Warren Commission members by attendance.

[Tommy Tomlinson]

I recall hearing, (I'm pretty certain it was in "Destiny Betrayed") that Dulles had sat in on the most hearings of any member of the WC.

I would not be surprised if someone here knows this by heart, but my Google-Fu is lacking in spirit today... 

Can someone point me to a link or article that shows the list of the 7 members "proper" giving their attendance of hearings?

[Pat Speer]

17 minutes ago, Tommy Tomlinson said:

I recall hearing, (I'm pretty certain it was in "Destiny Betrayed") that Dulles had sat in on the most hearings of any member of the WC.

I would not be surprised if someone here knows this by heart, but my Google-Fu is lacking in spirit today... 

Can someone point me to a link or article that shows the list of the 7 members "proper" giving their attendance of hearings?

Walt Brown detailed all this in his book The Warren Omission. He re-read all the testimony, noted who was in attendance, noted who left mid-testimony, and noted how many questions were asked by each commissioner.  As I recall, Dulles (who was retired) attended the most hearings, but even he was not totally into it. I am not aware of a link showing Brown's chart, but Jim D mentions in his recent book that Dulles (1/7 of the commission) ended up asking 31% of the questions asked by commissioners. That's twice what one would expect, but is not surprising in that he was actually in attendance roughly twice the average. (Russell, we should recall, only attended a few hearings.) 

[Guest]

Scroll down a little to see it :

 http://www.kenrahn.com/Marsh/Jfk-conspiracy/wobrown.html

[Mart Hall]

I noted some time ago that Dulles was absent from the first day of Ruth Paine's testimony. I knew he was the most active member of the commission and thought they could be something in it but he did appear for her subsequent sessions. 

[Benjamin Cole]

3 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

Walt Brown detailed all this in his book The Warren Omission. He re-read all the testimony, noted who was in attendance, noted who left mid-testimony, and noted how many questions were asked by each commissioner.  As I recall, Dulles (who was retired) attended the most hearings, but even he was not totally into it. I am not aware of a link showing Brown's chart, but Jim D mentions in his recent book that Dulles (1/7 of the commission) ended up asking 31% of the questions asked by commissioners. That's twice what one would expect, but is not surprising in that he was actually in attendance roughly twice the average. (Russell, we should recall, only attended a few hearings.) 

Russell was a fascinating character. As you point out, he hardly attended meetings, hated the assignment...and then wrote a famous dissent to the SBT. 

Russell had deep, deep connections to the military community and was chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services for most of the period between 1951 and 1969.  He had the reputation of a man who did his homework. 

I have long wondered if someone leaked info to him regarding the JFKA. 

 

 

 

[Micah Mileto]

I love the part when Allen Dulles walks into Dr. Humes' testimony late, and when Humes was describing the chest tube incisions made at Parkland, Dulles asks "Are you describing exit wounds?", to which Humes replies "Sir, these are knife wounds".

[Pat Speer]

6 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Russell was a fascinating character. As you point out, he hardly attended meetings, hated the assignment...and then wrote a famous dissent to the SBT. 

Russell had deep, deep connections to the military community and was chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services for most of the period between 1951 and 1969.  He had the reputation of a man who did his homework. 

I have long wondered if someone leaked info to him regarding the JFKA. 

 

Russell had an assistant, Alfreda Scobey as I recall, who attended hearings and kept him informed as to what was said. Russell was Johnson's mentor when he first came to the Senate. Johnson told Russell he was to be Johnson's eyes and ears on the commission, but there is reason to suspect Johnson was in no small part playing Russell, and that he really wanted Russell to be sidelined from the fight over civil rights. Russell didn't bite, however, and tried to both follow the WC hearings and spear-head the fight against civil rights legislation. 

He would later insist, moreover, that he disbelieved the SBT and wanted his dissent on this point included in the commission's report. Warren, however, wanted a unanimous report, and so (presumably) ordered the destruction of the transcript in which Russell's objections were raised. After being made aware of this fact by Weisberg, for that matter, Russell cut off contact with Johnson. 

 

 

[Benjamin Cole]

1 minute ago, Pat Speer said:

Russell had an assistant, Alfreda Scobey as I recall, who attended hearings and kept him informed as to what was said. Russell was Johnson's mentor when he first came to the Senate. Johnson told Russell he was to be Johnson's eyes and ears on the commission, but there is reason to suspect Johnson was in no small part playing Russell, and that he really wanted Russell to be sidelined from the fight over civil rights. Russell didn't bite, however, and tried to both follow the WC hearings and spear-head the fight against civil rights legislation. 

He would later insist, moreover, that he disbelieved the SBT and wanted his dissent on this point included in the commission's report. Warren, however, wanted a unanimous report, and so (presumably) ordered the destruction of the transcript in which Russell's objections were raised. After being made aware of this fact by Weisberg, for that matter, Russell cut off contact with Johnson. 

 

 

Yes...but I have read Russell's dissent somewhere...Was it ultimately published? 

[Pat Speer]

On 12/22/2022 at 5:12 PM, Benjamin Cole said:

Yes...but I have read Russell's dissent somewhere...Was it ultimately published? 

It was not a written dissent. It was a transcript of one of the final WC sessions. What you are probably thinking of is the transcript of a phone call between Russell and Johnson after the WC session, in which Russell said he didn't believe in the SBT and Johnson said he didn't either. This was not part of the Warren Commission's records and only became available in the 90's. 

 

P.S. I was wrong. Russell's dissent was subsequently found in his papers. A link is provided in a subsequent post. 

Edited December 24, 2022 by Pat Speer

[Benjamin Cole]

Just now, Pat Speer said:

It was not a written dissent. It was a transcript of one of the final WC sessions. What you are probably thinking of is the transcript of a phone call between Russell and Johnson after the WC session, in which Russell said he didn't believe in the SBT and Johnson said he didn't either. This was not part of the Warren Commission's records and only became available in the 90's. 

I will check. My (fading) memory is Russell wrote a letter and eventually it was published, maybe in the 26 volumes. He was tricked for a while...but eventually got the letter in. 

Yes, I have listened to the Russell-Johnson call, in which they both agree they do not accept the SBT....

 

[Benjamin Cole]

https://scholarworks.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5464&context=etd

looks like a good read

[Benjamin Cole]

Sept. 16, 1964 Russell dictates a dissenting statement disagreeing with the Warren Report single bullet theory that JFK and Connally were hit by the same bullet: "I do not share the finding of the Commission as to the probability that both President Kennedy and Governor Connally were struck by the same bullet.... I join in my colleagues in the belief that three shots were fired, but, to me, the testimony of Governor Connally that he heard the first shot fired and strike the President and turned before he was wounded makes more logical a finding that the first and third shots struck the President and the second shot wounded Governor Connally." The dissenting statement also disagrees with the Report's conclusion of no conspiracy. In Russell's judgment, "a number of suspicious circumstances," as well as the insufficiency of the evidence gathered against Oswald, "preclude[d] the conclusive determination that Oswald and Oswald alone, without the knowledge, encouragement or assistance of any other person, planned and perpetrated the assassination." Apparently with Russell's consent, this dissenting statement is never incorporated into the Warren Report.

---30---

https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1137&context=fac_pm

So the dissenting statement survives, but was not in the WC. I think. 

[Pat Speer]

1 hour ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Sept. 16, 1964 Russell dictates a dissenting statement disagreeing with the Warren Report single bullet theory that JFK and Connally were hit by the same bullet: "I do not share the finding of the Commission as to the probability that both President Kennedy and Governor Connally were struck by the same bullet.... I join in my colleagues in the belief that three shots were fired, but, to me, the testimony of Governor Connally that he heard the first shot fired and strike the President and turned before he was wounded makes more logical a finding that the first and third shots struck the President and the second shot wounded Governor Connally." The dissenting statement also disagrees with the Report's conclusion of no conspiracy. In Russell's judgment, "a number of suspicious circumstances," as well as the insufficiency of the evidence gathered against Oswald, "preclude[d] the conclusive determination that Oswald and Oswald alone, without the knowledge, encouragement or assistance of any other person, planned and perpetrated the assassination." Apparently with Russell's consent, this dissenting statement is never incorporated into the Warren Report.

---30---

https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1137&context=fac_pm

So the dissenting statement survives, but was not in the WC. I think. 

Yes, thanks. I read that back in the day but forgot about the reference to a written dissent found in Russell's papers. Here is the actual dissent as viewed in the Weisberg archives.

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/R Disk/Russell Richard B Memorial Library/Item 05.pdf

[David Von Pein]

......

Edited December 23, 2022 by David Von Pein

[Benjamin Cole]

1 minute ago, Pat Speer said:

Yes, thanks. I read that back in the day but forgot about the reference to a written dissent found in Russell's papers. Here is the actual dissent as viewed in the Weisberg archives.

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/R Disk/Russell Richard B Memorial Library/Item 05.pdf

That is something, thanks for the link. 

So Russell, Boggs, and Cooper all but dismissed the findings of the WC...three of the seven.

Warren was out to lunch.

McCloy and Dulles were made men of the intel state.

Ford said and did what he thought was right for the state. 

I mean, if even the WC commissioners really did not believe what they printed...and the HSCA concluded there had been a conspiracy....gee maybe there was a conspiracy....