Murder Tales: The JFK Conspiracies
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By 7.00 p.m. Lee Harvey Oswald had been positively identified as the shooter by four of the witnesses to Officer J. D. Tippit’s murder. These witnesses had viewed Oswald over the course of the three separate and wholly dodgy police line-ups. With this highly controversial evidence the police finally formally charged Oswald with the murder of J.D. Tippit.
7.30 p.m. Dr. Robert Burr Livingston, the Scientific Director for the National Institute For Health and the National Institute for Neurological Disease; was one of the first people to discover that the tracheotomy scar made to President Kennedy’s throat had obliterated a bullet wound. Dr. Livingston had been informed by the doctors at Parkland Medical Hospital that this wound had originally quite clearly been an entrance wound to the front of the throat. Dr. Livingstone; realising that time was short before the autopsy commenced, telephoned Bethesda Naval Base and asked to speak to whoever was going to conduct the autopsy, Dr. Livingston was put through to the office of Commander Dr. James J. Humes. Dr. Livingstone had offices at Bethesda Naval Hospital too, and so he knew Dr. Humes well, after a brief and perfunctory catch-up, Dr. Livingston informed Dr. Humes of his discovery, that the wound had quite clearly been an entrance wound for a bullet, and therefore Dr. Humes should probe the wound completely to find the tract of the bullet and discover if any bullet fragments had been left behind for further forensic examination. Dr. Humes suddenly excused himself from the telephone, informing Dr. Livingstone he was being urgently called away, a few moments later he returned to the telephone and informed Dr. Livingstone that he had been ordered not to continue with the conversation, ‘The FBI won’t let me’, Dr. Humes informed a flabbergasted Dr. Livingstone before hanging up the call.
At 8.00 p.m. Commander Dr. James J. Humes commenced the autopsy upon President Kennedy. The room was crowded with both medical and none medical personnel. Members of the Secret Service and the FBI were present to observe the proceedings, which were allegedly overseen and controlled by members of the Secret Service, directing Dr. Humes in what he should do. All in all twenty-two medical personnel watched on, added to this five law enforcement agents; and a plethora of military top brass; had all assembled for the sombre event, it was easy to see that Dr. Humes was under close scrutiny by all concerned. During the course of the autopsy Dr. Humes was stopped several times by agents of the intelligence services, told to abandon standard autopsy procedures, and move on to other tasks, like a good lifelong military man Dr. Humes complied with all the orders given to him by the intelligence officers who directed the procedure. Dr. Humes reported that there was a 6 x 4mm oval bullet hole at the base of the President’s neck; ‘above the upper board of the scapula’(shoulder blade), 14cm from the right acromion process (end tip of the shoulder muscles) and 14 cm below the right mastoid process (the bone behind the ear). Dr. Humes probed this wound with his finger but his progress in tracing the bullet was hindered by the neck strap muscle, Dr. Humes assumed the bullet was still in the body as he could not find an exit wound. It was concluded that the bullet had travelled close to the top of the right lung, due to some bruising to this area. The autopsy then moved on to discuss the President’s head wounds. The wound to the back of the head was described as being ‘a laceration measuring 15 x 6cm, situated to the right and slightly above the external occipital protuberance (the bone just above the soft bit at the very back of your head). In the underlying bone is a corresponding wound through the skull showing bevelling (a cone-shaped widening) of the margins of the bone when viewed from the interior of the skull’. Further exploration and X-rays showed minute particles of the bullet like a debris field along the path of destruction the projectile had wrought. The front right side of the President’s head, which so many people had seen so clearly being blasted away, was described as being 13 cm wide at the largest diameter, encompassing the parietal, temporal and occipital bones. These shattered parts of the President’s skull had been recovered as three fragments, ‘roughly corresponding to the dimensions of the large defect’. Minute particles of metal were discovered imbedded in these fragments of skull, which also showed signs of the bevelling exhibited near the bullets entry point.
The autopsy remains a contentious event to this day; even those who had witnessed it were not completely satisfied with the unorthodox methods used; or its findings. One such person was Dr. Pierre Finck; he would eventually admit that the process was not, ‘a complete autopsy under the definition used by the American Board of Pathology’. Shortcuts were taken, such as the tract of the alleged none fatal bullet not being traced, so as ‘not to create unnecessary mutilation of the cadaver’. When Dr. Humes had finished, and those present silently filed out of the room with their unspoken misgivings, four unassuming men dressed in black entered the room. These silent and respectful men were the undertaker from Gawler’s Funeral Home; they had the galling task of working as fast as they could to prepare the President’s body for his lying in state, of doing what they could with his devastating wounds to make the President look presentable, a thankless but necessary process that would take them well over four hours.
At 9.30 p.m. The agent in charge of the FBI field office in New Orleans, Harry Maynor, was contacted by Assistant Director Alan Harden Belmont, in Washington D.C. Belmont, in a subtle manner, countermanded Maynor’s previous orders to investigate any possible leads relating to right wing activists or Klan members; who may have been involved in President Kennedy’s assassination. Maynor was told he should be ‘somewhat reluctant’ to interview any such suspects. What was the reason for the severing of this possibly important line of investigation? Well, the FBI were concerned about the ‘repercussions’ if any such interviews with any such suspects became public knowledge, especially seeing as J. Edgar Hoover had already; even at that early stage in the investigation, insinuated to the press that Lee Harvey Oswald had been a lone assassin. Any whiff of a conspiracy would now make Hoover and the FBI look like they weren’t in full command of the facts, and as a result any conclusions the FBI ultimately arrived at would be questioned.
10.50 p.m. After hours of being held without legal representation or contact with the outside world, Lee Harvey Oswald was allowed to make his first phone call. He did not call a lawyer as the police had been anticipating, but instead attempted to contact a long distance number in the town of Raleigh, North Carolina. He informed the operator that he wanted to contact a Mr John Hurt at 919-834-7430 or 919-833-1253. No one answered the calls, so Oswald was disconnected by the operator. When this peculiarity became public knowledge researchers fell over themselves to discover just who John Hurt was. The phone numbers in question did not belong to a John Hurt, but one of the phone numbers was associated with an unnamed man who was heavily involved in military intelligence. When the House Select Committee on Assassinations asked Professor G. Robert Blakey to look into Oswald’s phone calls some years later, he described the unresolved matter as ‘deeply disturbing’.
11.00 p.m. Jack Ruby returned to the Dallas Police Headquarters; with a bag full of sandwiches; which he began to give out to his police friends. In return the police let Ruby enter the press room; and stay for a press conference; in which Lee Harvey Oswald would be shown off to the press. After Oswald had made his abortive phone calls to Raleigh, he was taken to his confrontation with the pressmen. All the while Jack Ruby, who had no press or official police affiliations, sat just three feet away from Oswald. At one point Ruby even interrupted the District Attorney Henry Wade, when Wade erroneously stated that Oswald was a member of the Free Cuba Committee, Ruby shouted out; ‘Henry; that’s the Fair Play for Cuba Committee’. At the press conference; Oswald angrily stated that he had illegally been kept from legal representation, and asked for the pressmen’s help in getting him access to a lawyer. Unbeknown to Oswald; the American Civil Liberties Union, the organisation which normally dealt with Oswald’s numerous legal matters, had already contacted the Dallas police, and had been informed that Oswald had refused legal representation, clear evidence that the poli
ce were illegally depriving Oswald of his constitutional rights.
At 1.35 a.m. on Saturday the 23rd of November 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was awoken in his maximum security cell; on the fifth floor of the Dallas Police Headquarters. He was taken to a small darkened office, where Judge J. P. Johnson formally charged Oswald with assassinating President John Fitzgerald Kennedy; ‘in the furtherance of an international communist conspiracy’. In response Oswald replied, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’. He once again then asked for the services of the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer. Shortly after Oswald had been charged; the District Attorney received a phone call from ‘The Whitehouse’, someone in a very high-up position was furious that the phraseology ‘in the furtherance of an international communist conspiracy’; had been used on Oswald’s charge sheet. They demanded that this phrase be removed at once. The Dallas District Attorney sheepishly complied, secretly altering the paperwork. Shortly afterwards the Dallas field office of the FBI also received a phone-call from ‘The Whitehouse’. During the conversation; Special Agent J. Gordon Shanklin was informed of the exact contentious phraseology the District Attorney had attempted to use on Oswald’s charge sheet, as a consequence The Whitehouse ordered the FBI not to share any further information with the Dallas police regarding Lee Harvey Oswald.
At 4.35 a.m. President Kennedy’s body arrived at the Whitehouse. Robert and Jackie Kennedy viewed the body, Jackie would later tell William Manchester, ‘It wasn’t Jack. It was like something you would see at Madame Tussaud’s’. Close friend to the Kennedy family, William Walton, also viewed President Kennedy’s body, his reaction was stunned outrage; stammering to Bobby Kennedy after seeing the cadaver, ‘It has no resemblance to the President. It’s a wax dummy’. Another close friend of the Kennedy’s, the so-called ‘court historian’ to President Kennedy’s ‘new Camelot’, the writer Arthur Schlesinger, said of the body, ‘It is appalling...When I came closer it looked less and less like him’. After the viewing, Robert Kennedy took a Valium and went to the Lincoln room to rest. Another friend of the Kennedy family who had rallied around the grieving family, investment banker Charles Spalding, could hear Robert Kennedy sob as he drifted off to sleep, ‘Why god? Oh why god? Why?’
At 6.50 a.m. President Johnson arose from a few short hours sleep, his first actions on his first full day as President were not ones of national importance, but rather small minded and petty; actions that massaged his ego more than anything else. He ordered all of the Kennedy’s personal effects removed from the Whitehouse. He then had President Kennedy’s portrait removed from its pride of place on the walls of the Presidential gallery, and had a gold framed painting of himself hung in its stead.
Meanwhile, the heavens had opened up above Washington; and rain poured down from the sky; like the heavens themselves were mourning the loss of President Kennedy. At 8.30 a.m. Bobby Kennedy awoke in the Lincoln room, he quickly bathed and dressed. Bobby sought out President Johnson, but instead found the Presidential personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, sat at her desk in tears. Bobby assumed she was still mourning President Kennedy’s brutal slaying, but he soon found out there was more to it than that, President Johnson had just sacked Evelyn Lincoln, not because she’d done anything wrong, simply because she was one of Kennedy’s people. After four years loyal and distinguished service for the previous President, she had been given just half an hour to clear her desk before her replacement was to arrive. Bobby felt the old anger rise up in his stomach once more from the previous evening; the new President’s arrogance and inconsiderateness knew no bounds. Bobby Kennedy swallowed his rage; and steeled himself ready for his first official meeting in the guise of Attorney General with his new President. Bobby carefully let Johnson know what he thought, and told him that it was inconsiderate for him to be using ‘Jack’s Office’ so soon after his murder, Bobby told Johnson tactfully to clear off out of the Whitehouse until his brother had been buried. Johnson agreed, he admitted that he had perhaps acted a little rashly. Indeed, Johnson acted like the model of consideration. He then went on to tell Bobby that he wanted him to stay on as Attorney General, he needed him going forward into the election the following year; and beyond into Johnson’s first full term as President. Despite the air of affability; Johnson was in a blind panic, he took Bobby Kennedy’s warnings as the first sign that Bobby might use his position as Attorney General to legally challenge his position as President. Johnson believed that Bobby himself had designs on the Oval Office; and the number one job. Perhaps Bobby had realised that his brother’s death could benefit him enormously too. Johnson was unfairly tarring Bobby with his own dirty brush, Bobby had loved his brother too much to have such selfish thoughts, and ultimately he had too much respect for the office of President to damage it by having a long drawn out and tawdry court case to oust Johnson. Instead Bobby decided to play the long game, and over the next five years Bobby Kennedy slowly plotted, planned and positioned his pieces ready to destroy Johnson and his Presidency as effectively as if he had openly challenged him that first day.
9.20 a.m. President Johnson had his first briefing with John McCone, the Director of the CIA. McCone informed President Johnson that the CIA had proof that in September of that year Lee Harvey Oswald had travelled to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City; here he had liaised with a member of the consulates staff; who was also a known KGB expert on assassination. This information alone indicated that there could have been a possible conspiracy in relation to President Kennedy’s death. McCone warned President Johnson that if the KGB had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy, and they followed previous behavioural patterns, their next move would be to eliminate Lee Harvey Oswald. Despite this, less than an hour after President Johnson had been informed that there was a high probability that Lee Harvey Oswald was part of a Soviet conspiracy to murder President Kennedy, the State Department issued a statement which read in part, ‘There is no evidence to indicate that the USSR or any other power is implicated in the assassination’.
10.01 a.m. J. Edgar Hoover telephoned President Johnson to update him on the FBI’s investigation. What Hoover told President Johnson wasn’t what the President wanted to hear. In Hoovers expert opinion the evidence against Lee Harvey Oswald ‘is not very, very strong’. After reporting this bombshell, there was fourteen minutes of conversation missing from the magnetic tape used to document all Presidential conversations. No official explanation has ever been given for this missing portion of Hoovers report.
Shortly after 10.00 a.m. Robert Oswald visited his brother at the Dallas Police Headquarters. Lee Harvey Oswald insisted to his brother that he did not murder either President Kennedy or Officer Tippit, Oswald was adamant, ‘I just don’t know what they’re talking about’. Robert Oswald was only too well aware of all his brother’s faults and failings; he acutely remembered the embarrassment and shame Lee Harvey Oswald had caused their family when he had defected. Yet despite this, and his previous wiliness to believe that his brother was guilty of the crimes he had been accused of, Robert Oswald came away from the meeting believing his brothers protestations. The blossoming belief began to take root amongst the members of the Oswald family that Lee Harvey Oswald was innocent.
11.30 a.m. President Kennedy’s body was lying in state in the east room of the Whitehouse. Jackie Kennedy had asked that for the first time in history; the honour guard faced the coffin so that ‘Jack’ wouldn’t feel too alone. President Johnson and First-Lady Lady Bird Johnson were among the first mourners to enter and pay their respects. His statesmanlike manner in front of the world’s cameras won Johnson the respect of the American public, and overnight he went from being almost universally loathed, to having one of the highest approval ratings for an American President; ever.
12.30 p.m. President Johnson met with John McCone again. McCone highlighted to President Johnson further evidence of Lee Harvey Oswald’s dealing with foreign nationals. These connections indicated to the CIA that Oswald was a small part o
f a wider international conspiracy. As the CIA undertook this investigation into a wider conspiracy, and they began to swap documentation with the State Department, part of a sealed file on Lee Harvey Oswald that was labelled ‘SECRET’ was ‘accidently’ destroyed. It was claimed that no one at either the State Department or the CIA could remember the content of the sealed secret file.
1.35 p.m. After his briefing with McCone, President Johnson telephoned his close friend and lawyer Edwin Weisl, a man who was soon to be appointed as the Assistant Attorney General; put in office to keep a watchful eye on Bobby Kennedy. The telephone conversation was recorded by the Whitehouse security system; and President Johnson was heard to say in part; ‘This assassin...may have a lot more complications than you know about...it may lay deeper than you think’.