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Posts posted by Chuck Schwartz
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Also from John Newman's facebook "Yes, all this on point to where the trail leads from here. Lemnitzer's papers are downtown D.C. at the National Defense University (Taylor's are there too!) so they are within reach. Bamford went there to check them out and what he found convinced me we need to go check it out. The Lemnitzer-Lansdale nexus in Mongoose is full of clues "
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Interesting reference to Lemay. I think he knew what the SBT was and how the autopsy should read based on the SBT. He might have been in communication with Air Force One (from Dallas to Washington DC). Here is a relevant article from Bill Kelly's blog (JFKCountercoup)..
Author:
Larry Haapanen holds a Ph.D from Washington State University, is an ex-Air Force Captain and retired college professor.
SOMEWHERE IN GOVERNMENT FILESSomewhere in government files is a tape recording of much greater historical importance than any of the so-called “Watergate tapes” that helped force the resignation of President Nixon.Instead of centering around a bungled burglary, these tapes contain conversations between high government officials immediately after the assassination of President Kennedy, as his successor, Lyndon Johnson, assumed the responsibility and authority of the Presidency.The existence of the “LBJ tapes” remained a closely held secret until April 21, 1964, when author William Manchester learned of them while conducting interviews for his book, Death of a President.Manchester found that President Kennedy had ordered the Signal Corps to record all communications to and from Air Force One whenever the presidential party was aboard, and that then-Vice President Johnson had been unaware of the order. Manchester then requested White House permission to obtain a complete transcript, which he wished to include as an appendix to his book.President Johnson initially refused his request, but eventually, perhaps because the book had the backing of the Kennedy family, Manchester was allowed to read an edited transcript at the White House on May 5, 1965. “Doubtless,” Manchester wrote in his book, “the tapes will be available to future historians.”But since security was not an issue, why was it necessary to edit the transcript before it was shown to Manchester? Perhaps because the principals didn’t know they were being recorded on orders of a man who by then lay in a casket in the back of Air Force One.As the tape reels turned on November 22, 1963, they captured radio traffic between Air Force One (flying from Dallas to Andrews Air Force Base in Washington), the cabinet plane (over the mid-Pacific carrying half the Kennedy cabinet toward a conference in Tokyo) and the White House Situation Room.
As fearful and distraught men sought to keep themselves and the republic together at a most delicate moment in history, they spoke without knowing their conversations were being recorded for posterity.Another (or possibly the same) transcript was made available to Pierre Salinger, JFK’s former press secretary, to assist him in writing With Kennedy. In 1967, Philadelphia attorney Vincent Salandria learned from Salinger that his copy, originally provided by the White House Communications Agency, had been sent among some personal papers to the National Archives. 2.When the National Archives could locate neither the tape nor the transcript, Salandria appealed directly to the White House Communications Agency. Colonel James U. Cross, military aide to President Johnson and former Air Force One pilot (and later executive director [of)]the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department) replied for the agency:
“Logs and tapes of radio transmissions of military aircraft, including those of Air Force One, are kept for official us only. These tapes are not releasable, nor are they obtainable from commercial sources.” 3In 1974, Fred Newcomb took up Salandria’s cause. If Manchester and Salinger could gain access to the elusive transcript, he reasoned, how could the government turn down another private citizen? Repeated inquiries of the National Archives and the presidential libraries (and finally, legal threats) produced and edited copy of the transcript from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin, Texas. According to library director Harry J. Middleton, “This Xerox copy came to us from the White House in a group of miscellaneous papers.” 4There was nothing to indicate when it was prepared, by whom, or for what reason, and nothing to identify it as the transcript used by Manchester or Salinger.There are a number of historical questions the original tapes or a complete transcript might clarify. This edited transcript, however, raises more questions than it answers. For instance, among students of the Kennedy assassination there has been cynical curiosity about the selection of the Bethesda, Maryland Naval Hospital over Walter Reed Army Hospital and Parkland Hospital in Dallas.One reason has been that the autopsy performed there is so fraught with unexplained conflicts and secrecy that it qualifies as a major scandal of the Warren Report.Another is the fact that but a few hours earlier in Parkland Hospital there had been a nearly violent confrontation between Dr. Earl Rose, Dallas County Medical Examiner, and certain members of the official party when Dr. Rose had tried to detain the body in Dallas for the autopsy required by Texas Law. 5As Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry described it, “They more or less snatched that body away from him.” 6The Manchester account – which supposedly drew on this same transcript – satisfied most of that curiosity. He reported that Rear Admiral George Burkley (personal physician to JFK, and later to LBJ) had proposed Bethesda to Mrs. Kennedy; she had consented; and Brigadier General Godfrey McHugh, JFK’s Air Force aide, had alerted Washington to send an ambulance to Andrews. This last conversation was described in detail. 7But in the Newcomb transcript we find this three-way exchange between Army Surgeon General Leonard Heaton in Washington and Major General Chester V. Clifton (JFK’s military aide) and Dr. Burkley aboard Air Force One:BURKLEY: General Heaton, this is Admiral Burkley. Did you contact MDW in regards to taking care of the remains of President Kennedy taking him directly to Walter Reed? Probably Mrs. Kennedy will also be gion out there. We will clarify that later.HEATON: All right.BURKLEY: Just a minute. General Clifton is here.CLIFTON: This is General Clifton. We do not want a helicopter to go to Bethesda Medical Center. We do want an ambulance and a ground return from Andrews to Walter Reed, and we want the regular post-mortem that has to be done by law under guard performed at Walter Reed. Is that clear?HEATON: That is clear, General Clifton.8Yet in the very next conversation we find General Clifton talking to Gerry Behn, head of the White House Secret Service Detail. He begins:CLIFTON: This is Clifton. I understand that you have arranged for an ambulance to take President Kennedy to Bethesda. Is this correct?BEHN: It has been arranged to helicopter the body to Bethesda.CLIFTON: Okay, if it isn’t too dark. 9The exchange indicates a mutual awareness that Clifton’s order to go to Walter Reed has been authoritively countermanded during the flight. Though the order may have come from McHugh as Manchester states, its omission in (the) transcript tends to renew old speculations.There is reason to believe the Newcomb copy differs from others: the transcript shown to Manchester apparently did not include the conversation between Behn and Agent Kellerman that took place while Air Force One was parked in Dallas, prior to President Johnson’s taking the oath of office. Had he seen it, it is unlikely he would have written that taping did not begin until the plane was airborne. 10Other in-flight conversations recounted by Manchester (whether from his transcript or his interviews is unclear) include calls from LBJ aide Bill Moyers and from Secret Service Agents Clint Hill and Lem Johns to the White House, and calls from Congressmen Albert Thomas and Jack Brooks to their offices. 11None of these appear on the Newcomb transcript.The Newcomb transcript does, however, include communications with the cabinet plane, implying that the same tape monitored both aircraft.
If this is true, then it is obvious from the conversation (the White House is reading from (a 10:40 bulletin on the AP ticker) that still more conversations are missing. 12We know that LBJ had used the Air Force One communications system from Love Field to talk to his aide Walter Jenkins and to JFK advisor McGeorge Bundy in the White House, and to speak twice to Robert Kennedy in Virginia (the text of these calls is an unresolved dispute).Local calls were also placed to Dallas lawyers J.W. (“Waddy”) Bullion and Irving Goldberg, and to Judge Sarah Hughes, and U.S. Attorney H. Barefoot Sanders. 13These too are missing.It invokes a twinge of bitter humor to find among the remnant conversations an unsigned footnote which reads:(Note:) The next part of the tape is traffic between SAM COMMAND POST and AF-1 advising them of weather conditions – tornadoes in AF-1’s immediate flight path. I’m not putting in this traffic but I do have it in my draft if you want it. 14.So far, the omissions are of doubtful importance – unlikely to yield anything more than firecracker surprises. But among the missing is at least one conversation of nuclear potential. According to Manchester, General Clifton talked to McGeorge Bundy, “asking again [!} whether an international plot was emerging” in the wake of the assassination. 15Author Jim Bishop, in The Day Kennedy Was Shot, wrote, “It seemed that he [LBJ] was phoning McGeorge Bundy in the White House Situation Room ever few minutes.” 16Johnson, who first raised the question of conspiracy during the lifesaving efforts at Parkland Hospital, is also alleged by Manchester to have requested a briefing from CIA Director John McCone. 17The Newcomb transcript yields only one Clifton-Bundy exchange; and only three lines from President Johnson (to Rose Kennedy and Nellie Connally); and no mention of any conversation of conspiracy, of an international plot, or of the CIA. 18If it were not for Theodore H. White, the story would end here – Manchester’s reputation stalled against the anonymity of the transcriber/editor.
In the Making of the President 1964, White wrote “On the flight [from Dallas] the party learned that there was no conspiracy, learned of the identity of Oswald and his arrest; and the President’s mind turned to the duties of consoling the stricken and guiding the quick.” 19It was so peripheral to the drama White was presenting that its inclusion in his narrative seems almost accidental. Even now, its significance is not readily apparent. Yet if it is true, it will rank as one of history’s most electrifying revelations. Let’s restore the perspective of the afternoon of November 22, 1963.· When the plane touched down in Washington at 4:59 P.M. (C.S.T.) it had been less than 3 hours since Oswald had arrived at Police Headquarters.· There was no firm - - or even apparent – link between the crime for which he had been arrested (the shooting of Patrolman J. D. Tippit in Oak Cliff) and the assassination of President Kennedy across the river in Dallas.· The rifle had not been traced, there were no handprints, no bullets, no incriminating photos nor line-up identifications at that hour to connect Oswald (or anyone else) with the assassination.· But for those who could imagine such a connection, it would have been difficult to dismiss conspiracy. Oswald’s name was first announced at 3:23 P.M.; his Russian visit and his involvement in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee were announced at 3:26 P.M. 20· It was 1:35 A.M. the next morning before the Dallas Police felt secure enough of their suspect to charge him with the President’s murder. 21· As late as 10:15 P.M., Police were still reported to be questioning other employees of the Texas School Book Depository. 22· On the afternoon of the following day, Police were still looking for a negro suspect who was believed to have driven Oswald from the crime scene. 23· While the plain was aloft, at least one other man (Donald W. House) was being detained as a suspect assassin. 24· The American military had been put on global alert. 25· Pennsylvania troopers had thrown a guard around former President Eisenhower’s Gettysburg farm.· The CIA watch committee had been activated. 27· The government of West Germany was bracing for a possible invasion.28Within the time frame of the historical flight, strong suspicions of conspiracy were emerging and none had been laid to rest.But aboard the presidential plane, according to White, people were being told not only that Oswald was the assassin, but that he acted alone!The implications stagger the senses. These same central conclusions which the Warren Commission would labor to bring forth by September of the next year are seen in full dress rehearsal aboard the presidential jet less than four hours after last rites were given the late President – now lying in a bronze coffin in the back of the plane.This is obviously not the sort of allegation to be hung on a broadcast transcript of unknown origin; it challenges our whole vision of American reality.When something like this turns up, it must be a mistake. Perhaps Theodore White’s Pulitzer Prize – winning journalism lapsed as he wrote this account. No one else’s account confirms it.“There is a tape-recording in the archives of the government which best recaptures the sound of the hours as it waited for leadership. It is a recording of all the conversations in the air, monitored by the Signal Corps Midwestern center Liberty, between Air Force One in Dallas, the Cabinet plane over the Pacific, the Joint Chiefs communications center and the White House communications center in Washington. The voices are superbly flat: calm; controlled. One hears the directions of “Front Office” (the President) relayed to “Carpet” (the White House) and to the cabinet above the Pacific….It is a meshing of emotionless voices in the air, performing with mechanical perfection. Only once does any voice break into a sob…..”When asked by Vince Salandria for the source of his news denying conspiracy, White wrote back describing the tape. 30Perhaps it is better that the tape has vanished. If someone talking to the presidential plane knew the outcome of this investigation before it began, how many on the plane knew it, too?What if we were to assume the worst here: that the primary beneficiary of the assassination, the former vice-president, was somehow involved in a plot to promote himself? After all, it is a matter of public record that the office did fall vacant on his home turf, and that the fatal trip had been made at his behest to mend his political fences.It becomes obvious now to see how such a tape could be loaded with incriminating conversations; how the tape (and later the transcript) could disappear from the archives after Mr. White has revealed it; and why subsequent researchers would have to lobby and threaten to get even a severely edited transcript. There are at least 25 reported conversations missing from the Newcomb edition – who knows how many unknown.But if the transcript were edited to conceal links between the former Vice President and the murder, our conjectures seemed doomed by another exchange retained in the Newcomb transcript.BEHN: Yes, go ahead.KELLERMAN: I’ll have to call you back. Get a couple of men, rather the Volunteer (LBJ) boys to go over to his car and so forth. We’ll also need hers and several others. 32The presidential limousine was a mobile murder scene. Its internal ravages – bullet holes, blood spray, embedded bullet fragments – would be crucial evidence in determining the source of the gunfire.Here is Roy Kellerman (Secret Service Agent in Charge of the Dallas trip) ordering [!] his superior to have men – LBJ’s men – go over the car “and so forth.”If there was no controversy about the source of the shots, these speculations would be pointless. But so many things do conflict with the official notion of Oswald firing down from the Sixth Floor window; the Zapruder movie shows JFK thrown violently backward (toward Oswald); the shots seem to have come too fast for Oswald’s rifle; gunpowder odors are smelled in the motorcade; the Parkland doctors describe a frontal entrance wound, etc. Since there are few likely sources of shooting in Dealey Plaza which would not have ripped up the innards of the limousine, this car was obviously hot evidence.Yet the LBJ “boys” who went over it that night produced neither bullet holes nor any description of blood spray pattern (the blood was washed out at Parkland by Secret Servicemen, according to hospital employees) 33Only a skull fragment, a cracked windshield, and five bullet fragments were found. 34It will surprise no one that two larger fragments, with parts of copper jacketing still about them, were later matched to the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, and which was later traced to Oswald.But it may surprise some that all were lying loose on the seats and floor of the car.To put this in perspective, let us digress. Several hours before these discoveries, Secret Service Agent Richard Johnson announced another. He turned over to James J. Rowley, Chief of the Secret Service, a nearly unblemished copper-jacketed bullet given him by a hospital employee at Parkland, where it had been found on a stretcher. This became Warren Commission Exhibit 399, the famous “magic” bullet later credited (with creating) seven wound and two broken bones. 37Like the limousine fragments, it was matched to Oswald’s rifle. 38Johnson apparently told no one of his bullet (no one on Air Force One seems to have heard about it) until he returned to the White House, and then both he and Chief Rowley broke the chain of evidence by not inscribing it, as standard police procedure.This is not the place to evaluate the controversy about the “single bullet theory” or CE399. But because LBJ’s “boys” were sent to “go over” the limousine, and because they found fragments of a copper-jacketed bullet, we should note that all ballistic evidence lining Oswald to the assassination passes through a single agency.The doctors at Parkland found only lead particles in Governor Connally, 39 as did the autopsy pathologists at Bethesda in President Kennedy. 40 A bullet impression found on a curb near the shooting was also leaden. 41 In fact, no copper jacketing was found embedded anywhere. It was all found lying loose, and it was all produced by LBJ’s “boys.”Barely three weeks after the shooting, UPI found that the limousine had been quietly shipped to the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan to be bullet-proofed and completely refitted. One wonders why LBJ – who so loved the status symbols of office – wanted to ride about in this same car with its bitter (or at least bittersweet) memories. If this was some macabre gesture of economy, it was most unfortunate since it prevented the Warren Commission from making its own examination and using the car in its filmed re-enactments. Only the bullet-scarred windshield (scarred with lead, not copper) was saved for the Commission 43 and there is both photographs and testimonial evidence to suggest it was not the same one that went to Dallas.But enough. Asking questions about the Warren Commission, the evidence, the meanings of it all, is like punching the Tarbaby of Uncle Remus tale. Let’s end the speculation.What we have here is a tape – a tape originally made without the knowledge of those being recorded; belatedly discovered; and eventually released by a President in edited form. The trail of discovery beckons analogy to the Watergate tapes. The existence of the tape is at least established, and if it does not turn up, or is not released to the American public, the mystery of its unavailability will surely darken.CITATIONS1. William Manchester, The Death of a President (New York; Harper & Row, 1967) p. 371n.2. Letter from Pierre Salinger to Vincent Salandria, 12/25/67.3. Letter from Colonel James U. Cross to Vincent Salandrai, 1/2/68.4. Letter from Harry J. Middleton to Fred T. Newcomb, 5/16/75.5. Manchester, p. 302-305.6. Telephone Interview, April 1971.7. Manchester, p. 349-350.8. Transcript.9. Transcript.10. Manchester, p. 371n., 268.11. Manchester, p. 341.12. Transcript.13. Manchester, p. 268-272.14. Transcript.15. Manchester, p. 342.16. Jim Bishop, The Day Kennedy Was Shot (New York; Funk & Wagnalls, 1968) p. 273.17. Manchester, p. 346.18. Transcript.19. Theodore H. White, The Making of a President 1964 (New York; Signet Books, 1965) paperback edition p. 48.20. Manchester, p. 284.21. Bishop, p. 505.22. There Was A President (National Broadcasting Co. 1966) p. 20.23. Warren Commission’s evidence, Vol. #24, p. 765.24. NBC-TV Broadcast, 2:45 P.M. (C.S.T.) Nov. 22, 1963.25. White, p. 20.26. White, p. 20.27. Manchester, p. 253, 269.28. Bishop, p. 285; There Was A President, NBC, p. 30.29. White, p. 21.30. Note from Theodore White to Vincent Salandria, undated.31. Telephone interview, Oct. 17, 1975.32. Transcript.33. Joe L. Richards, Warren Commission Hearings, Vol. #21, p. 226. Ibid, Vol. 21, p. 217.34. Warren Commission Exhibits NO. 841, 843.35. Warren Commission Document NO. 5, p. 163.36. Report of Secret Service Agent Richard E. Johnson, Commission Document NO. 3; Testimony of Roy Kellerman, Warren Committion Hearings Vol. #2, p. 99.37. Warren Report, p. 104, New York Times Ed. , P.B.38. Warren Commission Document NO. 5, p. 163.39. Testimony of Robert A. Frazier, Warren Commission Hearings, Vol. #5, p. 72.40. Ibid., Vol. #15, p. 700; testimony of Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt.41. New York Times, December 17, 1963.2 comments:
dalethorn said..."The American military had been put on global alert. Pennsylvania troopers had thrown a guard around former President Eisenhower’s Gettysburg farm. The CIA watch committee had been activated. The government of West Germany was bracing for a possible invasion. Within the time frame of the historical flight, strong suspicions of conspiracy were emerging and none had been laid to rest. But aboard the presidential plane, according to White, people were being told not only that Oswald was the assassin, but that he acted alone!"
January 11, 2019 at 7:23 PM
And that sums up the story. The wider reality was fear and doubt, but the reality in the inner circle was about tying up loose ends to create the false yet official narrative.Tyler Newcomb said...
Right spot on Dale
January 11, 2019 at 7:27 PMSubscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) -
"On Nov. 17, 1962, after the crisis had passed, an Air Force plan showed the extent of attack aircraft available to attack Cuba. Gen. Curtis LeMay, the Air Force chief of staff, had argued for a U.S. attack on the missile bases. His post-crisis plan showed there were 1,456 aircraft and 355 missiles, including 80 Polaris missiles on nuclear submarines, available to strike Cuba.
Those aircraft, the memo showed, were available "for selective attack in graduated increments from two to twelve hours, according to the application of force desired." This came from a recently released file .
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the conspirators were willing to kill the President of the United States in broad daylight in front of hundreds of witnesses. So, yes, they would risk having the Umbrella man there to signal when JFK was coming to make the murder happen. 3 liberal leaders (JFK, RFK and MLK) were murdered by conservative ....
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Cliff, I believe umbrella man was a spotter.
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W, I agree with you. Operating on a NTK (need to know) basis is quite common in large organizations such as the US Military, CIA, etc.
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Earle Cabell went to Texas A and M with Jack Crichton, "Jack Alston Crichton was born on a cotton plantation in Crichton, Louisiana, on 16th October, 1916. After leaving Byrd High School in Shreveport in 1933 he attended the Texas A&M University. Fellow students included Harvey Bright and Earle Cabell. He graduated with a degree in Petroleum Engineering in 1937." Earle's brother was fired by JFK when he fired Dulles (Charles Cabell worked for Dulles for 9 years in the CIA). JFK blamed Dulles and Charles Cabell for the Bay of PIgs fiasco.
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I think DAP was LHO's handler on the day of the assassination and it was DAP that told LHO to go to the Texas Theatre . Then, DAP told Earle Cabell (who we now know was a CIA asset) to have his police go to the Texas Theatre to arrest the assassin (LHO).
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I recall listening to St. John Hunt on Coast to Coast. He said his father ( E Howard Hunt) told him that there was an assassination team waiting for JFK at the Dallas airport and that team had a plan to kill JFK as well- there seems to have been a great determination to have JFK murdered in Dallas that fateful day.
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Paul, in the 1970's and 1980's , Mae Brussell wrote about Otto S., " By 1952 Klaus Barbie had arrived in Bolivia via a stop in Argentina. He had been spirited out of Germany by the CIA, with a hand from the Vatican. Soon he teamed up with SS Major Otto Skorzeny, who now was affiliated with the CIA. Dr. Fritz Thyssen and Dr. Gustav Krupp, both beneficiaries of McCloy's amnesty, bankrolled Skorzeny from the start. Barbie and Skorzeny were soon forming death squads such as the Angels of Death in Bolivia, the Anti-Communist Alliance in Argentina, and in Spain, with Stephen Della Chiaie, the Guerrillas of Christ the King.
In 1952 the nazi, Martin Bormann's money was released. In Argentina, Evita Peron died of cancer at age 33. In her name was deposited, in 40 Swiss banks, the nazi money. There was $100 million cash, another $40 million in diamonds. Several hundred million more were set aside with Evita's brother, Juan Duarte, as the courier. This led to three murders the following year:-
- Juan Duarte was shot to death.
- Heinrich Dorge, an aide to Hjalmar Schacht, killed.
- Rudolf Feude, nazi banker who knew the locations of the money, was poisoned.
In 1952 Otto Skorzeny, who had been released from American custody in 1947, moved to Madrid. He created what is known as the International Fascista. The CIA and the Gehlen BND dispatched him to "trouble spots." On his payroll were former SS agents, French OAS terrorists and secret police from Portugal's PDID. PDID are the same initials as the Los Angeles police intelligence unit, Public Disorder Intelligence Division. The California PDID was exposed on May 24, 1983 as spying on law abiding citizens at an expense of $100,000, utilizing a computerized dossier system bought by the late Representative Larry McDonald's "Western Goals." (McDonald was a national leader of the John Birch Society, which was exceedingly active in Dallas preceding the Kennedy assassination. Western Goals has offices in Germany run by Eugene Wigner that feed data to the Gehlen BND.)
On the board of Western Goals are such Cold Warriors as Edward Teller, Admiral Thomas Moorer and Dr. Hans Senholt, once a Luftwaffe pilot.
SS Colonel Skorzeny's CIA agents participated in terror campaigns waged by Operation 40 in Guatemala, Brazil and Argentina. Skorzeny was also in charge of the Paladin mercenaries, whose cover, M.C. Inc., was a Madrid export-import firm.
Dr. Gerhard Hartmut von Schubert, [formerly] of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda ministry, was M.C. operating manager. The nerve center for Skorzeny's operations was in Albufera, Spain. It was lodged in the same building as the Spanish intelligence agency SCOE under Colonel Eduardo Blanco and was also an office of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
The Albufera building was the kind of intelligence nest that was duplicated in New Orleans in 1963. That summer Lee Harvey Oswald handed out pro-Castro literature stamped with the address 544 Camp Street, a commercial building. This was a blunder, because Oswald actually was under the control of an anti-Castro operation headquartered there. His controller, W. Guy Banister, was connected with military intelligence, the CIA and a section of the World Anti-Communist League that had been set up by Willoughby and his Far Pacific intelligence unit in Taiwan.
In The Great Heroin Coup, Henrik Kruger disclosed that the International Fascist was "not only the first step toward fulfilling the dream of Skorzeny, but also of his close friends in Madrid, exile Jose Lopez Rega, Juan Peron's grey eminence, and prince Justo Valerio Borghese, the Italian fascist money man who had been rescued from execution at the hands of the World War II Italian resistance by future CIA counterintelligence whiz James J. Angleton."
A subcommittee on international operations of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee prepared a report "Latin America: Murder, Inc." that is still classified. The title repeated Lyndon Johnson's remark, three months before he died, "We were running a Murder, Inc. in the Caribbean." The report concluded: "The United States had joint operations between Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. The joint operations were known as Operation Condor. These are special teams used to carry out 'sanctions,' the killing of enemies."
Jack Anderson gave a few details in his column "Operation Condor, An Unholy Alliance" August 3, 1979:"Assassination teams are centered in Chile. This international consortium is located in Colonia Dignidad, Chile. Founded by nazis from Hitler's SS, headed by Franz Pfeiffer Richter, Adolf Hitler's 1000-year Reich may not have perished. Children are cut up in front of their parents, suspects are asphyxiated in piles of excrement or rotated to death over barbecue pits."
Otto Skorzeny code-named his assault on American soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge Operation Greif, the "Condor." He continued Condor with his post-war special teams that imposed "sanctions," meaning the assassination of enemies. Skorzeny's father-in-law was Hjalmar Schacht, president of Hitler's Reichsbank. Schacht guided Onassis' shipyards in rebuilding the German and Japanese war fleets. In 1950 Onassis signed on Lars Anderson for his whaling ships on the hunt off Antarctica and Argentina. Anderson had belonged to Vidkum Quisling's nazi collaborationist group in Norway during the war. Clay Shaw, who was charged by New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison with complicity in the JFK assassination, was a close friend of Hjalmar Schacht.
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Steve, this excerpt from a Bill Kelly blog could be relevant.."While most of the descriptions of the motorcade mention only the Lead Car, driven by DPD Chief Curry, and including Secret Service officers, in front of the Lead Car there was a Pilot Car, driven by 488th member Capt. Lumpkin.
According to Peter Dale Scott's Dallas COPA (2010) address, this car pulled to the side of the road in front of the TSBD and Capt. Lumpkin talked briefly to one of the three police officers assigned to traffic duty at that intersection (Huston & Elm), sixty feet below the Sixth Floor Sniper's window. Except there is no mention of this stop or what was conveyed to the cops in the official reports.
CE 767; Warren Commission Hearings, Volume XVII, page 596.
http://www.maryferre...4&relPageId=631
CE 768; Warren Commission Hearings, Volume XVII, page 605.
http://www.maryferre...bsPageId=139422
Jerry Rose deals with the pilot car
in The Dance of the Railroad Men
http://www.maryferre...bsPageId=519723
and
The Dance of the Railroad Men Reconsidered
http://www.maryferre...34&relPageId=24
The driver of the car was Deputy Chief G. L Lumpkin.
Two homicide detectives were also in the Pilot Car.
A fourth occupant was Lt. Col. George Whitmeyer
Col. Whitmeyer was the Commanding Officer of the NorthernDistrict of Texas and gave the military "stand down" order.
But Lumplin was the highest ranking reserve Col. In the Military Intelligenceand had to have given Whitmeyer this order.
Lumpkin never testified before the Warren Commission eventhough he was Deputy Chief of the Dallas Police and drove the Pilot Car. Hetestified before the HSCA in 1977.
Lt. Col. Whitmyer was due to testify in 1978.
April 18, 1978 newspaper headline "Whitmeyer found dead."
Commission Document 81.1 - AG Texas
http://www.maryferre...84&relPageId=72
Activities of pilot car on November 22, 1963.
Lumpkin driving, Turner right front
Senkel left rear, Whitemeyer center rear, Puterbauch right rear.
And introduces yet another federal intelligence/law enforcement agency into the mix -
the US Alcohol Tax Unit - who are these guys? Did they file reports or what?
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=22150
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=22151
http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/15/1549-002.gif
Fay M. Turner Testimony: http://www.jfk-assas...ol7/page217.php
F. M. Turner Report: http://jfk.ci.dallas...15/1549-001.gif; http://jfk.ci.dallas...15/1549-002.gif; http://jfk.ci.dallas...15/1549-003.gif; http://jfk.ci.dallas...15/1549-004.gif; http://jfk.ci.dallas...15/1549-005.gif;http://jfk.ci.dallas...15/1549-006.gif; http://jfk.ci.dallas...15/1549-007.gif
Billy L. Senkel: http://jfk.ci.dallas...15/1548-001.gif; http://jfk.ci.dallas...15/1548-002.gif; http://jfk.ci.dallas...15/1548-003.gif; http://jfk.ci.dallas...15/1548-004.gif; http://jfk.ci.dallas...15/1548-005.gif
Further confirmation of the occupants and locations.
http://www.maryferre...92&relPageId=17
How did the Sixth Floor Sniper Know when the Target Car would be in the Kill Zone?
I think the Pilot Car told him.
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Also, from the same website, relevant..a list, in alphabetical order by surname, and no doubt incomplete, of those witnesses to President Kennedy’s assassination who claimed that one or more shots came from the general direction of the grassy knoll:
- Victoria Adams
- Danny Garcia Arce
- Virgie Baker (née Rackley)
- Jane Berry
- Charles Brehm
- Ochus Campbell
- Faye Chism
- John Chism
- Harold Elkins
- Ronald Fischer
- Buell Wesley Frazier
- Dorothy Garner
- Jean Hill
- S. M. Holland
- Ed Johnson
- Dolores Kounas
- Paul Landis
- Billy Lovelady
- Austin Miller
- A.J. Millican
- Luke Mooney
- Thomas Murphy
- Jean Newman
- William Newman
- Kenneth O’Donnell and David Powers
- Roberta Parker
- Frank Reilly
- Arnold Rowland
- Edgar Smith
- Joe Marshall Smith
- Forrest Sorrels
- James Tague
- Roy Truly
- Harry Weatherford
- Seymour Weitzman
- Otis Williams
- Mary Woodward
- Abraham Zapruder
- Several other witnesses gave statements that may be interpreted as evidence of shots from the grassy knoll.
- Four witnesses of varying degrees of credibility, Gordon Arnold, Cheryl McKinnon, Lee Bowers, and Ed Hoffman, also claimed to have experienced shots or other sinister activity on the grassy knoll.
-
Greg , here is some relevant information from the 22november1963 website..Dealey Plaza noticed suspicious activity on an upper floor of the TSBD from about 12:15 until the time of the shooting:
- 4 witnesses saw a man in a window, holding a gun.
- 2 witnesses saw a man in a window, but no gun.
- 4 witnesses saw a gun in a window, but no gunman.
Some of this evidence suggests that Oswald was the man with the gun; some of it suggests otherwise.
The official evidence is not only ambiguous but also incomplete. The Warren Commission failed to follow up claims that other witnesses had seen activity in the TSBD (see e.g. Warren Commission Hearings, vol.15, pp.525f). Some of these witnesses have been interviewed by journalists and private researchers in the years since the assassination.
Descriptions that Match Oswald
Howard Brennan was one of the four witnesses in Dealey Plaza who noticed a gunman. In a statement on the day of the assassination, Brennan claimed that the gunman was “a white man in his early 30’s, slender, nice looking, slender and would weigh about 165 to 175 pounds. He had on light colored clothing”. In his Warren Commission testimony, Brennan gave the man’s height as five feet ten inches.
Lee Harvey Oswald was white, slender, and 24 years old. Official documents (e.g. his autopsy report: Warren Commission Hearings, vol.26, p.521 [Commission Exhibit 3002]) give his adult height as either five feet nine inches (175 cm) or five feet ten inches. On the day of his arrest, he weighed 131 pounds (9 stones, 5 pounds; 59 kg; Warren Commission Hearings, vol.17, p.285 [Commission Exhibit 630[).
Arnold Rowland and Ronald Fischer both described the man they saw as “slender”, and Fischer added that “he looked to be 22 or 24 years old”. All three descriptions could reasonably have applied to Oswald, but could also have applied to any number of young white men.
The Reliability of Howard Brennan
Howard Brennan was not, however, an especially reliable witness:
- He claimed that the man was standing up when aiming the rifle, but the sash window made this impossible; it was open only up to about waist height.
- He claimed that “I was looking at the man in this window at the time of the last explosion”, but later explicitly denied that he had seen the man fire the gun.
- He claimed on the afternoon of the assassination that “I believe that I could identify this man if I ever saw him again”, but he was unable to pick out Oswald at an identification parade a few hours later, despite having seen Oswald’s photograph on television in the meantime.
Although the Warren Commission enthusiastically promoted Brennan as the star witness in its case against Oswald, the House Select Committee on Assassinations was more sceptical, and declined to use Brennan.
The Unknown Bystander
Part of Brennan’s description matched that given by an unidentified bystander to Inspector Herbert Sawyer less than fifteen minutes after the assassination: “slender white male about 30, 5 feet 10, 165” (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, pp.321–3). For the case that the bystander was not Brennan, see Bill Simpich, State Secret, chapter 6, esp. note 3.
The bystander’s description bore a remarkable similarity to a knowingly false description of Oswald which was held in the files of the CIA’s internal counter–intelligence department. For more about these descriptions in the context of Oswald’s impersonation in Mexico City a few weeks before the assassination, see “A Little Incident in Mexico City”.
The Gunman’s Hair
Two witnesses, Arnold Rowland and Amos Euins, gave descriptions that were more precise than Brennan’s, but which did not match Oswald’s appearance in crucial ways:
- Rowland described the gunman as having “dark hair … it was dark, probably black. … It didn’t appear as if he had a receding hairline”.
- Euins stated that “I seen a bald spot on this man’s head, trying to look out the window. He had a bald spot on his head. I was looking at the bald spot”.
Two other witnesses disagreed with Rowland about the colour of the man’s hair: Robert Edwards claimed that it was “light brown”, and Carolyn Walther remembered “blond or light brown hair”.
Oswald’s hair was light brown, and receding slightly, but he did not have a bald spot.
The Gunman’s Clothes
Five of the six witnesses who saw a man on the sixth floor of the TSBD were able to describe his clothing. All of them said that he was wearing light–coloured clothes:
- Howard Brennan: “He had on light colored clothing”; “Light colored clothes, more of a khaki color”.
- Arnold Rowland: “He had on a light shirt, a very light–colored shirt, white or a light blue or a color such as that. This was open at the collar. I think it was unbuttoned about halfway, and then he had a regular T–shirt, a polo shirt under this”.
- Carolyn Walther: “a white shirt”.
- Ronald Fischer: “light in color; probably white … it was open–neck and light in color”.
- Robert Edwards: “light colored shirt, short sleeve and open neck”.
Oswald did not wear a light–coloured shirt with an open neck on the day of the assassination. At the time of his arrest, Oswald was wearing a brown shirt over a white T–shirt, and dark trousers (see e.g. Warren Commission Hearings, vol.21, p.467).
Oswald claimed that he had changed his shirt after returning to his lodgings about half an hour after the assassination, and that he had originally been wearing a “reddish colored, long sleeved, shirt with a button–down collar” (Warren Report, p.622; see also Handwritten notes of Captain J.W. Fritz’s interview of Oswald, p.7). This is consistent with the accounts of the two witnesses who described the shirt he was wearing while at the TSBD:
- Linnie Mae Randle, who saw Oswald when he left for work that morning, stated that “I remember some sort of brown or tan shirt” (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.2, p.250).
- Marrion Baker, the policeman who encountered Oswald on the second floor immediately after the shooting, said that Oswald was wearing “a brown–type shirt”, and that this shirt may have been “a little bit darker” than the one Baker saw Oswald wearing later that day (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.3, p.257).
Howard Brennan confirmed that Oswald’s clothes on the day of the assassination had not resembled those of the gunman in the window:
- Mr Brennan :
- And that was another thing that I called their [the police’s] attention to at the lineup.
- Mr Belin :
- What do you mean by that?
- Mr Brennan :
- That he [Oswald] was not dressed in the same clothes that I saw the man in the window.
- Mr Belin :
- You mean with reference to the trousers or the shirt?
- Mr Brennan :
- Well, not particularly either. In other words, he just didn’t have the same clothes on.
- Mr Belin :
- All right.
- Mr Brennan :
- I don’t know whether you have that in the record or not. I am sure you do.
- Mr Dulles :
- Any further questions? I guess there are no more questions, Mr Belin.
- Mr Belin :
- Well, sir, we want to thank you for your cooperation with the Commission.
With that, and before he could do any more damage, Howard Brennan was dismissed.
Lee Harvey Oswald on the Sixth Floor
The very latest sighting of Oswald on the sixth floor by a TSBD employee occurred more than half an hour before the assassination: Charles Givens testified that he saw Oswald there at 11:55 (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, p.352). Givens may, however, not be reliable; his testimony contradicts a statement he had made to the FBI on the day after the assassination (Commission Document 5, p.329), in which he states that his sighting of Oswald occurred on the first floor.
Several employees saw Oswald having lunch on a lower floor after Givens claimed to have seen him on the sixth floor (e.g. Oswald’s boss, William Shelley: Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, p.328). One employee, Bonnie Ray Williams, spent about 10 minutes on the sixth floor from around 12:00, and claimed that he was the only person present on that floor (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.3, pp.169–170).
It is quite possible that Oswald had not set foot on the sixth floor for an hour or more before the assassination. Although he had visited the sixth floor that morning, he had been working on the fifth floor immediately before beginning his lunch break at about 11:45 (ibid., p.168).
For more about Charles Givens’s statements and Oswald’s whereabouts, see two works by Silvia Meagher:
- Accessories After the Fact: the Warren Commission, the Authorities, and the Report, 1964, pp.65–9.
- ‘The Curious Testimony of Mr Givens,’ Texas Observer, 13 August 1971.
Where Was Oswald?
Oswald’s actual location at the time of the shooting is uncertain. According to second–hand accounts, he appears to have claimed to have been on the first floor of the TSBD (Warren Report, p.600). No first–hand account exists; the Dallas police do not appear to have recorded, either on tape or on paper, the many hours of interrogation of the man charged with the President’s murder.
Oswald was seen by a TSBD employee, Carolyn Arnold, on either the first or second floor a few minutes before the shooting, at about the same time as Arnold Rowland saw a gunman on the sixth floor.
It was suggested early on that Oswald was visible in a photograph, standing on the front steps of the TSBD during the shooting, but this was almost certainly the result of a misidentification. The figure in the photograph is now generally agreed to be Billy Lovelady, another TSBD employee.
Was Lee Harvey Oswald the Gunman?
Although Oswald appears to have owned the rifle discovered on the sixth floor, the eye–witness evidence casts doubt on the notion that he was the man seen with the rifle during the assassination. This is consistent with the paraffin test on Oswald’s right cheek, which suggests very strongly that he had not fired a rifle that day.
Wherever he was, Oswald almost certainly was not guilty of killing President Kennedy.
A Man in a Window, Holding a Gun
Howard Brennan
Howard Brennan’s statement to the Dallas Sheriff’s office on the afternoon of the assassination, in which he describes the gunman:
I could see the large red brick building across the street from where I was sitting. I take this building across the street to be about 7 stories anyway in the east end of the building and the second row of windows from the top I saw a man in this window. I had seen him before the President’s car arrived. He was just sitting up there looking down apparantly [sic] waiting for the same thing I was to see the President. I did not notice anything unusual about this man. He was a white man in his early 30’s, slender, nice looking, slender and would weigh about 165 to 175 pounds. He had on light colored clothing but definately [sic] not a suit. I proceeded to watch the President’s car … I heard what I thought was a back fire … I looked up at the building. I then saw this man I have described in the window and he was taking aim with a high powered rifle. I could see all of the barrel of the gun. I do not know if it had a scope on it or not. I was looking at the man in this window at the time of the last explosion. Then this man let the gun down to his side and stepped down out of sight. He did not seem to be in any hurry. I could see this man from about his belt up. There was nothing unusual about him at all in appearance. I believe that I could identify this man if I ever saw him again.
His testimony before the Warren Commission:
- Mr Belin :
- Mr Brennan, could you please tell the Commission … what you saw?
- Mr Brennan :
- I observed quite a few people in different windows. In particular, I saw this one man on the sixth floor which left the window to my knowledge a couple of times.
- …
- Mr Belin :
- Did you see any other people in any other windows that you can recollect?
- Mr Brennan :
- Not on that floor. There was no other person on that floor that ever came to the window that I noticed.
- …
- Mr Belin :
- Now, after you saw the man — well, just tell what else you saw during that afternoon?
- Mr Brennan :
- Well, as the parade came by … I heard this crack that I positively thought was a backfire. … And I glanced up. And this man that I saw previous was aiming for his last shot. … Well, as it appeared to me he was standing up and resting against the left window sill, with gun shouldered to his right shoulder, holding the gun with his left hand and taking positive aim and fired his last shot. As I calculate a couple of seconds. He drew the gun back from the window as though he was drawing it back to his side and maybe paused for another second as though to assure hisself that he hit his mark, and then he disappeared.
- …
- Mr Belin :
- At the time you saw this man on the sixth floor, how much of the man could you see?
- Mr Brennan :
- Well, I could see — at one time he came to the window and he sat sideways on the window sill. That was previous to President Kennedy getting there. And I could see practically his whole body, from his hips up. But at the time that he was firing the gun, a possibility from his belt up.
- …
- Mr Belin :
- Could you describe the man you saw in the window on the sixth floor?
- Mr Brennan :
- To my description, a man in his early thirties, fair complexion, slender but neat, neat slender, possibly 5–foot 10.
- Mr Belin :
- About what weight?
- Mr Brennan :
- Oh, at — I calculated, I think from 160 to 170 pounds.
- Mr Belin :
- A white man?
- Mr Brennan :
- Yes.
- Mr Belin :
- Do you remember what kind of clothes he was wearing?
- Mr Brennan :
- Light colored clothes, more of a khaki color.
- Mr Belin :
- Do you remember the color of his hair?
- Mr Brennan :
- No.
- Mr Belin :
- Do you remember the specific color of any shirt that the man with the rifle was wearing?
- Mr Brennan :
- No, other than light, and a khaki color — maybe in khaki. I mean other than light color — not a real white shirt, in other words. If it was a white shirt, it was on the dingy side.
- Mr Belin :
- I am handing you what the court reporter has marked as Commission Exhibit 150. Does this look like it might or might not be the shirt, or can you make at this time any positive identification of any kind?
- Mr Brennan :
- I would have expected it to be a little lighter — a shade or so lighter.
- Mr Belin :
- Than Exhibit 150?
- Mr Brennan :
- That is the best of my recollection.
- Mr Belin :
- All right. Could you see the man’s trousers at all? Do you remember any color?
- Mr Brennan :
- I remembered them at that time as being similar to the same color of the shirt or a little lighter. And that was another thing that I called their [the police’s] attention to at the lineup.
Arnold Rowland
Arnold Rowland spotted a man holding a gun several minutes earlier than the other witnesses. The gunman was in the southwest corner of the sixth floor, and another man was in the southeast corner window. Despite having seen a man with a gun in the building, Rowland claimed that shots came from the grassy knoll. He gave a statement to the Dallas Sheriff’s Department on the afternoon of the assassination:
I looked up at the Texas Book Depository building and noticed that the second floor from the top had two adjoining windows which were wide open, and upon looking I saw what I thought was a man standing back about 15 feet from the windows and was holding in his arms what appeard to be a hi powered rifle because it looked as though it had a scope on it. He appeared to be holding this at a parade rest sort of positioin. … This man appeared to be a white man and appeared to have a light colored shirt on, open at the neck. He appeared to be of slender build and appeared to have dark hair.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.16, p.953 [Commission Exhibit 357])
Arnold Rowland was interviewed by the FBI two days later:
Between 12:10 p.m. and 12:15 p.m., I looked toward the Texas School Book Depository which faces the South and is located on the corner of Elm and Houston. I observed the two rectangular windows at the extreme west end of the Texas School Book Depository next to the top floor were open. I saw what I believed to be a man standing about 12 to 15 feet back from the window on the right. He appeared to be slender in proportion to his height, was wearing a white or light colored shirt, either collarless or open at the neck. He appeared to have dark hair. He also appeared to holding [sic] a rifle with scope attached, in a ready position or in military terminology, port arms. I saw him only momentarily and he seemed to disapear [sic] in the shadows of the room.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.16, p.954 [Commission Exhibit 358])
- Mr Rowland :
- I noticed on the sixth floor of the building that there was a man back from the window, not hanging out the window. He was standing and holding a rifle. … This was on the west corner of the building.
- …
- Mr Specter :
- How much, if any, or all of that rifle could you see?
- Mr Rowland :
- All of it.
- …
- Mr Specter :
- Describe, as best you can, the appearance of the individual whom you saw?
- Mr Rowland :
- He was rather slender in proportion to his size. I couldn’t tell for sure whether he was tall and maybe, you know heavy, say 200 pounds, but tall whether he would be and slender or whether he was medium and slender, but in proportion to his size his build was slender.
- Mr Specter :
- Could you give us an estimate on his height?
- Mr Rowland :
- No; I couldn’t. …
- Mr Specter :
- Was he a white man or a Negro or what?
- Mr Rowland :
- Seemed, well, I can’t state definitely from my position because it was more or less not fully light or bright in the room. He appeared to be fair complexioned, not fair, but light complexioned, but dark hair.
- Mr Specter :
- What race was he then?
- Mr Rowland :
- I would say either a light Latin or a Caucasian.
- Mr Specter :
- And were you able to observe any characteristics of his hair?
- Mr Rowland :
- No; except that it was dark, probably black.
- Mr Specter :
- Were you able to observe whether he had a full head of hair or any characteristic as to quantity of hair?
- Mr Rowland :
- It didn’t appear as if he had a receding hairline but I know he didn’t have it hanging on his shoulders. Probably a close cut from — you know it appeared to me it was either well–combed or close cut.
- Mr Specter :
- What, if anything, did you observe as to the clothes he was wearing?
- Mr Rowland :
- He had on a light shirt, a very light–colored shirt, white or a light blue or a color such as that. This was open at the collar. I think it was unbuttoned about halfway, and then he had a regular T–shirt, a polo shirt under this, at least this is what it appeared to be. He had on dark slacks or blue jeans, I couldn’t tell from that. I didn’t see but a small portion.
- Mr Specter :
- You say you only saw a small portion of what?
- Mr Rowland :
- Of his pants from his waist down.
- …
- Mr Specter :
- Were you able to form any opinion as to the age of that man?
- Mr Rowland :
- This is again just my estimation. He was — I think I remember telling my wife that he appeared in his early thirties. This could be obscured because of the distance, I mean.
- Mr Specter :
- Were you able to form any opinion as to the weight of the man in addition to the line of proportion which you have already described?
- Mr Rowland :
- I would say about 140 to 150 pounds.
- …
- Mr Specter :
- When, after you first observed him did you have a conversation abut him with your wife?
- Mr Rowland :
- Right afterwards. There was — just before I observed him there was a police motorcycle parked just on the street … and the radio was on it giving the details of the motorcade, where it was positioned, and right after the time I noticed him … the dispatcher came on and gave the position of the motorcade as being on Cedar Springs. … And this was the position of the motorcade and it was about 15 or 16 after 12.
- …
- Mr Rowland :
- Something I would like to note is that the window that I have been told the shots were actually fired from, I did not see that, there was someone hanging out that window at that time.
- Rep Ford :
- What time was that?
- Mr Rowland :
- At the time I saw the man in the other window, I saw this man hanging out the window first. It was a colored man, I think.
- Rep Ford :
- Is this the same window where you saw the man standing with the rifle?
- Mr Rowland :
- No; this was the one on the east end of the building, the one that they said the shots were fired from.
- Rep Ford :
- I am not clear on this now. The window that you saw the man that you describe was on what end of the building?
- Mr Rowland :
- The west, southwest corner.
- Rep Ford :
- And the man you saw hanging out from the window was at what corner?
- Mr Rowland :
- The east, southeast corner.
- Rep Ford :
- Southeast corner. On the same floor?
- Mr Rowland :
- On the same floor.
Carolyn Walther
Carolyn Walther saw a gunman a few minutes after Arnold Rowland, and shortly before the motorcade reached Dealey Plaza. Like Rowland, she saw another man in addition to the man holding a gun. She was interviewed by the FBI on 4 December 1963, but was not called before the Warren Commission.
Shortly after the ambulance left, she looked back toward the TSBD Building and saw a man standing on either the fourth or fifth floor in the southeast corner window. … This man had the window open and was standing up leaning out the window with both his hands extended outside the window ledge. In his hands, this man was holding a rifle with the barrel pointed downward, and the man was looking south on Houston Street. The man was wearing a white shirt and had blond or light brown hair. … In the same window, to the left of this man, she could see a portion of another man standing by the side of this man with a rifle. This other man was standing erect, and his head was above the opened portion of the window. As the window was very dirty, she could not see the head of this second man. She is positive this window was not as high as the sixth floor. This second man was apparently wearing a brown suit coat, and the only thing she could see was the right side of the man, from about the waist to the shoulders.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.24, p.522 [Commission Exhibit 2086])
Amos Euins
Fifteen–year–old Amos Euins made a statement to the Dallas Sheriff’s Department on the afternoon of the assassination:
I watched the car on down the street and about the time this car got near the black and white sign I heard a shot. I started looking around and then I looked up in the red brick building. I saw a man in a window with a gun and I saw him shoot twice. He then stepped back behind some boxes. I could tell the gun was a rifle and it sounded like an automatic rifle the way he was shooting. I just saw a little bit of the barrel, and some of the trigger housing. This was a white man, he did not have on a hat. I just saw this man for a few seconds.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.16, p.963 [Commission Exhibit 367])
In his testimony before the Warren Commission, Euins expanded on his description of the gunman, and corrected a mistake in his original statement:
- Mr Euins :
- And then the President come around the corner right here. … And then I had seen a pipe, you know, up there in the window, I thought it was a pipe, some kind of pipe. … Then I was standing here, and as the motorcade turned the corner, I was facing, looking dead at the building. And so I seen this pipe thing sticking out the window. Then when the first shot was fired, I started looking around, thinking it was a backfire. Everybody else started looking around. Then I looked up at the window, and he shot again. … So after he shot again, he just started looking down this, you know.
- Mr Specter :
- Who started looking down that way?
- Mr Euins :
- The man in the window. I could see his hand, and I could see his other hand on the trigger, and one hand was on the barrel thing. … And then after he shot again, he pulled the gun back in the window.
- …
- Mr Specter :
- Now, when the third shot occurred, Amos, let me ask you again, where were you looking then?
- Mr Euins :
- I was still down here, looking up at the building.
- Mr Specter :
- What did you see in the building?
- Mr Euins :
- I seen a bald spot on this man’s head, trying to look out the window. He had a bald spot on his head. I was looking at the bald spot. I could see his hand, you know the rifle laying across in his hand. And I could se his hand sticking on the trigger part. And after he got through, he just pulled it back in the window.
- …
- Mr Specter :
- Now, what kind of a look, if any, did you have at the man who was there?
- Mr Euins :
- All I got to see was the man with a spot in his head, because he had his head something like this.
- Mr Specter :
- Indicating his face down, looking down the rifle?
- Mr Euins :
- Yes, sir: and I could see the spot on his head.
- Mr Specter :
- How would you describe that man for us?
- Mr Euins :
- I wouldn’t know how to describe him, because all I could see was the spot on his head and his hand.
- Mr Specter :
- Was he slender or was he fat?
- Mr Euins :
- I didn’t get to see him.
- Mr Specter :
- Could you tell from where you looked whether he was tall or short?
- Mr Euins :
- No.
- Mr Specter :
- Of what race was he, Amos?
- Mr Euins :
- I couldn’t tell, because these boxes were throwing a reflexion, shaded.
- Mr Specter :
- Could you tell whether he was a Negro gentleman or a white man?
- Mr Euins :
- No, sir.
- Mr Specter :
- Couldn’t even tell that? But you have described that he had a bald —
- Mr Euins :
- Spot in his head. Yes, sir: I could see the bald spot in his head.
- Mr Specter :
- Now, could you tell what color hair he had?
- Mr Euins :
- No, sir.
- Mr Specter :
- Could you tell whether his hair was dark or light?
- Mr Euins :
- No, sir.
- …
- Mr Specter :
- Were you able to tell anything about the clothes he was wearing?
- Mr Euins :
- No, sir.
- …
- Mr Specter :
- I now show you a paper, Amos, which I have marked as Commission Exhibit No. 367. … In the statement you say here that he was a white man. By reading the statement, does that refresh your memory as to whether he was a white man or not?
- Mr Euins :
- No, sir; I told the man that I could see a white spot on his head, but I didn’t actually say it was a white man. I said I couldn’t tell. But I saw a white spot in his head.
- Mr Specter :
- Your best recollection at this moment is you still don’t know whether he was a white man or a Negro? All you can say is that you saw a white spot on his head?
- Mr Euins :
- Yes, sir.
- Mr Specter :
- Then, did you tell the people at the police station that he was a white man, or did they make a mistake when they wrote that down here?
- Mr Euins :
- They must have made a mistake, because I told them I could see a white spot on his head.
A Man in a Window, but No Gun
Ronald Fischer
Ronald Fischer and Robert Edwards were standing on the west side of Houston Street, directly opposite the TSBD.
- Mr Fischer :
- About 10 or 15 seconds before the first car came around that corner, Bob punched me and said, “Look at that guy there in that window.” And he made some remark — said, “He looks like he’s uncomfortable” — or something. And I looked up and I watched the man for, oh, I’d say, 10 or 15 seconds. It was until the first car came around the corner of Houston and Main. And, then, when that car did come around the corner, I took my attention off of the man in the window and started watching the parade. The man held my attention for 10 or 15 seconds, because he appeared uncomfortable for one, and, secondly, he wasn’t watching — uh — he didn’t look like he was watching for the parade. He looked like he was looking down toward the Trinity River and the triple underpass down at the end — toward the end of Elm Street. And — uh — all the time I watched him, he never moved his head, he never — he never moved anything. Just was there transfixed.
- Mr Belin :
- In what window did you see the man?
- Mr Fischer :
- It was the corner window on Houston Street facing Elm, in the fifth or sixth floor.
- …
- Mr Belin :
- Do you remember anything about the man? Could you describe his appearance at all? First of all, how much of him could you see?
- Mr Fischer :
- I could see from about the middle of his chest past the top of his head. … And he had — he had on an open–neck shirt, but it — uh — could have been a sport shirt or a T–shirt. It was light in color; probably white, I couldn’t tell whether it had long sleeves or whether it was a short–sleeved shirt, but it was open–neck and light in color. Uh — he had a slender face and neck — uh — and he had a light complexion — he was a white man. And he looked to be 22 or 24 years old.
- Mr Belin :
- Do you remember anything about the color of his hair?
- Mr Fischer :
- His hair seemed to be — uh — neither light nor dark; possibly a light — well, possibly a — well, it was a brown was what it was; but as to whether it was light or dark, I can’t say.
- Mr Belin :
- Did he have a thick head of hair or did he have a receding hairline — or couldn’t you tell?
- Mr Fischer :
- I couldn’t tell. He couldn’t have had very long hair, because his hair didn’t seem to take up much space — of what I could see of his head. His hair must have been short and not long.
Robert Edwards
- Mr Belin :
- What did you see?
- Mr Edwards :
- Nothing of any importance except maybe one individual who was up there in the corner room of the sixth floor which was crowded in among boxes.
- …
- Mr Belin :
- Could you describe this individual at all? Was he a white man or a Negro?
- Mr Edwards :
- White man.
- Mr Belin :
- Tall or short, if you know?
- Mr Edwards :
- I couldn’t say.
- Mr Belin :
- Did he have anything in his hand at all that you could see?
- Mr Edwards :
- No.
- Mr Belin :
- Could you see his hands?
- Mr Edwards :
- I don’t remember.
- Mr Belin :
- What kind of clothes did he have on?
- Mr Edwards :
- Light colored shirt, short sleeve and open neck.
- Mr Belin :
- How much of him could you see? Shoulder up, waist up, knees up, or what?
- Mr Edwards :
- From the waist on. From the abdomen or stomach up.
- Mr Belin :
- Was the man fat, thin, or average in size?
- Mr Edwards :
- Oh, about average. Possibly thin.
- …
- Mr Belin :
- What color hair did the man have?
- Mr Edwards :
- Light brown.
- Mr Belin :
- Light brown hair?
- Mr Edwards :
- That is what I would say; yes, sir.
- Mr Belin :
- Did you see any other people on the sixth floor?
- Mr Edwards :
- No.
- …
- Mr Belin :
- Do you know whether or not the hair of the man was short, average, or long on the man that you saw in the window that day?
- Mr Edwards :
- Don’t know.
A Gun in a Window, but No Gunman
Mrs Earle Cabell
Mrs Earle Cabell, who used the first name of her husband, the former mayor of Dallas, was in the motorcade three or four cars behind President Kennedy’s car.
- Mrs Cabell :
- I saw a projection out of one of those windows. Those windows on the sixth floor are in groups of twos.
- Mr Hubert :
- In which window did you see the projection?
- Mrs Cabell :
- I have always been a little confused about that, but I think it was the first window.
- Mr Hubert :
- On what floor?
- Mrs Cabell :
- On the top floor. Now I cannot take oath and say which window. There was some confusion in my mind.
- …
- Mr Hubert :
- What was this projection?
- Mrs Cabell :
- I cannot tell you. It was rather long looking, the projection.
- Mr Hubert :
- What did it seem like? An arm of an individual, or something mechanical?
- Mrs Cabell :
- I did not know, because I did not see a hand or a head or a human form behind it. It was in just a fleeting second that I jerked my head up and I saw something in that window.
Bob Jackson
Two news photographers in the motorcade, Bob Jackson and Malcolm Couch, saw a rifle barrel being withdrawn from a window on an upper floor of the TSBD. At the time of the shooting, their vehicle was on Houston Street, about halfway between Main Street and Elm Street, with the TSBD directly in front of them.
Jackson wrote about his experience in his newspaper, the Dallas Times Herald, the following day:
As I looked up to the window above, I saw a rifle being pulled back in the window. It might have been resting on the window sill. I didn’t see a man. I didn’t even see if it had a scope on it. … I looked to my left and I could see both cars speeding off, the President’s car and the car behind him.
(‘Lensman Heard Shots, Saw Gun’, Dallas Times Herald, 23 November 1963)
He later testified before the Warren Commission:
Then after the last shot, I guess all of us were just looking all around and I just looked straight up ahead of me which would have been looking at the Texas School Book Depository and I noticed two Negro men in a window straining to see directly above them, and my eyes followed right on up to the window above them and I saw the rifle or what looked like a rifle approximately half of the weapon, I guess I saw, and just as I looked at it, it was drawn fairly slowly back into the building, and I saw no one in the window with it. I didn’t even see a form in the window.
Malcolm Couch
And after the third shot, Bob Jackson, who was as I recall on my right, yelled something like, “Look up in the window! There’s a rifle!” And I remember glancing up to a window on the far right which at the time impressed me as the sixth or seventh floor, and seeing about a foot of rifle being — the barrel brought into the window. I saw no one in that window — just a quick 1–second glance at the barrel.
Although Robert Jackson failed to take a photograph of the rifle in the window, he did take a famous photograph of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Oswald two days later. For a full account of Robert Jackson, Malcolm Couch and other passengers in the press photographers’ car, see Richard Trask, Pictures of the Pain: Photography and the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Yeoman Press, 1994, pp.417–441.
James Worrell
James Worrell, aged twenty, claimed to have been standing almost directly underneath the sixth–floor window. He also claimed to have seen President Kennedy get off Air Force One at Love Field airport in Dallas, to have made his way to downtown Dallas by bus, and to have arrived in Dealey Plaza before 11 o’clock. The plane did not land until around 11:30, which casts doubt on whether Worrell actually saw anything at all.
I heard loud noise like a fire cracker or gun shots. I looked around to see where the noise came from. I looked up and saw the barrel of a rifle sticking out of a window over my head about 5 or 6 stories up. While I was looking at the gun it was fired again. I looked back at Mr. Kennedy and he was slumping over. I got scared and ran from the location. While I was running I heard the gun fire two more times. … When I was about 100 yards from the building I stopped to get my breath and looked back at the building. I saw a w/m, 5′8″ to 5′10″, dark hair, average weight for height, dark shirt or jacket open down front, no hat, didn’t have anything in hands, come out of the building and run in the opposite direction from me.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.16, p.959 [Commission Exhibit 363])
- Mr Worrell :
- I looked up and saw the rifle, but I would say about 6 inches of it.
- Mr Specter :
- And where did you see the rifle?
- Mr Worrell :
- I am not going — I am not too sure but I told the FBI it was either in the fifth or the sixth floor on the far corner, on the east side.
- Sen Cooper :
- Did you see anyone in the windows, in the Texas School Book Depository?
- Mr Worrell :
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Chris, (and David)- this is the interview of Lee Bowers , who had a bird's eye view of the assassin(s) behind grassy knoll fence. Does this correlate to your findings?
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Here are a couple more names.. E Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis (AKA Fiorini) and Earl Cabell (and probably Charles Cabell)
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Jim, I should have constructed my paragraph better and said that e howard hunt made a deathbed confession to his son , St. John, stating he was part of the B team to assassinate JFK.
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I met Mark Lane in 1975 in Albany, NY. I can attest to the fact that Mark Lane was a man of great integrity and was one of the first people who stood up against the allen dulles - led Warren commission. His interview of Lee Bowers was very important, historically. He also won a very important case against e howard hunt, who admitted he was part of the B team to assassinate JFK.
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And this is what John Simkin said on this website about Spas Raiken" ... (Oswald ) he was met bySpas T. Raikin. He also provided Oswald with money to get him to Fort Worth. Officially,Raiken was working on behalf of the New York Travelers Aid Society. It is possible that he was really a CIA contract agent. Raikin later testified that Oswald did tell him some information about.."
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The CIA, per Bill Kelly's blog, "Eventually arriving in New York with his Russian wife and child, Oswald and his family were met by Spas T. Raiken of Traveler’s Aid. Raiken was also the secretary-treasurer of the American Friends of the Anti-Bolshvik Block of Nations, a CIA front group, part of the World Anti-Communist League and an arm of Operation WRINGER, and paraphrasing Bill Kelly, WRINGER was coordinated by g. gelhlen, a former high-ranking member of nazi intelligence gathering key people from Eastern Europe to fight Communism (for the CIA/ A. Dulles).
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I agree, Dan. If you want to compare Mae to somebody today, I would compare her to Rachel Maddow (on MSNBC @9pm).
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Here is what Mae Brussell said about Osborne,"
When Lee Harvey Oswald entered Mexico at Laredo, Texas, on Sept. 26, 1963, his companion on the Red Arrow bus was Albert Osborne, alias John Howard Bowen.
Bowen-Osborne had been running a school for highly professional marksmen in Oaxaca, Mexico, since 1934. The cover for the place was his particular mission, and he was the missionary.
The FBI records on Bowen go back to June 4, 1942, in Henderson Springs, Tennessee. He operated a camp for boys known as "Campfire Council." Neighbors complained it was for pro-nazi activities with young fascists. Bowen vehemently opposed the U.S. going to war with nazi Germany. They stomped on the American flag.
Before that, Bowen worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority since 1933.
His dual citizenship between Great Britain and the U.S. took him over the entire globe. So did his use of multiple aliases.
After the Warren Commission published their report in September 1964, several attorneys in the Southwest recognized the name of Osborne.
September 8, 1952, Jake Floyd was murdered. The target was meant to be his father, District Judge Floyd. Two suspects were caught, one got away. Their testimony was about being hired by Osborne and how he ran the school for assassins.
Later investigation revealed Osborne's connections to Division V of the FBI, and to Clay Shaw's Centro Mondiale Commerciale, with funding coming from New Orleans for the CIA, Anti-Castro Cubans, and others.
Lee Harvey Oswald applied for a tourist card to enter Mexico while still in New Orleans on September 17, 1963.
Four other persons, having consecutive tourist numbers, departed nine days later, like Oswald, all to arrive at the same time, entering from several different cities. They were part of the White Russian Solidarists, the Gehlen emigre community that Lee and Marina mingled with.
This assassination team funded Maurice Brooks Gatlin, Guy Bannister, and the Miami office of Double Check Corporation.
J. Edgar Hoover's Division V, Domestic Intelligence, working with the American Council of Christian Churches, had used this group from the Bowen-Osborne academy of assassins.
Volume XXV of the Hearings has many pages of interviews with people who had sent money to Jack Bowen. They never met him, and some like Mrs. Bessie White, Pikesville, Tenn., mailed "$35 a month to John Howard Bowen who she believed had been doing missionary work for 18 years in Mexico." Osborne-Bowen had a mission.
Lee Harvey Oswald, agent from U.S. Defense Dept., had a team of doubles impersonating his behavior, leaving trails of anti-American frustration and meetings with various people.
While Oswald was in Mexico just prior to Kennedy's murder, the purposes were concealed. Meanwhile, the CIA and various authorities led Oswald to the Cuban Embassy, the Soviet Embassy. When the face or voices didn't match the authentic Oswald, it didn't matter, given a difference of 40 to 50 pounds and shape. What came from all this was the conclusion that Oswald had really wanted to go to Cuba next. Which Oswald, and why?" She went on the Bob Fass radio show many times to explain much of her findings. Now, Bob's papers on his radio show are at Columbia University Library archives. If you want to access Bob's papers, here is what you need to tell Columbia University:Call No.:
MS#1786
Bib ID:
11749061 View CLIO record
Creator(s):
Fass, Bob, 1933-
Title:
Bob Fass papers, circa 1960-2011 [Bulk Dates: 1963-1991]
Physical description:
200 linear ft. (157 record cartons, 22 document boxes, 80 audiocassette boxes, and 18 flat boxes)
Language(s):
In English
Access:
This collection has no restrictions. This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least two business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. All audiovisual materials in this collection must be digitized before use. Please contact the library to arrange access to these materials. Photographs must be handled using gloves. Slides (boxes 127-148) and papers (boxes 239 and 250-276) are still in process. Please contact the library for more information about accessing these materials. More information »
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Paul my last post was a direct quote from the JFKFacts website-Doug Horne was the author of the post. The only question I can answer is the Washington Airport is about a half hour drive to Bethesda.
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More on Lemay (from the JFKFacts website).."
While General LeMay’s most recent biographer claims he was hunting in Michigan when the assassination occurred, he clearly was not.
“The ‘Chuck Holmes’ Air Force logbook from Andrews AFB obtained by the ARRB reveals that LeMay was in Toronto, in Canada, on the day of the assassination—not in Michigan. The logbook reveals that the flight dispatched to pick him up was originally sent to Toronto, not to any location in Michigan.
“While en route to Canada, the VIP flight was diverted to Wiarton (pronounced “wire-ton”), a different Canadian site, which Bill Kelly’s research has revealed was a commando training base in WW II. (It’s spelling was incorrect in the Andrews log—recorded as “Wairton”—but the intent and meaning was clear. For some reason, LeMay wanted to be picked up at a remote site.)
“We don’t know what LeMay was doing in Canada, but he did not take his aide with him. Colonel Dorman’s surviving family menbers told Bill Kelly that this was the one and only trip when LeMay did not take his aide with him. Apparently, LeMay felt it necessary to lie to his family and associates about his whereabouts that day, otherwise his family and associates would not have fed the false information about a Michigan hunting trip to his biographer.
Where did LeMay go?
“Furthermore, LeMay’s aircraft landed at Washington’s National Airport, instead of at Andrews AFB as had been ordered by the Secretary of the Air Force. The Chuck Holmes logbook reveals that LeMay disobeyed orders that day, and we don’t know why.
“But we do know, from the logbook, that LeMay’s aircraft landed at DCA (National Airport) at 5:12 PM—more than one hour and fifteen minutes prior to the time JFK’s body arrived at Bethesda Naval Hospital at 6:35 PM. And the Clifton tapes reveal to us that his aide, Colonel Dorman, was frantically attempting to speak to him on the radio while LeMay was en route to DCA, but was unsuccessful.
Gen. Curtis LeMay
Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay.
Did LeMay attend JFK’s autopsy?
“Navy Petty Officer Paul K. O’Connor—a hospital corpsman whose job it was to assist the pathologists at the autopsy—recounted consistently over the years that when he was ordered by the chief pathologist at the autopsy to tell whoever was smoking in the morgue to put out their cigar, he walked over to the gallery and discovered that the offender was Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay. LeMay contemptuously blew cigar smoke in O’Connor’s face, and of course, refused to extinguish his cigar.
“This is a good example of how a multidisciplinary approach to research bears great dividends. Neither the Clifton Air Force One tapes, nor the Andrews logbook, nor Paul O’Connor’s recollections, can tell us the complete story; but together, we can piece together a significant event on 11/22/63: Curtis LeMay was present at JFK’s autopsy to gloat over the death of his nemesis, and in going there, he disobeyed the orders of his nominal superior, the Secretary of the Air Force, Eugene Zuckert.
“I am proud of the part the ARRB, and my Military Records Team, played in obtaining the Chuck Holmes logbook, for it is the heart of this story. The new dimension about the frustration of LeMay’s aide, Colonel Dorman, comes to us from the Clifton tapes. It certainly makes the basic story even more intriguing. And I believe Paul O’Connor. He told me that story himself back in 1998.”"
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Lemay thought JFK appeased Russia like Chamberlin appeased Hitler. To quote an historian, " LeMay’s job, of course, was to make military options available to the president. And that was something he was good at–some would say, too good. In this excerpt, LeMay is simply presenting the air strike options. But never shy, LeMay tended to cross the line into advocacy of military action, something that bothered Kennedy. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, LeMay had told Kennedy that the course the President had settled on–a naval blockade of Cuba–was a bad idea and was “almost as bad as the appeasement at Munich.” And at another point of this November 16 meeting, he advocated “solving” the problem, by which he meant implementing CINCLANT OPLAN 312-62, the air attack plan for Cuba."
William King Harvey aka Oliver Hardy
in JFK Assassination Debate
Posted
Evan, to be flown in from SE Asia (Vietnam?), his trip must have been approved at a high level- did he speak about who approved his trip? Was he trained as a sniper ?
Chuck S.