,' directed that the Bureau's files on the eighty-four staff members listed in the article 'be checked.' (Church Committee Report)
  
• 9/29/1964 NY Times' Arthur Krock wrote that the WR was the "definitive history of the tragedy."
  
• 9/29/1964 Hoover ordered Agent Hosty transferred to the Kansas City office.
  
• 9/29/1964 20 Questions for the Warren Report Curtis Crawford radio Lecture, WBAI-FM, 29 September 1964
  
• 9/30/1964 New York Journal-American (a Hearst paper) editorialized, "The Warren Commission Report is a magnificent masterpiece of soundly reasoned judgement. It is clear, judicial, calm and meticulous in its determinations. All persons capable of restrained consideration of the facts, and of discarding conjecture based on spectacular rumor, will accept the conclusion inevitably reached by the seven eminent Americans who with superb achievement realize their purpose: TRUTH."