08-05-2014, 01:41 AM
Nov 22 (Friday) Times are Central Standard Time unless indicated
3pm
A photo of the paper bag being brought out of the TSBD, by William Allen taken around 2:30-3pm. Another photo of it was taken by Jack Beers.3:00 PM Word reaches LBJ aboard Air Force One (through Major-General Chester Clifton who is sorting messages in the communications shack) that LHO has a dossier in the State Department. LBJ asks for a quick check to find out if the State Department has erred in permitting LHO to return to the USA from Russia. (Bishop)
Around this time, Jack Ruby leaves the Carousel Club and is seen standing in line at the Merchant's State Bank. Ruby reports that he has $7000.00 in cash on his person. Ruby then stops at the Ritz Delicatessen.
Jacqueline Kennedy is offered a Scotch by Kenny O'Donnell. "I've never had a Scotch in my life," she replies. O'Donnell says: "Now is as good a time to start as any." (Bishop)
3:00PM CST 4:00 PM (EST) Paul Miller called Gen. Wehle and told him that the president's body would be taken to Bethesda. (Report/Summary from Gen. Wehle's office, MDW, 11/22/1963) Reed said he found out at this time that they might be doing the autopsy on Kennedy. (RT Image 11/21/1988)
A Dallas police dispatcher, speaking to Captain C. E. Talbert on Channel Two says: "A Mr. Bill Moyers is on his way to swear in Mr. Johnson as President and he will need an escort, but we don't know when he is going to get here." (Bishop)
Fort Worth photographer George Smith recalls gaining entry to the TSBD sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 along with members of the Dallas press. (Trask)
In the early afternoon of November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Silvia Odio heard of President Kennedy's assassination on the radio on her way back to work from lunch. Although the radio made no mention yet of Oswald, Silvia thought immediately of the three men's visit to her apartment and what Leopoldo said on the phone about Leon's remarks on killing Kennedy. She felt a deep sense of fear. She began saying to herself, "Leon did it! Leon did it!" (Silvia Odio interview. Annie Laurie Odio Mallo interview by Gaeton Fonzi, September 19, 1978)
While everyone was being sent home from Silvia's workplace, she became more terrified. As she was walking to her car, she fainted. She woke up in the hospital. When Silvia's sister, Annie, first saw Oswald on television that afternoon, she thought, "My God, I know this guy from somewhere!" She kept asking herself where she'd seen him. Her sister Serita phoned: Silvia had fainted at work and was in the hospital. Annie went immediately to the hospital. When Annie visited Silvia, she told her she knew she'd seen the guy on the TV who'd shot President Kennedy, but she didn't know where. Silvia began to cry. She asked Annie if she remembered the three men's visit to the apartment. Then Annie realized she'd not only seen Oswald but had spoken with him at the door. Silvia told her of Leopoldo's follow-up phone call about Oswald's threats against the president. Annie, too, became deeply frightened. Silvia by now had also seen television pictures of the presumed assassin. She was certain Lee Harvey Oswald was identical to the "Leon Oswald" who had stood at her door under the light between the two Cubans. Because of Silvia's and Annie's fears for themselves and their scattered family, the two sisters vowed to each other not to tell the authorities what they knew. However, a friend who heard their story told the FBI.
3:00 PM NBC network airs the first footage of the motorcade.
3:00 PM Detectives J.B. Hicks and H.R. Williams arrive at TSBD. (CE 3145)
3:00 PM Police arrived at the Paine house to ask Marina if Oswald owned a rifle. (WC)
3:01 PM (CST), Hoover wrote, "I called the Attorney General at his home and told him I thought we had the man who killed the President down in Dallas .. .. .I related that Oswald went to Russia and stayed three years; came back to the United States in June, 1962, and went to Cuba on several occasions but would not tell us what he went to Cuba for." (FBI memorandum from Hoover to Tolson, Belmont, Mohr, DeLoach, Evans, Rosen, Sullivan, 11/22/63, 4:01 pm EST)
There is nothing in FBI files on Oswald, as released to the public, to suggest either that Oswald had visited Cuba, or that he had been interrogated about such visits by the FBI. The final item was apparently not true of Oswald, but was true of the man, Jack Ruby, who would kill Oswald less than 48 hours later. It is a strange error and coincidence. Hoover also noted in this memo, and apparently told RFK, that the FBI had received a couple of tips suggesting that other people may have been involved in the assassination. Finally, Hoover stated that he had instructed the FBI in Dallas to go to police headquarters and participate in the interrogation of Oswald.
3:10 PM UPI reported that Dr. Malcolm Perry had said, "There was an entrance wound below the Adam's apple."
3:00-3:15 PM Lt. Day identified Exhibit 724 (17H505) as a picture he took at 3:00 or 3:15 p.m. the day of the assassination from the assassination window looking west on Elm Street. This is still a different, though official, version. This photograph has the boxes stacked one on top of the other, all pointed toward Elm Street at about a 45-degree angle to the west. None of the boxes is on the window sill. They had been carefully stacked to allow the assassin room for his body between them and the eastern end of the window, a situation precluded by the Dillard photograph. When he acknowledged that the boxes had been moved prior to the taking of the picture, the Commission had no further interest or questions about such an obvious fate (4H264-5). Day's first attempt at an explanation was interrupted by the Commission's examiner. Day then returned to his self-justification, saying that an hour and a half after the assassination he did not know the direction in which the shots had been fired. (Weisberg, Whitewash)
3:10-3:15 PM Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest is broadcast by news media.
3:15 PM-4:05 PM Hosty enters Captain Fritz's office to join in the interrogation of Oswald. (Assignment Oswald) From Hosty and Bookout's report: "Lee Harvey Oswald, 1026 North Beckley, Dallas, Texas, was interviewed by Captain Will Fritz of the Homicide Bureau, Dallas Police Department. Special Agents James P. Hosty, Jr. and James W. Bookhout were present during this interview. When the Agents entered the interview room at 3:15 p. m., Captain Fritz had been previously interviewing Lee Harvey Oswald for an undetermined period of time. Both Agents identified themselves to Oswald and advised him they were law enforcement officers and anything he said could be used against him. Oswald at this time adopted a violent attitude toward the FBI and both Agents and made many uncomplimentary remarks about the FBI. Oswald requested that Captain Fritz remove the cuffs from him, it being noted that Oswald was handcuffed with his hands behind him. Captain Fritz had one of his detectives remove the handcuffs and handcuff Oswald with his hands in front of him. Captain Fritz asked Oswald if he ever owned a rifle and Oswald stated that he had observed a Mr. Truly, a supervisor at the Texas Schoolbook Depository on November 20, 1963, display a rifle to some individuals in his office on the first floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository, but denied ever owning a rifle himself. Oswald stated that he had never been in Mexico except to Tijuana on one occasion. However, he admitted to Captain Fritz to having reside in the Soviet Union for three years where he has many friends and relatives of his wife. Oswald also admitted that he was the secretary for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans, Louisiana a few months ago. Oswald stated that the Fair Play for Cuba Committee has its headquarters in New York City. Oswald admitted to having received an award for marksmanship while a member of the U. S. Marine Corps. He further admitted that he was living at 1026 N. Beckley in Dallas, Texas, under the name of O. H. Lee. Oswald admitted that he was present in the Texas Schoolbook Depository on November 22, 1963, where he has been employed since October 15, 1963. Oswald stated that as a laborer, he has access to the entire building which has offices on the first and second floors and storage on the third and fourth, as well as the fifth and sixth floors. Oswald stated that he went to lunch at approximately noon and he claimed he ate his lunch on the first floor in the lunchroom; however he went to the second floor where the Coca-Cola machine was located and obtained a bottle of Coca-Cola for his lunch. Oswald claimed to be on the first floor when President John F. Kennedy passed this building. After hearing what had happened, he said that because of all the confusion there would be no work performed that afternoon so he decided to go home. Oswald stated he then went home by bus and changed his clothes and went to a movie. Oswald admitted to carrying a pistol with him to this move stating he did this because he felt like it, giving no other reason. Oswald further admitted attempting to fight the Dallas police officers who arrested him in this move theater when he received a cut and a bump. Oswald frantically denied shooting Dallas police officer Tippit or shooting President John F. Kennedy. The interview was concluded at 4:05 p. m. when Oswald was removed for a lineup."
Fritz (WC testimony): "I asked him just the general questions for getting acquainted with him, and so I would see about how to talk to him, and Mr. Hosty spoke up and asked him something about Russia, and asked him if he had been to Russia, and he asked him if he had been to Mexico City, and this irritated Oswald a great deal and he beat on the desk and went into a kind of a tantrum."
Mr. BALL. What did he say when he was asked if he had been to Mexico City?
Mr. FRITZ. He said he had not been. He did say he had been to Russia, he was in Russia, I believe he said for some time.
Mr. BALL. He said he had not been in Mexico City?
Mr. FRITZ. At that time he told me he had not been in Mexico City.
Mr. BALL. Who asked the question whether or not he had been to Mexico City?
Mr. FRITZ. Mr. Hosty. I wouldn't have known anything about Mexico City.
Mr. BALL. Was there anything said about Oswald's wife?
Mr. FRITZ. Yes, sir. He said, he told Hosty, he said, "I know you." He said, "You accosted my wife on two occasions," and he was getting pretty irritable and so I wanted to quiet him down a little bit because I noticed if I talked to him in a calm, easy manner it wasn't very hard to get him to settle down, and I asked him what he meant by accosting, I thought maybe he meant some physical abuse or something and he said, "Well, he threatened her." And he said, "He practically told her she would have to go back to Russia." And he said, "He accosted her on two different occasions."
Mr. BALL. Was there anything said about where he lived?
Mr. FRITZ. Where he lived? Right at that time?
Mr. BALL. Yes.
Mr. FRITZ. I am sure I had no way of asking him where he lived but I am not too sure about that--just how quick he told me because he corrected me, I thought he lived in Irving and he told me he didn't live in Irving. He lived on Beckley as the officer had told me outside. And I asked him about that arrangement and I am again, I can't be too sure when this question was asked. I asked him why his wife was living in Irving and why he was living on Beckley and he said she was living with Mrs. Paine. Mrs. Paine was trying to learn to speak Russian and that his wife, Mrs. Oswald, had a small baby and Mrs. Paine helped with the baby and his wife taught Mrs. Paine Russian and it made a good arrangement for both of them and he stayed over in town. I thought it was kind of an awkward arrangement and I questioned him about the arrangement a little bit and I asked him how often he went out there and he said weekends. I asked him why he didn't stay out there. He said he didn't want to stay out there all the time, Mrs. Paine and her husband didn't get along too well. They were separated a good part of the time and I asked him if he had a car and he said he didn't have a car, he said the Paines had two cars but he didn't use their cars.
Mr. BALL. Did you ask him anything about his address or did he volunteer the address?
Mr. FRITZ. He volunteered the address at Beckley?
Mr. BALL. Yes.
Mr. FRITZ. Well, I will tell you, whether we asked him or told him one, he never did deny it, he never did deny the Beckley Street address at all. The only thing was he didn't know whether it was north or south.
Mr. BALL. Did you ask him whether it was north or south?
Mr. FRITZ. Yes, but he didn't know. But from the description of surroundings we could tell it was North Beckley.
3:15 PM Referring to LBJ onboard Air Force One, Jim Bishop writes: "It seemed that he was phoning McGeorge Bundy in the White House Situation Room every few minutes." (Bishop)
3:15 PM LBJ calls Rose Kennedy and gives his condolences. LBJ will shortly talk to both Rose Kennedy and Mrs. Connally by phone from the plane. LBJ, while talking to Rose Kennedy, puts Mrs. Johnson on the telephone. Rose Kennedy does not ask Mrs. Johnson to switch her to Jacqueline Kennedy, who is sitting fifty feet behind the Johnsons. Nor does Jackie phone her mother in law. (Four months after the assassination, Rose Kennedy will tell author Jim Bishop: "I have not heard from Mrs. Kennedy' since the funeral.") General Godfrey McHugh notices Merriman Smith and other news writers aboard the plane and reminds them that "throughout this trip I remained back there with the President."
Secret Service agents McIntyre, Roberts, Lawton, and Ready depart Dallas, Texas via AF 6970, referred to as "the back-up plane."
Around this time today, Colonel Robert E. Jones of the 112th Military Intelligence Group at Fort Sam Houston contacts the FBI in Dallas, and links the name "A. J. Hidell" to LHO.
Autopsy is begun on J. D. Tippit's body.
Sometime in mid-afternoon today, Jerry Cabluck is sent out to Bell Helicopter located halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth with the assignment to take aerial photos of the scenes of the shooting in Dallas. Bell pilot Clem Bailey flies Cabluck to Dealey Plaza. Harry Cabluck leaves Parkland Hospital soon after the death announcement and goes to Dealey Plaza to spot for his brother's aerial photos. While in the Plaza area, Cabluck earlier took several photos of police officer James W. Foster who is near a manhole cover, by the infield curb of the south side of Elm Street in an area believed to be where a bullet has truck and ricocheted out.
3:15 PM Sorrels returned to DPD HQ following arrest of Oswald Bugliosi, 128; 13H 57
3:15 PM Sgt. Gerald L. Hill turns pistol, allegedly taken from LHO in the Texas Theater, over to Detective T.L. Baker.
3:15 PM Dallas Times HeraldThe final four-star edition is released. It contains Robert Jackson's eyewitness account, and says that the rifle found on the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] floor of the TSBD is a "high powered World War II surplus weapon with a telescopic sight…" It was found with a shell still in it, half hidden under books in the NW corner. Sgt. Jerry Hill said that three expended rifle shells were found near an open window, with a chicken lunch nearby. Sheriff Bill Decker said two eyewitnesses had been picked up who saw a man with a rifle and could identify the man. The search of the TSBD was completed at 2:30pm. The President's body was taken from Parkland in a Hearse at 2:08pm.
3:15 PM Ruby leaves the Carousel and goes to his sister's house. He stayed less than half an hour, going out again to pick up food for the weekend. (H 15 324-5) He stopped by the Carousel to tell Crafard to prepare a sign saying they would be closed. (H 13 455-57)
3:16 PM (approx) JEAN HILL INTERVIEW, WITH MARY MOORMAN - WBAP/NBC-TV
"...Just as Mary started to take the picture (shown), and the president became..came right even with us, two shots - we looked at him and he was looking at a dog in the middle of the seat two shots rang out and he grabbed his chest, and a look of pain on his face, and fell across towards Jackie, and she..ah..fell over on him and said, "My God, he's shot!" and..ah..there was an interval and then three or more shots rang out..by that time, the motorcade had sped away." (Note: Mary Moorman asked why she took the picture "at that particular instance" and whether she knew the president had been shot - she didn't.)
Q. "Did you see..were you a witness..did you see the person who..who fired the..?"
A. "No, not..I didn't see any person fire the weapon."
Q. "You only heard it."
A. "I only heard it..and I looked up and I saw a man running up this hill."
Q. "Ah..you had no idea ... you couldn't...
A. "No..I had no idea..and nothing to go by..I mean, I don't think it dawned on me for an instance that the president had been shot..I mean, I knew, and yet it just didn't register." (Note: Mary is asked if she got a look at the fence - she didn't; she also indicated having dropped to the ground immediately.)
3:20 PM In New Orleans, Carlos Marcello is acquitted. He walks from courtroom showing no emotion.
3:23 PM Network news broadcasters announce Oswald by name as a suspect. ABC/CBS/NBCAll three networks identify Lee Harvey Oswald as the suspect. ABCA description of Lee Harvey Oswald is reported to viewers. Dallas Times HeraldDarwin Payne goes to Oswald's room at his boarding house to further investigate the story. Fort Worth Star TelegramBob Schieffer takes a call from Lee Harvey Oswald's mother, Marguerite.
3:26 PM Networks tell of Oswald's application for Russian citizenship; around this time, Marguerite hears the news on her car radio.
3:30 PM (approx time) Jack Revill wrote a memo about his discovery that Hosty knew about Oswald. Detective V.J. Brain overheard part of the conversation between the two men. (WR 441-2)
3:00-3:30 PM Deputy sheriffs arrive at the Paine residence in Irving, Texas. Detective Guy Rose of Captain Fritz's staff is asked by Ruth Paine if he has a search warrant. He says no "but I can get the sheriff out here with one if you want." Paine says: "No, that's all right. Be my guests." Ruth retranslates her opinions back to Russian for Marina Oswald's benefit and it becomes obvious that Mrs. Oswald is not happy with her friend's show of initiative. Paine answers what questions she can, without translating for Marina. Linnie Mae Randall, who is also present, tells the sheriffs that LHO rode with her brother, Wesley Frazier, to work this morning and that LHO put something long on the back seat of Wes's car. It was, she recalls, wrapped in paper or maybe a box. (Bishop)
Mr. LIEBELER. What time did you arrive at your home in Irving?
Mr. PAINE. I would guess about 3 or 3:30, somewhere in that neighborhood.
Mr. LIEBELER. Who was there when you arrived?
Mr. PAINE. The police, the Dallas police mostly were there.
Mr. JENNER. The police arrived and what occurred.
Mrs. PAINE. I went to the door. They announced themselves as from both the sheriff's office and the Dallas Police Office, showed me at least one package or two. I was very surprised.
Mr. JENNER. Did you say anything?
Mrs. PAINE. I said nothing. I think I just dropped my jaw. And the man in front said by way of explanation "We have Lee Oswald in custody. He is charged with shooting an officer." This is the first I had any idea that Lee might be in trouble with the police or in any way involved in the day's events. I asked them to come in. They said they wanted to search the house. I asked if they had a warrant. They said they didn't. They said they could get the sheriff out here right away with one if I insisted. And I said no, that was all right, they could be my guests. They then did search the house.
Mr. JENNER. How many police officers were there?
Mrs. PAINE. There were six altogether, and they were busy in various parts of the house.(3 H 78-79)
Guy F. Rose, a homicide detective with the Dallas Police Department, told Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball about his arrival at the Paine home that day.
Mr. Rose. ...just as soon as we walked up on the porch, Ruth Paine came to the door. She apparently recognized us--she said, "I've been expecting you all," and we identified ourselves, and she said, "Well, I've been expecting you to come out. Come right on in."
Mr. Ball. Did she say why she had been expecting you?
Mr. Rose. She said, "Just as soon as I heard where the shooting happened, I knew there would be someone out."
At that point, according to her own testimony, she thought Oswald was working at a second TSBD building--not the one at 411 Elm Street, where the Warren Commission ultimately placed Oswald and his rifle, but one that was located several blocks from Dealey Plaza.
Joseph Ball asked Richard S. Stovall, another DPD Homicide Detective, about their arrival at the Paine home.
Mr. Ball. Now, when you first went in, did Ruth Paine say anything to you about expecting you, or something of that sort?
Mr. Stovall. Yes, sir; when we first came to the door and knocked on the door, she came to the door and she says, and we identified ourselves, she said, "I have been expecting you. You are here about this mess that's on television," and the "mess that's on television" at the time she was talking about was when they were talking about the President's murder.
Detective Stovall also told the Commission about Ruth Paine's attitude toward a police search of her home: "We explained to her that we did not have a search warrant but if she wanted us to get one we would, and she said, `That won't be necessary'--for us to come right on in, so we went on in the house and started to search out the house."
An initial search of the garage of the Paine home in Irving, Texas -- where Oswald has stored belongings -- reveals no backyard photographs. The Dallas Police list of property that is seized contains the following item: "four 3 x 5 cards bearing respectively names G. Hall; A. J. Hidell; B. Davis; and V.T. Lee." Hall, Davis and Lee are real persons of some prominence in political movements of the Left.
3:30 PM LBJ calls Nellie Connally at Parkland; she told him that her husband would probably be OK.
A photo of the sniper's nest is taken by Jack Beers around 3:30pm.
3:33 PM CST 4:33 PM EST Washington - No Secret Servicemen were injured in the attack on President Kennedy, a top Treasury official said today. Robert A. Wallace, assistant secretary of the Treasury under which the Secret Service operates, said the service had received a report that a Dallas policeman had been killed by the fusillade from an assassin. "I believe this report is correct," Wallace said. It had been reported from Dallas that a policeman and a Secret Service man had been shot and killed some distance from the scene of the attack on Kennedy. AP, 4:33 p.m. EST
ATSAIC Stewart G."Stu" Stout, stationed at the Trade Mart on November 22, 1963, died--cause unknown--immediately after Dallas, according to Agents Sam Kinney and Floyd Boring. Ironically, S/A Stout rode in the hearse [JFK's] from Parkland Hospital to Love Field on November 22, 1963. However, three items of data appear to quash this initial identification of the "dead" agent: First, Stout's report of his activities, dated 11/29/63 (18H 785); secondly, Stout's report, dated April 29, 1964, concerning the infamous drinking incident (18H 680); finally, an actual film clip of Stout with LBJ in California in 1964 as depicted in the 1992 PBS video "LBJ." Reports of Stout's demise apparently were, at least initially, exaggerated. The only agent who is a real viable candidate for possibly being the dead agent is Dennis R. Halterman, a White House Detail agent who, as the shift reports bear out, was in San Antonio with the President on November 21 but who, for all intents and purposes, "disappears" from the record after that date. (Vince Palamara)
3:35 PM WFAAThe station airs footage of the motorcade as it traveled through Dallas.
3:35 PM A C-130 carrying 100X and 679X departs Love Field.
3:48 PM CST 4:48 PM EST The sun set at this time in Washington.
3:40 PM WFAAAn AP wire service photo of the hearse is shown on air.
3:41 PM WFAANews of President Johnson's swearing in is reported.
3:54 PM NBC newsman Bill Ryan announces on national television that "Lee Oswald seems to be the prime suspect in the assassination of John F. Kennedy."
4pm
Shortly before 4 PM, Mary Moorman gives one of her Polaroid photographs of the assassination to Secret Service agents Howlett and Patterson. TGZFHIra "Jack" Beers of the Dallas Morning News later recalled that he visited the sixth floor at around 4 PM and took photographs. (WC) Comparison of the official Warren Commission photograph (CE 1301) reveals obvious differences in the arrangement in the "rifle-rest" boxes.
4:00 PM CST 5:00 PM (EST) Capt. Patton informed MDW that the "President's remains will arrive AAFB 18:05 hrs." (Daily Staff Journal/Duty Officer's Log, Military District of Washington (MDW) HQ, 11/22/1963)
In Washington, RFK continues to make telephone calls during the afternoon. One of the people he contacts is Enrique "Harry" Ruiz Williams, a Bay of Pigs veteran who is his closest associate in the Cuban exile community. RFK stuns his friend by telling him point-blank, "One of your guys did it." After receiving word of death threats, RFK had sent Harry to Miami during JFK's last trip to that state in order to provide additional security. (Brothers)
4:00 PM Original unslit Zapruder film (perforated with processing identification # 0183) shown at Kodak Thompson 1998; Wrone, 23; Trask, 109; Horne, 1197; Zavada Study 1
4:00 PM Bill Stinson, Connally's press secretary, told the media that only a fragment of a bullet had lodged in Connally's thigh. (Killing the Truth 81)
Chief Jesse Curry arrives at Dallas police headquarters from Love Field where he has driven LBJ to board Air Force One
Dr. Charles F. Gregory begins to operate on the wounds of Gov. Connally's right wrist.
4:00 - 4:30 PM Jack Ruby is reported seen in the crowded Dallas Police Headquarters.
Oswald places a telephone call to Mrs. Ruth Paine from the Dallas City Hall. The call concerns his search for legal assistance.
The afternoon edition of The Dallas Times Herald states: "Witnesses said six or seven shots were fired."
Around this time, Abram Chayez, the Legal Counsel to the State Department in Washington receives a call from Acting Secretary of State George Ball (Secretary Rusk being away on the trip to the Honolulu conference) with the direction to "gather together the files in the Department on Oswald, and to prepare a report to be available to him the first thing in the morning, covering as best we could within that time span the contacts that Oswald had with the Department." Consider: LHO was arrested and only brought to headquarters about two hours earlier. There have been no lineups in which LHO has been identified even as Tippit's killer, no confession or any "connections to the rifle." Researchers have posed the question as to what available facts could have possibly prompted Under-Secretary Ball to commit so much manpower to a report on LHO -- and to further order that the report be ready by the following morning.
In Oswald's personal effects found in his room at 1026 North Beckley Avenue in Dallas is a purported international certificate of vaccination signed by "Dr. A. J. Hidell," Post Office Box 30016, New Orleans. It certifies that Lee Harvey Oswald has been vaccinated for smallpox on June 8, 1963. This, too, is a forgery. The signature of "A. J. Hideel" is in the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald. There is no "Dr. Hideel" licensed to practice medicine in Louisiana. W.C. There is immediate publicity on November 22, 1963 about the alias "O.H. Lee," which becomes known after investigation, but NOT about Hidell, supposedly discovered at once in a search of Oswald's person.
Robert Hester, a commercial photographer in Dallas, is called from home to help process assassination-related photographs of Oswald holding a rifle and pistol, sees an FBI agent with a color transparency of one of those pictures and one of the backyard photos he processes shows no figure in the picture. This claim is corroborated by Hester's wife. The photographs in question are not "officially" discovered until twelve hours later in the Paine's garage after an initial search reveals nothing.
The arrests of the three tramps are duly recorded at this time on official arrest forms. John Forrester Gedney, age 38, with no home address given; Gus W. Abrams, age 53, with no home address given; and Harold Doyle, age 32, of Red Jacket, West Virginia. All three have been arrested together. The arresting officer of record is W. E. Chambers. According to the record, the vagrants are released on Tuesday morning, November 26.
Police radio broadcasts linking an automobile to the Tippit shooting have been picked up by the news media. NBC affiliate WBAP-TV in Fort Worth is reporting that "Tippit was shot to death by an unknown man in a car." It may have been in response to these reports that Dallas police crime lab photographer W. E. Barnes snaps a photograph of a stop sign that has been knocked down at the corner of Tenth and Patton. [Later evidence points to the fact that the stop sign was knocked down this morning, prior to Tippit's murder.] (With Malice)
4:05 PM Richard Sims searches Oswald, but finds no wallet on him; he assumes it has already been removed. Fritz's report says that Oswald was searched at this time, "and five cartridges and other items were removed from his pockets." Sylvan Fox finds it "astonishing" that he was not thoroughly searched earlier: "Suppose Oswald had been carrying another gun, or a knife...were the police of Dallas hoping that Oswald would do something during those first desperate hours after his arrest that would give them an excuse for shooting him themselves?" (Unanswered Questions 44) Though he was searched at the time of his arrest, Detectives Boyd and Sims decide to search him again. In Oswald's pockets they find five live rounds of .38 ammunition and a bus transfer slip.
4:09 PM AP report: Dr. (Malcolm) Parry was working on Kennedy's neck wound when the chief executive died. He said a bullet tore through "at midline in the lower portion of his neck in front." Asked if that was just below the Adam's apple, he said, "yes." [Dr. Kemp] Clark said Kennedy also was wounded in the back of the head -- "a large gaping wound with considerable loss of tissue." He referred to brain tissue. AP, 4:09 p.m. CST.
4:10 PM Arrest footage of Lee Harvey Oswald airs on WFAA-TV.
4:15 PM CST Hoover wrote in a memo, "I told Mr. Schlei [Asst Attorney General Norbert Schlei] I thought very probably we had in custody the man who killed the President .... .I stated he was born an American but tried unsuccessfully to lose his American citizenship .... .I stated he would be in the category of a nut and the extremist pro-Castro crowd…an extreme radical of the Left ..... Oswald made several trips to Cuba: upon his return each time we interviewed him about what he went to Cuba for and he answered that it was none of our business .... .I stated our Agents view him as a nut as he freezes up and withdraws into himself when he is being questioned as he did this afternoon down in Dallas." (FBI memorandum from Hoover to Tolson, Belmont, Mohr, DeLoach, Evans, Rosen, Sullivan, 11/22/63, 5:15 pm)
4:18 PM WFAATom Alyea's footage, shot just after 1:00 p.m. at the Texas School Book Depository, is broadcast. Mention of the chicken bones and pop bottle. A photo of Oswald under arrest is shown.
4:20 PM Dr. Carrico wrote a report on JFK's wounds: "Two external wounds were noted. One small penetrating wound of ant. [anterior] neck in lower 1/3. The other wound had (illegible) the calvarium and shredded brain tissue present and profuse oozing." (WR)
4:20 PM CST 5:20 PM EST RFK, McNamara, and General Taylor depart Pentagon. RFK seeks shelter in airport truck. (Manchester)
4:25 PM Agent Harlan Brown told Hosty not to participate further in the interrogation, or give the police any information the FBI had on Oswald. (Assignment Oswald 26)
4:30 PM Osborn and Jones take Zapruder and Schwartz to their office, and McCormick to DMN office Wrone, 24; Trask, 112; Schwartz interview
4:30
M Felipe Vidal Santiago arrives in Miami from Dallas, Texas by 5:30 pm EST. It is suggested that he is flown on a private or military jet.LBJ - Nellie Connally, 4:30 PM This call occurred while LBJ was aboard Air Force One.
4:30PM CST 5:30 PM (EST) Clifton called Gen. Mock and told him that the body would be taken to Bethesda. (Report/Summary from Gen. Wehle's office, MDW, 11/22/1963)
4:33 PM CST 5:33 PM (EST) JFK's children are taken to O Street. (Manchester)
4:35 PM ABCInformation is released that authorities are questioning a suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald. CBSHarry Reasoner discusses how the day will be remembered.
4:35-4:45 PM Oswald is taken by officers to the show-up room for the first of several line ups. Tippit-shooting-witness Helen Markham views the lineup of Oswald and three others and gives a very shaky identification. Also in this lineup is Bill Berry, R.L. Clark and Dan Ables.
Mr. FRITZ. The first witness that went down with me convinced me on the Tippit killing.
Mr. McCLOY. That is Mrs. Markham?
Mr. FRITZ. Yes; Helen Markham. And she was a real good witness and she identified him positively and picked him out in a manner that you could tell she was honest in her identification.
Oswald: "It isn't right to put me in line with these teenagers...You know what you are doing, and you are trying to railroad me...I want my lawyer...You are doing me an injustice by putting me out there dressed different than these other men...I am out there, the only one with a bruise on his head...I don't believe the lineup is fair, and I desire to put on a jacket similar to those worn by some of the other individuals in the lineup... All of you have a shirt on, and I have a T-shirt on."
4:45 PM Dr. Robert McClelland of Parkland Hospital wrote a statement describing the president's wounds: "The cause of death was due to massive head and brain injury from a gunshot wound of the left temple."
While LHO is being interrogated by Captain Fritz, Captain Westbrook tells Sergeant Gerald Hill that the suspect has admitted being a communist - has previously been in the Marine Corps, has a dishonorable discharge, has been to Russia, and had some trouble with the police in New Orleans for passing out pro-Castro literature. This summary comes only an hour after LHO's arrest and obviously does not come from LHO, who is still being interrogated by Captain Fritz. In 1966 Westbrook takes early retirement from the DPD and goes to South Vietnam where he works for the Secret Police, which is controlled by the CIA.
4:45-6:30pm LHO is taken back to Captain Fritz's office for more interrogation.
Oswald interrogated in Fritz's office: "When I left the Texas School Book Depository, I went to my room, where I changed my trousers, got a pistol, and went to a picture show...You know how boys do when they have a gun, they carry it.... Yes, I had written the Russian Embassy...Mr Hosty, you have been accosting my wife. You mistreated her on two different occasions when you talked with her...I know you. Well, he threatened her. He practically told her she would have to go back to Russia. You know, I can't use a phone...I want that attorney in New York, Mr. Abt. I don't know him personally but I know about a case that he handled some years ago, where he represented the people who had violated the Smith Act...If I can't get him, then I may get the American Civil Liberties Union to send me an attorney. I went to school in New York and in Fort Worth...After getting into the Marines, I finished my high school eduation...I support the Castro revolution...My landlady didn't understand my name correctly, so it was her idea to call me O.H. Lee.. [Fritz reported this; Hosty and Bookhout reported that he admitted living there under the name O.H. Lee] The only package I brought to work was my lunch...I never had a card to the Communist Party...I am a Marxist, but not a Leninist-Marxist...I bought a pistol in Fort Worth several months ago...I refuse to tell you where the pistol was purchased...I never ordered any guns...I am not malcontent. Nothing irritated me about the President....How can I afford a rifle on the Book Depository salary of $1.25 an hour?...John Kennedy had a nice family....[the white station wagon that Roger Craig saw was mentioned]..That station wagon belongs to Mrs Ruth Paine. Don't try to tie her into this. She had nothing to do with it. I told you people I did [leave in the station wagon]...Everybody will know who I am now....I have not been given the opportunity to have counsel...As I said, the Fair Play for Cuba Committee has definitely been investigated, that is very true...The results of that investigation were zero..."
Mr. BALL. Did you ask him what happened that day; where he had been?
Mr. FRITZ. Well he told me that he was eating lunch with some of the employees when this happened, and that he saw all the excitement and he didn't think--I also asked him why he left the building. He said there was so much excitement there then that "I didn't think there would be any work done that afternoon and we don't punch a clock and they don't keep very close time on our work and I just left."
Mr. BALL. At that time didn't you know that one of your officers, Baker, had seen Oswald on the second floor?
Mr. FRITZ. They told me about that down at the bookstore; I believe Mr. Truly or someone told me about it, told me they had met him--I think he told me, person who told me about, I believe told me that they met him on the stairway, but our investigation shows that he actually saw him in a lunchroom, a little lunchroom where they were eating, and he held his gun on this man and Mr. Truly told him that he worked there, and the officer let him go.
Mr. BALL. Did you question Oswald about that?
Mr. FRITZ. Yes, sir; I asked him about that and he knew that the officer stopped him all right.
Mr. BALL. Did you ask him what he was doing in the lunchroom?
Mr. FRITZ. He said he was having his lunch. He had a cheese sandwich and a Coca-Cola.
Mr. BALL. Did he tell you he was up there to get a Coca-Cola?
Mr. FRITZ. He said he had a Coca-Cola.
Mr. BALL. That same time you also asked him about the rifle.
Mr. FRITZ. I am not sure that is the time I asked him about the rifle. I did ask him about the rifle sometime soon after that occurred, and after the showup; I am not sure which time I asked him about the rifle.
Mr. BALL. Did you bring the rifle down to your office?
Mr. FRITZ. Not to him; not for him to see.
Mr. BALL. You never showed it to him?
Mr. FRITZ. No, sir. I asked him if he owned a rifle and he said he did not. I asked him if he had ever owned a rifle. He said a good many years ago he owned a small rifle but he hadn't owned one for a long time. I asked him if he owned a rifle in Russia and he said, "You know you can't own a rifle in Russia." He said, "I had a shotgun over there. You can't own a rifle in Russia." And he denied owning a rifle of any kind.
Mr. BALL. Didn't he say that he had seen a rifle at the building?
Mr. FRITZ. Yes, sir; he told me he had seen a rifle at the building 2 or 3 days before that Mr. Truly and some men were looking at.
Mr. FRITZ. He told me he went over and caught a bus and rode the bus to North Beckley near where he lived and went by home and changed clothes and got his pistol and went to the show. I asked him why he took his pistol and he said, "Well, you know about a pistol; I just carried it." Let's see if I asked him anything else right that minute. That is just about it.
Mr. BALL. Did you ask him if he killed Tippit?
Mr. FRITZ. Sir?
Mr. BALL. Did you ask him if he shot Tippit?
Mr. FRITZ. Oh, yes.
Mr. BALL. What did he say.
Mr. FRITZ. He denied it---that he did not. The only thing he said he had done wrong, "The only law I violated was in the show; I hit the officer in the show; he hit me in the eye and I guess I deserved it." He said, "That is the only law I violated." He said, "That is the only thing I have done wrong."
4:55 PM CST 5:55 PM (EST) FBI instructed Sibert and O'Neill to accompany the body to Bethesda. (Sibert/O'Neill autopsy report.)
4:55 PM FBI Agent Shanklin contacts Washington headquarters to say that the local film processing houses in Dallas are unable to handle the processing of the Zapruder film. C.D. DeLoach tells Shanklin to put the film on a commercial flight to Washington, D.C. DeLoach indicates that the FBI may develop the film themselves or have a commercial lab do it with whom the FBI has a working relationship. (FBI memo)
4:58 PM CST 5:58 PM (EST) Air Force One arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, taxied to a stop at 6:05. (WC) As Air Force One prepares to land at Andrews Air Force Base, Jackie and Kenny O'Donnell decide that he and JFK's other close aides will carry the coffin off the plane. She pointedly tells White House military attache, Brigadier General Godfrey McHugh, "I want his friends to carry him down." When another general comes back to the rear of the plane to tell O'Donnell, "The Army is prepared to take the coffin off," O'Donnell shoots back, "We'll take it off." However, as soon as Air Force One taxies to a halt, McHugh orders JFK's friends to "Clear the area. We'll take care of the coffin." (Brothers)
4:58 PM CST 5:58 PM (EST) Samuel Bird, the officer in charge of the joint service casket team, reported to Gen. McHugh, who informed Bird that the SS would remove the casket from the plane. (Samuel Bird memo to Commanding General of MDW, 11/27/1963) Another casket team on the ground was pushed out of the way by the SS agents, who placed the casket in a waiting Navy ambulance. (Samuel Bird memo to Commanding General of MDW, 11/27/1963, Report to Commanding General, MDW)
5pm
5:00 PM Ruby called Cecil Hamlin. According to Cecil Hamlin, Jack Ruby telephones him at this time and weeps freely during the call. He tells Hamlin that he has closed both of his clubs for the weekend and expresses his sorrow for the Kennedy "kids."FBI agent Robert Frazier was appointed Lead Examiner in the JFK assassination before the end of the working day (5:00 PM) on Friday. His appointment was no accident as Frazier was the most experienced firearms and toolmark examiner on the FBI staff at the time of the assassination. Before sundown, Frazier was advised that a bullet had been recovered in Dallas and was in transit to Washington. He was instructed to be at the ready to make an examination of the bullet immediately upon arrival, no matter what the hour.
5:05 PM CST, 6:05 PM EST Air Force One taxis to a stop at Andrews with LBJ and the body of JFK. Bronze casket unloaded. A helicopter immediately takes off from the opposite side of the aircraft. Its function and destination - unknown. As a rule, aircraft are not permitted to take off or land so near Air Force One. LBJ makes brief public statement, then boards a helicopter for the White House.
Hoover was not present when Air Force One landed; he had already gone home. When LBJ called, Hoover told him that his men in Dallas were working on the investigation, and all necessary resources were being devoted to it. (The Man and the Secrets)
Controversy has surrounded this flight of Air Force One almost from the moment it touches down at Andrews Air Force Base. The fact that it arrives one-half hour late leads to speculation that the president's body was either tampered with during the flight or was removed from the coffin, spirited from the plane at Andrews, secretly placed aboard a nearby Army helicopter, and flown somewhere else to afford members of the conspiracy an opportunity to alter Kennedy's wounds before the autopsy. A second possibility is that the president's body was removed from Air Force One while it was still at Love Field before departing Dallas.
Several people have asked Jackie Kennedy if she wants to change clothes. She is still wearing the bloodstained pink Chanel suit which is covered with blood. She refuses saying: "Let them see what they've done." Janet Auchincloss will tell Jackie's maid, Provie, not to clean the suit. She will place the suit in a box marked "worn by Jackie 11-22-63" and store it in her attic at Hammersmith Farm - next to a box containing Jackie's wedding dress. The pink suit eventually goes to the National Archives to be kept in storage for one hundred years before it is to be publicly displayed.
5:10-5:15 PM CST 6:10-6:15 PM (EST) Jacqueline and Robert Kennedy depart in a GRAY navy ambulance for Bethesda Naval Hospital with bronze casket. William Greer drives the ambulance carrying the president's official coffin from Andrews Air Force Base to Bethesda Naval Hospital. Navy ambulance left with the body for Bethesda. The trip took roughly 45 minutes. (WR; H 2 455; H 2 102-3, Death of a President)
In the ambulance, RFK slides open the plastic partition separating the rear from the front and speaks to Roy Kellerman. "At the hospital I'll come up and talk to you," Kellerman tells RFK. "You do that," RFK replies and shuts the partition. After her husband dies, Kellerman's widow, June, will say that he always "accepted that there was a conspiracy." According to one account, the chief of the Secret Service, James Rowley, will tell RFK that JFK was cut down in a crossfire by three, perhaps four, gunmen. The Secret Service believes the president was "the victim of a powerful organization," Rowley will inform RFK. Rowley, however, will tell the Warren Commission he believes Oswald alone killed the president. (Brothers)
LBJ makes a short statement to the nation at 6:14 PM EST: "This is a sad time for all people. We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. For it is a deep personal tragedy...I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask your help - and God's."
Dr. James Humes, lab director at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, receives a telephone call from Admiral Edward Kenney, the Surgeon General of the Navy, who says: "Jim, you'd better hurry over to the hospital."
5:18 PM Dallas - It seemed evident that there was some planning behind the assassination. In the Texas School Book Depository building, overlooking the underpass, officers found an old .30 caliber Enfield with telescopic sights, spent cartridges and scraps of fried chicken. The rifle was partly hidden behind books on the second-floor of the five-story building. The bullets had come from about a 45-degree angle. AP, Frank Cormier, 5:18 p.m. CST
5:26 PM CST 6:26 (EST) LBJ's helicopter lands on White House lawn. (Manchester)
5:30 PM Oswald called Ruth Paine.
5:30 PM Ruby returned to his sister's place, staying for about two hours; he had bought "enough groceries for 20 people...but he didn't know what he was doing then." He told her he decided to close both clubs for the next three days, though he needed the money. (H 15 326-8) Eva recalled that he was extremely distraught, felt that Kennedy had been a good president for the Jewish people, and kept calling Oswald a "creep," a "lousy Commie," and saying "Don't worry...we will get him." (H 14 468, 468,484, H 15 331) He continues his rapid rate of telephone calls, eats sparingly, becomes ill, and attempts to get some rest. He decides to close his club for three days. However, according to Detective August Eberhardt, who has known Ruby for five years, he speaks with Ruby between 6 and 7 o'clock in the third-floor hallway of the Dallas police building.
5:30 PM Texas Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig is taken by Will Fritz into an office where the suspect, Lee Harvey
Oswald, is being held. Craig positively identifies Oswald as the man he saw fleeing the Texas School Book Depository and get into a Rambler Station wagon on Elm St. Oswald tells them that the station wagon belongs to Mrs. Paine. "Don't try to tie her into this." Oswald says, "She had nothing to do with it." Then he continues by saying: "Everybody will know who I am now." Will Fritz tells the WC he remembers no such incident. It is not noted that LHO denies getting into the Rambler Station wagon.
This afternoon, according to his wife, David Atlee Phillips comes home and says nothing at all. He shows neither sadness, nor pleasure, nor interest. He simply has nothing to say.
During the afternoon of Nov. 22nd, Gilberto Policarpo Lopez crosses into Mexico from Nuevo Laredo. It is only hours after this border is reopened following its closure in the wake of the assassination. (By March 1964, Policarpo's name will be put forward by the CIA as having been involved in the Kennedy assassination. The CIA, however, will never inform the Warren Commission of Policarpo's activities.)
5:30 PM (approx) An aide for Gov. Connally gives a press conference at Parkland, says he had been in surgery for almost 4 hours. One bullet went through his chest, "grazed and fractured his wrist, and the bullet was spent, and renamed imbedded in the thigh."
5:30 PM (Mexico time) A taped call, one which caused the HSCA much consternation, involved Cuban Embassy employee Luisa Calderon. Volume XI of the HSCA's Report, careful to avoid disclosing sources and methods, laid out the issue: "A reliable source reported that on 22 November 1963, several hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Luisa Calderon Carralero, a Cuban employee of the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, and believed to be a member of the Cuban Directorate General of Intelligence (DGI), discussed news of the assassination with an acquaintance. Initially, when asked if she had heard the latest news, Calderon replied, in what appeared to be a joking manner, "Yes, of course, I knew almost before Kennedy." [HSCA Report, Appendix XI, p. 494]
The "reliable source" is again a telephone tap, which captured a conversation at 5:30 PM local time. A loose "transcript" of the conversation starts this way:
HF asks LUISA if she has heard the latest news and LUISA, in a joking tone says, "Yes, of course, I knew almost before Kennedy." HF smiles and comments that it is very bad; ….
There are a few oddities here. How one ascertains that a person is "smiling" in a telephone conversation is one. Also, this conversation was accompanied by a handwritten note which includes: "22 Nov Lienvoy Luisa Calderon and man outside." "Man outside" is typical CIA-speak for a man on an outside telephone line (and LIENVOY is the teltap operation). But the "transcript" notes that the other person is HF, presumably Hispanic Female. The handwritten note also says that "cc original and transcript sent to Galbond via Kingman. Nothing to Buro yet," interestingly keeping the FBI in the dark for the moment. [Handwritten note and transcript at RIF #104-10400-10162]
In any case, the HSCA became greatly concerned about the possibility that Luisa Calderon had exhibited foreknowledge of the assassination with her joking statement "Yes, of course, I knew almost before Kennedy." If a "conspiracy buff" took some similar statement on the part of an American official and ballooned it into a conspiracy mountain, they would of course be subjected to deserved ridicule. But the double-standard applied to Cubans, particularly one thought to be in the employ of the Cuban intelligence service, made this case different. In his interview with William Coleman, Ed Lopez devoted 15 minutes to the topic of Luisa Calderon, even though Coleman couldn't even remember who such a person was. The HSCA wrote several pages in Volume XI about their concerns, and the page devoted to her in the Final Report was more space than they devoted to many more important matters.
An obvious question here is whether Luisa Calderon made any statements between the time of the assassination and this 5:30 PM call, statements which might clarify whether she really had any foreknowledge or was merely joking. For instance, is there a document with transcripts of all tapped calls for November 22, and does Luisa appear in other, earlier calls? There is no evidence that I've found to indicate that the HSCA asked this question, or received such a transcript log. But one does exist. RIF #104-10404-10426 contains 49 pages of Spanish transcripts and English translations for November 22, 1963. And indeed there is not just one but two prior calls involving Luisa Calderon, one at 1:30 PM and one at 2:00 PM. Here is the beginning of the English translation of the first call:
1330 hours. Unidentified woman calls LUISA (in Cuban Embassy). Caller asks LUISA if she knows the news about KENNEDY'S death.
LUISA: is surprised….says it is a lie and asks who?
CALLER: in an attempt in Texas.
LUISA: further surprise and again asks if news is official and when did it occur.
CALLER: yes, it happened at 1300 hours.
LUISA: laughs and says how great. ………. [ 104-10404-10426, p. 22]
The second call came a half-hour later. If Luisa Calderon exhibits foreknowledge in this call, it is related to Oswald's death and not Kennedy's:
about 1400 hours. YOYA calls to Cuban Embassy and asks LUISA if she heard the news and she says yes.
YOYA: what do you think of it?
LUISA: Well I don't know. I still don't know what opinion to have about it.
YOYA: What bruts. A good shot. Direct. Listen. Now they are going to say that it was from here. That it was some Cuban.
LUISA: That is possible. Then if they don't say it; they will die. ……… [104-10404-10426, p. 23]
It is very hard to believe that the HSCA would have written what it did about Luisa Calderon if HSCA staffers had seen these transcripts, which seem to exonerate Calderon of what was always a pretty weak charge. Was this just a case of bureaucratic snafu, with these earlier transcripts getting lost in the shuffle and overlooked? That too is hard to believe. The CIA Office of Legislative Counsel took the trouble to write Robert Blakey a ten-page letter in 1979, much of it taken up with bickering over the HSCA's writeup on the Calderon affair [Letter of 2-15-79, from OLC to Robert Blakey, at RIF #104-10400-10157]. Now that the damage was done, and the HSCA led on a wild goose chase into Cuban-conspiracy-land, the CIA was concerned that the HSCA would blow its sources and methods in their writeup. So the letter goes into great detail bickering over the exact wording of the Spanish words which were translated into "I knew almost before Kennedy," never pausing to mention "Oh, by the way, here are some earlier transcripts that will put the whole business to rest." It's of course possible to argue that people at the Office of Legislative Counsel were unaware of the earlier calls, but the idea that the CIA would not know how to look for "the day's take" of transcripts for November 22 is ludicrous. This episode is very damning of the Agency, adding fuel to the thesis that the Agency was more than happy in the 1970s to do what it had done with Warren Commission 15 years earlier, which is to push Communist conspiracy theories vigorously and divert the investigations from more fruitful avenues of research.
A final point about the Calderon affair has to do with the importance of original research using the documents, and being careful of writers with an agenda. I am referring to Gus Russo's Live by the Sword, a book which generally asserts that Oswald killed Kennedy by himself but a lot of secret sources and interviews conducted by Russo in the 1990s suggest that Oswald may have been dealing with Cuban agents and possibly egged on by them, and then bad Bobby Kennedy had to order a coverup because he and Jack had been going after Castro due to an ego-driven personal vendetta. Russo discusses Luisa Calderon, and even includes some new information from the new documents. Russo repeats the famous "I knew almost before Kennedy" quote, but then adds this:
CIA transcripts of the conversation support the source. But they reveal even more detail. The conversation is punctuated by so much laughter, and such joyous disbelief, that the two parties appear giddy. Calderon, through her laughter, said that she couldn't believe the news of Kennedy's death, and continually remarked on how great it was. When the caller said that Kennedy was "shot three times in the face," Calderon exclaimed "Perfect!" [Gus Russo, Live by the Sword, Bancroft Press, 1998, p. 226]
Russo exaggerates the amount of "laughter" and "joyous disbelief" in the conversation, unless he has been somehow privy to an actual recording and not the transcript in the record that the rest of us can read. But far more interesting is how he conflates multiple conversations into one. Calderon did indeed reply "Perfect" when told Kennedy was shot three times in the face. But she did this during the recently-released 1:30 PM call, the one in which Calderon repeatedly expresses surprise at the news of the assassination, not the 5:30 PM "foreknowledge" call. Russo has conveniently left out the exonerating aspects of this earlier call, and used only the portion that makes Calderon look bad. Readers beware.
5:45 PM CST 6:45 PM (EST) Dennis David observes arrival of BLACK hearse at the rear entrance of Bethesda with plain metal casket, accompanied by 6 - 7 men in plain clothes. He is told it is body of JFK. Plain metal casket brought into Bethesda morgue. Paul O'Connor reports JFK's body wrapped in BODY BAG; no brain inside head.
5:50 PM CST 6:50 PM (EST) an Army escort officer's report stated that he had been ordered by the Provost Marshall's office to go to Bethesda; he arrived there at approximately this time, and reported "the remains of the deceased President arrived at the same time." (Report concerning events of 11/22 by Escort Officer to the Commanding General)
5:50 PM CST 6:50-7:05pm (EST) somewhere in this time frame, the ambulance with the Kennedys arrives at Bethesda. (H 18 744,757; H 2 102-3; SS reports). O'Neill led them to the rear dock outside the morgue. (Francis X. O'Neill in 1992 Team Video) The HSCA and Humes determined that the body arrived at the morgue at 7:35 (HSCA 7 8; H 2 349).
5:55 PM CST 6:55 PM (EST) GRAY Navy ambulance, driven by William Greer, arrives at Bethesda front entrance. Jacqueline Kennedy enters hospital.