LBJ
Page 66
33. WCH 21, p. 571.
34. Ibid.
35. WCH 3, p. 244.
36. WCH 6, p. 293.
37. WCH 20, p. 391.
38. WCH 6, p. 163.
39. WCH 21, p. 571.
40. Horne, p. 1403.
41. Transcript, Clifton C. Carter Oral History Interview I, 10/1/68, by Dorothy L. Pierce, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 107(pdf).
42. Lawson memorandum to HSCA, RIF 180-10074-10396, Jan 31, 1978.
43. Sloan and Hill, “JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness. pp. 112–114.
44. HSCA interview with Jack Puterbaugh, RIF 180-10080-10069, April 14, 1978.
45. Manchester, p. 239.
46. Transcript, Clifton C. Carter Oral History Interview I, 10/1/68, by Dorothy L. Pierce, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 113 (pdf).
47. Ibid., p. 106 (pdf).
48. Manchester, p. 40.
49. Transcript, Clifton C. Carter Oral History Interview I, 10/1/68, by Dorothy L. Pierce, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 114 (pdf).
50. Ibid., p. 124 (pdf).
51. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY02Qkuc_f8.
*The use of such gratuitous profanity by an ordained Baptist minister is a little odd in the context of this situation, considering that it had been raining all morning. It begs the question of whether Moyers was the real initiator of the request, or whether he was simply passing on a demand from his boss, LBJ, known to be habitually profane and strident in practically all situations (a general exception existed whenever cameras were near, of course, in which case a broad smile replaced his scornful gaze). All things considered, it can be assumed that Moyers was merely mouthing words originally screamed by Lyndon B. Johnson, in comparable stridency.
52. Horne, p. 1403.
53. HSCA, Vol. 11, p. 526.
54. The Discovery Channel: (http://dsc.discovery.com/guides/history/unsolvedhistory/dealeyplaza/photogallery/slide_03.html).
55. Palamara, Vincent M., Survivor’s Guilt.
56. Palamara, Vincent M., Survivor’s Guilt.
* The curb was designed to impede ordinary traffic from making this same maneuver, since it created a hazard with traffic coming down Elm Street; that was not pertinent during a presidential motorcade.
57. Palamara, p. 35.
58. Marrs, pp. 29–33.
59. Russell, The Man … , p. 568.
* This point was affirmed by a motorcycle policeman, James A. Chaney, quoted in the Houston Chronicle on November 24, who said the first shot “missed entirely.”
** Researcher Jim Lewis test-fired high-velocity bullets through the windshields of junked cars and discovered that they make the sound of a firecracker as they pass through-(Fetzer, Hoax … , p. 436).
60. WC Report, Vol. II, p. 74.
61. Weldon, The Kennedy Limousine (Part II of Murder in Dealey Plaza), pp. 151–153.
62. See: http://www.und.edu/instruct/jfkconference/
63. Manchester, p. 156; Marrs, p. 16.
64. Bishop, 108, Marrs, 7, 16, 59, Fetzer, Murder … p. 33; Holland, p. 36.
65. Fetzer, Murder … p. 37.
66. WC Report, Vol. II. p. 42.
67. Ibid., pp. 42–43.
68. Ibid., p. 43.
69. Ibid.
70. Ibid.
71. Warren Commission Hearings: 7H, pp. 486–487.
72. Mantik, The Zapruder Film Controversy, (Part II of Murder in Dealey Plaza), pp. 341–342.
73. http://jamesfetzer.blogspot.com/2011/01/whos-telling-truth-clint-hill-or.html.
74. Ibid., pp. 169–183.
75. Summers, Conspiracy, p. 73.
76. Ibid.
77. Ibid. (also, Marrs, p. 21).
78. Summers, Conspiracy, p. 74.
79. Ibid. p. 75.
80. Warren Commission testimony: 6H 176.
81. Callahan, Who Shot JFK? p. 61.
82. Summers, Conspiracy, pp. 80–82.
83. Callahan, Who Shot JFK? p. 61.
84. Mooney, p. 180.
85. Ibid.
86. Ibid.
87. Ibid., p. 83.
88. Crenshaw, p. 76.
89. Ibid., pp. 88–90.
90. Manchester, p. 302.
91. Summers, Conspiracy, p. 42.
92. Manchester, pp. 297–298.
93. Ibid., p. 303.
94. Ibid., pp. 299–302.
95. Ibid.
96. Ibid., p. 304.
97. WC Hearings and Exhibits, Vol. XV., p. 82.
98. WC Hearings and Exhibits, Vol. XV, pp. 71–82.
99. Ibid., p. 82.
100. WC Report, Vol. XXIII, p. 916.
101. Bishop, p. 254.
102. Lane, Rush to Judgment, p. 409.
103. This testimony can be seen in the film Evidence of Revision on Youtube, Part IV.
104. http://www.jfklancerforum.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=3&topic_id=57273&mesg_id=57273&page=
105. Russell, p. 568.
106. Russell, p. 586.
107. North, p. 377.
108. Marrs, pp. 340–350.
* Under the pseudonym J. B. Marshall, in Jean Hill’s book JFK: Last Dissenting Witness.
109. Sloan and Hill, JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness. p. 118–119.
110. Manchester, p. 233.
111. Ibid.
112. Manchester, pp. 234–235.
*According to William Manchester, “The one difference between Air Force One and Air Force Two was that Air Force One always carried a passenger manifest. It was a basic security precaution; no matter how short the flight, a presidential guest could not mount either ramp unless his name had been typed on that sheet. (p. 314).
113. O’Donnell, p. 32.
114. Sloan and Hill, pp. 118–119.
115. O’Donnell, p. 31.
116. Manchester, p. 315.
117. Manchester, p. 329.
118. Ibid., p. 315.
119. Ibid., p. 263.
120. Ibid., pp. 264–265.
121. Ibid., p. 266.
122. Ibid., p. 318.
123. Ibid.
124. Ibid., pp. 311–316.
125. Gillon, pp. 127–128.
126. Ibid. (ref. Anderson, Christopher, Jackie after Jack: Portrait of the Lady. New York: William Morris, 1998.
127. Manchester, p. 316.
128. Ibid.
129. Schlesinger, p. 675.
130. Ibid., p. 268.
131. Lifton, p. 683.
132. Ira David Wood III, Murder in Dealey Plaza, p. 93.
133. Ibid., p. 94.
134. Baker, Russ, p. 132
135. Manchester, p. 272.
136. Ibid., p. 265.
137. WCH, Volume XVIII, p. 813.
138. Hancock, p. 401.
139. Manchester, p. 269.
140. Hancock, p. 402.
141. Manchester, p. 269.
142. Ibid., p. 271.
*Quoted by Jean Hill under the pseudonym J. B. Marshall in her book, JFK: Last Dissenting Witness.
143. Ibid., pp. 271–272.
144. Sloan and Hill, Last Dissenting Witness, p. 118.
145. Manchester, pp. 323–325.
146. Manchester, p. 325.
147. Ibid., 309–310.
148. Ibid.
149. O’Donnell, p. 35.
150. Manchester, p. 313.
151. Van Gelder, pp. 72–73; 82–83.
152. Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 50 (citing Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 609; LBJ, Vantage Point, 13–15; Miller, Lyndon, 386–87, 389–90; Kenneth O’Donnell OH, Manchester, Death of a President, 318–23).
153. Manchester, p. 323.
154. Trask, p. 51.
155. Ibid.
156. Ibid., p. 55.
157. Zirbel, p. 134.
158. Bishop, pp. 324–326.
159. O’Donnell, pp. 37–38.
160. Manchester, p. 386.
161. O’Donnell, p. 38.
162. Horne, Inter-Office Memo dated October 17, 1995.
16
3. Lifton, p. 221.
164. White, p. 34.
165. Manchester, pp. 387–388.
166. Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, p. 675.
167. Kearns, Lyndon Johnson, 170.
168. Hancock, p. 402.
169. Weldon, Murder in Dealey Plaza, p. 147.
170. Hancock, p. 402.
171. Twyman, p. 809.
172. Bishop, p. 271.
173. White, Theodore H. p. 20.
*This situation was originally described in a 1996 book, History Will Not Absolve Us, by E. Martin Schotz, who noted Vincent Salandria’s 1966 work, in which he posited the notion that Oswald had already been tagged as the sole assassin when this announcement was (apparently, inadvertently) transmitted to the aircraft over the Pacific. As for the tape which author White had been told contained this information, he wrote (page 20) that “It is a recording of all the conversations in the air, monitored by the [Army] Signal Corps Midwestern center “Liberty,” between Air Force One in Dallas, the Cabinet plane over the Pacific, and the Joint Chiefs’ Communication Center in Washington.” This tape, if it still exists in its entirety, may hold the answers to many other long-lost secrets of that fateful day.
174. Fetzer (Ira David Wood III essay), p. 117
175. North, pp. 412–413.
176. Transcript, Clifton C. Carter Oral Histoy, Interview I, 10/1/68, by Dorothy L. Pierce, Electronic Copy, LBJ Library.
177. Scheim, p. 209; (ref. U.S. Senate Intelligence Report, JFK Assassination, p. 33).
178. Pegues, p. 38.
179. North, p. 355 (Ref. Blakey, G. Robert, and Richard N. Billings, The Plot to Kill the President, New York: New york times Book company, 1981. p. 307).
180. Ibid., p. 192.
181. Ibid.
182. Ibid.
183. Scheim, p. 149.
184. HSCA, Vol. IX, pp. 1090; 1093 and WC Vol. XXV, p. 254.
185. See youtube.com: Oswald is eliminated—The Aftermath (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrwZCpdvvHA&NR=1).
186. Russo, p. 362 (Ref. Weidenfeld, Lord George. Remembering My Good Friends: An Autobiography, New York: HarperCollins, 1994. p. 350)
*He later changed this to “thirty-nine million,” evidently figuring that it seemed a more precise number, obviously scientifically and meticulously determined.
**He later changed this to “thirty-nine million,” evidently figuring that it seemed a more precise number, obviously scientifically and meticulously determined.
187. Russell, pp. 499–500.
***This is a reference to a reported incident involving a Nicaraguan named Gilberto Alvarado, who said he saw Oswald at the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City talking to Consul Azcue, accompanied by a tall black man, who said “I want to kill the man.” Oswald replied, “You’re not man enough. I can do it.” Then Alvarado said he saw the black man give Oswald $5,000 in American currency of large denominations as ‘advance payment.’” (See Russell, p. 499).
188. Ibid., pp. 126–127.
189. Texas Observer, 11/98.
190. Russo, p. 372.
191. Ibid. p. 373.
192. Sullivan, p. 53.
193. Summers, Official and Confidential, p. 318.
194. Ibid.
195. Mantik, (from Fetzer’s, Murder in Dealey Plaza), pp. 252–255.
196. HSCA, vol 3, pp 471–473.
197. Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 51 (ref. See two memos, Jenkins to LBJ, November 24, 1963, and shorthand note says: n.d., Special Assassination File; Miller, Lyndon, 423–24; Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy, 614–15).
198. North, p. 397.
199. McKnight, p. 101.
200. Marrs, p. 486.
201. Ibid.
202. DiEugenio, p. 115, ref. O’Toole, p. 106.
203. Ibid.
204. DiEugenio, p. 116, ref. O’Toole, p. 106; Epstein, Inquest, pp. 33–40.
205. DiEugenio, “A Comprehensive Review of Reclaiming History”, Part 8 (http://www.ctka.net/2008/bugliosi_8_review.html)
206. Ibid.
207. DiEugenio, p. 96.
208. Douglass, pp. 14–15.
209. McKnight, p. 45.
210. Marrs, p. 482.
211. See Mayo Clinic website: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/DS00246.
212. O’Neil, Man of the House, p. 178.
213. Warren Commission Hearings: 7H, pp. 517–519.
214. Warren Commission Hearings: 22H, pp. 833–835.
215. Marrs, Crossfire, pp. 57–58.
216. The New York Times, November 24, 1963.
217. WCR, 23 H 913.
218. WCR, Vol. 6, pp. 177–179.
219. Newman, Oswald and the CIA, pp. 634–635.
220. Life magazine, October 2, 1964, p. 42.
221. McKnight, p. 398 (Ref. Warren Commission Report, Vol. 3, pp. 143–147 Hearings before Commission, For Brennan’s statement to the FBI that he could not positively identify Oswald, see Gemberling Report, November 30, 1963, FBIHQ Oswald File, 105-82555-505, Section 21, 11, 13).
222. Marrs, pp. 25–26.
223. Ibid., p. 26.
224. Ibid., p. 29.
225. Ibid., p. 319.
226. McKnight, p. 354.
227. Ibid., p. 89, for example.
228. Ibid.
229. Ibid., p. 106.
230. Mantik, (from Fetzer’s Murder in Dealey Plaza), pp. 252–255.
231. McKnight (Chapters 8 and 9 are dedicated in their entirety to the “Single-Bullet Fabrication”).
*See, for example, WCR vol. 2, p. 352.
232. Hurt, p. 79, North, p. 378.
233. Also see: http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/shootft.htm.
234. Life magazine, October 2, 1964, p. 44.
235. Lifton, p. 225.
Chapter 8
A MORE PLAUSIBLE
SCENARIO
If I told you what I really know, it would be very dangerous to this country. Our whole political system could be disrupted.
—J. EDGAR HOOVER
November 22, 1963: An Hour in Johnson’s Life
One-half hour before John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon Johnson was the beleaguered vice president in a world of trouble with two Senate investigations proceeding against him and Bobby Baker; the attorney general was intent on removing him from office as he fed incriminating information about Johnson, both to Senate investigators as well as Life magazine. One-half hour after JFK was assassinated, all of that changed as the nation gave him unconditional support as its new president; he was now in a position to stop all the investigations and begin putting his long-planned strategies in place to become elected in his own right less than a year later.
Only by becoming president on November 22 could Johnson have survived without finally paying his penalty. Had there been any further delay (tentative alternate plans had already been planned and discarded in Chicago and Miami in the previous weeks), Johnson would have been exposed in the continuing Bobby Baker investigation and would have likely been impeached and prosecuted after that.1 On that very day, he knew that the man Bobby Baker had a run-in with, the insurance salesman Don Reynolds, was scheduled to testify in closed session of the Senate Rules Committee, giving documented evidence of just a few of the illegal financial dealings, bribery and extortion; he also knew that this testimony would not remain secret for long if it were not stopped immediately. He was doubly upset because he knew that if he were still running the Senate, these investigations would have never been launched; now, they were in full swing, headed toward what appeared to be certain censure by the Senate and probable indictment by the Justice Department. If things got out of control at this point, the investigations might have automatically led into further scandals involving other associates, including congressmen who might be implicated in the far-reaching financial scandals and then back up through his friends’—Bobby Baker’s and Fred Black’s sex clubs—directly to the president, even possibly bringing down the entire administration. He knew, of course, that there would be n
o sanctuary in that scenario for himself, given that Kennedy’s downfall would also inevitably bring himself down along with everyone else. To say that JFK’s assassination and LBJ’s ascension changed the course of American history is a major understatement on many disparate levels.
Love Field, Dallas, Texas: The Morning of November 22, 1963
The Johnson-Connally feud with Senator Yarborough had already boiled over several times since Kennedy’s arrival, and Lyndon Johnson was in one of his famous funks. The most likely explanation for his strange behavior all during the motorcade was that he was very nervous about all the plans he had worked on the last several weeks—the most complex project he had ever commanded—yet grateful for the help he was receiving from key associates in Washington. When he arrived at Love Field, he would have noted the early signs of a successful execution, seeing that the bubble top had been removed as he had ordered Bill Moyers to ensure and that Puterbaugh was completing the last-minute changes in the motorcycle formation and moving the vehicle sequence of the motorcade to keep photographers well back instead of their usual place near Kennedy’s limousine. As the motorcade began moving from the tarmac, he knew his orders were materializing now as he watched Emory Roberts order Henry Rybka to stand down instead of preparing to mount the rear bumper of the president’s limousine.
His most trusted men had made their presence known; all of them were with him in Texas. Besides Puterbaugh, there was Cliff Carter who, a few months before, had accepted his order to return to Texas to help prepare for the Texas trip. Both had been very effective in standing in for—and protecting—Johnson in making sure the motorcade was “set up” in all respects according to Johnson’s wishes. Carter’s devotion to Johnson would be given the ultimate test today, and for the next several days, as he dutifully handled one task after another as requested by his leader. Carter had been Johnson’s closest assistant—closer even than Walter Jenkins—for the entire period of his vice presidency, serving another role as his advance man on every trip Johnson had made during that entire period. Carter and Puterbaugh had worked together well in the weeks leading up to this day, ensuring the motorcade route that brought it down Main Street before turning up Houston Street to the 120-degree turn onto Elm Street, instead of the other alternatives (simply going down Elm Street in lieu of Main Street or following Main Street straight through Dealey Plaza and onto Stemmons via a temporary ramp over a small curb).2 Mac Wallace would also be in Dallas that morning but remain as invisible as he could be made to be. His sloppiness in executing his missions was something that would have to be minimized, and for thirty-five years afterward, it seemed that it was. As will be seen shortly, however, Mac Wallace had left a fingerprint on one of the boxes that would remain classified as “unknown” until a fingerprint expert named Nathan Darby determined, over thirty years later, that it matched Mac Wallace’s fingerprint.