The
assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Dallas, Texas,
on November 22, 1963, continues to generate an enormous amount of
popular controversy, more so than any other historical happening in
recorded memory. The killing took place in a major American city in
full view of hundreds of people and in broad daylight, yet years
after the event, a dispassionate overview of the incident is
impossible to achieve. The act and its consequences are as cluttered
as the dense Indian jungle that so thoroughly hides the gaudy tiger
from the sight of its prey.
The
initial stunned confusion in Dallas has continued, with much
official connivance, into succeeding decades, with an immense
proliferation of books, magazine articles, motion picture
productions, and television dramas, which are equally divided
between assaults on previous productions and the presentation of
even more confusion, theory, and supposition.
One
camp consists entirely of what can best be termed the “official
version” and in the other camp are the “revisionist versions.”
There is only one of the former and a multitude of the others.
There
is no question in the minds of anyone that John F. Kennedy was shot
dead in Dallas, Texas, in November of 1963. The real issue is who
shot him and why.
Is
the report of the official Warren Commission correct?
Was the President killed by a disaffected man who acted entirely
alone? Was his subsequent murder perpetrated by another disaffected
man who also acted entirely alone?
Are
the legions of revisionists correct? Was the Kennedy assassination
the result of a plot? And if there was a plot, who were the plotters
and what were their motives?
The
overwhelming majority of the public, who are the final arbiters of
whatever may pass for historical truth, has, in the intervening
years, come to believe less in the determined certainty of
officialdom and more in the questions raised by those who cannot
accept official dictums.
In
a very strong sense, the Kennedy assassination marked an important
watershed in the relationship between the American public and its
elected and appointed officials. Before that event, what the
government said was almost universally accepted as the truth. There
was unquestioning and simplistic belief, and more, there was trust
in the pronouncements from the Beltway and its numerous and often
very slavish servants in academia and the American media. It is
true, people would say, because it is printed in my newspaper and
supported by important and knowledgeable savants.
That
the media and academia might be influenced by, if not actually
commanded by, the government rarely occurred to anyone outside of a
small handful of chronic malcontents.
The
questions that were raised by the Warren Commission’s lengthy and
thoroughly disorganized report were certainly in many cases very
important. That there were many errors in this hasty attempt to
allay national anxieties is clearly evident, but in retrospect, and
in view of recently disclosed evidence, these are more errors of
commission than omission.
The
Warren Report was prepared and released to the public not to
encourage questioning but to silence it as quickly as possible.
There are many cogent reasons for this desire for silence and
acceptance, not the least of which was the urgent desire for
self-preservation and the maintenance of the integrity of the
governmental system.
In
actuality, the American currency is not backed by gold or silver
holdings but by the blind faith of the public. If the concept of
unquestioning belief in governmental currency stability is
questioned, economic chaos can be the result and this applies
equally to government probity.
To
quote from the title of the first and very important revisionist
work on the Kennedy assassination, there was a great “rush to
judgment” and a frantic desire on the part of the official
establishment to completely bury not only the murdered President,
but also any questions his killing might have engendered with him.
Was
the primary reason for this desire for closure merely a desire to
placate public opinion or were there other, and far more sinister,
reasons for this rush to judgment?
Those
who question the official chronicle have been severely hampered by
the fact that all the records, documents, interviews, and other
evidentiary material are securely under governmental custody and
control. It is beyond the belief of any reasonable person to think
that an official agency would release to the public any material
that would bring the official judgment into question. This is not
only institutional maintenance but also, all things in evidence now
considered, a frantic effort at self-preservation.
Not
all documents, however, lie under government control, and there
exist reports that do not only question the Warren Report’s
findings but are also of such a nature as to both thoroughly
discredit it and, in the final analysis, bring it to ruin.
Such
a historical land mine lay for years in the personal files of Robert
Trumbull Crowley , once Deputy Director for Clandestine Operations for the Central
Intelligence Agency. Crowley, who had authored books on Soviet
intelligence, died in October of 2000 after a long illness.
When
Crowley retired from
the CIA in the 1980s, he took a significant quantity of important
historical documents with him and, prior to his death, gave a number
of these to various historians with whom he occasionally cooperated.
Among
these documents was a lengthy paper prepared by the Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA) in 1978 as a commentary on Soviet
intelligence evaluations of the Kennedy assassination.
The
Defense Intelligence Agency, a branch of the Department of Defense,
specializes in the analysis of foreign military technical
intelligence.
This
document was considered highly sensitive, for reasons that shall
shortly become very evident, and its distribution was limited to a
handful of copies with severely restricted circulation.
Crowley
had a copy of this explosive document because he had personal
knowledge of the factors and personalities behind the assassination
and had, in fact, prior professional knowledge of the information
contained in the DIA secret paper.
The
second and certainly even more important document is a 98 pages long
paper entitled “OPERATION ZIPPER Conference Record.” This
document is a long list of decisions and activities of various U.S.
authorities in a project with the code name “Operation ZIPPER.”
The
distribution of this document was restricted to five persons, one of
them being R. T. Crowley, in whose papers a copy of it was found.
This
book uses the official DIA Report and the “Operation ZIPPER”
document as its framework. In addition to that, the author uses the
notes he made during endless hours of conversation he had with R. T.
Crowley in the years between 1993 and 1996, and has dug deeply into
the great body of literature on the assassination of J. F. Kennedy
to flesh out what has proven to be a very ugly skeleton. In sum, it
puts sinews and flesh on the bones of a monster.
The
loss of faith is a terrible matter and one can say after reading
these papers and with bitter truth: “Who then will guard the
guardians?”
It
is generally the custom for beginning writers to thank anyone and
everyone even remotely connected with his book. Book editors,
typists, library personnel, former teachers, family members, and
pets are all given their five seconds of fame (or far less depending
upon the sales of the book).
However,
that having been said, the author would like to offer the most
sincere and grateful, albeit posthumous, thanks to the late Colonel
Robert T. Crowley, AUS, of Washington, D.C., and his co-worker,
Colonel William Corson, USMC (United States Marine Corps), of
Potomac, Maryland, for all of the very important advice and
assistance they have rendered to the grateful author. Also their
friend and co-worker, Joe Trento of Front Royal, Virginia, for his
valuable commentary and excellent advice, especially concerning the
activities of James Jesus Angleton .
Also very helpful has been a senior NARA-based individual who has
been a priceless advisor and contributor but demanding of anonymity.
As
opposed to acknowledging others who aided in the actual preparation
of this study, recognition ought to be given on the author’s part
for research into American intelligence matters.
David
Lifton’s work, Best Evidence,
is a brilliant analysis of the Kennedy autopsy; Thomas, A
Question of Character
is one of the best revisionist views of the life and political
career of John F. Kennedy; Thomas Dale Scott’s work, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK
is a sensible and studied work on the backgrounds of Kennedy
adversaries; and Seymour Hersh’s work The
Dark Side of Camelot
gives a far more detailed revisionist look into JFK and provides
considerable background on his Soviet connection. Almost every book
on the subject, regardless of how bizarre it might appear to the
average reader, contains small nuggets of value to be mined by the
thorough researcher.
Former
CBS news director and documentary producer, Los Angeles-based Ted
Landreth has done prodigies investigating certain highly sensitive
CIA operations inside the United States.
Also,
an important work is Gerald Posner’s Case
Closed.
This work is an excellent overview and defense of the official
establishment point of view. That the American media lavishly
praised it when it appeared in 1993 is a commentary on the
objectivity of the media.
Tuesday, October 10, 2000: Page B06, Washington
Post:
“Robert
Trumbull Crowley
Senior
CIA Officer
Robert
Trumbull Crowley, 76, a senior CIA officer whose career spanned from
the agency’s inception
in 1947 until his retirement in the mid-1980s, died Oct. 8 at Sibley
Memorial Hospital. He had congestive heart failure and dementia.
Mr. Crowley became
assistant deputy director for operations, the second in command in
the clandestine directorate of operations. After retiring, he
co-wrote a book with former CIA intelligence officer and Marine
Corps officer William R. Corson, “The New KGB: Engine of Soviet
Power,” published by William Morrow in 1985.
Mr. Crowley, a Washington
resident, was a Chicago native and attended the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, N.Y. He served in the Army in the Pacific
during World War II and retired from the Army Reserve in 1986 as a
lieutenant colonel.
Survivors include his wife since
1948, Emily Upton Crowley of Washington; a son, Greg Upton Crowley
of Washington; and two granddaughters.”
In
1996, Robert Crowley entered
a Washington hospital for major surgery. It was believed that he
might have cancer of the lungs. The operation was successful but
Crowley, who had been suffering from short-term memory problems,
slipped into a state of chronic dementia from which he never
recovered.
Before
entering the hospital, Crowley, known in the CIA as the “Crow,”
sent off two packets of documents from his extensive files to the
author of this study with instructions to return the papers if he
survived the operation. After the operation, it was evident to
Crowley’s family that he would do no more writing and I was told
to keep the papers and not to return them.
As one of the most powerful men
in the Central Intelligence Agency and one of the least known
outside of the Agency, Crowley was involved in most of the important
CIA operations during his tenure. His personal files are of great
value to researchers and cover both foreign and domestic
intelligence operations.
Among
these papers was the above mentioned DIA Report, a 1978 in-depth
analysis of a Soviet intelligence report on the assassination of
President John Kennedy. At one time, the Russians were held suspect
in this act, and in the intervening years, their intelligence organs
had been compiling data in refutation of this thesis. It should be
noted that Lee Oswald, the purported assassin, had defected to the
Soviet Union and, while resident in that country, married the niece
of an MVD
intelligence officer.
Although
the DIA Report makes it very clear that Oswald was a source for the
Office of Naval Intelligence and that his defection was spurious,
his openly avowed Marxism, public support of the Communist
government of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and his repeated
pro-Communist utterances made him a very handy weapon with which to
attack the Russians.
The
DIA Report, signed by Army Colonel Vedder B. Driscoll, chief of the
Soviet Intelligence division of the DIA, appears to be the first
official analysis of the Kennedy assassination that does not follow
the official line, and which survived the post-assassination
shredding frenzy that seized the American intelligence community.
Theories,
opinions and arguments abound concerning the Kennedy assassination
and while many authors will applaud Driscoll’s DIA Report, others
will reject it. Rejection or acceptance depends entirely on what an
author may have previously published on the subject.
The
other surviving official paper, the already mentioned “Operation
ZIPPER” document, will most likely cause an even more heated
controversy, since it does not have a cover document and consists
merely of a brief listing of persons and agencies involved,
decisions made, and events that took place during and after the
preparation of Kennedy’s assassination.
Over
2,500 works on the assassination have appeared in print to date but
nothing approaches what can best be termed the “Driscoll Report”
and the “ZIPPER Document” for brevity and accuracy. The reader
is given a unique view of the events in Dallas and Washington
post-November 22, 1963.
The
facts behind the Kennedy assassination are found in the Driscoll
Report and the ZIPPER Document. For the first time, the actual
motives of those who organized and instigated the act are clearly
and decisively exposed, as are the techniques of the actual
shooting, the nature of the weapons used, and the means by which the
shooters escaped.
These
documents do not challenge the famous Warren Report that has been
ridiculed by many and supported by few; they merely supersede it.
The
ZIPPER Document reveals, most importantly, the names and official
positions of those who directed the killers. For example, the man
who instigated the attack was one of the highest level American
intelligence officials, and the man to whom he entrusted the
supervision of the assassins was someone who had been involved in
one of the most important American intelligence-gathering actions
against the Soviet Union, an operation that the Driscoll Report now
reveals had been known to the Soviets even before it was launched!
The fate of the shooters is also revealed; only one of them lived
more than a month after Kennedy died.
In
this work, rather than present the endlessly chewed arguments of
others to dazzle or bore the reader, the reports are presented in
excerpt (Driscoll) or in full (ZIPPER) with appropriate commentary.
This
study is organized into a number of chapters. The assassination
itself is covered by a translation of the Soviet intelligence
report, followed by pertinent and parallel excerpts from the
official Warren Commission Report and the Defense Intelligence
Agency analysis. The observations of the author conclude each
section.
The
next chapters will cover the more important players. Again, first a
Soviet report, followed by the pertinent sections of the Warren
Report, the DIA analysis, and concluding with the author’s
comments. The Warren Commission Report basically covered the actual
assassination and the subsequent murder of the alleged assassin, Lee
Harvey Oswald. Both the Soviet and Driscoll Reports contain additional material not
covered in the Warren Commission Report.
Subsequent
chapters addressing the real history of the Kennedy assassination
are based mainly on the ZIPPER Document with some use of the
Driscoll Report, and are backed by information the author received
during his many conversations with R. T. Crowley.
Long
years of suspicion, investigation and revisionist commentary have
ended with the discovery and publication of the Driscoll Report and
the ZIPPER Document from the papers of top CIA official, Robert
Crowley.
The
deadly international plots, assassinations of unpopular foreign
politicians, active involvement in the world-wide drug market,
ruthless manipulation of the United States government to include the
office of the President, counterfeitings, the fomenting of revolts
and bloody uprisings in nations friendly to the United States, the
infiltration and control of the American and foreign print and film
media, and the general belief that their opinions should dictate
America’s domestic and foreign policy have led directly to such
anti-American incidents as the murder of American citizens and such
explosive outrages as the attack on the World Trade Center.
The
Central Intelligence Agency, which likes to picture itself as the
protective shield of the American people, has proven itself to be
consistently wrong in its analysis of almost every problem presented
to it, and has alienated by its actions a good part of the world
which at one time had been neutral in its opinion of America if not
sympathetic. It is beyond belief that a complicated, yearlong
international plot against America, which culminated in the WTC
attack and which involved hundreds of people, could not have been
observed by the CIA. This is either an example of gross incompetence
at best or connivance at worst.
The
Crowley Papers give all of us a true understanding of the meaning of
Lord Acton’s dictum, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.”
The
following chapters will consist of facsimile reproductions of the
DIA’s translation of the Soviet intelligence study, of its own
analysis, and of quoted excerpts of the official Warren Commission
Report, followed by commentary.
[Note: Copies of these documents will appear in the
Appendix]
1.
On 22 November, 1963, American President John Kennedy was shot and
killed during a political motor trip through the Texas city of
Dallas. The President was riding at the head of the procession in
his official state car, seated in the right rear with his wife on
his left side. Seated in front of him was the Governor of Texas and
his wife, also on his left side. The vehicle was an open car without
side or top protection of any kind. There was a pilot car in front,
about a hundred feet, and the President’s car was flanked by
motorcycle outriders located two to a side roughly parallel with the
rear wheels of the State car.
2.
The President and his party were driving at a speed of about 20
kilometers per hour through the built-up area of Dallas and greeted
the many people lining the streets along his route. Security was
supplied by the Secret Service supplemented by local police. There
were two Secret Service agents in the front of the car. One was
driving the car. Other agents were in cars following the
Presidential vehicle and Dallas police on motorbikes were on both
sides of the Presidential car but at the rear of it. There was a
pilot car in front of the President’s car but it was at some
distance away.
3.
The course of the journey was almost past all the occupied area. The
cars then turned sharply to the right and then again to the left to
go to the motorway leading to a meeting hall where the President was
to speak at a dinner. It is considered very bad security for such an
official drive to decrease its speed or to make unnecessary turnings
or stops. (Historical note: It was just this problem that led
directly to positioning the Austrian Heir in front of waiting
assassins at Sarajevo in 1914.) The route was set by agents of the
Secret Service and published in the Dallas newspapers before the
arrival of the President and his party.
4.
After the last turning to the left, the cars passed a tall building
on the right side of the street that was used as a warehouse for the
storage of school books. This building was six stories tall and had
a number of workers assigned to it. There were no official security
people in this building, either on the roof or at the windows. Also,
there were no security agents along the roadway on either side. All
security agents were riding either in the Presidential car (two in
the front) and in the following vehicles.
5.
As the President’s state car passed this building, some shots were
heard. The exact source and number of these shots was never entirely
determined. Some observers thought that the shots came from above
and behind while many more observers in the area stated that the
shots came from the front and to the right of the car. There was a
small area with a decorative building and some trees and bushes
there and many saw unidentified people in this area. Many people
standing in front of this area to watch the cars stated that shots
came from behind them.
6.
When the first shots were fired, the President was seen to lean
forward and clutch at his throat with both hands. Immediately when
this happened, the Secret Service driver of the President’s state
car slowed down the vehicle until it was almost stopped. This was a
direct breach of their training which stated that in such events
where firing occurred, the driver of the President’s car would
immediately drive away as quickly as possible.
7.
At the same time as the first shot, there was a second one, this one
from behind and above. This bullet struck the Governor, sitting in
front of the President and slightly to his right, in the right upper
shoulder. The bullet went downwards into the chest cavity, breaking
ribs, struck his wrist and lodged in his left upper thigh. There
were then two shots fired at the President’s car. The first shot
initiated the action and this one appears to have hit the President
in the throat. If so, it must have been fired from in front of the
car, not behind it.
8.
Right at that moment, there was one other shot. The shell obviously
struck the President on the upper rear of the right side of his
head, throwing him back and to the left. Also, at this time, blood,
pieces of skull and brains could be seen flying to the left where
the motorbike police guard was struck with this material on his
right side and on the right side of his motorbike.
9.
Immediately after this final shot, the driver then began to increase
his speed and the cars all went at increasing speed down under the
tunnel.
10.
The fatally injured President and the seriously injured Governor
were very quickly taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. The
President was declared as dead and his body was removed, by force,
to an aircraft and flown to Washington. The badly wounded Governor
was treated at the hospital for his wounds and survived.
11.
Within moments of the shots fired at the President, a Dallas
motorcycle police officer ran into the book building and up to the
second floor in the company of the manager of the establishment.
Here, the policeman encountered a man later positively identified as
one Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the book storage company.
Oswald was drinking a Coca-Cola and appeared to be entirely calm and
collected. (Later it was said that he had rushed down four flights
of steps past other employees in a few moments after allegedly
shooting the President. It is noted from the records that none of
the other employees on the staircase ever saw Oswald passing them.)
The elevator which moved freight and personnel between the floors
was halted at the sixth floor and turned off so that it could not be
recalled to persons below wishing to use it.
The Warren Commission Report
At
11:40 a.m., CST, on Friday, November 22, 1963, President John F.
Kennedy, Mrs. Kennedy , and their party arrived at Love Field,
Dallas, Tex. Behind them was the first day of a Texas trip planned 5
months before by the President, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson,
and John B. Connally, Jr., Governor of Texas. After leaving the
White House on Thursday morning, the President had flown initially
to San Antonio where Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson joined the
party and the President dedicated new research facilities at the
U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine. Following a testimonial
dinner in Houston for U.S. Representative Albert Thomas, the
President flew to Fort Worth where he spent the night and spoke at a
large breakfast gathering on Friday.
Planned
for later that day were a motorcade through downtown Dallas, a
luncheon speech at the Trade Mart, and a flight to Austin where the
President would attend a reception and speak at a Democratic
fundraising dinner. From Austin he would proceed to the Texas ranch
of the Vice President. [WCR, pp. 1-2.]
The
Secret Service was told on November 8 that 45 minutes had been
allotted to a motorcade procession from Love Field to the site of a
luncheon planned by Dallas business and civic leaders in honor of
the President. After considering the facilities and security
problems of the 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. The route was approved by the local host committee and
White House representatives on November 18 and publicized in the
local papers starting on November 19. This advance publicity made it
clear that the motorcade would leave Main Street and pass the
intersection of Elm and Houston Streets as it proceeded to the Trade
Mart by way of the Stemmons Freeway.
By
midmorning of November 22, clearing skies in Dallas dispelled the
threat of rain and the President greeted the crowds from his open
limousine without the “bubbletop,” which was at that time a
plastic shield furnishing protection only against inclement weather.
To the left of the President in the rear seat was Mrs. Kennedy. In
the jump seats were Governor Connally, who was in front of the
President, and Mrs. Connally at the Governor’s left. Agent William
R. Greer of the Secret Service was driving, and Agent Roy H.
Kellerman was sitting to his right. [WCR,
p. 2]
At
the extreme west end of Main Street, the motorcade turned right on
Houston Street and proceeded north for one block in order to make a
left turn on Elm Street, the most direct and convenient approach to
the Stemmons Freeway and the Trade Mart. As the President’s car
approached the intersection of Houston and Elm Streets, there loomed
directly ahead on the intersection’s northwest corner a seven
story, orange brick warehouse and office building, the Texas School
Book Depository. [WCR, p. 2]
The
President’s car which had been going north made a sharp turn
toward the southwest onto Elm Street. At a speed of about 11 miles
per hour, it started down the gradual descent towards a railroad
overpass under which the motorcade would proceed before reaching the
Stemmons Freeway. The front of the Texas School Book Depository was
now on the President’s right, and he waved to the crowd assembled
there as he passed the building. Dealey Plaza—an open, landscaped
area marking the western end of downtown Dallas—stretched out to
the President’s left. A Secret Service agent riding in the
motorcade radioed the Trade Mart that the President would arrive in
5 minutes.
Seconds
later shots resounded in rapid succession. The President’s hands
moved to his neck. He appeared to stiffen momentarily and lurch
slightly forward in his seat. A bullet had entered the base of the
back of his neck slightly to the right of the spine. It traveled
downward and exited from the front of the neck, causing a nick in
the left lower portion of the knot in the President’s necktie.
Governor Connally had been facing towards 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.
The bullet traveled through his chest in a downward and forward
direction, exited below his right nipple, passed through his right
wrist, which had been in his lap, and then caused a wound to his
left thigh. The force of the bullet’s impact appeared to spin the
Governor to his right, and Mrs. Connally pulled him down into her
lap. Another bullet then struck President Kennedy in the rear
portion of his head, causing a massive and fatal wound. The
President fell to the left into Mrs. Kennedy’s lap. [WCR, p. 3]
The
first person to see Oswald after the assassination was Patrolman M.
L. Baker of the Dallas Police Department. Baker was riding a
two-wheeled motorcycle behind the last press car of the motorcade.
Baker
testified that he entered the lobby (of the Texas Book Depository)
and “spoke out and asked where the stairs or elevator was*** and
this man, Mr. Truly, spoke up and says, it seems to me like he says
‘I am a building manager. Follow me, officer, and I will show
you.’”
Meanwhile,
Truly had run up several steps towards the third floor. Missing
Baker, he came back to find the officer in the doorway to the
lunchroom “facing Lee Harvey Oswald.” Baker turned to Truly and
said, “Do you know this man, does he work here?” Truly replied,
“Yes.” Baker stated later that the man did not seem to be out of
breath; he seemed calm. [WCR, p. 152]
That
Oswald descended by stairway from the sixth floor to the
second-floor lunchroom is consistent with the movements of the two
elevators, which would have provided the other possible means of
descent. When Truly, accompanied by Baker, ran to the rear of the
first floor, he was certain that both elevators, which occupy the
same shaft, were on the fifth floor. In the few seconds which
elapsed while Baker and Truly ran from the first to the second
floor, neither of these slow elevators could have descended from the
fifth to the second floor. Furthermore, no elevator was at the
second floor when they arrived there. [WCR,
p. 153]
The
DIA Analysis
18. The Dallas trip had been in train since late July of 1963. Texas was
considered to be a key state in the upcoming 1964 Presidential
elections. It was the disqualification of over 100,000 Texas votes,
in conjunction with the known fraudulent voting in Chicago in 1960
that gave President Kennedy and his associates a slim margin of
victory.
19. The actual route of Kennedy’s drive through downtown Dallas was
made known to the local press on Tuesday, November 19. The sharp
right turn from Main St. onto Houston and then the equally sharp
left turn onto Elm was the only way to get to the on ramp to the
Stemmons Freeway. A traffic divider on Main St. precluded the
motorcade from taking the direct route, from Main St. across Houston
and thence right to the Stemmons Freeway exit.
20. Just after the President’s car passed the Texas Book Depository, a
number of shots were fired. There were a total of three shots fired
at the President. The first shot came from the right front, hitting
him in the neck. This projectile did not exit the body. The
immediate reaction by the President was to clutch at his neck and
say, “I have been hit!” He was unable to move himself into any
kind of a defensive posture because he was wearing a restrictive
body brace.
21. The second shot came from above and behind the Presidential car, the
bullet striking Texas Governor Connally in the upper right shoulder,
passing through his chest and exiting sharply downwards into his
left thigh.
22. The third, and fatal shot, was also fired at the President from the
right front and from a position slightly above the car. This bullet,
which was fired from a .223 weapon, struck the President above the
right ear, passed through the right rear quadrant of his head and
exited towards the left. Pieces of the President’s skull and a
large quantity of brain matter was blasted out and to the left of
the car. Much of this matter struck a Dallas police motorcycle
outrider positioned to the left rear of the Presidential car.
23. Photographic evidence indicates that the driver, SA Greer, slowed
down the vehicle when shots were heard, in direct contravention of
standing Secret Service regulations.
24. Reports that the initial hit on the President came from above and
behind are false and misleading. Given the position of the vehicle
at the time of impact and the altitude of the alleged shooter, a
bullet striking the back of the President’s neck would have exited
sharply downward as did the projectile fired at Governor Connally
purportedly from the same shooter located in the same area of the
sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository.
25. The projectile that killed the President was filled with mercury.
When such a projectile enters a body, the sudden decrease in
velocity causes the mercury to literally explode the shell. This
type of projectile is designed to practically guarantee the death of
the target and is a method in extensive use by European
assassination teams.
26. The disappearance of Kennedy’s brain and related post mortem
material from the U.S. National Archives was motivated by an
official desire not to permit further testing which would certainly
show the presence of mercury in the brain matter.
27. Official statements that the fatal shot was fired from above and
behind are totally incorrect and intended to mislead. Such a shot
would have blasted the brain and blood matter forward and not
to the left rear. Also, photographic evidence indicates that after
the fatal shot, the President was hurled towards his left,
against his wife who was seated to his immediate left.
28. The so-called “magic bullet” theory, i.e., a relatively
pristine, fired, Western Cartridge 6.5 Mannlicher-Carcano projectile
produced in evidence, is obviously an official attempt to justify
its own thesis. This theory, that a projectile from above and behind
struck the President in the upper back, swung up, exited his throat,
gained altitude and then angled downwards through the body of
Governor Connally, striking bone and passing through muscle mass and
emerging in almost undamaged condition is a complete impossibility.
The bullet in question was obtained by firing the alleged
assassination weapon into a container of water.
29. Three other such projectiles were recovered in similar undamaged
condition. One of these was produced for official inspection and was
claimed to have been found on Governor Connally’s stretcher at
Parkland Hospital. As a goodly portion of the projectile was still
in the Governor’s body (where much of it remained until his death
some years later), this piece of purported evidence should be
considered as nothing more than an official “plant.”
Almost
all of the revisionist works on the Kennedy assassination deal with
forensics. The main, and only, purpose for the existence of the
Warren Commission was to firmly establish that a lone individual who
had no accomplices had shot President Kennedy. Any evidence in
existence at the time the commission sat that furthered this thesis
was used; any evidence that would refute their thesis was ignored.
Oswald,
the lone individual with no accomplices, had to have shot the
President, and Governor Connally, with a surplus Italian Army 6.5-mm
Mannlicher-Carcano rifle equipped with a cheap telescopic sight. He
had to have fired from the sixth floor of a building, down at a
moving target and have fired three shots in a five-second period of
time. The Carcano was a very clumsy bolt-action rifle. The
turned-down bolt handle was difficult to manipulate and the field of
vision of the scope was so small as to virtually render it useless
against a moving target.
Tests
by numerous firearms experts were never able to duplicate either the
rate of fire or the alleged accuracy of the weapon purported to have
been the sniper’s only weapon.
While the muzzle velocity of the 6.5-mm round tip bullet was very
low, nevertheless, if it hit a human being within a reasonable
distance, it could inflict a fatal shot.
The
“magic bullet” thesis is a piece of impossible nonsense that
nevertheless was eagerly accepted and promulgated by the Warren
Commission and, decades after the event, is still shrilly supported
by those members of the media who have a vested interest in doing
so. The nearly pristine bullet conveniently planted on a stretcher
at Parkland Hospital could never have hit or passed into anything
other than a container of water.
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