Godfrey McHugh

[Karl Kinaski]

wanted the world to believe that the grey navy ambulance with Kennedys casket went from the Bethesda tower to the Bethesda morgue in WALKING PACE accompanied by some captains and honor guard walking besides the ambulance ... 

His fairy-tale starts at 0min20sec.

Godfrey McHugh 1911-1997 

Edited June 5, 2022 by Karl Kinaski

[Michael Crane]

If he got served with the order of silence,chances are that he seen or knows something IMO.

Edited June 5, 2022 by Michael Crane

[Joseph McBride]

An entertaining phone call from July 1963 in which

JFK reams out General McHugh:

 

[Ron Bulman]

38 minutes ago, Joseph McBride said:

An entertaining phone call from July 1963 in which

JFK reams out General McHugh:

 

"This is obviously a f**k up."

Thank you, Joseph.  I really needed a laugh this evening.  JFK was pissed.   

[Karl Kinaski]

@Joseph McBride. Thx for the clip. I knew the clip but was not aware that it is the same McHugh.  That illustrates that JFK and McHughes weren't in love which each other. Apropos love, I digged up another - rather juicy - aspect of the Kennedy-McHugh relationship.

Quote,  L. Fletcher Prouty, letter to Jim Garrison (6th March, 1990):

 Lansdale and his Time-Life and other media friends, with Valenti in Hollywood, have been doing that cover-up since Nov 1963. Even the deMorenschildt story enhances all of this. In deM's personal telephone/address notebook he had the name of an Air Force Colonel friend of mine, Howard Burrus. Burrus was always deep in intelligence. He had been in one of the most sensitive Attache spots in Europe...Switzerland. He was a close friend of another Air Force Colonel and Attache, Godfrey McHugh, who used to date Jackie Bouvier. DeM had Burrus listed under a DC telephone number and on that same telephone number he had "L.B.Johnson, Congressman." Quite a connection. Why...from the Fifties yet.?

Godfrey McHugh was the Air Force Attache in Paris. Another most important job. I knew him well, and I transferred his former Ass't Attache to my office in the Pentagon. This gave me access to a lot of information I wanted in the Fifties. This is how I learned that McHugh's long-time special "date" was the fair Jacqueline...yes, the same Jackie Bouvier. Sen. Kennedy met Jackie in Paris when he was on a trip. At that time JFK was dating a beautiful SAS Airline Stewardess who was the date of that Ass't Attache who came to my office. JFK dumped her and stole Jackie away from McHugh. Leaves McHugh happy????

At the JFK Inaugural Ball who should be there but the SAS stewardess, Jackie--of course, and Col Godfrey McHugh. JFK made McHugh a General and made him his "Military Advisor" in the White House where he was near Jackie while JFK was doing all that official travelling connected with his office AND other special interests. Who recommended McHugh for the job?

(...)

close quote

source

 

Edited June 6, 2022 by Karl Kinaski

[Ron Bulman]

JFK dumped a stewardess to steal Jackie from Mc Hugh?

[Pat Speer]

McHugh was part of JFK's inner circle. He is the main source regarding Johnson's cowardly behavior on the plane. Apparently he hated Johnson, and Johnson hated him right back. I think it was Manchester who reported that upon his arrival at AF1, McHugh was told the President was on the plane. He thought they meant JFK's corpse. Upon learning they meant Johnson, he purportedly blurted out "That's not my President!" or some such thing. In any event, there's little reason to believe he conspired against "his President," JFK. 

[Karl Kinaski]

@Pat Speer

McHugh didn't conspire against his boss he simply lied about the grey navy ambulance at Bethesda which never got from the Bethesda Tower to the Bethesda morgue in walking pace escorted by some walking  honor-guard. (McHugh's words)

His fairy-tale starts at 0min20sec.

 

The ambulance suddenly started from the Tower with high speed into the dark turning out it's lights maybe to dislodge the truck with the honor-guard men under Lt. Bird. (acc.to Hubert Clark member of that honor-guard on that truck and eyewitness. )

Hubert Clark interview. Story of ambulance chase starts at 23min

 

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2022 by Karl Kinaski

[Denis Morissette]

1975 interview with him. 

 

[Denis Morissette]

More here.

 

 

[Robert Morrow]

On 6/6/2022 at 3:23 AM, Pat Speer said:

McHugh was part of JFK's inner circle. He is the main source regarding Johnson's cowardly behavior on the plane. Apparently he hated Johnson, and Johnson hated him right back. I think it was Manchester who reported that upon his arrival at AF1, McHugh was told the President was on the plane. He thought they meant JFK's corpse. Upon learning they meant Johnson, he purportedly blurted out "That's not my President!" or some such thing. In any event, there's little reason to believe he conspired against "his President," JFK. 

Gen. Godfrey McHugh loved Jackie, was inner circle JFK and he hated the guts of Lyndon Johnson.

Gen. Godfrey McHugh (1978 oral history) found a ‘hysterical” Lyndon Johnson on Air Force One “hiding” in the bathroom and saying “They’re going to get us all. It’s a plot. It’s a plot. It’s going to get us all.”

Gen. Godfrey McHugh was a former social escort of Jackie Kennedy, who he adored, and he later became an aide to JFK. Gen. McHugh in his 1978 oral history for the JFK Library described the condition and behavior of LBJ on Air Force One in the immediate aftermath of the JFK assassination.

Godfrey McHugh (oral history, interviewed by Shelden Stern, on May 19, 1978):

 QUOTE 

She [Jackie] turned to me again and said, “Please, let’s leave.” I felt obligated to do something. I got back up, walked back through, got to the…. Oh, no. I got on the phone because there was a phone right there and I said, “Let’s leave.” He said, “I can’t do it. I have orders to wait.” So I didn’t want to discuss it there with Mrs. Kennedy sitting there. I walked back and I said, “Swindal, what on earth is going on?” He said, “The President wants to remain in this area.” You see, I could not remember – it was President Johnson at that time. I said, “The President is in the back.” “No,” he said, “I mean President Johnson.” I said, “But he’s the Vice President.” He said, “Well, he’s going to be President.” I said, “That’s true.” And he says, “He’s ordered for me to wait until his luggage is transferred from Air Force Two to here, and I’m told that there’s going to be swearing in. I don’t know because we were told to call a [-47-] judge” – somebody, I don’t know, a woman judge that he knew – “and that she’s coming, so we’re going to have to wait.” I said, “Where is President Johnson?” He said, “I’m told, I don’t know” – because he was talking about the policy to wait – “I’m told he’s going to come, but I don’t know about it. No, I’m told he’s here; he’s in this airplane.” So I said, “I’ve walked the airplane twice” – and I know Johnson well, and I kept on walking back and looking at every person in the face and no Johnson. I get back to Ken O’Donnell, who is now furious, and he said, “Didn’t we tell you to leave?” I said, “I can’t get the crew to do it because they say President Johnson is aboard.” He said, “Obviously he isn’t.” I said, “There’s only one place, he is in the bedroom” – Mrs. Kennedy’s bedroom, which we called it because he didn’t use it so often.  

We walked in the bedroom, and he was not there. I walked in the toilet, in the powder room, and there he [LBJ] was hiding, with the curtain closed, saying, “They’re going to get us all. It’s a plot. It’s a plot. It’s going to get us all.” He was hysterical, sitting down on the john there alone in this thing. So I walked out and I said, “My God, he’s there. Yes, you’re right. He seems very, very upset.” He said, “I don’t want to upset him any more.” I went back to Mrs. Kennedy and I said, “Mr. Johnson is here and he’s asked that the plane not leave right away.” Now he got hold of himself and got dressed again, changed his shirt or something, and ordered everybody to attend his swearing-in [-48-] ceremony including Mrs. Kennedy. Somebody came in the back saying, “Everybody is to attend including Mrs. Kennedy.” STERN: She was told, she wasn’t asked? McHUGH: She was asked, “Mrs. Kennedy, the President wants you to attend the ceremony, the swearing-in ceremony.” She turned to me and said, “At least you don’t leave him. Don’t leave him. Stay with him.” So I’m the only one on board that airplane that stayed with the casket. Never left it.

UNQUOTE

 [Godfrey McHugh oral history for JFK Library, interviewed by Shelden Stern, on May 19, 1978]

Soon after JFK was murdered, Lyndon Johnson used the most foul language in cussing out Gen. Godfrey McHugh for flying Jackie Kennedy back to Washington, D.C. from Palm Beach

From Gen. Godfrey McHugh’s 1978 Oral history with the JFK Library. Godfrey McHugh was a personal friend of Jackie and had known her for a long time::

STERN: Did you also handle Mrs. Kennedy’s trips, for example to Palm Beach, that sort of thing?

McHUGH: Oh, yes. On that one there is a very strange experience. I want to tell about that. The President had died and Mrs. Kennedy was in Palm Beach, and I felt – it was just a few days afterwards. She called me and said, “I’m going to be in Palm Beach and can you fly me back?” And, of course, my answer was immediate, “Yes, Mrs. Kennedy. What day? I’ll pick you up and fly you back to Washington.” So I took a Sabreliner and flew down to Homestead, gave a little speech there, talked to the commander and then flew to Palm Beach, refueled there, and picked up Mrs. Kennedy. Then I flew into Andrews and there was a car there to pick her up and she went. When I walked into the White House President Johnson called me in his office and started cursing me, using the foulest language. “God damn….” I mean it was unbelievable. I was trying figure out what had happened. “You have no right to fly Mrs. Kennedy. She has no right to be in any airplane of the government. How do you dare do that?” Poor Mrs. Kennedy was just widowed. I mean I couldn’t believe it.

STERN: This was very shortly after the assassination?

McHUGH: Oh, very shortly afterwards. What amazed me is that, first, it was not an executive type airplane. I have to fly four hours at least every month. I have to land several times to keep my rating as command pilot. This was a normal flight. We select where we are going to go. We select where we were going to land. The fact that I did select Palm Beach, I had selected Palm Beach many times before – I have a piece of property there near Mar-a-lago. I went there quite often. There was nothing wrong about it. I was to get flying time. You talk about Mrs. Kennedy, that was one flight that got me into trouble with Johnson, for no reason at all.

STERN: Generally I think it’s probably not particularly useful in these kinds of interviews to talk about events associated with the assassination. But there is one element in it that I think I would like to ask you, if you’re willing to discuss it. That is, I think, for example, your own testimony to the Warren Commission, all of that is known, and there’s no…

McHUGH: I did not make a thing to the Warren Commission.

STERN: Oh, I thought you did.

McHUGH: I don’t think so. I forgot about it. But I did not go to the Warren Commission.

[Godfrey McHugh oral history for JFK Library, interviewed by Shelden Stern, on May 19, 1978]

Lyndon Johnson went “absolutely berserk” when he saw that communications towers had been installed at the LBJ Ranch and a fire truck was there to stop any fires on airplanes.

McHUGH:

When we flew with President Johnson a few days later, he was seated in the helicopter in front of me and I was seated on the other side of him, he suddenly saw a bunch of towers on his ranch. He went absolutely berserk, screaming, yelling, cursing, “I want those God damn things taken out of there. Who would dare to do that? They’ve got to be fired. I don’t want anybody…. Who on earth….” I couldn’t figure out where, because I couldn’t see them as well as he could see them. I kept on looking because he knew his ranch way better than I did.

STERN: You say there were towers?

McHUGH: I remember LeMay [Curtis E. LeMay] saying “Now that he is President, we have to put communications and we have to have guiding beacons, and we have to have a fire truck there so if he lands there,” because that’s our own rules you see. We don’t land any place without a fire truck there to come in case of…. And here were these towers, had been built for communications. They were not on his ranch but they were right on the border on another ranch but he didn’t realize that. So when he landed he said, “I want that beacon out of there; I want those towers out of there.” Suddenly he saw three huge trailers side by side. One was for classified communications, one was for the press, and one was for normal communications, and they were there. He said, “Out with those things. Nobody has the right to destroy my ranch.” Suddenly comes this huge truck; the fire truck came in. He said, “I never want to see that truck again. Take it out of there. Don’t dare use my roads for these trucks.” I said, “Mr. President, we’ll do that, but can we get the small truck?” We had to buy a smaller truck so that we could put it on his ranch, so when he landed by helicopters…. It was very difficult.

[Godfrey McHugh oral history for JFK Library, interviewed by Shelden Stern, on May 19, 1978]

 Air Force Brigadier General Godfrey McHugh (1911-1997) is buried at Arlington. He was a longtime friend of Jackie Kennedy and a social escort for her in the mid 50’s before she married JFK

 Godfrey McHugh (1911-1997) - Find a Grave Memorial

 Gen. Godfrey McHugh had to slap Lyndon Johnson to compose him on 11/22/63

           "But Johnson had no intention of leaving until he was sworn in as President- a needless formality that could easily have taken place at a later time, once everyone was out of harm's way. He had placed a call to Federal District Judge Sarah Hughes, and now everyone was forced to sit in the sweltering afternoon heat- the airconditioning could not be turned on until the engines were started- waiting for Judge Hughes to arrive.

          Johnson, meantime, was cracking. General McHugh, who at first had no idea that LBJ was even on the plane, claimed that at one point he discovered Johnson cowering in the closet of the President's cabin. "They're going to kill us," he whimpered. "They're going to shoot down the plane, they're going to kill us all." It was then, McHugh said, that he actually got LBJ to "snap out of it" by slapping him. McHugh, in turn, was observed by others on the plane as dashing up and down the center aisle a half dozen times, wild-eyed and rambling.

          Neither man was a picture of composure."

 [Christopher Anderson, Jackie After Jack, p. 11]

 

[Joe Bauer]

On 3/23/2024 at 6:28 AM, Robert Morrow said:

Gen. Godfrey McHugh loved Jackie, was inner circle JFK and he hated the guts of Lyndon Johnson.

Gen. Godfrey McHugh (1978 oral history) found a ‘hysterical” Lyndon Johnson on Air Force One “hiding” in the bathroom and saying “They’re going to get us all. It’s a plot. It’s a plot. It’s going to get us all.”

Gen. Godfrey McHugh was a former social escort of Jackie Kennedy, who he adored, and he later became an aide to JFK. Gen. McHugh in his 1978 oral history for the JFK Library described the condition and behavior of LBJ on Air Force One in the immediate aftermath of the JFK assassination.

Godfrey McHugh (oral history, interviewed by Shelden Stern, on May 19, 1978):

 QUOTE 

She [Jackie] turned to me again and said, “Please, let’s leave.” I felt obligated to do something. I got back up, walked back through, got to the…. Oh, no. I got on the phone because there was a phone right there and I said, “Let’s leave.” He said, “I can’t do it. I have orders to wait.” So I didn’t want to discuss it there with Mrs. Kennedy sitting there. I walked back and I said, “Swindal, what on earth is going on?” He said, “The President wants to remain in this area.” You see, I could not remember – it was President Johnson at that time. I said, “The President is in the back.” “No,” he said, “I mean President Johnson.” I said, “But he’s the Vice President.” He said, “Well, he’s going to be President.” I said, “That’s true.” And he says, “He’s ordered for me to wait until his luggage is transferred from Air Force Two to here, and I’m told that there’s going to be swearing in. I don’t know because we were told to call a [-47-] judge” – somebody, I don’t know, a woman judge that he knew – “and that she’s coming, so we’re going to have to wait.” I said, “Where is President Johnson?” He said, “I’m told, I don’t know” – because he was talking about the policy to wait – “I’m told he’s going to come, but I don’t know about it. No, I’m told he’s here; he’s in this airplane.” So I said, “I’ve walked the airplane twice” – and I know Johnson well, and I kept on walking back and looking at every person in the face and no Johnson. I get back to Ken O’Donnell, who is now furious, and he said, “Didn’t we tell you to leave?” I said, “I can’t get the crew to do it because they say President Johnson is aboard.” He said, “Obviously he isn’t.” I said, “There’s only one place, he is in the bedroom” – Mrs. Kennedy’s bedroom, which we called it because he didn’t use it so often.  

We walked in the bedroom, and he was not there. I walked in the toilet, in the powder room, and there he [LBJ] was hiding, with the curtain closed, saying, “They’re going to get us all. It’s a plot. It’s a plot. It’s going to get us all.” He was hysterical, sitting down on the john there alone in this thing. So I walked out and I said, “My God, he’s there. Yes, you’re right. He seems very, very upset.” He said, “I don’t want to upset him any more.” I went back to Mrs. Kennedy and I said, “Mr. Johnson is here and he’s asked that the plane not leave right away.” Now he got hold of himself and got dressed again, changed his shirt or something, and ordered everybody to attend his swearing-in [-48-] ceremony including Mrs. Kennedy. Somebody came in the back saying, “Everybody is to attend including Mrs. Kennedy.” STERN: She was told, she wasn’t asked? McHUGH: She was asked, “Mrs. Kennedy, the President wants you to attend the ceremony, the swearing-in ceremony.” She turned to me and said, “At least you don’t leave him. Don’t leave him. Stay with him.” So I’m the only one on board that airplane that stayed with the casket. Never left it.

UNQUOTE

 [Godfrey McHugh oral history for JFK Library, interviewed by Shelden Stern, on May 19, 1978]

Soon after JFK was murdered, Lyndon Johnson used the most foul language in cussing out Gen. Godfrey McHugh for flying Jackie Kennedy back to Washington, D.C. from Palm Beach

From Gen. Godfrey McHugh’s 1978 Oral history with the JFK Library. Godfrey McHugh was a personal friend of Jackie and had known her for a long time::

STERN: Did you also handle Mrs. Kennedy’s trips, for example to Palm Beach, that sort of thing?

McHUGH: Oh, yes. On that one there is a very strange experience. I want to tell about that. The President had died and Mrs. Kennedy was in Palm Beach, and I felt – it was just a few days afterwards. She called me and said, “I’m going to be in Palm Beach and can you fly me back?” And, of course, my answer was immediate, “Yes, Mrs. Kennedy. What day? I’ll pick you up and fly you back to Washington.” So I took a Sabreliner and flew down to Homestead, gave a little speech there, talked to the commander and then flew to Palm Beach, refueled there, and picked up Mrs. Kennedy. Then I flew into Andrews and there was a car there to pick her up and she went. When I walked into the White House President Johnson called me in his office and started cursing me, using the foulest language. “God damn….” I mean it was unbelievable. I was trying figure out what had happened. “You have no right to fly Mrs. Kennedy. She has no right to be in any airplane of the government. How do you dare do that?” Poor Mrs. Kennedy was just widowed. I mean I couldn’t believe it.

STERN: This was very shortly after the assassination?

McHUGH: Oh, very shortly afterwards. What amazed me is that, first, it was not an executive type airplane. I have to fly four hours at least every month. I have to land several times to keep my rating as command pilot. This was a normal flight. We select where we are going to go. We select where we were going to land. The fact that I did select Palm Beach, I had selected Palm Beach many times before – I have a piece of property there near Mar-a-lago. I went there quite often. There was nothing wrong about it. I was to get flying time. You talk about Mrs. Kennedy, that was one flight that got me into trouble with Johnson, for no reason at all.

STERN: Generally I think it’s probably not particularly useful in these kinds of interviews to talk about events associated with the assassination. But there is one element in it that I think I would like to ask you, if you’re willing to discuss it. That is, I think, for example, your own testimony to the Warren Commission, all of that is known, and there’s no…

McHUGH: I did not make a thing to the Warren Commission.

STERN: Oh, I thought you did.

McHUGH: I don’t think so. I forgot about it. But I did not go to the Warren Commission.

[Godfrey McHugh oral history for JFK Library, interviewed by Shelden Stern, on May 19, 1978]

Lyndon Johnson went “absolutely berserk” when he saw that communications towers had been installed at the LBJ Ranch and a fire truck was there to stop any fires on airplanes.

McHUGH:

When we flew with President Johnson a few days later, he was seated in the helicopter in front of me and I was seated on the other side of him, he suddenly saw a bunch of towers on his ranch. He went absolutely berserk, screaming, yelling, cursing, “I want those God damn things taken out of there. Who would dare to do that? They’ve got to be fired. I don’t want anybody…. Who on earth….” I couldn’t figure out where, because I couldn’t see them as well as he could see them. I kept on looking because he knew his ranch way better than I did.

STERN: You say there were towers?

McHUGH: I remember LeMay [Curtis E. LeMay] saying “Now that he is President, we have to put communications and we have to have guiding beacons, and we have to have a fire truck there so if he lands there,” because that’s our own rules you see. We don’t land any place without a fire truck there to come in case of…. And here were these towers, had been built for communications. They were not on his ranch but they were right on the border on another ranch but he didn’t realize that. So when he landed he said, “I want that beacon out of there; I want those towers out of there.” Suddenly he saw three huge trailers side by side. One was for classified communications, one was for the press, and one was for normal communications, and they were there. He said, “Out with those things. Nobody has the right to destroy my ranch.” Suddenly comes this huge truck; the fire truck came in. He said, “I never want to see that truck again. Take it out of there. Don’t dare use my roads for these trucks.” I said, “Mr. President, we’ll do that, but can we get the small truck?” We had to buy a smaller truck so that we could put it on his ranch, so when he landed by helicopters…. It was very difficult.

[Godfrey McHugh oral history for JFK Library, interviewed by Shelden Stern, on May 19, 1978]

 Air Force Brigadier General Godfrey McHugh (1911-1997) is buried at Arlington. He was a longtime friend of Jackie Kennedy and a social escort for her in the mid 50’s before she married JFK

 Godfrey McHugh (1911-1997) - Find a Grave Memorial

 Gen. Godfrey McHugh had to slap Lyndon Johnson to compose him on 11/22/63

           "But Johnson had no intention of leaving until he was sworn in as President- a needless formality that could easily have taken place at a later time, once everyone was out of harm's way. He had placed a call to Federal District Judge Sarah Hughes, and now everyone was forced to sit in the sweltering afternoon heat- the airconditioning could not be turned on until the engines were started- waiting for Judge Hughes to arrive.

          Johnson, meantime, was cracking. General McHugh, who at first had no idea that LBJ was even on the plane, claimed that at one point he discovered Johnson cowering in the closet of the President's cabin. "They're going to kill us," he whimpered. "They're going to shoot down the plane, they're going to kill us all." It was then, McHugh said, that he actually got LBJ to "snap out of it" by slapping him. McHugh, in turn, was observed by others on the plane as dashing up and down the center aisle a half dozen times, wild-eyed and rambling.

          Neither man was a picture of composure."

 [Christopher Anderson, Jackie After Jack, p. 11]

 

Obviously LBJ wanted Jackie to himself. LBJ wanted to be the one that tended to her needs. McHugh was threat to him in that regards.