But someone realized that this gun could not have produced the rifle shells which had been found at the “sniper’s lair.” In order to get around this dilemma, the FBI reports and the Warren Commission attempted to erase all references to a 7.65 Mauser and replace them with their finding that it was a 6.5 Mannlicher-Carcano, with paperwork that indicated Lee Harvey Oswald had obtained it through a mail-order transaction from his post office box. Deputy Sheriff Boone, in obeisance to his chief, Sheriff Bill Decker, quickly amended his description of the rifle he had been the first to find: from the high-quality Mauser to the cheap, army-surplus Italian rifle, which was congruent with the developing “official” story version.
Weitzman also later recanted his previously sworn statements that the gun was a Mauser, even though he never even saw the Mannlicher-Carcano held by the Warren Commission to confirm that it was the rifle he had seen on the sixth floor. A Dallas woman whose father was Seymour Weitzman’s best friend—and who knew him intimately herself as “Uncle Sy”—stated that Weitzman was pressured at the threat of losing his job if he did not cooperate by recanting his sworn statement. She explained that the threats apparently had gone well beyond the mere loss of his job and ultimately provoked extreme stress, which caused him “blackouts” and nightmares about his wartime experiences related to being a prisoner of the Japanese and memories of his torture.104 Here is how the Warren Commission dealt with all of the confusion in crafting its “conclusions”:
Weitzman did not handle the rifle and did not examine it at close range … thought it was a Mauser … [and eventually] police laboratory technicians subsequently arrived and correctly identified the weapon as a 6.5 Italian rifle.
Unbeknownst to anyone reading the official reports of the investigation, the Mannlicher-Carcano was actually found on a lower floor of the building, according to Frank Ellsworth, an ATF agent who had found the sniper’s nest and was involved in the search for guns. “We started at the top of the building and worked our way down … The gun was not found on the same floor, but on a lower floor by a couple of city detectives. If I recollect right, there was an elevator shaft or stairwell back in the northwest corner. The gun was over near that, just south of it behind some boxes.”105
Meanwhile, in the executive offices of H. L. Hunt a few blocks from Dealey Plaza, on the afternoon of November 22, a call for H. L. was received from someone in FBI headquarters who advised him that he and his family may face threats, due to a perception that he might have been involved in the assassination, and was advised to leave town as soon as possible. According to his 1981 biography, Texas Rich, he demurred but his son and the family’s security chief Paul Rothermel Jr. urged him to accede to the FBI request. He finally agreed to go to Washington saying, “I believe I can do better going to Washington to help Lyndon. He’s gonna need some help.”106
Oswald’s Escape to Oak Cliff and the Shooting of Officer Tippit
About two minutes after the assassination (12:32 p.m.), Oswald was stopped momentarily by a policeman who had run into the TSBD building. He was casually drinking a Coke on the second floor, near the pay telephone installed for employees’ use, essentially the same place he had been when last seen by a secretary in the building at 12:15 to 12:20 p.m.107 This credible witness, who gave a report to the FBI, was ignored completely by the Warren Commission because her testimony did not fit their preestablished scenario.
At about the same time, Arnold Rowland saw two men in the sixth-floor windows, one of whom was holding a rifle. Rowland (whose testimony was backed up by his wife) remembered that as this happened, he heard over the police radio that the motorcade had reached Cedar Springs Road, which it had, at 12:15 p.m. Rowland was told that he was mistaken; his testimony was given to the Warren Commission, but they chose to ignore it. This was one of many similar instances where the Warren Commission demonstrated that it had no interest in perusing FBI reports that had been suppressed by bureau officials who decided against furnishing the commission certain nonconforming information to avoid contaminating the proceedings. Only fourteen minutes after the assassination, at 12:44 p.m., the first police radio broadcast of the assassin’s description was made:
Attention all squads … The suspect in the shooting at Elm and Houston is supposed to be an unknown white male approximately 30, 165 pounds, slender build, armed with what is thought to be a 30-30 rifle … no further description at this time. [The Warren Report never identified the source of this description and offered no explanation of how this description materialized.]
Unlike the implausible “official story” of how Oswald got from downtown Dallas to his Oak Cliff apartment in less than twenty-five minutes and then to the location where Officer Tippit was killed, and the many improbable (more accurately, impossible) circumstances of Oswald’s arrest—the questionable witness testimony, the mishandling of the bullets and shells, the fact there were two types of bullets used, and the compelling indications that there were two shooters of Tippit—the version offered by Officer Roger Craig is more realistic. In an unpublished memoir available at several internet sites, he described the impossibility of Oswald’s movements after having been questioned by Officer Baker: walking four blocks east on Elm Street to board a city bus, ride it back in slow traffic for two blocks then exiting the bus to hail a cab, drive to a point five blocks away from his rooming house at 1026 North Beckley then walk back to that address to change his shirt and get his gun and somehow be back on the curb waiting for a bus in front of the rooming house thirty minutes after leaving Officer Baker at the Book Depository Building—at 1:05 p.m., according to his landlord/housekeeper, Earlene Roberts. Tippit was killed within five minutes of this, ten blocks in the opposite direction from where he waited to board the bus. Moreover, the description of the suspect, according to a witness to the shooting, was of a man who had black wavy hair and was taller and heavier than Oswald. But the part most inconsistent with Oswald being the shooter was the fact that he carried a pistol (revolver), yet the shells found on the scene were of two types, both of which were from an automatic handgun. Several authors have already established the impossibility of Oswald’s supposed murder of Tippit; a good summary of the reasons why was described by Jim Marrs in his book, Crossfire.108
Within ninety minutes of the assassination, the cover-up was started by the apprehension of the designated “patsy,” the “lone nut” who somehow became the number one suspect and the subject of a citywide manhunt. Lee Harvey Oswald, a.k.a. Alek Hidell, was arrested less than two hours after JFK’s assassination as he sat in a Dallas theater with a defective revolver waiting for his contact to appear with papers, money, and instructions for fleeing Dallas.
Unfortunately for Deputy Roger Craig, everything he witnessed was at odds with what was being orchestrated in the background as the “official story.” He was hounded continuously by Sheriff Decker for months afterward and his life threatened numerous times because he would not change his story to conform with Washington’s version of events, until he was finally fired. His superiors made sure that he could not find comparable employment elsewhere and managed to scrape by for several years, narrowly escaping two obvious attempts on his life. His body was eventually found after being shot to death in what was ruled as a suicide. He can be found on Internet videos describing the events of November 22, 1963, arguably one of the true heroes of that day who refused to change his story because of orders from his superiors.
The (New) Presidential Party Escapes to Love Field
When Lyndon Johnson returned to Love Field, according to one of his police escorts, B. J. Martin,* “He acted scared, but that’s just it—it was like he was acting, not like he was really in fear of his life. I remember hearing him yell to somebody as he was getting in the car. He said, ‘We’ve all got to be very careful. This could be a worldwide conspiracy to kill off all our leaders.’ The thing that struck me was he seemed to be in total charge already. Everybody else was kind of numb and reeling with shock, but Johnson was in full
control, giving orders and telling people what to do.” Chief Jesse Curry used an unmarked police car to drive Johnson, lying on the rear floor to avoid what he knew was a nonexistent sniper, back to Love Field. Agent Youngblood and Congressman Albert Thomas were also in the car, accompanied by several police motorcycle officers to clear intersections on the way, allowing the car to proceed through “pink lights.” Asked if he wanted to go back to Air Force Two, the plane he arrived in, which was identical to Air Force One, Johnson said, ‘No, take me to Air Force One. That’s where I belong now.’”109 He had already mentioned, at Parkland Hospital to Secret Service Agent Emory Roberts, who had said, “We’ve got to get in the air,” that “maybe President Kennedy will need the airplane,”110 as though there was only one airplane. Manchester noted that the confusion regarding Air Force One started at this point, even before he left for Love Field; from then on, the backup plane was almost forgotten, only JFK’s airplane would do for the new president.111
The takeover of “Angel” was an essential part of the pre-and postassassination plans, and it was revealed while Johnson was still at Parkland by his comment, above, which said in effect, “Yes, I agree, we must get back to the airplane; but we will need to wait on JFK’s body before we leave.” At the heart of the controversy about his decision to take over Air Force One is Johnson’s assertion that he had discussed the matter with Kenneth O’Donnell before he left Parkland Hospital. According to Manchester’s account, Johnson said that O’Donnell had in fact urged him to use Air Force One and that Johnson accepted the suggestion, but only with the understanding that he would wait on board for JFK’s casket and his widow. Manchester charged that, “O’Donnell declares this version to be ‘absolutely, totally, and unequivocally wrong.’”112 Furthermore, O’Donnell had maintained that, because Johnson mentioned the possibility of a conspiracy, he agreed that Johnson should leave Dallas quickly; he reiterated strongly that there was no conversation about Johnson using Air Force One, and if there had been such a conversation, he would have simply changed the Kennedy group over to the other airplane. O’Donnell repeated his insistence, in his own book, that he had never said that Johnson should shift to the other airplane. “He [Johnson] never suggested that he might wait at the airport for Jackie and the body of President Kennedy before he left for Washington. If he had made such a suggestion, I would have vetoed it … He never discussed with me whether he should use Air Force One instead of Air Force Two, a question which would have seemed highly unimportant at the time.”113
According to motorcycle police officer B. J. Martin, Johnson was condescending and overtly rude with everyone when he returned to Love Field.114 He demanded to be taken to Air Force One and that his luggage also be transferred to that plane in spite of the fact that his original plane would have been automatically redesignated as “Air Force One” since that is the code for whatever plane the president was flying on. And the planes were identical. “Both planes had the same equipment and facilities. The only difference between Air Force One and Air Force Two was the identification numbers on their tails.”115* But he was determined to use the interior of Kennedy’s aircraft as a setting for a photographic event: the new president taking his oath, with JFK’s widow beside him.
His action in taking over the Kennedy plane and with him his coterie of highest level assistants—including Bill Moyers, Cliff Carter, his wife, and their luggage—resulted in overcrowding that plane. The space taken up by Johnson’s people forced some of the Kennedy group, including five congressmen and Senator Yarborough, to change to the other aircraft. According to Manchester’s account, as long as Kennedy was still alive, Yarborough had been treated kindly and as soon as he was dead, suddenly he was an outcast; he asked Ted Clifton why he was being kicked off the airplane and was told, “maximum security.”116 In the Boeing 707 code named Air Force Two, which Johnson had flown in that morning (since neither a president nor vice president was aboard, it would now be referred to simply as the “backup plane”), the friction between the Texans and the non-Texans was as fierce as it was on the newly sworn President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Air Force One.117 The Kennedy party’s hearts were still with their fallen leader, and with Mrs. Kennedy who was now considered the leader by default; all of them were anxious to leave, even bewildered that they had not left as soon as the coffin was brought on board. The attitude of the Johnson party was summed by SS agent Youngblood, who told Lem Johns, “When the boss says we go, then we go.”118 Johnson had a larger plan in mind, which required that he be sworn in before leaving Dallas, under the pretext that it was the attorney general’s wish.
Floor Plan of Air Force One (aircraft 26000)
(From Manchester, p. 682)
None of the crew or other staffers still aboard 26000 had expected Johnson, of course, so nothing had been done to prepare for his arrival other than Kennedy’s valet, George Thomas, upon hearing the news on the television the staff had been watching, repacked JFK’s change of clothes which he had previously laid out for him.119 Since there had been no warning that Johnson was intent on taking over the airplane, when he suddenly appeared, it put the crew in a difficult and awkward position since it was embarrassing to them to be so unprepared for Johnson’s arrival.120
As he raced from the unmarked police car, Johnson doubtlessly knew that by taking over the president’s plane, he was finally and officially in control of the country as the new president. He apparently was so excited about it that he neglected to return Captain Swindal’s salute as he ducked past him and raced up the boarding stairs into the cabin.121 When Bill Moyers boarded the aircraft and first saw Johnson in the stateroom, Johnson nodded slightly but neither spoke; he reported that Johnson seemed strangely subdued and very distracted.122
When Godfrey McHugh arrived back at Love Field, he had heard that Johnson was on board but didn’t believe it so he walked the length of the plane looking for him. He subsequently walked it again going the other direction, but still found no sign of Johnson, looking in every compartment other than the powder room adjoining the bedroom, which is exactly where Johnson had been. Given that it took McHugh three trips before finding him, it was clear that Johnson had spent considerable time in the restroom of the airplane attempting to compose himself.123 By the time McHugh started his new search, the word had spread throughout the plane that the judge was on her way to the airport and that it had been decided by none other than Robert F. Kennedy that Johnson had to be sworn in as soon as possible; it was not something that could be put off until he returned to Washington. It was summed up by Malcolm Kilduff, to both Clint Hill and Roy Kellerman, “A judge is going to swear in Johnson. Bobby requested it”124 (emphasis added to denote how the lie transformed to become the “truth”).
In the meantime, General McHugh began his third search throughout the airplane for some sign of Lyndon Johnson’s presence. After covering virtually the entire plane, he finally decided that he should check the powder room adjacent to the bedroom. “‘I walked in the toilet, in the powder room, and there he was hiding, with the curtain closed.’ He claimed LBJ was crying ‘they’re going to kill us all. It’s a plot. It’s a plot. It’s going to kill us all. Johnson was hysterical, sitting down on the john there alone.”125 Johnson’s hysteria was apparently the result of his pent-up nervousness, which had been evident in his behavior throughout the day; he had probably heard McHugh coming and might have even decided that it was time to change his demeanor to feign fear of a conspiracy, which was consistent with the script that he had planned, though there was no evidence that he was really concerned about that possibility, as will be seen shortly. In another account of this incident, Christopher Anderson stated that General McHugh found Johnson so deranged that he decided the only way to get him to snap out of his delirium was by slapping him.126 This account of Johnson’s hysteria was in sharp contrast to the many other reports, which stated that he was in complete control, steady, and resolute amidst the grieving and emotional upset of everyone else on the aircraft
; all of this was not inconsistent with other accounts of Johnson’s behavior, which indicated that his mood swings could rapidly go from one extreme to another as he perceived circumstances required.
But this one, an apparent nervous breakdown on board Air Force One right after the assassination deserves special attention because of the likelihood that it was a result of his finally finding enough privacy to allow himself a moment to physically release the built-up tension that he had suppressed for hours—actually, days and weeks of intense anticipation—as he planned the critical action that would save his career: the murder of JFK. Critics will point out that if McHugh had really experienced such a shocking sight—Lyndon B. Johnson in meltdown—why didn’t he say anything to William Manchester in his interview with him in 1964 instead of waiting until 1978 for his oral history taken by author Gillon, which was not released until 2009? The answer may lie in the fact that Manchester, as will be detailed in chapter 9, was forced by Mrs. Kennedy to delete several pages that described the worst of Johnson’s behavior in his book concerning the events on Air Force One out of fear that Johnson would make reprisals against her and Bobby.
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