PROBABLE CAUSE AUSTRALIA

A Continuing Inquiry into the JFK Assassination

Issue 9 - February 1995

Probable Cause Australia is the only Australian magazine dedicated to the JFK assassination.

Editorial

Welcome to the third big year of "Probable Cause"!

We are looking forward to a great year, not only for the magazine, but also for the Centre. With our new computer system and access to the latest technology we should be able to bring even more information and reference materials to your fingertips.

This does, however, come at a cost.

Due to the falling subscription rates to "Probable Cause" and the ever increasing cost of making the magazine, we have decided that this will be the last year "Probable Cause" will run.

The final issue will be the double issue, Issue 11 & 12. Please note: THIS DOES NOT MEAN THE END OF THE CENTRE!

The Centre will continue to operate for information, files, and copies of documents. A catalogue will be sent to you sometime next year. Those people who have subscribed past issue 11 & 12 will be reimbursed at the end of this year.

We can not stress enough that this does not mean the Centre is closing, we are just looking at more manageable (and cheaper) way to keep the centre afloat. This includes looking at turning Probable Cause into an internet site with a "live" or "living" issue online...as well as all the back issues!

This is a wonderful and exciting avenue that we will be exploring in the upcoming months after the final double issue at the end of this year. So, please be patient!

Good news came late last year that the JFK Memorial in Melbourne's Treasury Gardens will not be removed and destroyed. Due to public outrage, the Memorial will now be left alone and be one of the highlights of the gardens. Thanks to all those who pitched in and helped save a small, lonely monument.

Our very own U.S. contact, Walt Brown has produced an audio tape "Sound bites from the Warren Commission" which is available through the Centre or direct through the author (PO BOX 174, Hillsdale, NJ 07642) for $10 US, or $15 AUS if ordered though the Centre.

This issue includes the exclusive printing of Walt Brown's Keynote address at the ASK Symposium in Dallas in November last year; a new column known as "The Ticker-tapes" that is sure to arouse debate; we have the latest on the file search in Washington; more on Roscoe White; David B. Perry gives us valuable insights into important aspects of the case in "The Lee Bowers Story" and "The Rambler Man"; and we have part one of "When they Kill A President" by Roger Craig - very important indeed; and in Quid Pro Quo we have part one of a very misleading and damaging article by the FBI on the Acoustic evidence in the case.

Well, that's all from me. Have a great new year. Read and enjoy...

The Ticker Tapes - JFK: The Man and the Myth by Karen Ticker

"I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other man, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases." (John Acton, Essays on Freedom and Power)

When Richard Nixon -- Watergate prankster, Bay of Pigs co-ordinator, liar, bomber of innocent Cambodians -- died last year, he was honored by a full State funeral. Thousands showed up to mourn, politicians wept, and Bill Clinton called him a Great Statesman. Watergate and Cambodia were tidily shoved under the table, and the myth was born of the Elder Statesman who opened the doors to China and wrote many a learned book on geopolitics.

Don't let the myths fool you.

The investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy is often justified by mythologizing the "slain father-leader" (to quote Oliver Stone's Jim Garrison). Too many researchers weep over the death of A Great Man and the end of American innocence.

But to buy into the Camelot myth is to turn a blind eye to reality, as do those who ignore Nixon's crimes against democracy and humanity. To feel nostalgic for an Age of Innocence is also naive. Remember segregation and rampant racism? McCarthyism? J. Edgar Hoover? And American violations of international law by overthrowing Governments of other countries (Guatemala, Cuba, Greece, Iran, Vietnam, need I go on?)

I do not by any means consider JFK to be as bad as Tricky Dicky. As far as American Presidents go, he was not too bad. But neither was he as pristine as many people would have us believe. His report card is as mixed as any other President's, before or since.

If the research into the assassination of JFK has taught us anything, it should be that you should never give an elected official or other member of government the benefit of the doubt. Even Bill Clinton, who we all had great hopes would be eager to release the files on the assassination, has turned around and says he believes Oswald did it. Those in power gave us the lies of the Warren Commission. Shouldn't that be enough to lead us to question everyone in power?

JFK's death and the subsequent cover-up should be looked at in terms of a travesty against democracy. An elected representative of the people was "un-elected" without the public's consent, and then the public were lied to about who did it and why it was done. That is why the assassination is important. Whether Kennedy was a good leader is irrelevant.

However, Kennedy's presidency is relevant for history, for the reason that we should never give those in power the benefit of the doubt. Examine everything they do, and protest when what they do is wrong.

Kennedy's panache, youthful zeal, and spirit of intellectualism marked his administration as different from his predecessors' and those who came after him. But is appearance of rigour and vision enough? What did he actually DO? What follows is a run-down of some of the less-savoury aspects of his short term in power.

The Question of Civil Rights
Kennedy is often lauded for his support of civil rights and his introduction of the Civil Rights Act which passed in 1964. However, his record on this matter is not perfect. His support of the civil rights movement was at best lukewarm, and at heart politically motivated.

The Democrats may have stood on the strongest Civil Rights platform in the 1960 election, but they failed to deliver on their promises for at least two years. It was too politically dangerous to do much, for fear of a backlash from white southern democrats. Bobby said of the situation in 1961, "I don't think that we really seriously considered sending such [civil rights] legislation up" to Congress. They had too many other priorities.

Of course there were some positive aspects: Kennedy encouraged the federal government to hire blacks, and quietly worked for desegregation and voting rights. Unfortunately, the ability to vote was not the major problem faced by blacks. Blacks in New York had been able to vote for many years, yet they still faced racism and poverty. Kennedy's promises and his few actions were not enough for the civil rights movement.

I do not question that Kennedy felt that equality between races was morally important. But he did not fully understand how strongly many people felt about it. It had simply not been personally important to him.. As Bobby Kennedy said, "I don't think that it was a matter that we were extra-concerned about as we were growing up. There wasn't any problem" in Massachusetts. (Read "not many blacks"). In fact, both Kennedy brothers were somewhat scornful of many civil rights leaders for the fervour of their principled stand, and called some of them crazy. After angering him with what he considered their inflexibility, Bobby even went so far as to ask the FBI to check some of them out for things he could use against them -- and he shared the findings with his brother.

The combination of Kennedy's lack of understanding of the movement, and the lack of government action in the eyes of the civil rights movement led to an escalation in its activity which completely surprised -- and at times angered -- the Kennedys. The movement developed beyond what they were prepared for. It is fair to say that without the demonstrations, riots, sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, and the March on Washington, the Kennedys would have done little more about civil rights, and particularly about introducing civil rights legislation. After a long summer of riots and demonstrations (there were nearly 1000 demonstrations between May and August 1963), the administration decided it had no alternative but to try to pass a Civil Rights Act -- one that would be a compromise between the demands of the civil rights movement and the limits desired by the Southern Whites. The rationale was at least partly political: the movement threatened to destabilize the country -- and thus Kennedy's chances for re-election.

As historian Walter Karp says, "The Democrats hardly deserve the credit for a law which the citizenry forced from their unwilling hands."

Kennedy And the World
Kennedy shared previous Presidents' convictions that the U.S. had the right to intervene anywhere in the world. But while Eisenhower was blunt about wanting to maintain an orderly world (ordered by the U.S. ), Kennedy's administration polished and refined policy with intellectual justifications. Nonetheless, foreign policy continued to be fully Self- interested, with the twin goals of maintaining favourable economic conditions for American companies and ensuring the symbolic "credibility" of U.S. forces (or should we just say "force" ) .

Here are a few examples of Kennedy's so-called peaceful ways:
* JFK increased military spending in his first year, adding $9 billion dollars to the existing $45.8 million (which already made up 49.7% of the total U.S. budget).

* JFK may have planted the seeds for his own assassination in his relationship to the CIA. He certainly left a legacy that the U.S. is still dealing with. When the Bay of Pigs invasion failed, Kennedy was extremely angry with the CIA, not for planning the thing in the first place, but for botching it, and for wanting to rely on overt (military) support. Kennedy set about restructuring the agency, creating the agency as it is today: extremely well-funded, powerful, and secret, specialising in covert activities.

* Kennedy was highly interested in using the concept of "counter- insurgency", which involved new tools for altering situations in foreign countries in favour of the U.S. It was an attractive concept for the politician in Kennedy, because it used CIA-trained "surrogates" in these countries, thus avoiding the politically unpopular possibility of American boys dying overseas.

Places like Cuba and Vietnam were used as laboratories for the new techniques, regardless of the effects on innocent people. Operation Mongoose was one such case. It was a program set up by Jack and Bobby to overthrow Castro in Cuba. Over $100 million a year was spent on sabotage missions, bombings, contamination of food supplies, and direct assassination attempts on Castro. Had the PLO or IRA done these things, we would have called them by a less fancy name: terrorism.

Both the Bay of Pigs invasion and Operation Mongoose violated international law (the UN Charter) and the Treaty of the Organisation of American States, which was signed by the US and most other Latin American Countries. The treaty states that "No State, or group of States has the right to intervene directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any other State."

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the U.S. declared that all nations must uphold international laws. Is it any wonder no one else listens to such pronouncements when the U.S. -- and supposedly good leaders like Kennedy -- do not themselves abide by those laws?

* Kennedy is also often praised for averting a nuclear war over the Cuban Missile Crisis. Of course, the solution to the crisis could have been as much Khrushchev's weak knees as much as Kennedy's strong nerves. Aside from that, the Cuban Missile Crisis may not have occurred had it not been for operation Mongoose. As recently- released documents show, an escalation to military intervention was in the works. The Cubans had good reason to run to the Russians in fear of invasion. And the blame for the crisis must fall at least partly on Kennedy's shoulders.

* In addition to Operation Mongoose, in the 18 months to November 1963, the CIA was involved in coups in the following countries: Bolivia, Argentina, twice in Peru, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Brazil, Iraq, Syria, Congo, Togo, Burma, Laos, and South Vietnam. Kennedy knew of at least some, if not all of them.

Kennedy in Vietnam
I do not want to argue about whether the Vietnam War would have happened if Kennedy had lived. Others on both sides of the argument have made their points well.

It is difficult to decide what would have happened in the absence of JFK himself coming back from the grave to tell us in person what his intentions were. The trouble lies in that he himself did not really know what he wanted to do, mostly for political and tactical reasons. Getting American boys killed is unpopular, especially at election-time.

It is possible that Kennedy would have at the very least continued the counter-insurgency campaigns and bombings. There may not have been a full-scale war involving Americans, but let's face it, it was war for the thousands of Vietnamese who were killed even before full-scale war. Between 1961 and 1965, at least 89,000 Vietnamese were killed by the Diem government and by American bombers, napalm, and guns.

JFK may not have escalated the conflict to a point of war, but he was responsible for escalating American commitment to the conflict. In early 1961, there were only 685 military advisers in South Vietnam. By October 1963, there were 16,732, many of them involved in combat situations. Aid to the Diem government increased by $400 million each year. Kennedy also ordered the escalation of the use of force "to avoid a further deterioration of the situation" in South Vietnam. He authorised sending bombers equipped for counter-insurgency, and with defoliants to destroy crops and jungle. By February 1962 the US Air Force had already flown over hundreds of missions. By mid-1962, the CIA and other U.S. personnel were conducting intelligence and sabotage operations against both North and South Vietnam, psychological warfare, and the strategic hamlet program, which was little more than herding people into concentration camps.

JFK may not have gone to war, but isn't it enough to see what he had already done? At the very least, he lay the groundworks for the war. Never mind about the death and destruction which took place while he was still alive.

Conclusion
A myth is created to make people feel nostalgic for the past. If you pine for the lost golden yesterdays, then you won't pay attention to today. But there's no point in feeling nostalgic about Camelot and the golden age of America -- they never existed. Not only that, if you remain naive about your leaders and your government, they will take advantage of you.

Kennedy was not particularly evil, nor was he the mythical Great Leader many would like to remember him as. He only introduced the Civil Rights Act because of popular pressure; he violated international laws, he in fact created the modern-day covert and wealthy beast that is the CIA (and that's a terrible legacy to bestow on the world); and he laid the foundations for the Vietnam War.

All this was forgotten on November 22, 1963. As people mourned his death, so too did they mourn in 1994 at the death of another Great Statesman -- Richard M. Nixon. Don't let the myths fool you. There's two sides to every coin. Understand that, or watch out for Watergate II.

In the Files by John Newman

Excerpted from Prof. John Newman's testimony to Rep. Conyer's oversight committee on November 17, 1993

There are, I believe, troubling aspects surrounding the allegations of an association between Oswald and his murderer Jack Ruby. It is troubling not because such allegations can be proven or not, but because they reveal dramatic gaps, contradictions and possible deliberate obfuscation in the official records of this case.

Allow me to illustrate this point. John Franklin Elrod, an unfortunate alcoholic who happened to be walking along the railroad tracks not far from where Kennedy was shot on 22 November 1963, was thrown into the Dallas jail, arrested on suspicion of involvement in the assassination. He claims that in 1964 he told the FBI in Memphis that Oswald had identified another prisoner, one Lawrence Miller, in the jail that day. Miller had been arrested two days earlier with Jack Ruby's auto mechanic Donnell Whitter with US Army weapons stolen from National Guard Armory in Terrell, Texas.

Elrod claimed Oswald spoke of a meeting he had attended with Miller and Jack Ruby in which a "contract" was discussed and money changed hands. The FBI report which went to Washington at the time, however, made no mention of Oswald as the source of this information. More troubling still, is the Dallas FBI attachment to Elrod's FBI interrogation, which attempted to discredit Elrod's claim by stating flatly that Elrod had not been in the Dallas jail at all that day. The FBI will have some difficulty then in explaining the Dallas police record of Elrod's 22 November arrest and incarceration in the Dallas jail, a record that did not surface until February 1992.

Another Dallas police document which has recently surfaced and which adds to the possibility that Oswald was associating with Ruby is a December 11, 1963 memo signed by Dallas Police Department Detective W.S. Biggio. This memo cites a report that Oswald had driven Jack Ruby's car several times prior to the assassination. Even though the original source was an unidentified auto mechanic of Ruby, no one in an official capacity ever asked Whitter, who was known to be a mechanic of Ruby's, about this. Moreover, it seems strange that a 14-page report on Donnell Whitter is still classified. As this withdrawal sheet indicates, this document was reviewed as recently as June 1993. I find the withholding of such documents unsatisfactory and not in the spirit of the Records Act.

Why did the Dallas FBI bureau conceal Elrod's 22 November incarceration in the Dallas jail? Perhaps it was an innocent mistake. Those of us who have served in government are all too familiar with sloppy records. It strikes me that it was precisely to get at documents like these that the JFK Records Act was passed, and I have great reservations with "closing the case" before having seen all of the evidence. I thought that one of the reasons for the passage of the Records Act was to allow the people to look at all of the evidence before drawing a conclusion one way or the other.

Did the CIA, contrary to decades of denials, debrief Oswald? The new release of files pursuant to the Records Act strengthens the evidentiary base for the proposition that the CIA did in fact debrief Oswald. Of particular note is the fact that the Chief of the CIA's Soviet Realities Branch -- in the Soviet Russia Division of the Directorate of Plans -- wanted to lay on interviews of Oswald at the time of the re-defector's return to the US in the Summer of 1962 -- a fact he recorded in a memorandum for the record three days after the assassination.

The House Select Committee rather foolishly ignored this memo simply because of a typographical error. Thanks to the JFK Records Act, we have a much more complete version of this memo, and what is new is that it was the Chief of the Soviet Realities Branch or "SR 6" who wrote it. This branch was responsible, among other things, for creating - to use spy jargon, "painting" - covers or 'legends' for sleeper agents in the soviet union and to brief employees on what it would be like to be a sleeper agent in the Soviet Union.

In addition, a memo from James Angleton's CIA mole hunting unit, the CI/SIG -- which stands for Counterintelligence Special Investigations Group -- has surfaced in these files with handwriting on it which gives the name of a CIA Domestic Contact Division employee -- a name which appears to be one 'Andy' Anderson -- as a CIA contact for Harvey Oswald. This document -- which, like the SR 6 document, was in a "soft file" meaning it was not in the original Oswald 201 file -- confirms the recollections of other Clandestine Services employees that Andy Anderson did in fact debrief Oswald. Don Deneselya, who worked in the Russian Branch, Foreign Documents Division, Office of Contacts [OO/ FDD, USSR] read Anderson's debrief in 1962. The very branch chief in the Domestic Contacts Division who would have overseen incoming debriefs like Anderson's confirms that his branch recovered the debriefing from the field office that had it.

There is nothing conspiratorial about the fact that the ClA debriefed Lee Harvey Oswald. They should have. That was their job. The debrief was routine. The troubling aspect is why the CIA has doggedly denied a debrief ever took place. The answer to this question has really been available all along, and the answer is that this denial is part of a broader lie the Agency has been telling for decades: that they were not interested in Oswald.

This false statement of no interest in Oswald was not advanced to hide a routine debrief -- an act which the Agency did do -- but to excuse the Agency for an act it failed to do, namely, to launch a counterintelligence investigation of Oswald at the time of his defection to Russia. This failure was deeply troubling to the House Select Committee, which probed the Agency vigorously but unsuccessfully on this question. For 14 months the ClA failed to properly investigate Oswald, a man who left the U-2 spy base in Japan to defect to Russia and boldly announced his intention to commit an act of espionage.

Thus the debrief story is integral to the larger enigma of why, in the case of Lee Harvey Oswald, the CIA was apparently asleep at the switch for 14 months. Perhaps because of the CIA's interest in and contact with Oswald the Agency panicked when President Kennedy was assassinated. Perhaps the cables indicating Oswald had announced his intent to commit espionage were "lost," thus explaining the Agency's failure to do its job. Perhaps. Perhaps indeed, but perhaps not. I think it prudent to reserve judgment until we have all of the CIA's materials. One thing is certain: These new files make it clear that the CIA's past denials of interest in and contact with Oswald are not true.

1994 ASK Keynote Speech by Walt Brown

I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to the members of the research community who began the process of holding this symposium for each of the past few years, and I would also like to thank the full time organizers who bring their special talents to ASK. Without both groups, I would not be here speaking to you this evening. Having said that, I suppose it is only fair that I also extend my thanks to the members of the Warren Commission, because without them, I would not be here speaking to you this evening.

Although you may construe my subsequent remarks to be critical of the Warren Commission, they are not exclusively to be singled out for criticism, as we must remember that they received precious little help. Let's face it, they got virtually nothing from the FBI, the CIA, or Smersh, although they certainly got a great boost from SPECTER.

But it is truly an honor to be selected to give the Keynote Address at this year's ASK conference. When I received the invitation in the mail, one of my first thoughts was, "l can't believe this; last year, they invited Norman Mailer, and this year, they've decided to invite someone who knows something about the case." Shortly thereafter, however, the true immensity of the task before me became apparent: I have been given the responsibility to share with you this evening, and throughout the conference, and on Monday's panel, a critique of the Warren Report, which will undoubtedly be considered the Twentieth Century's most famous and controversial work of fiction.

I then thought that perhaps I could do with this keynote what no previous such address had done, and I decided to attempt to make this hour a debate with Gerald Ford, the lone assassin, uh, excuse me, the lone surviving member of the Warren Commission. As you are no doubt aware, Mr. Ford has not only outlived the other Commissioners, but has also long outlived the public's belief in the Warren Commission. I immediately made the necessary contacts, only to receive ground rules that Mr. Ford would only agree to a debate if all words used by me would be five letters or less. Although that seemed to pose a challenge, I agreed, inasmuch as it occurred to me that most of my references to the Warren Report are, in fact, four letter words, so there was no problem there.

As it turned out, however, Mr. Ford had the last laugh, as he informed me that he, too, would be giving a Keynote address at a symposium this evening, and that he would be addressing far more people than I would. And frankly I was amazed, because I never realized that there were so many people that believed that they have been beamed up into a UFO.

Nevertheless, out of fairness, Mr. Ford did send me a draft copy of the remarks he would have given here had he been able to attend.

I suppose by now you realize that such addresses are supposed to begin on humorous notes, [unless of course, you still remember Mailer's...], but I don't want you to think that I shall devote the entire evening, nor point the entire symposium, in the direction of Warren Commission bashing. As a matter of fact, in my research, I've discovered over a dozen questions they asked that had some merit.

Also, I must share with you an experience unique to researchers and friends that have visited me and sat in the study where I have done my work for the last few years. In one corner of the room are three nicely framed, autographed photos. Knowing me and my work, visitors are surprised to see, on my wall, of all places, a signed photograph of former President Ford as well as a signed photo of Arlen Specter. Of course, such visitors are eventually drawn to the third photo, a bittersweet signed portrait of Emmett Kelly, Jr.

The photo of the clown I just mentioned--perhaps I should be more specific here--the photo of Emmett Kelly Jr. replaced a photo of Clint Eastwood that had once hung there, and I took that one down after my first viewing of "ln the Line of Fire." Toward the end of the movie, a pensive Secret Service agent Horrigan says, "You know something, for years I've been listening to all these idiots on bar stools with all their pet theories on Dallas." The first time I heard that, it hit home a little, even though I neither drink nor have pets in Dallas; yet having seen the movie several times now, I have to tell you I would rather be an idiot on a bar stool than an idiot on the running board of a car following a president being shot in broad daylight, and if caring about the memory of John Kennedy, and caring about the truth of his assassination makes someone a bar stool idiot, then I guess I am proud to be one, and if anyone else feels the same way, I would ask that you stand up and be counted for something that matters. I would like to thank you all for that, and also add that I'd rather be a bar stool idiot than a Senator from Pennsylvania who disgraced himself with Jean Hill, who disgraced himself with Anita Hill, and who regularly disgraces himself on Capitol Hill.

Changing direction slightly, it can truly be said of the Warren Commission, "Never did so few people with so little talent spend so little time and produce so little in the way of results." That, ladies and gentlemen, friends, fellow bar stool conspiracy freaks, will essentially be my text for the evening, although I must tell you I struggled for the right verb to indicate what we would be doing here this weekend. "We are here to celebrate the 38th anniversary of the Warren Commission?" I don't think so. ""We are here to commemorate the 38th anniversary?" That's a little closer, although it sounds like the issue of a new postage stamp. In a sense, that gives it some relevance, as law dictates that you must be dead to appear on a US stamp, and I can think of few things more dead than the findings of the Warren Commission.

Nevertheless, I settled on the verbs "reconsider" with respect to the efforts of the Warren Commission, and "rededicate" with respect to the events of this weekend.

The "reconsideration" would begin with something I call "The Warren Commission and me." I was 16 years old on that gray New Jersey afternoon when JFK was killed, and like so many other Americans, I was numb. President Eisenhower could have easily passed for anybody's grandfather, or the original Uncle Sam, yet JFK was younger than my father. JFK had wit, a quality I obviously admire; he had, as he used to say, "uh, great vigor"; he lived life fully, as we now know; yet in all things, as Tommy Lee Jones said in the movie JFK, "he was a man of true panache."

On the Sunday after JFK was killed, in living black and white, Oswald was killed, and many of you may realize it already, and some may not, but it was Ruby's bullet that created the Warren Commission. Had Oswald not been publicly executed, there never would have been a Warren Commission; but more to the point, it was not the death of JFK, which simply left us numb and praying that someday the sun would shine again, but rather the death of Oswald-- the killing of one lone nut by another lone nut, that got America angry.

Americans demanded the truth. What they got was the Warren Commission, or, as I suggest in a just completed book that has occupied me since 1992, the Warren Omission. [I will touch on this topic in much greater depth on Monday morning; in the meantime, I am thankful to the organizers of the conference for naming a panel after my book.]

The media, now perceived as the enemy of the JFK research community, openly ridiculed the slipshod procedures that passed for police work in Dallas during that tragic weekend; and by 1963-4, people had a pretty good idea of just who--and what--J. Edgar Hoover was all about, and many people--and many Texans, did not like the FBI climbing all over a case where they had absolutely no business.

Yet despite what they would like us to believe was the most exhaustive investigation in history (maybe it was; I could exhaust myself before I could tell you 10% of the flaws), in September, 1964, the American public was told by seven honorable men that the Dallas Police were right, and J. Edgar's statements of November 22 were right, and that Oswald and Oswald only committed the assassination of the President.

Then people read the evidence, studied the testimony, viewed the Exhibits, (at least to the extent that such material was available) and wondered very vocally why, if a lone nut killed the President, materials were tucked away until the year 2039, 75 years after the Report was delivered to LBJ.

In the doubts created by that early and often very difficult research, many still unanswered questions were raised; but one thing was for certain: we had been denied a very fundamental truth.

As time passed, we came to realize it. We came to realize that we could be told anything by our government, and as its little children, we would believe what we were told. We were told to believe Viet Nam; we were told of the lone assassin who killed Martin Luther King, and of yet another lone assassin, who stood four feet in front of Robert Kennedy and killed him with a bullet to the back of his head fired from a distance of less than two inches; we were told to accept Watergate as a "third-rate burglary," which it would have remained had not two reporters doggedly believed otherwise. We were told to accept Iran-Contra Gate and Darryl Gates.

Somewhere amidst that wreckage of crapola, we lost the truth, and we lost our country. We lost the country to interests so immense that they could care less about all of us; and that could care so little about the truth that they could tell us whatever they want, and as long as it had the old stamp of approval on it, it was the truth no matter what we thought.

Today, sadly, they own us. And the reason I've spent as much time as I have trying to come to grips with the Warren Commission is because the death of John Kennedy and the subsequent publication of the official hoax called the Warren Report were the first two payments made by the power brokers to own us and to own our country.

A great deal of outstanding JFK related research is happening as we gather tonight. Amazingly, there were a few tantalizing morsels in the recent document regurgitation, and you will be reading some new and interesting revelations in the weeks and months to come. And you will learn much from these new works. Yet what will change? In late 1991 and early 1992, thanks to a cinematic presentation called JFK, a whole new generation of Americans learned that something a great deal more sinister than a misfit punk with a cheap rifle had changed the American landscape. Stone's movie did not give us all the answers, but it certainly gave us many valid questions. Ultimately, however, the outcome was predictable: the regular cast of government stooges got key media spots, they pointed to a shiny set of 26 volumes, and then told the world, 99.99% of whom have never read one word of those volumes, that the Warren Report is holy writ. Well, whatever it is at least rhymes with "writ"; I'd also like to add, after seeing JFK on t.v. this week, that there is probably a great deal of truth in the statement made by Kevin Costner when he wondered out loud if Earl Warren read what was in those 26 volumes. I'm curious about how much any of them read-- but I doubt we'll learn the answer to that.

The Warren Commission and the subsequent Report, therefore, are the ultimate bumps in the road. WE here tonight don't believe that drivel; but many others still do, because we haven't disproved the basic premise--and the basic premise is the Warren Commission.

I have tried to disprove that basic premise. In People v. Lee Harvey Oswald, I demonstrated at least to my own satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of many, many very fine folks who took the time to write to me, that Oswald could never have been convicted if he had gone to trial for the murder of JFK. And I have been asked, "Is there any nagging doubt, ever, that you are wrong, and Oswald did it?"

The answer is always the same: there's no doubt; he was exactly what he confessed to being: a patsy.

In The Kennedy Assassination Quiz Book, I tried to create a vehicle where facts--not rumors and speculations--could be presented in an entertaining format. The same is true for the audio cassette I recorded. It's called "Sound bites from the Warren Commission," and if you have one of those hard-headed friends that can't be convinced, treat them to some comedy--let them hear the absurdities of the investigation; maybe--just maybe, they'll come around a little. Remember: we've got to get over that 1964 bump in the road.

In Blue Death, Red Patsy, White Lies, (due in '95), I used the Warren Commission's evidence to prove things happened that they did not want to tell us about.

And in The Warren Omission (hopefully '95 also), I honestly believe I dismantled the Warren Commission. As many of you know, I counted every question they asked, and categorized the questions into one of eight levels of relevance, and then pointed out that of the 488 witnesses, only 177 (or 36.27%) were called to testify about the death of JFK. They were asked 30,530 questions, or 27.77% of the total, but only 2,065 of the questions, or 1.8% of the Commission's total, were valid questions about the death of JFK. In the same study, I noted that of the 3,912 published Exhibits, only 79 of them, or roughly 90 pages of the 9,831 pages of Exhibits, were of any real evidentiary value. During the month of September, I completed a Warren Commission time management study which totally destroys every premise heretofore considered regarding the Commission, and I hope to share some of those findings with you on Monday morning.

The Warren Commission and the Warren Report: the onset of the loss of American innocence; and until we repair that specific damage, it will not be our country and we will be told what the truth is.

It is fair at this point to let Clint Eastwood, the Secret Service agent in "In the Line of Fire" speak again. When he was reminded that he was penalized for some of JFK's indiscretions, he told us, "That was different; he was different; the whole damn country was different."

Yes, Agent Horrigan, things were different then; a great deal of it had to do with that vibrant young man who got into a limousine at Love Field and was carried out of it at Parkland Hospital. Those truths we know.

So what truths did the Warren Report tell us? Let me read you a few of the things they said, and I'll comment on them as we go along. "President Lyndon B. Johnson, by Executive Order No. 11130 dated November 29, 1963, created this Commission to investigate the assassination on November 22, 1963, of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the united States. The President directed the Commission to evaluate all the facts and circumstances surrounding the assassination and the subsequent killing of the alleged assassin and to report its findings and conclusions to him." (ix)

[To him, indeed; the very wording of their mandate tells us they already knew who did it, since they were going to investigate who did it, and why Lee Oswald was killed; if you have any doubt or suspicion that the investigation did not have a preconceived conclusion, look at the names of the first three witnesses called; Marina Oswald; Marguerite Oswald; and Robert Oswald; damn strange that they're trying to find out who killed the President and their first 3 witnesses are all related to a stock boy in a building that overlooked the motorcade route. It is also very convenient that these people were called before anybody else, because as material leaked out, they could have countered the damage. Instead, they were called first.]

"The U.S. Secret Service, which is responsible for the protection of the President, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation began an investigation at the direction of President Johnson." (ix).

[The S.S. has no jurisdiction investigating this whatsoever; it is totally outside of their manual specs.]

"Throughout the world, reports on these events were disseminated in massive detail." (ix).

[Unfortunately, reports on these events were far more carefully disseminated in the US; we had to rely on J.E. Hoover, and later, the WC.]

"The Commission is committing all of its reports and working papers to the National Archives, where they can be permanently preserved under the rules and regulations of the National Archives and applicable Federal law." (xv)

[The papers are protected under federal law although JFK was not. Of note, since the assassination, it has become a federal crime to assassinate the President, so there will never again be the problem of local folks investigating a case where they might get to the truth.]

"After considering the facilities and security problems of several buildings, the Trade Mart was chosen as the luncheon site. Given this selection, and in accordance with the customary practice of affording the greatest number of people an opportunity to see the President, the motorcade route selected was a natural one." (2)

[Although it violated every imaginable S.S. rule... {wording could also be changed for killers...}]

"Seconds later shots resounded in rapid succession. The President's hands moved to his neck .... A bullet had entered the base of the back of his neck slightly to the right of the spine." (3).

[If it didn't, we got the wrong guy .... And did you ever have one of those cramps where you desperately need to have someone scratch the base of the back of your neck? Hey, you scratch the base of the back of my neck, and I'll scratch yours...]

"Before the shooting started, Governor Connally had been facing toward the crowd on the right. He started to turn toward the left and suddenly felt a blow on his back. The governor had been hit by a bullet which entered at the extreme right side of his back at a point below his right armpit...passed through his right wrist which had been in his lap, and then caused a wound to his left thigh." (3)

[That must have been some angle; also overlooks JBC key testimony]

"Seeing that the President was struck, Kellerman instructed the driver, 'Let's get out of here; we are hit.' [carefully chosen direct quote of Kellerman] He radioed ahead to the lead car, 'Get us to the hospital immediately.' Agent Greer immediately accelerated the presidential car. As it gained speed, Agent Hill managed to pull himself onto the back of the car where Mrs. Kennedy had climbed. Hill pushed her back into the rear seat and shielded the stricken President."

[This makes it sound like the car sped up when it should have; it is also odd that Hill is given so much credit, but when he testified that the back of the President's head was removed but visible on the back seat of the limo, he was ignored.]

Parkland doctors: "They observed the extensive wound in the President's head .... "(4) [And the Warren Commission didn't believe a friggin' word they said about it...]

[The narrative then tells of the trip to Love Field, et al, without any mention that a local autopsy had been avoided.]

"...Bethesda, Md., where it was given a complete pathological examination." (4) ["Yes, that's a dead body alright..."]

"The autopsy disclosed the large head wound observed at Parkland and the wound in the front of the neck which had been enlarged by the Parkland doctors when they performed the tracheotomy."

[The examination did not disclose the wound seen at Parkland, and Humes did not know of a frontal wound until he spoke to Dr. Perry after the body was long gone from Bethesda.]

"In addition the autopsy revealed a small wound of entry in the rear of the President's skull and another wound of entry near the base of the back of the neck." (4) [A more intentionally ambiguous entry would be difficult to imagine--Simon says, "Touch your back." ]

"At the scene of the shooting, there was evident confusion at the outset concerning the point of origin of the shots."(4)

[But there was no confusion in the Report as to the origin...]

"Within a few minutes, however, attention centered on the Texas School Book Depository Building as the source of the shots." (4)

[After the crowd, and all the cops had surged to the knoll and been ordered out of the railroad yards, and after TSBD workers, who had been outside, calmly re-entered the building that was believed to have been the scene of the crime.]

"One eyewitness, Howard L. Brennan, had been watching the parade from a point on Elm Street directly opposite and facing the building." (5)

[A total lie, and they knew it; Brennan was facing Houston St. and is seen in the early Z frames looking back over his left shoulder to see the car.]

"Brennan thought he might be able to identify the man since he had noticed him in the window a few minutes before the motorcade made the turn onto Elm Street." (5)

[But in fact he could not---not stated; identification implied.]

"Baker, having recently returned from a week of deer hunting, was certain the shot came from a high powered rifle. He looked up and saw pigeons scattering in the air from their perches on the Texas School Book Depository Building." (5)

[One: was Baker deer hunting amidst tall buildings? Two: Were the pigeons trained only to scatter when shots were fired from the specific building where they were perched?]

"As he reached the front wheel on the driver's side, the man on the sidewalk drew a revolver and fired several shots in rapid succession, hitting Tippit four times and killing him instantly." (7)

["several shots" allows for one or more misses, to clear up the confusion of the odd cartridges; also, the WC would later rely on Helen Markham, who admitted to conversation with Tippit, after he was killed instantly. The witness can't be wrong, so history is written to fit the designed theory.]

"Shortly after 1 p.m., Capt. J. Will Fritz, chief of the homicide and robbery bureau of the Dallas Police Department, arrived to take charge of the investigation." (8)

["Take charge" should be used cautiously, as in, "After he realized his ship had hit an iceberg, the captain of The Titanic "took charge."]

"Lt. Day promptly noted that stamped on the rifle itself was the serial number 'C2766' as well as the markings '1940' 'MADE ITALY' and 'CAL. 6.5.'"

[Everyone else must have been deaf, as we know that others wrote reports about the gun being a Mauser. And why, for God's sake, with all the Mauser talk, didn't the Warren Commission show us a photo of a Mauser? Or why didn't they show witnesses who were shown Oswald's gun, other guns?]

Having said all of those things, I would like to do three things to conclude this presentation. The first is a plea, an urgent plea, for unity among those of us that still care enough about these events to find our way here, pay expenses, and listen to hours of people talking to us.

In the last couple of years, some very unpleasant things have been said, in a severely critical way, about members of the research community. I have read that the researchers that began this ASK conference are literally co-conspirators in a crime that they have unceasingly and unselfishly given of their time to solve. There's no law that you have to believe a postulate of a given writer or speaker; if you disagree, as I do with some researchers, please agree to disagree with a commonality of purpose that does not prove divisive to the research community. In some cases, we have become our own worst enemies, and that should not be.

The second request is, in a sense, a corollary of the first. Many of you have read much of what has been printed, some have read only some. Regardless, you'll will be seeing much that is new in the future, either in the form of new publications, or old ones that you were unaware of. Please read carefully and critically. Bring all that has been in your experience to bear upon your reading and your understanding of events. Just because you read something in a JFK conspiracy book, or see it suggested in a video, does not make it the gospel. If that were the case, I'd stop at this point and hand out the mimeograph sheet I have home in a file entitled "shooters." It contains the names of the thirty-four people, and I'm sure I've missed a couple, that have been seen as shooters in this case. The list is so long and so obviously inaccurate that it even includes Oswald. But nevertheless, there are 34 names on it--meaning that in JFK conspiracy books, there are at least 34 people that authors have cited as being "the shooters." It may be true, but if it is, I can't imagine how anyone survived in Dealey Plaza.

So please, be critical. The reason I put together the JFK assassination quiz book is simply to guarantee that anyone who wants to can begin with a solid base of non-speculative material. From there, build slowly. Nobody in this room is going to solve this case single handedly, although I suspect there are a couple of folks who are not here tonight who think they already have, and perhaps twice. We're only going to make progress if we work together, if we respect each others' opinions, and if we find areas where we can take a step or two forward. I can't tell you a heckuva lot about the CIA, because I haven't seen the documents that I would certainly Iove to see. I've chosen to work on that which I have available to me, and from those limited sources I've done what I can. Any editing, manuscript reading, or help I can provide to any researcher, I freely offer; and anything I have in my files is available for use by any researchers that need it--it's just that simple.

Lastly, I'm going to read you a letter I have written to President Clinton. I believe it says, in a kind and gentle way, something-- perhaps many things, that we all feel, and that we all believe in and can subscribe to. I shall only read you the text, though I will tell you now that I will be signing the letter at the bottom, "Walt Brown, American." I would hope that each of you would be willing to sign this letter also, because I believe it makes a reasonable case in a reasonable way. However, I would ask that you sign it tomorrow, Sunday, or early Monday, and not tonight, because after I conclude the letter, time will be given over to a reception for all the authors and researchers that have come to share their work with you, and that is time you should be spending with them. Even if you do not feel comfortable signing this letter, I would look forward to speaking with as many of you as possible, as you have patiently listened to my work, and I would like to hear what you are working on, and if I can be of help, we'll get going on something. Again, I hope you find this letter such that you will put your name on it along with mine.

Walt Brown's letter to Bill Clinton will appear in the next issue of Probable Cause...

When They Kill A President - Part I by Roger Craig

Our president John Kennedy went down to Dallas town
Where the hired assassins waited and there they shot him down,
Because he dreamed of peace and plenty and he talked it 'round
His dream goes marching on.

The Dallas County Court House at 505 Main Street was indeed a unique place to come to hear what was WRONG with John F. Kennedy and his policies as President of these United States. This building housed the elite troops of the Dallas County Sheriff' s Department (of which I was one), who, with blind obedience, followed the orders of their Great White Father: BILL DECKER, Sheriff of Dallas County. From these elite troops came the most bitter verbal attacks on President Kennedy. They spoke very strongly against his policies concerning the Bay of Pigs incident and the Cuban Missile crisis. They seemed to resent very much the fact that President Kennedy was a Catholic. I do not know why this was such a critical issue with many of the deputies but they did seem to hold this against President Kennedy.

The concession stand in the lobby of the court house was the best place to get into a discussion concerning the President. The old man who ran the stand evidenced a particular hatred for President Kennedy. He seemed to go out of his way to drag anyone who came by his stand into a discussion about the President. His name is J. C. Kiser.

He was a little man with a short mustache and glasses that he wore right on the end of his nose. He was a particularly good friend of Sheriff Decker, and he held the concession in the lobby for many years. Like Decker, he was unopposed when his lease came up for renewal. It was common knowledge that Bill Decker made it possible for him to remain there as long as he wished. This sick little man not only had a deep hatred for John F. Kennedy, he also hated the black people, even those who spent their money at his stand. He would often curse them as they walked away after making a purchase from him. He flatly refused to make telephone change for them even though he would be simultaneously making change for a white person.

This little man was a typical example of the atmosphere that lingered in this building that housed LAW AND ORDER in Dallas County.

Many of the deputies had a dislike for the President--some more so than others. However, there *were* those who would not degrade themselves by taking verbal punches at our President. One of these was Hiram Ingram. Although devoted to Bill Decker, he was also a good friend of mine. We often discussed the political debates that took place in the lobby. Hiram had a great dislike for this sick little man who seemed to lead the attack on the President. He also had little respect for the deputies, attorneys and court house employees who tolerated or even agreed with this philosophy of attacking John F. Kennedy.

Hiram Ingram was a small man--in stature. He was always ready with a friendly smile and greeting. He began his association with the County during the Bonnie and Clyde era - when he was an ambulance driver and inside employee at a local funeral home. In fact, Hiram prepared Bonnie and Clyde for burial after they were brought back to Dallas from the ambush in Louisiana.

Hiram and I were very close---one of those friendships which develops when some people first meet. I had known Hiram for about four years at the time of the assassination. He was working in the Civil Division and shortly after November 22, 1963 he had a heart attack. When he returned to work Decker put him on the Bond Desk, where I would later be and work closely with Hiram. I worked the day shift one month and the evening shift the following month. Hiram worked evenings. So every other month we worked together. This gave us time to talk and discuss the events in Dallas and even the Sheriff's Office itself.

The Department was not well organized. To clear some of the bonds and bondsmen we would have to call Decker at home--no matter what time of the day or night--for his approval or ANY decision. This applied only to certain bondsmen. Decker had his chosen few who were not questioned. Hiram was a very dependable employee and should not have had to clear the minor decisions with our Great White Father, Bill Decker.

As the months passed and Hiram and I worked together we built a mutual respect for each other. When Decker fired me on July 4, 1967 Hiram was infuriated but, like any employee of Decker's, he couldn't say anything in my defense for fear of having his employment cut short or his reputation ruined. One of Decker's favorite past times was ruining reputations.

Our friendship did not end with my termination. We continued to talk from time to time and Hiram was very helpful when Penn Jones wanted information concerning records at the Sheriff's office. However, in March of 1968 Hiram explained to me that information was getting more difficult to get for some reason. Fortunately by this time I had already supplied Penn Jones and Bill Boxley (investigator for Jim Garrison) with much information from Hiram. About two weeks later, near the end of March 1968, I heard that Hiram had fallen at home and broken his hip and was in the hospital. I went to see my good buddy to cheer him up and received the shock of my life. Hiram was under oxygen and could not have any visitors. Three days later he was dead of cancer. He had been working just prior to the fall. I think that we owe a debt of gratitude to this great man who, in his own quiet way, helped us all so much.

Thus... we have the atmosphere that was to greet the President of the United States upon his arrival in Dallas.

However, things were to get even worse before he arrived.

The battle ground had been picked and the UNwelcome mat was out for President Kennedy. Unknown to most of us, the rest of the plan was being completed. The patsy had been chosen and placed in the building across from the court house--where he could not deny his presence after it was all over. This was done with the apparent approval and certainly with the knowledge of our co-workers, the FBI, since they later admitted that they knew Lee Harvey Oswald was employed at the School Book Depository Building located on the comer of Elm Street and Houston Street across from the Sheriff's Office.

The security had been arranged by the Secret Service and the Dallas Police--our boys in blue. The final touch was put on by Sheriff James Eric (Bill) Decker. On the morning of November 22, 1963 the patrolmen in the districts which make up the Dallas County Sheriff's Patrol Division were left in the field, ignorant of what was going on in the downtown area, which was just as well. Decker was not going to LET them do anything anyway.

About 10:30 a.m November 22, 1963, Bill Decker called into his office what I will refer to as his street people--plain-clothes men, detectives and warrant men, myself included--and told us that President Kennedy was coming to Dallas and that the motorcade would come down Main Street. He then advised us that we were to stand out in front of the building, 505 Main Street and represent the Sheriff's Office. We were to take no part whatsoever in the security of that motorcade. (WHY, JAMES ERIC?) So... the stage had been set, all the pawns were in place, the security had been withdrawn from that one vulnerable location. Come John F. Kennedy, come to Elm and Houston Streets in Dallas, Texas and take your place in history!

The time was 12:15 p.m. I was standing in front of the court house at 505 Main Street. Deputy Sheriff Jim Ramsey was standing behind me. We were waiting for the President of the United States. I had a feeling of pride that I was going to be not more than four feet from the President but deep inside something kept gnawing at me. I said to Jim Ramsey, "He's late." Jim's reply stunned me. He said, "Maybe somebody will shoot the son of a bitch." Then I realized the crowd was hostile. The men about me felt that they were FORCED to acknowledge his presence. Although he was the President, they were making statements like, "Why does he have to come to Dallas?"

Something else was bothering me... being a trained officer, I always looked for anything which might be amiss about any situation with which I was confronted. Suddenly I knew what was wrong. There were no officers guarding the intersections or controlling the crowd. My mind flashed back to the meeting in Decker's office that morning, then back to the lack of security in this area.

Suddenly the motorcade approached and President Kennedy was smiling and waving and for a moment I relaxed and fell into the happy mood the President was displaying. The car turned the corner onto Houston Street. I was still looking at the rest of the people in the party. I was soon to be shocked back into reality. The President had passed and was turning west on Elm Street... as if there were no people, no cars, the only thing in my world at that moment was a rifle shot! I bolted toward Houston Street. I was fifteen steps from the corner--before I reached it two more shots had been fired. Telling myself that it wasn't true and at the same time knowing that it was, I continued to run. I ran across Houston Street and beside the pond, which is on the west side of Houston.

I pushed a man out of my way and he fell into the pond. I ran down the grass between Main and Elm. People were lying all over the ground. I thought, "My God, they've killed a woman and child," who were lying beside the gutter on the South side of Elm Street. I checked them and they were alright. I saw a Dallas Police Officer run up the grassy knoll and go behind the picket fence near the railroad yards. I followed and behind the fence was complete confusion and hysteria.

I began to question people when I noticed a woman in her early thirties attempting to drive out of the parking lot. She was in a brown 1962 or 1963 Chevrolet. I stopped her, identified myself and placed her under arrest. She told me that she HAD to leave and I said, "Lady, you're not going anywhere." I turned her over to Deputy Sheriff C. I. (Lummy) Lewis and told him the circumstances of the arrest. Officer Lewis told me that he would take her to Sheriff Decker and take care of her car.

The parking lot behind the picket fence was of little importance to most of the investigators at the scene except that the shots were thought to have come from there.

Let us examine this parking lot. It was leased by Deputy Sheriff B. D. Gossett. He in turn rented parking space by the month to the deputies who worked in the court house, except for official vehicles. I rented one of these spaces from Gossett when I was a dispatcher working days or evenings. I paid Gossett $3.00 per month and was given a key to the lot. An interesting point is that the lot had an iron bar across the only entrance and exit (which were the same). The bar had a chain and lock on it. The only people having access to it were deputies with keys. Point: how did the woman gain access and, what is more important, who was she and why did she "have" to leave?

This was to be the beginning of the never-ending cover up. Had I known then what I know now, I would have personally questioned the woman and impounded and searched her car. I had no way of knowing that an officer, with whom I had worked for four years, was capable of losing a thirty year old woman and a three thousand pound automobile. To this day Officer Lewis does not know who she was, where she came from or what happened to her. STRANGE!

Meanwhile, back at the parking lot, I continued to help the Dallas Officers restore order. When things were somewhat calmer I began to question the people who were standing at the top of grassy knoll, asking if anyone had seen anything strange or unusual before or during the President's fatal turn onto Elm Street.

Several people indicated to me that they thought the shots came from the area of the grassy knoll or behind the picket fence. My next reliable witness came forward in the form of Mr. Rowland. Mr. Rowland and his wife were standing at the top of the grassy knoll on the north side of Elm Street. Arnold Rowland began telling me his account of what he saw before the assassination. He said approximately fifteen minutes before President Kennedy arrived he was looking around and something caught his eye. It was a white man standing by the 6th floor window of the Texas School Book Depository Building in the southeast corner, holding a rifle equipped with a telescopic sight and in the southwest corner of the sixth floor was a colored male pacing back and forth. Needless to say, I was astounded by his statement. I asked Mr. Rowland why he had not reported this before and he told me that he thought they were secret service agents--an obvious conclusion for a layman. Rowland continued. He told me that he looked back at the sixth floor a few minutes later and the man with the rifle was gone so he dismissed it from his mind

. I was writing all this down in my notebook and when I finished I advised Mr. and Mrs. Rowland that I would have to detain them for a statement. I had started toward the Sheriff's Office with them when lo and behold I was approached by Officer C. L. (Lummy) Lewis, who asked me "What ya got"--a favorite expression of most investigators with Bill Decker. I explained the situation to him and told him of Rowland's account. Being the Good Samaritan he was, Officer Lewis offered to take the Rowlands off my hands and get their statements. This worked out a little better than my first arrest. The Warren Commission decided not to accept Arnold Rowland's story but at least they did not lose them. Hang in there, Lummy!

The time was approximately 12:40 p.m. I had just turned the Rowlands over to Lummy Lewis when I met E. R. (Buddy) Walthers, a small man with a very arrogant manner. He was, without a doubt, Decker's favorite pupil. He wore dark-rimmed glasses and a small- brimmed hat because effecting them meant that he would resemble Bill Decker. Walthers had worked for the Yellow Cab Company of Dallas before coming to the Sheriff's Office, about a year before I began working there. His termination from the cab company was the result of several shortages of money. He came to the Sheriff's Department as a patrolman but because of his close connection with Justice of the Peace Bill Richburg--one of Decker's closest allies--Buddy soon was promoted to detective. He had absolutely no ability as a law enforcement officer. However, he was fast climbing the ladder of success by lying to Decker and squealing on his fellow officers.

Walthers' ambition was to become Sheriff of Dallas County and he would do anything or anybody to reach that goal. It was very clear Buddy enjoyed more job security with Decker than anyone else did. Decker carried him for years by breaking a case for him or taking a case which had been broken by another officer and putting Walthers' name on the arrest sheet. Soon after he was promoted to detective he became intimate with such people as W.O. Bankston, the flamboyant Oldsmobile dealer in Dallas who furnished Decker with a new Fire Engine Red Olds every year and who was arrested several times for Driving while Intoxicated but never served any jail time.

Buddy's acquaintances also included several independent oil operators throughout Texas, several anti-Castro Cubans and many underworld characters--especially women! He was frequently crashing parties which were given by wealthy friends of Decker's--of course while he was on duty. He often became drunk and belligerent at these parties and at one point, when asked to leave, he threatened to pull his gun on the host. This information can be verified by Billy Courson, who was Buddy's partner at that time.

Walthers hit the big time when, in 1961, two Federal Narcotics Agents came to Decker's office with charges that Buddy was growing marijuana in the back yard of his home at 2527 Boyd Street in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. This could be considered conduct unbecoming to a police officer--but not for Buddy! After a secret meeting between the Federal Agents, Decker and Buddy, the matter was dropped and--needless to say covered up, thus enabling Buddy to continue his career as Decker's Representative of Law and Order in Dallas County.

However, the Dallas Police began receiving complaints that Buddy was shaking down underworld characters for loot taken in several burglaries and selling the stuff himself. After several reports the Dallas Police began to investigate and, finally, obtained a search warrant for Buddy's home. Their big mistake was securing the warrant from Judge Richburg--which was bad enough--but Buddy's wife also worked for Richburg and this made matters worse.

Strangely enough, they did not find anything. However, a few weeks later they were a little more careful and made a surprise visit to Buddy's home, where they indeed recovered such things as toasters, clothing and various items--just as their informers had said. It would seem they had him this time, wouldn't it? But not so.

Buddy explained that he had recovered the merchandise from where it had been hidden and had not had time to make a report on them and turn them in to the Property Room! The Dallas police didn't buy this story but the pressure was again brought to bear by our Protector, Bill Decker, and the Dallas Police were left out in the cold--no charges filed! They were certainly furious but what could they do? If we as citizens cannot fight the Establishment, how can the Establishment fight the Establishment?

It was clear in my mind--and if the people with whom I worked could talk, I am sure they would agree--that Buddy had a powerful hold on Decker. I base this on the fact that Buddy's popularity with Decker greatly increased after the assassination. Buddy was a chronic liar---he was always telling Decker things he thought were happening in the County which he was checking on. Things which he was not doing. He also told Decker that he was in the theater when Oswald was captured and that he, in fact, helped the Dallas Police. This was completely untrue. Buddy never entered the Texas Theater--his partner, Bill Courson, did.

Buddy also told Decker about a family of anti-Castro Cubans living in the Oak Cliff area and said that he was watching them. This part may have been true because we received the same information from the Dallas Police Intelligence Division. But one day Buddy made a visit to the house in Oak Cliff and when the Police and Sheriff's Deputies went to question them a few days later, they were gone. Did Buddy warn them? After all, he was very, very close to Jack Ruby. In fact, every time Buddy was in trouble with one of Jack Ruby's employees especially Nancy Perrin Rich--Decker would send Buddy to straighten things out and put Nancy in her place--with the help of Judge Richburg. Touching Jack Ruby was a no-no!

There were many other things which made Buddy suspect as a not-so-law abiding lawman, such as the swimming pool he built in his back yard (on his salary?). The concrete was furnished by a local contractor free of charge. Buddy used many pills he carried in the trunk of his unmarked squad car for trading with certain underworld characters--pills for information. I learned from what I consider a reliable source that these pills had been confiscated (although no reports were made nor the pills turned in). Most of those involved in this exchange were women. It would seem that Buddy Walthers could not be terminated from the Sheriff's Department, no matter what.

One incident in 1966 which would have resulted in the firing off any other deputy occurred when Buddy was sent to Nevada to transfer a suspect wanted in Dallas. It seemed Buddy was given a certain amount of travel money which he lost at the gambling table in Las Vegas. Broke and in trouble, Buddy called none other than W. O. Bankston, who wired him enough money to bring his prisoner back to Dallas. Many times I wondered who was REALLY Sheriff but Buddy was about to reach the end of his rope.

In late 1968, when the Clay Shaw trial was being prepared, there was talk of bringing Buddy to New Orleans to testify. Well, that was a blow to the power which ruled Dallas. They could not have this half-wit on the witness stand. When the word reached Dallas, Decker was working on a double-murder which occurred in *his* county and had a lead on the suspect in January of 1969. The Shaw trial was scheduled for February and Decker sent Buddy and his partner, Alvin Maddox (who was about as efficient as a nutty professor), to a motel on Samuell Boulevard in Dallas to question a Walter Cherry about the killings. Cherry was an escaped convict and a suspect in the double- murder. Decker sent them to talk to Cherry without a warrant. When they entered the room at the motel Buddy was shot dead and Maddox wounded in the foot. Coincidence? Maybe! At any rate Buddy had been silenced. One more point for Dallas!

Back to November 22, 1963. As I have earlier stated, the time was approximately 12:40 p.m. when I ran into Buddy Walthers. The traffic was very heavy as Patrolman Baker (assigned to Elm and Houston Streets) had left his post, allowing the traffic to travel west on Elm Street. As we were scanning the curb I heard a shrill whistle coming from the north side of Elm Street. I turned and saw a white male in his twenties running down the grassy knoll from the direction of the Texas School Book Depository Building. A light green Rambler station wagon was coming slowly west on Elm Street. The driver of the station wagon was a husky looking Latin, with dark wavy hair, wearing a tan wind-breaker type jacket. He was looking up at the man running toward him. He pulled over to the north curb and picked up the man coming down the hill. I tried to cross Elm Street to stop them and find out who they were. The traffic was too heavy and I was unable to reach them. They drove away going west on Elm Street.

In addition to noting that these two men were in an obvious hurry, I realized they were the only ones not running to the scene. Everyone else was running to see whatever might be seen. The suspect, as I will refer to him, who ran down the grassy knoll was wearing faded blue trousers and a long sleeved work shirt made of some type of grainy material. This will become very important to me later on and very embarrassing to the authorities (FBI, Dallas Police and Warren Commission). I thought the incident concerning the two men and the Rambler Station Wagon important enough to bring it to the attention of the authorities at the command post at Elm and Houston.

I ran to the front of the Texas School Book Depository where I asked for anyone involved in the investigation. There was a man standing on the steps of the Book Depository Building and he turned to me and said, "I'm with the Secret Service." This man was about 40 years old, sandy-haired with a distinct cleft in his chin. He was well- dressed in a gray business suit. I was naive enough at the time to believe that the only people there were actually officers--after all, this was the command post. I gave him the information. He showed little interest in the persons leaving.

However, he seemed extremely interested in the description of the Rambler. This was the only part of my statement which he wrote down in his little pad he was holding. Point: Mrs. Ruth Paine, the woman Marina Oswald lived with in Irving, Texas, owned a Rambler station wagon, at that time, of this same color.

* * * * *

From the book depository and of course that grassy knoll
And the Dal-Tex building's shooter fulfilled his deadly role
The noon day sun was witness as they took their awful toll
His dream goes marching on.

I learned nothing of this "Secret Service Agent's" identity until December 22, 1967 while we were living in New Orleans. The television was on as I came home from work one night and there on the screen was a picture of this man. I did not know what it was all about until my wife told me that Jim Garrison had charged him with being a part of the assassination plot. I called Jim Garrison then and told him that this was the man I had seen in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Jim then sent one of his investigators to see me with a better picture which I identified. I then learned that this man's name was EDGAR EUGENE BRADLEY. It was a relief to me to know his name for I had been bothered by the fact that I had failed to get his name when he had told me he was a Secret Service Agent and I had given him my information. On the night of the assassination when I had come home and discussed the day with my wife I had, of course, told her of this encounter and my failure to get his name.

As I finished talking with the Agent I was confronted by the High Priest of Dallas County Politics, Field Marshal Bill Decker. Decker had, apparently, been standing directly behind me and had overheard what I was saying. He called me aside and informed me that the suspect had already left the scene. (How did you know, James Eric? You had just arrived.) Decker then told me to help them (the police) search the Book Depository Building. Decker turned toward his office across the street, then suddenly stopped, looked at me and said "Somebody better take charge of this investigation." Then he continued walking slowly toward his office, indicating that it was *not* going to be him.

When I entered the Book Depository Building I was joined by Deputy Sheriffs Eugene Boone and Luke Mooney. We went up the stairs directly to the sixth floor. The room was very dark and a thick layer of dust seemed to cover everything. We went to the south side of the building, since this was the street side and seemed the most logical place to start.

Luke Mooney and I reached the southeast corner at the same time. We immediately found three rifle cartridges laying in such a way that they looked as though they had been carefully and deliberately placed there--in plain sight on the floor to the right of the southeast corner window. Mooney and I examined the cartridges very carefully and remarked how close together they were. The three of them were no more than one inch apart and all were facing in the same direction, a feat very difficult to achieve with a bolt action rifle--or any rifle for that matter. One cartridge drew our particular attention. It was crimped on the end which would have held the slug. It had not been stepped on but merely crimped over on one small portion of the tip. The rest of that end was perfectly round.

Laying on the floor to the left of the same window was a small brown paper lunch bag containing some well cleaned chicken bones. I called across the room and summoned the Dallas Police I.D. man, Lt. Day. When he arrived with his camera Mooney and I left the window and started our search of the rest of the sixth floor. We were told by Dallas Police to look for a rifle--something I had already concluded might be there since the cartridges found were, apparently, from a rifle. I was nearing the northwest corner of the sixth floor when Deputy Eugene Boone called out, "here it is." I was about eight feet from Boone, who was standing next to a stack of cardboard boxes. The boxes were stacked so that there was no opening between them except at the top. Looking over the top and down the opening I saw a rifle with a telescopic sight laying on the floor with the bolt facing upward. At this time Boone and I were joined by Lt. Day of the Dallas Police Department and Dallas Homicide Captain, Will Fritz. The rifle was retrieved by Lt. Day, who activated the bolt, ejecting one live round of ammunition which fell to the floor.

Lt. Day inspected the rifle briefly, then handed it to Capt. Fritz who had a puzzled look on his face. Seymour Weitzman, a deputy constable, was standing beside me at the time. Weitzman was an expert on weapons. He had been in the sporting goods business for many years and was familiar with all domestic and foreign weapons. Capt. Fritz asked if anyone knew what kind of rifle was. Weitzman asked to see it. After a close examination (much longer than Fritz or Day's examination) Weitzman declared that it was a 7.65 mm German Mauser. Fritz agreed with him. Apparently, someone at the Dallas Police Department also loses things but, at least, they are more conscientious. They did replace it--even if the replacement was made in a different country. (See Warren Report for Italian Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5 mm).

At that exact moment an unknown Dallas police officer came running up the stairs and advised Capt. Fritz that a Dallas policeman had been shot in the Oak Cliff area. I instinctively looked at my watch. The time was 1:06 p.m. A token force of uniformed officers was left to keep the sixth floor secure and Fritz, Day, Boone, Mooney, Weitzman and I left the building.

On my way back to the Sheriff's Office I was nearly run down several times by Dallas Police cars racing to the scene of the shooting of a fellow officer. There were more police units at the J.D. Tippit shooting than there were at President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Tippit had been instructed to patrol the Oak Cliff area along with Dallas Police Unit #87 at 12:45 p.m by the dispatcher. Unit #87 immediately left Oak Cliff and went to the triple underpass, leaving Tippit alone. Why? At 12:54 p.m, J. D. Tippit, Dallas Police Unit #78, gave his location as Lancaster Blvd., and Eighth St., some ten blocks from the place where he was to be killed. The Dallas dispatcher called Tippit at 1:04 p.m and received no answer. He continued to call three times and there was still no reply. Comparing this time with the time I received news of the shooting of the police officer at 1:06 p.m, it is fair to assume Tippit was dead or being killed between 1:04 and 1:06 p.m. This is also corroborated by the eye witnesses at the Tippit killing, who said he was shot between 1:05 and 1:08 p.m.

According to Officer Baker, Dallas Police, he talked to Oswald at 12:35 p.m in the lunch room of the Texas School Book Depository. This would give Oswald 30 minutes or less to finish his coke, leave the building, walk four blocks east on Elm Street, catch a bus and ride it back west in heavy traffic for two blocks, get off the bus and walk two more blocks west and turn south on Lamar Street, walk four blocks and have a conversation with a cab driver and a woman over the use of Whaley's (the cab driver) cab, get into the cab and ride to 500 North Beckley Street, get out and walk to 1026 North Beckley where his (Oswald's) room was located, pick up something (?); and if that is not enough, Earlene Roberts, the housekeeper where Oswald lived, testified that he left at 1:05 p.m.

Oswald was waiting for a bus in front of his rooming house and finally, to make him the fastest man on Earth, he walked to East Tenth Street and Patton Street, several blocks away and killed J. D. Tippit between 1:05 and 1:08 p.m. If he had not been arrested when he was, it is my belief that Earl Warren and his Commission would have had Lee Harvey Oswald eating dinner in Havana!

I was convinced on November 22, 1963, and I am still sure, that the man entering the Rambler station wagon was Lee Harvey Oswald.

After entering the Rambler, Oswald and his companion would only have had to drive six blocks west on Elm Street and they would have been on Beckley Avenue and a straight shot to Oswald's rooming house. The Warren Commission could not accept this even though it might have given Oswald time to kill Tippit for having two men involved would have made it a conspiracy!

As to Lee Harvey Oswald shooting J. D. Tippit, let us examine the evidence: Dallas Police Unit #221 (Summers-refer-police radio log) stated on the police radio that he had an "eye ball" witness to the shooting. The suspect was a white male about twenty-seven, five feet, eleven inches, black wavy hair, fair complexioned, (not Oswald) wearing an Eisenhower-type jacket of light color, dark trousers, and a white shirt, apparently armed with a .32 caliber, dark-finish automatic pistol which he had in his right hand. (The jacket strongly resembles that worn by the driver of the station wagon).

Dallas Police Unit #550 Car 2 was driven to the scene of the Tippit murder by Sgt. Gerald Hill. He was accompanied by Bud Owens, Dallas Police Department, and William F. Alexander, Assistant D.A. for Dallas. Unit #550 Car 2 reported over the police radio that the shells at the scene indicated that the suspect was armed with a .38 caliber automatic. 38 automatic shells and 38 revolver shells are distinctly different. (Oswald allegedly had a .38 revolver in his possession when arrested?)

After much confusion in the Oak Cliff area the Dallas Police were finally directed to the Texas Theater where the suspect was reported to be. Several squads arrived at the theater and quickly surrounded it. At the back door was none other than William F. Alexander, Assistant D.A. and several Dallas Police officers with guns drawn. While Dallas Police Officer McDonald and others entered the theater and turned on the lights and the suspect was pointed out to them, they started searching people several rows in front of Oswald, giving him a chance to run if he wanted to--right into the blazing guns of waiting officers!

This man had to be stopped. He was the most dangerous criminal in the history of the world. Here was a man who was able to go from one location to another with the swiftness of Superman, to change his physical characteristics at will and who pumped four automatic slugs into a police officer with a revolver--indeed a master criminal!

Well, back to the facts? Oswald was captured by Officer McDonald, who was out cold from one blow from the suspect and woke up to find he had arrested the suspect! (Nice going, Mac).

Later that afternoon I received word of the suspect's arrest and the fact that he was suspected of being involved in the President's death. I immediately thought of the man running down the grassy knoll. I made a telephone call to Capt. Will Fritz and gave him the description of the man I had seen and Fritz said, "that sounds like the suspect we have. Can you come up and take a look at him?"

I arrived at Capt. Fritz office shortly after 4:30 p.m. I was met by Agent Bookhout from the FBI, who took my name and place of employment. The door to Capt. Fritz' personal office was open and the blinds on the windows were closed, so that one had to look through the doorway in order to see into the room. I looked through the open door at the request of Capt. Fritz and identified the man who I saw running down the grassy knoll and enter the Rambler station wagon--and it was Lee Harvey Oswald.

Fritz and I entered his private office together. He told Oswald, "This man (pointing to me) saw you leave." At which time the suspect replied, "I told you people I did." Fritz, apparently trying to console Oswald, said, "Take it easy, son--we're just trying to find out what happened." Fritz then said, "What about the car?" Oswald replied, leaning forward on Fritz' desk, "That station wagon belongs to Mrs. Paine--don't try to drag her into this." Sitting back in his chair, Oswald said very disgustedly and very low, "Everybody will know who I am now."

At this time Capt. Fritz ushered me from his office, thanking me. I walked away saddened but relieved that it was the end of the day and I could go home, where I could try--at least for a little while--to put the tragedy and the day's events out of my mind. I was soon to find out that my troubles had only begun--for I had seen and heard too much that fateful day.

Saturday, November 23, 1963, I spent the day at home talking to my wife, Molly, about Friday's events and playing with Deanna and Terry, not knowing that the very next day would bring another tragic event which would affect not only my job but my entire future.

Like many other Americans, I was watching television on Sunday morning, November 24, 1963 when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald. I would like to clear up one thing at this point concerning Ruby's access to the basement of the city jail. The Warren Commission concluded that Dallas Police Officer R. E. Vaughn, through negligence, let Jack Ruby into the basement. What they did not say is Officer Vaughn was questioned extensively after the shooting and even submitted to a polygraph test, which he passed, showing that he *did not* let Jack Ruby go down the Main Street Ramp of the city jail. I have known Officer Vaughn for many years and feel that he is honest, conscientious and one of the finest people I have ever known. I feel that he was unjustly accused. However, bombing Vaughn was the easiest way out for Earl Warren's Commission.

Continued in the next issue of Probable Cause...

THE RAMBLER MAN by David B. Perry

One wouldn't consider it much of an obituary. A life reduced to eleven paragraphs in The Dallas Morning News. The commentary is not remarkable for a person of the prominence of ex-deputy sheriff Roger Craig. Not for the employee the Dallas County sheriff's office proclaimed "Man of the Year" in 1960.

Roger Craig's popularity grew among Kennedy assassination investigators when he maintained he witnessed an event involving a Nash Rambler station wagon in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. He spoke freely about the incident, disputed details of the assassination with superior officers, lost his job, aided in Jim Garrison's probe of Clay Shaw, became the friend of several researchers' and died by his own hand on May 15, 1975.

Sadly, Craig's father discovered the body in a back bedroom of the small house on Luna Road in Dallas, this a few minutes after the old man had returned from mowing his lawn. There was a note. The physical and mental anguish resulting from a car wreck in 1973 and a shotgun wound to the shoulder sustained in 1974 was too much. Roger was sorry for what he had to do but he just "couldn't stand the pain."

In the quiet of the Dallas Public Library I reviewed the eighteen year old obituary. I remembered the story of Craig's sighting of the Nash Rambler station wagon in front of the Texas School Book Depository on November 22nd. His account became important when a claim arose that Marina Oswald's friend and confidant, Ruth Paine, owned a similar vehicle.

Author and researcher Penn Jones Jr. briefly reviewed the episode in his 1969 paperback Forgive My Grief III. On page twenty nine, Jones asserted, "Craig insisted from the day of the assassination that he saw Oswald race down the grassy area and get into a station wagon like the one owned by Mrs. Ruth Pain of Irving." Curiously this important allegation, that the Paine vehicle might have been used in the assassination, lay dormant until Jones published the story.

Over the years, looking into what was written about Lee Bowers Jr., Roscoe White, Beverly Oliver, John Crawford and Dr. Charles Crenshaw, I discovered some researcher's accounts contained historical inaccuracies, embellishments and occasionally outright deception. I wondered if Craig's story had received similar treatment.

I concluded more information could be obtained from Craig's unpublished 1971 autobiography, When They Kill a President. In that work he described how his life was influenced by the assassination, often in staccato paragraphs and frequently railing at the Warren Commission for altering his testimony.

Here is how he described the occurrence:
"As I have earlier stated, the time was approximately 12:40 p.m. when I ran into [fellow Deputy Sheriff] Buddy Walthers. The traffic was very heavy as Patrolman Baker (assigned to Elm and Houston Streets) had left his post, allowing the traffic to travel west on Elm Street. As we were scanning the curb I heard a shrill whistle coming from the north side of Elm Street. I turned and saw a white male in his twenties running down the grassy knoll from the direction of the Texas' School Book Depository Building. A light green Rambler station wagon was coming slowly west on Elm Street. The driver of the station wagon was a husky looking Latin, with dark wavy hair, wearing a tan wind-breaker type jacket. He was looking up at the man running toward him. He pulled over to the north curb and picked up the man coming down the hill. I tried to cross Elm Street to stop them and find out who they were. The traffic was too heavy and I was unable to reach them. They drove away going west on Elm Street."

"I ran to the front of the Texas School Book Depository where I asked for anyone involved in the investigation. There was a man standing on the steps of the Book Depository Building and he turned to me and said, 'I'm with the Secret Service.'" ".... He showed little interest in the persons leaving. However, he seemed extremely interested in the description of the Rambler. This was the only part of my statement which he wrote down in his little pad he was holding. Point: Mrs. Ruth Paine, the woman Marina Oswald lived with in Irving, Texas, owned a Rambler station wagon, at that time, of this same color."

The next paragraph, also from the autobiography, reveals the relationship between Lee Harvey Oswald, Ruth Hyde Paine and the light green Nash Rambler station wagon.

"I had said that [Dallas Police Captain Will] Fritz had said to Oswald, 'This man saw you leave' (indicating 'I told you people I did ' Fritz then me). Oswald said, 'I told you people I did.' Fritz then said, 'Now take it easy, son, we're just trying to find out what happened,' and then (to Oswald), 'What about the car?' to which Oswald replied, 'That station wagon belongs to Mrs. Paine. Don't try to drag her into this.' Fritz said car -- station wagon was not mentioned by anyone but Oswald."

Craig was reinforcing a point he made to the Warren Commission in 1964. Warren Commission Counsel David Belin asked Roger if there was anything of importance that had not been discussed. From Warren Volume VI, page 271 [6H271]:
Mr. Craig. "No; except-uh-except for the fact that it came out later that Mrs. Paine does own a station wagon and-uh-it has a luggage rack on top. And this came out of course, later after I got back to the office. I didn't know about this. Buddy Walthers brought it up. I believe they went by the house and the car was parked in the driveway."

Clearly, Jones' article depended on Craig's confirmation to support the Rambler story. However, where was Craig's proof that Ruth Paine owned a Rambler station wagon let alone of the same color. Granted, Craig was an ex-sheriff and likely had extensive investigative skill, but I never heard claims he was a student of the Kennedy assassination.

Craig acknowledged he first saw his testimony in 1968 "...when [he] looked at the twenty-six [Warren Commission] volumes that belonged to Penn Jones." Jones charged in Forgive My Grief III that "Craig's testimony was so devastating to the intentions of the Warren Commission that Craig's statements had to be changed."

To verify Jones' allegations, I reviewed those parts of the autobiography searching for areas where Craig indicated Warren Commission staff made modifications. Was there proof the Warren Commission had altered his Fritz/Oswald/Rambler statement? I found no such inference.

Craig testified in Dallas on April 1, 1964. The passage dealing with Fritz's interrogation of Oswald can be found in Warren Commission Volume VI, page 270, [6H270].
Mr. Belin. All right. Then what did Captain Fritz say and what did you say and what did the suspect say?
Mr. Craig. Captain Fritz then asked him about the-uh-he said, "What about this station wagon?"

Wait a minute! Craig never charged the Warren Commission altered this portion of his testimony. He also claimed Fritz never mentioned the station wagon. The cracks in the "story" began to appear.

I soon found Fritz didn't even remember Roger Craig being in on the Oswald interrogation! Warren Commission Counsel Joseph Ball asked Fritz if he remembered Craig being in his office "in the presence of Oswald." In Warren Volume IV, page 245, [4H245].
Fritz. "No, sir; I am sure he did not, I believe that man did come to my office in that little hallway, you know outside my office, and I believe I stepped outside the door and talked to him for a minute and I let someone else take an affidavit from him."

I now had more questions than answers.

It was one thing for Mrs. Paine to own a station wagon with a luggage rack but was the vehicle a Nash Rambler? Was it green? Why did Buddy Walthers bring the subject up? Why was Craig not positive but only believed someone went by the house? Who was the "they" that went to the Paine home to check on the car?

Craig's autobiographical declaration that "Mrs. Ruth Paine, the woman Marina Oswald lived with in Irving, Texas, owned a Rambler station wagon, at that time, of this same color." was on the verge of collapse. What is more important, Fritz challenged not only Craig's story but his credibility as well. Was there proof Craig had been in Fritz's office?

I felt Fritz's recollection was best countered in J. Gary Shaw's Cover-Up. That is until I looked into it. On page twenty seven, Shaw suggests "Fritz complied [with the Warren Commission by supplying perjured testimony] that Craig had not been in Fritz's office and had not even seen Oswald. The Fritz lie, however, was unintentionally exposed when Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry published his personal JFK Assassination File. A photograph on page 72 of that book shows Craig standing in the background in Fritz's office; the caption is: 'The Homicide Bureau Office under guard while Oswald is being interrogated.'"

Not so fast, "perjured testimony" and "lie" is a little strong. The photograph Shaw claims is of Fritz's office during the Oswald interrogation, IS NOT. It is of the outer office of Room 317, the Homicide and Robbery Bureau. There are two other photographs that by coincidence appear in Cover-Up on pages twenty-seven and 101. They are of the same scene but shot from different perspectives. Those photographs show at least five men, one Dallas Police Officer Gerald Hill, and a secretary. Some individuals might be conversing while drinking coffee or water. The secretary looks like she is eating a sandwich. These are hardly activities one would expect Fritz to condone while questioning the prized suspect. Oswald is nowhere to be seen. While there is no evidence that Craig wasn't in Fritz's office, Shaw's alleged photographic confirmation is no proof at all. In fact it only shows Craig was outside the office close to the spot Fritz claims he was.

What about the color of the station wagon? Craig made it a point to claim his testimony was changed with respect to the color of the car. "I said the Rambler station wagon was light green. The Warren Commission: Changed [it] to a white station wagon . . ."

Curious, I went back to Craig's deposition of November 25, 1963. I concluded the Warren Commission could alter the testimony but would have to go to extreme lengths to change a document obtained three days after the assassination. FBI Special Agent Benjamin O. Keutzer took Craig's statement. It appears in Commission Exhibit No. 1993, [CE 1993].
"He stated he also noticed an automobile traveling west on Elm, which he feels was a white Nash Rambler station wagon with a luggage rack on top."

This seemed to confirm that Craig originally thought the car was white. I still couldn't understand why color was so important. Why was it necessary for the station wagon to be green rather than white? A little more research resolved the issue. In Warren Commission Volume II, pg. 506, [2H506] the following exchange takes place.
Mr. Jenner: "Describe your automobile, will you please?"
Mrs. Paine: "It is a 1955 Chevrolet station wagon, green, needing paint, which we bought secondhand. It is in my name."

I thought I was seeing things! Ruth Paine owned a Chevrolet not a Nash Rambler?

The episode in Will Fritz's office, if it ever occurred, must now be looked upon in a new light. One not as sinister as originally believed, one that modifies the perception of the entire Rambler scenario. Everything hinges on the simplification of Fritz's question and Oswald's response not the enhancement of it. Let's say Fritz did ask Oswald about the station wagon, Roger Craig observed [6H270]. Perhaps when Oswald heard the words station wagon, he immediately thought of Ruth Paine's Chevrolet station wagon. His response to Fritz could then be predicated by the fact Mrs. Paine had given him driving lessons in the Chevy a few short weeks before. [See 2H502 to 2H517] Craig and Oswald would then be referring to different station wagons!

One can almost picture Roger Craig, trying to stir the assassination conspiracy pot. Failing to verify facts, depending upon memories inactive for four years, assuming "they" whoever "they" were checked the automobile at the Paine house, relying on Buddy Walthers spotty remarks, accusing the Warren Commission of altering testimony so the color of the vehicles matched and looking myopically at the Fritz interrogation of Oswald. To what purpose? To implicate Ruth Paine in the plot? If not, why the great charade?

We are left with another story we thought had possibilities, turned sour. At one point I thought there was independent corroboration of Craig's Nash Rambler story in High Treason. The Groden/Livingstone book describes the episode on pages 161 and 162. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered the authors were merely rehashing Penn Jones' "investigation."

And what of Penn Jones Jr.? Consider it was Jones who wrote in The Importance of Roger Craig that "Craig insisted from the day of the assassination that he saw Oswald race down the grassy area and get into a station wagon LIKE (emphasis mine) the one owned by Mrs. Ruth Paine of Irving."

As J. Gary Shaw, protege of Penn Jones Jr. whose research appears in the "Forgive My Grief" series, told Baltimore's "City Paper" staff writer David Dudley, "We can correct our pasts even if we find we have to knock down a few statues to do it."

Afterword
On January 30, 1993 I wrote Ruth Paine enclosing a copy of this article and requesting her comments. Ruth replied on February 16, 1993.

"Sorry to be so slow in responding to your letter and article. Your article correctly quotes my testimony. I had a green Chevy station wagon. I drove my children to the dentist (in Irving) the morning of Nov 22, 1963, but we were back home well before noon. I did not go into Dallas. I always parked my car in the driveway at 2515 5th St. (The garage was full!)"

"Incidentally, I met Penn Jones once at a party in Dallas. We were introduced but he didn't speak to me. I can't even recall a greeting which seemed odd to me at the time. He never called me or sought me out to obtain information."

Sincerely,
Ruth Hyde Paine

The Strange Story of Rosco White - Information, Disinformation or Misinformation? - by Ralph D. Thomas

In August of 1990, Ricky White held a news conference sponsored by the JFK Assassination Information Center in Dallas and the Assassination Archives And Research Center in Washington D.C. The news conference centered on the fact that Ricky White found his dead father's diary and other evidence in a military type canister and that this information revealed that his father was part of the assassination team in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963. The day before the news conference, Ricky White was interviewed by news reporter Earl Golz for the Austin American Statesman. Golz's report appeared in the Austin American Statesman the day before the news conference. Golz also published an account of the news conference on the following day. In the December edition of Texas Monthly, Gary Cartwright wrote an article about White. Information in this section was developed from the newspaper stories written by Golz and the magazine story written by Cartwright along with interviews I have had with J. Gary Shaw and Larry Howard of the JFK Assassination Information Center in Dallas, Texas and my own independent investigation and verification of this account.

Ricky White says that the diary clearly shows that his father, Rosco White, served in the Marines and got to know Oswald. It has been documented through other sources that White and Oswald both boarded the USS Bexar in San Diego in 1957 for a twenty two day trip to Japan. A photograph has been published by assassination researchers for years of a group of Marines in Japan in front of a tent. Oswald is in the photograph and so is a person who looks just like Rosco White. According to the White family, it's Rosco.

Ricky White was given a footlocker after his grandfather's death in 1982 that had belonged to Rosco. Upon opening the footlocker, he found the following items in it:
Rosco White's Diary
Rosco White's Service Records
AN Unmarked Safe-Deposit Key
Receipt for $100,000 in negotiable bonds

Ricky White would pick up the diary and read it now and then but he says it wasn't until four years after his father's death that he read entries about November 22nd, 1963.

Ricky White claims that the diary for that time clearly shows that Rosco White was part of a three man assassination team. The diary stated that there were six shots fired, two by Rosco White. Rosco White was behind the wooden fence on top of the grassy knoll and had a code name of Mandarin. His first shot hit the President in the throat. His second shot hit the President in the head. Of the other two assassins, one was located in the Records Building and used a code name of Saul. The third assassin was located in the Texas School Book Depository Building and used a code name of Lebannon. The diary also said that Mauser rifles were used in the assassination. Ricky White remembers his father giving him two rifles after the assassination in Dallas. One was an Argentine rifle and the other a 7.65 Mauser.

Ricky White says that the dairy shows that Oswald knew of the assassination plot but didn't fire any shots. Oswald was told to bring his rifle to work on November 22nd and to build a sniper's nest with boxes in the sixth floor window. All three assassins had an assistant who's job was to disassemble the rifles and carry them away. The Diary also stated that Rosco White and Oswald had plans to escape together after the assassination and go to Red Bird Airport in South Dallas. Their driver was J.D. Tippit who didn't know anything concerning the plot. While driving the two in south Dallas, Tippit heard radio reports of the assassination and started to suspect that his two passengers were involved. Oswald became distressed and jumped out of the car. White got out of the car and shot Tippit with a pistol when Tippit told him he would have to take White downtown. Ricky White says that the diary stated:
"I killed an officer at Tenth and Patton."

Upon reading the revealing entries for November of 1963, Ricky went to his mother's house and told her about it. According to Ricky, she acted as if she knew about the assassination and her husband's involvement in it all the time. The basic problem in this is that Ricky White doesn't know what happened to the diary. In 1988 he contacted Midland District Attorney Al Schorre about a key Ricky thought belonged to a safety deposit box that was among his deceased father's belongings. He thought his father may have left money behind and Ricky wanted to find it. He asked the district attorney's office for help. In telling his story to Schorre, he mentioned the diary.

Schorre contacted the FBI.

The FBI presented itself at Ricky White's home in Midland, Texas. The agents asked Ricky to gather up his father's things and come to the Midland FBI office for an interview. He stated that the FBI made copies of the belongings except the dairy. But, after the interview, FBI gent Tom Farris came back to the house and stated that he had inadvertently left his notebook in the box of documents Ricky had earlier taken with him to the FBI office. Agent Farris looked through the box and apparently obtained his notebook. It was a few days later that Ricky White says he noticed that the diary was missing.

The only people who read the diary were:
Ricky White
Geneva White (Ricky's mother)
Tricia White (Ricky's wife)
Denise Carter (a family babysitter)

According to the JFK Assassination Information Center, Ricky White was the only known person to have read the November '63 accounts in the diary although many others can testify to the existence of the diary.

Records show that Rosco White obtained employment with the Dallas police on October 7th, 1963, about seven weeks before the assassination, as a clerk and photographer. He worked for the department until October 19th, 1964. However, sources located within the department in Gary Cartwright's Texas Monthly article reveal that White's personnel file contained no references. On the day of the assassination, Rosco White was assigned to the identification section of the Dallas Police Department.

Ricky White stated that after the assassination, he and his mother were sent to Paris, Texas to stay with his mother's parents and the diary states that Rosco White with the other two assassins went to Dripping Springs and stayed in a hideaway house for awhile.

In 1971, Rosco White was killed in an explosive fire that took place during employment at M&M Equipment Company. Reverend Jack Shaw visited Rosco White in the hospital severed times before he expired. Shaw has stated that Rosco told him he didn't think that the fire was an accident and that he saw a man running from the fire. Reverend Shaw also states that he had acted as a counsellor for both Rosco and Geneva White in the past. Rosco told him that he was troubled as he had lead a double life, had killed people in the past and that he felt that his family was in danger.

After Rosco's death, his wife, Geneva White, moved back to Paris Texas. The day of Rosco White's funeral a man who's name has only been given as "Bill X" by the White family, delivered a package of photographs. Geneva White locked these photographs in a file in her bedroom. One day Ricky broke the lock and looked at the photographs. He said that it contained about 40 photos concerning evidence of the assassination. One was a photograph of Oswald in his backyard holding the rifle. Another one was of Oswald's body in the morgue. In 1975, Geneva White's house was burglarized and the package containing the photos was taken. The FBI arrested three men in Florida a few weeks later who had the photographs. The FBI turned them over to the Senate Committee who finally turned them over to the House Select Committee On Assassinations. The package of photos was eventually returned to Geneva White. The three men arrested? According to a letter Geneva obtained from the Senate Committee, the men were to have been tried in Dallas, Texas but no one has ever been able to develop any more information on either the three men or the trial.

Ricky White states that sometime after he had discovered the evidence about the assassination in the diary, he located a military type canister in the attic of his grandparent's house in Paris. The canister contained what looked like secret cables and a hand written note verified to be in Rosco White's handwriting concerning the elimination of witnesses and news clips of 28 witnesses involved in the Kennedy assassination who had died under strange circumstances. The three cables are as follows:

Navy Int.
Code A MRC
Remarks data
1666106
NRC VDC NAC
(illegible) 63
Remarks Mandarin: Code A
Foreign affairs assignments have been cancelled. The next assignment is to eliminate a National Security threat to world wide peace. Destination will be Houston, Austin or Dallas. Contacts are being arranged now. Orders are subject to change at any time. Reply back if not understood.
C. BOWERS
OSHA

NAVY INT.
CODE A MRC
REMARK data
1666106
Sept. 63
Remarks Mandarin: Code A
Dallas destination chosen. Your place hidden within the department. Contacts are within this letter. Continue on as planned.
C. Bowers
OSHA
RE- rifle code AAA destroy/on/

NAVY INT.
CODE A mrc
Remark data
1666106
NRC VDC NAC
Dec. 63
Remarks Mandarin: Code G:
Stay within department, witnesses have eyes, ears and mouths. You (illegible) do of the mix up. The men will be in to cover up all misleading evidence soon. Stay as planned wait for further orders.
C. Bowers
RE-rifle Code AAA destroy/on/

John Stockwell, a former CIA task force chief, looked at the cables and stated that he thought there was a 90 to 95% probability that they were genuine.

Gary Shaw, director of the JFK Assassination Research Center in Dallas stated that Ricky White was given both a polygraph test and a PSE test and passed both.

What is even more curious about this whole story is that Rosco White's wife, Geneva White went to work for Jack Ruby as a hostess for a few weeks just before the assassination. A photograph of herself with Jack Ruby was published in a 1988 edition of Time Magazine. According to Geneva, Rosco took the photograph.

Geneva says that she overheard her husband talking in Ruby's office about a plan to murder Kennedy. Mrs. White stated in an interview with Gary Cartwright that Ruby caught her listening and told her that if she ever revealed anything he would hurt her children and torture her. Rosco White said that Geneva would have to undergo a series of shock treatments to erase memory from her brain.

Evidently Geneva White has had many shock treatments and she claims she's a dying Woman with all sorts of illnesses. In May of 1990, she claims she located another diary found between the pages of some of Rosco White's books. She turned the diary over to the Reverend Shaw and a private investigator by the name of Joe West. Evidently she had received over $5,000 for the diary from the two. West and Shaw held a press conference about the new diary but it was later proven to be a fake.

Joe West was working, at one time, with the JFK Assassination Information Center in Dallas, Texas. West is a Houston based private investigator. Without the knowledge of J. Gary Shaw's center, West had gone to Geneva White's home and obtained the fake diary. Without checking it out, he held a press conference in Houston. If the purpose of the second diary was to discredit the whole story, it seems to have worked. Ricky White has stopped talking about it. According to Larry Harris, a researcher at the JFK Information Center, Ricky White's wife has, "yanked the telephone out of the wall." The news media has stopped the talk shows and articles on the Rosco White story.

I spent a considerable amount of time on developing Joe West's connection to the Rosco White story and his defection from the JFK Assassination Information Center. According to the information I developed, several people close to the center indicate that they did not trust Joe West from the start of his association with it. I have always admired J. Gary Shaw's twenty-eight year search for the truth in the Kennedy assassination which he has financed himself. Despite many beliefs that the center is out to profit from the Kennedy Assassination, my investigation concluded that the center and J. Gary Shaw has never developed any major profits and that, in fact, J. Gary Shaw has provided funding for his ongoing projects out of his own pocket, most of which has never turned a profit to pay him back. The center has always been under funded. Joe West came along and was willing to work on projects without pay and cover his own expenses. West has been described by several sources as a rather flamboyant person who wears expensive clothes and jewellery. I believe that, although people within the center didn't trust him completely, this was somewhat overlooked. West was a certified legal investigator through the National Association Of Legal Investigators and a state licensed private investigator who was willing to work at his own expense without pay. Who could ask for anything more?

Evidently, West talked Ricky White into letting him retain possession of the secret cables he had found. After West's connection to the Shaw group was cut, the group of people who had funded Ricky White had to sue West to get the cables back. Ricky White believes that the second diary was made up by his mother and sold to West because Mrs. White needed money.

Joe West is from Houston Texas and was involved, at one time in his life, in raising bond money for church groups. He also was involved in group travel projects in which he organized travel for groups of people travelling outside the United States. According to my sources, West is known to have made remarks that he had developed CIA contacts during his foreign travel projects. Through a tip provided to me by J. Gary Shaw, I have been able to verify that Joe West is a member of an organization called the Association Of Former Intelligence Officers which will only let people join the organization who have been involved in government intelligence work. The bulk of the membership is made up of ex-federal intelligence officers. It is my conclusion then, that Joe West most likely did some sort of federal intelligence work at some point in his life.

If the Rosco White story is a missing piece of the puzzle that belongs to the Kennedy Assassination, it fits perfectly. In studying Ricky White, you will find that he is not an assassination buff. He is just not the type of person who has studied the event and I do not see how he could have made the whole thing up. Three other witnesses confirm that the diary existed and that Rosco White wrote about being the gunman behind the fence. Details of the account fit perfectly into the puzzle. The White link with Oswald in the military, White's employment with the Dallas Police and the Dripping Springs safehouse account can all be corroborated.

I located an Austin resident who would rather not be named that told me that he rented a cottage on some farm property in 1970's. This source stated that he was walking around the area one day and entered an old barn. Inside the barn, this source located two boxes of files that contained letterheads from the Texas State Attorney's office and that these files concerned the Kennedy Assassination. The barn has since been tom down. Of course, the files in question could be unrelated to the White account of the safehouse in Dripping Springs but it sure seems to fit. The cottage was located in an isolated area that could not have been observed from the main highway and the address was in Dripping Springs.

In 1991, I spoke with J. Gary Shaw one of the founders of the JFK Assassination Information Center in Dallas, Texas again concerning the Dripping Springs incident. Shaw told me that both he and Ricky White had interviewed an elderly man in Dripping Springs by the name of Earl Albrecht who recalls the safehouse. According to this source, he can remember both Rosco White and Lee Oswald being in the area the months before the assassination and can recall Rosco White being in the area with two other individuals fight after the assassination.

J. Gary Shaw also told me that he had completed an indepth study of Rosco White's background in both the military, his time with the Dallas Police Department and his activities after leaving the Dallas Police Department. White's military background and travels have been paralleled by Shaw and Shaw states that documentary evidence clearly shows that Oswald and White were both on the USS Bextar that went to Japan. Both were stationed in the general area of the famous U-2 spy plane base. Shaw also noted that both Oswald and White have travels during a six month period while overseas that closely parallel each other. Oswald would leave for one location by one means of transportation and White would end up in the same place a few days later using a different mode of transportation. They would both be in the same location for a few weeks and then one would leave to return to the main base. A few days later, the second one would, again, take a different mode of transportation and end up back in the same place.

Shaw and the JFK Assassination Information Center also has documentary evidence that proves Rosco White worked for the Dallas Police Department during the time in question. The file on White is very strange. Some of it appears to be missing including his original employment application. The records of White going through the police academy are intact. He obtained high scores. However, the information in the file contains gaps. Shaw states that he has interviewed several police officers who also question the file. Their remarks center on the fact that no references are shown and that these references and the original employment application must have been removed from the file as it was and still is the policy of the Dallas Police Department to check out applicants very closely. Either someone removed these documents or they never existed.

Several of the top experts who have studied this issue and talked both formally and informally at the 1991 Assassination Symposium in Dallas, Texas in November indicated that the CIA had a covert policy to place their own agents within various police departments in the United States. Naturally, if this is what occurred, Rosco White wouldn't have what you would call a regular personnel file showing a personnel investigation completed by the Dallas Police but a file would exist much like the file now in possession of the JFK Assassination Research Center. Since Rosco White didn't have any previous official law enforcement experience and since his employment with the Dallas Police was for a very brief period of time, part of which occurred during the time of the Kennedy assassination, it's all very strange.

I believe that it is relevant to note that J. Gary Shaw is one of the most well known, respected and honest assassination researchers in the country. He seems to be the glue that holds together the various factions within assassination circles and is known as the man who can smooth over arguments between assassination researchers. Mr. Shaw is also one of the most knowledgeable persons on the Kennedy assassination I have ever had the pleasure to meet. He had spent the last twenty eight years looking into the subject on his own. Shaw is a practicing architect who has spent the overwhelming majority of the last twenty eight years of his spare time researching the Kennedy assassination with little or no pay for his efforts. My own feelings about Shaw is that he isn't now, or ever was, in it for the money, he's only looking for the truth. Shaw is cautious, skeptical and above board and it took awhile for me to get him to open up and talk to me which is understandable. Assassination research has been riddled with misinformation, disinformation, sensationalism in the name of dollars and down right lies all of which Shaw had muddled through for twenty-eight years.

Is the Rosco White story valid?

Other points tending to confirm the Rosco White story.
1) Many witnesses stated that shots came from behind the fence on top of the grassy knoll and this is where the diary says White was standing when he fired the shots.
2) The Diary says that White hit the President in the throat and the head. Attending physicians thought the throat wound was a wound of entrance and the Zapruder film suggests that the head wound was from the front.
3) One witness who saw activity behind the wood fence, suggested a person running with a rifle. Another saw a man who relayed a rifle to another man dressed as a railroad worker who disassembled the rifle and placed it in a railroad tool box that is consistent with the White story. These eyewitness accounts fit the Rosco White story perfectly.
4) The diary shows that Oswald knew of the conspiracy but didn't fire any shots. This is consistent with the paraffin tests done on Oswald at the Dallas police station and my reverse speech analysis on Oswald which we have covered.
5) The diary stated that there were two other assassins and this is consistent with the known facts when you consider the evidence concerning the Records Building across the street from the School Book Depository and witnesses who saw two men other than Oswald in the sixth floor window of the School Book Depository.
6) The diary says that Oswald and White were to be driven to Red Bird Airport by officer Tippit. Mrs. Roberts, Oswald's landlady, stated that during the few minutes Oswald was in his room, she recalls a Dallas police car pulling up to the curb at the house and honking the horn three times. The Dallas police car had two people in it. One of them had to have been officer Tippit.
7) Several witnesses said that two people where present at the Tippit shooting and this could have been Oswald and White.
8) Federal authorities seized a plane at Red Bird Airport that had it's motors running and was ready for take off. The plane was placed in a hanger and locked up. No other information in known about this incident.
9) There is documented evidence and a photograph that White's wife worked for a short time for Jack Ruby and it appears that Ruby knew Rosco White.
10) The diary described the assassination weapons as Mausers which is what the weapon found on the sixth floor of the School Book Depository Building was first identified as by the Dallas police.
11) Rosco White worked in the evidence section of the Dallas police department which could explain the strange backyard photographs and the confusion over the description of the rifle.
12) It's well documented that Geneva White has had a number of shock treatments.
13) The other backyard photograph found in the possession of the White family is clearly documented and no other explanation has ever been revealed as to why White would have a previously undiscovered backyard photograph.
14) At least one witness confirms the Dripping Springs safehouse story.
15) Both a polygraph test and a PSE test shows that Ricky White is telling the truth.
16) The number of shots is consistent with many witnesses who say that the number of shots is between, "four and six."
17) The testimony of Jean Hill, Gordon Arnold and the Newmans tends to add weight to the White story.
18) The Badgeman Photograph tends to add weight to the story.
19) The fact that an attempt was made to discredit the White account, in my opinion, adds weight to the White account.
20) The witness who rented an isolated cottage in Dripping Springs and saw some assassination files in an old barn ads weight to the story.
21) It has been confirmed that White worked for the Dallas Police Department during the time period in question coupled with the fact that he had no prior police experience adds weight to the White account.
22) J. Gary Shaw has confirmed the Oswald/White linkage in the military through his parallel study of unexplained travels. My research tends to indicate that Oswald's unexplained travels were for intelligence purposes which would mean that the White travels were for the same thing. This squares with the Rosco White story.

Based on the above, I believe the Rosco White story because it generally fits into the puzzle of things and I do not believe that Ricky White had enough knowledge about the assassination to plan such a hoax. Also, I do not believe that Ricky White's mother has the mental capacity to plan such a hoax. I also tend to feel that the fake diary incident Joe West presented was a setup. In fairness to Joe West, I would like to state that he is an accomplished investigator and has been awarded the Certified Legal Investigator designation through the National Association Of Legal Investigators which is not easy to obtain and is considered one of the most prestigious designations within the private investigative industry. However, I suspect that somehow, the fake diary could have been a frame.

One of the problems with the Kennedy assassination is the tremendous amount of misinformation and disinformation presented by both pro-conspiracy people and by anti-conspiracy people. Throughout this work I have presented a great deal of evidence that reveals coverup/information regarding an assassination conspiracy. In all fairness, I would also state that, over the years, there have been dozens of writers and researchers who have sensationalized conspiracy theories that have no basic merit. Some of this has resulted from the fact that much has been published by people who have no investigative experience or knowledge to investigate such matters. I will call this misinformation. On the other hand, I believe a number of things have been planted on purpose to discredit an assassination conspiracy. I will call this disinformation. Trying to sort out fact from fiction and disinformation from misinformation can be confusing. One has to take this approach when looking into the Rosco White story.

Did the Rosco White story start out as disinformation or misinformation? When you look at the motives and personality of Ricky White, I believe that the story started out as sincere. His first basic concern was to locate the safety deposit box that went with the key he had found. That has been verified. Was the problem then with Joe West? I believe that Joe West started out with a sincere interest in developing the truth. Was the fake diary disinformation to discredit the Rosco White story by Joe West? I do not believe that it was. I believe that it was misinformation by Mrs. White, Ricky's mother who apparently has mental problems and her excitement and need for funds to pay medical bills was the prime motivation. She simply attempted to recreate the diary from her memory and then told West that it was a second diary that she had located.

I believe that Joe West became a victim. However, he should have taken the diary given to him by Geneva to the JFK Assassination Information Center who would have studied the information and determined it to be a fake instead of defecting from the center and holding a press conference without checking out the diary first. The fact that he didn't smells too much like a frame to me but who is doing what to whom is murky.

The relevant point is, despite the fake diary news conference held by Joe West, the Rosco White story still holds water. The problem is that the fake diary incident tended to discredit the other relevant parts of the story in the eyes of the news media. What makes me so suspicious about the fake diary being a frame is this is the exact mode of operation engaged by people who specialize in disinformation.

Now It Can Be Told - The Lee Bowers Story by David B. Perry.

On May 6, 1992, "Now It Can Be Told" aired a program with the intriguing title "The Curse of JFK." During that show Geraldo Rivera and his staff of reporters discussed the death of Lee Bowers Jr. Bowers died August 9, 1966 about four hours after the car he was driving drifted off a north Texas road and struck a concrete abutment.

At the time of the Kennedy assassination Bowers worked in a railroad switch tower behind Dealey Plaza. As tower operator he had an unobstructed view of the area in back of the picket fence. The House Select Committee identified that location as the probable position of a second gunman. The Warren Commission felt Bowers' observations were important enough to depose him.

Over the years investigators have related conflicting accounts of how Bowers died. Some individuals claim the auto accident was a murder. The account usually follows the line that someone killed Bowers because he saw too much, never told The Warren Commission all he knew and could have identified participants in the assassination.

To me, Geraldo Rivera is a sensationalist. His staff does not take time to confirm witnesses' stories. His research 'consultants' veracity is usually unquestioned. The search for documentation is superficial. Opinions pass as facts. With "The Curse of JFK" this led to inaccurate reporting.

My investigation of Bowers' death began about a year ago. I spoke with family members, friends and checked public records. During Geraldo's show a guest mentioned Lee's brother Monty. Monty died a few years after Lee. I first contacted Monty's widow in August 1991 and now because of this program called again to ask for her help. She and her family provided leads and background information concerning events of that period.

After speaking with Monty's widow, I decided to reopen my probe into Bowers' death. I would retrace the steps taken by Rivera's staff. Maybe I could come up with some names, conduct interviews and find what parts of "The Curse of JFK" were fact and what was fiction.

Geraldo opened the segment with the first of many inaccurate statements. He claimed Lee Bowers wanted to know who killed JFK. "...(He) was looking for the answer to that question until his untimely death." There is no evidence that Bower ever attempted to learn who shot Kennedy.

Next assassination researcher Robert Groden appeared. He remarked, "Lee Bowers was heading west here on highway sixty-seven heading from Midlothian down to Cleburne and according to an eyewitness he was driven off the road by a black car. Drove him into this bridge abutment. He didn't die immediately, he held on for four hours and during that time he was talking to the ambulance people and told them that he felt he had been drugged when he stopped for coffee back there a few miles in Midlothian."

Author, researcher Penn Jones Jr. in his book "Forgive My Grief II" said, "...his car drifted, according to two eyewitnesses, into a concrete bridge abutment at 9:30 a.m. going at a speed of fifty miles per hour. The doctor from Midlothian who attended Bowers stated that he did not have a heart attack and that he thought Bowers was in some sort of 'strange shock' ."

Since Groden and Jones appeared on the same show, I thought Geraldo's staff would have talked to both men. They gave conflicting versions of the same story!

Were there three witnesses? Groden found one, Jones two. Groden discovered some ambulance attendants who claimed Bowers said someone drugged him. Jones found a doctor who maintained Bowers was in a strange shock? Did the car drift or was it forced into the abutment? Who observed the mysterious black car?

I started my inquiry by examining a description of the accident. The summary appeared in Penn Jones' own newspaper, The Midlothian Mirror.
"Lee. E. Bowers Jr., 41., of Dallas, died from injuries received in a one car accident, Tuesday, August 9.

"Bowers traveling alone in a late model Pontiac, hit a bridge two miles southwest of Midlothian on highway 67 about 9:30 a.m. He was taken to W.C. Tenery Community Hospital in Waxahachie, by a Pat Martin ambulance, and later transferred to Methodist Hospital in Dallas where he died at 1:30 p.m.

He was vice-president of Lockwood Meadows, Inc. in Dallas."

I called the Pat. Martin Funeral Home. The Martin Funeral Home is now the Coward Funeral Home. Mr. Noel Coward purchased the Martin Funeral Home in 1964 retaining the Martin name for advertising purposes. Coward suffered a stroke recently and is confined to a nursing home. However, because of the notoriety surrounding Bowers' accident, he remembers the episode well. He was the ambulance driver.

If the police requested the ambulance Coward might respond alone as the police officers would help load the victim(s). If Coward had an attendant with him, it would be "Skeet" Meadows. Meadows died in 1991. Coward, through his wife, told me that stories about the ambulance attendants talking to Bowers are "bull." When Coward arrived "the man's head was pretty bad." Coward thought he was dead. He loaded Bowers into the ambulance and headed for Tenery Community Hospital. There was no doctor at the scene as Penn Jones implied.

It would have been better if Jones provided the name of the alleged physician but "Forgive My Grief II" has no footnotes. I found it bizarre a doctor would use the term "strange shock." Wouldn't anyone that struck a concrete abutment "...at fifty miles per hour" be in shock? I started my search for the doctor.

When the ambulance arrived at the hospital, Dr. R.E. Bohl met it. Bohl still works at Tenery, now Baylor Medical of Waxahachie. Over the phone Bohl stated, "I was never at the scene. The patient was in shock but not a strange shock. He had severe head injuries and was unconscious. He was unconscious all the time I was with him. I was trying to save his life. He was transferred to Methodist (Hospital) in Dallas where he died."

I asked Bohl why he remembered the details. Bohl remarked he received some unusual phone calls several years after the episode. "One was from a national magazine and another from a newspaper. The reporters wanted to know what clothes the patient was wearing and if he had a finger missing. I told them I was too busy trying to save the patient and I didn't notice."

In 1991 I interviewed Charles Good. Good was not only a friend of Bowers but a member of the Texas Highway Patrol. He claims to have investigated the accident. Good suggested Bowers was returning to Dallas from Mansfield, Texas where Lee had been showing some real estate. Good arrived at the scene hours later:
"I spoke with an old boy who was repairing fences at the time of the accident. He said he saw two cars coming down the road one behind the other. He turned away for a moment, heard a crash and looked back. One car had hit a bridge abutment and the other kept going."

From his interview with the witness Good formed the opinion that another car forced the Bowers' vehicle off the road. I discussed the possibility that Bowers drove the car in the rear. If the driver in front wasn't looking in the rear view mirror he would not know the accident occurred. Good conceded the point a valid one.

Midlothian is a small town. After some research there, I concluded R.V. Edwards was one, if not the only witness. Roy Virgil Edwards died on January 26, 1986. Dr. Bohl verified that Edwards witnessed the accident. Bohl's medical office is in Midlothian. Edwards was one of his patients. Additional corroboration came from Mrs. Coward (both she and her husband knew him) and Barham Alderdice, publisher of "The Midlothian Mirror." Bohl and Alderdice acknowledge Edwards maintained he was driving a tractor in a nearby field at the time of the accident.

Dr. Bohl claims Edwards said, "The car simply drove into the abutment." Mrs. Coward only knew Edwards was a witness. Mr. Alderdice related Edwards told him the car hit the abutment so hard it was "...like it was pulled into it (the abutment)." Good is the only one I can find who mentions a second car.

What about the spiked coffee story? I understand Bowers often stopped for coffee but not in Midlothian. He would drop by the Lockwood Pharmacy in Dallas before his trips. He met with Doris H. Burns, Dr. Alfred Cinnamon and Charles Good. Doris Burns moved to Mississippi or Florida. I am unable to locate her. Dr. Cinnamon died in 1989. Good maintains Bowers told his three friends he saw more than he toId The Warren Commission. Good cannot document his claim.

Then, there is Robert Groden's story about the mysterious black car. I can't find a legitimate reference to it anywhere. Good never mentioned the color of either car to me. I discovered Fort Worth, Texas researcher Gary Mack interviewed Good several years ago. He indicates Good did tell him the story of a black car forcing Bowers off the road. Mack also suggested he (Mack) related the story to Groden. Based upon my interviews with Dr. Bohl, Mrs. Coward and Mr. Alderdice, I question the authenticity of this account.

The next stop for the show is Dealey Plaza. Walter Rishel appears with a reporter (Morey Terry [phonetic]). Rishel confides that Bowers told him all about what he saw from the railroad switch tower. He explains that Lee saw two men fire shots from the picket fence. The reporter asks Rishel why he thinks Bowers was afraid to speak out.

"Lee had disappeared for about two days, one night I know for sure. It was very uncharacteristic of him and when he came back one of the...his fingers was missing on one of his hands. So Lee gave Monty some excuse for what had happened which Monty didn't accept. So he called the local hospitals, the clinics and some doctor's offices and there was no record of anyone certainly not Lee going in and having that taken care of."

Does this mean a sinister group hacked Lee's finger off to shut him up? Here is what my research shows about the incident.

Rishel is a self proclaimed close friend of Monty and Lee Bowers. Mont's widow and her brothers don't recall him. I cannot prove Rishel's friendship with Lee through Lee's mother and father. Both died earlier. At any rate, the family finds Rishel's story inaccurate. They assert Lee lost only the tip of a finger, if that. Bowers injured the finger at a swimming pool party sponsored by the Green Clinic of Oak Cliff. He had his hand draped over the edge of the pool. Someone jumped into the water feet first crushing the finger against the side of the pool.

At the time of the injury Lee was the Green Clinic's bookkeeper. Family members gather Lee had his finger treated at the clinic by Doctor Tim Richard Green. Green graduated from the University of Texas, Baylor College of Medicine. He practiced general surgery and treated this type of injury previously. The damage appears minor as no one including Rishel remembers which finger Lee injured.

All the conflicting stories confused me. I decided to contact Charles Good again and telephoned him on the evening of June 17, 1992, I will paraphrase our conversation.
Perry: When we spoke the last time you said you investigated the accident, is that correct?
Good: Yes.
Perry: Were you acting officially as a member of the Texas Highway Patrol?
Good: No, in fact I don't think I went to the scene until the next day.
Perry: Did you interview anyone?
Good: Yes, there was a man working in a field near the scene.
Perry: Do you know the man' s name?
Good: No, but he was either repairing fences or working on a fence in a field near the scene.
Perry: Was he riding a tractor?
Good: No, but this was the next day, he may have been driving a tractor when the accident happened.
Perry: Can you tell me what the man said?
Good: He said he, "Saw two cars coming down the road. Then he turned away, heard a crash and looked back. One car had run into a concrete abutment and the other kept on going."
Perry: Did the man interpret this as suspicious?
Good: No
Perry: Did the man describe the color of either car to you?
Good: No, I never asked about the color of either car.
Perry: Did you ever hear of Roy Edwards?
Good: No.
Perry: I believe that was the man you spoke to.
Good: Ok, but I don't remember his name.
Perry: Did you ever hear of Walter Rishel?
Good: No.
Perry: Do you remember if Lee ever lost a finger?
Good: I don't remember Lee losing a finger but I think he cut a finger on a table saw. He came into the Pharmacy one time with a finger bandaged. I don't think Dr. Cinnamon was there at the time. Doris Burns and I asked him about it.
Perry: Just before Lee injured his finger, did he disappear for a couple of days?
Good: Absolutely not.
Perry: Do you recall how long before Lee's death he injured his finger?
Good: I can't remember exactly.

Back to the program...

Since the reporter had discovered in Rishel a friend of both Lee and Monty, why not get an "expert" opinion on Lee's death? Rishel quickly obliged. He contends that shortly after Lee died he "...was in Monty's office. He (Monty) was very upset because the insurance company had refused to pay the claim. I can't recall too vividly but I believe that Monty felt that the insurance company did not believe that the death was accidental."

Walter Rishel is correct on this point. The insurance company did not want to make good on the claim immediately. Monty Bower's widow tells me Monty had to deal with the insurance adjuster's belief that it was no accident. The company thought it was a suicide. Lee obtained an accident/health/life policy within a year of his death. The insurance company was investigating under the "suicide clause" contained in the policy.

"Permissible provisions. State laws permit insurers to include policy restrictions for suicide, aviation and war. A suicide restriction is included in nearly every ordinary life policy. An aviation exclusion seldom is found and the war clause is contained in policies issued during war or threat of war."

"Suicide. If the insured commits suicide within two years (one year, in some policies) from the inception of the policy, the liability of the insurer is limited to a return of premiums. Insurers, in the absence of this clause, would be subject to severe adverse selection."

At this point, Geraldo's brother Craig declares, "Bowers also told his minister that he had seen more than he told publicly." To learn the name of this individual, I checked the Bowers' obituary. The item appeared in the "Dallas Times Herald," August 10, 1966 on page 12C.
"Funeral services...were to be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Casa View Methodist Church. The Rev. Willfred Bailey was to officiate at the services."

Local researcher Dr. David Murph interviewed Reverend Will Bailey. Coincidentally, David Murph is a minister who has known Rev. Bailey for several years. The two talked, June 11, 1992.

Rev. Bailey commented, "Lee did discuss that day with me. He said he saw movement behind the fence. He believed something was going on, but he never got more specific than that. He did not share with me any more than he shared with the Warren Commission."

We return to the studio where Geraldo is questioning Craig. Geraldo asks, "If Lee Bowers' death was not accidental what was it? Joining me now...Craig Rivera. What was it?"

Craig Rivera responds, "We don't really know because the death certificate is missing!"

Craig is guilty of inaccurate reporting. The death certificate is not missing. Anyone can obtain a copy as I did by visiting Dallas City Hall, filling out an application and paying a fee of nine dollars.

Geraldo continues, "What about the official autopsy?"

Craig answers, "There is no autopsy either!"

He managed to get that right but for the wrong reason. If he read the death certificate he would discover an autopsy never took place. "Multiple head and internal injuries" caused Lee's death. The statue requires an autopsy for deaths by violent or unnatural means (i.e. gunshot). The Justice of the Peace reviewed the evidence and felt an autopsy was unnecessary.

Remember how Rishel claimed Bowers said he noticed two men shooting at Kennedy? There is yet another version of this story! In 1967 another friend and fellow employee of Bowers, James R. Sterling gave a statement to Gary Sanders of Jim Garrison's staff. Sterling said Bowers "...observed two men running from behind the fence. They ran up to a car parked behind the Pergola, opened the trunk and placed something in it and then closed the trunk. The two men then drove the car away in somewhat of a peculiar method." In this rendition, no mention is made that Bowers witnessed the actual shooting.

Mark Lane asserted Warren Commission counsel Joseph Ball interrupted Bowers "...as he was about to give that (additional) information" about what he saw. Many individuals forget Mark Lane interviewed Lee Bowers on March 31, 1966. What additional important detail did Lane get from Lee that the Commission did not?

"He was not sure as to what it was (that caught his attention), but he believed it was a puff of smoke or flash of light."

I find it incredible that some people profess Bowers told them more than he told Lane. It would appear researchers and Bowers' "friends" have developed and sought corroboration for their own unsubstantiated stories. They lose sight of the truth as they twist and embellish the facts.

In the end, Monty Bowers concluded Lee's allergies contributed to his death. Both Monty and Lee had severe allergies and were prone to fits of sneezing. They took antihistamines that provided little relief. Monty told representatives of the insurance company his allergies bothered him that day. He assumed Lee experienced similar symptoms. Could it be, Lee took antihistamines, dozed off and struck the abutment? Is it possible a sneezing fit caused him to lose control of the vehicle? In my view the answer is YES. I will modify my opinion when someone comes forward with verifiable facts to the contrary.

Quid Pro Quo: The FBI Acoustic Gunshot Analysis - Part I by Bruce E. Koenig

Forensic analysis of tape recorded gunshots and other transient or impulsive sounds (i.e. doors slamming, explosion of fireworks, etc.) has been an important factor in the disposition of a number of widely publicized criminal, civil, and investigative matters in the past 20 years, including the Kent State University deaths in 1970, the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981, and the deadly confrontation in Greensboro, N.C., between members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi Party, and the Communist Workers Party in 1979. However, in the last few years, such analysis has also been used to dramatically show and then refute the possible involvement of a second gunman in the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, Tex., on November 22, 1963.

To allow a better understanding of the scientific principles involved in acoustic gunshot analyses, the techniques presently used by the FBI to analyze recordings of gunshots and other transient sounds will be set forth, followed by a rather detailed description of the forensic acoustic studies conducted in the Kennedy assassination. This will include the reports of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), which found a 95-percent or better chance of a second gunman being involved in the shooting of President Kennedy; a review by the Federal Bureau of Investigation refuting that claim; and the analysis conducted by the National Research Council, which conclusively invalidated the HSCA's result. The details of these reports will clearly show many of the complex problems and thinking involved in examinations of recorded gunshots.

The FBI's Forensic Capability
The FBI's Signal Analysis Unit in the Engineering Section of the Technical Services Division has been involved in forensic acoustics, wave- form analysis, ballistics, and electronic engineering examinations of tape recordings since the 1950's. Forensic processes include voice intelligibility enhancement, authenticity determination, spectrographic voice comparisons, video enhancement, and copy- right comparisons, with analyses of tape recorded gunshots and other impulsive sounds handled as a signal analysis matter.

Under the best recording conditions, this signal analysis examination can provide an accurate determination of which sounds represent gunshots and not some other impulsive sound (i.e. a door slamming), the number and time sequencing of the gunshots, the spatial location of where each gunshot occurred, and whether the fired projectiles were subsonic or supersonic. Subsonic projectiles travel at less than and supersonic at greater than the speed of sound (1130 feet per second at sea level and 71�F). However, matching a particular recorded gunshot sound to a specific weapon is normally not possible.

For example, in the violent confrontation in Greensboro, N.C., the FBI acoustically examined over 100 impulsive-type sounds that had been recorded during the incident by high quality professional equipment. The analysis determined that 39 gunshots had been fired, the exact timing sequence of the gunshots over 88 seconds, which projectiles were sub- and supersonic, and the physical Iocation of each gunshot (usually within plus or minus 3 feet) fired by members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi Party, and the Communist Workers Party. Unfortunately, most forensic recordings of impulsive-type sounds are not recorded under the near perfect conditions encountered in Greensboro, N.C.

A good quality recording and microphone system has to have been used during an incident in order to differentiate between recorded gunshots and other impulsive sounds. Recordings over telephones and through radio transmitting systems (body, portable, and vehicular), or when the gunshot occurs close to the microphone, normally alter the signal sufficiently to prevent a meaningful determination. The actual examination to specify that a sound is a gunshot requires special aural examinations, very high resolution waveform analysis, and the presence or absence of precursor super- sonic N-waves.

The actual number of impulsive sounds and their time sequence can be determined with lower quality recordings, even those over telephone lines and transmitting systems, as long as the microphones are not driven beyond their ability to reproduce very loud sounds. For example, a recent shooting incident was tape recorded using a police body transmitter system. When played by investigators, the recording revealed only six gunshot-like sounds, whereas physical evidence showed that one individual had fired one shot and the second person fired six shots from his revolver, for a total of seven gunshots. The original tape recording was submitted to the FBI to determine the actual number of gunshot-like sounds, and if possible, who fired the first shot. The examination revealed seven gunshot- like sounds using high resolution waveform analysis and that shots five and six were only 0.087 second apart. This information, therefore, reflected that the individual firing the one shot was responsible for either the fifth or sixth gunshot in the sequence, since tests showed that two consecutive shots could not be fired from that particular weapon in that short a time- span.

Determining the exact location of the source of an impulsive-type sound requires a very high quality tape recording made on site, knowledge of the approximate location of the microphone, and a scaled map of the area. Again, the use of recordings through telephone or transmitter systems is usually not possible. The examination uses the principle that impulsive sounds reflect and diffract off hard, relatively flat surfaces, like the sides of buildings, in a very predictable manner. This is analogous to a flash- light beam reflecting off a mirror in the dark or a bank shot in the game of billiards. These reflections and diffractions result in a waveform that contains the original impulsive sound followed by the echoes off flat surfaces in the locale. Thus, by carefully measuring the time delays of the set of echoes, a unique position can normally be determined for the original source of the impulsive sound. This examination is normally ineffective indoors (due to the very large number of echoes) and outdoors where few horizontal flat surfaces exist (such as the middle of a cornfield).

Ammunition is designed to be either sub- or supersonic when fired from a particular weapon due to the amount and type of gunpowder, the shape and weight of the projectile, and other factors. When a supersonic projectile is fired, the bullet will travel faster than the speed of sound, and thus, arrive at the target ahead of the sound of the muzzle blast. The supersonic speed of the bullet produces a characteristic shock wave, called an N-wave, that appears in the waveform as a precursor to the original muzzle blast, which itself is then followed by the echoes. The presence or absence of this N-wave on a high resolution waveform shows whether it is super- or subsonic, respectively.

Evidence submitted to the Technical Services Division for examination must be original recordings and have the appropriate supportive material enclosed.

Assassination of President Kennedy
On November 22, 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Tex. The alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, supposedly fired three gunshots using a rifle while in the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) Building at the intersection of Elm and Houston Streets in Dealey Plaza, which resulted in the death of our 35th President. However, Oswald was himself shot and killed soon after the assassination and could not be brought to trial.

During the past 20 years, this murder has probably generated more controversy than any other single criminal event in this country. Hundreds of articles, books, and scientific reports have been written concerning the assassination, covering a wide range of topics from the significance of bullet fragments found during the autopsy to who is buried in Oswald's grave. However, in recent years, the possible existence of another assassin in Dealey Plaza, besides Oswald, has become a major focus of interest in this ongoing controversy.

In September 1976, the HSCA of the U.S. House of Representatives, 95th Congress, was authorized a 12- member committee to conduct a complete investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of President Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., including the possibility of additional assassins.

Acoustical Report of Bolt Beranek and Newman
In an attempt to cover all possible scientific leads concerning the assassination of President Kennedy, the HSCA asked personnel of Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN), in May 1978, to conduct an examination of two recordings made by the Dallas Police Department (DPD) of police radio traffic during the assassination. BBN, a Cambridge, Mass., acoustical firm, was asked to analyze the recordings to determine if they contained the sounds of gunfire involved in the shooting of the President, and if so, how many gunshots were recorded and from what locations did the gunshots originate.

BBN's report of January 1979, to the HSCA reflects that the first recording is of DPD radio channel 1, which is a continuous recording on a Dictabelt of routine police radio traffic. The second recording is of auxiliary radio channel 2, which was intermittently recorded on a Gray Audograph disc and used by the DPD police officers assigned to the Presidential motorcade. However, after a preliminary examination, BBN decided to focus their attention on the channel 1 recording, instead of channel 2, for their analysis.

According to BBN, the police radio on a DPD motorcycle, which could have been in the Presidential motorcade, had its transmitting switch stuck open on channel 1 for approximately 5 minutes during the assassination. Therefore, the radio micro- phone would allegedly detect and transmit all sounds in the vicinity of the motorcycle, including the noises produced by the motorcycle itself. BBN used filters to process the DPD channel 1 recording during the specified 5 minutes and displayed this signal in the form of a time-continuous waveform. An example of another type of time-continuous waveform is the pattern obtained when an electro-cardiogram (EKG) displays a person's heartbeat.

The waveform display of channel 1 had five unique impulsive noise patterns thought to be different from motorcycle sounds, according to BBN. Their report reflects that four of these patterns appeared to be similar to the characteristics of a gunshot blast with a precursor supersonic N-wave. The other pattern was eliminated as a possible gunshot since it was different in amplitude and duration. The BBN report states that a rifle firing a super- sonic bullet creates two sources of loud impulsive sounds--the muzzle blast and the shock wave of the projectile as it travels faster than the speed of sound. The shock wave is analogous to a jet fighter producing a sonic boom when it flies faster than the speed of sound. These two impulsive sounds, plus the echoes of these sounds reflecting and diffracting off such surfaces as the sides of buildings, the street, and automobiles, result in a particular pattern of sound impulse peaks.

However, tests performed by BBN on a radio system similar to that used by the DPD showed considerable distortion of Ioud impulsive sounds such as gunshots, which resulted in the elimination of impulse peaks, change in the position of peaks, and even the production of new peaks where no impulse peaks previously existed.

Preliminary tests by BBN determined that the four chosen impulse patterns occurred at approximately the same time as the known gunshots in Dealey Plaza and that no other sufficiently characteristic patterns were located in the pertinent 5-minute segment. Also, the time span between the first and fourth patterns did not contradict photographic evidence made during the assassination, the distorted patterns approximated test patterns of gunshots, and the amplitudes of the impulse patterns were in the same general range as test gun-shots.

On August 20, 1978, BBN fired a total of 12 test gunshots with weapons located only in the TSBD and on the so-called grassy knoll area in Dealey Plaza. Using 36 microphones located 18 feet apart on Houston and Elm Streets, BBN recorded these test gunshot blasts in an effort to reconstruct acoustically the impulse patterns recorded by the DPD radio system during the assassination of President Kennedy. Even though few physical changes had been made in Dealey Plaza since 1963, producing comparable test patterns was very difficult since the impulse patterns on the DPD recording were like "badly smudged fingerprints" due to the noisy environment in the vicinity of the transmitting DPD radio microphone, the poor quality of the DPD recording system, and a number of other problems.

Using the 12 different test gun-shots from the TSBD and the grassy knoll and the 36 different microphone locations used by BBN, a total of 432 gunshot patterns were recorded (12x36=432). These 432 test gun- shot patterns were then compared to the impulse patterns isolated on the channel 1 DPD recording using a statistical analysis technique. This comparison provided a total of 15 possible matches, which was not particularly significant since the average expected number of statistically false matches for such a comparison is 13, due to the random noise impulses present throughout the DPD tape.

BBN then stated that at least 6 of the 15 correlations were false matches, because 1 gunshot would have been fired at the wrong target, 1 would have occurred only 1.05 second after earlier correlations, which is too fast a firing rate for the tested rifle, 3 would have required a motorcycle with the open microphone to travel at 16 mph, and 1 would have required the motorcycle to travel at 55 mph. The motorcade was thought to have been traveling at approximately 11 mph. The remaining nine correlations sufficiently matched the four designated impulse patterns on the DPD recording to show a DPD microphone location, varying between 120 and 160 feet behind the Presidential limousine. Further, the BBN analysis found that the four impulse patterns may have been gunshots fired as follows:
"1. time 0.0 sec[ond]--one shot from the TSBD...
"2. time 1.6 sec[onds]--one shot from the TSBD...
"3. time 7.8 sec[onds]--one shot from behind the fence on the grassy knoll...
"4. time 8.3 sec[onds]--one shot from the TSBD..."

The BBN conclusions were presented in oral testimony to the HSCA on September 11, 1978, reflecting that the radio on the DPD motorcycle in the Presidential motorcade had received and transmitted the four specified impulse sounds and that each of these impulse sounds was possibly a gunshot. Due to the false matches produced by the statistical technique, the probabilities, according to BBN, that each impulse pattern is a gunshot are:
Time 0.0 second--88 percent
Time 1.6 seconds--88 percent
Time 7.8 seconds--50 percent
Time 8.3 seconds--75 percent

BBN stated that the probability that all four impulse patterns are gunshots is only 29 percent.

Acoustical Report of Weiss and Aschkenasy
On October 24, 1978, the HSCA authorized Mark R. Weiss and Ernest Aschkenasy, Department of Computer Science., Queens College, City University of New York, to conduct an independent analysis of the alleged third gunshot recorded on channel 1 of the DPD radio system to determine with greater accuracy whether it was indicative of a gunshot from the grassy knoll.

To conduct their analysis, Weiss and Aschkenasy received from the HSCA high quality magnetic tape copies of the DPD recording, a high quality tape copy of the gunshot sounds recorded by BBN during the acoustical reconstruction tests performed in Dealey Plaza on August 20, 1978, a topographical survey map of Dealey Plaza (scale: 1 inch to 10 feet), a map of Dealey Plaza (scale: 1 inch to 40 feet) with microphone locations used by BBN in their gunshot reconstruction tests, and aerial and ground-level photographs of Dealey Plaza and the surrounding areas. The HSCA also provided them with additional information, such as building heights in Dealey Plaza, distances not shown on the maps, the location of shooters during the BBN reconstruction experiment, and the air temperature during the assassination and reconstruction experiment.

Weiss and Aschkenasy's report states:
"The DPD recording contains a wide range of sounds--speech, clicks, whistles, motor noises, sirens and even the sound of a carillon bell. Mostly the recording contains sounds generated during normal communications on channel 1 of the DPD radio dispatching system .... At a time that the BBN analysis estimates to have been about 12:28 p.m., a microphone on a mobile unit apparently became stuck in the 'on' position and began to transmit a continuous noise that is believed to be the sound of a motorcycle engine."

The static-like sounds on the DPD recording could be distorted gun-shot sounds, since the DPD radio system would have compressed the sound of the muzzle blast and its strongest echoes, making them only slightly louder than the background static. For example, if the open microphone was on a motorcycle in the motorcade, most of the weak echoes of a muzzle blast would have been obscured by the noise of a motorcycle engine (which could be the source of the continuous noise on channel 1). Thus, the sounds of a gunshot could have been recorded as a sequence of impulse sounds (the muzzle blast and its echoes), only a few having a larger amplitude than the engine noise and none of which would have sounded like gunshots after being changed by the circuitry of the DPD radio and recording equipment. �

The report states that the higher impulse sounds on the DPD recording could be generated by a number of sources, including misfiring of a motorcycle engine, noise produced by the motorcycle's ignition system, radio on-and-off clicks, scratches on the Dictabelt, and electrical or mechanical disturbances in the system. Weiss and Aschkenasy, in an effort to differentiate these sounds from a gunshot, asserted that the most effective and most reliable characteristic to determine if a sound is a gunshot is the presence or absence of echoes from the muzzle blast. These echoes are the result of firing a gun, which produces a loud impulse sound that spreads out and is heard in every direction. This sound is then reflected and diffracted off any structures in the area, producing echoes which arrive at the microphone later than the direct muzzle blast impulse. Weiss and Aschkenasy contended that the specified impulse pattern on the DPD recording had these echoes, thus reflecting that it was a gunshot. However, in public testimony before the Committee on December 29, 1978, Weiss stated that it is " . . not so much the echo pattern as the evidence of a supersonic shock wave" that would characterize a gunshot sound and eliminate other sounds like the backfire of a motorcycle. Weiss further stated he does not know of any other sound that might resemble the pattern he determined to be a gunshot due to the presence of the supersonic shock wave and the muzzle blast impulses. It is not known which characteristic Weiss and Aschkenasy actually used in their analysis.

In their report to the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Weiss and Aschkenasy stated:
"If we now assume that the sound source [the gun] and the listener are located in a typical urban environment, with a number of randomly spaced echo-producing structures, it is possible to see that the pattern of sounds a listener will hear will be complex and unique for any given pair of gun and listener locations. For example, assuming a fixed location of a listener, the echoes that he hears and the times at which he hears them will be related uniquely to the location of the gun, since for each different location of the gun, even though the distances from the listener to the various echo-producing objects are the same, the distances from these objects to each gun location are different. Consequently, the times at which the echoes are heard will be different for each location of the gun. Similarly, assuming a fixed location of the gun, any change in the location of the listener will change the distances between him and the echo-producing structures, and thus the timing of the pattern of sounds he hears. If the listener is in motion as the muzzle blast and the various echo sounds reach him, the times at which he hears the muzzle blast and its echoes will be related uniquely to his location when he hears each sound.

"The 'listener' that we have discussed, of course, could be either a human ear or a microphone. If a microphone receives the sounds and they are subsequently recorded, the recording becomes a picture of the event, not unlike a 'fingerprint,' that permanently characterizes the original gun and microphone locations."

Using the topographical map of Dealey Plaza and the BBN reconstruction results (test gunshots fired only from the TSBD and the grassy knoll), Weiss and Aschkenasy attempted to predict a pairing of a shooter and a microphone that would produce a sound pattern that would match the specified impulse pattern of the DPD recording. To calculate these predicted echo patterns of a particular shooter and microphone location in Dealey Plaza, three pieces of information were needed:
"(1) Which objects in Dealey Plaza would produce echoes in the region of interest on Elm Street for a gun fired from the vicinity of the grassy knoll; (2) how far these objects were from the locations of the gun and of the microphone; and (3) what was the speed of sound under the conditions for which the echo travel times were to be predicted."

First, the topographical map revealed many of the reflecting and diffracting surfaces within Dealey Plaza. Second, direct measurement on the map determined the distances from the gun to the reflecting and diffracting surfaces and then to the microphone location. Third, the speed of sound was determined to be approximately 1,123 feet per second, principally by using the known air temperature near Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963, of approximately 65 degrees F (the speed of sound varies with changes in air temperature).

To make a comparison of predicted echo patterns to the specified pattern on the DPD recording, the errors in the speed of sound determination and the time accuracy of the DPD recording had to be determined. Weiss and Aschkenasy used a plus or minus 1.0-percent error for the speed of sound due to temperature variations (plus or minus 10� F) and a -4.0-percent to -6.0-percent error for speed variations on the DPD Dictabelt recorder, since the average speed of the recorder over a 15-minute segment was 5.0 percent too slow. These two errors combined to give a maximum possible time error range of -3.0 percent to -7.0 percent. Weiss and Aschkenasy then stated that since any value within this maximum error range is valid, it was possible to choose a value that created the best match between the alleged gunshot impulse and predicted echo sequences. A -4.3-percent error factor was picked since it gave the best match.

Weiss and Aschkenasy, using a statistical technique and by physically measuring on the topographical map of Dealey Plaza with string, determined that the specified impulse pattern on the DPD recording of channel 1 was "a sound as loud as a gunshot from the grassy knoll" area of Dealey Plaza, with a probability of 95 percent or higher.

The complete findings of Weiss and Aschkenasy concerning the specific sounds on the DPD recordings are:
"1. The recording very probably contains the sound of a gunshot that was fired from the grassy knoll. The probability of this event is computed to be at least 95 percent.
"2. The microphone that picked up the sounds of the probable gunshot was on Elm Street and was moving at a speed of about 11 miles per hour in the same direction as the motorcade. At the time the probable gunshot was fired, the microphone was at a point about 97 feet south of the TSBD and about 27 east of the southwest corner of the building. (For both distances, the uncertainty is about plus or minus 1 foot).

"3. The probable gunshot was fired from a point along the east-west line of the wooden stockade fence on the grassy knoll, about 8 feet (plus or minus 5 feet) west of the corner of the fence."

In his testimony in the public hearing before the HSCA on December 29, 1978, Weiss mentioned two additional findings that were not in his report of February 1979. Weiss stated that the specified pattern found to be a gunshot from the grassy knoll was most likely supersonic and fired by a rifle. However, in their report, Weiss and Aschenasy stated they did not know the type of gun used. Weiss also testified that the weapon fired from the grassy knoll was aimed in the general direction of President Kennedy's limousine.

Aschkenasy stated at that public hearing that he was so sure of their results that "if someone were to tell me that the motorcycle was not in Dealey Plaza, and he was, in fact, somewhere else, and he was trans- mitting from another location ... I would ask to be told where that location is, and once told where it is, I would go there, and one thing I would expect to find is a replica of Dealey Plaza at that location. That's the only way that it can come out." Based primarily on the acoustical analyses performed by both BBN and Weiss and Aschkenasy that there were gunshots in Dealey Plaza; from both the TSBD building (where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired three gunshots) and the grassy knoll area (one gunshot) during the assassination of President Kennedy, the HSCA found, in part, that "scientific: acoustical evidence establishes a high probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy."

Having considered in part I the analyses of BBN and Weiss and Aschkenasy of recorded sounds relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the conclusion will report on a review and the findings of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the analysis conducted by the National Research Council.

(Continued next issue...)

Why not continue and read issue 10 of Probable Cause Australia?

Backcopies of all issues, including all photographs, are still available. Just contact the editor via the Feedback link on the Probable Cause Australia welcome page.

N.B. The opinions expressed above are not necessarily those of the editor but all comments will be passed on to the relevant authors.

Credits

Editor-in-Chief : Steve Gerlach

Art Editor : E. Burton Mercer

Managing Editor : Paul Jones

Contributing Editor : Stephen Webb

Photographic Analysis : Tony Skomina

Internet : Steve Gerlach

Contributors : David B. Perry, Karen Ticker, John Newman, Walt Brown, Roger Craig, Ralph D. Thomas, E. B. Mercer, Dallas JFK-AIC, Steve Gerlach, Paul Jones, Tony Skomina, Steve Webb.

Art Direction : Louie Louie Enterprises Australia

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