Dead Wrong: Straight Facts on the Country's Most Controversial Cover-Ups
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Shot#6 Shot enters and shatters Governor Connally’s right wrist, traveling through-and-through and then enters his thigh. (When Governor Shot #6 Connally died, investigators attempted to obtain permission to autopsy his wrist, to examine the fragments of metal still lodged within it. Those efforts were denied.)
shot #7 Strikes the windshield of the President’s limousine, traversing through-and-through. The bullet hole was observed by at least two Dallas Police Officers: Sergeant Stavis Ellis and Officer H. R. Freeman, as well as journalist Richard Dudman, while the limo sat parked near the emergency room at Parkland Memorial. The bullet hole was”just left of center” in the front windshield. Sergeant Ellis testified that he observed what he determined was a bullet hole in the windshield; that it was not chipped glass: “You could put a pencil through it.”231
shot #8 Hits President Kennedy in the back of his head from the rear. This shot was only milliseconds prior to the final head shot, causing Shot #8 the slight forward motion in the President’s head which is clearly visible before the final shot (see the full examination by Dankbaar at www.jfkmurdersolved.com.
shot #9 Hits President Kennedy from the front, entering at his right temple, Shot #9 causing a massive blowback exit from the right rear of his skull and forcefully driving his head and entire body backward and to his left.
(Based on the work of Walt Brown, Ph.D., Robert Groden, Douglas Herman, Craig Roberts, and Wim Dankbaar: Groden, 1993, Harvard Science Center; Herman; 2005; Dankbaar, 2006; Roberts, 1994. Also see “The Shots in Dealey Plaza,” William Orchard, 2010. http://theshotsindealeyplaza.com/?
Ballistics expert Orlando Martin reached much the same conclusions in his 2010 study that has been termed the “Preeminent Ballistics Analysis of the JFK Assassination”:232
•At least five shots were fired;
•From three shooters in three different locations;
•With bullets that were different loads and weights.233
It has been scientifically established that different bullets were used, meaning that they had to be the product of multiple weapons. While most of the bullets were normal rounds, the bullet from the fatal frontal shot was clearly a “frangible” bullet, known as a “hot load” or exploding ammo. Physics, not the Warren Commission, proves conclusively that it was a bullet of this type that struck President Kennedy’s forehead. The lack of copper in the bullet that missed the motorcade and hit the curbstone, also indicates that a weapon other than Oswald’s alleged rifle had to have been used that day.234
Professor James Fetzer is also a former Marine Corps officer who supervised recruit training and marksmanship instruction at the same rifle range and depot where Oswald took his training. His 2000 study of the science of the assassination brought together an amazing collection of highly qualified research:
“The contributors whose work has been brought together in this volume include the leading authority on the Secret Service (Vincent Palamara); the most knowledgeable student of the Presidential limousine (Douglas Weldon, J.D.); a leading expert on the medical evidence at Parkland and at Bethesda (Gary Aguilar, M.D.); the single most highly qualified person to ever study this case (David W. Mantik, M.D., Ph.D.); the Senior Analyst for Military Records for the ARRB (Douglas Horne); a legendary photoanalyst who advised the House Select Committee during its reinvestigation (Jack White); a world-famous philosopher who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950 (Bertrand Russell); a prize- winning director and playwright, who has produced a brilliant chronology (Ira David Wood III); and a philosopher of science who has published more than twenty books and 100 articles in his fields of expertise (James H. Fetzer, Ph.D.).”235
That study concluded that:
“An absolute minimum of six shots had to have been fired during the assassination, where the total was more likely eight, nine, or even ten.”236
There are other very credible reports of additional shots; one striking the chrome trim strip of the limousine’s windshield and one striking the freeway sign on Elm Street (see Roberts; 1994). There were, in fact, so many gunshots, that their precise reconstruction proves very difficult. That is why the Secret Service agent in charge on the scene described the event as:
“ ... a flurry of shots”237
—Roy Kellerman, U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge, White House Secret Service Detail, Dallas trip
A rarely publicized fact is that substantial bullet fragments were retrieved from inside the limousine:
“Gerald Posner, writing in Case Closed, wrote that over sixty grams of fragments were recovered from inside the limo. That is a hell of a lot of fragments.”238
The man in charge of the White House Secret Service Detail at ground-level in Dealey Plaza that day was Roy Kellerman. He was riding in the front passenger seat of the Presidential limousine, in front of President Kennedy. In his testimony for the Warren Commission, Special Agent Kellerman was very challenging toward the quickly-conceived conclusions of the Commission. His summary of the event is that they suddenly thought they had driven right into an ambush because they were taking fire from all directions as “a flurry of shells came into the car.” He didn’t think there were more than three shots, he knew there were:
“President Kennedy had four wounds, two in the head and shoulder and the neck. Governor Connally, from our reports, had three. There have got to be more than three shots, gentlemen.”239
CIA veteran John Stockwell analyzed the assassination from a professional tactical standpoint and concluded:
“Kennedy was shot at very close range from firing stations, probably four of them, where the assassins fired eight to ten shots. He was hit in the back, throat, and twice in the head, two bullets each from the front and from the back. Texas Governor John Connally was hit twice. Two bullets were fired into the concrete, one on each side of the convoy.”240
The Fetzer study also proved that:
•The weapon that Oswald is alleged to have used could not have fired the bullets that killed JFK: the carbine was not a high-velocity weapon.241
•“Everyone, including Posner, agrees that the muzzle velocity of the Mannlicher-Carcano was 2,000 fps (feet per second). The death certificates, autopsy report, and Warren Commission declared he was killed by the impact of high-velocity bullets. High velocity would be 2,600 fps and up.”242
•The shot striking the right forehead was from a frangible or “exploding” bullet, as evidenced by the extensive shockwaves of damage through the brain; Oswald’s bullets were standard copper-jacketed military ammunition which could not have inflicted frangible damage.243
U.S. Military Intelligence operative William Robert “Tosh” Plumlee, witnessed the assassination from a close vantage point on the south knoll of Dealey Plaza (to the left-front of the motorcade) and also witnessed more than 3 gunshots, also referring to it as “a flurry of shots”:
“Sergio and I at that time were standing on the south knoll, about 150 yards east of the Triple Overpass and about 5 feet up on the side of that hill, in line with the lamp posts down on the street.
Then all of a sudden, all hell broke loose—a flurry of shots—at least four, and we both thought more probably five; two of which were very close together.”244
The two shots that Intelligence veteran Tosh Plumlee refers to as “very close together” pose an additional gunfire inconsistency that also eliminates the possibility of a lone gunman:
TWO CLOSELY-SPACED SHOTS:
Many extremely credible witnesses heard two simultaneous shots; two separate shots that were so close together they could not have been fired from the weapon reportedly used. Among these witnesses were law enforcement officials very familiar with gunfire, from the U.S. Secret Service, Military Intelligence, Dallas Police Department, and Dallas County Deputy Sheriffs.245
If even one of the many accounts of two closely-spaced shots is correct, then the position of the Warren Commission falls apart like a house of cards:
“Any two closely spaced (authenti
c) shots are incompatible with a single gunman firing a Mannlicher-Carcano. If only one of these ear witnesses is correct, the Warren Report is wrong.”246
SHOT FROM WEST (FRONT) OF MOTORCADE: Numerous eyewitness reports, including officials of the U.S. Secret Service, Military Intelligence, Dallas County Deputy Sheriffs, and officers of the Dallas Police Department reported a shot coming from the west, or front, of the motorcade.247
In conclusion, there were too many shots, too close together, from too many directions, with different types of bullets, to be the work of a single shooter. It is now ludicrous to look at all the evidence and not conclude there was more than one gunman.
PROOF THAT OSWALD WAS U.S. INTELLIGENCE
At least eighteen U.S. intelligence veterans with direct and pertinent knowledge concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was operational with U.S. Intelligence.248
Marina Oswald, widow of the accused, has also gone on record that she believes her husband was working for U.S. Intelligence.249
Former Military Intelligence “Special Ops” Operative William Robert “Tosh” Plumlee was one of the first (if not the first) to go public about Iran-Contra and ongoing intelligence matters with “secret crews” in Costa Rica. He was originally recruited at Ft. Bliss, Texas for secret military “off-the-books” operations in 1954 and then went on to participate in the CIA’s secret anti-Cuban operations. His bona fides can be verified at: http://toshplumlee.info/
“Oswald was Military Intelligence. He was operational in military ops. I know that from both direct experience and from liaison with my superior Intelligence officers. That’s not an allegation—that’s a fact. Oswald was Military Intelligence.”250
Affidavit of William R. Plumlee
My name is William Robert “Tosh” Plumlee. I was an associate member of an Army Military Intelligence unit which was secretly assigned to the Pentagon. I was attached “TDY” (Temporary Duty) status as a “coded field operative” to the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). My assigned operational duties were classified; however I was primarily an aircraft pilot, flying secret covert missions for the CIA’s JM/WAVE operations during the infamous Cuban Project of the early sixties.
In the spring of 1961, I was attached to a little-known unit within the project, known as “Task Force W”. In the early days of the Cuban conflict, this unit, and its many splintered support groups, acted as a special top secret strike force for emergency military actions in support of Presidential policies of the time. This secret unit with all its fail-safe “cut-outs” was on some occasions used by the Secret Service for Presidential protection and security. Some TFW operational units were attached directly to the Pentagon and our dispatches and orders came at the direction of a high-level covert action group, embedded deep within the Pentagon, CIA and the NSC (National Security Council) White House staff; as well as directly from the President of the United States.
In the early to mid-1960s, a “special group” was formed and was soon referred to as the 5412 and later as the 5412/2. This planning and operational group at times met within the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room. Orders for my TFW unit usually came via chain of command from the President or from this special group and its counterpart—known within the CIA as “Operation 40”—an administrative branch of the military OMC (Operations Military Covert) and the CIA’s Covert Action Group (CAG). OMC dispatched orders for military-type action and assault groups, such as the CIA’s own WH/Task Force Division W (Western Hemisphere, Task Force Division W) These operational approvals were handed down from administrative functions such as OPS-40 or the 5412, Pentagon, Joint Chiefs of Staff, or at the President’s discretion.
Therefore, the Military Industrial Complex had, embedded within it, these secret military teams that acted as a “Praetorian Guard” for Presidential protection or special use, at the whim of the President of the United States. The CIA acted as logistical support for these teams. However, there would never be any paperwork to that effect, especially not to an FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request. Our units were military, not CIA, and paper trails were carefully avoided.
My assigned operative name, used on covert operations, was William H. “Buck” Pearson. My codename, before and after the Bay of Pigs, was “Zapata”. I have a secret classified file, as defined within the National Security Statutes, under the above names, assigned by the Miami CIA Cuban Desk (1960-63 MI/CIA OMC-TFW-7; Section C; locator Tabs B & D- classified information); portions of this file were declassified in August, 1998. I held a classified QC-2 type clearance, sometimes erroneously referred to as a “crypto type 2 clearance”.
I have provided secret closed-door testimony to the U.S. government on four occasions, including to the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge of the Denver Colorado, OO (Office of Origin) in February of 1964; to the Department of Justice, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, also in 1964. I have also provided testimony to investigators for Senator Church’s Committee in 1975-76; as well as to the House Select Committee on Assassinations, (HSCA). In 1989 and 1991, I testified to Senator John Kerry’s Committee concerning drug smuggling and the Iran/Contra affair. These investigations of me, and testimonies by me, remain sealed and classified as “Top Secret; Committee Sensitive” to this day.
I have previously made the following statements voluntarily to various law enforcement and investigative bodies, only for the historical record, and too, without remuneration. I do not make any implication further than the factual statements previously made and which follow below.
•Lee Harvey Oswald was a Military Intelligence operative. I had associations with Lee Harvey Oswald in the course of his Intelligence training and also in the course of my Intelligence service. I first met Oswald at Illusionary Warfare training (propaganda, language instruction, false identities, maintenance of cover stories, etc.) at Nag’s Head, North Carolina in 1957. Oswald was taking language courses at the same complex where I was taking Illusionary Warfare training classes. These courses, at the time, were referred to as “Spook School” and were preparatory to “going covert in international operations.” Everybody who was there was CIA or Military Intelligence, or at least they were in some form of government training for their particular covert mission.
•At the time, I had no reason to focus on Oswald or his training. He was just one more of many—as I also was one of many—at that training facility. I ran across Lee Harvey Oswald again, in Hawaii, after I completed a course in jungle warfare training, which was held on the big Island of Hawaii. Oswald was shipping out for Japan at that time. I did not know him, nor did I talk to him. Several years later, in 1962, I accidentally ran into Oswald again in Dallas at a Cuban “safe house”—an apartment house behind the house where he had rented a room on North Beckley Street in Oak Cliff. I thought it strange that he was present in the course of a government-sanctioned gunrunning operation in which I was a participant. Oswald also had access to another safe house for a very short time on Elsbeth Street, a few blocks from the Beckley street address where a Cuban, whom I knew by the name of Fernandez, had a room. These individuals were known by me to be functioning operationally at that time with the Alpha 66 anti-Castro group out of Miami, Florida. My operational understanding and assumption was that Oswald was working some form of military operations associated with the Dallas gunrunning operations of the time. When I asked about this strange encounter or coincidence, I was told that Oswald was somehow associated with ONI Intelligence. It was also confirmed to me by my associates that Oswald was connected in some format as an operative of sorts. At that early date, that was as far as it went. This limited information was passed to me through my liaison with Captain Edward G. Seiwell of the Fourth Army Reserve, Dallas, Love Field, and Captain Gilbert C. Cook of a special unit from the 49th Armored Division, 156th Tank Battalion, connected to the 112th MIG (Military Intelligence Group), Dallas, Texas and San Marcos, Texas. I was informed by them that Oswald was somehow attached to ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) and was or had been, active a
t two known ONI facilities in the Dallas area; Hensley Field in Grand Prairie, Texas and a facility at Bachman’s Lake, near Dallas’ Love Field. They were confident in their statements, regarding Oswald’s affiliation with ONI.
•I piloted many covert missions for the United States government in the years just prior to the assassination of President Kennedy. John Roselli, also known to me by his Intelligence codename”Colonel—Ralston” a.k.a. “Rawlston”—was a passenger on many of my flights in Florida, Cuba, and Texas. I knew Roselli was part of covert Intelligence operations and I have personally had irrefutable confirmation on many occasions to that fact. Roselli was so well-known in covert Intell circles that he was usually referred to simply as “The Colonel”. I was aware of the ongoing assassination attempts toward Fidel Castro at the time. I also transported Charles Nicoletti on two separate occasions; to Santa Barbara, California and Las Vegas, Nevada. I knew Nicoletti as “Raven”; a codename given to me by my case officer as the person I was to transport. I do not think this was a covert assigned name for Nicoletti and I am not sure if he, like Roselli, was connected directly with military operations or CIA activities.