Video : The Cover Up
Transcript
Hilary Minster A grief-stricken family mourns the death of its favorite son, John Fitzgerald Kennedy . Their anguish is shared by a disbelieving world, appalled at the brutality of the slaying of the 35th President of the United States .
THE MEN WHO KILLED KENNEDY THE COVER-UP
James Hosty I feel based upon what I know now, there was what I would call a benign cover-up. Yes, there was. They were concerned about Oswald's connections to the Soviet Union and to Castro , and they were fearful that if the American public were to find this out, they could become so incensed that it could have possibly led to an atomic war.
Robert Groden We have the right to know the truth. If we don't have the truth, everything we build on is a lie. It's like building a building on a false foundation. Sooner or later it's gonna crumble.
Gary Shaw I think we must know what happened to, in November 22, 1963 , in order to be a democracy today. And until the truth is told about that day, then we don't know that they're telling the truth today.
Hilary Minster Allan Dulles , Director of the CIA until Kennedy fired him, was one of the commissioners responsible for producing the 26 volume Warren report on the President's assassination. The American media were glowing in their praise of the report that concluded Lee Harvey Oswald was alone responsible. It is only under closer scrutiny that the superficiality of its findings became clear.
GARY MACK ASSASSINATION RESEARCHER
Gary Mack The Warren Commission decided that there were three shots fired, and the first shot struck the President at the back, exited his throat, went on to strike Governor Connally in the back and exited uh, in his right chest and then went through his right wrist and then windup embedded his thigh, and the bullet fell out at Parkland Hospital. The Warren Commission also decided the second shot probably missed, flew off into Dealey Plaza somewhere. And the Commission decided that the third shot struck the President in the head and killed him. And that's the official version of what happened. And it's interesting, one of the early researchers pointed out that no witness at any time has ever described the assassination as having happened that way. Only the Warren Commission came up with that interpretation and it's the single assassin theory.
Hilary Minster On the morning of the assassination, Bill and Gayle Newman had gone down to the Dealey Plaza with their children to watch the presidential motorcade pass. They were the closest spectators to the tragedy, and their account is echoed by many others who were there.
Gayle Newman The first two shots, I didn't realized what they were but the third shot, after it was ah, fired, I heard Mrs. Kennedy scream, "Oh no! They shot Jack ." And it was just sort of sent a chill over you. It was just terrible.
Bill Newman I can remember ah, seein' the side of the president's ear and head come off. Ah, I remember a flash of white and the red and just bits and pieces of ah, flesh exploding from the president's head. At that time, I turned to Gayle and said, ah, "That's it, hit the ground." And we turned and ah, hit the ground and covered our children. But when the third shot was fired, ah, I thought it came from directly behind, ah, towards the grassy knoll behind me. Ah, I base that primarily on the third shot ah, from what I saw of the side of the president's head coming off and from the sound of the ah, the rifle, the report of the rifle.
Gary Mack As the official stories started coming out, and hearing that the shots came from the building, these witnesses started to doubt their own ears. So, as the days went by, fewer and fewer of these witnesses would come forward 'coz they just all of a sudden weren't really sure about what they had heard. They were convinced on November 22, '63 , that at least one shot came from the front. But by four or five days later, then they weren't sure and they didn't come forward at all.
Hilary Minster Mary Woodward was a junior reporter on the Dallas Morning News who had joined the lunchtime crowds in Dealey Plaza to watch the Kennedy motorcade. She was the journalist closest to the tragedy and rushed back to her office to file the story in a state of great consternation.
Mary Woodward They first (inaudible ) me to the office nurse and had me have a tranquilizer because I, they thought was somewhat hysterical. I think I was behaving quite rationally under the circumstances, but anyhow I then sat down and wrote the story immediately and actually had completed the story before the news was absolutely confirmed that he was even dead. So the story was absolutely my own impressions. It was not from anything anyone had said or what I had read or heard. Some things I have often said I would hate to swear before a court of law, or before God, but one thing I am totally positive of in my own mind is how many shots there were, and there were three shots. The second two shots were immediate. It was almost as if one were an echo of the other. They came so quickly, the sound of one did not cease until the second shot. With the second and the third shots, I did see the president being hit. I literally saw his head explode. So, ah, I felt that the shots had come, as I wrote on my article, from behind me and to my right which would have been in the direction of the grassy knoll and the railroad overpass.
Hilary Minster Because it contradicted the sole assassin theory, Mary's eyewitness account was quickly pulled and her version discounted.
Mary Woodward Civic leaders, responsible people whether be the mayor the managing editor of the paper almost felt that a responsibility to kind of not rock the boat perhaps. And the answer was the version that came to be the most widely accepted that there was three shots and they had all come from the School Book Depository building and they were all fired by Lee Harvey Oswald .
Gary Mack We do know that the FBI as the official investigative body for the Warren Commission apparently collected all the possible evidence it could find that indicated Lee Harvey Oswald did it and did it alone. Other evidence that pointed to perhaps other people or other locations for shooters, was either ignored or deemed to be mistaken or misinterpreted.
Bill Newman I was interviewed by the FBI but I did not testify before the Warren Commission. Ah, its my understanding, the reason I did not go before the Warren Commission was because in my, ah, statement that I thought the shots came from directly behind implied the shots were coming from the grassy knoll. Ah, this is something apparently the Warren Commission did not wanna hear. Ah, they wanted to keep the direction of the assassination in the direction of the School Book Depository.
Gary Mack As the official stories started coming out, and hearing that the shots came from the building, these witnesses started to doubt their own ears. So, as the days went by, fewer and fewer of these witnesses would come forward 'coz they just all of a sudden weren't really sure about what they had heard. They were convinced on November 22, '63 , that at least one shot came from the front. But by four or five days later, then they weren't sure and they didn't come forward at all.
Hilary Minster Mary Woodward was a junior reporter on the Dallas Morning News who had joined the lunchtime crowds in Dealey Plaza to watch the Kennedy motorcade. She was the journalist closest to the tragedy and rushed back to her office to file the story in a state of great consternation.
Mary Woodward They first (inaudible ) me to the office nurse and had me have a tranquilizer because I, they thought was somewhat hysterical. I think I was behaving quite rationally under the circumstances, but anyhow I then sat down and wrote the story immediately and actually had completed the story before the news was absolutely confirmed that he was even dead. So the story was absolutely my own impressions. It was not from anything anyone had said or what I had read or heard. Some things I have often said I would hate to swear before a court of law, or before God, but one thing I am totally positive of in my own mind is how many shots there were, and there were three shots. The second two shots were immediate. It was almost as if one were an echo of the other. They came so quickly, the sound of one did not cease until the second shot. With the second and the third shots, I did see the president being hit. I literally saw his head explode. So, ah, I felt that the shots had come, as I wrote on my article, from behind me and to my right which would have been in the direction of the grassy knoll and the railroad overpass.
Hilary Minster Because it contradicted the sole assassin theory, Mary's eyewitness account was quickly pulled and her version discounted.
Mary Woodward Civic leaders, responsible people whether be the mayor the managing editor of the paper almost felt that a responsibility to kind of not rock the boat perhaps. And the answer was the version that came to be the most widely accepted that there was three shots and they had all come from the School Book Depository building and they were all fired by Lee Harvey Oswald .
Gary Mack We do know that the FBI as the official investigative body for the Warren Commission apparently collected all the possible evidence it could find that indicated Lee Harvey Oswald did it and did it alone. Other evidence that pointed to perhaps other people or other locations for shooters, was either ignored or deemed to be mistaken or misinterpreted.
Bill Newman I was interviewed by the FBI but I did not testify before the Warren Commission. Ah, its my understanding, the reason I did not go before the Warren Commission was because in my, ah, statement that I thought the shots came from directly behind implied the shots were coming from the grassy knoll. Ah, this is something apparently the Warren Commission did not wanna hear. Ah, they wanted to keep the direction of the assassination in the direction of the School Book Depository.
Hilary Minster On that tragic day in Dallas , the routine protection of the President of the United States was compromised from the very beginning, according to the military expert, Colonel Fletcher Prouty .
Colonel Fletcher Prouty What they call protection of the president is an old skill. I went to Mexico City in 1956 , when President Eisenhower went to Mexico City . And by that I mean the security people went there more than a month early to look at every angle of the trip. There are rules and manuals on what we call protection. The Secret Service, that is a organization of limited size, is authorized to call any number of military people, and these are military people who are already trained to augment their forces in a case like this. There's no shortage of people. Ordinarily, a unit of military I think was called the Special Group Number 113 would have come up from San Antonio, Texas and would have been deployed all through the streets of Dallas , the important streets of Dallas . That was not done. In fact, the commander was specifically told he wasn't needed. You've all seen the picture of the School Book building, you know, where Oswald is supposed to have shot the president. You notice in those pictures there were open windows. If the Secret Service had been there, and had done there usual job, none of those windows would have been opened. And had anyone opened one of those windows at that time, they would have been on the radio, they would have a man in that room immediately and the window would have been closed. You see, that's protection. That didn't take place. In fact, there were no Secret Service people on the ground around Dealey Plaza that afternoon. They were told they were not needed.
PERIOD NEWS FOOTAGE 'THE CELLAR' FORT WORTH
Hilary Minster There was further unprofessional conduct concealed at the time. The night before the assassination, most of the presidential bodyguards spent a drunken evening in this notorious Forth Worth nightclub, some staying until 5 a.m .
[sil.]
Hilary Minster Drinking alcohol while on a tour of duty contravened all Secret Service regulations. It could well explain their failure to react when the deadly shots strafed the presidential car only hours later in what was to be a classic ambush.
[sil.]
Colonel Fletcher Prouty Instead of going straight down the street and then to the Trade Mart, he made this 90 degree turn and then another very sharp turn in front of the School Book Depository building. Now, the Secret Service have rules against that. The rules are that if the car is slowed down below 44 miles an hour, you must then protect it fully in other ways, such as not digressing and going around corners and all that. Because when you slowed him around that corner, you opened up field of fire from three direction; behind him, to the side, and from in front, and of course he was killed right in that position that had been set up by the selection of that route.
Hilary Minster To this day, the gruesomeness of Kennedy's killing haunts those who were closest to the president.
[sil.]
Hilary Minster Riding a few feet from the limousine was Dallas police siderider, Bobby Hargis .
Bobby Hargis There's another motorcycle officer, by the name of Buddy Brewer that came up to me and said, " Bob , you have something on your lip," then he tack his finger like that and it was piece of the president's brain and a piece of his skull bone that had hit me on the lip. The watery blood and stuffs that came from his wound was spread in my motorcycle and all over my uniform and my helmet, my face. And, uhm, all of us felt real bad. Every single soul in the police department felt bad. And you could tell it by just looking at 'em. That's why I had all the bad dreams. My nightmares is ah, as we're turning off of Main Street on to Houston Street, I can see up at the School Book Depository, I can see the, something shiny in ah, one of the windows, and then the shine goes off and becomes a gun barrel. And I turn around on my motorcycle to try to tell the Secret ah, Service people that there something up there and I scream and I yell and they don't hear me. And ah, I do this all the way until the president gets shot and no one hears me.
[sil.]
Hilary Minster In the ensuing chaos, police officers at first acted independently. But within minutes their attention was focused on the Texas School Book Depository building and its open windows. All the floors were systematically searched and the first hard evidence was discovered in the southeast corner of the sixth floor by Dallas police detective Luke Mooney .
Luke Mooney Belatedly I saw the area and there was some books that had been stacked up and the one that was half open. Now there's one that was not all the way open, it was only a half hanging open which is something of this nature, high up off the window sill. And I, I spotted the spent cartridges. They were lying approximately in this position. The first one was here, the second one was a, a foot or so from the other one, and then third one was over in this approximate position which the open window was like this, or so to speak, but it was at an angle. Ah, I secured the area and let no one in to that particular spot where the sniper's nest was where I had seen the spent shells, and someone brought the message up that ah, the president was D.O.A., was deceased. And at that time you could have heard a pin drop. You talk about it touches your heart, it did. And ah, pardon me. Well, we were standing there talking and trying to reach our composure, and this wasn't brought out in the statement that ah, there was book there, and I looked over at it and the, was open and right on this face of this was book was about this size with a picture of Christ. And it says, "Christ leads the way."
[sil.]
Hilary Minster Outside Parkland Hospital, grief overcame the waiting crowd as the president's death was confirmed. The first to break the news was Senator Ralph Yarborough .
Ralph Yarborough I knew he was dead. I'd been around enough violence in my life to know he was a dead man. And the press came up and asked me ah, what had happened? So I said there's been a deed of horror an extra cavalier has sunk beneath the waves. I thought that would tell them in effect what had happen without my saying he was dead.
Dr. PAUL PETERS PARKLAND HOSPITAL
Dr. Paul Peters We made valiant ah, and unceasing efforts to resuscitate this man who was mortally wounded. And I think had we taken the opposite attack and said, "Oh, this man is dead." That even today people would be questioning and telling us stories about mortally wounded people who had been resuscitated when all hope was lost. So instead of taking that approach, we took the approach let's save this man if we can and we made what would be commendable I think even by today's standards, efforts to resuscitate him.
AUBREY RIKE AMBULANCE DRIVER
Aubrey Rike State authorities wanted to do an autopsy which is state law, State of Texas and the, the federal people wanted to take it back to Washington D.C. And there was a lot of pushing, shoving, cursing. We would pull, we would try to roll the casket out but someone would grab it and try to roll it back towards the ah, trauma room. This went off quite a while, it was pushed and shove kind of thing, quite a bit of I'd say obscene language. I had hold onto the cross on the casket because of the friction that you know, where people was pulling it back and forth. And, and ah, you know I, I was scared to death. I, you know I, I was really frightened.
Hilary Minster Outside Parkland Hospital, grief overcame the waiting crowd as the president's death was confirmed. The first to break the news was Senator Ralph Yarborough .
Ralph Yarborough I knew he was dead. I'd been around enough violence in my life to know he was a dead man. And the press came up and asked me ah, what had happened? So I said there's been a deed of horror an extra cavalier has sunk beneath the waves. I thought that would tell them in effect what had happen without my saying he was dead.
Dr. PAUL PETERS PARKLAND HOSPITAL
Dr. Paul Peters We made valiant ah, and unceasing efforts to resuscitate this man who was mortally wounded. And I think had we taken the opposite attack and said, "Oh, this man is dead." That even today people would be questioning and telling us stories about mortally wounded people who had been resuscitated when all hope was lost. So instead of taking that approach, we took the approach let's save this man if we can and we made what would be commendable I think even by today's standards, efforts to resuscitate him.
AUBREY RIKE AMBULANCE DRIVER
Aubrey Rike State authorities wanted to do an autopsy which is state law, State of Texas and the, the federal people wanted to take it back to Washington D.C. And there was a lot of pushing, shoving, cursing. We would pull, we would try to roll the casket out but someone would grab it and try to roll it back towards the ah, trauma room. This went off quite a while, it was pushed and shove kind of thing, quite a bit of I'd say obscene language. I had hold onto the cross on the casket because of the friction that you know, where people was pulling it back and forth. And, and ah, you know I, I was scared to death. I, you know I, I was really frightened.Dr. Paul Peters I believe that if Dr. Rose had been allowed to perform the examination here, since his qualification was very impeccable, that much of the early confusion surrounding wounds and the questions ah, as to the direction and number of shots could have been settled quickly under the capable forensic studies which Dr. Rose would undoubtedly have performed. But we didn't have the opportunity to examine President Kennedy here.
Hilary Minster The Parkland Hospital, the Secret Service had won the battle for the president's body. But unseemly haste, they illegally removed it from Dallas and flew it back to Andrews Air Force base in Washington . The new president had been sworn in on the plane and now made his first address to the nation.
President Lyndon B. Johnson I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear.
Hilary Minster But as Kennedy's coffin was unloaded into a hearse in full public view, it seems his body was surreptitiously being removed from the far side of the Air Force I and taken away by helicopter.
President Lyndon B. Johnson I ask for your help and God.
Hilary Minster It's most likely destination was Walter Reed Army Hospital for a covert examination of the president's wounds and the removal of his brain. This prevented a proper investigation of the fatal headshot at the official autopsy. Only a five minute flight from Walter Reed, the helicopter pad at Bethesda Naval Hospital, where the autopsy team awaited the arrival of Kennedy's body. Medical technician Paul O'Conner was there.
Paul O'Conner I remember it being about eight o'clock in the evening that we heard of helicopters, I heard helicopters. And it sound, it sounded to me like there were two helicopters. I couldn't tell where they were coming from the or where they went, but it sounded like they were landing. A few minutes later the door burst open on the back of the hospital and in came six or eight men carrying the casket.
Hilary Minster America's finest forensic pathologist were not appointed to perform the autopsy of the century. Instead, naval career men with meager experience of such work were chosen, as forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht explains.
Dr. Cyril Wecht Humes and Boswell were in-charge of hospital pathology at Bethesda just like a hospital pathologist in civilian life. They had had no formal training or experience or practice in forensic pathology. It was incredible that Humes and Boswell should have been selected to perform this autopsy.
Paul O'Conner Actually these two doctors Dr. Boswell and Dr. Humes were, became commanding officers of a particular school, which was the school that I was attending. And their jobs in those days were more administrative, that it was actually laying their hands on to, to people to do ah, autopsies and such. I'd never seen them do autopsies all the time that I was there. As a matter fact, I never even saw them ever, ever come in the morgue.
Dr. Cyril Wecht There where, we know about 33 people officially logged in the autopsy room that night. We know that there was an admiral, there was general, te were FBI and Secret Service people. And these people Humes and Boswell were career military people just a couple of years shy of retirement. They were not about to stand up and say to ah, their superior officers we're gonna do it our way. No way would they say that.
Paul O'Conner I remember it being about eight o'clock in the evening that we heard of helicopters, I heard helicopters. And it sound, it sounded to me like there were two helicopters. I couldn't tell where they were coming from the or where they went, but it sounded like they were landing. A few minutes later the door burst open on the back of the hospital and in came six or eight men carrying the casket.
Hilary Minster America's finest forensic pathologist were not appointed to perform the autopsy of the century. Instead, naval career men with meager experience of such work were chosen, as forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht explains.
Dr. Cyril Wecht Humes and Boswell were in-charge of hospital pathology at Bethesda just like a hospital pathologist in civilian life. They had had no formal training or experience or practice in forensic pathology. It was incredible that Humes and Boswell should have been selected to perform this autopsy.
Paul O'Conner Actually these two doctors Dr. Boswell and Dr. Humes were, became commanding officers of a particular school, which was the school that I was attending. And their jobs in those days were more administrative, that it was actually laying their hands on to, to people to do ah, autopsies and such. I'd never seen them do autopsies all the time that I was there. As a matter fact, I never even saw them ever, ever come in the morgue.
Dr. Cyril Wecht There where, we know about 33 people officially logged in the autopsy room that night. We know that there was an admiral, there was general, te were FBI and Secret Service people. And these people Humes and Boswell were career military people just a couple of years shy of retirement. They were not about to stand up and say to ah, their superior officers we're gonna do it our way. No way would they say that.
Paul O'Conner There were the kind of mysterious civilian people in civilian clothes were there. And it seemed like they commanded a lot of ah, respect and attention to sinister looking people that they would come up and look over my shoulder or look over Dr. Boswell's shoulder. And it was like run back and they'd have a little conference in the corner. Then all at once we say, "There's no (inaudible ) comes down and says, "Stop what you're doing and go to the other procedure." And that's the way it was all night. And we just jumped back and forth, back and forth. There was no smooth flow of, of procedure at all.
Dr. Cyril Wecht So we see that Humes and Boswell were indeed controlled and we know from their own records that they, Humes and Boswell were not professionally competent and expert in the realm of forensic pathology. And that's how you've got a botched horribly inadequate inept in, in, inadequate superficial medico-legal autopsy in the case of John F. Kennedy .
Hilary Minster But manipulation of the evidence did not end with the legal autopsy. The National Archives in Washington received a metal tray containing all the vital medical materials relating to the case including the president's brain. An inventory check three years after the assassination revealed that these items had vanished.
Dr. Cyril Wecht In that inventory of October 30th, 1966 , that metal tray containing the brain and the kodachromes, and the microscopic autopsy tissue slides are no longer listed. So somewhere between April of '65 and the end of October '66 these things were literally taken, illegally stolen, removed from the National Archives. And to this day as we sit and talk, nobody in the United States government has ever accounted for these missing items. Can you imagine? You imagine what this would mean in a, in a routine murder case? I can tell you as a forensic pathologist testifying in a courtroom. If I came in in a murder that you know, not many people cared about and the other side was asking uh, where is the brain and did you examined it, and what did you find and so on. And I said, "Well, I chose not examine it." "Where is it? Ah, can you examine it today or our experts one who examine it?" "Well, I don't have it any longer. It ah, it was discarded," or so on. You know what happened to that case probably? The judge would throw it out of the courtroom. But in this case, the government hasn't been concerned and my colleagues in forensic pathology were not concerned. And yet there's not one of them would ever tolerate that kind of aberrant, unacceptable, unethical, immoral and illegal procedure or policy in his own office. Not one of them. But in this case, it just rolls off their back along with the acceptance of the single bullet theory and all the other things.
Hilary Minster In the confusion of following the assassination, the police arrested a dozen suspects in and around Dealey Plaza all were later released. Three of those taken into custody were discovered in a marshalling yards close to the Book Depository. Hiding in a railroad boxcar which was about to leave the area. No official record exists of who they were or what they were doing. Yet their arrest was widely photographed by the press. They had become known as the "three tramps."
GARY SHAW ASSASSINATION RESEARCHER
Gary Shaw It was determined in ah, late 1970's and early 1980's that one of the three tramps, the taller of the, of the three, bore a striking resemblance to a man with the name Charles B. Harrelson , who was convicted of killing a federal judge in San, San Antonio, Texas . A man who ah, claims who killed at least five people previously, has been tried for some of those, and a man who has all of the right connections.
Hilary Minster Charles Harrelson is one of America's most notorious criminals. He is currently serving a life sentence for murder in a maximum security jail.
Charles Harrelson On November 22nd, 1963 , I was with a friend at 12:30 in the afternoon having lunch in a restaurant in Houston, Texas . It wouldn't be the first time I've been accused of being somewhere I wasn't and it probably won't be the last. But no I, I did not kill John Kennedy .
Gary Shaw He ah, he is connected to organized crime figures, the Dallas underworld ah, Santos Trafficante , ah, Carlos Marcello , ah, Hardy(ph) Matthews considered the strong arm man in Dallas in 1963 and Ruby claimed that he was his best friend. So ah, you have all of these connections and ah, though they don't say specifically, hey, Charles Harrelson is guilty of participating in the murder of President Kennedy . But there is significant evidence that would make I think, any investigator want to look Mr. Harrelson very very closely.
Charles Harrelson Um, that is a photograph of one of three so-called tramps, ah, who were apprehended and then mysteriously disappeared on the day of the Kennedy assassination. And, ah, and the fellow was I'm at one time positive, positively identified as myself ah, which is ludicrous if you look at the man. Ah, I was 25 the day Kennedy was assassinated, and I would say that gentleman is probably in his mid to late 30's at the very least but ah, the facial structure is um, isn't even close.
Gary Shaw Mr. Harrelson's photograph was given along with the tall tramp photographs to forensic anthropologist, two independent ah, bodies or people and ah, they came back with the report that there was a 90 to 95 percent probability that the photograph of the tall tramp rested in connection with the President's killing and Charles V. Harrelson arrested for the death of a federal judge were one and the same.
Charles Harrelson Now, that's amazing, isn't it? I would say the ah, and that is closer, much closer. But ah, I'm sure that um.
[sil.]
Charles Harrelson here again, and the person is probably in his 30's and the brow ridge isn't, isn't the same here. But it is, it does look very, it looks a lot, more like me, I would say, this view then does the other. Oh, that same person.
Yeah.
Charles Harrelson Bigburn(ph).
Yes.
Charles Harrelson It's amazing. But ah, no I, I don't know the gentleman and um, I never did know. Everyone who was involved in that thing has been eliminated. Had I been involved in it, I would have been killed. Had I been approached to be involved in it. I would have laughed because its obviously a case of immolation. You're gonna destroy yourself by doing something like that because the, the agency involved in carrying out this assassination can not have someone with firsthand information regarding the assassination. No way. The country would destruct if that came forth.
Hilary Minster Also kept under wraps and not investigated was the criminal underworld of strip club owner Jack Ruby , Oswald's executioner.
[sil.]
Hillary Minster Vital areas of his elicit operations in Dallas , New Orleans , and Cuba went unexplored by the Warren Commission. But Ruby's twilight world held many of the secrets behind the assassination. At Parkland Hospital minutes after the tragedy, one member of the press corps who knew Jack Ruby well was to have an extraordinary encounter, Reporter Seth Kantor .
Seth Kantor Just after I entered, there was a group of ah, nurses and doctors ah, standing around with a lot of concern and Jack Ruby came up to me. He said something to the effect that, isn't this just terrible? And ah, he looked, he looked as if he was extremely distressed. I shook hands with him and ah, um, I had known him previously and Ruby asked me what I thought about his closing his places of business ah, for a day or two out of concern to what had happened. And I told him, I thought that was a good idea and to please excuse me, I had to go on. I guess that encounter with Ruby took maybe 25, 30 seconds. It was very clear to me, who I had talked to and who I had ah, called by name and who would call me by name and who I had shaken hands with and everything, but when the Warren Commission report came out they said that ah, probably under the stress of, of everything that was going on that I, I most likely was confused and that I talked to Ruby at the police station several hours later.
Hilary Minster Ruby denied he'd been at Parkland and the Warren Commission believed him rather than Seth Kantor .
Seth Kantor I was dismayed when I picked up my copy of the Warren Commission report and discovered ah, what, what they had decided about my testimony, and um, among other things I immediately began to wonder, you know, who else they had talked to, who they chose not to believe and why.
Hilary Minster A pristine bullet, which the commission was to allege and wounded both Kennedy and Connally , magically appeared on the stretcher at Parkland. Jack Ruby's coincidental appearance inside the hospital was not the only thing the commissioners chose to ignore.
Seth Kantor They certainly didn't wanna go into the fact that the members of the American, of the United States underworld were dealing with the CIA ah, in connection with the plans to get rid of Castro . Lyndon Johnson was very anxious for the Warren Commission to complete its work, to button things up and get out the report. And they were not anxious at all to open up areas of doubt or areas which needed further investigation, and one of those areas was the Jack Ruby business.
Hilary Minster Ruby claimed he acted on impulse when he shot Oswald . His real motives were never explored, the Warren Commission believed everything Jack Ruby chose to tell them including how he penetrated the basement security of Dallas Police headquarters in order to kill Oswald .
Seth Kantor I don't believed that Ruby entered the ah, basement of the Dallas Police Station by way of the ramp from Main street which is the fiction that ah, came about not long after he was arrested for killing Oswald . The Policeman on duty at the top of the ramp was given a, a lie detector test and he insisted that Ruby did not pass him at anytime, and the lie detector test given by the Police department ah, bore that out.
ROY VAUGHN
Roy Vaughn Ah, Jack Ruby did not come down that ramp. Ah, I go to my grave saying he didn't come down that ramp. If anybody could have ever proved to me beyond the reasonable doubt that he came down that ramp, I feel that I was man enough to admit, yes, maybe I made a mistake or I was negative in some area, but no, nobody has ever proved that to me, and I go to my grave saying that man did not come down that ramp.
Hilary Minster Only four minutes before he gun down Oswald on the basement, Ruby had been at the Western Union office on Main street cabling money to one of his strippers. According to the commission account(ph), he then walked down the street and simply slipped on the basement ramp unnoticed by officer Vaughn . A view denied by researcher Larry Harris .
Larry Harris Well, clearly, Jack Ruby did not entered the basement via the Main street ramp as the Warren Commission concluded. And indeed, when Congress reopened the investigation in the late 1970's , they concluded he did not come down the ramp and they cited eight witnesses who stated that Ruby did not come down the ramp, and then, and several of these witnesses knew Ruby personally. They get, the Congressional Committee concluded that Ruby most likely used an obscure entrance into the building that was located in the alleyway behind me.
[sil.]
Larry Harris From there, he would have proceeded into the lobby ah, to an unlocked door that led directly into the basement.
[sil.]
Larry Harris He would have gone down that stairwell and actually entered into the parking garage area of the basement. And proceeded toward the railing, up through the railing and into the spot where he was standing when he emerged forward to shoot Oswald . Clearly it, it, it looks better for the Department to say that none had accidentally let Ruby into the basement while his back was turn rather than admit that a key area within the garage had been left completely unguarded, permitting Jack Ruby unchallenged access to the spot where he killed Oswald .
Hilary Minster Larry's conclusions are supported by the immediate comments of several police officers recorded by live TV cameras just after the shooting.
And this man came from behind the, behind this camera, or in this corner, and just dove out of the, out of the crowd.
He came from behind that car, that green car. (inaudible )
Larry Harris Patrick Dean was the head of security in the basement and was aware very quickly of the predicament that he was in. As Ruby was being subdued, Dean remarked to Ruby , " Jack , goddamn, you got me in one hell of a fist." So Dean was immediately aware of his predicament, and of course began immediately moving to put the best possible light on the situation.
There were about 15 to 20 men that had searched this place prior to, of 30 minutes ah, ah, in fact, searched it twice about an hour before and then 30 minutes.
Hilary Minster The late Patrick Dean was adamant that the only way Ruby could have gained access to the basement was by the Main Street ramp.
Patrick Dean I'm positive that, at that door leading from the City Hall proper into the basement was locked by the maintenance man, in my presence, in that day on, on the inside of the basement side. And I also had two men stationed at that building, but I am positive that, that door was locked. That, that door possibly could had been opened by someone from the other side, however, no one did come through there because as I said two men were stationed there as guards for that particular door that lead from the city hall proper to the basement.
Larry Harris Two Reserve Officers who'd been stationed there earlier that morning had been reassigned to points outside the building breaking traffic, so that this left an area a vulnerability from the stairwell to the point near the railing where Ruby shot Oswald .
Hilary Minster The Police blundered with Oswald's murder, but the security of the President had been a Secret Service responsibility. The Dallas Police had been powerless to prevent the assassination. They were also powerless in carrying out a proper investigation afterwards.
Bill Newman We have the evidence, they claimed, of three bullets being fired at the President, one hitting ah, the Governor Connally . Well, policemen would take those hard bits of evidence and begin to put this thing together, and first of all, would show that it could not have done the damage they did, the lethal damage they did with only three bullets. If you come to this conclusion and you do it accurately by physical evidence, you throw the entire Warren Commission report out. The policemen working on the street are accustomed to solving murders and they would go right ahead of it, with it, unless somebody stop them. So, somebody stopped them, there is you cover-up.
Hilary Minster The FBI in Washington had it first given their full cooperation to the Dallas police. Their field agent in Dallas , in-charge of the Oswald file prior to the assassination, was James Hosty . He was directed to help the police in their initial interrogation of Oswald but within hours, these orders were changed.
James Hosty I was approached by one of the senior agents from the ah, Counter Intelligence Squad and was told that there were now new orders and I was not to talk to Oswald anymore and I was not to cooperate with the police department in any manner ah, concerning Oswald's background. I have since determined that those orders came directly from Assistant Director William Sullivan , ah, whose in-charge of the foreign Counter Intelligence Squad. He was also the person who had direct liaison with the National Security Council. The National Security Council is the President, the Vice-President, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense. Ah, that's about the size you can get.
Hilary Minster Hosty's Washington superiors knew much more about Oswald and they were willing to divulge. Consequently, his surveillance of Oswald had also been based on incomplete information.
James Hosty I was not aware of the fact that President Kennedy through the CIA was attempting to overthrow Castro and if Fidel Castro had threatened President Kennedy . Had I known this, I would have immediately been concern about Lee Oswald because we knew he was Pro- Castro . Had I known this, then ah, we could have put a whole different light on this situation.
Hilary Minster It was here in Neely Street that Hosty first attempted to contact Lee Oswald in March 1963 . His visit was routine because of endings with the Russia , but they had moved on. Later in the year, Hosty spoke to Marina alone prompting an angry note from Oswald and delivered to the FBI three weeks before the assassination.
James Hosty The, the note which I subsequently determined once from Lee Oswald was unsigned. It was quite short and just said ah, "If you wanna talk to me ah, come talk to me, don't bother my wife. I don't want you talking to her without me being there. If you don't ah, cease and resist on this I will take this up with the proper authorities," or words to that effect. I had ah, thought it was somebody else at first and just ah, put it into my file drawer so I had a chance to look into it further. Late on the afternoon of ah, November 24th, the day Oswald was killed, ah, I, I was told by Supervisor Ken Howe to go the office of Gordon Shanklin the agent in-charge of the Dallas office. He wanted to see me. I was called in there, and Gordon Shanklin reached down into one of his ah, ah, desk drawers and took out the note and handed it to me, and said, "here, I don't wanna ever see this again." He said, " Oswald is dead now. There can't be any trial." Now this was the reason why it was legal to ah, get rid of this ah, note at this time. Since there was no trial and President Johnson was adamantly oppose to any hearings, the FBI then felt it was all right to dispose of ah, this note. I was then, I then, tried it to, tried to tear it up and throw it in a waste basket. Gordon Shanklin said, "Don't get it out of here, I don't wanna ever see it again." So I then took it out and I was going to burn it but that would been little bit messy so I thought of the much easier to flush it down the toilet and that would get rid of it permanently. It wasn't 'til a week later that ah, President Johnson gave in to a Congressional pressure and called the Warren Commission together. Of course, by this time, ah, the FBI and probably the CIA and ah, the Navy Department and the State Department had ah, suppress a lot of different things, and this was, one of, probably many of them.
Hilary Minster Miami, Florida was the city visited by President Kennedy four days before his death in Dallas . It was also the unlikely location for bizarre meeting 13 days before the assassination in which details of a plot to kill Kennedy was set out with stunning accuracy. A Miami police informant secretly take the conversation that a visiting right wing activist in his city downtown apartment. It is broadcast here for the first time.
I don't know if Kennedy's coming here, I think on the 18th or something like that, to make some kind of speech. I think it's the 18th he's supposed to be here to make a speech. I don't even know what it's about. You can bet your bottom dollar he's going to have a lot to say about the Cubans because there's so many of them here.
Hilary Minster Willie Somersett , the union organizer with extensive right wing political ties was the Miami police informant. Joseph Milteer was the wealthy rebel rousing racist from Quitman, Georgia . In-charge of the surveillance operation was Miami detective Everette Kaye .
Everette Kaye Well, we had to set up the tape recorder in Somersett's apartment in order to, ah, to make the recording where he met ah, with this other ah, man, Milteer . And other this I saw ah, it was a very large tape recorder and that it was made especially for an um, intelligence work weighing approximately 40 pounds. I carried it to the third floor of his apartment, ah, placed it in a closet and then ran the microphone around the baseboard in the kitchen, and then, microphone is ah, hidden by, by the chairs where Milteer and ah, Somersett were to have their meeting.
Milteer They have more, more bodyguards he has the more easier it is to get him.
Somersett Huh?
Milteer They have more bodyguards he has the more easier it is to get him.
Somersett Well how in hell do you figure would be the best way to get him?
Milteer Ah, from an office building, ah, with a high-powered riffle.
Somersett Do you think he knows he's a marked man?
Milteer Sure, I'm sure he does. Yes.
Somersett Are they really going to try to kill him?
Milteer Oh yes, it's in the working.
Somersett Hitting this Kennedy.(crosstalk)
Milteer Ah, (inaudible )
Somersett Hitting this Kennedy , I'll tell you is going to be a hard proposition, I believe. You may have figured it out how to get him, you may have feel like to get him from an office building and all that but I don't know how them Secret Service, they'd never cover all them office buildings and anywhere he's going, do you know whether they'd do that or not?
Milteer Well, if they have any ah, if they have any suspicions they will, of course, but without suspicion, the chances are they wouldn't. You wouldn't have to take a gun up there, take it up in pieces, (inaudible ) take it up in pieces. All those guns come knocked down and you can take them apart.
Ah, he's telling them why the conversation came up that this man wanted to know how many people that President Kennedy had, that was his look-alike that went with him, and our informant, "Why you didn't lie?" and he said, well, there was plans as to assassinate him. The further conversation on the tape revealed that ah, the assassination was to take place ah, from an office building with a high-powered rifle. There is no particular city mentioned, ah, or was there any particular person mentioned that was to do the assassination. The tape was made on November the 9th and John F. Kennedy , President Kennedy was still in Miami on the 18th of November, 1963 , so the close proximity of the tape being made and his visit ah, made quite a few changes in the security. They change the motorcade and ah, I believe that he was helicoptered in rather than have a motorcade. Um, additional man were secured. Everyone was aware that, ah, that there may be a problem so there it was, a drastic change in the procedures. He wasn't as accessible in this city as he might have been in the past.
Somersett Boy, if Kennedy's getting shot, we've got to know where we're at.
Milteer Yes, it's coming.
Somersett Because you know, boy, that's gonna be, you know, that would be a real shake if they do that.
Milteer They wouldn't leave any stone unturned there, no, no way
Somersett Oh, hell no.
Milteer Hell, they'll pick up somebody within hours after, if anything like that would happen. Just to throw the public off.
Somersett Yeah, but it doesn't matter. Well, somebody is going to have to go to jail if he gets killed.
Hilary Minster Milteer later boasted to Somersett , that he went to witness the assassination in Dallas .
ROBERT GRODEN ASSASSINATION RESEARCHER
Robert Groden The question was, "Was Joseph Milteer in Dealey Plaza? Was he in Dallas to witness the execution of the President?" And if so, "Was he photographed?" I looked to some of the photographs of the crowd, comb the photographs of the crowds in Dealey Plaza around Houston Street and Elm Street, and I did find in several photographs of one spot on Houston Street, a white-haired man who looked amazingly like Joseph Milteer . In my opinion, given the measurements of the ears, the eyes, the nose, the mouth, I'm convinced that the man in the photographs is Joseph Milteer . We know that he made that phone call from Dallas to Willie Somersett , the informer, that day saying that President Kennedy would never again return to Miami . Therefore, it is likely that he was there, and given the nature of this, in the way Milteer felt about the President, it seemed very likely that he would, indeed, be in Dallas .
We thought we did a good job and was very grateful to the fact that it did not happen in Miami . It could have were, very well happen in, in Miami um, as it did in Dallas . So it touched, it touched each other very, very closely particularly to myself as hearing the words that they was going to assassinate President Kennedy .
Somersett Well how in hell do you figure would be the best way to get him?
Milteer From an office building ah, with a high-powered rifle, rifle.
Somersett Are they really going to try to kill him?
Milteer Oh yes, it's in the working.
Hilary Minster Milteer was interviewed by the FBI and then released. He perished in a mysterious house fire a few years later. The Warren Commission ignored the Miami connection and a further opportunity to determine the truth.
Robert Groden It is important to all of us to find out what really happened to President Kennedy , 'coz what happened to him could happen to anybody else. If a conspiracy can kill the President of the United States , who among us is safe.
Paul O'Conner The people who didn't know something, why didn't just bring it out and tell the truth? Why lie about something? Somebody knows that they're lying, I know they're lying. Why?
Gary Shaw If they lied to us, how much are they lying to us in other areas? And if they're lying to us, can they do it again and again, and again? And if so, this is not a democracy, this is a, a hierarchy, a, a government or our people ran by certain powerful indi, individuals who have the ability to dispose of anyone whose not going along the party line, so to speak, not a whole lot different from what I was thought ah, occurred in the USSR all these many years. The truth is the most important thing.
CAMERA STEPHEN McNUTT JOHN VARNISH CAMERA ASSISTANT BONNIE BLAKE PAUL RUDGE SOUND ALGIS KAUPAS VAUGHAN ROBERTS ROBIN WARD PRODUCTION ASSISTANT LOUISE REDFERN GRAPHICS BRIAN BECKER NARRATOR HILARY MINSTER ARCHIVES BRITISH BROADCASTING CORP. COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM SHERMAN GRINBERG JFK LIBRARY, BOSTON KTVT-TV, FORTWORTH KXAS, FORTWORTH NATIONAL ARCHIVES, WASHINGTON NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY VISNEWS WORLDWIDE TELEVISION NEWS WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO JOHN E. ALLEN ASSASSINATION ARCHIVES ALLIED + WBS BELTON INN FAMILY DAN CHRISTENSEN ROY COOPER GEOFFREY CRAWLEY TOM DILLARD PAUL HOCH CONOVER HUNT S. MONITOR MARINA PORTER MICHAEL WEIGALL JACK WHITE SENIOR PROGRAMME CONSULTANTS ROBERT GRODEN GARY MACK RESEARCH SHEILA KOGAN JANE MERCER JANET RAYNER Zapruder Film: Copyright 1967 (renewed 1995 ) The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza All Rights Reserved Nix Film: Copyright 1964 (renewed 1992 ) The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza All Rights Reserved DUBBING EDITOR ANGELA DAVISON EDITOR PAUL JACKSON ASSOCIATE PRODUCER SUSAN WINTER PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY NIGEL TURNER ©Central Independent Television.plc MCMLXXXIX A HOME VIDEO
http://ahivfree.alexanderstreet.com/View/524002
tupido3: Agent Glen Bennett told the HSCA that he "was not on