The televised arrival at Bethesda

[Ron Ecker]

I remember watching the ambulance arrive at Bethesda on TV. I remember watching the whole time, several minutes, that the ambulance sat there before being driven away. Does anyone else remember watching it? And does anyone know if a tape still exists of this telecast?

I would be surprised if any tapes of the telecasts that day have been discarded, though the long sequence of the ambulance sitting there might be considered "boring" and of little value. It would be of great value to researchers, to determine who can be seen around the ambulance during this time. There are conflicting accounts of who was there and said what for which purpose, and who drove the ambulance away.

The driver is of special interest, and whom he may have spoken to last, considering the deception(s) that apparently went on (the ambulance chase etc. in Lifton) as the body was driven around to the morgue. Is another ambulance seen in the tape? There would be plenty of things to look for.

I have this seemingly definite memory of a uniformed officer (Galloway?) getting in and driving the ambulance away from the entrance. But I don't know after all these years, and after all I have read, whether it's a false memory or not.

[John Dolva]

I remember watching the ambulance arrive at Bethesda on TV. I remember watching the whole time, several minutes, that the ambulance sat there before being driven away. Does anyone else remember watching it? And does anyone know if a tape still exists of this telecast?

I would be surprised if any tapes of the telecasts that day have been discarded, though the long sequence of the ambulance sitting there might be considered "boring" and of little value. It would be of great value to researchers, to determine who can be seen around the ambulance during this time. There are conflicting accounts of who was there and said what for which purpose, and who drove the ambulance away.

The driver is of special interest, and whom he may have spoken to last, considering the deception(s) that apparently went on (the ambulance chase etc. in Lifton) as the body was driven around to the morgue. Is another ambulance seen in the tape? There would be plenty of things to look for.

I have this seemingly definite memory of a uniformed officer (Galloway?) getting in and driving the ambulance away from the entrance. But I don't know after all these years, and after all I have read, whether it's a false memory or not.

I have a liking for these sorts of 'odd' questions.

I'd like to comment on this topic from a different angle in the hope that it doesn't divert the topic from its question. It seems to me to deal with 'blanked out areas of the assassination', that for some reason today are mere memories.

As an example I use Harry Holmes.

"In mentioning Oswalds interviews and the lack of any records kept of the interviews by 7 odd FBI agents, Harry D.Holmes, FBI informant, Postal Investigator, with an office directly opposite the 'snipers nest' who viewed the assassination through (bi)oculars, DID make notes. He was also present at Oswald interviews, including the last one, yet is not even mentioned by most commentators. Harry is indeed one of the most enigmatic non-persons in the whole saga. If Oswald was indeed an FBI informant, or agent of some kind, then Harry would have very likely known, as he was intimate with just about every significant agency or Law enforcement body, incl possibly (Navy, Air?) Mil Intel, involved in the investigation.I think it's posssible that until the questions of who Harry D. Holmes was and who were with him in his office watching the assassination, and why he had such seeming power, or whatever, that he is, until recently, a non-person, yet central in so many ways, is fully answered* the solutions to the assassination will continue to elude us. Or conversely, should answers be found, then that may very well provide a crack in the coverup that will lead to further important information."*Which may never happen as the USPO was thoroughly reorganised a few years after he retired. It's now no longer a Cabinet department and is the USPS. What happened to the old USPO Postal Investigation Departments documents?"

This is an example of where arguably significant aspects of the assassination, because, as Kostner says in JFK, when reading the WC report: "ask the question, ask the question". "The question" was never asked, and consequently, today, is possibly unanswerable.

On the other hand: simply because "the question" was never asked, there is the possibility that these very aspects, in slipping under the radar, has not been given the same 'sanitation' that the areas widely explored, and therefore, the possibilty of reliable answers do somewhere exist. Further, therefore, the eradication of the answer, if it happens today, may now also be more easily 'seen' as it happens.

So: Harry is presented here merely as an example of an unexplored area, not for topic of discussion, except in the context of the evidence that may very well exist and not found because it was not, because of a rapid consolidation of the coverup and dissemination of 'the solution', ever considered significant.

IOW: a worthwhile topic, IMO. Quite possibly the footage, or the audio aspect of it, exists somewhere.

Sometimes in surprising areas.

It was a common practice for radio stations of the day to pick a local out of a phone book, who then placed the telephone next to the Radio or TV and thus relayed broadcasts. So the answer may perhaps lie in an archive somewhere far from Bethesda where no-one would ever automatically consider.

Asking the question is the start.

Thinking outside the box may provide an answer.

Perhaps somewhere, an educational institution exists where a prescient individual with access to video recording equipment did amass a collection from those days. A dusty shelf somewhere may have the answer to this, and other similar questions.

"Charles Ginsburg led the research team at Ampex Corporation in developing the first practical videotape recorder (VTR). In 1951, the first video tape recorder (VTR) captured live images from television cameras by converting the information into electrical impulses and saving the information onto magnetic tape. Ampex sold the first VTR for $50,000 in 1956."

This would place the possession of such equipment outside the realm of individuals, but not institutions.

Edited April 24, 2007 by John Dolva