Greg Ritsul

I'll see if I can find it again. I didn't bookmark it as there really was no supporting info with it. Only a short single sentence statement , as I recall.

Does anyone have any further info on the following 2 incidents regarding the Dallas Police Department? 1) After the assassination, Dallas PD is supposed to have searched the Trinity River area where the drainage sewer from Elm Street led. I read that in that area they found, detained, and subsequently released, someone they apprehended there. Does anyone have any idea who this might be? Or any of the details surrounding this incident? 2) I’ve also read more than once that renowned French assassin Soutre was in Dallas. Had been apprehended by Dallas Police Police Department, and then subsequently deported. All this happening shortly after the assassination. Are there any facts to support or deny this? Any further info on the above is appreciated.

Of all the volumes of information that have come out surrounding the assassination, the one I’ve heard the least about, and become most interested in, is the Secret Service. Their failure to follow even the most basic Secret Service protection codes in Dallas lays a large portion of the blame for the Presidents’ death at their doorstep. But I never understood how this situation came to be. As far as I’m aware, they had always served the President well prior to Dallas. So how did it come to pass that they allowed the parade route to be changed to that highly vulnerable turn on Elm? And with the bubble top off no less. How is it that Secret Service agents, normally not allowed to drink while on protective duty, were out doing just that until the early hours of 11/22/63? And this while the President had to make do with only the protection of 1 or 2 Fort Worth firemen his last night in Texas. And how was it that no Secret Service agents were stationed on the rear of the Presidents’ car, as they would have been normally? As I also understand it, one or more Secret Service personnel normally assigned to protect the President, were replaced at the last minute with much less seasoned (and therefore presumably more “flexible” in how they carried out their duties) agents. How did the Secret Service become corrupted? While I have no smoking gun, the one and only short answer I recently found unfortunately made all too much sense – Lyndon Johnson. A short single sentence stated that shortly prior to Dallas, Lyndon Johnson had assumed control of the Secret Service detail. Since I have found so little on the matter, I’m hoping some of you can add whatever info you have on this. 1) Is this really true? And if so, what evidence is there to support this? 2) I had always “assume”ed the Secret Service was more or less on auto-pilot regarding security matters – Eg: they planned and implemented their protective activities with little or no formal direction from the actual people they were protecting. And would certainly not be compromising parade routes, eliminating agents from the presidents detail etc, even at the behest of one of those being protected. What exactly is the nature of the interaction between LBJ and the Secret Service? Was this at all typical for him? Or was it a one time “special” – just for Dallas?

Semi-retired IT consultant. Prior to that managed a nursery for several years. Was 8 when JFK was assassinated and never really thought anything other than the official line - Oswald, the lone nut did it. That began to change in 1980. While living in Houston, my landlady, a real, no-nonsense, Texas straight-shooter, and I were having a conversation. The topic of LBJ came up. I thought she would have warmed to LBJ, being a native Texan herself. Instead, she proceeded to let me know in the most unambiguous terms possible, exactly what a lying, thieving, no-good low-life that LBJ was!! I was shocked. If a fellow Texan ( presumablly someone who would have known more about him than most people in other parts of the country), and a very honest one at that, felt that way about him, then there was an excellent chance it was actually true. While I don't remember verbatim, she ended our discussion that day with a rhetorical exclamation very close to the following: If LBJ was such a saint, why did his car stop before the first shot was even fired? And so began my interest and increasing scepticism in the matter. I'd like to join the forum to receive feedback on 2 areas of the assassination I'm still unclear about.