Joseph McBride replies to Dale Myers re the Tippit case

[Albert Doyle]

This article is another good example of how an author with a sharp wit can dance circles around the dull minded predictability of conspiracy deniers and official story backers. Their response? They ignore it, pretend its superior arguments don't exist and continue to attack by means of the sheer attrition of their scripted approach. JFK conspiracy denial is a political belief that is not attached to any adjustable or open objective analysis of its main components. What creeps me out about that political belief is that any accurate analysis of it will show it traces back to the same political beliefs that led to the conspiracy in the first place.


Though I am curious why McBride doesn't enter 1:06 for Tippit's shooting according to Mrs Higgins?

[LR Trotter]

I read a comment about a mispronouncement of the word asked, by LHO. Instead of "asked", he said "aksed". An easier to pronounce "aksed", was used when he referred to a question about the President's murder. I saw mention of a possible symptom of LHO's dyslexia. Maybe so, but I have heard that mispronouncement fairly often. Especially, by some of my Cajun French speaking friends from south Louisiana, but others as well. Maybe it was stress, and he returned to an easier pronouncement of the word "asked" that he likely used as a young child before an education taught him the correct spelling and pronouncement. Some of us, at least at times, have some difficulty with the pronouncement of certain words. In any event, I believe he said "aksed", and not "axed". JMO, but I can and do, appreciate Mr McBride's effort at establishment of true facts, by replying to the uh, uh, DM uh, version of the JDT murder case.

::

I used to look down on persons who said "axed" for "asked," until I heard a linguist say in a documentary that "axed" is the original form of the word in early English. "Asked" is a later, aristocratic, refinement. Forgive me if it is still too early in the day for me to trace the exact etymology, but "Oswald" violates a social norm here, not a linguistic rule.

One thing in "Oswald's" use of "axed": Would a non-native, non-Southern, speaker consciously lapse into the demotic form "axed" while under stress? Tends to aid in establishing that the arrested "Oswald" was an American of southern extraction. And "axed" is used in the Bronx as well.

No argument here, but I was referring to personal experience, and I have never been to the Bronx. But, I seem to recall hearing radio/tv interviews from that area when "aksed" was used instead of "asked". So, it is not restricted to any specific area. It's easier for me to say "aksed", than it is to say "asked", especially when speaking East Texas English. And, he (aka LHO) was not saying "the reporters in the hall" wanted to have a question "axed". It was "aksed me that question". I am not trying to split hairs, but someone less familiar with 11/22 might get the wrong idea.

::

[Tracy Riddle]

"Axsed" is primarily a regional pronunciation. If you want to hear the English language pronounced in dozens of different ways, go to the British Isles.

I've noticed that people from the South will say INsurance, whereas in California we say inSURance.

[Joseph McBride]

I found it unlikely that a TV announcer
would give the time of 1:06 and didn't
find a clip with that on it, nor did I speak
to Mrs. Higgins. While the story is
possible, I stuck with more verifiable
accounts.

[Albert Doyle]

No, I would disagree. Dallas was still small town enough to give a 1:06 time check on TV. I'm not sure you would find a local station video of that announcement seeing how local broadcasts would have a limited venue for broadcast recordings in 1963. Even worse assassination broadcasts may have been withheld due to the political situation in Dallas and the authorities participating in the cover-up.

I agree that the denier jerks would use this to attack your book if it turned out to be false or a hoax, however it has the ring of truth to me. I think it's real.

[Albert Doyle]

I was in the kitchen grabbing snacks after seeing the History Channel repeat of the 50th anniversary program this afternoon when it struck me the shot to the head by Tippit's killer is not the MO of Oswald. (By the way, History Channel omitted this shot in their program) Even if it was Oswald Tippit was down and wasn't any threat. Deniers would say Oswald wanted to eliminate any witnesses, however Oswald's bullets would be more than enough to implicate him. Also, look at his position. Was he going to escape notice at that point? No, the shot to the head was the shot of a person who wanted Tippit dead in order to eliminate any threat or witness. This overkill shot for Oswald is a much more understandable shot for a conspirator of the type chasing Oswald before they officially connected him to anything. An escaping Oswald doesn't need Tippit dead as much as an assassination conspirator.

[David Andrews]

I was in the kitchen grabbing snacks after seeing the History Channel repeat of the 50th anniversary program this afternoon when it struck me the shot to the head by Tippit's killer is not the MO of Oswald. (By the way, History Channel omitted this shot in their program) Even if it was Oswald Tippit was down and wasn't any threat. Deniers would say Oswald wanted to eliminate any witnesses, however Oswald's bullets would be more than enough to implicate him. Also, look at his position. Was he going to escape notice at that point? No, the shot to the head was the shot of a person who wanted Tippit dead in order to eliminate any threat or witness. This overkill shot for Oswald is a much more understandable shot for a conspirator of the type chasing Oswald before they officially connected him to anything. An escaping Oswald doesn't need Tippit dead as much as an assassination conspirator.

Wanted Tippit to be unable to say that it wasn't Oswald who shot him.

[Joseph McBride]

That would be unlikely since Oswald didn't shoot him.

[David Andrews]

That would be unlikely since Oswald didn't shoot him.

What I said. A dead Tippit couldn't exonerate Oswald.

[Joseph McBride]

Sorry to have misread your post.