Reasons of State

[Gary Buell]

From the Warren Commission Report (p.591 of the New York Times Edition) :

Speculation.--The Dallas police suspected Oswald and Ruby of being involved in an attack on General Walker and planned to arrest the two when the FBI intervened, at the request of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and asked the police not to do so for reasons of state.

Commission Finding.--This allegation appeared in the November 29, 1963 issue (actually printed on November 25 or 26) of a German weekly newspaper, Deutsche Zeitung und Soldaten Zeitung, published in Munich. The allegation later appeared in the National Enquirer of May 17, 1964. The Commission has been reliably informed that the statement was fabricated by an editor of the newspaper. No evidence in support of this statement has ever been advanced or uncovered. In their investigation of the attack on General Walker, the Dallas police uncovered no suspects and planned no arrests. The FBI had no knowledge that Oswald was responsible for the attack until Marina Oswald revealed the information on December 3, 1963.

It might be pointed out that neither did the FBI (or the Warren Commission) exhibit any curiosity as to how an obscure German newspaper knew about Oswald's alleged involvement in the Walker assassination attempt before they did.

What exactly did this far-right German newspaper have to say? From a translation provided to researcher Irving Heineman by General Walker:

The Strange Case of Oswald

The murderer of Kennedy made an attempt on U.S. General Walker's life early in the summer when General Walker was sitting in his study. The bullet missed Walker's head only by inches. Oswald was seized, but following investigation--as it was reported to us--was stopped by U.S. Attorney General, Robert Kennedy. In the case that Oswald would have been imprisoned for many years and so he would not have been able to commit the murder of John F. Kennedy, the brother of Robert Kennedy.

Some excerpts from the National Enquirer article by John Henshaw, Enquirer Washington Bureau Chief:

Washington--The hottest story making the rounds here is that the U.S. Justice Department prevented the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby BEFORE the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Oswald and the man who killed him, Ruby, were suspect of being partners in crime seven months before the President's death.

The incredible details of the story are so explosive that officials won't even answer "no comment" when queried about it But the story being discussed by top-level government officials reveals:

1. That the Justice Department deliberately kept Oswald and Ruby out of jail before the assassination.

2. That Dallas cops suspected Oswald of being the gunman and Ruby the paymaster in a plot to murder former Major General A. Walker--seven months before the President was assassinated.

3. That the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was using Ruby to recruit commandos for raids against Castro's Cuba. To prevent this explosive information from being disclosed, the CIA asked the Justice Dept. to step in and stop the Dallas police from arresting Jack Ruby, as well as Oswald.

A top-secret document--a letter signed by a high official of the Justice Dept.--was sent in April 1963 from the Justice Dept. to Dallas Chief of Police Jesse E. Curry requesting the Dallas police NOT to arrest Oswald and Ruby in connection with the attempted slaying of General Walker.

After a snipter shot at, but missed, General Walker in Dallas, April 10, 1963, Dallas police suspected that Oswald was the sniper and Ruby the payoff man.

The cops were set to arrest the pair. But they never got the chance because of the heavy pressure brought to bear by the Justice Dept. And so Oswald and Ruby were allowed to remain free. An seven months later, on last November 22 in Dallas, Oswald was abel to kill the President of the United States.

The top-secret document--a copy of it is reportedly in the hands of the Presidential commission investigating the assassination--bares a web of intrigue that involves the Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with the Justice Dept. and the Central Intelligence Agency.

It is so politically explosive that the Presidential commission, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warrent, has even withheld it from one of its own members, Senator Richard Russell (D., Ga.).

It is feared that Senator Russell, who leads the South in the fight against the civil rights bill, might use the document against the Justice Dept. and its chief, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, a leader in the fight for civil rights.

The document--requesting the cops not to arrest Ruby and Oswald--contradicts the FBI report on the assassination and the subsequent murder of Oswald.

.........................................................

A high FBI was asked by a top official in the Justice Dept., after it was notified by the CIA of the potentially volatile situation in Dallas, to request Dallas police not to arrest Oswald or Ruby.

The FBI official refused to do so, saying it would be obstructing justice and therefore would be a crime.

The FBI man said he would make the request only if he were officially directed to do so in a communication signed by the official.

The FBI official then recieved a signed directive. He contacted Dallas police and urged them not to arrest Oswald and Ruby.

But the Dallas police also wanted an official signed communication.

Thereupon the Justice Dept. sent the communication to Dallas Police Chief Curry asking that Oswald and Ruby be left strictly alone.

The department explainted it didn't want Oswald and Ruby arrrested because of "reasons of state."

True or not, General Walker appeared to believe it. In a signed statement in November 1991 he said:

The President went to Dallas knowing and protecting his November assassin Lee H. Oswald from prosecution for his April Crime "Attempted Assassination of the former General working at his desk in his Dallas home, 9:00 p.m. April 10.

The Kennedy protection included an early-morning secret release of the prime suspect Lee H. Oswald, from Dallas Police Custody on Kennedy orders, April 11.

The President did not live to know that he knew his assassin but everyone else lived to know that he did and that his assassin could not be prosecuted for the November Crime of his Kennedy protection from prosecution for his April Crime.

Now over forty years later no documentation on these alleged events or the alleged Justice Department communication has been found. Neither do our sources seem very credible--an American supermarket tabloid and a German neo-Nazi publication.

The allegation that Oswald was a suspect at the time of the Walker assassination attempt in April of 1963--and that he was either arrested and let go or that his arrest was prevented--have been around for a long time but only recently have I seen any evidence at all to support it.

The following is from notes found in the collection of researcher Irving Heineman. The notes are apparently from conversations Irv had with Sue Fitch concerning her interview of witness Juanita Buchanan, wife of Larry Buchanan, the owner of a "dive bar."

She knew Jack Ruby and he gave her a job as a cocktail waitress at the Sovereign Club in 1959/1960. She said that Ruby was epileptic and she saw him have seizures . . . She and Buchanan bought a place on Haskell Avenue, the Eldorado Bar . . . Bill Duff, whom she calls Scotty, came in in the place with Jerry Dickinson, her husband's boss at Jamison Films. Duff said that he was the son of the Duke of Argyle and was married to General Walker's niece from California. He said that he was General Walker's house guest but he expressed hatred for General Walker.

Duff came in the place twice with Oswald. He introduced him as Lee (last name not remembered--he never called him Oswald.) She is positive that it was Oswald. Oswald did night have much to say. The night of the Walker shooting, they were in the place on Haskell together and left about 8:00 p.m. Duff came back about 11:30 p.m. and she had heard on the radio about the shooting at Walker's house. She asked Duff, "Why did you try to shoot General Walker? He is a pretty good old boy." Duff turned white as a sheet, left, and never came back. Duff was also in the place with a man named Andre who had a thick accent. (The first time she told Mrs. Fitch it was Danish and later said Dutch.) [Later the notes indicate that Andre's real name was Don Moon and he was from Texas.] Duff had a Scotch accent which he lost from time to time.

The night of theWalker shooting the police arrived about 30 minutes after Duff left, looking for Duff. He was arrested. Oswald was also arrested. The car was traced to Duff. The boy in the back of Walker's house got the license number of Duff's rented car, a foreign make.

Duff moved into the Hidden Hills with Chuck Holloway. He had two rifles and a couple of pistols. Two men moved into Hidden Hills and asked Duff to help them kill Walker; offered him $25,000 and gave him $5,000. Duff got suspicious and went to the FBI (to see Hosty). Duff left town and went to Oklahoma where he said he was going to join the army. The FBI had lost track of Duff and had called her within the last week or 10 days to ask if she had heard anything about him. . . .

The Eldorado bar was the regular meeting place of Ruby, Oswald, Duff and Tippit. . . .

Ruby came to her place three days before the assassination, trying to buy the place. She has had several telephone calls saying "If you know what's good for you you will keep your damn mouth shut."

[David Boylan]

Gary,

Great stuff. I have somewhere, a 27 page transcript of a taped (bugged) conversation in car with "Scotty" and two guys from, if I remember correctly, Oklahoma. They were sent by Gen. Clyde Watts to try and get Duff to admit to shooting at Walker and were trying to hire him again to finish the job. Duff was helping them to scout out Walker's place. Nothing incriminating on the the tape though. I believe this was circa June 1963 and came from the Dallas PD.

Dave