KLIF's Joe Long

[Michael Hogan]

Paul Long

November 16, 2007

My Dad Was There

Undoubtedly, you've heard his voice in movies and documentaries about the assassination. He was one of the pool reporters covering the arrival at Love Field. As news director and VP of News at KLIF in Dallas he was in the motorcade when another KLIF reporter farther up in the procession first reported "something has happened in the motorcade...."

He immediately made a U-turn to head to the studios and began marathon coverage that was picked up (at no charge) by radio stations and networks all over the world. Besides fulfilling most of the anchor duties he would 'spell' some of his reporters by keeping vigil at police headquarters (he's even in the Warren Report because on Saturday night, Jack Ruby brought food in for the press corps. Fortunately the reason why Ruby was "looking for him" was because someone told Ruby that Joe Long had not had any food all day).

Even before Mark Layne's (sic) first conspiracy book came out and certainly before conspiracy theories became fashionable, I remember my father's reaction to the official story and later Warren Report as being, "I don't know what really happened. But what they're saying is certainly NOT how it happened." Keep in mind that back in those days, reporters, police and the legal community had a much more intimate and protective relationship and I know he had heard a lot from his many sources.

Unfortunately, he passed away in 1971, so I was never able to get more details of what he really thought it was all about.

http://www.wereyouthere.com/individual-top...amp;tpostid=256

__________________

Jack Ruby spoke about Joe Long and sandwiches in his WC testimony:

He had been giving me a lot of free plugs. And all the while listening to the radio, I heard about a certain diskjockey, Joe Long, that is down at the station, giving firsthand information--I want to describe him--of Oswald. Very rarely do I use the name Oswald. I don't know why. I don't know how to explain it--of the person that committed the act. [Pause to compose self.] So before going down to the police station, I try to call KLIF but can't get their number. I wanted to bring the sandwiches to KLIF so they would have the sandwiches, since they already started to make them up. And I remember Russ Knight, a disk jockey--these names aren't familiar to you, but I have to mention them in order to refresh my memory. His name was Moore, or something, and I tried to get information on the telephone, but they couldn't give me the phone number of his home. I probably thought I could get the phone number, but after 6 p.m., you cannot get into the premises unless you have a "hot" number that is right to the diskjockey room. So I couldn't get a hold of that.

and:

The first time of that Friday. This time it must have been about--I mean the time, the time of my entering the building, I guess, was approximately 11:15 p.m. The officer was there, and I said, "Where is Joe Long?" I said, "Can I go and look for him?" Evidently I took a little domineering part about me, and I was able to be admitted. I asked different reporters and various personalities there, "Are you Joe Long?," and I couldn't locate him. I even had a police officer try to page him and he couldn't locate him. I recognized a couple of police officers, Cal Jones and a few others, and I said "hello" to them.

And I am still looking for Joe Long, but I am carried away with the excitement of history. And one fellow then--I am in the hallway there--there is a narrow hallway, and I don't recall if Captain Fritz or Chief Curry brings the prisoner out, and I am standing about 2 or 3 feet away from him, and there is some reporters that didn't know the various police officers, and I don't know whether they asked me or I volunteered to tell them, because I knew they were looking to find out who that was, and I said, "That was Chief Curry" or "That is Captain Fritz," or whoever it was. I don't recall Henry Wade coming out in the hallway. He probably did. I don't recall what happened. Then suddenly someone asked, either the Chief or Captain Fritz, "Isn't there a larger room we can go into?" They said, "Well, let's go down to the assembly room downstairs." I don't know what transpired in between from the time that I had the officer page Joe Long up to the time I was standing about 3 feet away from Oswald. All the things--I don't recall if I am telling you everything that happened from that time, from the time I entered the building to the time I went down to the assembly room.

And according to Mark Lane, Joe Long said that the Secret Service confiscated some of KLIF's news recordings and never returned them.

http://books.google.com/books?id=_YAWJka6j...WH77srzyz_HQTjo

[William Kelly]

Thanks for that Michael,

and add that to the fact that Ruby called KLIF's owner, Gordon McLendon, at his home, and McLendon was a member of David A. Phillip's Association of Former Intelligence Officers, and together they pitched a TV show to CBS that would do for the CIA what the TV shows did for the FBI.

BK