Wall Street Journal article of Nov. 22, 2023, " How to Botch an Assassination Investigation"

[Douglas Caddy]

Wall Street Journal article of Nov. 22, 2023, " How to Botch an Assassination Investigation"

by Thomas J. Baker, a retired FBI agent and legal attaché and author of "The Fall of the 

FBI: How a once Great Agency Became a Threat to Democracy."

 

 (Excerpts from the article) 

One lesson law enforcement learned from Dallas and its aftermath is how not to investigate

an assassination. The Kennedy Investigaton devolved into a fiasco. No one was in charge. 

The Federal Bureau of investigation, the Secret Service, the Dallas police and sheriff offices 

 all argued with each other. These agencies and others battled over Oswald, the riffle and

other evidence, witnesses, and, most important, jurisdiction. It was worse than unprofessional --

it was deadly. 

 

The mishandling of Oswald allowed Jack Ruby to shoot the suspected assassin in the

basement of the police headquarters. This added to the already burning conspiracy

theories. Practically every American would eventually see the death of a president

on the Zapruder film. The killing of the assassin while in police custody was also

there to see. 

 

In November 1963, it wasn't a federal crime to kill the president. In response to the Kennedy 

assassination, Congress passed a 1965 law -- Title 18, Code section 1751 -- that made 

assaulting the president a federal crime. The new statute was clear. The FBI would

conduct investigations into attacks on the president.

 

........

 

We can be sorrowful that Jack Kennedy, our youngest president, was lost to us after only a few

years in office. But we also can be grateful that Ronald Reagan, our oldest president at

the time, survived to serve two terms in office. On the day Reagan was shot, law

enforcement didn't want to repeat the errors made in Dallas. And to this day there has never

been any suggestion of a conspiracy surrounding the Reagan assassination attempt.