Jump to content
The Education Forum

USSS Agent Gerald O'Rourke


Recommended Posts

EX-AGENT REFUSES TO TOE PARTY LINE OF JFK SLAYING

Date: Sun Nov 23, 2003 3:40 pm

Subject: Ex-Agent Refuses to Toe Party Line on JFK Slaying

http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_2442956,00.html

Ex-agent refuses to toe party line on JFK slaying

By Ellen Miller, Special To The News

November 20, 2003

GRAND JUNCTION - Lee Harvey Oswald didn't act alone when he killed

President John F. Kennedy, a retired agent said Wednesday, and the

president died because Secret Service agents failed at their jobs.

"Officially, the answer to Oswald when somebody asks - because we

were ordered to say it - is that the Warren Commission found that he

acted alone," retired agent Jerry O'Rourke said. "But was there more

than one gunman? Yes, personally I believe so. And my personal

opinion about Jack Ruby is that he was paid to kill Oswald."

O'Rourke grew up in Telluride and attended Western State and Regis

colleges, then spent 22 years in the Secret Service. Now retired and

back home, he spoke Wednesday to the downtown Grand Junction Rotary

Club.

O'Rourke said his group of agents, about 10 of them, had protected

Kennedy the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, at a breakfast speech in Fort

Worth. Then the group left by air for Austin, the next stop planned

for the president's Texas tour.

"We got the word (of the assassination) in the air, and we didn't

believe it at first," he said. "We were joking. But later, most of

the agents had tears in their eyes. Agents believed in Kennedy, and

we knew we failed our job in Dallas."

After his White House tour ended during Johnson's presidency,

O'Rourke spent a year in the Secret Service intelligence division,

which offered him glimpses into the investigation of Kennedy's death.

Those glimpses, and the accounts of other agents, have convinced

O'Rourke that Oswald didn't act alone. He cited several reasons:

Kennedy had a number of enemies, any of whom could have plotted

against him. They included Southerners angered by his insistence on

civil rights; organized crime; labor unions unhappy with

investigations of them by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; Cuban

dissidents angry over the failed Bay of Pigs invasion; and FBI

Director J. Edgar Hoover.

The shots were impossible to make. O'Rourke learned to shoot as a

boy and trained as a marksman in the military. He said his visits to

Oswald's perch at the Texas Book Depository convince him that no one

could have fired a rifle three times so quickly, hitting the

president and Texas Gov. John Connolly.

The trajectory of one of the shots could not have been made from a

gunman on the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository. The shot

entered Kennedy's body at his lower back and traveled up, to exit

near his throat.

The circumstances of the autopsy were irregular. Texas law requires

autopsies to be done in state, but agents, acting on the orders of

White House, took Kennedy's body back to Washington, D.C. The autopsy

was performed at Bethesda Naval Medical Center under secrecy that

prevails to this day.

Evidence was destroyed. O'Rourke said that on the day of the

assassination, one agent was ordered to clean out the cars used in

the motorcade, getting rid of blood and other evidence. The agent

told O'Rourke that he found a piece of skull, asked the White House

doctor what to do with it, and was told to destroy it.

Instructions were given to lie. The agent in charge of motorcade

protection told O'Rourke that he was told by the Warren Commission

during his testimony that he did not hear a fourth shot and he did

not see someone running across the grassy knoll. But the agent

insisted that his account was accurate.

Evidence about the shots is in conflict. An open microphone on a

motorcycle in the motorcade picked up four shots, not three.

"In my opinion, Hoover wanted the commission to find that Oswald

acted alone," O'Rourke said. "The complete file won't be released

until 2027, and the reason for that is most of us will be dead by

then."

Edited by William Kelly
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

EX-AGENT REFUSES TO TOE PARTY LINE OF JFK SLAYING

Date: Sun Nov 23, 2003 3:40 pm

Subject: Ex-Agent Refuses to Toe Party Line on JFK Slaying

Ex-agent refuses to toe party line on JFK slaying

By Ellen Miller, Special To The News

November 20, 2003

GRAND JUNCTION - Lee Harvey Oswald didn't act alone when he killed

President John F. Kennedy, a retired agent said Wednesday, and the

president died because Secret Service agents failed at their jobs.

"Officially, the answer to Oswald when somebody asks - because we

were ordered to say it - is that the Warren Commission found that he

acted alone," retired agent Jerry O'Rourke said. "But was there more

than one gunman? Yes, personally I believe so. And my personal

opinion about Jack Ruby is that he was paid to kill Oswald."

O'Rourke grew up in Telluride and attended Western State and Regis

colleges, then spent 22 years in the Secret Service. Now retired and

back home, he spoke Wednesday to the downtown Grand Junction Rotary

Club.

O'Rourke said his group of agents, about 10 of them, had protected

Kennedy the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, at a breakfast speech in Fort

Worth. Then the group left by air for Austin, the next stop planned

for the president's Texas tour.

"We got the word (of the assassination) in the air, and we didn't

believe it at first," he said. "We were joking. But later, most of

the agents had tears in their eyes. Agents believed in Kennedy, and

we knew we failed our job in Dallas."

After his White House tour ended during Johnson's presidency,

O'Rourke spent a year in the Secret Service intelligence division,

which offered him glimpses into the investigation of Kennedy's death.

Those glimpses, and the accounts of other agents, have convinced

O'Rourke that Oswald didn't act alone. He cited several reasons:

Kennedy had a number of enemies, any of whom could have plotted

against him. They included Southerners angered by his insistence on

civil rights; organized crime; labor unions unhappy with

investigations of them by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; Cuban

dissidents angry over the failed Bay of Pigs invasion; and FBI

Director J. Edgar Hoover.

The shots were impossible to make. O'Rourke learned to shoot as a

boy and trained as a marksman in the military. He said his visits to

Oswald's perch at the Texas Book Depository convince him that no one

could have fired a rifle three times so quickly, hitting the

president and Texas Gov. John Connolly.

The trajectory of one of the shots could not have been made from a

gunman on the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository. The shot

entered Kennedy's body at his lower back and traveled up, to exit

near his throat.

The circumstances of the autopsy were irregular. Texas law requires

autopsies to be done in state, but agents, acting on the orders of

White House, took Kennedy's body back to Washington, D.C. The autopsy

was performed at Bethesda Naval Medical Center under secrecy that

prevails to this day.

Evidence was destroyed. O'Rourke said that on the day of the

assassination, one agent was ordered to clean out the cars used in

the motorcade, getting rid of blood and other evidence. The agent

told O'Rourke that he found a piece of skull, asked the White House

doctor what to do with it, and was told to destroy it.

Instructions were given to lie. The agent in charge of motorcade

protection told O'Rourke that he was told by the Warren Commission

during his testimony that he did not hear a fourth shot and he did

not see someone running across the grassy knoll. But the agent

insisted that his account was accurate.

Evidence about the shots is in conflict. An open microphone on a

motorcycle in the motorcade picked up four shots, not three.

"In my opinion, Hoover wanted the commission to find that Oswald

acted alone," O'Rourke said. "The complete file won't be released

until 2027, and the reason for that is most of us will be dead by

then."

Has anybody talked to O'Rourke?

BK

Link to comment
Share on other sites

EX-AGENT REFUSES TO TOE PARTY LINE OF JFK SLAYING

Date: Sun Nov 23, 2003 3:40 pm

Subject: Ex-Agent Refuses to Toe Party Line on JFK Slaying

http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_2442956,00.html

Ex-agent refuses to toe party line on JFK slaying

By Ellen Miller, Special To The News

November 20, 2003

The shots were impossible to make. O'Rourke learned to shoot as a

boy and trained as a marksman in the military. He said his visits to

Oswald's perch at the Texas Book Depository convince him that no one

could have fired a rifle three times so quickly, hitting the

president and Texas Gov. John Connolly.

Not according to Cartha 'Deke' DeLoach!

"For a practiced marksman, it was like shooting pigeons on the ground."

from Hoover's FBI by Cartha DeLoach, p. 115

Believe it or not .....

Peter Fokes,

Toronto

Link to comment
Share on other sites

EX-AGENT REFUSES TO TOE PARTY LINE OF JFK SLAYING

Date: Sun Nov 23, 2003 3:40 pm

Subject: Ex-Agent Refuses to Toe Party Line on JFK Slaying

Ex-agent refuses to toe party line on JFK slaying

By Ellen Miller, Special To The News

November 20, 2003

The shots were impossible to make. O'Rourke learned to shoot as a

boy and trained as a marksman in the military. He said his visits to

Oswald's perch at the Texas Book Depository convince him that no one

could have fired a rifle three times so quickly, hitting the

president and Texas Gov. John Connolly.

Not according to Cartha 'Deke' DeLoach!

"For a practiced marksman, it was like shooting pigeons on the ground."

from Hoover's FBI by Cartha DeLoach, p. 115

Believe it or not .....

Peter Fokes,

Toronto

Whether a shot from the Sixth Floor Sniper's Nest was easy or hard, whether someone like Oswald who was not known to have practiced, could have made the shot, is debateable.

When told by an associate that the assassin was a Castro loving commie nut-case, Sam Giancana replied, "He was a marksman."

Whoever he was, whether Oswald or a real professional sniper, he hit his target at least once.

Cartha DeLoach's opinion on whether the Sixth Floor Sniper's nest was a good location to shoot from is consistant with a hunter I know who checked out Dealey Plaza

and said that the Sixth Floor Sniper's Nest is where he would have put his deer stand.

And upon further reflection and discussion with professional snipers, I now realize that the shot not taken, the one coming towards the sniper down Houston,

was not taken because it would have encouraged or resulted in return fire, while the going away shot didn't.

In addition, if you read Cartha DeLoach's oral history transcript at the LBJ Library on line, it is very illuminating in describing the FBI's take and LBJ's opinion of the Secret Service.

And finaly, Peter, O'Rourke's opinion of the inability of the Sixth Floor Sniper to make all of the shots, is not the sole reason for his belief in conspiracy, as he also says that

what convinced him was his job overseeing the Secret Service records, many of which were intentionally destroyed to prevent us from reading them.

BK

Edited by William Kelly
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...