24-04-2014, 01:41 AM
November 26 1963 (Tuesday)
LBJ takes over the Oval office. Stock Market reopens. The New York Stock Exchange makes a record $21 billion advance, more than regaining the losses incurred the day JFK died. The stock market soared today in "its sharpest advance in history Tuesday, indicating strong Wall Street confidence in the new Johnson administration." It went up 32 points to 743. The Dow Jones average had dropped 21 points on the day of the assassination. (UPI 11/27)
LBJ signed into law an increase in the National Debt limit.
Today, Lyndon Johnson signs NSAM # 273. This directive cancels the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam (a move initiated by JFK on October 11, 1963 in his own NSAM # 263), commits America to support the Diem government in South Vietnam, and gives LBJ sweeping powers in dealing with the Southeast Asia situation. In 1991 a draft copy of NSAM # 273, prepared for LBJ by William Bundy, is discovered in the archives of the LBJ Library in Texas. It is dated November 21, 1963 -- the day before JFK's assassination. Thirty-two years later, Robert McNamara confirms the belief that JFK would have eventually withdrawn the U.S. from Vietnam: "Having reviewed the record in detail, and with the advantage of hindsight, I think it highly probable that, had President Kennedy lived, he would have pulled us out of Vietnam." This document also subtly changes the United States objective from simply assisting the South Vietnamese to assisting them "to win" against the Communists, and authorizes plans for expanding the war into Vietnam. Robert McNamara will later write: "... President Johnson made clear to (Henry Cabot) Lodge on November 24 that he wanted to win the war and that, at least in the short run, he wanted priority given to military operations over so-called' social reforms. He felt the United States had spent too much time and energy trying to shape other countries in its own image. Win the war! That was his message."
LBJ talked with Arthur Schlesinger and persuaded him not to leave the administration at this time; LBJ needed Schlesinger as a symbolic figure to appease the liberals in the Democratic Party. (Exercise of Power)
LBJ talked with some Latin American representatives on the Alliance for Progress, and met with Soviet Deputy PM Anastas Mikoyan. He gave him a letter to Khrushchev, assuring the Soviet leader that he would continue Kennedy's policies.
On 26th November, Grant Stockdale flew to Washington and talked with Robert Kennedy and Edward Kennedy. On his return Stockdale told several of his friends that "the world was closing in." On 1st December, he spoke to his attorney, William Frates who later recalled: "He started talking. It didn't make much sense. He said something about 'those guys' trying to get him. Then about the assassination."
3:21 AM FBI HQ return Zapruder film to Dallas office on Braniff Airlines flight 543; film picked up by SA Hall and given to SA Bookhout Wrone, 31; Trask, 122
9:00 AM Bookhout returns Zapruder film to Inspector Kelley (Dallas Secret Service) Wrone, 31; Trask, 122
RFK has a private talk with SS Agent Clint Hill today. There is no record of the conversation. (Brothers)
11:20 AM CIA Director, John McCone, calls J. Edgar Hoover and they discuss coordination of their intelligence-gathering assets, especially in Mexico City. Hoover says: "We are trying to do it as fast as we can so we can dispel various wild rumors that have been circulating as to whether this man [Oswald] was the right man, etc., that fired the gun. But there is no question that he is the right man."
Senator Richard Russel has a long lunch (75 minutes) with LBJ today. There is no record of their discussion.
1:11 PM LBJ phone call with Sen. Hubert Humphrey
1:25 PM LBJ phone call with Horace Busby
3pm Jackie met with Lady Byrd Johnson at the White House: "She went on to say a lot of things, like Don't be frightened of this house - some of the happiest years of my marriage have been spent here - you will be happy here.' In fact, she repeated that over and over, as though she were trying to reassure me." (White House Diary 11)
3:30 PM LBJ phone call with Speaker John McCormack
3:55 PM LBJ phone call with John Bailey
4:35 PM LBJ phone call with James Webb
5:15 PM LBJ phone call with Henry Luce
5:40 PM LBJ phone call with Keith Funston
6:00 PM LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Thomas Mann sends a cable to the State Department, expressing his fears that Cubans are involved in the assassination. He initiates his own investigation, but is stopped by the White House.
Jack Ruby is indicted for the murder of Oswald. Charge: "murder with malice."
Francis Fruge of the Louisiana State Police flies Rose Cheramie to Houston today. In the back seat of the Sesna 180, a newspaper is lying between them. One of the headlines reads to the effect that "investigators or something had not been able to establish a relationship between Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald." When Cheramie reads this, she starts to giggle. She then says, "Them two queer sons-of-bitches. They've been shacking up for years." She adds that she knows this to be true from her experience, working as a stripper for Jack Ruby. (Probe Vol. 6, No. 5)
An inventory of Lee Harvey Oswald's property taken from the Paine home is made. Listed under item 375 is "one Minox camera." Later the word "camera" is changed to "light meter." Motive may have been that the existence of the camera pointed to Lee Harvey Oswald's intelligence connections. This type of camera is was not available to the general public in 1963. The camera's serial number is also untraceable.
Fred O'Sullivan further advises the FBI that David Ferrie might have had contact with Oswald at the Moisant Airport Civil Air Patrol. According to the FBI report of this interview, "Ferrie transferred and assumed command of the CAP at Moisant Airport at about the same time O'Sullivan thought Oswald might have joined." O'Sullivan further informs the Bureau that he has only recently learned of Ferrie's homosexual background. He also notes that Ferrie "had acquired a reputation for being able to hypnotize people," and that he had once hypnotized a man following one of the CAP meetings.
The first survey plot of Dealey Plaza is made by Robert H. West, Dallas County Surveyor on this date. The survey is made for Time-Life, the new owners of the Zapruder film, and will never be introduced as a Warren commission exhibit.
SS Agent Robert I. Bouck issues receipt to Dr. Burkley for JFK autopsy report and related material.
Carolyn Arnold told the FBI about seeing Oswald on the first floor 15 minutes before the assassination. FBI (Dallas) report is generated regarding Mrs. R. E. Arnold's assertion she had seen Lee Harvey Oswald on the first floor of the Depository between 12:15 and 12:20 PM. This apparently catches J. Edgar Hoover's eye, as he will have different agents obtain a contradictory statement from her on 3/18/64. At that time, she will state, "I did not see Lee Harvey Oswald at the time President Kennedy was shot." She will not be called as a Warren Commission witness.
The alleged murder weapon (Oswald's rifle) is again sent to Washington. The four cartridge cases, supposedly found at the Tippit murder scene, are only now turned over to the FBI by the Dallas police. (There is speculation that the cases originally found were of a different ammunition type from those later produced in evidence.)
Marina Oswald refuses to be interviewed by two FBI agents because one of them is Agent James Hosty, who she is familiar with. She has been taken to the Six Flags motel, halfway between Fort Worth and Dallas. Agent Mike Howard remembers a call from LBJ to the motel, ordering: "Nobody talks to those people, not even Washington. Nothing is to happen to that family." At one point, Howard instructs one of the local police guards to remain outside the motel as a "final line of resistance." Howard hands the cop a submachine gun and orders him, "If anyone comes up that walk, you take care of em one way or the other." This protective entourage will remain at the motel for five days.
Today, there is an announcement by the state of Texas concerning its intention to conduct an independent inquiry into the JFK assassination. Three days from now, Texas A. G. Waggoner Carr announces that there will be NO inquiry.
Former congressman Martin Dies charged that Moscow may have directed the assassination, and urged greater surveillance of Communists in the US. (UPI)
The Dallas Police prepared to give all their evidence on the assassination to the FBI. This morning, Hosty and DeBrueys transported all of the evidence, including the rifle, from the police station to the FBI office. Lt. Day also sent his palm print from the Carcano to the FBI. At 12:45am, the next morning, agent Drain told them that Fritz still had Oswald's wallet, one Carcano shell casing, and Oswald's notebook; Hosty went over to get them from Fritz. DeBrueys then took all the evidence to Washington in an Air Force jet. (Assignment Oswald 77) The first official word on the transfer of assassination evidence came on Tuesday, Nov. 26, when both Dallas newspapers carried stories announcing that the evidence was to be turned over to federal authorities. "The Dallas Police Department Tuesday prepared to turn over all evidence in the assassination case against Lee Harvey Oswald to the Federal Bureau of Investigation," stated the Dallas Times Herald. "FBI agents Tuesday took control of all evidence gathered by Dallas police against accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on an agreement between Police Chief Jesse E. Curry and Dist. Atty. Henry Wade," announced The Dallas Morning News. The News went on to explain, "Curry went before reporters at noon Tuesday to make the announcement. The disclosure came after Curry held several morning conferences with top aides. The transfer of evidence from city police to federal control was completed four hours later."
The FBI is notified of Milteer's further statements to Somersett about the assassination. (CD 1347)
Abe Fortas was assigned to coordinate the FBI, Justice Dept and Texas investigations. At the same time, though, Henry Wade was turning the state's investigation over to the FBI.
Today is the first time that the name "F. Vaughn Ferguson" appears in the White House Garage log. Mr. Ferguson is a Ford Motor Company employee. Ferguson will create interoffice memorandum detailing reconstruction work done on the Presidential limousine. He will also testify that he is the individual who drives the limousine to Dearborn, Michigan on December 20, 1963. However, Ferguson also testifies that his work on the limousine actually began on November 23rd. There is no official record of his presence in the White House Garage until today.
A November 26 call between Cuban Ambassador to Mexico Hernandez Armas and Cuban President Dorticos was a cause of some concern. Hernandez told Dorticos that the DFS had asked Silvia Duran about intimate relations with Oswald, and Dorticos for his part repeatedly asked whether she had been asked about monetary payments to Oswald. The conversation, sinister as it could appear to some, had its comic aspects as well. The phone connection was terrible, and most of the conversation is spent with the two parties trying desperately to make themselves understood. The vigorous promotion of the idea that a conspiracy to kill the U.S. President had been conducted by parties who could hardly make a phone call to each other has its amusing side. Perhaps the connection was so bad because of too many taps on the line. An excerpted transcript was sent from Mexico City to CIA HQ on November 26, 1963 [MEXI 7068, at RIF #104-10404-10175]. A complete version, which includes the comical inability of the parties to communicate, was sent to the Warren Commission on May 22, 1964. [Memo from Helms to Rankin of 5-22-64, at RIF #104-10408-10072]
On November 26, just after the dust had settled and the CIA and FBI had agreed that there were no tapes after all, only transcripts, CIA Director McCone and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a little phone conversation. Here is an excerpt, taken from a transcript preserved in CIA files (there are many indications that FBI Director Hoover and more than one CIA Director taped their own phone calls, though such tapes have not been released and may well be destroyed):
Hoover: But there is no question that he [Oswald] is the right man. There are a lot of aspects that we have dug up, for instance, with regards to the matter in Mexico City. We have now found that the photograph that was taken was not that of Oswald. We do find from our informant down there that Oswald did call at the Embassy that day and the informant has given us the conversation that he had….. [Telephone conversation between Hoover and McCone, 11-26-63, at RIF #104-10408-10100]
Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-Illinois), backed by bipartisan support, suggested that the Senate Judiciary Committee investigate the assassination.
Sen. Thruston Morton (R-Kentucky) stated, "John Kennedy was struck down by a man whose mind had been warped by an alien violence, not a native condition," and urged Americans not to blame Dallas.
FBI Agents Sibert and O'Neill issue a supplemental report on autopsy and memo to Baltimore field office file. It was not published by the WC. It was released primarily due to the efforts of Vincent Salandria and Paul Hoch. They drove in the motorcade which followed the President's body from Andrews Air Force base to Bethesda. "Following the removal of the wrapping, it was ascertained that the President's clothing had been removed and it was also apparent that a tracheotomy had been performed, as well as surgery of the head area, namely, in the top of the skull. All personnel with the exception of medical officers needed in the taking of photographs and X-Rays were requested to leave the autopsy room and remain in an adjacent room."
Asst FBI Director Courtney Evans memoed Hoover that the question of Oswald's motive had to be dealt with: "A matter of this magnitude cannot be investigated in a week's time." Hoover shot back with a response on the bottom of the memo, "Just how long do you estimate it will take? It seems to me we have the basic facts now." (The Man and the Secrets p548)
FBI memo from Alex Rosen: "The Secret Service has advised our Baltimore office that the photographs and X-rays of the President's body would be available to us through Secret Service headquarters, Washington...It is not recommended that we request these photographs and X-rays through the Secret Service at this time as it does not appear that we shall have need of this material." (Never Again p32)
FBI interview of Mrs. Jesse Garner, 26 Nov 1963. Mrs. Garner gave the FBI details of Ruth Paine's appearance to move Marina to Dallas, and Lee Oswald's actions after they left.
AP report (Frank Carey): Washington - No bullets were removed [from JFK] at the Dallas hospital.
James Wagenvoord, email to John Simkin (3rd November, 2009): "Beginning in later summer 1963 the magazine [LIFE], based upon information fed from Bobby Kennedy and the Justice Department, had been developing a major news break piece concerning Johnson and Bobby Baker. On publication Johnson would have been finished and off the 1964 ticket (reason the material was fed to us) and would probably have been facing prison time. At the time LIFE magazine was arguably the most important general news source in the US. The top management of Time Inc. was closely allied with the USA's various intelligence agencies and we were used after by the Kennedy Justice Department as a conduit to the public....The LBJ/Baker piece was in the final editing stages and was scheduled to break in the issue of the magazine due out the week of November 24th (the magazine would have made it to the newsstands on November 26th or 27th). It had been prepared in relative secrecy by a small special editorial team. On Kennedy's death research files and all numbered copies of the nearly print-ready draft were gathered up by my boss (he had been the top editor on the team) and shredded. The issue that was to expose LBJ instead featured the Zapruder film."
The New York Herald-Tribune reports: U.S. Customs official Oran Pugh says that Oswald had been checked by U.S. Immigration officials on entering and leaving Mexico; Pugh admits that this is not the usual procedure but that "U.S. Immigration has a folder on Oswald's trip." The Warren Report will not mention the newspaper stories in the sections which deal with Oswald's trip to Mexico City.
Washington Post editorial stated that no state or local inquiry into the assassination would be enough: "The Federal Government must prosecute this inquiry by means that assure the most objective, the most thorough and the most speedy analysis and canvass of every scrap of relevant information. The disclosures and conclusions must be so sweeping and extensive that they leave no room for the imagination of the morbid, the propaganda of the left or right, or the sheer fantasy of the irresponsible."
Washington Daily News reports that after their talk the day before, Hoover "is said to have told [LBJ] he expects to complete his investigation of both cases this week."
NYT headline: "Doctors Question Oswald's Sanity."
The Chicago Tribune, quoting a Nov. 25th report from the Mexico Newspaper, EXCELSIOR says today that Lee Harvey Oswald crossed the border at Laredo, Texas on Sept. 26 and drove to Mexico City. The United States customs service at Laredo confirms the crossing. A spokesman says,"There are records to establish this." The records also show Oswald reentered the United States on Oct. 3.
NYT: "A Mexican Government source said today that Lee H. Oswald...was in Mexico from Sept. 26 until Oct. 3 attempting without success to get visas to Cuba and the Soviet Union. There were reports here also that his movements were followed in Mexico by an unidentified United States agency. The United States Embassy here declined to confirm or deny any knowledge of the visit. A Mexican official said it was evident that Oswald wanted to leave the continent immediately. A spokesman of the Ministry of the Interior confirmed this morning a report that appeared in the morning paper Excelisior. It said Oswald crossed the Mexican border Sept. 26 and traveled by highway to Mexico City the next day. On that day he appeared at the Cuban Consulate here and applied to the then Consul General Eusabio Azcue, for a visa to Havana. According to the Government official, Mr. Azcue was suspicious of the applicant and told him he would have to apply to Havana for the visa. He said an answer would require 10 to 12 days. Mr. Azcue has since been transferred from the consulate here, but it was reported at the office that the applicant became incensed at the delay and left the consulate, slamming the door behind him. The following day the applicant appeared at the Soviet Consulate. Both the Cuban and the Soviet Consulates are in the compounds of their respective embassies. Oswald applied to an unidentified employee at the Soviet Consulate. He was told there that his application would have to be submitted to Moscow and a reply might require up to three months. Soviet Embassy officials today would neither confirm nor deny that the application had been made. But it was confirmed by the Ministry of the Interior official who asked that his name not be used. Oswald demonstrated anger at the delay, according to the report, and explained that he had lived in the Soviet Union, that his wife was Russian and their child had been born there. He offered to pay the expenses of a telephone call to his wife in New Orleans to verify the story, the report said, but the offer was declined. The Russian people thought there was something suspicious about the applicant, he acted so wild,' the Mexican official explained. Apparently Mexican secret police had observed the American from time to time but the Government official said it had not been determined where he lived during his stay in Mexico City. It has been established, he said, that he did not meet with any of the known established leftist groups while here. Oswald entered Mexico through the port of Nuevo Laredo, presenting a tourist visa.
Dallas Times Herald: "A former business associate of Jack Ruby said last night he believed Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald to avenge the slaying of Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit rather than President John F. Kennedy. Patriotic, he wasn't - a police buff he was,' said Herbert C. D. Kelly, chef and part owner of Ruby's Carousel Club in Dallas for more than a year starting in 1959. He visited Ruby in Dallas about a month ago, he said. I thing Ruby just got himself an impulse,' Kelly said. And operated on him (Oswald)....The only patriotism he had was for the President's picture on the buck.' Kelly described Ruby as Both extremely generous and very violent. He'd give you the shirt off his back one moment and be fighting you the next...but he was a person of extreme loyalty. And he could have been showing loyalty to the policeman Tippit....Well, his tremendous friendship with the police was of long years' standing. But it was a sincere friendship - genuine. Ruby was not out to get anything from them. He never asked anything from them. He never asked for and got any breaks from them. He just liked policemen.'"
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "A full-scale federal investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was ordered last night by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The new Chief Executive said that all facts uncovered by the inquiry would be made public....A White House statement issued last night said that President Johnson had directed the Justice Department and the FBI to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of all the circumstances surrounding the brutal assassination of President Kennedy and the murder of his alleged assassin.' The statement said that Johnson had directed all federal agencies to co-operate in the investigation...Reliable sources said that the timing of the Johnson directive was intended to make it clear that the federal inquiry will embrace everything,' not only the assassination of Mr. Kennedy but the wounding of Connally and the killing of Oswald. They point out that the Dallas police Department said on Sunday that the Oswald case was closed as a result of his murder. Federal officials clearly were deeply concerned about the effect of the Dallas statement, although the Police Department reversed itself and reopened the Oswald investigation."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "In France, the Paris Jour also speculated that no sniper could have fired three bullet as Oswald is reported to have done with a nonautomatic rifle. Combat, another Paris paper said, The character of Oswald's killer invites suspecion. It is difficult to imagine this night club owner, with his police record, committing a chivalrous murder to avenge a widow and children.'...'The killing of Oswald closed nothing except the main doorway, till then still open, the the whole truth,' said London's Daily Telegraph...The conservative London Daily Mail said that facts can be produced that a right-wing plot against the President had caused his death....the ease with which Oswald was picked up and the evidence against him made ready, his extraordinary end.'"
The Hamburg, West Germany newspaper Echo suggested that JFK's death was a "gang plot."
Columnist Richard Starnes wrote, "Our credentials as a civilized people stand suspect before the world..." (New York World-Telegram and The Sun)
A Dallas correspondent for the New York Times stated, "The known facts about the bullets, and the position of the assassin, suggested that he started shooting as the President's car was coming toward him [on Houston Street], swung his rifle in an arc of almost 180°, and fired at least twice more." This totally inaccurate account was based on information he gained from local and federal officers, who were trying to explain the entry wound in Kennedy's throat. But photos, films and witnesses from that day shot that explanation down quickly.
Dallas Times Herald: "The Communists aren't the only ones in Europe raising questions about the killing of Lee H. Oswald. Anti-Communist papers in Western Europe also voiced suspecions about the slaying...Unlike Communist propagandists, however, they did not attempt to pin the killing on a plot by rightwing extremists. Criticism of the Dallas police also was widespread....'What if Oswald was innocent?'
Vienna's independent Die Presse asked. What if he was only a victum of that spiral of panic evident among police who, after having become guilty of negligence in protecting Kennedy's life, might have been driven to find a murderer at once and at all costs and pronounced Oswald guilty. Considering the position of the Dallas police Oswald might have been the perfect culprit.'...Il Giorno of Milan critized the Dallas police, who it said showed themselves to the world in a tragic-comic sketch...and who topped off the job with their chief quietly stating that the case was closed by the assassination of the assassin.'...Because Ruby is a Jew, some Arab newspapers in Syria and Lebanon charged or implied that Zionist were to blame for Kennedy's assassination.
Al Siassa of Beirut said international Zionism had opposed Kennedy when he stood against the halting of U.S. aid to the United Arab Republic and when the United States backed the United Nations resolution supporting the right of Palestine refugees to compensation and repatriation.'"
NYT reported, "Dallas authorities were willing today [25th] to make public all the physical evidence connecting Lee H. Oswald with the murder of President Kennedy, but the revelation was postponed at the suggestion of federal officials here and in Washington. Two local authorities involved in the case, Chief of Police Jesse Curry and Dallas County District Attorney, Henry Wade, said they would like to place the evidence before the public. Both men added, however, that they would not do so if authorities in Washington wished otherwise. Justice Department sources in Washington said that when they discuss a subject of such importance as the Oswald case they must be absolutely correct. They said no pressure had been brought on officials here. They expressed confidence that all the evidence would eventually be made public. The report of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the slaying will go first to President Johnson, who requested it. The Dallas police and Mr. Wade contend they have conclusive evidence that Oswald Killed Mr. Kennedy and wounded Gov. John B. Connally Jr. last Friday and that he murdered a Dallas policeman, J.D. Tippit shortly afterwards. Chief Curry said today in a formal statement: When the investigation in the case of Lee Harvey Oswald is completed insofar as the Dallas Police Department is concerned, we intend to make the entire file public unless federal authorities specifically request that some part be withheld and turned over. Unless we are specifically instructed otherwise from Washington, we believe it can and should become public information. At this time, we can not designate when the release will be made.'...The police have already released descriptions of pieces of evidence. Today, Mr. Wade announced that authorities had also found a marked map, showing the course of the President's motorcade, in Oswald's rented room. It was a map tracing the location of the parade route,' the district attorney said, "and this place (The Texas School Book Depository, a warehouse from which the fatal bullets were fired), was marked with a straight line.' Mr. Wade said Oswald had marked the map at two other places, apparently places which he considered as a possibility' for an assassination. He said he had not personally seen the map, and could not describe it further. The district attorney said the police had traced the serial number of the murder weapon, an Italian rifle with a telescopic sight, to a Chicago mail-order house that had sold Oswald the rifle last spring. Mr. Wade said that the Dallas Police had obtained a palm print from the rifle that matched Oswald's hand...The district attorney said today that he had no knowledge of any connection between Oswald and his assassin, Jack Ruby of Dallas....Sources in the Justice Department in Washington said that they had found no evidence of a conspiracy in the Dallas slayings."
NYT featured an interview with Spas Raikin: "He had been a member of the Marine Corps on duty with the United States Embassy in Moscow. I was under obligation to contact this man,' Mr. Raikin said yesterday in Rio Grande (Ohio where he currently taught Western civilization at Rio Grande College.) I had been paging him three or four times for one hour on the ship, because the people were not allowed to disembark. For one hour apparently this man was hiding. He did not respond to the paging.'...He and his wife, who was 20, and child had six suitcases and one bag. [Recall, if you will, the story told of OSWALD coming Stateside with seven suitcases, left NYC with five and landed in Dallas with only two. - Michael Parks]
Story in the Pompano Sun Sentinel (Florida) by James Buchanan; it reported that Oswald had been in Miami in November 1962, contacting "Miami-based supporters of Fidel Castro," had tried to infiltrate an anti-Castro group, passed out FPCC leaflets, and got into a fight with some exiles." Oswald had telephone conversations with the Cuban government G-2 Intelligence Service..." The source for the story was Frank Sturgis.
Story by Warren Bosworth in the Dallas Times Herald: "A former undercover agent for the New Orleans police" Monday night described Oswald as "a loner who frequented low class dives catering to all kinds of riff raff...I saw him a number of times in...French Quarter and Irish Channel District while working there." The man was an unpaid agent in his off-hours and had lived in Dallas for the last 18 months. "Some weeks ago he spotted Oswald's familiar face at a downtown restaurant and later at the YMCA on Ervay Street. 'I saw him several times but I did not know his name.'" He recognized Oswald on television. "'He is the same one I used to see in New Orleans. He usually stayed to himself but occasionally talked with longshoremen and others who hung around the bars and joints of the French Quarter. He almost always talked to them in Spanish.' Oswald, he said, drank moderately...'Sometimes he'd get too much under his belt and would get loud and boisterous and then take part in a Spanish dance'...The man said he never heard Oswald discuss politics. 'Of course, he was usually gabbing in Spanish and I don't understand the language.'"
The official communist newspaper, The Worker, suggested a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination. When LBJ did this a few days later, conservatives took this as a sign that he was letting the communists dictate policy to him.
Washington Daily News reported that persons who had seen the Zapruder film "say it shows the following sequence: ...The first of three...shots appears to strike...Kennedy in the shoulder or back...Gov. Connally turns toward the right [and is struck]...Then a third shot strikes Mr. Kennedy in the head, and he lurches forward." The Boston Record American ran a more accurate description of the Z-film.
Dallas Times Herald editorial mentioned that Ruby "was well known to most Dallas policemen in the station, he had been a frequenter of the station for years..."
NYT story by Drew Middleton: "The murder of Lee H. Oswald, accused as the killer of the President, in the presence of police officers has caused many friends of the United States to question the internal stability of Europe's protector. Another effect is that a normally prudent people are at least listening to a Communist tale, spread by the party newspapers, that Oswald was eliminated as part of a plot...The Paris newspaper Le Monde devoted an entire page tonight to serious doubts' about the Dallas police and what the two killings appear to divulge about American characteristics."
NYT story by Sidney Gruson: "LONDON AWAITS PROOF THAT NO PLOT WAS BEHIND DEATHS" - "The murder of Lee Harvey Oswald...has blemished the image of the United States in Britain....there is disbelief that the sequel to the President's murder could have happened. The reaction was evident in questions put to Americans in London today, questions put with embarrassment in many cases. The questions added up to the same thing: was there a plot in which the Dallas police were involved and was lawlessness taking over in the United States?"
Dr. Kemp Clark "said in Dallas today that a bullet did much massive damage at the right rear of the President's head...A missile had (come or gone) out the back of his head, causing extensive lacerations and loss of bone tissue." (AP 11/26/1963)
Dallas Morning News reported that Asst District Attorney Bill Alexander said on Monday all leads linking Ruby to Oswald were being checked. "Wade said he also lacks evidence which would show that any Communist conspiracy was involved...Alexander said the public misinterpreted statements that 'the case was closed'...'The case against Oswald was obviously closed with his death,' Alexander said. 'You can't have a rabbit stew without a rabbit.'" But he assured the press that all efforts were being made to get to the bottom of the assassination. Alexander talked to Ruby minutes after the shooting: "He knew exactly what had happened. He talked rationally and called us by our names. I saw nothing which would indicated he had suffered a nervous or emotional collapse." The News also reported that "Alexander said Rubenstein expressed no remorse."
The paper's lead editorial that day accused "Reds" of trying to blame conservatives for the assassination: "this new Big Lie will probably succeed in many parts of Asia and Africa. With their gigantic, well-organized propaganda aparatus, the communists will probably be able to use the murder of the President by a leftist to accomplish their own devious plans...the one thing we can be sure of is the ultimate aim of the party, which has never changed: the destruction of our way of life. Our best bet is to close ranks and defy our enemy's efforts to divide us in these days of confusion and peril."
UPI reported that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee felt that a Texas investigation would not be good enough; one Republican member said, "Too many people are disturbed about the strange circumstances of the whole tragic affair."
AP reported that "the White House has so far declined to say whether an autopsy was performed on the body [of JFK]..."
UPI reported that Moscow was telling the Russian people that the assassination was the work of an "ultra-rightist plot to wreck Soviet-American relations and world peace."
LBJ takes over the Oval office. Stock Market reopens. The New York Stock Exchange makes a record $21 billion advance, more than regaining the losses incurred the day JFK died. The stock market soared today in "its sharpest advance in history Tuesday, indicating strong Wall Street confidence in the new Johnson administration." It went up 32 points to 743. The Dow Jones average had dropped 21 points on the day of the assassination. (UPI 11/27)
LBJ signed into law an increase in the National Debt limit.
Today, Lyndon Johnson signs NSAM # 273. This directive cancels the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam (a move initiated by JFK on October 11, 1963 in his own NSAM # 263), commits America to support the Diem government in South Vietnam, and gives LBJ sweeping powers in dealing with the Southeast Asia situation. In 1991 a draft copy of NSAM # 273, prepared for LBJ by William Bundy, is discovered in the archives of the LBJ Library in Texas. It is dated November 21, 1963 -- the day before JFK's assassination. Thirty-two years later, Robert McNamara confirms the belief that JFK would have eventually withdrawn the U.S. from Vietnam: "Having reviewed the record in detail, and with the advantage of hindsight, I think it highly probable that, had President Kennedy lived, he would have pulled us out of Vietnam." This document also subtly changes the United States objective from simply assisting the South Vietnamese to assisting them "to win" against the Communists, and authorizes plans for expanding the war into Vietnam. Robert McNamara will later write: "... President Johnson made clear to (Henry Cabot) Lodge on November 24 that he wanted to win the war and that, at least in the short run, he wanted priority given to military operations over so-called' social reforms. He felt the United States had spent too much time and energy trying to shape other countries in its own image. Win the war! That was his message."
LBJ talked with Arthur Schlesinger and persuaded him not to leave the administration at this time; LBJ needed Schlesinger as a symbolic figure to appease the liberals in the Democratic Party. (Exercise of Power)
LBJ talked with some Latin American representatives on the Alliance for Progress, and met with Soviet Deputy PM Anastas Mikoyan. He gave him a letter to Khrushchev, assuring the Soviet leader that he would continue Kennedy's policies.
On 26th November, Grant Stockdale flew to Washington and talked with Robert Kennedy and Edward Kennedy. On his return Stockdale told several of his friends that "the world was closing in." On 1st December, he spoke to his attorney, William Frates who later recalled: "He started talking. It didn't make much sense. He said something about 'those guys' trying to get him. Then about the assassination."
3:21 AM FBI HQ return Zapruder film to Dallas office on Braniff Airlines flight 543; film picked up by SA Hall and given to SA Bookhout Wrone, 31; Trask, 122
9:00 AM Bookhout returns Zapruder film to Inspector Kelley (Dallas Secret Service) Wrone, 31; Trask, 122
RFK has a private talk with SS Agent Clint Hill today. There is no record of the conversation. (Brothers)
11:20 AM CIA Director, John McCone, calls J. Edgar Hoover and they discuss coordination of their intelligence-gathering assets, especially in Mexico City. Hoover says: "We are trying to do it as fast as we can so we can dispel various wild rumors that have been circulating as to whether this man [Oswald] was the right man, etc., that fired the gun. But there is no question that he is the right man."
Senator Richard Russel has a long lunch (75 minutes) with LBJ today. There is no record of their discussion.
1:11 PM LBJ phone call with Sen. Hubert Humphrey
1:25 PM LBJ phone call with Horace Busby
3pm Jackie met with Lady Byrd Johnson at the White House: "She went on to say a lot of things, like Don't be frightened of this house - some of the happiest years of my marriage have been spent here - you will be happy here.' In fact, she repeated that over and over, as though she were trying to reassure me." (White House Diary 11)
3:30 PM LBJ phone call with Speaker John McCormack
3:55 PM LBJ phone call with John Bailey
4:35 PM LBJ phone call with James Webb
5:15 PM LBJ phone call with Henry Luce
5:40 PM LBJ phone call with Keith Funston
6:00 PM LBJ phone call with Robert McNamara
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Thomas Mann sends a cable to the State Department, expressing his fears that Cubans are involved in the assassination. He initiates his own investigation, but is stopped by the White House.
Jack Ruby is indicted for the murder of Oswald. Charge: "murder with malice."
Francis Fruge of the Louisiana State Police flies Rose Cheramie to Houston today. In the back seat of the Sesna 180, a newspaper is lying between them. One of the headlines reads to the effect that "investigators or something had not been able to establish a relationship between Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald." When Cheramie reads this, she starts to giggle. She then says, "Them two queer sons-of-bitches. They've been shacking up for years." She adds that she knows this to be true from her experience, working as a stripper for Jack Ruby. (Probe Vol. 6, No. 5)
An inventory of Lee Harvey Oswald's property taken from the Paine home is made. Listed under item 375 is "one Minox camera." Later the word "camera" is changed to "light meter." Motive may have been that the existence of the camera pointed to Lee Harvey Oswald's intelligence connections. This type of camera is was not available to the general public in 1963. The camera's serial number is also untraceable.
Fred O'Sullivan further advises the FBI that David Ferrie might have had contact with Oswald at the Moisant Airport Civil Air Patrol. According to the FBI report of this interview, "Ferrie transferred and assumed command of the CAP at Moisant Airport at about the same time O'Sullivan thought Oswald might have joined." O'Sullivan further informs the Bureau that he has only recently learned of Ferrie's homosexual background. He also notes that Ferrie "had acquired a reputation for being able to hypnotize people," and that he had once hypnotized a man following one of the CAP meetings.
The first survey plot of Dealey Plaza is made by Robert H. West, Dallas County Surveyor on this date. The survey is made for Time-Life, the new owners of the Zapruder film, and will never be introduced as a Warren commission exhibit.
SS Agent Robert I. Bouck issues receipt to Dr. Burkley for JFK autopsy report and related material.
Carolyn Arnold told the FBI about seeing Oswald on the first floor 15 minutes before the assassination. FBI (Dallas) report is generated regarding Mrs. R. E. Arnold's assertion she had seen Lee Harvey Oswald on the first floor of the Depository between 12:15 and 12:20 PM. This apparently catches J. Edgar Hoover's eye, as he will have different agents obtain a contradictory statement from her on 3/18/64. At that time, she will state, "I did not see Lee Harvey Oswald at the time President Kennedy was shot." She will not be called as a Warren Commission witness.
The alleged murder weapon (Oswald's rifle) is again sent to Washington. The four cartridge cases, supposedly found at the Tippit murder scene, are only now turned over to the FBI by the Dallas police. (There is speculation that the cases originally found were of a different ammunition type from those later produced in evidence.)
Marina Oswald refuses to be interviewed by two FBI agents because one of them is Agent James Hosty, who she is familiar with. She has been taken to the Six Flags motel, halfway between Fort Worth and Dallas. Agent Mike Howard remembers a call from LBJ to the motel, ordering: "Nobody talks to those people, not even Washington. Nothing is to happen to that family." At one point, Howard instructs one of the local police guards to remain outside the motel as a "final line of resistance." Howard hands the cop a submachine gun and orders him, "If anyone comes up that walk, you take care of em one way or the other." This protective entourage will remain at the motel for five days.
Today, there is an announcement by the state of Texas concerning its intention to conduct an independent inquiry into the JFK assassination. Three days from now, Texas A. G. Waggoner Carr announces that there will be NO inquiry.
Former congressman Martin Dies charged that Moscow may have directed the assassination, and urged greater surveillance of Communists in the US. (UPI)
The Dallas Police prepared to give all their evidence on the assassination to the FBI. This morning, Hosty and DeBrueys transported all of the evidence, including the rifle, from the police station to the FBI office. Lt. Day also sent his palm print from the Carcano to the FBI. At 12:45am, the next morning, agent Drain told them that Fritz still had Oswald's wallet, one Carcano shell casing, and Oswald's notebook; Hosty went over to get them from Fritz. DeBrueys then took all the evidence to Washington in an Air Force jet. (Assignment Oswald 77) The first official word on the transfer of assassination evidence came on Tuesday, Nov. 26, when both Dallas newspapers carried stories announcing that the evidence was to be turned over to federal authorities. "The Dallas Police Department Tuesday prepared to turn over all evidence in the assassination case against Lee Harvey Oswald to the Federal Bureau of Investigation," stated the Dallas Times Herald. "FBI agents Tuesday took control of all evidence gathered by Dallas police against accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on an agreement between Police Chief Jesse E. Curry and Dist. Atty. Henry Wade," announced The Dallas Morning News. The News went on to explain, "Curry went before reporters at noon Tuesday to make the announcement. The disclosure came after Curry held several morning conferences with top aides. The transfer of evidence from city police to federal control was completed four hours later."
The FBI is notified of Milteer's further statements to Somersett about the assassination. (CD 1347)
Abe Fortas was assigned to coordinate the FBI, Justice Dept and Texas investigations. At the same time, though, Henry Wade was turning the state's investigation over to the FBI.
Today is the first time that the name "F. Vaughn Ferguson" appears in the White House Garage log. Mr. Ferguson is a Ford Motor Company employee. Ferguson will create interoffice memorandum detailing reconstruction work done on the Presidential limousine. He will also testify that he is the individual who drives the limousine to Dearborn, Michigan on December 20, 1963. However, Ferguson also testifies that his work on the limousine actually began on November 23rd. There is no official record of his presence in the White House Garage until today.
A November 26 call between Cuban Ambassador to Mexico Hernandez Armas and Cuban President Dorticos was a cause of some concern. Hernandez told Dorticos that the DFS had asked Silvia Duran about intimate relations with Oswald, and Dorticos for his part repeatedly asked whether she had been asked about monetary payments to Oswald. The conversation, sinister as it could appear to some, had its comic aspects as well. The phone connection was terrible, and most of the conversation is spent with the two parties trying desperately to make themselves understood. The vigorous promotion of the idea that a conspiracy to kill the U.S. President had been conducted by parties who could hardly make a phone call to each other has its amusing side. Perhaps the connection was so bad because of too many taps on the line. An excerpted transcript was sent from Mexico City to CIA HQ on November 26, 1963 [MEXI 7068, at RIF #104-10404-10175]. A complete version, which includes the comical inability of the parties to communicate, was sent to the Warren Commission on May 22, 1964. [Memo from Helms to Rankin of 5-22-64, at RIF #104-10408-10072]
On November 26, just after the dust had settled and the CIA and FBI had agreed that there were no tapes after all, only transcripts, CIA Director McCone and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a little phone conversation. Here is an excerpt, taken from a transcript preserved in CIA files (there are many indications that FBI Director Hoover and more than one CIA Director taped their own phone calls, though such tapes have not been released and may well be destroyed):
Hoover: But there is no question that he [Oswald] is the right man. There are a lot of aspects that we have dug up, for instance, with regards to the matter in Mexico City. We have now found that the photograph that was taken was not that of Oswald. We do find from our informant down there that Oswald did call at the Embassy that day and the informant has given us the conversation that he had….. [Telephone conversation between Hoover and McCone, 11-26-63, at RIF #104-10408-10100]
Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-Illinois), backed by bipartisan support, suggested that the Senate Judiciary Committee investigate the assassination.
Sen. Thruston Morton (R-Kentucky) stated, "John Kennedy was struck down by a man whose mind had been warped by an alien violence, not a native condition," and urged Americans not to blame Dallas.
FBI Agents Sibert and O'Neill issue a supplemental report on autopsy and memo to Baltimore field office file. It was not published by the WC. It was released primarily due to the efforts of Vincent Salandria and Paul Hoch. They drove in the motorcade which followed the President's body from Andrews Air Force base to Bethesda. "Following the removal of the wrapping, it was ascertained that the President's clothing had been removed and it was also apparent that a tracheotomy had been performed, as well as surgery of the head area, namely, in the top of the skull. All personnel with the exception of medical officers needed in the taking of photographs and X-Rays were requested to leave the autopsy room and remain in an adjacent room."
Asst FBI Director Courtney Evans memoed Hoover that the question of Oswald's motive had to be dealt with: "A matter of this magnitude cannot be investigated in a week's time." Hoover shot back with a response on the bottom of the memo, "Just how long do you estimate it will take? It seems to me we have the basic facts now." (The Man and the Secrets p548)
FBI memo from Alex Rosen: "The Secret Service has advised our Baltimore office that the photographs and X-rays of the President's body would be available to us through Secret Service headquarters, Washington...It is not recommended that we request these photographs and X-rays through the Secret Service at this time as it does not appear that we shall have need of this material." (Never Again p32)
FBI interview of Mrs. Jesse Garner, 26 Nov 1963. Mrs. Garner gave the FBI details of Ruth Paine's appearance to move Marina to Dallas, and Lee Oswald's actions after they left.
AP report (Frank Carey): Washington - No bullets were removed [from JFK] at the Dallas hospital.
James Wagenvoord, email to John Simkin (3rd November, 2009): "Beginning in later summer 1963 the magazine [LIFE], based upon information fed from Bobby Kennedy and the Justice Department, had been developing a major news break piece concerning Johnson and Bobby Baker. On publication Johnson would have been finished and off the 1964 ticket (reason the material was fed to us) and would probably have been facing prison time. At the time LIFE magazine was arguably the most important general news source in the US. The top management of Time Inc. was closely allied with the USA's various intelligence agencies and we were used after by the Kennedy Justice Department as a conduit to the public....The LBJ/Baker piece was in the final editing stages and was scheduled to break in the issue of the magazine due out the week of November 24th (the magazine would have made it to the newsstands on November 26th or 27th). It had been prepared in relative secrecy by a small special editorial team. On Kennedy's death research files and all numbered copies of the nearly print-ready draft were gathered up by my boss (he had been the top editor on the team) and shredded. The issue that was to expose LBJ instead featured the Zapruder film."
The New York Herald-Tribune reports: U.S. Customs official Oran Pugh says that Oswald had been checked by U.S. Immigration officials on entering and leaving Mexico; Pugh admits that this is not the usual procedure but that "U.S. Immigration has a folder on Oswald's trip." The Warren Report will not mention the newspaper stories in the sections which deal with Oswald's trip to Mexico City.
Washington Post editorial stated that no state or local inquiry into the assassination would be enough: "The Federal Government must prosecute this inquiry by means that assure the most objective, the most thorough and the most speedy analysis and canvass of every scrap of relevant information. The disclosures and conclusions must be so sweeping and extensive that they leave no room for the imagination of the morbid, the propaganda of the left or right, or the sheer fantasy of the irresponsible."
Washington Daily News reports that after their talk the day before, Hoover "is said to have told [LBJ] he expects to complete his investigation of both cases this week."
NYT headline: "Doctors Question Oswald's Sanity."
The Chicago Tribune, quoting a Nov. 25th report from the Mexico Newspaper, EXCELSIOR says today that Lee Harvey Oswald crossed the border at Laredo, Texas on Sept. 26 and drove to Mexico City. The United States customs service at Laredo confirms the crossing. A spokesman says,"There are records to establish this." The records also show Oswald reentered the United States on Oct. 3.
NYT: "A Mexican Government source said today that Lee H. Oswald...was in Mexico from Sept. 26 until Oct. 3 attempting without success to get visas to Cuba and the Soviet Union. There were reports here also that his movements were followed in Mexico by an unidentified United States agency. The United States Embassy here declined to confirm or deny any knowledge of the visit. A Mexican official said it was evident that Oswald wanted to leave the continent immediately. A spokesman of the Ministry of the Interior confirmed this morning a report that appeared in the morning paper Excelisior. It said Oswald crossed the Mexican border Sept. 26 and traveled by highway to Mexico City the next day. On that day he appeared at the Cuban Consulate here and applied to the then Consul General Eusabio Azcue, for a visa to Havana. According to the Government official, Mr. Azcue was suspicious of the applicant and told him he would have to apply to Havana for the visa. He said an answer would require 10 to 12 days. Mr. Azcue has since been transferred from the consulate here, but it was reported at the office that the applicant became incensed at the delay and left the consulate, slamming the door behind him. The following day the applicant appeared at the Soviet Consulate. Both the Cuban and the Soviet Consulates are in the compounds of their respective embassies. Oswald applied to an unidentified employee at the Soviet Consulate. He was told there that his application would have to be submitted to Moscow and a reply might require up to three months. Soviet Embassy officials today would neither confirm nor deny that the application had been made. But it was confirmed by the Ministry of the Interior official who asked that his name not be used. Oswald demonstrated anger at the delay, according to the report, and explained that he had lived in the Soviet Union, that his wife was Russian and their child had been born there. He offered to pay the expenses of a telephone call to his wife in New Orleans to verify the story, the report said, but the offer was declined. The Russian people thought there was something suspicious about the applicant, he acted so wild,' the Mexican official explained. Apparently Mexican secret police had observed the American from time to time but the Government official said it had not been determined where he lived during his stay in Mexico City. It has been established, he said, that he did not meet with any of the known established leftist groups while here. Oswald entered Mexico through the port of Nuevo Laredo, presenting a tourist visa.
Dallas Times Herald: "A former business associate of Jack Ruby said last night he believed Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald to avenge the slaying of Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit rather than President John F. Kennedy. Patriotic, he wasn't - a police buff he was,' said Herbert C. D. Kelly, chef and part owner of Ruby's Carousel Club in Dallas for more than a year starting in 1959. He visited Ruby in Dallas about a month ago, he said. I thing Ruby just got himself an impulse,' Kelly said. And operated on him (Oswald)....The only patriotism he had was for the President's picture on the buck.' Kelly described Ruby as Both extremely generous and very violent. He'd give you the shirt off his back one moment and be fighting you the next...but he was a person of extreme loyalty. And he could have been showing loyalty to the policeman Tippit....Well, his tremendous friendship with the police was of long years' standing. But it was a sincere friendship - genuine. Ruby was not out to get anything from them. He never asked anything from them. He never asked for and got any breaks from them. He just liked policemen.'"
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "A full-scale federal investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was ordered last night by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The new Chief Executive said that all facts uncovered by the inquiry would be made public....A White House statement issued last night said that President Johnson had directed the Justice Department and the FBI to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of all the circumstances surrounding the brutal assassination of President Kennedy and the murder of his alleged assassin.' The statement said that Johnson had directed all federal agencies to co-operate in the investigation...Reliable sources said that the timing of the Johnson directive was intended to make it clear that the federal inquiry will embrace everything,' not only the assassination of Mr. Kennedy but the wounding of Connally and the killing of Oswald. They point out that the Dallas police Department said on Sunday that the Oswald case was closed as a result of his murder. Federal officials clearly were deeply concerned about the effect of the Dallas statement, although the Police Department reversed itself and reopened the Oswald investigation."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "In France, the Paris Jour also speculated that no sniper could have fired three bullet as Oswald is reported to have done with a nonautomatic rifle. Combat, another Paris paper said, The character of Oswald's killer invites suspecion. It is difficult to imagine this night club owner, with his police record, committing a chivalrous murder to avenge a widow and children.'...'The killing of Oswald closed nothing except the main doorway, till then still open, the the whole truth,' said London's Daily Telegraph...The conservative London Daily Mail said that facts can be produced that a right-wing plot against the President had caused his death....the ease with which Oswald was picked up and the evidence against him made ready, his extraordinary end.'"
The Hamburg, West Germany newspaper Echo suggested that JFK's death was a "gang plot."
Columnist Richard Starnes wrote, "Our credentials as a civilized people stand suspect before the world..." (New York World-Telegram and The Sun)
A Dallas correspondent for the New York Times stated, "The known facts about the bullets, and the position of the assassin, suggested that he started shooting as the President's car was coming toward him [on Houston Street], swung his rifle in an arc of almost 180°, and fired at least twice more." This totally inaccurate account was based on information he gained from local and federal officers, who were trying to explain the entry wound in Kennedy's throat. But photos, films and witnesses from that day shot that explanation down quickly.
Dallas Times Herald: "The Communists aren't the only ones in Europe raising questions about the killing of Lee H. Oswald. Anti-Communist papers in Western Europe also voiced suspecions about the slaying...Unlike Communist propagandists, however, they did not attempt to pin the killing on a plot by rightwing extremists. Criticism of the Dallas police also was widespread....'What if Oswald was innocent?'
Vienna's independent Die Presse asked. What if he was only a victum of that spiral of panic evident among police who, after having become guilty of negligence in protecting Kennedy's life, might have been driven to find a murderer at once and at all costs and pronounced Oswald guilty. Considering the position of the Dallas police Oswald might have been the perfect culprit.'...Il Giorno of Milan critized the Dallas police, who it said showed themselves to the world in a tragic-comic sketch...and who topped off the job with their chief quietly stating that the case was closed by the assassination of the assassin.'...Because Ruby is a Jew, some Arab newspapers in Syria and Lebanon charged or implied that Zionist were to blame for Kennedy's assassination.
Al Siassa of Beirut said international Zionism had opposed Kennedy when he stood against the halting of U.S. aid to the United Arab Republic and when the United States backed the United Nations resolution supporting the right of Palestine refugees to compensation and repatriation.'"
NYT reported, "Dallas authorities were willing today [25th] to make public all the physical evidence connecting Lee H. Oswald with the murder of President Kennedy, but the revelation was postponed at the suggestion of federal officials here and in Washington. Two local authorities involved in the case, Chief of Police Jesse Curry and Dallas County District Attorney, Henry Wade, said they would like to place the evidence before the public. Both men added, however, that they would not do so if authorities in Washington wished otherwise. Justice Department sources in Washington said that when they discuss a subject of such importance as the Oswald case they must be absolutely correct. They said no pressure had been brought on officials here. They expressed confidence that all the evidence would eventually be made public. The report of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the slaying will go first to President Johnson, who requested it. The Dallas police and Mr. Wade contend they have conclusive evidence that Oswald Killed Mr. Kennedy and wounded Gov. John B. Connally Jr. last Friday and that he murdered a Dallas policeman, J.D. Tippit shortly afterwards. Chief Curry said today in a formal statement: When the investigation in the case of Lee Harvey Oswald is completed insofar as the Dallas Police Department is concerned, we intend to make the entire file public unless federal authorities specifically request that some part be withheld and turned over. Unless we are specifically instructed otherwise from Washington, we believe it can and should become public information. At this time, we can not designate when the release will be made.'...The police have already released descriptions of pieces of evidence. Today, Mr. Wade announced that authorities had also found a marked map, showing the course of the President's motorcade, in Oswald's rented room. It was a map tracing the location of the parade route,' the district attorney said, "and this place (The Texas School Book Depository, a warehouse from which the fatal bullets were fired), was marked with a straight line.' Mr. Wade said Oswald had marked the map at two other places, apparently places which he considered as a possibility' for an assassination. He said he had not personally seen the map, and could not describe it further. The district attorney said the police had traced the serial number of the murder weapon, an Italian rifle with a telescopic sight, to a Chicago mail-order house that had sold Oswald the rifle last spring. Mr. Wade said that the Dallas Police had obtained a palm print from the rifle that matched Oswald's hand...The district attorney said today that he had no knowledge of any connection between Oswald and his assassin, Jack Ruby of Dallas....Sources in the Justice Department in Washington said that they had found no evidence of a conspiracy in the Dallas slayings."
NYT featured an interview with Spas Raikin: "He had been a member of the Marine Corps on duty with the United States Embassy in Moscow. I was under obligation to contact this man,' Mr. Raikin said yesterday in Rio Grande (Ohio where he currently taught Western civilization at Rio Grande College.) I had been paging him three or four times for one hour on the ship, because the people were not allowed to disembark. For one hour apparently this man was hiding. He did not respond to the paging.'...He and his wife, who was 20, and child had six suitcases and one bag. [Recall, if you will, the story told of OSWALD coming Stateside with seven suitcases, left NYC with five and landed in Dallas with only two. - Michael Parks]
Story in the Pompano Sun Sentinel (Florida) by James Buchanan; it reported that Oswald had been in Miami in November 1962, contacting "Miami-based supporters of Fidel Castro," had tried to infiltrate an anti-Castro group, passed out FPCC leaflets, and got into a fight with some exiles." Oswald had telephone conversations with the Cuban government G-2 Intelligence Service..." The source for the story was Frank Sturgis.
Story by Warren Bosworth in the Dallas Times Herald: "A former undercover agent for the New Orleans police" Monday night described Oswald as "a loner who frequented low class dives catering to all kinds of riff raff...I saw him a number of times in...French Quarter and Irish Channel District while working there." The man was an unpaid agent in his off-hours and had lived in Dallas for the last 18 months. "Some weeks ago he spotted Oswald's familiar face at a downtown restaurant and later at the YMCA on Ervay Street. 'I saw him several times but I did not know his name.'" He recognized Oswald on television. "'He is the same one I used to see in New Orleans. He usually stayed to himself but occasionally talked with longshoremen and others who hung around the bars and joints of the French Quarter. He almost always talked to them in Spanish.' Oswald, he said, drank moderately...'Sometimes he'd get too much under his belt and would get loud and boisterous and then take part in a Spanish dance'...The man said he never heard Oswald discuss politics. 'Of course, he was usually gabbing in Spanish and I don't understand the language.'"
The official communist newspaper, The Worker, suggested a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination. When LBJ did this a few days later, conservatives took this as a sign that he was letting the communists dictate policy to him.
Washington Daily News reported that persons who had seen the Zapruder film "say it shows the following sequence: ...The first of three...shots appears to strike...Kennedy in the shoulder or back...Gov. Connally turns toward the right [and is struck]...Then a third shot strikes Mr. Kennedy in the head, and he lurches forward." The Boston Record American ran a more accurate description of the Z-film.
Dallas Times Herald editorial mentioned that Ruby "was well known to most Dallas policemen in the station, he had been a frequenter of the station for years..."
NYT story by Drew Middleton: "The murder of Lee H. Oswald, accused as the killer of the President, in the presence of police officers has caused many friends of the United States to question the internal stability of Europe's protector. Another effect is that a normally prudent people are at least listening to a Communist tale, spread by the party newspapers, that Oswald was eliminated as part of a plot...The Paris newspaper Le Monde devoted an entire page tonight to serious doubts' about the Dallas police and what the two killings appear to divulge about American characteristics."
NYT story by Sidney Gruson: "LONDON AWAITS PROOF THAT NO PLOT WAS BEHIND DEATHS" - "The murder of Lee Harvey Oswald...has blemished the image of the United States in Britain....there is disbelief that the sequel to the President's murder could have happened. The reaction was evident in questions put to Americans in London today, questions put with embarrassment in many cases. The questions added up to the same thing: was there a plot in which the Dallas police were involved and was lawlessness taking over in the United States?"
Dr. Kemp Clark "said in Dallas today that a bullet did much massive damage at the right rear of the President's head...A missile had (come or gone) out the back of his head, causing extensive lacerations and loss of bone tissue." (AP 11/26/1963)
Dallas Morning News reported that Asst District Attorney Bill Alexander said on Monday all leads linking Ruby to Oswald were being checked. "Wade said he also lacks evidence which would show that any Communist conspiracy was involved...Alexander said the public misinterpreted statements that 'the case was closed'...'The case against Oswald was obviously closed with his death,' Alexander said. 'You can't have a rabbit stew without a rabbit.'" But he assured the press that all efforts were being made to get to the bottom of the assassination. Alexander talked to Ruby minutes after the shooting: "He knew exactly what had happened. He talked rationally and called us by our names. I saw nothing which would indicated he had suffered a nervous or emotional collapse." The News also reported that "Alexander said Rubenstein expressed no remorse."
The paper's lead editorial that day accused "Reds" of trying to blame conservatives for the assassination: "this new Big Lie will probably succeed in many parts of Asia and Africa. With their gigantic, well-organized propaganda aparatus, the communists will probably be able to use the murder of the President by a leftist to accomplish their own devious plans...the one thing we can be sure of is the ultimate aim of the party, which has never changed: the destruction of our way of life. Our best bet is to close ranks and defy our enemy's efforts to divide us in these days of confusion and peril."
UPI reported that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee felt that a Texas investigation would not be good enough; one Republican member said, "Too many people are disturbed about the strange circumstances of the whole tragic affair."
AP reported that "the White House has so far declined to say whether an autopsy was performed on the body [of JFK]..."
UPI reported that Moscow was telling the Russian people that the assassination was the work of an "ultra-rightist plot to wreck Soviet-American relations and world peace."