27-04-2014, 09:08 PM
November 27 1963 (Wednesday)
12:30 PM LBJ's first address to a joint session of Congress emphasizes the theme of continuity in United States government. Regarding foreign policy, he declares that "this nation will keep its commitments from South Vietnam to West Berlin." He pledges continuation of foreign aid to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In addition, he promises continued support of the United Nations by the United States. In domestic affairs, he asks Congress to enact a tax-cut bill and stresses economy in government spending. LBJ addresses a joint session of Congress: "In this age when there can be no losers in peace and no victors in war, we must recognize the obligation to match national strength with national restraint." He also pushed for civil rights: "We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. We have talked for one hundred years or more. It is time now to write the next chapter, and to write it in the books of law...no memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long...Today, in this moment of new resolve, I would say to all my fellow Americans, let us continue." Also, "We will keep our commitments from South Vietnam to West Berlin."Phone conversations
LBJ - Cong. Joe Kilgore, 10:27 AM
LBJ - Sen. Clinton Anderson, 10:31 AM
LBJ - George Aiken, 10:47 AM
LBJ - Nellie Connally, 1:35 PM
LBJ - Jim Haggarty, 2:04 PM
LBJ - Otis Chandler, 2:10 PM
LBJ - Dr. Frank Stanton, 2:10 PM
LBJ - Gen. David Sarnoff, 2:13 PM
LBJ - Walker Stone, 2:15 PM
LBJ - Cong. Adam Clayton Powell, 2:22PM
LBJ - J. Waddy Bullion, 2:30 PM
LBJ - Ben McElway, 2:30 PM
LBJ - Russell Wiggins, 2:31 PM
LBJ - Samuel Newhouse, 2:35 PM
LBJ - Louis Seltzer, 2:45 PM
LBJ - Gene Pulliam, 3:25 PM
LBJ - Joe Alsop, 4:01 PM
LBJ - Roscoe Drummond, 5:00 PM
LBJ - William S. White, 5:01 PM
LBJ - Gould Lincoln, 5:10 PM
LBJ - Sen. Spessard Holland, 5:13 PM
LBJ - Cong. Joe Kilgore, 5:21 PM
LBJ - Gov. Farris Bryant, 5:26 PM
LBJ - Prof. Eric Goldman, 6:35 PM
LBJ - Jus. Arthur Goldberg, 6:37 PM
LBJ - Dr. Jerome Weisner, 6:40PM
LBJ - McGeorge Bundy, 6:55 PM
2:50 PM Jackie Kennedy pays a visit to LBJ in the business end of the White House. This will be her first and last visit to see LBJ. TKAT
4:00 PM Bobby Kennedy comes by the Oval Office for his first private meeting with LBJ. Points of discussion concern Bobby's anger over the swearing-in of LBJ on Air Force One [LBJ has publicly stated that he did so at RFK's urging, which RFK denies], the delay in leaving Dallas after the assassination, and LBJ's abortive effort to use the Oval Office on Saturday. The meeting is over in twelve minutes. The two men will not see each other privately for almost two months. TKAT
Clark Clifford met with LBJ at the White House for five hours; Clifford gave LBJ the benefit of his experience with past presidents. (Exercise of Power 346)
LBJ signed a bill increasing the debt ceiling to $315 billion for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Secret Service/DPD reenactment filmed in Dealey Plaza:
The Associated Press reported in 1998 an ARRB discovery: "In an affidavit, Leonard D. Saslaw (Ph.D.), a biochemist who worked at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda, Md., said that at lunch in the week following the assassination he overheard one of the autopsy doctors, Pierre Finck, complain that he had been unable to locate the handwritten notes that he had taken during the autopsy … Dr. Finck elaborated to his companions, with considerable irritation, that immediately after washing up following the autopsy, he looked for his notes, and could not find them anywhere.'" Autopsy face sheet prepared during the autopsy by Dr. Boswell. Note the presence of JFK's bloodstains on these notes. The explanation Dr. Humes gave for destroying other notes from the autopsy was that they were stained with the President's blood. The original ARRB account added that, "Dr. Saslaw's main concern with what he heard Dr. Finck say is that as a scientist, he is well aware that any observations which are not written down contemporaneously, but reconstructed from memory after the fact, are not likely to be as accurate or complete as the original observations were." The AP also reported that, "Finck told the board he couldn't recall the lunchroom conversation." Yet Finck testified to the HSCA and to the ARRB that he had taken measurements and written notes himself, and that both his notes and measurements "were turned over to Dr. Humes." Those documents have vanished. Ironically, as we will see, the explanation Humes gave for destroying the original notes to forever deny possible sensationalists access to pages bespattered with the President's blood seems dubious at best. For Humes did not destroy all of the original autopsy notes; he preserved those of his Navy assistant, J. Thornton Boswell, MD. And just like those he supposedly destroyed because of JFK's bloodstains, Boswell's notes are also adorned with JFK's blood.
At 1:00 AM this morning, according to a Dallas police memo, FBI Agent James Hosty picks up a "notebook recovered from room of Lee Harvey Oswald at 1026 No. Beckley on 11-22 from Capt. Will Fritz, along with Oswald's billfold and 16 cards and pictures, and a 6.5 rifle hull recovered at [the] Texas School Book Depository." The FBI will make a transcript of the contents of the notebook, and the Warren Commission will be provided with a copy. Two of its pages, however, the cover and a page that contains a notation concerning Hosty are retyped. (One page is removed entirely with a razor blade.) The Hosty notation is deleted from the retyped page -- and is the only deletion from the transcript. The original notation reads as follows:
Oct. Nov. 1, 1963
FBI agent (RI-11211)
James P. Hosty
MU 8605
1114 Commerce St. Dallas
A Dallas grand jury today indicts Jack Ruby for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Joseph Milteer is arrested by the FBI near his Valdosta, Georgia home and then released after vigorous denial of having made any threat against the President. (Milteer was tape recorded on Nov. 9th by FBI informant William Somersett.)
FBI agents Sibert and O'Neill interview Secret Service agents Kellerman, Greer, and Gerald Behn at the White House.
Gilberto Policarpo Lopez flies to Havana, Cuba from Mexico City. The flight (#465) carries a crew of nine. Policarpo is the only passenger. The HSCA will later conclude: " Lopez' association with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, however, coupled with the facts that the dates of his travel to Mexico via Texas coincide with the assassination, plus the reports in Mexico that Lopez' activities were "suspicious," all amount to a troublesome circumstance that the committee was unable to resolve with confidence." (HSCA)
For the Thanksgiving holiday, RFK and his family remain at Hickory Hill. Bobby has a private conversation with Walter Sheridan (who has been invited to RFK's home). RFK wants to know what Sheridan has found out about Jimmy Hoffa's possible involvement in JFK's assassination. Sheridan suspects that Hoffa was involved. "I remember telling him what Hoffa had said when John Kennedy was killed...I didn't want to tell him, but he made me tell him...Hoffa was down in Miami in some restaurant when the word came of the assassination, and he got up on the table and cheered. At least that's what we heard." RFK wants Sheridan to fly to Dallas and make some private inquiries. He also wants Sheridan to check to see what Marina Oswald really knows about it all. Over the weekend, RFK takes his family to the Kennedy compound in Palm Beach. (Brothers)
Also on this day, the FBI begins conducting an initial series of rifle tests with the alleged assassination weapon. The FBI has three master marksmen, using Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle, rapidly firing a series of 3 shots at STATIONARY targets located only 45 feet away. The three experts each fire 3 shots within 9 seconds, 8 seconds and 6 seconds, respectively. In this test none of the marksmen are physically capable of firing the three rounds within the 5.6 second requirement. Also, all of the marksmen's shots were high and to the right, missing the stationary targets located only 45 feet away.
A copy of the Zapruder film is received at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., today. It is held until December 4, when it is returned to the Secret Service in Dallas.
A Miami Secret Service informant today tells Special Agent Ernest Aragon that if the assassination involved an international plot in which Castro had participated, then Castro's agent in the plot would have been Machado, a well-known terrorist. There are rumors in the Miami Cuban community that Machado had been assigned to escort Oswald from Texas to Cuba after the assassination. The plan went awry, the report continues, because Oswald had not been wearing clothing of a prearranged color and because of the shooting of Dallas Patrolman J.D. Tippit. The reports on Machado, along with other suspicions of Castro complicity in the assassination, are forwarded only in brief summary form by the Secret Service to the Warren Commission. The committee will find no record of follow-up action. (HSCA)
Memo from FBI headquarters to its office in Mexico City, today states: "If tapes covering any contacts subject (Oswald) with Soviet or Cuban embassies available, forward to bureau for laboratory examination and analysis together with transcript. Include tapes previously reviewed Dallas if they were returned to you.''
In the House of Representatives, Congressman Charles Goodell (R-NY) proposed a joint committee of both houses investigate the assassination. By this date, Senator Everett M. Dirksen has proposed a Senate Judiciary Committee investigation and Representative Charles E. Goodell has proposed a join Senate-House investigation. Also, Texas Attorney General Waggoner Carr has announed that a state court of inquiry will be established. LBJ will agree to the idea of a Comission no later than Nov. 28. It appears that the idea of a Presidential commission to report on the assassination of JFK was first suggested by Eugene Rostow, Dean of the Yale Law School, in a telephone call to LFJ aide Bill Moyers during the afternoon of Nov. 24th. In less than two and a half hours following OSWALD's death, Rostow thought about and discussed with at least one other person the idea of a commission. He has also had one or more phone conversations with Katzenbach about this. TA
FBI agents Sibert and O'Neil went to the White House to formally interview just three of the nearly fifty WHD SS agents: SAIC Gerald Behn, ASAIC Roy Kellerman, and Bill Greer. In a strange departure from routine procedures when interviewing fellow government agents, the FBI men record Greer's complete physical description: age, height, color of eyes, etc. Was Greer a target of FBI suspicion?
2:10 PM (EST) LBJ phone call with Otis Chandler (transcript released Sep 1993)
Chandler: …and how are you feeling?
LBJ: Couldn't be better. Couldn't be better.
Chandler: I was awfully worried that first report you'd had another little heart flutter there…right after the President was assassinated.
LBJ: Not at all. I never had…all they did was put me on the bottom of the car…face down…and some reporter, I guess, saw me with my hand…and they were pretty excited about that time…but I never felt better in my life…and I was up till 2:30 this morning on that speech.
The Dallas Police Department obtained 455 items of evidence belonging to Lee Oswald from 1026 North Beckley and 2313 West 5th in Irving, Texas on November 22-23, 1963. DPD Officer Paul McCaghren photographed those items on November 24-25, 1963, using five rolls of Kodak High Contrast Copy film. Special Agent Warren deBrueys took possession of the undeveloped film as well as physical possession of the 455 items on November 26, 1963. SA Warren deBrueys took the film and the 455 items to Washington, D.C. on November 27. The FBI copied the film given to them by the DPD. On December 2, 1963, the FBI returned not five but two rolls of copied film to the DPD. Of the 455 items photographed by the DPD, only 167 items appeared on the film that was returned to the DPD by the FBI. There were 288 items missing from the developed film. The FBI had the physical evidence and the original film. The DPD was left with copies of two rolls of film containing less than half of the items they had photographed. On December 3, 1963, DPD Chief Curry wrote to Gordon Shanklin informing him that "items #164 thru #360 did not record."
Henry Wade told the press "he did not believe the story of....Ruby that he had killed...Oswald to avenge the assassination of President Kennedy. 'It...may have involved something far deeper...Our law enforcement agencies are still checking to determine if links exist between Oswald and Ruby...'"
This night Castro, in a TV and radio address, charged that US reactionaries had killed JFK and tried to implicate Cuba. "How strange! Why go to Mexico to request a visa to Russia by way of Cuba? Ideal to make the American people believe the assassin had been an agent of Cuba and the Soviet Union." He felt that Oswald was deliberately laying a trail of clues. "Those guilty of Kennedy's death wanted at all costs to eliminate the accused to keep him from talking." He found it strange that a rifle was used rather than the usual "revolvers, pistols, hand grenades, etc." Castro said that Oswald had made a "provocative statement" when he went to the Embassy. (Dallas Times Herald 11/28/1963)
Also today, Havana accused Mexico of being part of a "reactionary plot" to link Castro to the assassination. This had to do with the arrest of Silvia Duran "last Saturday for questioning about a visa application by Lee H. Oswald...The Cuban protest charged that the Mexican police had used coercion and brutality' in questioning Mrs. Duran before releasing her the same night. It said the Cuban Government considered the arrest a flagrant complicity by members of the Mexican police and those who perfidiously intended to involve the fatherland with the dirty crime.' Manuel Tello, the Mexican Foreign Minister, who came here to attend Mr. Kennedy's funeral, appeared surprised and irritated when he was read the text of the Cuban note. He decline to comment." (NYT 11/28) "Premier Castro believed President Kennedy could have solved the explosive situation in Lain America, a French newsman, Jean Daniel, said today. Mr. Daniel was with Dr. Castro at his country home at Varadero when the news of President Kennedy's assassination was announced. Mr. Daniel said Dr. Castro thought Mr. Kennedy could have become the greatest President in the history of the United States if he had solved the political and economic crises in Latin America." (NYT 11/28)
Gov. Connally was interviewed by Martin Agronsky of NBC news:
Q. Governor Connally, what are your recollections of those fateful moments when you and President Kennedy were shot? A...We just turned the corner, we heard a shot, I turned to my left, and the President had slumped. He said nothing. As I turned, I was hit and I know I had been hit badly. I knew the President had been hit and I said, ""My God, they are going to kill us all."" Then there was a third shot and the President was hit again. When he was hit, she said, ""Oh, my God, they have killed my husband - Jack, Jack."" After the third shot, the next thing that occurred - the Secret Service said, ""get out of here and get to the hospital."" Q. What other reflections have you had, Governor? A. Only that maybe, Martin, the President of the United States, as a result of this great tragedy, has been asked to do something in death that he could not do in life, that is to so shock and so stun the nation, the people and the world of what is happening to us, of the cancerous growth that is being permitted to expand and enlarge upon the world and the society in which we live, that breeds hatred and bigotry, and intolerance, indifference and lawlessness, and is an outward manifestation of what occurred in Dallas, which could have occurred in any other city in America."
Adm. George G Burkley composes a statement which later becomes CE 1126.
On the orders of Bouck, SS agent James Fox and Kennedy's personal photographer Robert Knudsen take the autopsy film to the Naval Processing Center in Anacostia, MD for processing by Lt. V. Madonia.
Because an unauthorized person had used SS credentials on the day of the assassination, all Special Agents were then required to surrender their Commission Book (ID documents) for an unprecedented service-wide check. (According to Abraham Bolden, in Citizen's Dissent 193)
Silvia Duran was arrested again for more questioning.
This afternoon, Hosty, agent Charlie Brown, SS interpreter Leon Gopadze, SS agent Max Phillips and an INS official interviewed Marina at the Six Flags hotel. Marguerite had been taken out shopping. Hosty was angry when the INS official assured Marina she would not be deported; Hosty wanted to use this as leverage to make her talk. Marina was short-tempered and not willing to talk. Hosty found out that four men whom they had assumed were SS agents guarding the Oswalds were actually off-duty Fort Worth firemen. (Assignment Oswald)
FBI interview of Carlos Bringuier, 27 Nov 1963. This interview contains Bringuier's curious statement that Oswald had warned Bringuier that "we can infiltrate you."
FBI interview of Dean Andrews, 27 Nov 1963. Andrews told the FBI he had been under "heavy sedation" when Bertrand contacted him, and this idea was subsequently used to discredit Andrews' story.
FBI rifle tests with the Carcano; Robert Frazier, Cortlandt Cunningham and Charles Killion each fired three shots at a silhouette target 15 yards away to see how fast the rifle could be fired. It took between six and nine seconds to fire the three shots; Frazier then did a test firing two series of three shots at a target 25 yards away. He did this in 4.6 and 4.8 seconds; this was done primarily to see how fast the weapon could be fired. (Frazier testimony)
FBI interview of David Ferrie, 27 Nov 1963. Ferrie was questioned about anti-Kennedy statements and about whether his library card had ever been loaned to Oswald.
Dave Ferrie told the FBI that he didn't know Oswald in the CAP. (FBI report #89-69-682, interviewed by agents Ernest C. Wall Jr. and Theodore R. Viater.) Posner says that Ferrie showed them his library card during that interview; the FBI also found that his single-engine four-passenger monoplane had not been airworthy since 1962. Posner also says that CAP records show that Ferrie was a member through 1954, but was ousted because he giving political lectures to the cadets. He was reinstated 12/1958. Apparently the HSCA did not see these records. (Case Closed p143) He told the agents that he had never loaned his library card to Oswald and never taught anyone how to use a telescopic sight. He didn't deny knowing Oswald "in the Civil Air Patrol or in any business or social capacity." Ferrie told them he had "no recollection of knowing or having met" Oswald. He admitted being very angry with JFK over the Bay of Pigs, but denied ever plotting to kill him. "He said he had also been critical of any president riding in an open car and had made the statement that anyone could hide in the bushes and shoot a president. Ferrie also advised that he has been accused of being a worshipper of President Kennedy because he is a liberal and strongly believes in President Kennedy's Civil Rights program and fiscal program." (Oswald in New Orleans 184) When he was first interrogated he told authorities, without being asked, that he didn't know how Oswald had got hold of his library card. "Ferrie was asked to step down just before Oswald joined that particular CAP group, but Ferrie remained close to it and was in contact with Oswald." (LIVINGSTONE 505) "They [FBI] have a large file on him. They 'investigated' him, if only because it was made unavoidable when Jim Garrison arrested him on November 25, 1963." Declassified documents falsely claim that Garrison charged Ferrie with being the "get-away pilot": "They say this not from what Garrison told the FBI (of which there is not a whisper in any of the not-suppressed documents) but because this same David William Ferrie immediately took over direction of the so-called 'investigation' of himself and, knowing to be untrue, with federal-agent complicity, made it the charge against him!" (Post Mortem 3-4) Weisberg points out that though he had been arrested after the assassination and investigated by the FBI, there is not one mention of him in the WR. Garrison was never given a copy of the FBI's report of their interrogation of Ferrie. (Oswald In New Orleans 168)
FBI memo from Courtney Evans to Belmont: "Katzenbach said he had learned on an extremely confidential basis that Abe Fortas...had been in touch with President Johnson and had argued against the idea of having a Presidential Commission look into the Kennedy assassination. Fortas' argument to Johnson was that for the President to announce such a commission would merely suggest that there was evidence of something other than Oswald alone killing Kennedy and thus build up public speculation. Fortas' second argument was that the formation of such a commission would cause a reflection on the FBI. Fortas, of course, is no friend of the Bureau and there would appear to be some obvious underhand motive in his using us in his argument, although we do not know what this is." Hoover added to the memo, "Certainly something sinister here." (Never Again p22)
Winston Scott memo to Clark D. Anderson (legal attache) about 7 telephone wiretaps involving Oswald in Mexico City. These included a 9/27/1963 call to the Soviet Embassy at 1037 hours; Silvia Duran call to Soviet Embassy 9/27 at 1605 hours; call from man at Cuban Embassy to Soviet 9/27 at 1626 hours, asking for Duran; call to Soviet from Duran 9/28 at 1151 hours; call from man speaking broken Russian to Soviet Military Attache 10/1 at 1031 hours; Oswald call to Soviet 10/1 at 1035 hours; caller, probably not Oswald, to Soviet Embassy (military attache) 10/3 at 1539 hours requesting a visa. (declassified 1995; Assignment Oswald 292)
The day following the Hoover-McCone conversation, CIA HQ sent a cable down to the Mexico City station, alerting them to Hoover's revelation. DIR 85245 of November 27 suggests that Silvia Duran's statements be used instead of the LIENVOY take, to avoid compromising the operation, and then goes on to discuss the problem of where the FBI is getting its information. In the following cable standard CIA-speak applies, so "KUBARK" refers to the CIA and "ODENVY" is the FBI.
2. PLS NOTE THAT DIRECTOR ODENVY IS GETTING FROM ODENVY MEXI MUCH INFO WHICH OBVIOUSLY ORIGINATES WITH THE LIENVOY OPERATION. ODENVY HERE APPARENTLY DOES NOT REALIZE THAT THIS INFO WAS PRODUCED BY A KUBARK OPERATION, AND INDEED, ODENVY MAY BE GETTING THIS LIENVOY INFO THRU ITS OWN CLANDESTINE SOURCES [ **************** ] OR EVEN IN THE [ ************ ]. PLS TRY TO CLARIFY WITH ODENVY REP THERE THE EXACT MANNER IN WHICH HE HAS OBTAINED SUCH INFO AND THE FORM IN WHICH HE HAS SENT IT TO ODENVY HQ. WE MUST AVOID THE INADVERTENT COMPROMISE OF LIENVOY. [DIR 85245 of 11-27-63, at RIF #104-10404-10162]
FBI interview of David Magyar, 27 Nov 1963. Magyar was an acquaintance of Ferrie and knew of Ferrie's involvement the Civil Air Patrol. He named George Piazza as one of Ferrie's "best friends"; Weisberg points out that Piazza was killed in a plane crash early in the Garrison investigation.
FBI Interview of Jack S. Martin 11/27/1963
by SAs L.M. SHEARER, JR. and REGIS L. KENNEDY
at New Orleans, La.
JACK S. MARTIN, 1311 North Prieur Street, New Orleans, advised that he has never heard DAVID FERRIE make a statement that President KENNEDY should be killed, or outline a means by which he could be killed. MARTIN stated he had never made a statement to anyone regarding this allegation.
He advised that over several years association with FERRIE, he has heard him state the Deputy Sheriffs in Jefferson Parish who had charged him (FERRIE) with a Crime against Nature offense, should be killed. His remarks were made in general conversation several years ago. MARTIN stated he had never repeated these comments to anyone.
MARTIN advised he had several phone discussions with HARDY DAVIS, a bail bondsman . . . regarding a television program which mentioned the possibility that DAVID FERRIE was associated with LEE HARVEY OSWALD in the Civil Air Patrol, and MARTIN and DAVIS may have come to the conclusion the OSWALD had used or carried FERRIE's library card. He advised he had three telephone conversations with Assistant District Attorney HERMAN KOHLMAN, New Orleans, on Saturday, November 23, 1963, in which he told KOHLMAN that FERRIE had guns similar to the type used to kill President KENNEDY that had appeared on television, and further informed KOHLMAN that HARDY DAVIS had told him FERRIE possessed Cuban propaganda literature that he kept in attorney G. WRAY GILL's office in New Orleans, but GILL made FERRIE move it approximately a year ago. MARTIN said DAVIS claimed it was Fair Play for Cuba Committee literature but MARTIN did not believe it, because he knew FERRIE was active with the Cuban Front Group that was anti-Castro. MARTIN stated he is acquainted with the leaders of the anti-Castro group that were in New Orleans before the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and was aware that FERRIE was also involved with this group. MARTIN advised he talked with JERRY PHILIP STEIN to obtain the phone number of KOHLMAN, who had recently married and obtained a new phone number, and that STEIN was the former roommate of KOHLMAN.
MARTIN admitted he had talked with STEIN about FERRIE, but did not recall specifically what information he furnished STEIN.
MARTIN advised he called television station WWL, New Orleans, and told them they should contact Major PRESLEY J. TROSCLAIR of the New Orleans Police Department, who was investigating FERRIE's connection with the shooting of President KENNEDY. He made this call immediately after he had called TROSCLAIR and furnished him with his suspicions regarding FERRIE, based on his personal knowledge of FERRIE and his observation of WWL-TV programs of the background of OSWALD.
MARTIN advised he received information from HARDY DAVIS that FERRIE was out of town and suspected FERRIE had gone to Texas. MARTIN made this information available to Assistant District Attorney KOHLMAN.
MARTIN further stated he considered FERRIE to be a completely degenerate person and it was his opinion that FERRIE is capable of any crime. If was for this reason that MARTIN suspected FERRIE of being involved in the killing of President KENNEDY.
MARTIN advised that he considered the possibility that FERRIE had taught OSWALD to shoot a rifle and use a telescopic sight, in that he knew FERRIE taught military training to Civil Air Patrol Cadets and OSWALD was a Civil Air Patrol member. MARTIN insisted he told no one FERRIE had flown OSWALD to Dallas, Texas.
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1963: LOS ANGELES (Special-TPNS) The FBI refused Tuesday to confirm, or deny whether it is investigating a mysterious telephone call from nearby Oxnard, California, that predicted President Kennedy's assassination 15 minutes before he was shot. A.spokesman for the FBI here, asked specifically if an investigation is under way, answered "no comment."
AP/UPI: Dallas -- In story on controversy whether one gunman could have fired three shots so quickly, various opinions are quoted and projected against a 15-second film strip which shows some of the action both before a and after the series of shots. Paraphrase: Dr. Kemp Clark, Parkland Hospital brain surgeon who worked on JFK, said the bullet hole in the right rear of the President's head had done such massive damage that physicians could not tell whether it had entered or come out of the head at that point. Dr. Clark said again yesterday that he was unable to say whether the wound in the President's neck below the Adam's apple was due to the same bullet which had coursed through the President's brain. He said there could have been two bullets. On Friday after the death, Secret Service operatives picked up a bullet from the President's stretcher. Dallas police officials said that it matched fragments in the Presidential car and constituted one of their firmest pieces of evidence that it had been fired by the rifle traced to Oswald by them. San Francisco Chronicle, AP and UPI
New York Times, John Herbers: Dallas, Nov. 26 - Dr. Kemp Clark ... said one struck him at about the necktie knot. "It ranged downward in his chest and did not exit," the surgeon said. The second he called a "tangential wound" caused by a bullet that struck the "right back of his head." … Since one bullet did not exit it is presumed that the bullet that struck the President's head was the one recovered from the stretcher that bore the President into the hospital. A third bullet was found in fragments in the car and is presumed by official sources to be the one that coursed through the body of Gov. Connally. … 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, swung his rifle in an arc of almost 180 degrees and fired at least twice more. A strip of color movie film taken by a Dallas clothing manufacturer ... tends to support this sequence of events. The film covers about a 15-second period. As the President's car comes abreast of the photographer, the President was struck in the front of the neck. The President turned toward Mrs. Kennedy as she began to put her hands around his head. At the same time, Governor Connally, riding in front of the President, turned to see what had happened. Then the President was struck on the head. His head went forward, then snapped back, as he slumped in his seat. At that time, Governor Connally was wounded. … A hospital spokesman said the medical record of President Kennedy's assassination, written in longhand by Dr. Clark, chief of neurosurgery at Parkland, had been given to the Secret Service and the hospital had no copy. The hospital expects the Secret Service to return it eventually.
The New York Herald Tribune reported: "On the basis of accumulated data, investigators have concluded that the first shot, fired as the Presidential car was approaching [the TSBD], struck the President in the neck just above the knot of his necktie, then ranged downward into his body." This story fell apart when it became apparent that the shooting didn't begin that early.
NYT "TRAIL OF OSWALD IN MEXICO VAGUE. The trail in Mexico of Lee Harvey Oswald...seems to end in a series of unresolved questions. Oswald was in Mexico between Sept. 26 and Oct. 3. While here he applied under his own name for visas both to Cuba and to the Soviet Union. It has been established, however, that his activities in Mexico came to the attention of authorities only after his arrest on Nov. 22...Mexican and American investigative authorities here admitted that they were at a loss as to how to uncover further information concerning Oswald's residence during his stay here or any sustained accounts of his movements. They were inclined today to discount Mexican immigration reports that Oswald entered the country in a United States sailor's uniform and in the company of two women and a man. Raul Luebano, Mexican immigration agent at the Nuevo Larado port-of-entry, said today that his memory of Oswald's entrance into Mexico on Sept. 26 was reconstructed following the events in Dallas. He said he had communicated his recollections of Oswald to the United States consulate in Nuevo Larado. A United States consular official at Nuevo Larado said he had sent all his information to the United States Embassy in Mexico City. He indicated that little credence could be attached to the possibility that Oswald had entered Mexico in a sailor's uniform. He also said that the report that Oswald had entered in the company of two women and a man was very vague.' All information available indicated that Oswald, after having abandoned his attempts to obtain visas to Cuba and Russia, conducted himself more or less as a tourist. He entered the country with a 15-day tourist permit."
Paris Jour carried a front-page article, "Oswald Cannot Have Been Alone in the Shooting." Paris Presse reported that the FBI had evidence that a second man fired with Oswald from the TSBD.
A drawing published today in the Chicago Daily News depicts JFK turning around to receive a bullet in his throat from the rear.
Houston Chronicle: "The Department of Public Safety knew Lee Harvey Oswald's communist background and maintained an extensive file on him, but did not know he was in Dallas at the time of the President's visit. Col. Homer Garrison, DPS director, said his intelligence agents began compiling a file on Oswald shortly after his return to Texas in 1962 from Russia. The last entry in the file, made last summer, shows Oswald, the accused slayer of President Kennedy, as living in New Orleans, his birthplace....' Had we known Oswald was back in Texas and living in the Ft. Worth - Dallas area, we would certainly have notified the police and federal agents, and would have kept him under surveillance ourselves,' Garrison said. Gordon Shanklin, FBI agent in charge here, would not comment on whether the FBI knew Oswald was in Dallas...'I will say we did not interview him in Dallas prior to the President's visit,' Shanklin said. He would not comment on whether the FBI had questioned Oswald elsewhere. Garrison said: Oswald's file contains pretty complete information on him. We were pretty well abreast of his attempt to defect to Russia, his activities in the United States since his return and his activities in New Orleans. He went to New Orleans from Ft. Worth. Nothing in his file, however, indicated he was a violent man who would stoop to assassination.' Garrison said his intelligence agents keep tabs on every known or suspected Communist in the state. His men always turn over to the FBI information on Communists, but the FBI doesn't do the same for the DPS, Garrison said. He has offered the help of the Texas Rangers and DPS agents in the investigation, Garrison said. But so far, we have not been asked to participate, to my knowledge.'"
AP reported that the White House would not confirm if an autopsy had been done, though they stated that JFK's body was at Bethesda "For approximately nine hours."
The NY Times' managing editor, Turner Catledge, apologized for the paper constantly calling Oswald the assassin rather than the "accused" or "alleged" assassin.