J Featherston information

[Richard Price]

Has anyone ever developed information on James /(Jim) Featherston, the Dallas reporter who immediately went to Mary Moorman after the assassination?  My overly active imagination makes me wonder what his background was, what happened to him after 11/22/63, etc.  It seems to me that his great journalistic instinct in getting to Moorman within seconds after the assassination and deciding that he "HAD" to have the photo(s) to the exclusion of anyone else, should have been an indication that he would have had the ambition and skills to succeed greatly in his profession.  Can anyone point me to information about him.  I don't seem to come up with much when I search his name online.  As with everything about the assassination, his actions just seem too coincidental and too perfectly coordinated with the various missing evidence in the records.  By this I mean the missing photo the Moorman said she took of the other motorcycle policeman which showed the eastern corner of the Depository.  This interests me because, to me it seems that every photo we have in existence just happens to have a blur/damage or have images of interest just out of field.  Thanks in advance for any information. 

[John Butler]

Richard,

Here's something I just copied from the net.  I echo your suspicions of Jim Featherston.

Some conspiracy theorists claim that the Warren Commission took testimony only from witnesses expected to bolster the theory of Lee Harvey Oswald's guilt as lone assassin. Anyone who has studied the Warren Commission testimony knows this is clearly not the case. One obvious bit of evidence against this "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" theory is the Warren Commission testimony of eyewitness Jean Hill -- and the Commission's failure to take testimony from Dallas Times Herald reporter Jim Featherston, named by Hill as a sinister conspirator.

Jean Hill was deposed by Commission counsel Arlen Specter in Dallas on March 24, 1964.⁽¹⁾ Hill's friend Mary Moorman had just snapped a Polaroid photograph of the President's assassination, and Hill testified, "There was a man holding Mary's arm and she was crying and he had hold of her camera trying to take it with him."

"Who was that?" Specter asked her.

 

 

Mrs. HILL. Featherstone of the Times Herald and --

Mr. SPECTER. Dallas Times Herald?

Mrs. HILL. That's right. . . . [He was] holding her by the arm and her camera. and telling her she had to go with him, I started trying to shake his hand loose and grab the camera and telling him that "No, we couldn't go, we had to leave." . . . I was just wanting to get out of there and to get away and he kept telling me -- he insisted we go with him and . . . he just practically ran us up to the court house, I guess it is, and put us in this little room . . . we couldn't leave. He kept standing in front of the door and he would let a cameraman in or someone to interview us and they were shooting things in our faces, and he wouldn't let us out.⁽²⁾

 

 

Jean Hill

Not only did "Featherstone" hold Hill and Moorman captive in the courthouse, but according to Jean Hill, he also tried to keep her from saying certain things to the press -- particularly her account of a man running up the steps on the grassy knoll after the shots were fired.

 

 

Mrs. HILL. ["Featherstone"] said, "You know you were wrong about seeing a man running." He said, "You didn't."

Mr. SPECTER. Who told you you were wrong . . .

Mrs. HILL. Featherstone. . . . I said, "But I did," and he said, "No; don't say that any more on the air."

Mr. SPECTER. Who said, "Don't say that any more on the air?"

Mrs. HILL. Featherstone . . . [He said] that the shots had come from a window up in the Depository and for me not to say that any more, that I was wrong about it, and I said "Very well," and so I just didn't say any more that I ran across the street to see the man . . .⁽³⁾

 

Edited May 27, 2018 by John Butler
clean up errors

[Richard Price]

Thanks, Kathy.  I was aware of her changing story, but I was more interested in Mr. Featherston.  I just wonder if he has any of the military intelligence connections that so many in this episode seem to have.  Also, since so little came up when "googling" him, I wondered if there was some additional biographical info on him or if someone with Dallas connections had ever checked out his life/career.

[Richard Price]

Thanks again Kathy.

Do you know if he is still alive, or if not, did he live out his life in Dallas.  Did he continue his career in journalism of one sort or another, or did he change careers at some point.  I'm sorry if I'm belaboring the issue, I sometimes latch onto a thought and just can't let it loose until I resolve it in one way or another.  That's what happened when I started learning about the assassination initially.  I just can't stop reading & studying everything I can get my hands on.  I started when I first heard of the anomalies with the official story (Lane/Garrison, etc.).  I was only 12 years old, but loved history and was a voracious reader.  It's only gotten worse with new avenues of research since the advent of the internet (JFK Lancer Forum & now this one).  I never had the financial ability to do much more than read/study and lurk on the outside looking in at all the info being developed by the many dedicated researchers.  I appreciate everyone that has been able to do more and continue to hope that I may contribute something one day.   Off topic somewhat.  I do hope I am not wasting everyone's time.

[Richard Price]

Thank you Kathy.  With his background, I am surprised that I found so very little about him on the internet.  Perhaps it has to do with fact that he died so long ago (in respect to the age of the internet), that is.  Very interesting and informative.  He seems to have been a very dedicated and distinguished journalist along with his other good traits.  I think with this info we can pretty definitely say that if he had anything to do with the photos disappearing, he was not aware of his role.  He seems to have followed his journalistic instinct and got as much info as he could on site and then tried to make sure the witness having evidence (if any) got to the police.  There, like in so many other instances, the chain of evidence seems to go awry with the very people who are supposed to be trained to keep that chain unbroken.