Chuck Schwartz
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Posts posted by Chuck Schwartz
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Chris, in all honesty, I read your posts, but do not fully understand them. However, I intuitively believe you are on the right track and want to encourage you to keep on keeping on. If you get a chance, could you post , in a narrative form, what you believe to be true about how JFK was killed , I think that would be great. Maybe you could call it your hypothesis. But, I understand if you do not want to do this yet.
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Anna Bisaro wrote this article on William Sharp:
William Shapr... had sold the mail order rifle Lee Harvey Oswald reportedly used to kill the president.
“When they held the rifle up [on the news], I about fell through the floor,” Sharp recalls of the night of Nov. 22, 1963. "An $11 rifle?"
The rifle Oswald had reportedly chosen to use and bought under an alias was a cheap Italian model, Sharp said. The 6.5 mm Carcano, a military-grade rifle, was not expensive to make and therefore, very popular among consumers.
“It was a piece of junk,” Sharp said. Knowing that the warehouse on West Madison in Chicago sold much higher quality guns, Sharp was shocked at Oswald’s choice and at his success. “If you want good optics, you don’t buy them for three dollars [an estimate].”
“The Italians, they are lovers,” Sharp said as he explained that the warehouse also sold better-quality British sniper rifles. "I just couldn't understand it," he said.
Oswald’s choice of weapon aside, there was something else to haunt him. At work the next day, Sharp relayed concerns to his boss about the gun he had seen on television.
“It’s my rifle, I put the scope on it,” Sharp told him. His boss replied, "'No No No, don't say that!'" Sharp said his boss was afraid of the consequences.
Later that day, the FBI arrived at the warehouse and confirmed Sharp's suspicions. "There were more FBI agents there than you could shake a stick at," Sharp recalls.
Klein’s Sporting Goods had an extensive and very profitable mail order business, Sharp said. The warehouse in Chicago was used as a mid-point between manufacturers and their consumers countrywide. The mail order catalog was so profitable that when the United States banned interstate firearm sales as part of the Gun Control Act in 1968, the company was sold and Sharp left to find work elsewhere.
Because he enjoyed hunting, Sharp had a lifelong interest in firearms. He had no prior experience as a gunsmith before beginning his apprenticeship at Klein's Sporting Goods at age 28, but took quickly to the job and enjoyed his work.
As the only gunsmith in the warehouse at the time of Kennedy’s assassination, Sharp’s job, at age 32, was to add components, like optics scopes, to rifles if customers requested them. Oswald's rifle had a scope put on it.
Weeks later, the Warren Commission – the team of investigators researching the death of the president – sent Sharp a copy of the receipt with the alias Oswald had used to purchase the weapon: A. Hidell.
When the FBI arrived at the warehouse on Nov. 23. Sharp said an agent asked him to demonstrate the use of the Italian rifle in the basement.
"I said, 'But I don't want to shoot that rifle," Sharp remembers. He did a demonstration at their insistence and what Sharp noticed when he shot the rifle still haunts him today.
Sharp used 6.5x52 Carcano ammunition that the warehouse sold together with the Italian rifles. That type of ammunition was not sold many places. As far as Sharp knew at the time, the Chicago warehouse was one of the only places that sold that type of ammunition, he said. If Oswald used ammunition he bought from the warehouse, Sharp demonstrated the use of the rifle for the FBI with the same ammunition Oswald would have used, he said.
Before the shot rang out in the basement of the warehouse when Sharp pulled the trigger, he heard a click and felt a delay in the response of the firearm. This is called hang fire. Hang fire occurs when there is drag in release of the bullet from a rifle after the shooter pulls the trigger.
"I don't know what he bought" for ammunition, Sharp said. However, Sharp believes if the rifle and ammunition were the same as those he had shown the FBI, Oswald’s rifle likely would have hang fired as well, he said.
A delay in the response of the rifle would make shooting at a moving object very difficult because that delay in the release of the bullet would not have been accounted for when the person aimed if the shooter was unaware that the rifle would hang fire.
Sharp said the FBI agent did not seem to notice the hang fire and later the Warren Commission did not understand the significance of his hang fire hypothesis. “Everything I said to them was Greek,” Sharp said of his phone conversation with the Warren Commission. "They were very intelligent people, but they didn't know anything about firearms."
"I was very skeptical of the hang fire of the ammunition," Sharp said. “If Oswald did do it, I would say he was just very, very lucky.”
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Jim, Bruce is correct - that is web site that google led me to. They seem legit to me. But, I am not the expert that you are in these matters.
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Tom, I did not write that piece. I got it off the internet by googling JFK and WR Westbrook. There is a thread on this website called 488 Military intelligence..Here are some snapshots..
served as the unit's commander under Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer, who was in overall command of all Army Reserve units in East Texas. In an interview Crichton claimed that there were "about a hundred men in that unit and about forty or fifty of them were from the Dallas Police Department."
In November 1963 Jack Alston Crichton was involved in the arrangements of the visit that President John F. Kennedy made to Dallas. His close friend, Deputy Police Chief George L. Lumpkin, and a fellow member of the the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, drove the pilot car of Kennedy's motorcade. (Lumpkin would later tell the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he had been consulted by the Secret Service on motorcade security, and his input had eliminated an alternative route). Also in the car was Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer. The pilot car stopped briefly in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lumpkin spoke to a policeman controlling traffic at the corner of Houston and Elm.
As Russ Baker points out in Family of Secrets (2008) Crichton served as the "intelligence unit's only commander... until he retired from the 488th in 1967".
http://www.spartacus...k/JFK488mid.htm
• Per Bill Kelly, this is a good URRL address:
Posted 14 January 2009 - 03:35 AM
http://jfk.ci.dallas...11/1173-001.gif
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Posted 14 January 2009 - 04:55 AM
See post How did the police first learn of 1026 N. Beckley? By Steve Thomas
http://educationforu...?showtopic=2331
and from PDS's Deep Politics & the Death of JFK:
p. 276 The Plot and the Coverup – Deep Politics and the Death of JFK by PDS
...two minutes earlier by Jack Alston Crichton, a right-wing Republican, oil operator, member of Army Intelligence Reserve (9 WH 106), and head of "a local Army Intelligence Unit" (WCD 386, SS 1058). Crichton knew Mamantov personally as a fellow petroleum geologist. He also knew him because Mamantov was a precinct chairman o the Republican party, for which Crichton became the 1964 candidate for governor of Texas.
It is not known how many Dallas policemen were also (as is apparently a widespread practice) members of the U.S. Army Reserve. One such reservist was Detective Adamik (7 WH 203), a member of the party which retrieved the rifle-blanket from the Paine garage and later reported what he overheard at Mamantov's interview of Marina about the rifle ("She said that it looked like her husband's rifle. She said that it was dark"; 24 WH291). Another member of Army Intelligence Reserve was Captain W. P. Gannaway, Revill's supervisor as head of the Dallas Police Special Service Bureau (WCD 1426.26; 19 WH 120); Gannaway's secretary was reported by an out-of-town police chief to be "closely connected" to Jack Ruby (WCD 86.151). This story was plausible, given the close connection between Ruby and the SSB, including men who participated in the search of the TSBD and the arrest of Oswald. Since the protection of visiting dignitaries was one of the SSB's responsibilities (5 WH48), Gannaway was involved in the meetings arranged by Secret Service advance man Winston Lawson for the Kennedy visit (5 WH39; 7 WH 580).
According to a news story in FBI files, in 1963 both Captain Gannaway and his subordinate Lieutenant Revill were assigned a special responsibility for "espionage and subversive activities" in Dallas. This was in conjunction with
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, military intelligence teams from the army, navy, and air force, and other federal agencies with investigators operating from headquarters here…The job of [Revill's] intelligence section in Capt. Gannaway's bureau…requires the closest cooperation with these other governmental agencies gathering intelligence on subversive groups suspected of espionage…With membership in a national police intelligence organization known as LEIU (Law Enforcement Intelligence Units) the local officers are able to get information almost immediately on suspected subversives when they move into Dallas. This information is exchanged by police units as these persons move from city to city…Employes in [industrial] plants are carefully screened by security conscious personnel officers, and in key jobs are given strict government security clearances. Industry is taking great strides to upgrade security practices. One such group in this area is the American Society for Industrial Security. 10
The possibility that Oswald was an informant for this centralized security team would explain his visit to the Dallas American Civil Liberties Union, a liberal group being investigated by Revill's intelligence section, in the company of an extreme right-winger (Michael Paine). 11.
One can see how easily a false legend for Oswald could have been generated in the shared files of this coordinated security campaign, involving the Dallas SSB, FBI, military intelligence, and the American Society for Industrial Security. Such a centralized file system could be the source for the recurring (and unexplained) inversion of Oswald's name, as Harvey Lee Oswald, in the files of the Dallas police (e.g., 19 WH 438, 24 WH 259), FBI (e.g., 23 WH 207, 23 WH 373), Secret Service (16 WH 721, 748), army intelligence, and navy intelligence. 12.
The most intriguing "Harvey Lee Oswald" document is Jack Revill's list of employees at the Texas School Book Depository, compiled right after the assassination, before Oswald had been apprehended for the Tippit murder. For some unexplained reason, Oswald's inverted name ("Harvey Lee Oswald") was at the very head of that list, accompanied by an address, "605 Elsbeth," that slightly misrepresented the address (602 Elsbeth) where he had resided a year earlier (24 WH 259). 13 The Elsbeth address does suggest that Oswald's data had been parked for some time before the assassination in an intelligence file, not hitherto identified. One possibility would be the files of the LEIU, the Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit, the intercity police-intelligence organization of which Revill as the lead local representative. LEIU's files, unlike ordinary police files, cannot be given to any civilian authorities and are treated as exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. As we shall see, it was also a frequent practice for the LEIU member intelligence units to collaborate with army intelligence. 14.
Another army reserve officer in Dealey plaza may have been Winston Lawson, the White House Secret Service agent responsible for the choice of the Kennedy motorcade route (4 WH 318). Lawson's first three reports of what happened on and before November 22 raise considerable questions about his performance……
Edited by William Kelly, 14 January 2009
WC Hearings Vol. 21, p. 578
About 9:30 a.m., November 22, 1963, Deputy Chief G. L. Lumpkin, joined by homicide detectives F. W. Turner and B. L. Senkel and Lt. Colonel George Whitmeyer, U.S. Army, Dallas Sub-secion Commnader, proceeded to Love Field over the route, as pilot car, to be taken by the President on the return trip. At this time, Detecive Senke and Turner and Colonel Whitmeyer were told that our mission would be to travel the motorcade route from Love Field to the Trade Mart. They were instructed we would be approximately one-fourth (1/4) mile ahead of the motorcade, and that we would be alert for motor vehicle accidents, fires and obstructions along the route. We would report anything we observed in the crowd or along the route that would be detrimental to the main party.
...Deputy Chief G. L. Lumplin turned Main Street to Houston Street, stopped momentarily at the corner of Houston and Elm Street and notified the man working traiffic at that corner that hte motorcade was about 2 or 3 minutes behind us.
Stevenson Exhibit No. 5053
We would observe buildings and other points as security measures and should anything arise that, in our opinion, might cause the motorcade to be stopped or to be placed in danger, it was to be immediately radioed by Channel 11 to the lead car occupied by Chief J. E. Curry, Sheriff J. E. Decker and two Secret Service agents.
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WR Westbrook appears to have been a member of an intelligence unit in Dallas, per this this piece:
488th Reserve Military Intelligence Detachment
The Dallas civil defense angle is something that should be thoroughly researched, and as of yet there is scanty information in this area. There is a civil defense "axis" in place in Dallas on 11/22/63, it starts with Capt Boise B Smith, Col USAR (ret), who is the Director of the Dallas City-County Civil Defense and Disaster Commission, and also a Deputy Chief of Police reporting directly to Curry (but with no staff). Col Smith's job appears to be primarily "Shelter Mapping", which turns out to be an extensive effort involving the structural evaluation of every single building in the downtown Dallas area (including the Texas School Book Depository). Smith's responsibilities include provisioning the shelters, with food, medical supplies, and whatever communications may be needed.
Next is Col John Alston ("Jack") Crichton USAR (ret), who is the Director of the Dallas Emergency Operations Center. Built away from the downtown area underneath the Health and Science Museum at the Dallas Fairgrounds, the EOC was intended (among other things) for continuity of government in the event of a nuclear war, and it contained extensive (and secure) communications facilities for that purpose. In 1956 Col Crichton started what became the 488th Reserve Military Intelligence Detachment. It's original purpose was to provide the national security council with information pertaining to foreign countries' usage of (and interest in) oil. Gradually from 1959 to 1961 the focus of the unit shifted away from petroleum and towards "subversives", and in that capacity the 488th employed 50 to 100 Dallas police officers as its eyes and ears (including, according to Crichton, the entirety of the DPD Intelligence Division).
Known members of the 488th include:
Jack Crichton
George Lumpkin
Jack Revill
Pat Gannaway
William Westbrook
Frank Brandstetter
Jack Earnest
Likely members of the 488th include:
Boise B Smith
Gerald Hill
Don Stringfellow
Likely assets of the 488th include:
George de Mohrenschildt
(interesting note on Lumpkin: he was Frank Brandstetter's commanding officer during the war)
There are many allegations that the Dallas Emergency Operations Center was in use on the day of the Kennedy assassination. If so, Col Jack Crichton (in his capacity as Director of the EOC) was the man with the codes - however at the time of the assassination he was attending a luncheon at the Adolphus Hotel, in celebtration of his alma mater's football team, in front of dozens of witnesses. (In other words, he was nowhere near the Emergency Operations Center, even though he could have gone there after the luncheon).
No one ever asked Boise Smith where he was or what he was doing at the time of the assassination. He was not interviewed by any investigative body, not the FBI, and not the Warren Commission or the HSCA.
The known members of the 488th Reserve Military Intelligence Detachment played a key role in the events of November 22. For example, Captain William Westbrook was head of the DPD Personnel Division, he was a desk jockey who'd never been involved in any field investigations, yet on the day of the assassination he manages to be not only present, but the ranking officer at the scene of the Tippit shooting and at the Texas Theater. Westbrook is the one seen handling the mystery wallet during the footage filmed by WFAA newsman Ron Reiland. As another example, Jack Revill almost came to blows with FBI Agent James Hosty the day before the assassination, over a remark Revill made to the effect that he didn't want to be out there the next day "protecting that son of a bitch". One is led to wonder how many other members of the 488th harbored such right wing viewpoints. It is noteworthy that Jack Crichton ran for Governor of Texas in 1964, on the Republican ticket, at a time when there were no Republicans in Texas (the legenday "Texas Democrats" effectively contained both the right and the left).
The most interesting aspect of the 488th Reserve is how it transitioned from being the 488th "Strategic" Intelligence "Detachment", to becoming the 488th "Military" Intelligence "Division". That transition seems to have a lot to do with the personal story of Jack Crichton, and his relationship with the Dallas oil community. In 1959 Crichton had invested a lot of money into the Cuban Venezuelan Oil Voting Trust, and encouraged many of his friends and business partners to do the same. It was the hottest stock on Wall Street for a while, the company had negotiated drilling rights to 15 million acres in Cuba under Batista. However shortly after Castro took power he declared the maximum size of any foreign venture to be 20,000 acres - and the company went belly-up and all the investors lost their money. (This is only one example of what happened across the board after Castro came to power, Pepsi lost their sugar fields too). People like Crichton had to wonder why the US government was so reluctant to get rid of this communist pest who was making American wealth disappear - and if they weren't reluctant, why they weren't more successful.
Part of the answer, is that Castro survived over 600 assassination attempts by the CIA, and he always seemed to know what was happening before it happened. Castro's spies had infiltrated almost every aspect of the American government (including the CIA, the FBI, and the State Department, and even the military), and the Mafia too. There are National Intelligence reports in the National Archives that indicate security was enhanced in this area at some point, and that there were active counterintelligence operations designed to weed out Cuban spies.
In this context, the transition of the 488th becomes more logical. Boise B Smith's military background includes the de-nazification of Europe and the de-japification of China, perhaps part of his role was to gather intelligence on communists in the Dallas area. On 11/22, Don Stringfellow sent information over to the 112th Military Intelligence Group in San Antonio, which then found its way into a memo to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. The information indicated that Oswald was a "card-carrying communist" and had "defected to Cuba", neither of which was true. The DPD assertion is the information came from the Texas Departmenf of Public Safety, however it certainly isn't an accurate representation of what was in Oswald's file (because we have a verbal picture of that file from several different sources, including Col George E Jones of the 112th who says the file contained information about Oswald's arrest with Carlos Bringuier in New Orleans).
In any event, it is indeed significant that the same person who was in charge of the 488th Reserve, was also the Director of the Dallas Emergency Operations Center. Jack Crichton was an oil man, he was OSS during the war but then went on to participate in the discovery of the largest oil field in the world (at that time - in Kuwait). He was business partners with Clint Murchison, HL Hunt, DH Byrd, and George de Mohrenschildt - and a fellow named Joe Zeppa, who flew George HW Bush from Tyler to Houston a few hours after the assassination (at Crichton's request).
The chain of command for the 488th Reserve went up through the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, and this office in turn vectored petroleum-related information over to the CIA for inclusion in National Intelligence Estimates. Such estimates were important during the Iraq conflict involving Qasim in 1958, who tried to claim all of Kuwait as merely another Iraqi province.
It is possible Jack Crichton himself had nothing to do with the JFK Assassination, but there is an abundance of evidence indicating that the members of his 488th Reserve did. Capt Westbrook for example, is suspected of planting the "Hidell" name at the scene of the Tippit shooting, by yelling it out to FBI Agent Bob Barrett as he was examining the mystery wallet. Nevertheless there is some evidence that Crichton was an organizing force for whatever military-police relationship may hav existed. Fabian Escalante (the head of Cuban Intelligence) claims that Jack Crichton and George HW Bush were involved in Operation 40 from the very beginning, in the specific role of private fund raising.
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Mark Lane had a lot of input to the "Executive Action" movie, which at the end dealt with the probability of all the eye witnesses having unnatural deaths. Richard Charnin expanded on this:
EXECUTIVE ACTION
An actuary engaged by the London Times calculated the probability that at least EIGHTEEN witnesses would die within three years of the JFK assassination as 1 in 100,000 TRILLION. The calculation is mentioned in the 1973 film Executive Action based on a book by the original JFK researcher and lawyer Mark Lane. The film starred Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Will Geer.
The actuary’s probability is actually very conservative. At least 42 JFK-related witnesses died unnaturally in the three years following the assassination. Using the 0.000220 WEIGHTED JFK-witness mortality rate, the probability is E-53 (1/TRILLION^4).
The number of deaths spiked during the 1977-78 House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) investigation of the JFK and MLK murders. The HSCA determined that both were conspiracies.
Warren Commission apologists have suggested that there were many more than 1,400 witnesses. The FBI claimed to have interviewed 25,000. But how many were material? The probability that 25 of 25,000 witnesses would be murdered in the three years following the assassination is 2E-11 or 1 in 40 billion.
To put these numbers in perspective, there are approximately 7E17 (700,000 trillion) grains of sand on the earth and 3E23 (300 billion trillion) stars in the universe.
WITNESSES
Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination by Michael Benson, provides information on more than 1,400 JFK-related individuals (suspects, victims, witnesses, law enforcement officials and investigators) involved in the assassination.The book is based on years of research using a wealth of data sources and a detailed analysis of the Warren Commission’s twenty-six volumes. The JFK Calc spreadsheet includes 97 witnesses listed in Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination.
Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination by Richard Belzer and David Wayne is a comprehensive analysis of fifty witness deaths and cites the probability calculations presented here.
Crossfire by Jim Marrs lists 103 individuals related to the assassination who died mysteriously from 1963-1978. The latest version refers to my analysis.
TWO POSSIBILITIES
Suppose that on Nov. 22, 1963, 1400 individuals were selected at random from the entire U.S. population. Further suppose that within one year, at least 18 would die unnaturally under mysterious circumstances. Based on unnatural death mortality rates, only 1 in a random group of 1400 would be expected to die unnaturally.
There are two possibilities. The 18 unnatural deaths were…
1) unrelated. It was just a 1 in 1000 trillion coincidence.
2) related. There was a common factor -a connection- between them.
We can confidently rule out 1). Then if the 18 unnatural deaths were related, what was the connection?
Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth. – Arthur Conan Doyle
COINCIDENCE OR CONNECTION?
There were at least 18 unnatural deaths of JFK-related witnesses within one year of the assassination. In any given year, only one unnatural death would be expected in a random group of 1400. The probability that at least 18 would die unnaturally in any given year is 1 in 1000 trillion (see the mathematical proof below).
The 18 deaths could not have been a coincidence. There had to be a COMMON FACTOR. It could have been a) they were interviewed by the Warren Commission,
scheduled to be interviewed, c) were in the commission witness index or d) related and not interviewed. If they were JFK-related, the deaths were not random. One must therefore conclude that the assassination was a conspiracy.Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin, was shot by Jack Ruby in front of millions of television viewers on Nov. 24, 1963. He was conveniently disposed of before he could get a lawyer after claiming that he was “just a patsy”. The transcript of Oswald’s interrogation was destroyed.
In 1977, seven top FBI officials died suddenly in the six months from June to November. Two had testified to the Warren Commission; two were #3 FBI officials; two were forensic experts. William Sullivan, a #3 FBI official, died from an “accidental” gunshot while hunting, just before he was scheduled to testify at HSCA. James Cadigan, an FBI document expert, died from a fall in his home. The others died from heart attacks.
THE LONDON TIMES AND THE HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS
In a response to a letter from the 1977 House Select Committee on Assassinations, London Sunday Times Legal Manager Anthony Whitaker wrote: “Our piece about the odds against the deaths of the Kennedy witnesses was, I regret to say, based on a careless journalistic mistake and should not have been published. This was realized by The Sunday Times editorial staff after the first edition – the one which goes to the United States – had gone out, and later editions were amended. There was no question of our actuary having got his answer wrong: it was simply that we asked him the wrong question. He was asked ” what were the odds against 15 named people out of the population of the United States dying within a short period of time” to which he replied -correctly – that they were very high. However, if one asks what are the odds against 15 of those included in the Warren Commission Index dying within a given period, the answer is, of course, that they are much lower. Our mistake was to treat the reply to the former question as if it dealt with the latter – hence the fundamental error in our first edition report, for which we apologize”.
That settled the matter for the HSCA which did not bother to ask U.S. mathematicians to analyze the probabilities. One must ask: Why not?
Whitaker obfuscated a very simple mathematical problem: to determine the probabilities of unnatural JFK-related deaths over relevant time intervals: 1, 3, 14 years. He did so by leaving out the word unnatural.
The Times legal manager made two fundamental errors. The first was an incomplete and misleading statement of the problem. He implicitly assumed deaths of all types, natural and unnatural. He did not distinguish between the two categories. The probability calculations must be based on the expected number of unnatural (not total) deaths.
The second error was the omission of relevant numerical data: He did not provide unnatural death mortality statistics. He failed to show the probability calculations. Why not? Was it because it would prove that the actuary’s calculation was essentially correct?
If the London Times was interested in the truth, it would have confirmed these results:
1. Incorrect problem definition: Calculate the probability that 15 named JFK-witnesses would die in one year. Given the 1964 unnatural death rate (0.000825), the probability is 0.000825^15 that 15 named individuals would die unnaturally. The odds that 15 named individuals would die of any cause is of course much higher.
2. Correct definition: Calculate the probability that at least 15 material witnesses in a known group would die unnaturally in one year.
Given the 1964 UNNATURAL MORTALITY RATE (0.000825), the probability that at least 15 of 1400 RANDOM individuals would die unnaturally in 1964 is 1 in 445 BILLION (2.0E-12).
Given the 1964 JFK-WEIGHTED AVERAGE UNNATURAL MORTALITY RATE (0.000163), the probability that at least 15 of 1400 JFK-related individuals would die unnaturally in 1964 is 1 in 6 BILLION TRILLION (1.47E-22). In fact, there were at least 21 unnatural JFK-related deaths in the first year, so the probabilities are even lower. Of course, the odds that at least 15 would die of any cause is much higher: 1 in 2.
CALCULATING THE PROBABILITY: THE POISSON DISTRIBUTION
The probability calculations are based on the 0.000815 average annual unnatural mortality rate in 1964-78.
The probability P of at least n unnatural deaths in a group of N individuals, for time period T years, given unnatural mortality rate R, is P(n)= Poisson(n, E), where E=R*N*T is the expected number of unnatural deaths. As E increases, the probability increases. The probabilities of various unnatural deaths for a range of witnesses is displayed in a Probability Sensitivity Matrix.
The Poisson distribution is used to calculate the probability of a rare event when the probability of an event (P) is very small and the number of trials (N) is large, and therefore
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u95GuRjwLis- Lee Bowers interview
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Here is 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:
1.Victoria Adams
2.Danny Garcia Arce
3.Virgie Baker (née Rackley)
4.Jane Berry
5.Charles Brehm
6.Ochus Campbell
7.Faye Chism
8.John Chism
9.Harold Elkins
10.Ronald Fischer
11.Buell Wesley Frazier
12.Dorothy Garner
13.Jean Hill
14.S. M. Holland
15.Ed Johnson
16.Dolores Kounas
17.Paul Landis
18.Billy Lovelady
19.Austin Miller
20.A.J. Millican
21.Luke Mooney
22.Thomas Murphy
23.Jean Newman
24.William Newman
25.Kenneth O’Donnell and David Powers
26.Roberta Parker
27.Frank Reilly
28.Arnold Rowland
29.Edgar Smith
30.Joe Marshall Smith
31.Forrest Sorrels
32.James Tague
33.Roy Truly
34.Harry Weatherford
35.Seymour Weitzman
36.Otis Williams
37.Mary Woodward
38.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.
The Layout of Dealey Plaza
For online images and maps of Dealey Plaza, see the Mary Ferrell Foundation website. A plan of Dealey Plaza with the locations of known witnesses can be found in Josiah Thompson, Six Seconds in Dallas: A Micro–Study of the Kennedy Assassination, Bernard Geis Associates, 1967, pp.252f. For an illustrated identification of witnesses in photographs of the assassination, see Les Témoins de Dealey Plaza, which contains links to the witnesses’ testimony; although it is in French, it can be easily understood by those who don’t read the language.
Victoria Adams
Victoria Adams was watching the motorcade from a window on the fourth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
She believed the sound came from toward the right of the building, rather than from the left and above as it must have been according to subsequent information disseminated by the news services.
(Warren Commission Document 5, p.39, 24 November 1963)
It seemed as if it came from the right below rather than from the left above.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, p.388, 7 April 1964)
Danny Garcia Arce
Danny Arce, a colleague of Lee Oswald, was on the north side of Elm Street, near the TSBD.
To the best of my knowledge there were three shots and they came from the direction of the railroad tracks near the parking lot at the west end of the Depository Building.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.634, 18 March 1964)
Mr Ball :Where did you make out the direction of the sound?Mr Arce :Yeah, I thought they came from the railroad tracks to the west of the Texas School Book Depository.…Mr Ball :Now, it sounded to you that the shots came from what direction?Mr Arce :From the tracks on the west deal.…Mr Ball :Did you look back at the building?Mr Arce :No, I didn’t think they came from there. I just looked directly to the railroad tracks and all the people started running up there and I just ran along with them.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, pp.365f, 7 April 1964)
Virginia Baker (née Rackley)
Virginia Rackley, who got married shortly after the assassination, was standing on the north side of Elm Street close to the main entrance to the TSBD.
It sounded as though these sounds were coming from the direction of the Triple Underpass, and looking in that direction after the first shot she saw something bounce from the roadway in front of the Presidential automobile and now presumes it was a bullet bouncing off the pavement. …
Rackley stated that she did not look up at the Texas School Book Depository building since she did not think that the sounds were coming from that building.
(Warren Commission Document 5, pp.66f, 24 November 1963)
[Linguistic note: although almost every British reader will know that a ‘pavement’ in the UK is a ‘sidewalk’ in the US, not all will be aware that in US English, the word ‘pavement’ refers to the hard surface of a road.]
Mr Liebeler :Did you have any idea where they [the shots] were coming from?Mrs Baker :Well, the way it sounded — it sounded like it was coming from — there was a railroad track that runs behind the building — there directly behind the building and around, so I guess it would be by the underpass, the triple underpass, and there is a railroad track that runs back out there.…Mr Liebeler :And you say there are some railroad tracks back in there; is that right?Mrs Baker :Yes.Mr Liebeler :Immediately behind Dealey Plaza away from Elm Street?Mrs Baker :Yes.Mr Liebeler :And is that where you thought the shots came from?Mrs Baker :Yes.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.7, p.510, 22 March 1964)
Jane Berry
Jane Berry was standing on the north side of Elm Street a few yards west of the TSBD.
Everyone was very excited and no one seemed to know where the shot had come from. It sounded as if it had been fired from a position west of where she was standing.
(Warren Commission Document 5, p.42, 24 November 1964)
Charles Brehm
Charles Brehm was standing with his wife and young son on the south side of Elm Street, just a few yards from President Kennedy at the moment of the fatal shot.
The witness Brehm was shaking uncontrollably as he further described the shooting. “The first shot must not have been too solid, because he just slumped. Then on the second shot he seemed to fall back.”
Brehm seemed to think the shots came from in front of or beside the President. He explained the President did not slump forward as he would have after being shot from the rear. The book depository building stands in the rear of the President’s location at the time of the shooting.
(Dallas Times Herald, 22 November 1963, p.1)
Ochus Campbell
Ochus Campbell, the vice–president of the Texas School Book Depository Company, was standing with Roy Truly on the north side of Elm Street, about 30 feet from the front entrance to the TSBD.
Campbell says he ran toward a grassy knoll to the west of the building, where he thought the sniper had hidden.
(Dallas Morning News, 23 November 1963)
Mr. CAMPBELL advised he had viewed the Presidential Motorcade and subsequently heard the shots being fired from a point which he thought was near the railroad tracks located over the viaduct on Elm Street.
(Warren Commission Document 5, p.336, 26 November 1963)
I heard shots being fired from a point which I thought was near the railroad tracks located over the viaduct on Elm street. I … had no occasion to look back at the Texas School Book Depository building as I thought the shots had come from the west.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.638, 19 March 1964)
Faye Chism
Faye and John Chism were standing close to the Stemmons Freeway sign on the north side of Elm Street.
It came from what I thought was behind us.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.472, 22 November 1963)
John Chism
I looked behind me, to see whether it was a fireworks display or something. And then I saw a lot of people running for cover, behind the embankment there back up on the grass.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.471, 22 November 1963)
On hearing the second shot he definitely knew the first was not a firecracker and was of the opinion the shots came from behind him.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.24, p.525, 18 December 1963)
Harold Elkins
Elkins was standing close to the crossroads at Main Street and Houston Street.
I immediately ran to the area from which it sounded like the shots had been fired. This is an area between the railroads and the Texas School Book Depository which is east of the railroads.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.540, 26 November 1964)
Ronald Fischer
Fischer was standing on the southwest corner of the crossroads at Houston Street and Elm Street, just opposite the TSBD.
Mr Belin :Where did the shots appear to be coming from?Mr Fischer :They appeared to be coming from just west of the School Book Depository Building. There were some railroad tracks and there were some railroad cars back in there.Mr Belin :And they appeared to be coming from those railroad cars?Mr Fischer :Well, that area somewhere.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, p.195, 1 April 1964)
Buell Wesley Frazier
Frazier, who had driven Oswald to work that morning, was standing on the front steps of the TSBD.
Mr Ball :Now, then, did you have any impression at that time as to the direction from which the sound came?Mr Frazier :Well to be frank with you I thought it come from down there, you know, where that underpass is. There is a series, quite a few number of them railroad tracks running together and from where I was standing it sounded like it was coming from down the railroad tracks there.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.2, p.234, 11 March 1964)
Dorothy Garner
Garner was watching the motorcade from a fourth–floor window of the TSBD.
I thought at the time the shots or reports came from a point to the west of the building.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.648, 20 March 1964)
Jean Hill
Jean Hill was standing on the south side of Elm Street, just a few yards from President Kennedy as he was shot in the head.
Mrs. Hill stated she heard from four to six shots in all and believes they came from a spot just west of the Texas School Book Depository Building.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.25, p.854, 13 March 1964)
Mrs Hill :I didn’t realize that the shots were coming from the building. I frankly thought they were coming from the knoll.Mr Specter :Why did you think they were coming from the knoll?Mrs Hill :That was just my idea where they were coming from.Mr Specter :Would you draw the knoll on the picture, where you mean by the knoll?Mrs Hill :This area in front of the Book Depository — it’s right here.Mr Specter :Just draw me a circle as to where you had a general impression the shots were coming from.Mrs Hill :This is a hill and it was like they were coming from right in there. …Mr Specter :Now, did you have a conscious impression of the source of the first shot that you heard, that is, where it came from?Mrs Hill :Well, evidently I didn’t because the only conscious recollection I have of that … I had always thought that they came from the knoll. … As I said, I thought they were coming from the general direction of that knoll.…Mr Specter :You just had the general impression that shots were coming from the knoll?Mrs Hill :Yes.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, pp.212f, 24 March 1964)
S. M. Holland
Sam Holland was standing on the railway bridge known as the triple underpass, at the west end of Dealey Plaza.
When they got just about to the Arcade I heard what I thought for the moment was a fire cracker and he slumped over and I looked over toward the arcade and trees and saw a puff of smoke come from the trees and I heard three more shots after the first shot but that was the only puff of smoke I saw. … But the puff of smoke I saw definitely came from behind the arcade through the trees.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.480, 22 November 1963)
HOLLAND stated that he looked toward the fence to his left to observe anyone that he might see running from this fence but saw no one.
The only unusual thing that HOLLAND could recall was an approximate one and one–half to two foot diameter of what he believed was gray smoke which appeared to him to be coming from the trees which would have been on the right of the Presidential car but observed no one there or in the vicinity.
(Warren Commission Document 5, p.49, 24 November 1963)
Mr Holland :I counted four shots and about the same time all this was happening, and in this group of trees — [indicating].Mr Stern :Now, you are indicating trees on the north side of Elm Street?Mr Holland :These trees right along here [indicating].Mr Stern :Let’s mark this Exhibit C and draw a circle around the trees you are referring to.Mr Holland :Right in there. [indicating.] … And a puff of smoke came out about 6 or 8 feet above the ground right out from under those trees. And at just about this location from where I was standing you could see that puff of smoke, like someone had thrown a fire–cracker or something out, and that is just about the way it sounded. … There were definitely four reports.Mr Stern :You have no doubt about that?Mr Holland :I have no doubt about it. I have no doubt about seeing that puff of smoke come out from under those trees either.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, pp.243f, 8 April 1964)
Ed Johnson
Ed Johnson, a reporter for the Fort Worth Star–Telegram, was in the press bus, a few car–lengths back in the motorcade, and described his experiences in the next day’s paper:
The shots snapped out in the brisk, clear noon air.
Some reporter said, “My God, what’s that? It must be shots.”
The caravan kept wheeling on, picking up speed.
Some of the White House reporters yelled for the bus driver to stop. He kept on going, heading toward the Stemmons Expressway.
Some of us saw little puffs of white smoke that seemed to hit the grassy area in the esplanade that divides Dallas’ main downtown streets.
(Fort Worth Star–Telegram, 23 November 1963, p.2)
Dolores Kounas
Kounas was standing on the south side of Elm Street, opposite the TSBD.
It sounded as though these shots were coming from the Triple Underpass. … She stated it did not sound like the shots were coming from that [TSBD] direction but rather from the Triple Underpass.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.846, 24 November 1963)
Although I was across the street from the Depository building and was looking in the direction of the building as the motorcade passed and following the shots, I did not look up at the building as I had thought the shots came from a westerly direction in the vicinity of the viaduct.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.659, 23 March 1964)
Paul Landis
Paul Landis was a Secret Service agent in the car immediately behind President Kennedy’s car.
My reaction at this time was that the [fatal] shot came from somewhere towards the front.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.18, p.759, 17 November 1963)
Billy Lovelady
Lovelady was standing on the front steps of the TSBD. A famous photograph by James Altgens showed a man who resembled Lee Oswald in the doorway during the assassination; it is now generally agreed that the man was in fact Lovelady, not Oswald. For details, see Was Oswald on the TSBD Front Steps?
I heard several loud reports which I first thought to be firecrackers and which appeared to me to be in the direction of Elm Street viaduct just ahead of the Motorcade. I did not at any time believe the shots had come from the Texas School Book Depository.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.662, 19 March 1964)
Mr Ball :Where was the direction of the sound?Mr Lovelady :Right there around that concrete little deal on that knoll.Mr Ball :That’s where it sounded to you?Mr Lovelady :Yes, sir; to my right. …Mr Ball :From the underpass area?Mr Lovelady :Between the underpass and the building right on that knoll.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, p.338, 7 April 1964)
Austin Miller
Miller was standing with other railway employees on the Triple Underpass.
I saw something which I thought was smoke or steam coming from a group of trees north of Elm off the Railroad tracks.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.485, 22 November 1963)
Mr Belin :Where did the shots sound like they came from?Mr Miller :Well, the way it sounded like, it came from the, I would say from right there in the car. Would be to my left, the way I was looking at him over toward that incline.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, p.225, 8 April 1964)
A.J. Millican
I was standing on the North side of Elm Street, about half way between Houston and the Underpass. … I heard three shots come from up toward Houston and Elm right by the Book Depository Building, and then immediately I heard two more shots come from the Arcade between the Book Store and the Underpass, and then three more shots came from the same direction only sounded further back.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.486, no date, but filed with a group of similar statements given on 22 November 1963)
Luke Mooney
Mooney, a deputy sheriff, was standing on Main Street, on the edge of Dealey Plaza. He was one of the officers who found the rifle hidden under boxes on the sixth floor.
Mr Ball :Why did you go over to the railroad yard?Mr Mooney :Well, that was — from the echo of the shots, we thought they came from that direction.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.3, p.283, 25 March 1964)
Thomas Murphy
Murphy was standing on the Triple Underpass.
MURPHY said in his opinion these shots came from a spot just west of the Texas School Book Depository Building.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.835, 17 March 1964)
Jean Newman
Jean Newman was standing on the north side of Elm Street, between the TSBD and the knoll.
The first impression I had was that the shots came from my right.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.489, 22 November 1963)
She stated that when she realized the reports were shots she immediately turned and looked up the hill to the North toward the parking lot but did not see anything.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.843, 24 November 1963)
William Newman
William Newman (no relation to Jean Newman) was also standing on the north side of Elm Street, a little further along toward the knoll.
I thought the shot had come from the garden directly behind me, that was on an elevation from where I was as I was right on the curb. I do not recall looking toward the Texas School Book Depository. I looked back in the vacinity [sic] of the garden.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.490, 22 November 1963)
Kenneth O’Donnell and David Powers
Two members of the White House staff, Kenneth O’Donnell and David Powers, were travelling in the Secret Service car immediately behind President Kennedy’s car. O’Donnell testified that the shots came from the rear (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.7, p.448). Powers agreed, but added that “I also had a fleeting impression that the noise appeared to come from the front in the area of the triple overpass” (ibid., p.473).
The politician, Tip O’Neill, claimed in his memoirs that both men had in fact heard shots from the grassy knoll:
I was never one of those people who had doubts or suspicions about the Warren Commission’s report on the president’s death. But five years after Jack died, I was having dinner with Kenny O’Donnell and a few other people at Jimmy’s Harborside Restaurant in Boston, and we got to talking about the assassination.
I was surprised to hear O’Donnell say that he was sure he had heard two shots that came from behind the fence.
“That’s not what you told the Warren Commission,” I said.
“You’re right, ” he replied. “I told the FBI what I had heard, but they said it couldn’t have happened that way and that I must have been imagining things. So I testified the way they wanted me to. I just didn’t want to stir up any more pain and trouble for the family.”
“I can’t believe it,” I said. ”I wouldn’t have done that in a million years. I would have told them the truth.”
“Tip, you have to understand. The family — everybody wanted this thing behind them.”
Dave Powers was with us at dinner that night, and his recollection of the shots was the same as O’Donnell’s. Kenny O’Donnell is no longer alive, but during the writing of this book I checked with Dave Powers. As they say in the news business, he stands by his story.
(Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr., Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O’Neill, Random House, 1987, p.178)
Roberta Parker
Parker was standing directly opposite the main entrance to the TSBD.
The shot sounded to her as though it had come from a cement memorial building to the north of the Texas School Book Depository on Elm Street. She looked in that direction but saw nothing that she could relate to the shot. During this time, she heard two additional shots and in looking around, glanced at the Texas School Book Depository building which was directly across Elm from her.
(Warren Commission Document 205, p.504, 16 December 1963)
Frank Reilly
Reilly was standing with other railway workers on the railway bridge at the west end of Dealey Plaza.
He saw two cars turn on Elm toward the underpass and at this time heard three shots which he thought came from the trees west of the Texas School Book Depository.
(Warren Commission Document 205, p.29, 18 December 1963)
Mr Ball :What did you hear?Mr Reilly :Three shots.Mr Ball :Where did they seem to come from; what direction?Mr Reilly :It seemed to me like they come out of the trees.Mr Ball :What trees?Mr Reilly :On the north side of Elm Street at the corner up there.Mr Ball :On the north side of Elm — on what corner?Mr Reilly :Well, where all those trees are — you’ve never been down there?Mr Ball :Yes: I’ve been there, but you tell me — I want you to tell me because it has to go on the record here and it has to be in writing.Mr Reilly :Well, it’s at that park where all the shrubs is up there — it’s to the north of Elm Street — up the slope.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, p.230, 8 April 1964)
Arnold Rowland
Arnold Rowland was standing on the east side of Houston Street, facing the TSBD.
Mr Specter :Did you have any impression or reaction as to the point of origin when you heard the first noise?Mr Rowland :Well, I began looking, I didn’t look at the building mainly, and as practically any of the police officers there will tell you, the echo effect was such that it sounded like it came from the railroad yards. That is where I looked, that is where all the policemen, everyone, converged on the railroads.…Mr Specter :Now, as to the second shot, did you have any impression as to the point of origin or source?Mr Rowland :The same point or very close to it.Mr Specter :And how about the third shot?Mr Rowland :Very close to the same position.…Mr Specter :After the shots occurred, did you ever look back at the Texas School Book Depository Building?Mr Rowland :No; I did not. In fact, I went over toward the scene of the railroad yards myself.Mr Specter :Why did you not look back at the Texas School Book Depository Building in view of the fact that you had seen a man with a rifle up there earlier in the day?Mr Rowland :I don’t remember. It was mostly due to the confusion, and then the fact that it sounded like it came from this area “C”, and that all the officers, enforcement officers, were converging on that area, and I just didn’t pay any attention to it at that time.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.2, pp.180f, 10 March 1964)
Edgar Smith
Edgar Smith, a police officer, was standing on Houston Street, near the junction with Elm Street.
Mr Smith :I thought when it came to my mind that there were shots, and I was pretty sure there were when I saw his car because they were leaving in such a hurry, I thought they were coming from this area here, and I ran over there and back of it and, of course, there wasn’t anything there.Mr Liebeler :You thought the shot came from this little concrete structure up behind No. 7?Mr Smith :Yes, sir.Mr Liebeler :On Commission Exhibit 354?Mr Smith :Yes.Mr Liebeler :Toward the railroad tracks there?Mr Smith :That’s true.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.7, p.568, 24 July 1964)
Joe Marshall Smith
Like his fellow police officer, Edgar Smith, Joe Marshall Smith (no relation) was at the corner of Elm Street and Houston Street.
[T]he reporter calling stated he had interviewed Patrolman J. M. Smith who advised that he definitely distinguished the aroma of gunpowder near the underpass. … He stated he did smell what he thought was gunpowder but stated this smell was in the parking lot by the TSBD Building and not by the underpass. He advised he never at any time went to the underpass and could not advise if there was the smell of gunpowder in the underpass.
(Warren Commission Document 205, p.39, 9 December 1963)
I heard the shots and thought they were coming from bushes of the overpass.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.600, 16 July 1964)
Mr Liebeler :Did you have any basis for believing where the shots came from, or where to look for somebody, other than what the lady told you?Mr Smith :No, sir; except that maybe it was a power of suggestion. But it sounded to me like they may have came from this vicinity here.Mr Liebeler
around the — let’s put a No. 5 there [on Commission Exhibit 354] at the corner here behind this concrete structure where the bushes were down toward the railroad tracks from the Texas School Book Depository Building.Mr Smith :Yes.Mr Liebeler :Now you say that you had the idea that the shots may have come from up in that area?Mr Smith :Yes, sir; that is just what, well, like I say, the sound of it.(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.7, pp.535f, 23 July 1964)
Forrest Sorrels
Forrest Sorrels, a Secret Service agent, was in the car immediately following the presidential car.
I looked towards the top of the terrace to my right as the sound of the shots seemed to come from that direction.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.21, p.548, 28 November 1963)
James Tague
James Tague, the third man wounded in Dealey Plaza, was standing close to the point where Commerce Street meets Main Street, by the triple underpass.
Mr Liebeler :Did you have any idea where these shots came from when you heard them ringing out?Mr Tague :Yes; I thought they were coming from my left.Mr Liebeler :Immediately to your left, or toward the back? Of course, now we have other evidence that would indicate that the shots did come from the Texas School Book Depository, but see if we can disregard that and determine just what you heard when the shots were fired in the first place.Mr Tague :To recall everything is almost impossible. Just an impression is all I recall, is the fact that my first impression was that up by the, whatever you call the monument, or whatever it was —…Mr Liebeler :Your impression of where the shots came from was much the result of the activity near No. 7 [on Commission Exhibit 354]?Mr Tague :Not when I heard the shots.Mr Liebeler :You thought they had come from the area between Nos. 7 and 5?Mr Tague :I believe they came from up in here.Mr Liebeler :Back in the area “C”?Mr Tague :Right.Mr Liebeler :Behind the concrete monument here between Nos. 7 and 5, toward the general area of “C”?Mr Tague :Yes.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.7, pp.556f, 23 March 1964)
Roy Truly
Roy Truly, a director and the superintendant of the Texas School Book Depository, was standing with Ochus Campbell on the north side of Elm Street, close to the TSBD. Shortly afterwards, he encountered Lee Oswald in the canteen on the second floor of the TSBD.
Mr Belin :Where did you think the shots came from?Mr Truly :I thought the shots came from the vicinity of the railroad or the WPA project [the concrete structure], behind the WPA project west of the building.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.3, p.227, 24 March 1964)
Harry Weatherford
Weatherford, a deputy sheriff, was standing outside the Criminal Court building on Main Street.
I heard a loud report which I thought was a railroad torpedo, as it sounded as if it came from the railroad yard. Thinking, this was a heck of a time for one to go off, then I heard a 2nd report which had more of an echo report and thought to myself, that this was a rifle and I started towards the corner when I heard the 3rd report. By this time I was running towards the railroad yards where the sound seemed to come from.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.502, 23 November 1963)
Seymour Weitzman
Weitzman was one of the police officers who discovered the rifle on the sixth floor of the TSBD. At the time of the shooting, he was on the corner of Main Street and Houston Street.
I ran in a northwest direction and scaled a fence towards where we thought the shots came from.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.24, p.228, 23 November 1963)
Otis Williams
Williams was standing on the front steps of the TSBD.
Just after the Presidential car passed the building and went out of sight over the Elm Street embankment I heard three loud blasts. I thought these blasts or shots came from the direction of the viaduct which crosses Elm Street.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.683, 19 March 1964)
Mary Woodward
Mary Woodward, a journalist on the Dallas Morning News, was standing on the north side of Elm Street, about halfway between the TSBD and the grassy knoll. She wrote about her experience in the following day’s paper.
Suddenly there was a horrible, ear–shattering noise coming from behind us and a little to the right.
(‘Witness From the News Describes Assassination’, Dallas Morning News, 23 November 1963, p.3)
United States Attorney H. BAREFOOT SANDERS, Dallas, Texas, telephonically advised ASAC KYLE G. CLARK on December 5, 1963, that a reporter for the Dallas “Morning News”, name unrecalled, had advised him that four of the women working in the Society Section of the Dallas “Morning News” were reportedly standing next to Mr. ZAPRUDA [sic] when the assassination shots were fired. According to this reporter, these women, names unknown, stated that the shots according to their opinion came from a direction other than from the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) Building.
(Warren Commission Document 205, p.39, 5 December 1963)
She stated that her first reaction was that the shots had been fired from above her head and from possibly behind her. Her next reaction was that the shots might have come from the overpass which was to her right. She stated, however, because of the loud echo, she could not say where the shots had come from, other that they had come from above her head.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.24, p.520, 6 December 1963)
Abraham Zapruder
Abraham Zapruder famously filmed the assassination from the top of a concrete pedestal on Elm Street close to the grassy knoll.
According to Mr. Zapruder, the position of the assassin was behind Mr. Zapruder.
(Warren Commission Document 87, page unknown, 22 November 1963)
Mr Zapruder :I remember the police were running behind me. There were police running right behind me. Of course, they didn’t realize yet, I guess, where the shot came from — that it came from that height.Mr Liebeler :As you were standing on this abutment facing Elm street, you say the police ran over behind the concrete structure behind you and down the railroad track behind that, is that right?Mr Zapruder :After the shots?Mr Liebeler :Yes.Mr Zapruder :Yes — after the shots — yes, some of them were motorcycle cops – I guess they left their motorcycles running and they were running right behind me, of course, in the line of the shooting. I guess they thought it came from right behind me.Mr Liebeler :Did you have any impression as to the direction from which these shots came?Mr Zapruder :No, I also thought it came from back of me. Of course, you can’t tell when something is in line — it could come from anywhere, but being I was here and he was hit on this line and he was hit right in the head — I saw it right around here, so it looked like it came from here and it could come from there.Mr Liebeler :All right, as you stood here on the abutment and looked down into Elm Street, you saw the President hit on the right side of the head and you thought perhaps the shots had come from behind you?Mr Zapruder :Well, yes.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.7, pp.571f, 22 July 1964)
Other Witnesses
A few witnesses made statements more ambiguous than those quoted above, that could be interpreted as supporting shots from the grassy knoll:
1.Eugene Boone (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.508)
2.E.V. Brown (Warren Commission Document 205, pp.39f)
3.James Crawford (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, p.173)
4.Avery Davis (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.642)
5.Emmett Hudson (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.19, p.481; cf. Warren Commission Document 5, p.30)
6.Clemon Johnson (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.836)
7.Joe Molina (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, p.371)
8.Samuel Paternostro (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.24, p.536)
9.Nolan Potter (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.834)
10.Jesse Price (Warren Commission Document 5, p.65)
11.Madie Reese (Warren Commission Document 5, p.59)
12.William Shelley (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, p.329)
13.James Simmons (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.833)
14.Garland Slack (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.26, p.364)
15.Steven Wilson (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.22, p.685)
Disputed Witnesses
Not all of the following witnesses are equally credible, but they all crop up in various accounts of the assassination.
Gordon Arnold
In 1978, the Dallas Morning News reported the claims of Gordon Arnold to have witnessed the assassination. Arnold, a soldier on leave, had apparently:
•been standing close to the fence on the grassy knoll,
•encountered a man who brandished Secret Service credentials,
•and fell to the ground on hearing shots from behind the fence.
Although the existence of the apparently bogus Secret Service agent had been mentioned 15 years earlier by witnesses such as the policemen Joe Marshall Smith and Seymour Weitzman (see Warren Commission Hearings, vol.7, p.107), there is no conclusive evidence that Arnold himself was actually in Dealey Plaza during the assassination. He is not visible in any photographs or films, and none of the witnesses on the knoll mention his presence. He did, however, receive some support from Senator Ralph Yarborough, who was riding in the motorcade. Yarborough contacted the journalist Earl Golz, who had made Arnold’s story public, and told Golz that he had seen a man fall to the ground in the way Arnold had described. Yarborough may have seen Arnold, or he may instead have seen William Newman, who certainly fell to the ground close to the grassy knoll immediately after the fatal shot.
For more about Arnold’s story, see:
•Earl Golz, ‘SS Imposters Spotted by JFK Witnesses,’ Dallas Morning News, 27 August 1978, p.1A;
•James Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, Orbis Books, 2008, pp.261f;
•Henry Hurt, Reasonable Doubt: An Investigation into the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, Henry Holt, 1985, pp.111–3.
Cheryl McKinnon
Another possible witness whose presence in Dealey Plaza cannot be substantiated is Cheryl McKinnon, a journalism student who claimed to have been standing on the north side of Elm Street.
Cheryl McKinnon does not appear to have offered an opinion on the source of the shots, or indeed on the assassination itself, until 20 years afterwards, when she wrote an account of her experiences for her newspaper:
Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, is a lovely square. It sits in the heart of the downtown area [sic; Dealey Plaza is actually just to the west of downtown Dallas], a haven for those who want to enjoy their lunch under a tree on a spot of grass.
On Nov. 22, 1963, I stood, along with hundreds of others, on the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza, waiting for just one thing — a chance to see, even for just a moment, that magical person, the president, John F. Kennedy.
I had prepared for days to be in the plaza. As a journalism major in school, my plans were to write a story about my experiences as a class project. Kennedy was for me the ideal of what a president should be — young and aggressive, yet thoughtful and seemingly genuinely concerned for his fellow man.
As we stood watching the motorcade turn onto Elm Street, I tried to grasp every tiny detail of both President and Mrs Kennedy, “How happy they look,” I thought. Suddenly, three shots in rapid succession rang out. Myself and dozens of others standing nearby turned in horror toward the back of the grassy knoll where it seemed the sounds had originated. Puffs of white smoke still hung in the air in small patches. But no one was visible.
Turning back to the street, now terribly frightened, I suddenly realized the president was no longer sitting up in the seat waving to the crowd. He was slumped over toward his wife, whose facial expression left no doubt as to what had occurred. The motorcade was beginning to gain speed and soon passed under the railroad trestle headed for its eventual destination, Parkland Hospital.
It was an impressionable teenage girl who watched the assassination of a president, but today, 20 years later, it is still as clear in my mind as if it happened this morning. One moment they were laughing and waving. The next moment, both men were slumped over and pandemonium reigned.
As the months passed, following the shootings of first Kennedy, then Oswald and then the deaths of Ruby and others, I tried to maintain the faith with my government. I have read the Warren Commission Report in its entirety and dozens of other books as well. I am sorry to say that the only thing I am absolutely sure of today is that at least two of the shots fired that day in Dealey Plaza came from behind where I stood on the knoll, not from the book depository.
I can’t accuse the government of hiding the truth or lying about the assassination, because no matter what I may personally believe, I have no proof. But that day in Dallas and those that followed left their mark and I have never quite had the same faith and trust in those that lead us as I did before.
(San Diego Star–News, 22 November 1983)
Doris Mumford
Cheryl McKinnon is frequently identified, without any supporting evidence, as the woman wearing sunglasses who is seen in several films and photographs, crouching on the grass. The woman in question has also been identified by Karen Moore, a contributor to an online forum, as her mother, Doris Mumford. Photographs uploaded to the forum are consistent with the identification of the woman as Doris Mumford, who at the time of the assassination was 36 years old and living in Richardson, a few miles north of Dallas. In a comment on the excellent jfkfacts.org blog, Karen Moore writes that her mother was standing near William Newman, and “heard three shots, they came from behind her, and she saw the life leave the President’s face.”
Lee Bowers
Lee Bowers was working in the railway control tower north of the car park at the top of the grassy knoll. He was not sure where the sound of the shots came from:
Mr Ball :And were you able to form an opinion as to the source of the sound or what direction it came from, I mean?Mr Bowers :The sounds came either from up against the School Depository Building or near the mouth of the triple underpass.Mr Ball :Were you able to tell which?Mr Bowers :No, I could not.
(Warren Commission Hearings, vol.6, p.287, 2 April 1964)
Bowers did, however, testify to having seen unusual activity behind the fence on the grassy knoll. A few minutes before the assassination, three unfamiliar cars came into the car park, drove around, and left. One of the drivers appeared to be using a walkie–talkie. More significantly, Bowers appears to claim that two men were standing behind the fence:
Mr Ball :Now, were there any people standing on the high side — high ground between your tower and where Elm Street goes down under the underpass toward the mouth of the underpass?Mr Bowers :Directly in line, towards the mouth of the underpass, there were two men. One man, middle–aged, or slightly older, fairly heavy–set, in a white shirt, fairly dark trousers. Another younger man, about midtwenties, in either a plaid shirt or plaid coat or jacket.Mr Ball :Were they standing together or standing separately?Mr Bowers :They were standing within 10 or 15 feet of each other, and gave no appearance of being together, as far as I knew.Mr Ball :In what direction were they facing?Mr Bowers :They were facing and looking up towards Main and Houston, and following the caravan as it came down.…Mr Ball :Did you see any activity in this high ground above Elm after the shot?Mr Bowers :At the time of the shooting there seemed to be some commotion. …Mr Ball :When you said there was a commotion, what do you mean by that? What did it look like to you when you were looking at the commotion?Mr Bowers :I just am unable to describe rather than it was something out of the ordinary, a sort of milling around, but something occurred in this particular spot which was out of the ordinary, which attracted my eye for some reason, which I could not identify.Mr Ball :You couldn’t describe it?Mr Bowers :Nothing that I could pinpoint as having happened that —Mr Ball :Afterwards did a good many people come up there on this high ground at the tower?
(ibid., pp.287f)
And so Joseph Ball changed the subject. Bowers did not supply explicit evidence to the authorities of gunshots from the grassy knoll, but his credible account of two men standing by the fence, and of a ‘commotion’ at the time of the shooting, surely makes him one of the most intriguing eye–witnesses to the assassination.
Shortly before his untimely death in a car crash in 1966, Lee Bowers was interviewed for Mark Lane’s film, Rush to Judgment. Extracts from the interview can be found online. According to a transcript of the interview, Bowers suggests that the two men he saw may have been on the steps leading up from Elm Street, rather than behind the fence: “And one of them, from time to time as he walked back and forth, er, disappeared behind a wooden fence which also is slightly to the west of that.” Bowers does, however, give a more detailed description of the ‘commotion’:
At the time of the shooting, in the vicinity of where the two men I have described were, there was a flash of light or, as far as I am concerned, something I could not identify, but there was something which occurred which caught my eye in this immediate area on the embankment. Now, what this was, I could not state at that time and at the time I could not identify it, other than there was some unusual occurrence — a flash of light or smoke or something which caused me to feel like something out of the ordinary had occurred there.
Ed Hoffman
Ed Hoffman, who was deaf, was standing on Stemmons Freeway, about 200 yards to the west of Dealey Plaza. He claimed to have seen two men in the railway yard behind the fence on the grassy knoll, followed by a puff of smoke among the trees, and finally one of the men passing a rifle to the other, who disassembled it, packed it in a bag, and made his escape while the first man went back to the fence.
For details of Hoffman’s account, see:
•James Douglass, op.cit., pp.262–6;
•Ed Hoffman with Ron Friedrich, Eye Witness, JFK Lancer, 1997.
•Ron Friedrich, ‘Ed Hoffman’s Changing Story,’ Kennedy Assassination Chronicles, vol.1 issue 2, pp.31f, which argues that the apparent inconsistencies in Hoffman’s story are due to his interviewers’ unfamiliarity with American Sign Language.
•M. Duke Lane, ‘Freeway Man’, which argues strongly that Hoffman’s story was largely invented, albeit for understandable reasons.
Parkland Hospital Press Conference
JFK Assassination Documents
The JFK Assassination
JFK Assassination: Basic Facts
Did Oswald Kill Kennedy?
How Did Oswald Shoot JFK?
The Single–Bullet Theory
The Rifle and Paraffin Tests
Was Oswald Framed?
“A Little Incident in Mexico City”
Silvia Odio’s Visitors
The Career of Lee Harvey Oswald
The Verdict: Guilty or Not Guilty?
JFK Conspiracy Theories
The Political Context
Further Reading
JFK Assassination Books Online
JFK Assassination Medical Evidence
The Zapruder Film: Genuine or Fake?
Fiction, Propaganda and the Media
JFK Assassination FAQs
Other JFK Assassination Texts
22 November 1963 : Book and Ebook
Other JFK Texts
JFK Assassination Documents
Grassy Knoll Witnesses
Parkland Hospital Press Conference
The Sibert and O’Neill Report
Katzenbach: Memo to Moyers
LBJ Phone Call to Joe Alsop
Carolyn Arnold’s FBI Statements
Memo: Was Oswald an FBI Agent?
Edgewood Arsenal Bullet Tests
Wesley Liebeler: Memorandum
Richard Russell and the Warren Report
CIA and Warren Report Critics
Finck: Dissecting JFK’s Wounds
Sprague: Memo re Dr Burkley
Bertrand Russell:
16 Questions on the Assassination
Mark Lane:
Oswald Innocent? A Lawyer’s Brief
Eric Norden: The Death of a President
Sylvia Meagher:
Notes for a New Investigation
Sylvia Meagher:
The Curious Testimony of Mr Givens
Lee Oswald: Speech in Alabama
George de Mohrenschildt: I Am a Patsy!
Jim Garrison: Interview with Playboy
Bill Hicks: JFK Assassination Routine
Dealey Plaza Witnesses
The most complete online record of witnesses in Dealey Plaza is that compiled by Stewart Galanor. It can be found at: http://www.history-matters.com/analysis/witness/index.htm.
Several researchers have tried to determine how many witnesses declared that shots came from the general direction of the knoll, or the TSBD, or both directions, or neither. Because of the frequent imprecision both of the witnesses’ answers and the questions they were asked, it was easy for researchers to impose their own preferences on the figures. Consequently, the totals vary widely. For details, see:
•Harold Feldman, ‘Fifty–One Witnesses,’ Minority of One, March 1965 (Knoll 51, TSBD 32);
•Josiah Thompson, Six Seconds in Dallas: A Micro–Study of the Kennedy Assassination, Bernard Geis Associates, 1967 (Knoll 33, TSBD 25);
•HSCA Report, appendix vol.2, p.122 (Knoll 20, TSBD 48).
•Stewart Galanor, Cover–Up, Kestrel Books, 1998 (Knoll 52, TSBD 48);
•John McAdams, http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/shots.htm(Knoll 34, TSBD 56).
Recommended Reading
Books about the JFK assassination:
Gerald McKnight: Breach of Trust
Gerald McKnight: Breach of Trust
Peter Dale Scott: Deep Politics and the Death of JFK
Peter Dale Scott: Deep Politics and the Death of JFK
John Newman: Oswald and the CIA
John Newman: Oswald and the CIA
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David A. and Michael W. - the question of who was in charge came up in your posts. Since it was a city of Dallas jail, the Dallas Mayor had jurisdiction there. When Lee Harvey Oswald said he was just the Patsy, he signaled he was not going to play that role for much longer and that is when the conspirators knew that had to murder LHO. The Mayor of Dallas at the time was Earle Cabell, whose brother was Charles Cabell, who was fired by JFK, along with Alan Dulles, for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. A. Dulles and C. Cabell conspired to kill JFK and knew LHO could point his finger in the direction of the CIA. The murder of LHO could more easily be done in a City of
Dallas Jail, where Earl Cabell could tell Chief of Police what to do since the Chief reported to the Mayor. Here are some aspects of this :
Dallas Mayor Cabell's Nov. 24, 1963 Call To Dallas Police Chief Curry
At the very moment Lee Oswald was silenced by Jack Ruby, "Chief Curry, ludicrously, was upstairs in his office, responding to a phone call from Dallas mayor Earle Cabell, and had not checked for himself to see if orders were being carried out properly in the basement," according to Who Was Jack Ruby? by Seth Kantor.
And according to High Treason by Robert J. Groden and Harrison Livingstone, "Jesse Curry, the Chief of Police, was about to go down to the basement of the police station to supervise the transfer of Oswald to the County Jail when his phone rang, and the mayor, Earle Cabell, kept him on the line until Oswald had been shot by Ruby."
Yet according to Cabell Exhibit No.1 of the Warren Commission, "Copy of an FBI Report of an interview with Mayor Earle Cabell dated Dec. 12, 1963," former CIA Deputy Director Cabell's brother originally told the FBI Special Agent that after Ruby shot Oswald:
"He received a telephone call from a friend of his, whom he did not name, that Oswald had been shot and to turn his television set on, which he did. He then received a call from Chief Curry advising that Oswald had been shot. Mayor Cabell relates that he then told Chief Curry that he was watching television regarding the incident at that moment.."
And when he testified before the Warren Commission on July 13, 1964, former CIA Deputy Director Cabell's brother again claimed that Dallas Police Chief Curry telephoned him at the very moment Oswald was being transferred:
Mr. CABELL: "He called me...I was in the den where I was sitting and taking these telephone calls and then just as I get it turned on, they still had not removed Oswald at the time because this was just a matter of a minute or two from the actual shooting. Then Chief Curry called and said, `They have just shot Oswald.' And I said, `Yes, I have it on tv now'..."
Why do you think Dallas Mayor Cabell apparently didn't want to admit that just prior to Oswald's silencing, he just apparently happened to telephone Dallas Police Chief Curry?
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For the record I was and am quoting the Fensterwald memo . I am not sure if Souetre was a part of the attack on De Gaulle in France, but per this part of the Fensterwald, the OAS did attempt to kill De Gaulle in the US:
When General de Gaulle insisted on coming to Washington for President Kennedy's funeral, strenuous attempts were made (but failed) to talk out of walking in the funeral parade. There was no assurance whatsoever of his security. In fact, French intelligence has confirmed that an OAS group
set out from Montreal for the purpose of assassinating de Gaulle in Washington,
but they were intercepted before they could get to Washington.
Equally, when de Gaulle visited New Orleans on May 3, 1963, there was
a plot against his life by OAS sympathizers . • • all of which has been confirmed by one of those sympathizers.
As to de Gaulle's own comments on JFK's assassination, he said: "The police did the job, or they ordered it done, or they let it happen. In any case, they were involved in it. A trial would have been unthinkable.”
souetre was sent to Algiers in the period 1955-1959. He served with the air commandos in Algeria, and he was the commanding officer of a company of elite parachutists. He received the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honeur and the Croix de la Valeur Militaire, both of which were rescinded after he joined
the OAS. Before his defection, Souetre served brilliantly in the paratroops, fl
serving directly under Lt. Col. Coulet, Director of Political Affairs for the Delegation Genera1.2/
on April 27, 1962, it was announced in Algiers that Lt. Pierre
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/Guillaume, OAS Chief in the South Zone of Algeria, had been arrested. And "sources" reported that he had been replaced by ex-Captain Souetre.16
In June-July, 1962, after the Declaration of Algerian Independence, all OAS members had to leave Algeria in a rush. In August, a large number of OAS groups and individuals in exile merged into the "Armee Nationale Secrete," which has representatives in Canada, New Orleans, and Latin America; in other words, the OAS was continuing the war against de Gaulle wherever they could, inside and outside of Metropolitan France.
Souetre, who was in Spain at the time, is rumored to have been deeply involved in the planning of the assassination attempt on de Gaulle at Petit Clamart, on August 22, 1962. The following very close associates were physically
involved in the unsuccessful attempt: Laszlo Varga, Lajos Marton, Gyula Sari,
and. 17/
Franco1s Duprat.--
In 1963, Souetre sought refuge in Spain, along with a number of other
OAS deserters. On several occasions he approached CIA agents and tried to persuade them to have the U.S. give its backing to the OAS as the only "viable alternative to communism" in France. Specifically, in May 1963, Souetre and an OAS
colleague {Believed to be Pierre Sergent) approached CIA agents and attempted
to enlist support of the U.S. for their anti-Gaullist operations. Souetre identified himself as OAS "coordinator of external affairs." There are several
I
CIA documents relating to these
18/
approaches:--
Souetre travelled on various
passports, including (according to him) a U.S. passport. He also claimed to be documented as a citizen of Martinique. He stated that he had U.S. contacts who could arrange documentation for him.
According to a former member of SAC (de Gaulle's special anti-OAS police)
The Chicago Tribune reported that discussions took place at unspecified
/levels between the CIA and OAS to arrange to poison de Gaulle.39
On November
6, 1961, Richard Kaalsen of CBS interviewed General Salan, and the interview was aired on CBS-TV, causing an enormous French-American flap over "freedom of the press."
According to a confidential informant, there was a meeting in March or April, 1962, at the Headquarters of the American Legion in Paris between a CIA agent named Witmarch and an OAS agent named Torjmann. He also alleges that TOrjmann joined Baylle and/or Souetre in New Orleans in June, 1963.
THE OAS AND THE CUBANS
The MNC, an extremist Cuban exile group operating out of Miami and New
401
Orleans, had close relations with the OAS.
The same is true of the Anti-
communism League of the Caribbean, which operated out of New Orleans, and
which, in 1954, had engineered the overthrow of the Arbenz Government in
Guatamala. In fact, Maurice Brooks Gatlin, Sr., legal counsel to the League, f
is alleged to have delivered in 1962 the sum of $100,000 to a group in Paris for the assassination of de Gaulle.411 This has been confirmed by Gatlin's younger associate, Jerry Milton Brooks. Brooks also said that Gatlin bragged
-28-
of being a "transporter" for the CIA. Gatlin also had close ties with General Gehlin, chief of W. German Intelligence, who helped the OAS on occasion. Gatlin fell or was pushed to his death at the El Panama Hotel in Puerto Rico in 1964.
Wm. Guy Banister was another link between the Cubans , the OAS, and
WACL. Banister was a very colorful, heavy drinking, ex-FBI man in New Orleans. Banister was responsible for the capture of John Dillinger in the 1930s,
served in Naval Intelligence in WW II, and became Special Agent in Charge
of the FBI office in Chicago before his retirement in 1954. After serving as Deputy Police Chief in New Orleans, he opened Guy Banister Associates, a detective firm (and intelligence agency) in that city.
Banister, because of his experience and determination became the "king pin" of the Anti-Communists in the southern part of the u.s. Formally or informally, he played a role in a whole range of anti-communist groups, ranging
from Cuban anti-Castro to the OAS. He was Louisiana Coordinator of the Minutemen. He worked for WACL and the Anti-Communist League of the Caribbean. He published a right-wing journal called the Louisiana Intelligence Digest.
It is believed that Banister arranged for the $100,000 which Gatlin took to the OAS.
It was Banister who arranged the raid on the
'
munitions
dump at Houma,
Louisiana, whereby a large cache of weapons designed for the OAS were switched to the Cubans (see below) •
And there is a great deal of evidence (from Jack Martin, Tommy Baumbler, and from Banister's secretary) that he employed Lee Harvey Oswald
-29-
(or Lee Harvey Oswald) in his anti-Casto activities in New Orleans in the summer of 1963. In any event, his intelligence agency was in the same building in which Oswald rented a small office ostensibly for his pro-Castro activities.
Another player in his same group was William "Billy Littlehorse" Dalzell, ·,
1._,
a New Orleans based geologist. Dalzell, who was born in 1922, spoke half a dozen languages, was a graduate of Georgetown University, served in Army
Intelligence, travelled extensively around the world, and was "petroleum advisor"
to Haile Selassie. He had an office in Clay ?haw's International Trade Mart, organized Friends of Democratic Cuba, knew FBI Agent Regis Kennedy intimately,
and was a rabid anti-communist. Dalzell, who travelled extensively in the Middle
'
/
East and North Africa, had close ties with the OAS. -)
Probably the most significant of these New Orleans based anti-communists was Wm. George Gaudet, a CIA covert officer who travelled continuously in Latin America and who published the Latin American Report, which was a joint Ochsner-
CIA-United Fruit operation. The newsletter was solidly anti-Gaullist in the -)
1960s. Surprisingly, Gaudet had some connections with both Oswald and Ruby.
His connection with Oswald stemmed from the fact (long held secret and released by mistake) that when oswald went to the Mexican Consulate in New
Orleans for a Mexican Tourist Card in September of 1963, Gaudet was standing
• I
in line ahead of him -- they got sequentially numbered Travel Cards. Also, lJ
Gaudet's office was in the Trade Mart, and, before his death in 1981, Gaudet admitted witnessing Oswald's distribution of pro-Castro leaflets in front of the Mart.
As to Ruby, on November 25, 1963, Gaudet (or someone using his name) phoned the FBI office in New Orleans and gave them some obscure and irrelevant
-30-
-
This is from the Fensterwald memo:
A French Police person from "SAC"
who knew Souetre very well, Souetre did the following in April-May, 1963:
a) met Howard Hunt and Jean Claude Perez (Chief of ORO) in Madrid;
wentto the Caribbean with Laszlo Varga, Lajos Marton, and Buscia;
c) went to New Orleans and met with Carlos Bringuier; d) went to Dallas and
met with General Edwin Walker; e) went to Lake Pointchartrain and helped'
train anti-Casto Cubans. It is known, in any event, that during this period
he had many contacts with anit-Castro Cubans. It is also known that he visited
Spain in July, 1963.
If, as the French believe, he was in Dallas in November, 1963, the
reason is unknown. On March 5, 1964, INS searched its files on Souetre and
said they came up with nothing on him or his aliases Roux and Mertz. However,
as of that time the CIA had both a file on and a photograph of him. It is also
known that in the late winter, presumably because of de Gaulle's upcoming visit
to Mexico, the French had put out a world-wide, all-points alert for Souetre.
The query of the FBI in Paris and New York was part of the attempt to get a line
on his whereabouts.
In the period 1964-1966, Souetre headed the Societe Expinmaq in Madrid;
it was a "soueti de traveaux publics," furnishing work and cover for OAS
veterans and exiles, such as Varga, Marton, and Sari.12/
By 1966, he had moved to Lisbon where he joined the infamous terrorist
group, Aginter Presse. For a number of years, Aginter Presse served as a
reservoir of contract mercentaries and hired assassins.
At the end of 1966, the Plan Kerillis went into effect; it was a plan
to put Moise Tshombe back in power in the Congo for the third time. Aginter
Presse was deeply involved, and its head, Guerin-Serac, placed (now) Major Souetre
in charge of recruiting mercenaries. Souetre, using the alias Eugene
Constant, recruited and brought to Lisbon a group of about 50 mercenaries,
20/
mostly French and Belgium.— In the summer of 1967, Souetre and company
were given papers by PIDE (Portugese Intelligence), and they embarked for
Luanda, Angola. It was planned that they would be parachuted into Elizabethville,
capital of Katanga Province. Unfortunately, days before the planned drop,
Tshouhe was kidnapped (by SAC?) and imprisoned in Algeria, where he died.
The whole operation was scrapped, and Souetre and his mercenaries returned
to Spain without a fight.
21/
Although officially residing in Spain in the period 1962-1971, he
travelled widely in the Western Hemisphere, using a number of aliases. He
spent much time in Martinique where nominally he was the Director of a sugar
refinery whose head office was in France at Arcis sur Aube. He was also
Director of a firm for Industrial Development in the Caribbean (S.D.D.I.C.),
22/
a branch of GFE in France.—
Surprisingly, from July 1970 to October 1971, Souetre was a "section
chief" in ETEC (Etudies Techniques et Commerciales), a cover operation run by
OAS veterans Charles Lascorz and Raymond Courbet. It was a strange mixture of
SDECE, SAC, and OAS. Souetre was responsible for ETEC's relations with OAS
exiles in Spain, as well as relations with the Spanish Secret Police. He
resigned from ETEC when he discovered the extent to which it was dominated by
23/
his old antagonists from SAC.
-
J. C. King Joseph Caldwell King (1900–1977) was the Chief of the Western Hemisphere Division of the CIA in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also known by his CIA code name of Oliver G. Galbond and as Colonel J.C. King. This is per Wikipedia.
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Dick Russell wrote in "The Man Who Knew Too Much":
• OAS had contact in New Orleans with anti-Castro groups
•
• In March-April 1963, Souetre met with Howard Hunt (of Watergate and Bay of Pigs infamy) in Madrid.
•
• In April-May 1963, Souetre met with Gen. Edwin Walker (who Oswald allegedly shot at) in Dallas.
•
• Souetre trains that summer with Alpha 66 and the 30th of November (both anti-Castro groups) in the New Orleans Mandeville region.
•
• Their headquarters' location in New Orleans: 544 Camp Street.
•
• OAS' Mandeville "cell" worked closely with elements of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
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I found this time line on the internet- I added one line (early Sept.)
April 1, 1963: LHO is fired by Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall.
April 2, 1963: The Oswalds attend a dinner party at the home of Ruth and Michael Paine,
where General Walker is mentioned.(by George DeM.)
April 6, 1963: LHO's last day at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall.
April 10, 1963: LHO (according to evidence discovered later by Ruth Paine and George De.M) fires a single shot at General
Walker, which misses him. LHO has no lic. to drive there and the police report says 2 people were seen by neighbors that evening.
April 12, 1963: LHO files for unemployment benefits.
April 14, 1963: LHO retrieves the rifle which he had hidden near the shooting site. Again, he had no car and no lic. to drive there.
April 17, 1963: LHO decides to move to New Orleans.
April 24, 1963: Ruth drives LHO to the bus station, where he leaves for New Orleans.
April 25, 1963: LHO moves in with his aunt Lillian Murret.
April 26, 1963: LHO visits the employment office in New Orleans.
April 28, 1963: LHO makes an effort to contact relatives on his father's side.
April 29, 1963: LHO files an appeal concerning his unemployment benefits.
May 9, 1963: With the help of Myrtle Evans, LHO finds work at the Reily Coffee Co. He
also finds an apartment.
May 10, 1963: LHO starts work and moves into his new apartment at 4905 Magazine St.
May 11, 1963: Ruth, Marina and June arrive at the apartment. Ruth stays on to visit.
May 14, 1963: Ruth returns to Dallas.
May 26, 1963: LHO writes to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee requesting a charter.
May 29, 1963: LHO orders 1,000 handbills for FPCC. They have an address on the back of them the same as Guy Bannister.
June 3, 1963: LHO rents a new PO box, using A.J. Hidell as one of the people that will
receive mail there.
June 8, 1963: Marina is rejected for treatment at the New Orleans Charity Hospital,
infuriating LHO.
June 16, 1963: LHO distributes FPCC literature at the Dumaine Street wharf where the
U.S.S. Wasp is docked.
June 24, 1963: LHO applies for a new passport.
July 6, 1963: LHO is invited by his cousin Eugene to speak to a group of students at the
Jesuit House of Studies in Mobile, Alabama, where Eugene is studying to be a priest.
July 11, 1963: Ruth invites Marina to live with her separately from LHO.
July 19, 1963: LHO is fired from the Reily Coffee Co.
July 22, 1963: He files a claim for unemployment benefits.
July 25, 1963: LHO's request for a review of his undesirable discharge is denied.
July 27, 1963: LHO speaks to the Jesuit group for 30 minutes on the subject of
"Contemporary Russia and the Practice of Communism".
August 5, 1963: LHO offers to help anti-Castro Cuban Carlos Bringuier in his struggle
against Castro.
August 6, 1963: He leaves his Marine Corps manual at Bringuier's store.
August 9, 1963: Bringuier confronts LHO when he sees him distributing FPCC literature
on Canal Street. A scuffle ensues, and the two are arrested. LHO spends the night in jail.
August 10, 1963: LHO is interviewed by John Quigley of the FBI at LHO's request. A
friend of the Murrets bails him out late in the afternoon.
August 12, 1963: LHO pleads guilty to the charge of disturbing the peace and is fined
$10.
August 17, 1963: Bill Stuckey from radio station WDSU visits LHO and asks him to
appear on the program Latin Listening Post. He arrived at the station at 5:00 PM and
taped a 37-minute segment, which was cut to 4 and a half minutes and broadcast at 7:30
that evening.
August 19, 1963: LHO accepts Stuckey's offer to debate Bringuier on a live radio
program.
August 21, 1963: LHO debates Bringuier and Ed Butler, director of a right-wing group, on
the program Conversation Carte Blanche, which runs from 6:05 to 6:30 PM.
Early Sept., 1963: LHO seen (by A. Veciana, an Alpha 66 leader) with David Atlee Phillips in Dallas, Texas (home of the best chilli cooks in the world)
September 17, 1963: LHO obtains a tourist card good for one visit to Mexico City from the
Mexican consulate in New Orleans.
September 20, 1963: Ruth visits the Oswalds, and it is decided that Marina will return to
Irving with Ruth for the birth of the baby.
September 23, 1963: Ruth and Marina leave for Irving.
September 24, 1963: Eric Rogers, a neighbor, sees LHO running to catch a bus.
September 25, 1963: LHO collects his unemployment check of $33. Later, he catches a
bus bound for Houston. Late that night, he places a phone call to Horace Twiford, an
official of the Texas Socialist Labor Party.
Mexico City
September 26, 1963
Early in the morning, LHO boards a bus for Laredo, Texas. He crosses the border into
Mexico in the early afternoon.
2:15 PM: At Nuevo Laredo, LHO boards a bus for Mexico City.
September 27, 1963
10:00 AM: LHO arrives in Mexico City.
11:00 AM: LHO registers at the Hotel del Comercio, where he will stay for the duration of
his visit.
11:30 AM: LHO makes his first visit to the Cuban Embassy, where he fills out the
application for a visa to Cuba. In the afternoon, LHO returns with passport photographs
he had obtained. When LHO is told that the visa could take up to four months and was
not possible without a Russian visa as well, he becomes angry. He walks a short
distance to the Russian Embassy to inquire about a visa to Russia and is put off until the
next day.
September 28, 1963
LHO returns to both the Cuban and the Russian Embassies with no success.
September 29, 1963
LHO probably attends a bullfight on this, a Sunday.
September 30, 1963
LHO phones the Russian Embassy one last time with no success. Later, he buys a bus
ticket from Mexico City to Laredo, Texas.
October 1, 1963
LHO pays the Hotel bill through that day.
October 2, 1963
8:30 AM: LHO departs on bus #332 for Texas.
October 3, 1963
1:35 AM: LHO crosses into the U.S.
2:20 PM: LHO arrives in Dallas.
Dallas
October 3, 1963: LHO checks in at the YMCA. Later in the day, he files a claim at the
employment office.
October 4, 1963: LHO applies for work at Padgett Printing Co. He makes a favorable
impression, but is not hired because of poor references. Later, he telephones Marina and
asks for a ride to Ruth Paine's home and is denied. He hitchhikes the 12 miles to Ruth's
house.
October 7, 1963: Ruth drives LHO to the bus station, and he returns to Dallas to look for
work. Later, LHO obtains a room at 621 Marsalis St.
October 12, 1963: LHO advised his landlady that he was leaving for the weekend, and
she stated that she didn't want him to return. LHO went to Ruth's for the weekend.
October 14, 1963: Ruth drives LHO to Dallas, where he later registers as O.H. Lee at a
new rooming house on North Beckley. Later, Ruth mentions to a group of neighbors that
LHO is having trouble finding work. One of the ladies, Linnie Mae Randle, mentioned a
possible opening at the Texas School Book Depository; and when LHO calls the Paine
home that evening, Ruth informs him of the opening. (Ruth seems to be Johnnie on the Spot).
October 15, 1963: LHO applies at the TSBD and is hired.
October 16, 1963: LHO begins work at the TSBD.
October 18, 1963: LHO receives a ride from Buell Frazier to the Paine home, where a
surprise birthday party is waiting for him.
October 20, 1963: Marina gives birth to Audrey Marina Rachel Oswald.
October 23, 1963: LHO attends a right-wing rally where General Walker is a speaker.
October 25, 1963: Michael Paine and LHO attend a meeting of the ACLU.
October 29, 1963: FBI agent James Hosty makes inquiries in the Paine's neighborhood
regarding LHO.
November 1, 1963: Hosty interviews Ruth and Marina at the Paine home. Also that day,
LHO rents a new PO box and sends letters to the ACLU and the American Communist
Party.
November 2, 1963: LHO instructs Marina that if Hosty returns she should get his plate
number.
November 3, 1963: Ruth gives LHO a driving lesson.
November 5, 1963: Hosty returns for another interview, and Marina obtains his plate
number.
November 8, 1963: Frazier drops LHO off at the Paine's home, as usual.
November 9, 1963: Ruth takes LHO to the Driver Examination Station accompanied by
Marina and the children. When they discovered it was closed, they spent time at a local
five and dime store.
November 11, 1963: LHO spends Veteran's Day at the Paine home.
November 12, 1963: LHO delivers a note to the FBI building addressed to Hosty warning
him to leave his family alone.
November 15, 1963: Marina advises LHO not to come the following weekend as Michael
Paine will be there to celebrate his daughter's birthday.
November 17, 1963: Ruth calls LHO's rooming house at Marina's request to find they
don't know him by the name LHO Harvey Oswald.
November 19, 1963: The Dallas Times Herald details the exact route of the presidential
motorcade.
Nov. 22, 1963: After supposedly killing JFK and Officer Tippit, LHO takes in a Movie at the Texas Movie Theatre. And, he does no
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Fletcher Prouty was a consultant to Oliver Stone on the JFK movie. At the time of assassination, he was in the Intelligence community. He, in fact, was ordered to the South Pole so he would be out of the country on the day of JFK's assassination. He was an Army retiree and knew about black ops- he knew the playbook .
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Fletcher Prouty was the inspiration for the character "Mr. X" in Oliver Stone's movie JFK. He was played by Donald Sutherland, who has a son named Kiefer Sutherland, who was the star in TV Series called "24", which was about an agent who had 24 hours to get something done. Or, to protect the President against assassination (the assassins were going to assassinate the president in 24 hrs. and he had to stop them. In real life (the JFK assassination), the JFK's murderers knew they had 24 hrs. to get JFK's body out of Dallas and into their hands so they could re-do the autopsy to show JFK was murdered from behind (The Texas School Book Depository)and not from the Grass Knoll. The Doctors who did the autopsy in Dallas had the fatal shot entering the right front temple and leaving the rear (if they had had the shot entering the rear and exiting the front the conspirators would have left JFK in Dallas). If the original was published (which it would have been - within 24 hrs.), it would pointed to a different killer than LHO. So, the conspirators went into Parkland , took JFK's body and had the autopsy re-done per the script. They burned the Dallas autopsy report. All within 24 hrs. to 72 hrs of the JFK's murder.
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I read John Newman's latest book. It was terrific. It was foundation-laying and ground-breaking.
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LHO said he was a patsy. He was right. And, he knew who set him up (DAP). He could point his finger at his handler(s). That is why he was killed before he could see an attorney.
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I listened to Coast to Coast last night (the first hour) and it went very well. I found it very informative. I especially appreciated the comments on John Newman's work on LHO's 201 file. If LHO was a lone nut, why is the CIA holding these documents hostage? Because LHO worked for intelligence agencies (CIA, ONI, etc.) And what documents have already been destroyed- probably all of the conclusive ones. But, I do believe your work, Jim, (and David L's work and B. Kelly's work and John Newman's work and Greg Parker's work, etc.) is very important and should proceed. Speaking of destroying evidence, it reminds me of the Godfather 2 movie- the scene where the young Corleone assassinates the Mafia (Black Hand as it was called back then) head (Fanninni) of Little Italy. What is the first thing the young assassin does- he destroys the gun he used to kill Fanninni. And that is probably what the real assassin(s) did after they killed JFK- they destroyed their rifle(s). The fake assassin (patsy) left his gun in the " assassin's nest" - so the police could come and get it- like they were told to do by the Mayor (Earle Cabell) who was told by his brother (Charles Cabell) where the "assassin's nest" was.
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Why did LHO, after , supposedly, killing the President of the United States and a Dallas Police Officer decide to take in a movie (and not pay for the movie ticket)? I think his CIA handler told him to go the Texas Theater and then the handler (probably DAP) told Dulles where the killer / patsy was located and to have the police arrest him. Working with Dulles was Charles Cabell (both Dulles and Cabell were both fired by JFK for the Bay of Pigs fiasco), whose brother, Earle Cabell , the then Mayor of Dallas. It was Earle who told the Dallas Chief of Police to go get the killer - he is in the theatre.
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I agree with you , Sandy. This (the Warren Commission) was Dulles' full time job as Dulles was fired by JFK and was officially unemployed at the time. Ford had a day job- he was an elected official from Michigan who was probably manipulated by Dulles. Dulles ran the Warren Commission- that was his full time job.
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I agree with you, Bill. And, I think what John Newman writes on the last page of his recent book, "Where Angels Tread Lightly" is relevant. He says " Phillips tells us what appears to be so is not so. Like the cat that swallowed the canary, Phillips then states flatly, "I know of no evidence that Fidel Castro, or the Soviets encouraged Oswald." And why would Phillips be in a position to make such a statement? "I should add," he says "that I was an observer of Cuban and Soviet reaction in Mexico City when Lee Harvey Oswald contacted the embassies."
Newman goes to finish his book by saying " In other words, in the course of telling us about a big secret--that Dulles' operation appeared to give Castro a motive to kill JFK--Philips lets us in on a bigger "unpopular" secret: the big secret was false."
Finally, Newman finishes his book by saying, " Getting Chief Justice Earl Warren to believe that it was true was one of the most successful deception operations in history." And, I might add, getting Gerald Ford to believe was a piece of cake.
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Here is an essay on JFK and Israel written by Jerome Chanes in 2013 when he was a fellow at the Graduate Center in City University of New York ...
Fifty years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Jews in America have little memory of JFK’s Jewish relationships. “JFK and the Jews” had little to do with the Jews, and everything to do with Israel. Looking back at his legacy, as the Nov. 22 anniversary nears, American Jews have good reasons, therefore, to mourn.
The story of JFK and Israel begins with Kennedy’s predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower: during the Eisenhower years there was no Israel-U.S. relationship. It was the coldest period in the history of the countries’ ties — and that includes the Carter presidency.
Under Eisenhower, nothing of the full-blown alliance that Israel and the United States have enjoyed for decades — massive foreign aid, arms subsidies, security guarantees, coordination on regional strategy, political support, protective vetoes in the Security Council, positive rhetoric, congressional ardor, respect for the pro-Israel lobby — would develop. The exception, in terms of support for Israel, was congressional support — and Ike didn’t need Congress.
The Eisenhower foreign policy (in fact crafted by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles) — “The New Look,” as it was called — was based on maximum deterrence of Communism. The idea of bolstering friendly conservative Arab states, part of the “Eisenhower Doctrine” of regional pacts to combat Communism, a Dulles favorite, did not include Israel.
Further, Israel’s government was socialist, and it was not clear to anyone that Israel would not tilt in the Soviet direction. (Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion in fact bucked his own socialist majority in the Knesset (63 seats out of 120) to align Israel with the West rather than remain “unaligned.”) And there was wariness about Israeli regional motives: Expansionism? Revanchism? Drive the Arabs out?
Eisenhower’s problem was Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser more than it was Israel. Nasser recognized Mao’s China and accepted Soviet arms, a major “no-no” for a Republican administration that had to protect its right political flank. But Ike protected Nasser, not because he loved him, but because he wanted to advance “containment” of the Soviet Union.
Said Middle East affairs analyst Steven Spiegel: “To Eisenhower, the Arabs offered assets — the Arab states were useful for ‘containment’ — while Israel constituted a liability to American interests.”
Further, Ike was a Republican, and Jews had been very visible in the New Deal, and in any case voted Democrat. (Eisenhower’s famous memo to Dulles: “We conduct our policy as if there were not one Jew in the country. They don’t vote for us anyway.” Ike wasn’t wrong.)
JFK in 1960 inherited a mess. He took over from the least sympathetic presidency in American history. The Middle East was a shambles: Britain was useless, Iraq was lost to the West, Egypt and Syria were in the Soviet orbit, conservative monarchs felt exposed and were nervous, Israel was jittery, there were threats of nuclear war — and Egypt and Israel were both in Washington’s bad graces.
With respect to Israel, Kennedy turned it around.
First, at bottom, he was not his father, Joseph Kennedy, around whom always wafted the odor of anti-Semitism. (My mom used to say about Joe Kennedy: “Anybody who was disliked by both the Zionists and the NAACP must have been doing something!”) Second, there was JFK’s brother, Bobby, one of Kennedy’s closest advisers, who had a true affinity for Israel, and who exercised a profound influence on JFK in Middle East affairs. The Kennedy brothers forged more than a relationship with Israel — they forged an alliance.
Once again, it was the State Department, this time under Dean Rusk, which was the problem, a most formidable bureaucratic opponent of rapprochement with Israel, and the most enthusiastic bureaucratic advocate of Egypt. The Middle East issues during Kennedy’s brief administration, 1961-1963, were Nasser, Nasser and Nasser, whom Kennedy detested. Nasser did everyone a favor by getting involved in an absurd war in Yemen — Nasser’s “Vietnam” — which led to a regional war involving the Saudis, and which enabled the U.S. to move closer to an all-out alliance with Israel, an alliance that was marked (to take but one example) by the first major arms sale to Israel.
Finally, and most important in shaping an administration stance on Israel, was a virtuosic analysis of Israeli policy done by the very able Walworth Barbour, Kennedy’s ambassador to Israel. Barbour concluded that Israel was not pursuing a revanchist policy with respect to the West Bank, whatever dreams they might harbor; that the only way there would be a West Bank problem that might trigger Israeli intervention — the West Bank was still part of Jordan in 1963 — would be the arrival of a Nasserite government in Jordan (there was no PLO in 1963); finally, there would be little the United States could do to prevent an Israeli strike if Israel felt that its existence was at stake. (This was in 1963, four years before the Six-Day War.)
The Barbour analysis became the backbone of U.S. policy. While it is true that there were limits to JFK’s friendliness toward Israel — indeed, no U.S. weapons went to Israel in substantial numbers until the Johnson presidency; it was France that was the major supplier to Israel weapons before LBJ — the Kennedy/Barbour construct became the paradigm for U.S. policy.
In sum, four features marked the stance of the Kennedy administration toward Israel:
♦ First, there was a completely new policy with respect to Israel, one that was poles apart from that of Eisenhower/Dulles. The policy had less to do with international geopolitical realities than with personal likes and dislikes, preferences and prejudices.
♦ Second, there were new, informal, decision-making structures in place, with protocols that did not rely on a hostile, “Arabist”-populated State Department.
♦ Third, no new Arab policy was put in place by JFK — other than the abomination of Nasser and the embrace of conservative Arab regimes.
♦ Finally, there was the continued inability to craft an approach toward settling the Arab-Israeli conflict.
But John Kennedy did more than just reach out to Israel; he crafted the first Arab-Israel policy, which entailed a balancing of regional rivalries and American ambitions. It was in this that JFK created the foundations of a U.S.-Israel relationship, which we remember 50 years after his passing.
Jerome A. Chanes is a fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies of the CUNY Graduate Center
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Did the Mayor of Dallas have to approve the route that JFK would take in Dallas?
scheduled to be interviewed, c) were in the commission witness index or d) related and not interviewed. If they were JFK-related, the deaths were not random. One must therefore conclude that the assassination was a conspiracy.
around the — let’s put a No. 5 there [on Commission Exhibit 354] at the corner here behind this concrete structure where the bushes were down toward the railroad tracks from the Texas School Book Depository Building.Mr Smith :Yes.Mr Liebeler :Now you say that you had the idea that the shots may have come from up in that area?Mr Smith :Yes, sir; that is just what, well, like I say, the sound of it.
Selective Memory of George H.W. Bush
in JFK Assassination Debate
Posted
Here is an essay on Bush / Zapata:
The company traces its origins to Zapata Oil, founded in 1953 by future-U.S. President George H. W. Bush, along with his business partners John Overbey, Hugh Liedtke, Bill Liedtke, and Thomas J. Devine. Overbey was a ‘landman’, skilled in scouting oil fields and obtaining drilling rights cheaply. Bush and Thomas J. Devine were oil-wildcatting associates.[1] Their joint activities culminated in the establishment of Zapata Oil.[2] The initial $1 million investment for Zapata was provided by the Liedtke brothers and their circle of investors, by Bush's father Prescott Bush and his maternal grandfather George Herbert Walker, and their family's circle of friends. Hugh Liedtke was named president, Bush was vice president; Overbey soon left.
According to a CIA internal memo dated November 29, 1975,[2] Zapata Petroleum began in 1953 through Bush's joint efforts with Thomas J. Devine, a CIA staffer who had resigned his agency position that same year to go into private business, but who continued to work for the CIA under commercial cover. Devine would later accompany Bush to Vietnam in late 1967 as a "cleared and witting commercial asset" of the agency, acted as his informal foreign affairs advisor, and had a close relationship with him through 1975.[3]
In 1954, Zapata Off-Shore Company was formed as a subsidiary of Zapata Oil, with Bush as president of the new company. He raised some startup money from Eugene Meyer, publisher of the Washington Post, and his son-in-law, Phillip Graham.[4][5]
Zapata Off-Shore accepted an offer from an inventor, R. G. LeTourneau, for the development of a mobile but secure drilling rig. Zapata advanced him $400,000, which was to be refundable if the completed rig did not function, followed by an additional $550,000 together with 38,000 shares of Zapata Off-Shore common stock when it did.
The U.S. government began to auction off mineral rights to the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Central American coast in 1954, and in the late 1950s and early 1960, Zapata Off-Shore concentrated its business in these areas.[6] In 1958, drilling contracts with the seven largest U.S. oil producers included wells 40 miles (64 km) north of Isabela, Cuba, near the island Cay Sal.
In January 1959, the Cuban Revolution overthrew the Cuban government of Fulgencio Batista, and Bush bought control of Zapata Off-Shore, funded with $800,000,[7] splitting Zapata Corporation into two independent companies with the Liedtkes still in control of Zapata Petroleum. Bush moved his offices and family that year from Midland, Texas to Houston for access to the Caribbean through the Houston Ship Channel.[8] But although Zapata Offshore had only a few drilling rigs, Bush set up operations also in the Gulf of Mexico, the Persian Gulf, Trinidad, Borneo, and Medellín, Colombia, and the Kuwait Shell Petroleum Development Company was among the company's clients.[9]
In 1960, Jorge Díaz Serrano (es) of Mexico was put in touch with Bush by Dresser Industries. Dresser was owned by Prescott Bush's Yale friends Roland and W. Averell Harriman, and had been George H.W. Bush's first employer upon his graduation from Yale, giving him his start in both the oil business and the defense contractor business.[10] Serrano and Bush created a new company, Perforaciones Marinas del Golfo, aka Permargo, in conjunction with Edwin Pauley of Pan American Petroleum, with whom Zapata had a previous offshore contract. The deal with Permargo is not mentioned in Zapata's annual reports, and SEC records are missing. In 1988, a Bush spokesman claimed that the deal lasted only from March to September 1960. However, Zapata sold the oil-drilling rig Nola I to Pemargo in 1964.[citation needed]
Zapata's filing records with the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission are intact for the years 1955–1959, and again from 1967 onwards. However, records for the years 1960–1966 are missing. The commission's records officer stated that the records were inadvertently placed in a session file to be destroyed by a federal warehouse, and that a total of 1,000 boxes were pulped in this procedure. The destruction of records occurred either in October 1983 (according to the records officer), or in 1981 shortly after Bush became Vice President of the United States (according to, Wison Carpenter, a record analyst with the commission).[11]
During the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Zapata allowed its oil rigs to be used as listening posts.[12] In 1988, Barron's said Zapata was "a part time purchasing front for the [Central Intelligence Agency]."[12]
In 1962, Bush was joined in Zapata Off-Shore by Robert Gow.[13] By 1963, Zapata Off-Shore had four operational oil-drilling rigs—Scorpion (1956), Vinegaroon (1957), Sidewinder, and (in the Persian Gulf) Nola III.
In 1963, Zapata Petroleum merged with South Penn Oil and other companies, to become Pennzoil.
By 1964, Zapata Off-Shore had a number of subsidiaries, including: Seacat-Zapata Offshore Company (Persian Gulf), Zapata de Mexico, Zapata International Corporation, Zapata Mining Corporation, Zavala Oil Company, Zapata Overseas Corporation, and a 41% share of Amata Gas Corporation.
In 1964, Bush ran for the United States Senate, and lost; he continued as president of Zapata Off-Shore until 1966, when he sold his interest to his business partner, Robert Gow, and ran for the U.S. House of Representatives.
On September 9, 1965, Hurricane Betsy struck the coast of Louisiana sinking the oil rig Maverick.[14] No lives were lost, however, $8 million in Zapata assets were lost.[14] A helicopter flew Bush over the area for several days until debris was located.[14] After evidence was submitted to Lloyd's of London for the loss, they paid Zapata for the claim.[14]
In 1966, William Stamps Farish III, age 28, joined the board of Zapata.
Decline[edit]
Zapata, under Robert Gow's direction, sought to acquire a controlling interest in the United Fruit Company in 1969, but was outbid by AMK Corp.[15] Robert's father, Ralph Gow, was on United Fruit's board of directors.
In the 1970s, under chairman and CEO William Flynn, Zapata expanded its business to include subsidiaries in dredging, construction, coal mining, copper mining and fishing.
By the late 1970s, saddled with weak operations, high debt and low return on investment, the company again began undergoing changes in management and direction. Led by John Mackin, who succeeded William Flynn, the company began selling off some of those businesses and refocused on offshore oil and gas exploration and production.
In 1982, chief operating officer Ronald Lassiter assumed the role of CEO, and presided over a decade of loss-making brought on by the collapse of oil prices. In 1982, Zapata Off-shore became Zapata Corporation. Its stock performed poorly. By 1986, Zapata was one of the bad loans that shook the foundations of San Francisco-based Bank of America, with a debt of more than $500 million and a fiscal year loss of $250 million. The company announced several restructurings during those years and managed to stave off bankruptcy, but continued to incur major losses. In 1990 the oil drilling company proposed selling its entire fleet of offshore drilling rigs to focus solely on fishing. The company had not had a profitable quarter in more than five years.
In 1990, Zapata Offshore sold 12 of its drilling rigs to Arethusa Offshore, which a few years later merged with Diamond Offshore. Still struggling with debt by 1993, Zapata signed a deal with Norex America to raise more than $100 million through a loan and stock sale. But financier Malcolm Glazer, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL franchise and at the time owner of 40 percent of Zapata, did not want his holdings diluted and filed a lawsuit to block the deal.
Glazer era and the birth of Harbinger Group Inc.[edit]
By 1994, the company had come under Glazer's control, after a proxy fight. Glazer became chairman of Zapata, replacing Ronald Lassiter, and in 1995 Avram Glazer was named CEO and president of Zapata. De facto headquarters moved from Houston to Rochester, New York. It no longer engaged in exploration, but owned several natural gas service companies. It also produced protein products from the menhaden fish. In subsequent years Zapata sold its energy-related businesses and focused on marine protein.
Between 1998 and 2000, Zapata tried to position itself as an internet media company under the "zap.com" name. In July 1998, Zapata announced its plans to acquire several web sites, including ChatPlanet, TravelPage and DailyStocks.com.[16] The company's stock boomed and crashed along with other dot-coms, and in 2001 the company conducted a 1 for 10 reverse stock split. The venture was cited by many investment journalists as an example of a company jumping on the internet bandwagon without any relevant experience. This period is probably best remembered for Zapata's unsolicited (and unsuccessful) takeover bid of the Excite internet portal.[17]
During this period, Zapata also built up a controlling stake in Safety Components International, a manufacturer of air bag fabrics and cushions.
On December 2, 2005, Zapata Corporation Chairman, Avram ("Avi") Glazer, announced the sale of 4,162,394 shares, 77.3%, of Safety Components International to Wilbur L. Ross, Jr. for $51.2 million. The company sold its remaining stock in Omega Proteine on December 1, 2006, leaving it with no active subsidiary. The Glazer family sold its controlling stock of the Zapata Corporation to Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital in 2009, and the company's name was changed to Harbinger Group Inc. with the ticker symbol HRG on the NYSE.[18][19] In 2010–2011, Harbinger Capital Partners LLC transferred its 54.4% interest in Spectrum Brands to Harbinger Group Inc. giving the company controlling interest in that company.[20][21] Also in 2011 Harbinger Group Inc. acquired the insurance company Old Mutual U.S. Life Holdings, Inc.[22][23]
In 2013, Salus Capital (a unit of Harbinger Group) and Cerberus Capital Management issued a quarter-billion dollars in financing to struggling retailer RadioShack Corporation.[24] Among the terms of this deal were restrictions which prevented RadioShack from closing more than 200 of its 4275 company-owned retail stores a year and limited its ability to refinance, which proved to be a key obstacle leading to that firm's February 2015 Chapter 11 bankruptcy as the chain was forced to keep more than a thousand unprofitable stores open.[25][26] Fidelity & Guaranty Life, the insurer backed by Harbinger Group, also has a $50 million stake in the RadioShack bankruptcy.[27]
References[edit]
1. Jump up ^ Baker, Russ, Family of Secrets (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009) p. 13.
2. ^ Jump up to: a b Withheld (sanitized, unclassified document), Central Intelligence Agency (November 29, 1975). "Memorandum: To: Deputy Director of Operations; Subject: Messrs. George Bush and Thomas J.". NARA Record Number: 104-10310-10271.
3. Jump up ^ "MEMORANDUM:MESSRS. GEORGE BUSH AND THOMAS J. DEVINE", 3 pp.
4. Jump up ^ Hasty, Michael (February 5, 2004). "Secret admirers: The Bushes and the Washington Post". Online Journal. Archived from the original on April 5, 2004.
5. Jump up ^ Perin, Monica (April 23, 1999). "Adios, Zapata! Colorful company founded by Bush relocates to N.Y.". Houston Business Journal.
6. Jump up ^ King, Nicholas (1980). George Bush: A Biography. Dodd Mead. ISBN 0-396-07919-9.
7. Jump up ^ "Zapata Oil Files, 1943–1983". George Bush Personal Papers. George Bush Presidential Library. Archived from the original on August 20, 2007.
8. Jump up ^ Russ Baker, Family of Secrets (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009) p. 36.
9. Jump up ^ Russ Baker, Family of Secrets (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009) p. 35.
10. Jump up ^ Russ Baker, Family of Secrets (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009) pp. 23–28.
11. Jump up ^ Jonathan Kwitny, "The Mexican Connection: A look at an old George Bush business venture", Barron's September 19, 1988. Cited with further discussion by Russ Baker, Family of Secrets (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009) pp. 37 and 503.
12. ^ Jump up to: a b Bardach, Ann Louise Bardach (2009). "The Island and the Empire". Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana and Washington. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 60. ISBN 9781416580072. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
13. Jump up ^ http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/green-acres/
14. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Schweizer, Peter; Schweizer, Rochelle (2005) [2004]. "Chapter 14: Mainstream". The Bushes. New York: Anchor Books (published January 2005). p. 174. ISBN 0-385-49864-0.
15. Jump up ^ "Prettying Up Chiquita", Time (magazine). September 3, 1973
16. Jump up ^ July 1998. Zapata's next shot at the Net. http://news.cnet.com/Zapatas-next-shot-at-the-Net/2100-1023_3-212978.html
17. Jump up ^ Suzanne Galante (May 21, 1998). "Excite rejects Zapata's bid". CNET News.com.
18. Jump up ^ Bloomberg, Manchester United Owner Glazer Turns to Falcone (Update1)
19. Jump up ^ Harbinger Group, Inc., Zapata Corporation Announces Third Quarter Results and Reincorporation Merger.
20. Jump up ^ Harbinger Group, Inc., Harbinger Group Inc. and Harbinger Capital Partners Enter into Definitive Agreement on Transfer of Spectrum Brands Majority Interest
21. Jump up ^ Harbinger Group, Inc., Harbinger Group Inc. Completes Spectrum Brands Share Exchange with Harbinger Capital Partners
22. Jump up ^ Harbinger Group, Inc., "Harbinger Group Inc. Completes Acquisition of Old Mutual U.S. Life Holdings, Inc.: $350 million purchase price represents approximately 39% of Statutory Capital and 22% of IFRS Net Book Value"
23. Jump up ^ Harbinger Group, Inc., "Harbinger Group Inc. Signs Definitive Agreement for Acquisition of Old Mutual U.S. Life Holdings, Inc.: $350 million purchase price represents approximately 39% of Statutory Capital and 22% of IFRS Net Book Value. Further value secured through comprehensive life reinsurance commitment provided by Wilton Re to address life insurance redundant reserves requirements. New management team to be led by Lee Launer, CEO and Chairman."
24. Jump up ^ http://seekingalpha.com/article/2725915-radioshack-to-fight-covenant-breaches-claim-from-harbinger-unit
25. Jump up ^ "Behind RadioShack's Collapse Is a Tiny Distressed Lender". Bloomberg. February 8, 2015.
26. Jump up ^ http://www.bidnessetc.com/34376-small-lenders-interests-might-have-bankrupted-radioshack-corporation/
27. Jump up ^ Tracer, Zachary (February 10, 2015). "RadioShack Creditors Said to Include Harbinger's Insurer F&G". Bloomberg.
Public records[edit]
• SEC filings of Zapata Corporation
• Zapata Offshore Annual Reports, Microform Reading Room, Library of Congress.
• National Security Archives documentation of GHW Bush's CIA involvement in the early 1960s.[dead link]
• United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Action 88–2600 GHR, Archives and Research Center v. Central Intelligence Agency, Affidavit of George William Bush, September 21, 1988.
Zapata[edit]
• Franklin, H. Bruce, "Net Losses", Mother Jones, March 2006 – extensive article on role of Menhaded in ecosystem and possible results of overfishing. Retrieved February 21, 2006
George Bush[edit]
• Kevin Philips, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush, Penguin (2004), esp. pp. 200–208.
• Joseph McBride, "The Man Who Wasn't There: 'George Bush,' CIA Operative", The Nation, July 16/23, 1988, p. 42.
• Joseph McBride, "Where Was George?", The Nation, August 13/20, 1988, on the whereabouts of GHW Bush on November 22, 1963.
• Nicolas King, George Bush: A Biography.
• Anthony L. Kimery, "George Bush and the CIA: In the Company of Friends", Covert Action Quarterly, Summer, 1992.
• The Mafia, CIA & George [HW] Bush, Pete Brewton, S.P.I. Books, 1992
CIA[edit]
• Baker, Russ. 2009. Family of Secrets: The Bush dynasty, the powerful forces that put it in the White House, and what their influence means for America. New York: Bloomsbury Press. Reissued in paper (2009) with the subtitle The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years.
• Beschloss, Michael R. 1991. The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960–63 Edward Burlingame Books, p. 89 refers to "Operation Zapata" as the codename for the Bay of Pigs operation.
• Bissell, Richard M. Jr., with Jonathan E. Lewis and Frances T. Pudlo. 1996. Reflections of a Cold Warrior: From Yalta to the Bay of Pigs Yale University Press ISBN 978-0-300-06430-8
• Phillips, David Atlee, The Night Watch.
• Trento, Joseph J. 2005. Prelude to Terror: The Rogue