the three first report lists below are from michael parks...compiled from information posted in the dallas plus newspapers, on the assassination of JFK and Tippit murder LHO etc...
[[ posted on alt.conspiracy.jfk in June '96 by bhart@cyberramp.net (Michael Parks) ]]======================================================================-------------------- A CBS INVESTIGATION --------------------------On Sunday, 6/25/67, CBS aired a four part special on the assassinationof JFK titled 'A CBS News Inquiry: The Warren Report.' The one hourshows ran for four consecutive nights. It was hosted by Walter Cronkitewith Dan Rather and Eric Sevareid.The first show, Sunday 6/25/67 tried to answer the question: "Did LeeHarvey Oswald shoot President Kennedy?" FBI photo expert, L.L.Shaneyfelt had told the Warren Commission (WC) that he could notidentify the Mannlicher-Carcano (M-C) rifle that Oswald allegedly shotKennedy with from the famous backyard photographs that depicted LeeHarvey Oswald (LHO) holding this weapon. But, on the CBS special,Walter Cronkite said an independent "professional photographer and photoanalyst" had studied the backyard picture originals and the negative. Hefelt the rifle belonged to LHO by identifying it as the same rifle in thepictures. This expert used by CBS was Lawrence Schiller, a formerbusiness agent of Jack Ruby.CBS tried to prove LHO had carried this rifle into the Texas SchoolBook Depository (TSBD) within a brown paper bag. There were only twowitnesses to this event and both claimed the bag was too small to carry thedisassemble rifle. This bag was made from brown wrapping paper found inthe TSBD. One of these witnesses, Linnie May Randle, said she had seenLHO with a bag made of "heavy brown paper." Both CBS and the WCsaid she had stated LHO carried "a heavy brown bag."To prove that LHO was on the sixth floor during the time of theshooting, CBS used the testimony of Charles Givens. They said he was"The last man known to see Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination."CBS made no mention of Carolyn Arnold who stated she had seen LHO onthe first floor only minutes before the assassination. This was at a time theWC had witnesses who saw the shooter already on the sixth floor.CBS then concluded that Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman, (whoalong with Deputies Eugene L. Boone and Roger Craig, found a rifle onthe sixth floor and identified it as a 7.65mm Mauser), had been mistakenabout the type and make of the weapon. All three officers had a long lookat the rifle and Weitzman had read the name that was stamped into themetal. Several other lawmen also saw this rifle as a Mauser.To wrap up the first night's showing, CBS concluded LHO could haveshot JFK.The second night, CBS went over the autopsy and where the shots camefrom.The third night, Tuesday, 6/27/67, CBS looked into the killing of Dallaspoliceman, Jefferson Davis Tippit. They interviewed police dispatcher,Murray Jackson. He had supposedly sent Tippit to central Oak Cliff, on11/22/63. Jackson also said he had sent another patrol car there too. Thiswas driven by officer R.C. Nelson. What CBS did not state has moreimpact than what they did say. They did not tell the audience that no otherpolice cars were given specific orders at that time and that Nelson wasreally in Dealey Plaza. This casts doubts on the police broadcast that sentTippit to Oak Cliff. CBS also failed to tell the audience that Jacksonignored two calls from Tippit at 1:08, only seconds before he was killed.CBS presented two witnesses to the Tippit shooting, Ted Callaway andDomingo Benavides. When Benavides testified before the WC, he statedhe had told the police on 11/22/63 that he could not identify LHO as thekiller. When the WC asked him if he had anything else to add, "He testifiedthat the picture of Oswald which he saw on television bore a resemblanceto the man that shot officer Tippit." While on the CBS program,Benavides now identified LHO with "No doubt at all."The WC had presented the testimony of FBI firearms expert CortlandtCummingham in which he stated the bullets recovered from the body ofTippit and other bullets he had test fired, could not be traced back to thealleged revolver LHO was arrested with. The WC then used the testimonyof an Illinois police expert who stated one of the Tippit bullets couldpossible be traced back to the revolver. CBS only told the audience aboutthe police expert and not the FBI expert.To close out the third program, Dan Rather said of the shots LHOsupposedly made from the sixth floor, "It was an easy shot...a much easiershot than even it looks in our pictures."The fourth and final segment of the CBS special was "Could AmericaBelieve the Warren Report." They presented several witnesses that tried toshow the American public as conspiracy-minded and tried to lay a guilt tripon anyone who had doubts about the government's findings.The heart of the CBS special was four tests they ran. Test One was ofthe single bullet theory (sbt) which yeilded the Magic Bullet. The WCtests were done by Dr. Alfred G. Oliver. He fired through substances thatrepresented JFK's neck, Connally's chest, wrist and thigh. The magic bulletsupposedly passed through the first three body parts to become lodged inthe last, Connally's thigh. Oliver found that no one bullet could passthrough more than one of the substances. Also, each test left the test bulletmore damaged than the magic bullet was.Now, CBS fired through four substances that were of the same thicknessand density as the human body parts. JFK's neck was a block of gelatinwith 20% solution. Connally's chest was also a block of gelatin withnothing in it to represent his broken rib. A block of gelatin with a piece ofmasonite of the same thickness and density of Connally's wrist and anotherblock of gelatin for his thigh were also used. Many of the bullets fired intothis mix became lodged in the masonite. None made it through to thefourth block, Connally's thigh. Then, CBS said this proved the sbt.What CBS failed to tell the audience was from how far away they hadfired into the gelatin blocks. Later, one CBS official said this distance was50 feet. The WC felt the distance traveled by the shot from the sixth floorwas 180 feet. The FBI had noticed from their tests that more velocity waslost by the bullet just traveling this 180 feet than was lost going through thegelatin blocks and goat meat they used to represent JFK's neck.Furthermore, they saw the bullet loose more velocity in the 180 foot tripthan it did going through both JFK's neck and Connally's wrist combined!!!Also, CBS failed to show the audience the shape the bullets were in aftertheir test firings. The FBI tests for the WC showed their bullets comingout flattened on the nose. The magic bullet had no such damage.Test Two was on the rifle. This was held at the H.P. White BallisticsLaboratory near Belaire, Maryland. They had 11 expert riflemen fire froma tower that was about the same height as the sixth floor of the TSBD.They fired at a moving target that was on a narrow gauge rail car. Thetarget traveled away from the marksmen at a steady 11 mph. It should benoted that the WC said the limousine was going 11.2 mph and its driversaid 12 to 15 mph. Also, the WC said the limousine, once on Elm Streetwent as slow as 2.5 mph and up to 17 mph just before the head shot. CBSdid not say where they came up with the slower speed, but it went to theadvantage of the shooters.CBS did state their course matched Dealey Plaza but failed to tell theaudience that their rail track was a straight path while Elm Street curvedthrough the plaza. This was another plus for their marksmen.The 11 marksmen (3 Maryland state policemen, 3 White lab employees,a weapons engineer named Howard Donahue, a ballistics technician, 2sportsmen and an ex-paratrooper just back from Vietnam) were allowed totest fire the rifle before the tower shooting in an underground 150 footrange. Then, CBS stated none of their marksmen were familiar with therifle.The marksmen took turns firing clips of 3 shells each from the tower.CBS did not use the same rifle LHO supposedly used and it appears theyused a better rifle than he had. This can be seen by the 11/27/63 tests ofFBI expert Robert Frazier. In the FBI re-enactment for the WC, he andtwo other experts, Charles Killion and Courtland Cummingham each firethe REAL rifle at a target 15 feet away. Each placed their shots high andto the right on the stationary target. The same day, Frazier tried a speedtest without aiming at the stationary target and managed to get off 3 shotsin 4.8 seconds and in 4.6 seconds.Later, in March, 1964, Frazier helped the army run their test at theAberdeen Proving Grounds. This test was supervised by Roland Simmonsand used three marksmen, Miller, Stanley and Hendrix. They fired the realrifle from a 30 foot tower, half that of the sixth floor and at a stationarytarget. Miller got off three shots with 2.3 seconds between shots.Frazier said, "4.6 seconds is firing this weapon as fast as this bolt willoperate" at a stationary target. This time allowed for no aiming of theweapon, controlled breathing and slowly squeezing the trigger. This testwas load, fire, load, fire, load fire.Now, when CBS tested their weapon, one marksman got off 3 shots in4.1 seconds. It appears their rifle was not as worn as the one LHO hadbecause of the better times.Hoover said the "telescopic sight could not be properly aligned with thetarget, since the sight reached the limit of its adjustment before reachingaccurate alignment." CBS said they used the same make/model of scopeand had it only "slightly off."To make the CBS test even more inaccurate, their marksmen wereallowed to test fire the weapon with the non-aligned scope. They,therefore could see how to compensate for this error. LHO was notallowed this luxury before he supposedly killed JFK.What CBS did not tell the audience was that they had test fired theirweapon before the TV special. On 1/31/67, at the same White range, theyhad rifle expert Col. Edward B. Crossman fire six times, three shots each.This test proved no match for the times and accuracy attributed to LHO.Then, CBS set up the 11 man crew. All they had to do was find one manout of the 12 tested to meet the requirements and prove it could be done.In other words, if one person in the world could do it, LHO could also.To recap all this, the CBS marksmen had:1) a rifle with a quicker action2) a better sighted scope3) a target traveling in a straight line4) practice firing with the weapon5) a target on a steady speed6) a somewhat larger target due to the slower speed of the target7) no half window to fire out of like on the sixth floor8) no thick window sill to lean out over to fire9) most importantly, time to sight in on the first short before taking it.CBS also gave their marksmen more time, as we shall see in their Test#3.CBS then reported: "Altogether the 11 volunteer marksmen made 37attempts to fire 3 shots at a moving target. Seventeen of those attemptshad to be called 'no time', because of trouble with the rifle." (No timemeant that the target went outside the shooting area before all the shotswere fired.) These 17 'no time' shots were not figured into their averagetime for 3 shots. CBS never even said where the shots that hit the targetwere placed on this target. But, they went on to claim 3 shots in 5.6seconds could be achieved with a moving target.The best of their marksmen was Howard Donahue. He got off 3 hitswithin 4.8 seconds on his third try. He alone got three hits in one shootingfrom the tower. When he achieved this time, he had 2.5 seconds betweenthe second and third shots. Several other of the CBS marksmen got 3shots within 5.6 seconds, but none with the 2.5 seconds between shots 2and 3. Furthermore, none of the other marksmen that got the 3 shots in at5.6 seconds did so on their first attempt. But, they claimed LHO did justthat.Test Three was of the camera Zapruder made his now famous film of theassassination. CBS used the work of University of California physicist LuisAlvarez and "expert photo analyst" Charles Wyckoff to tell when the shotswere fired on 11/22/63 through studying the Z-film. Wyckoff saw blurringat frames 190, 227 and 318 and felt these were from Zapruder jerking hiscamera as a response to the sound of gunfire. He then concluded thatshots were fired at frames 185/186, 222/223 and 313. Frame 186 waswhere the FBI and Secret Service had determined a 1/18 second break inthe foliage of the oak tree in front of the TSBD could have allowed a shotto be taken. They discovered this during their 5/24/64 Dealey Plaza re-enactment. They noted that from frames 166 to 209 this same tree blockeda sixth floor view of Elm Street..CBS agreed with Wyckoff's findings and said the first shot was at frame186 whereas the WC felt it was more likely at frame 210 when thelimousine came out from under the tree. So, they concluded the shots werefired at frames 186, (a miss), 222/223, (the magic bullet) and 313, (thehead shot). What they failed to tell the audience was that this sameblurring could be seen at frames 195, 203, 290, 331 and not as pronouncedin several other frames.The big thing CBS missed (?) was that as Zapruder was panning out tokeep the camera focused on JFK, he had to turn to his right. Thismovement may have caused blurring of the film. Also, he was not a youngman and had Marilyn Sitzman, his receptionist standing behind him forsupport. (It seemed he had a fear of heights.) Any jerking she did couldalso be reflected on the film.A shot at frame 186 causes timing problems because there was no timeallowed for aiming, controlling the breath and slowly squeezing the trigger.ALSO, THE ASSASSIN WOULD HAVE TO KNOW FOR SURE THATJFK WOULD APPEAR IN THIS TINY OPENING. Odds are, JFK wouldnot appear in this 1/18 second opening.Even the WC rejected this 186 shot. They reasoned the assassin wouldnot take it because in a few seconds the limousine would be in the open.But, CBS liked the 186 shot because it gave their marksmen more timefor all three shots. They now had "seven or eight seconds" and not the"5.6 seconds" they felt the WC sat in stone.This assumption that the WC settled on 5.6 seconds was incorrect as canbe seen in the last sentence of Chapter Three of the WC Report.. There, itis stated "that the 3 shots were fired in a time period ranging fromapproximately 4.8 to in excess of 7 seconds." Elsewhere, the Report said:"If either the first or the third shot missed,....then (there would havebeen)...a minimum of 7.1 to 7.9 seconds for the three shots." The 5.6second figure was set only if the first shot was at frame 210, where thelimousine first clears the oak tree.Frazier said the fastest the rifle bolt could be operated was 2.3 seconds.So, if JFK was fired at at frame 186, the earliest the next shot could havebeen was at 228. CBS felt the second shot was at 222/223, animpossibility.To get around this, CBS then stated the Zapruder camera was reallygoing slower than 18.3 frames a second. This 18.3 figure came from theFBI and there is no proof that they were incorrect on the calculations.How CBS determined the camera was slower than suspected was bytesting similar cameras. Wyckoff ran 5 cameras against a clock and found3 were faster than the Zapruder camera and 2 were slower. CBS did nottest the REAL camera but still concluded the Zapruder camera had to beslower!!!FBI photo expert, L.L Shaneyfelt said he had come up with the 18.3frames per second by shooting the sweep second hand of a large clock.Three years after this test, Bell and Howell tested the Zapruder camera intheir engineering lab and agreed with the FBI's figure of 18.3.So, CBS, using a different rifle under different conditions, and with moretime to fire, said Oswald acted alone to kill JFK.CBS ran one other test where they shot a light bulb. When the bulbexploded, the fragments flew in the same direction of the bullet's path.They said this proved that JFK could be shot from the rear and have hishead fly towards the shooter. By this test, Wyckoff disproved the rearwardhead shot because the only policemen to be splattered by blood and tissuewere the ones to JFK's left rear. Of course, CBS did not tell the audiencethis fact.CBS then interviewed a pathologist who said in his opinion, the shotcame from the knoll. To this, CBS said the "experts (were) indisagreement."It should be noted that in the third program, Dan Rather said, "I am notcontent with the findings on Oswald's possible connections withgovernment agencies, particularly with the CIA." In the last program,Walter Cronkite said that "...there remains disturbing indications.." thatthere may have been "..some kind of link between Oswald and variousintelligence agencies of the United States."So ended the four part 'CBS News Inquiry: The Warren Report.' Theysaid that "certainly all objections that go to the heart of the Report vanishwhen they are exposed to the light of honest inquiry." This holds true inthis, the best test yet of the Report and SBT. Some people felt thistelevision special was another whitewash but, when analyzed correctly, theCBS special only strengthened their case for a conspiracy and the followingcover-up.Thank you CBS for proving us correct.Michael Parks
[[ posted on alt.conspiracy.jfk on Nov.11,'96 by:[email=bhart@(Michael](Michael[/email] Parks) ]]=======================================================================------------------ THE TEXAS INQUIRY - R.I.P. ------------------------The Texas InquiryThe following tidbits came from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:In the 11/26/63 paper, an article appeared titled 'Investigation By Congress and Court of Inquiry Are Proposed, subtitled Dallas Prosecutor Favors One Forum and State Official the Other.START QUOTE Texas officials prepare today to spread the evidence against Lee Harvey Oswald on the public record and make the American people the jury in the case. What forum will be used for this virtual trail after the execution remained in doubt, however. Texas Attorney General Waggoner Carr announced in Washington last night that his top aids, prominent jurist and enforcement organizations would conduct a court of inquiry to examine in detail the assassination of the President and the killing of the accused murderer. Urges Congress Inquiry Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade made a counterproposal that a congressional committee conduct the inquiry. Wade said he was ready to cooperate with Carr. The district attorney said, however, he thought that a congressional committee would provide "a far better method" of making evidence public. (snip) Wade told reporters that he agreed that the evidence against Oswald should be made public. "The question is what forum we should use," Wade said. "I like the idea of a congressional committee that is nonpartisan and is interested only in getting the facts, not in politics or publicity."(snip) Asked whether his decision to convene a court of inquiry indicated dissatisfaction with the performance of local enforcement officers in the assassination investigation, Carr replied: "I don't accuse anyone of anything." He said, however, that "I don't know that all the questions have been answered."(snip) Asked for comment on the proposal by Carr for a special court of inquiry into the assassination of President Kennedy and his accused killer, Curry said: "We welcome anyone to come in and make an inquiry. "We've got to admit this. We had a breach of security," he said.END QUOTEBy the above statements it would appear that both Carr and Curry had nothing to hide from public scrutiny.We now bounce over to the Dallas Morning News, dated 12/1/63 and the following tidbits:START QUOTE Dallas Backs Johnson Plan To Investigate Dallas legal scholar Dr. Robert Storye, president of Southwestern Legal Foundation, said, "A thorough investigation and report by a commission of such distinguished personnel would do a great deal to satisfy the people of Dallas and the United States, but the people of the world." Storey, former dean of the Southern Methodist University Law School, said, "Such a commission's report after a thorough investigation would go far in eliminating rumors and conjecture."(snip) Wade pledged cooperation from his office to the federal commission. He added, "If they have a court of inquiry, I'll give them my cooperation too." The district attorney noted, however, that most of the evidence collected by his office has been relayed to other law enforcement agencies. "Most of the evidence is in Washington by now." Of the federal commission, Mayor Earle Cabell said, "I think it's a fine idea. I'm personally glad that Atty. Gen. Carr is going to hold a state court of inquiry. "I hope the court of inquiry is held for this reason. It will be almost like a trial held posthumously or in absentia for Oswald. It will be a medium for establishing the chain of facts or evidence." "I think our police work is so excellent that I think the world at large should know that we didn't just hunt for a scapegoat. "With both a court of inquiry and a federal commission at work, findings will be sought so objectively and thoroughly that nobody will be able to call this a witch-hunting situation."END QUOTE Now we move on to 12/3/63 and the Dallas Morning News again.START QUOTE Wade, Attorney Join Carr Probe Atty. Gen. Waggoner Carr announced Monday that Dist. Atty. Henry Wade and Leon Jaworski, a Houston lawyer who participated in the Nuremburg trial, will join him in an investigation of the murder of President Kennedy. Carr said both will team with in questioning witnesses during a court of inquiry. The announcement came after Carr conferred with Gov. John Connally in his Parkland Hospital room and Wade in his office here. Carr said he expects the court of inquiry to begin before Christmas in Dallas or Austin. The attorney general said he will choose between the cities, probably within a week. He said Dallas would prove more convenient to witnesses, but said Austin has other advantages which he declined to discuss. Carr told reporters here he doubts that a fact-finding commission, appointed by President Lyndon Johnson, will hold hearings to get evidence about the assassination of President Kennedy. "It's my understanding the commission will take evidence assembled by the FBI and other agencies and evaluate this evidence and reach conclusions," the attorney general said. Carr went to lengths to describe how his court of inquiry will fit into a 3-pronged study. He was obviously answering criticism that the court of inquiry would duplicate other investigations and that he was "seeking publicity." The attorney general described a report from the FBI to President Johnson as the first prong. (Washington news stories say the President will get the report this week.) The second prong will be the court of inquiry, Carr said. He said it will compile evidence "to get the facts" about the assassination of President Kennedy, the murder of Patrolman J.D. Tippit and the City Hall slaying of Lee Harvey Oswald. Carr described the study by the presidential commission as the third prong. "The commission will have the FBI report and the evidence we compiled," Carr said. The attorney general said he has not set a date for the court of inquiry "since we must await the FBI report." Carr declined to say whether he would subpoena Jack Ruby, the night club owner who shot Oswald after Oswald was accused of murdering President Kennedy. "I will confer with Henry (Wade) about that," Carr said. "I certainly wouldn't want to do anything to interfere with his murder case (against Ruby)." Tom Howard, one of Ruby's lawyers, said Carr and Wade would :violate the rules of fair play" if they tried to force Ruby to testify. Howard declined, however, to say whether Ruby would invoke the Fifth Amendment.END QUOTEWell there you have to straight scoop. We in Texas are going to have our own investigation into the assassination that will work concurrently with the Warren Commission and the FBI. But, the feds could not control the evidence, investigation or lack of, the press and the cover-up with a Texas court of inquiry coming onto the scene. Moreso when Carr was running around telling everybody that Oswald worked for the FBI!!! Hence, 'X' the Texas Court of Inquiry.Michael Parks -------------------------- end --------------------------------
Early reports from Dallas newspapers indicative of a frontal shot, more =
than one shooter.=20
DALLAS TIMES HERALD. 11/22/03.
" In the BACKof the Presidents head was a gaping hole"........"Dr Clark =
first looked at the striken President he saw a large gaping wound in the =
back of the head, there was a massive loss of tissue.
" Dr perry was busy with the wound in the Presidents neck, it was =
midline, in the lower portion of the neck...below the Adams apple...it =
was an entrance wound."
" Witnesses said six, or seven shots were fired in bursts and were =
clearly heard."
" Reporters about five car lengths behind the President, heard what =
sounded like three bursts of gunfire."
" A few witnesses pointed toward the textbook building,but most ran to =
the west side of the building, thinking the shots came frombehind the =
bushes, and fence dividing the street from a railway yard."
[[ posted on alt.conspiracy.jfk in August, '96 by: bhart@cyberramp.net (Michael Parks) ]]=====================================================================FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLASTHE DALLAS TIMES HERALD, 11/23/63Officer Tippit was shot TWICE by the fleeing man - who police said was Oswald - and who was arrested within less than an hour in an Oak Cliff theater.In the BACK of the President's head was a gaping hole in some respects simular to the head wound Lincoln suffered in the Ford Theater. Another bullet hole was in President Kennedy's neck, just below the adam's apple.When Dr. Clark first looked at the stricken President, he saw "a large gaping wound in the back of the head. There was loss of tissue." He indicated that he knew at that instant there was no hope.Wounds in the lower front portion of the neck and the right rear side of the head ended the life of President John F. Kennedy, say doctors at Parkland Hospital.Dr. Perry was busy with the wound in the President's neck. "It was a midline in the lower portion of the neck in the front.....Below the Adam's apple.....It was an entrance wound in the neck."Back at Parkland, two unidentified plainclothes officers were asking to be taken to Gov. Connally's room so they could recover the bullet slug. (SAY WHAT???!!! M.P.)Sheriff Decker's voice came on. "Notify my office to empty. Send everybody...." (This statement was not completed in this paper. M.P.) At 2:30 P.M., police announced their search of the Texas Book Depository Building was finished.Famed surgeon Dr. Robert R. Shaw, who previously had performed the first chest and heart surgery in Afghanistan, was the chief surgeon on Govt. Connally's case.--------------------------------- end -------------------------
First Reports out of Dallas, November 1963 ------------- =
1. FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS TIMES HERALD, =
11/24/63 ...as police prepared to transfer Oswald...to the county jail =
on Sunday, they indicated there was little hope at that point of =
obtaining a confession of the President's murder. Another employee of =
the firm (TSBD) was interviewed at length Saturday after appearing =
voluntarily. Capt. W.P. Gannaway of the Police Department's Special =
Services Bureau said this man's name has been in the subversive files of =
the department since 1955. He was not jailed and police said he was not =
arrested. =
------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. =
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS TIMES HERALD, 11/23/63 =
Officer Tippit was shot TWICE by the fleeing man - who police said was =
Oswald - and who was arrested within less than an hour in an Oak Cliff =
theater. In the BACK of the President's head was a gaping hole in some =
respects simular to the head wound Lincoln suffered in the Ford Theater. =
Another bullet hole was in President Kennedy's neck, just below the =
adam's apple. When Dr. Clark first looked at the stricken President, he =
saw "a large gaping wound in the back of the head. There was loss of =
tissue." He indicated that he knew at that instant there was no hope. =
Wounds in the lower front portion of the neck and the right rear side of =
the head ended the life of President John F. Kennedy, say doctors at =
Parkland Hospital. Dr. Perry was busy with the wound in the President's =
neck. "It was a midline in the lower portion of the neck in the =
front.....Below the Adam's apple.....It was an entrance wound in the =
neck." Back at Parkland, two unidentified plainclothes officers were =
asking to be taken to Gov. Connally's room so they could recover the =
bullet slug. (SAY WHAT???!!! M.P.) Sheriff Decker's voice came on. =
"Notify my office to empty. Send everybody...." (This statement was not =
completed in this paper. M.P.) At 2:30 P.M., police announced their =
search of the Texas Book Depository Building was finished. Famed surgeon =
Dr. Robert R. Shaw, who previously had performed the first chest and =
heart surgery in Afghanistan, was the chief surgeon on Govt. Connally's =
case. ------------------------------------------------------------------ =
4. FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, =
11/25/63 The Justice Department announced in Washington that Assistant =
Atty. Gen. Jack Miller Jr., who heads its criminal division, was flying =
to Dallas to confer with U.S. District Attorney Barefoot Sanders. A =
spoksman refused to say whether the federal government considered the =
assassination case closed or whether there was a possibility others were =
involved. (This was found in the Early City or 3 star Edition. This note =
was dropped in all later editions of the paper. M.P.) Sheriff Bill =
Decker said officers "did everything humanly possible" to protect both =
President Kennedy and the man accused of assassinating him. "I don't =
think it would make a bit of difference if Oswald had been transferred =
at night," Decker said. "If someone is determined to commit murder, it's =
almost impossible to stop him." Officers said Rubenstein apparently =
mingled with reporters and photographers and, in this way, got a chance =
to shoot Oswald. Wade recalled he saw Rubenstein with reporters Friday =
night when they interviewed Oswald briefly. Rubenstein, who introduced =
himself to Wade, may have been plotting the slaying at that time. (This =
was found in the Early City or 3 star Edition. It was dropped in later =
editions of this paper. M.P.) Rubenstein, who was described as a man =
with a quick temper, is expected to plead temporary insanity. (Again, =
this was found in the Early City or 3 star Edition and was dropped in =
later editions. M.P.) In a telephone conversation with Homicide Capt. =
Will Fritz, Mrs. (Eva) Grant (Ruby's sister) said: "You know that no one =
else could have gotten in that building - but all the boys (policemen) =
knew Jack." Dallas detectives found two large wads of bills and silver =
when they searched his (Ruby's) apartment Sunday afternoon. One was in a =
closet and the other was found in a chest drawer. The amount was not =
disclosed. In an article written for the Associated Press by Dallas =
policeman M.N. McDonald and printed in this paper, he states: "I was =
cruising towards Oak Cliff, across the river (Trinity that splits Dallas =
almost in half). I got a call about 1:30 p.m. The radio dispatcher, G.D. =
Henslee, first told me to check the alleys. The next tip was that a guy =
that fitted the description they were giving was in a branch library out =
in Oak Cliff. This didn't take long to be a phoney. The next one said a =
man acting funny was holed up in the balcony of the Texas Theater. I =
headed that way in a hurry. The cashier at the picture show was the one =
who called in to say this guy was acting supicious and hidden out in the =
balcony." Hugh Aynesworth did a large article about Ruby killing Oswald. =
In later editions of this paper, the following quotes were added to his =
article: "Chief Curry noted he could have moved Oswald secretly 'in the =
dark of night,' but had promised reporters and photographers from =
throughout the free world that he would make the transfer during the =
day." "Police took precautions against any incident. Six armed policemen =
surrounded the cart and attendants as it was moved to the green =
ambulance." "One reporter said he heard the slayer add, "I did it for =
Jackie so she wouldn't have to go through all that...coming back here =
for the trial and everything." "But in Evansville, Ind., entertainer =
Bill Demar told the Associated Press he is positive Oswald was a patron =
in Rubenstein's night club nine days ago. Demar, who has a memory act, =
said Oswald was amoung those who called out an object for him to =
remember." =
------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. =
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS TIMES HERALD, 11/22/63 =
The motorcade had just turned into Houston Street from Main Street when =
a shot rang out. Pigeons flew up from the street. Then, two more shots =
rang out and Mr. Kennedy fell to the floor of the car. The shots seemed =
to come from the extension of Elm Street from just beyond the Texas =
Textbook Depository building at the corner of Elm and Houston Streets. =
Sgt. G.D. Henley, police dispatcher, directed ALL available police units =
to the downtown area near the western edge of downtown Dallas. Witnesses =
said six or seven shots were fired. The BURSTS were clearly heard. =
Reporters about five car lengths behind the chief executive heard what =
sounded like three BURSTS of gunfire. Fire equipment was rushed to the =
building from which the shots were believed to have been fired. Firemen =
roped off the area as SECRET SERVICE men (?) and city police swarmed =
through the building. Partolman W.E. Barker saw workers in the Texas =
School Book Depository pecking on a window from the third floor and =
pointing to a man wearing horn-rimmed glasses, a plaid coat and rain =
coat. The officer immediately arrested the man for =
questioning......Officers on the case would not explain what connection =
the man might have with the shooting nor would they identify him. =
------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. =
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/23/63 =
The President died in a sixth-floor surgery room at Parkland Hospital at =
1 p.m., about 40 minutes after the assassin had sent a Mauser 7.62 =
bullet smashing into his head....(** or two star edition paper). The =
President died in a sixth floor surgery room at Parkland Hospital at 1 =
p.m., about 40 minutes after the assassin had sent a Mauser 6.5 rifle =
bullet smashing into his head...(*** or three star edition paper). The =
assassin, firing from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book =
Depository Building near the Triple Underpass sent a Mauser 6.5 rifle =
bullet smashing into the President's head...(**** or four star edition =
paper). He (the assassin) fired at least three carefully measured shots =
into the car. (**) The original plans for President Kennedy's visit =
called for a fast ride from Dallas Love Field to a Trade Mart luncheon. =
Then Democratic leaders urged the President to ride in motorcade through =
Fort Worth and Dallas to give more voters a chance to see him. Jack C. =
Cason, president of the depository, said the sixth floor was used soley =
as a "dead storage" area. It was stacked about eight feet high with =
books. Cason, who left the scene about 30 minutes before the president's =
caravan rode down Main Street, said the firm often had difficulty =
finding employes who had fallen asleep amidst the stacks of books. =
"Somethimes it will be three or four days without anybody going up to =
the sixth floor to get anything," Cason said. He said the "dead storage" =
area was used to keep books already stocked in the basement and on the =
second and fourth floors. Only when they ran out of copies there does =
anybody generally go to the sixth floor. Cason said the killer was =
apparently "well aware" of the building's layout because there was no =
elevator that goes up to the sixth floor from the front entrance. He =
would have had to get off the elevator on the fourth floor, walk to the =
back of the building and get the stairs or one of the two freight =
elevators on the sixth. They (the local police) arrested several =
persons, amoung them a Fort Worth man who was said to be driving a car =
linked with the slayer. Dealey Plaza and assassination witness Mary E. =
Woodward stated: "...After acknowledging our cheers, he (JFK) faced =
forward again and suddenly there was a horrible, ear-shattering noise =
coming from behind us and a little to the right. My first reaction, and =
also my friends', (Maggie Brown, Aurelia Alonzo and Ann Donaldson) was =
that it was a joke, someone had backfired their car. Apparently the =
driver and occupants of the President's car had the same impression, =
because instead of speeding up, the car came almost to a halt. Things =
are a little hazy from this point, but I don't believe anyone was hit =
with the first bullet. The President and Mrs. Kennedy turned and looked =
around, as if they, too, didn't believe the noise was really coming from =
a gun. Then after a moment's pause there was another shot and I saw the =
President start slumping in the car. This was followed rapidly by =
another shot. Mrs. Kennedy stood up in the car, turned half-way around, =
then fell on top of her husband's body.....Next to us were two Negro =
women. One collapsed in the other's arms, weeping and uttering what =
everyone was thinking: 'THEY shot him'." "THEY'VE shot him...THEY'VE =
shot the President," screamed a middle-aged man holding the hand of a =
small boy. Dozens of people thought the reports from the killer's muzzle =
were just firecrackers. A FEW pointed towards the textbook building. BUT =
MOST ran to the west side of the building thinking the shots came from =
behind the bushes and a fence dividing the street from a railroad yard. =
Deputy Police Chief George Lumpkin used scores of firemen and policemen =
in a systematic search of the building. An officer entered and told the =
lawmen that a policeman, J.D. Tippit, had just been killed. No details. =
An employe of the textbook firm walked up: "I don't know if you're =
interested in this...but one of the fellows who works here is gone. =
Can't find him anywhere." Mrs. John Connally told the governor's =
administrative aide Julian Read Friday she believes the assassin's first =
bullet struck President Kennedy." =
------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. =
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS TAKEN FROM THE FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM, =
11/24/63 A paraffin test showed positive results on both the hands and =
cheek of the 24-year-old ex-Marine. This, officers said, showed that the =
man had fired a gun, probably a rifle. Joe Rodriguez Molina, a co-worker =
of Oswald's, was given a lie detector test and was being questioned. His =
home was also searched. As evidence mounted Saturday night, information =
from a Dallas couple placed Oswald at the intersection of the building =
used by the assassin a short time after the fatal shots were fired. Leon =
Stanfield and his wife, Diane, who had heard an early radio report of =
the shooting, told police they stopped their car for a red light at the =
intersection and asked a young man they later identified as Oswald: "Is =
the President dead?" Mrs. Stanfield said the man replied, "No, he's =
going to wait and let us hang him." Oswald was on the Federal Bureau of =
Investigation's list as a suspected subversive. Police here said the FBI =
knew Oswald was in Dallas working in a building that fronted the =
President's motorcade route. A spokesman for the FBI in Washington, =
however, denied Saturday that the FBI had questioned Oswald or had him =
under surveillance at any time in recent months. =
------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. =
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/24/63 =
A fingerprint expert has obtained evidence which allegegdly links Lee =
Harvey Oswald with the assassination of President Kennedy. (No name to =
this expert or what the fingerprint was found on. M.P.) "We've got a =
print that matches Oswald's," one investigator said. (Again, no name or =
location of where this print was found. M.P.) They (investigators) said =
that three spent shells found near the officer's body (Tippit) matched =
those in the revolver which Oswald carried in the near-by Texas Theater. =
Fritz said a bus transfer slip confirms Oswald's admission that he drove =
from the area where President Kennedy was shot to Oak Cliff, where =
Officer Tippit was slain, in a bus and a taxi. (There had been VARIOUS =
reports that a man fitting Oswald's discription was seen entering a =
station wagon.) "The witness said Tippit pulled his car over to the curb =
and there was a conversation between Tippit and the murderer," Wade =
said. "Tippit got out of his car and started towards the murderer who =
pulled his pistol and fired three shots into Tippit's body. He then =
ejected the cartridge hulls, reloaded his revolver and fled." The Texas =
School Book Depository is privately owned by Jack C. Cason and O.V. =
Truly. Oswald was classified as a part-time employe - a handy man - and =
earned $1.25 a hour, Cason said. Truly (R.S., the superintendent of the =
TSBD) said he saw Oswald about the building Friday prior to the shooting =
and said there was "no indication of nerviousness." The next time he saw =
Oswald was right after the shooting when he and a Dallas policeman =
started a check of the building. "The policeman threw a gun into =
Oswald's stomach and asked me if Oswald belonged there. I told him 'yes' =
and we both went on up the stairs for a check on the other floors. =
Oswald looked a bit startled - just as you or I would if someone =
suddenly threw a gun on you - but he didn't appear too nervious nor =
panicky." Truly aid he placed "no significance" on Oswald's presence =
there "until later when we found him missing and I reported it." The =
building was built in 1903 and is owned by the D. Harold Byrd =
Associates. The school depository firm moved in in 1960 and took a 15 =
year-lease. It was previously occupied by a wholesale grocery firm. =
Cason said they remodled most of the building, except the sixth floor =
where Oswald allegedly stalked his victim. On the first floor is the =
general shipping area and the second is the company's administrative =
offices. The third and fourth floors are occupied by publishers' =
manufacturing representatives. The fifth floor and basement are used for =
filling book orders. Cason said the sixth floor is seldom used. He said =
an employe might go up there two or three times a week. There are two =
freight elevators that go to the sixth floor, but a passenger elevator =
only reaches the fourth floor. Lee Harvey Oswald, charged with murdering =
President Kennedy, was interviewed by the FBI here six days before the =
Friday assassination. But word of the interview with the former defector =
to Russia was not conveyed to the U.S. Secret Service and Dallas police, =
reliable soures told The Dallas Morning News Saturday. However, in =
Washington, a spokesman for the FBI said it was "incorrect" that the FBI =
had questioned Oswald or had him under surveillance at any time in =
resent months, the Associated Press reported. The interview reportedly =
was held Nov. 16 - at a time when the Secret Service and police =
officials were coordinating security plans for the President's ill-fated =
Dallas visit. These sources said the Oswald interview added more data to =
an already "thick file" the FBI has on the 24-year old avowed Marxist =
who defected to Russia in 1959 and returned in 1962. In retracting his =
earlier statement about the FBI interview, Curry told gathered =
reporters: "I do not want to accuse the FBI of withholding information. =
They have no obligation to help us." In an article printed in the Early =
City Edition from the North American Newspaper Alliance, written by =
Priscilla Johnson on her interview with Oswald in Moscow, she states: =
"He had no friends in Russia and he didn't speak a word of the =
language." =
------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. =
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/28/63 =
Here are more tidbits from an article Oswald Planned to Ride by Scene, =
taken from the Dallas Morning News, 11/28/63. Again, the earliest =
reports are the most accurate. All EMPHASES are my own. (Up till now =
this story tells of Oswald's escape from the TSBD, the Tippit killing =
and him fleeing from the scene. I pick it up at this point. M.P.) Oswald =
was reported in a used furniture store that occupies a tall, =
weather-beaten green frame building at 413 E. Jefferson. About the same =
time, spectators at a service station further west up the street saw him =
run into a vacant lot, where police say the killer discarded his newly =
acquired jacket and three pistol shells. (This makes ya wonder just how =
many shell where found. If three were found here and the Davis sisters =
found two and so did Benavides, that makes Oswald carrying a =
seven-shooter. M.P.) Then followed a chase in and out of alleyways in =
the Jefferson - Beckley - Cumberland - Zang area. About 1:45 p.m. Julie =
Postal, cashier at the Texas Theater at 231 W. Jefferson saw a hurrying =
stranger rush past her into the theater. TO THIS DAY, SHE CAN'T RECALL =
WHETHER OR NOT HE BOUGHT A TICKET. "I was so upset listening to the =
radio about the President and all," she said. (Brewer rushed up, Postal =
called the police and the story continues): The cashier immediately =
called police - who had just sped en masse to a false alarm at the =
Dallas Library branch on Jefferson, further to the east. The police =
sirens wailed again. Oddly enough, it was at th
------=_NextPart_000_002E_01C7AAFF.20C0FF10
On December 3, newspapers reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation would confirm in all essentials the version of the President's assassination previously presented by the Dallas police and by Gordon Shanklin, FBI agent in charge in Dallas. According to these accounts the FBI will state that: (1) Lee Oswald, without accomplices, fired three shots at President Kennedy from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository Building; (2) about five and one-half seconds elapsed between the first shot and the last; (3) all three shots came from behind and slightly to the right of the President's car; and (4) the same weapon fired all three shots.
It has not been announced how long the Presidential commission of inquiry will take to reach a finding, but meanwhile certain questions pose themselves:
(1) How Lee Oswald, from a position behind and slightly to the right of President Kennedy, fired a shot which entered the President's neck just below the Adam's apple; (2) how Oswald, using a bolt-action rifle, fired three shots with deadly accuracy in five and one-half seconds at a target 75100 yards away moving about 25 miles an hour; (3) how the three shots could have produced four bullets; (4) how Lee Oswald did all the things he is supposed to have done in the 15 or 30 minutes (there are two different accounts) between the time the President was assassinated and the time Oswald allegedly ran into his apartment four miles away.
The Target
On page 15 is a rough diagram of the assassination scene constructed from a map of the area printed in The New York Times of November 23 and from the pictures of the scene found in other newspapers.
The leading vehicle in the motorcade was the Presidential limousine with Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy in the rear seat, the President on the right. On jump seats facing forward, were Mr. and Mrs. Connally, Governor Connally on the right. The second car was filled with Secret Service men. The third car carried Vice President and Mrs. Johnson and Senator Ralph Yarborough. In the fourth car were Secret Service agents protecting the Vice President.
At about 12:30 p.m., November 22, the President's limousine made the turn at Elm and Houston Streets into the approach to the underpass leading to Stemmons Freeway. The car was traveling about 25 miles an hour, or about 12 yards per second. The distance between the turn at Elm Street and the underpass is about 220 yards. Thus at the speed at which most witnesses agree the motorcade was traveling, the maximum time it could have consumed traversing this distance would have been 20 seconds.
It is difficult to determine, with precision, the exact point in the traversal of the 220 yards at which the shooting occurred. However, some definite limits can be set. Experienced newsmen reporting in The New York Times, The New York Herald-Tribune, The Washington Post, The Atlanta Constitution, and for both Associated Press and United Press International, estimate that the President's car was 75100 yards past the turn at Elm and Houston when the first shot was fired; others, persons on the spot at the time, say the President's car was midway between the turn and the underpass; Mrs. Connally says the car was almost ready to go underneath the underpass; Governor Connally says the car had just made the turn at Elm and Houston.
A reader, making use of the tree, the lamp post, and the ornamental wall shown in pictures on pages 24, 25 and 32H of Life magazine for November 29, can approximately identify for himself the point at which the President, smiling, waving, and looking straight ahead as the limousine moved away from the Depository Building and toward the underpass, suddenly made a "clutching movement toward his throat."
John Herbers, writing in The New York Times of November 27, comments on the 15-second movie sequence of the assassination taken by an amateur photographer (from which the pictures in Life magazine were selected). He says five seconds elapsed from the first shot until the President's car disappeared into the underpass. If the President's car continued at 25 miles an hour after the first shot, then it traveled about 60 yards during this five seconds and, therefore, must have been about 160 yards from the turn at Elm and Houston when firing commenced. If, as most witnesses believe, it accelerated rapidly after the first shot, then it traversed considerably more than 60 yards during those five seconds. On the evidence of the movie, we would estimate the distance between the turn at Elm and Houston and the site of the first shot at something less than 160 yards, not appreciably out of line with the estimates of witnesses and newsmen, and the anticipated conclusion of the FBI report.
Having established, with some certainty we think, the fact that the Presidential car was approximately 100 yards past the turn at Elm and Houston when the first shot was fired, we can move to a consideration of the wounds themselves.
The Wounds
Tom Wicker, in The New York Times of November 23, wrote that Doctors Malcolm Perry and Kemp Clark, who attended Mr. Kennedy in the emergency room of the Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas immediately after the shooting, described the President's wounds thus: "Mr. Kennedy was hit by a bullet in the throat, just below the Adam's apple….This wound had the appearance of a bullet's entry. Mr. Kennedy also had a massive, gaping wound in the back and on the right side of the head." Dr. Perry was the first physician to treat the President. Dr. Clark was summoned and arrived in a minute or two.
We saw nowhere in the newspapers nor heard in any of the earlier radio or TV accounts any attempt to reconcile a wound in the front of the President's throat with the theory that the shots came from the Texas School Book Depository, 75100 yards to the rear of the President at the time the first shot was fired. Nor did we see or hear any suggestion that the original accounts of where the President's car was at the time of the shooting might be inaccurate. This could, perhaps, be attributed to the fact that identification of the throat wound as one of entry was tentative, and that it would be reasonable to suppose a bullet entering the back of the President's head, fired from an angle of about 45 degrees above him, might exit at the Adam's apple. The examining doctors, as they were quoted in the early press accounts, seemed to be unsure as to whether one bullet or two had inflicted the head and throat wounds of the President.
However, John Herbers, in a follow-up story in the Times of November 27, cleared this up. Herbers quotes Dr. Kemp Clark, the Dallas surgeon who pronounced the President dead, as saying that two bullets hit the President. One entered through the throat just below the Adam's apple and ranged downward, without exiting. The other struck the right side of the back of the President's head tangentially (that is, it smashed in and out, traveling on a tangent to his head).
From this description, it would seem that one bullet was fired from in front of the President. Herbers tries to reconcile the frontal wound with the supposed position of the assassin in the School Book Depository Building by suggesting that the gunman could have fired as the President's car was approaching the building, then swung the gun through an arc of almost 180 degrees and fired twice more. But this reconciliation ignores the uncontroverted accounts of many eyewitnesses as to where the President's car was at the time the first shot was heard. It appears well-established that the first shot was fired only after the President's car was more than 75 yards past the building. Indeed, Herbers' own interpretation of the 15-second movie sequence supports this. In order for the assassin, from his supposed position in the building, to have wounded the President frontally, he would have had to fire while the Presidential car was entering the turn at Houston and Elm, or before the car had halfway completed the turn. By all accounts this would have been six to eight seconds before a shot was heard. According to a New York Times dispatch from Dallas dated November 27, the Secret Service conducted a re-enactment of the assassination that day. The dispatch reported that "the consensus was that the shooting began after the President's car had made the turn."
We see no way to reconcile the conclusion attributed to the forthcoming FBI report, that "it has been established that all three shots came from the same direction, behind and slightly to the right of the President's car" (AP dispatch datelined Washington, Atlanta Journal, Dec. 3), with the statement of Dallas doctors that one bullet struck the President at about the necktie knot "in the mid-section of the front part of his neck" (New York Times, Nov. 24 and 27). Indeed, the bullet that struck the President's throat was sufficiently frontal that Dr. Clark at first thought the same bullet might have entered through the throat and exited through the upper rear of the President's head. (See "The Kennedy Wound," New York Times, Nov. 24, for an account based on this supposition.)
On December 5, 13 days after the assassination, "federal investigators" were still simulating the crime with car, camera and surveyor's transit on Elm Street in Dallas, in an attempt to answer the question "how the President could have received a bullet in the front of the throat from a rifle in the Texas School Book Depository Building after his car had passed the building and was turning a gentle curve away from it" (Joseph Loftus in the New York Times, Dec. 6).
Finally, what is the explanation of the reports of Frank Cormier of the AP and of Richard Dudman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of a small hole in the windshield of the President's limousine?
The Weapon
First press accounts quoted various members of the Dallas police force as saying the assassin's weapon was a .30-caliber Enfield and a 7.65mm Mauser. One Secret Service man said he thought the weapon was an "Army or Japanese rifle" of .25 caliber. The same accounts reported that the rifle was found on the second floor of the building by a window, in the fifth-floor staircase, by an open sixth-floor window, and hidden behind boxes and cases on the second or sixth floors.
It was not until the FBI said it had discovered that Oswald had purchased an Italian-made 6.5mm rifle from a Chicago mail-order house that the confusion was dispelled. Then all accounts and all sources agreed: The former .30 caliber-Enfield-7.65 Mauser was now a 6.5mm Italian-made rifle with telescopic sights. It was also at this time that all sources began agreeing that the gun had been found on the sixth floorthough some still held out for the open-window location, while others argued for the buried-behind-the-boxes theory.
We did not at that time have a very clear idea of the precise number of seconds within which the shots had occurred, but we were uneasy about anyone's having got off the reported three shots with a bolt-action rifle from that distance at a target moving 12 yards a second, with that accuracy and quickly enough to have created such confusion about who got hit first, the President or the Governor.
On November 25 The New York Times reported that "a group of the nation's most knowledgeable gun experts, meeting in Maryland at the time of the shooting, agreed that, considering the gun, the distance, the angle and the movement of the President's car, the assassin was either an exceptional marksman or fantastically lucky in placing his shots." The Times account does not indicate whether the experts also considered the extreme rapidity with which the shots were fired.
Then on November 27 the Times ran another story telling about tests which had been conducted by a "firearms expert from the National Rifle Association" in Washington. The expert had used a "Model 1938 6.5mm bolt-action rifle." His target had been 50 feet away. He was able to get off three shots in 11 seconds and they struck within a one-inch circle. On a second try the expert was able to get off three shots in eight seconds with comparable accuracy. Using this performance as a basis for speculation, the expert reasoned that a person well-practiced with the use of the gun could have done as well or better under the conditions of the assassination in Dallas. (The story did not indicate whether or not the target used in these tests was stationary or moving.)
Others did not agree with this expert. The Italian newspaper Corriere Lombardo of Milan said, as reported in the same Times story, that if the Model '38 were used and if more than one shot had been fired "there must have been a second attacker." In Vienna, the Olympics champion shot, Hubert Hammerer, said that the initial shot could have been made under the conditions in Dallas when Mr. Kennedy was killed, but he considered it unlikely that one man could have triggered three shots within five seconds with the weapon used.
All these judgments were made on the theory that the shots were fired as the Presidential car sped away from the gunman, with the gunman having to allow only for the forward movement of the car. This supposition, of course, takes no account of the marksman himself having to move in order to swing the gun through an arc of 180 degrees.
These experts were also proceeding on the theory that Lee Oswald was a crack marksman. However, Oswald was only an "average" marksman in the Marines (Laurence Stern and Alfred E. Lewis, writing in The Washington Post, December 1). Of course, he could have improved with practice since his Marine service. On December 9, Fred Powledge, reporting from Dallas to The New York Times, quoted several persons as saying they had twice seen Oswald firing at a practice range within three weeks of the assassination. One remembered him coming "alone in a battered automobile." But Mrs. Michael Paine, with whom Lee Oswald's wife had been staying, is quoted as saying that "in late October or early November she tried to teach [Oswald] how to drive her car in a parking lot, but that [he] did not even learn to park it."
The Bullets
There is general agreement among the witnesses and newspaper accounts that three shots were fired. Typical is Senator Ralph Yarborough's description, quoted by The Washington Post of November 23: "I heard three loud explosions that sounded like shots from a deer rifle. You could smell powder."
Yet there appear to be four bullets involved. In The New York Times of November 25, Fred Powledge's story from Dallas listed as part of the evidence supporting the Oswald-School-Book-Depository-Mannlicher-Carcano theory: "A bullet that Secret Service men removed from a stretcher at Parkland Hospital after the shooting, and two bullet fragments removed from the Presidential automobile matched bullets fired by the rifle [FBI] agents found inside the [warehouse]." Powledge cites Gordon Shanklin, FBI agent in charge in Dallas, as his source of information. This it would appear accounts for two bullets. In the Times of November 27, John Herbers' story from Dallas says: "Three shots are known to have been fired. Two hit the President. One did not emerge. Dr. Kemp Clark, who pronounced Mr. Kennedy dead, said one struck him at about the necktie knot. It ranged downward and did not exit,' the surgeon said." Thus there is the bullet from the stretcher, the bullet which was found fragmented in the car, and the bullet that did not exit from the President.
An AP dispatch from Dallas in The Atlanta Constitution of November 23 quoted Dr. Robert R. Shaw, attending physician for Governor Connally: "[The Governor] seems to have been struck by just one bullet….We know the wound of entrance was along the right shoulder. He was shot from above….[The bullet] entered the back of his chest and moved outward….It emerged from his chest and struck his wrist and thigh….The bullet is still in his leg."
Now we have the stretcher bullet, the fragmented bullet, the bullet that remained in the President, and the bullet in the Governor's leg. Herbers, in the Times of the 27th, presumes "that the bullet that struck the President's head was the one recovered from the stretcher that bore the President into the hospital. He declines to theorize about how the bullet got onto the stretcher. Dr. Clark stated that the bullet went "in and out" of the President's head. We assume this to mean that there was an exit as well as an entry wound in the President's head. Furthermore, it would seem rather likely that the fragmented bullet would be the one which made the head wound. LeMoyne Snyder, forensic medicine specialist, in his book Homicide Investigation, writes: "When a lead bullet is fired into the skull at an angle, it will sometimes fracture the skull bone in such a way that a sharp edge of bone is presented to the bullet. As a result, the bullet is cut in two lengthwise….It is not likely to happen if jacketed ammunition is used."
It should be noted here, too, that while Herbers identifies the stretcher from which the bullet was removed, Powledge's story of two days earlier, in which he cites FBI agent Shanklin as his source, merely says: "A bullet the Secret Service men removed from a stretcher [our italics]."
We have no way of knowing whether the bullet remained inside the body of the President and was buried with him, or whether it was removed for evidence. Dr. Clark, in Herbers' story of the 27th, merely says that the bullet did not exit of its own accord. Then Herbers writes: "The bullet that did not exit from the President's body may have since been removed in an autopsy, but the Parkland Hospital said no autopsy was performed in Dallas." An AP dispatch in the Dallas Morning News of November 27 states that "the White House has so far declined to say whether an autopsy was performed on the body of slain President John F. Kennedy. For approximately nine hours, the body was at Bethesda, Md., Naval Hospital last Friday night and early Saturday morning [November 22 and 23]." An AP dispatch which appeared in the Pine Bluff [Ark.] Gazette of November 27 stated that "doctors at the Bethesda [Maryland] Naval Hospital made a post-mortem examination of Kennedy's wounds."
The hospital authorities also stated, according to Herbers, that "the medical report of President Kennedy's assassination, written in longhand by Dr. Clark, chief of neurosurgery at Parkland, had been given to the Secret Service and the hospital had no copy."
Another puzzling fact is that apparently the two bullets with the cloudiest pedigree are the ones that link the shooting to the gun the investigators finally settled on. Powledge's story of the 25th, quoted above, states that the stretcher bullet and the fragmented bullet matched bullets fired by FBI men from the rifle found inside the building. The rifle (identified variously as an Enfield and a Mauser) was found early in the afternoon of November 22. So were the two bullets. They were in the possession of the Dallas police and the FBI, presumably, from then on. Sometime on November 23, the rifle became a Mannlicher-Carcano. Is it the custom of Italian rifle-makers to leave their names off their products, so that they cannot be identified immediately? We don't know.
We do know that the more damage done to the surface of the bullet, the more dubious becomes the accuracy of laboratory comparison with other bullets to determine which gun of a given make it was fired from, even if the make of the gun can be determined. Thus the identification of the gun that supposedly fired the assassination bullets seems to rest primarily, not on the fragmented bullet, but on a bullet allegedly found by a secret Service man on a stretcher in Parkland Hospital, Dallas, after the President was shot.
It is not clear at this point just where this bullet came from and how it came to be on "a stretcher."
The Murderer
The way the supposed assassination gun is linked to Lee Oswald is somewhat curious, too. Powledge's story of the 25th states: "The FBI agent [Gordon Shanklin] said the young man ordered a 6.5mm rifle with telescope sight from a Chicago store last spring. The rifle was sent to an A. Hidell,' at Oswald's post office box here. It arrived by parcel post on March 20. Samples of Oswald's handwriting were sent yesterday to the FBI laboratory in Washington where they were found to match the handwriting in the letter ordering the rifle." In his story of the 26th, Powledge again refers to the gun: "The district attorney said the police had traced the serial number of the murder weapon, an Italian rifle with a telescopic sight, to the Chicago mail-order house that had sold Oswald a rifle last spring." Thus all the FBI and the Dallas police appear to claim so far is that the gun which fired the stretcher bullet and the gun they say Oswald ordered came from the same mail-order house.
Moreover, in the early accounts it was being said that the gun, with telescopic sight, was purchased for $12.78. But on November 25 The New York Times reproduced an advertisement from a mail-order house showing clearly that $12.78 was the price of the gun without telescopic sight. Subsequently it was reported (UPI dispatch of November 29, Atlanta Journal) that, in addition to $12.78 for the gun, Oswald paid $7.50 for the sight. Was the sight ordered in a separate letter, also in Oswald's handwriting and also signed "A. Hidell"? Was there one money order signed by Hidell for $12.78 and another for $7.50? And if so, why was the latter information held back at the time the former was announced?
In his news conference of November 24, District Attorney Wade said that Oswald's palmprints were on the gun found in the warehouse. However, first he called them fingerprints, then palmprints. And on November 27, "Edward Bennett Williams, one of the nation's leading defense lawyers…said the police's purported discovery of Oswald's palmprints in the room where the assassin lay in wait was not necessarily incriminating. Palmprints are not nearly as conclusive as fingerprints,' he said." (New York Post, November 27)
In other parts of his November 24 conference, District Attorney Wade seemed so confused that we must question whether he really knew much about the evidence against Oswald at the time. As an example of his confusion, note the following exchange referring to the reported attempt by Oswald to shoot an arresting officer in the Texas Theater (taken from transcript of the news conference published in The New York Times, November 26):
Q. Why didn't it go off?
A. It snapped. It was a misfire. Then the officers subdued himsome six officerssubdued him there in the theater, and he was brought to the police station here.
Q. Mr. Wade, why didn't the gun fire?
A. It misfired, being on thethe shell didn't explode. We have it where it hit it, but it didn't explode. It didn't fire the shell.
Q. There was one officer who said that he pulled the trigger, but he managed to put his thumb in the part before the firing pin. It didn't…
A. Well…
Q. …strike thethe bullet didn't explode. Is that it?
A. I don't know whether it's that or not. I know he didn't snap the gun is all I know about it.
Now, either Wade had, as part of the evidence, the misfire bullet from the pistol, with a mark on it made by the pistol's firing pin, or he didn't. He didn't seem to know whether he had it or not.
All in all, it is hard to see how the District Attorney felt able then to conclude: "I would say without any doubt he is the killer," particularly in view of the fact that some of the evidencesuch as the alleged statement by Mrs. Oswald that her husband had a rifle in their garage on the night before the assassination but that it was gone the next daywould never have been admissible in a Texas court, as the police readily admitted.
We will remark on only one other aspect of the case. Dallas District Attorney Wade offered to newsmen and to the public, as one of the links in the chain of evidence against Oswald, the fact that Oswald went to his home in Oak Cliff, changed his clothes hurriedly, and left (Wade's November 24 news conference as printed in The New York Times, November 26). According to a UPI dispatch datelined Dallas in The Atlanta Journal, November 23, "Mrs. R.C. Roberts, who works for the Johnsons [from whom Oswald rented a room in Oak Cliff], said that about 12:45 p.m. [Dallas time] Friday she had just learned that Mr. Kennedy was shot. In rushed Oswald, On the dead run,' she said. He ran to his room, came running back with a gray zipper jacket and out the door'."
The assassin's bullets were fired between 12:30 and 12:31 p.m. (Dallas time). Oswald supposedly fired them from the sixth floor of the building where he worked. Then, supposedly, he hid the rifle behind some books and packing cases and made his way to the second floor of the building. Roy S. Truly, TSBD manager, and a policeman ran into the building immediately after the shots were fired. "The two men scrambled up the stairs to the second floor. As they made their way to the back stairway, the policeman saw Oswald standing beside a soft-drink machine, sipping from a coke bottle" (Washington Post, December 1). According to the New York Post (November 27) two noted criminal lawyers have puzzled over this account. Maurice Edelbaum said: "The main incongruity I see is the report of Oswald's swift descent from the sixth floor. The moment a policeman rushed into the building Oswald was there." Raymond Brown asked: "How did he get down? Were there steps or an elevator from the sixth floor? Did anybody see him?"
Then, according to Wade, Oswald left the building and walked four blocks west to Lamar Street where he boarded a bus. He rode the bus an undetermined number of blocks and then got off. He hailed a taxicab and rode four miles to his room in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. He arrived, according to Mrs. Roberts, just 14 minutes after the assassination. Now if the taxicab was able to average 20 miles an hour, which we think would be a maximum, the taxi ride would have taken 12 minutes. This leaves Oswald with just two minutes to shoot the President and Governor Connally, clean and hide the gun, run down four flights of stairs, search his pockets for coins, get a coke from the machine, open it, engage in some conversation with Mr. Truly and the policeman, make his way from the second floor out of the building, walk four blocks to the bus stop, board the bus and ride several blocks, and get off the bus and hail a taxi.
On December 1, however, The Washington Post quoted housekeeper Roberts as saying: "He came dashing in about 1 o'clock." This second version created new difficulties, for these reporters refer to "the floundering of the bus in the choked downtown traffic," and to the fact that Oswald "told the [cab] driver to drop him off at a corner five blocks beyond his rooming house." If the traffic was "choked" we probably need to cut in half the estimated average speed of the taxi over the four miles to Oswald's rooming house. At an average speed of 10 miles an hour, it would have taken the taxi 24 minutes to cover the distance. This would leave Oswald five minutes to shoot the President and Governor Connally, clean and hide the gun, run down four flights of stairs, search his pockets for coins, get a coke from the machine, open it, engage in some conversation with Mr. Truly and the policeman, make his way from the second floor out of the building, walk four blocks to the bus stop, board the bus and hail a taxi. And if we accept this version, we must allow, within the first five minutes left to Oswald, the time necessary to walk the five blocks back to his rooming house from the corner to which the taxi took him
Conclusion
Since the bulk of this analysis was written, the newsmagazinesTime, Life, Newsweek, and US News and World Reporthave made public their versions of the assassination. They help add to the confusion. For example, Time (December 6) has Oswald buying rifle and sight for $19.95, while according to Newsweek (December 9) he paid $12.78. All early accounts of the assassination put the speed of the President's limousine at about 25 miles per hour, but now it has slowed to 15 miles per hour (Life, November 29), "no more than half the 25 miles per hour first estimated by authorities" (Newsweek, December 9), and 12 miles per hour (US News and World Report, December 9). The latter magazine comments: "If President Kennedy's car had been moving even 20 miles an hour, the experts say, it might have made the lead time too difficult a problem for the sniper."
The central problemthe fact that the President was wounded in the front of the throat, "the midsection of the front part of his neck," according to "staff doctors" at Parkland Hospital on November 23 (New York Times, November 24)remains. Life and Newsweek place the President's car 170 feet and 150 feet past the turn at the time of the first shot: a shorter distance than our estimate, but much too distant from the window for a shot through the front of the neck. Life (December 6) recognizes the problem, but solves it by saying that the President was turning far to the right at the moment of impact. This explanation appears to fail for two reasons. First, Life's own pictures of the event in the issue of November 29 show the President looking straight ahead. Second, Elm Street curves left as it passes the warehouse building (see the picture on page 32H of Life, November 29), in such as way that when the first bullet struck, the President's back was to the window. In order for a bullet to have entered "the mid-section of the frontal part of his neck" the President would have had to turn completely around just before the shot was fired.:fullofit:
___________________
Jack Minnis did graduate work in Political Science at Tulane University and now works in the South.
Staughton Lynd received his Ph.D. in History from Columbia University. His articles and reviews have appeared in Commentary, the Political Science Quarterly and the William and Mary Quarterly. Back to Staughton Lynd Back to Pre-WCR Reactions of the Left Back to Pre-WCR Reactions Back WC Period
DALLAS, Nov. 30 - FBI agents today were tracking down the source of=20
occasional small sums Lee Harvey Oswald apparently received.
The Western Union office in Dallas said FBI agents asked about =
telegram=20
money orders to the accused assassin. A spokesman, A. I. English, said =
the=20
FBI was told it could not get such information without court orders. =20
He refused to say whether Oswald had received money by wire.
The Dallas Times Herald said it learned Oswald received sums ranging =
up=20
to $10 or possibly $20 at a time for SEVERAL MONTHS PRIOR TO THE =
ASSASSINATION
and his own slaying at the hands of Jack Ruby.
The paper said Oswald sent a telegram himself a few days before =
President=20
Kennedy was shot.=20
Western Union employees remembered him because he invariably argued =
with=20
them, the paper said. They didn't say what the telegram concerned.
End quote
There follows several paragraphs dealing with LHO's childhood. This is =
the=20
same old story and hold nothing worthwhile. Therefore, I shall skip =
ahead=20
in the article..............MP
Start quote
Meanwhile, the New York papers said the FBI was checking a report =
that=20
Oswald in later years was a close friend of an extreme right-winger, a=20
Mississippian who lived at one time in New York City's Greenwich =
Village.
The FBI refused to confirm or deny a report, but several villagers=20
confirmed that agents had questioned them in an effort to learn the=20
whereabouts of the rightist.
Village sources said the man, whose name was not disclosed, had =
created=20
disturbances at liberal meetings in the Village.
The sources could not confirm a report that the FBI was acting on a =
tip=20
by an informant that he, Oswald and the Mississippian had served =
together=20
in the Marines.
The FBI, in Dallas yesterday, re-enacted the assassination, again =
running=20
a motorcade past the Texas School Book Depository Building, from where =
the=20
sniper fired the three shots. The Secret Service restaged it Wednesday.
End quote
The paper goes on to tell about funds being raised for Marina.
Start quote
IN ANOTHER NEWSPAPER REPORT, THE MILWAUKEE SENTINEL SAID TONIGHT THAT =
A MAN WHO REPORTEDLY SIGNED HIS NAME "LEE OSWALD, DALLAS," REGISTERED AT =
A WELL KNOWN NIGHT CLUB ABOUT 30 MILES NORTHWEST OF MILWAUKEE ON SEPT. =
16.
THE NEWSPAPER SAID THAT THE MAN REPORTEDLY HAD SIGNED IN THE GUEST=20
REGISTER AT THE FOX AND HOUNDS INN. PATRICIA STANLEY, THE MANAGER, SAID =
SHE HAD NO COMMENT.
PRESIDENT KENNEDY WAS AT ASHLAND, WIS. SEPT 24. ASHLAND IS ABOUT 400 =
MILES NORTHWEST OF MILWAUKEE.
End quote
Please note: this article was printed on a Saturday. Therefore the SS=20
re-enactment in DP was a Wednesday and the FBI's was on Friday........MP =
![[Image: Plaza-80-175.jpg]](http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/The_critics/Lynd/Plaza-80-175.jpg)