Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK

by Mark Lane

  Mr. De Mohrenschildt, accused of being a spy by two separate governments and an agent, according to his own testimony, for three others, certainly did manage to stumble into odd happenings. While the commission asserted its version of that event, Marina, who was present at the time, offered another view.

  “I know that De Mohrenschildt had said that the rifle had been shown to him, but I do not remember that” (Vol. 1, p. 14).

  De Mohrenschildt testified that it was only after the rifle was displayed by Marina that he “jokingly” brought up the Walker incident. Marina, on the other hand, said that De Mohrenschildt raised that subject the moment he saw Oswald and before he even would have had an opportunity to view the rifle in the closet:

  “De Mohrenschildt—as soon as he opened the door, he said to Lee, ‘How could you have missed, how could you have missed him?’” (Vol. 5, p. 619).

  The decision not to probe further into De Mohrenchildt’s association with the events of November 22 was arrived at quite deliberately. A minority among those charged with making that decision felt the matter was worthy of intensive investigation, given De Mohrenschildt’s extraordinary background and his association with events related to bringing Oswald to Dallas and placing him in the book depository building. The majority took the position that it was the commission’s role to dispel the doubts that existed regarding a possible conspiracy, not to create new ones. The decisive factor in the determination to allow the matter to escape further scrutiny was De Mohrenschildt’s alleged “associations that led right up to the White House, to President Johnson’s associates in oil interests in Texas.”

  The commission’s decision to explore no further, while unsound from an investigatory view, was consistent with its understanding of its tasks, since its preconception that Oswald was the lone assassin precluded the necessity of looking further. For Oswald was the assassin and he acted alone.

  Historians, no doubt, will devote many volumes to the commission’s omissions. Here, as an example of the ample virgin terrain, we have just touched upon one.

  Acknowledgments

  In Gratitude

  Thank you, the Charlottesville Gang. Sue Herndon, an excellent writer and critic who also became an expert on MKULTRA and who helped to organize the massive research documents and the manuscript. Professor Emeritus Paul Gaston taught American history at the University of Virginia and was among the first to read the manuscript and offer insights and extraordinary encouragement. The support of Bonnie Herndon, another writer and critic, was important. We all live down the block from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and I think that was a factor.

  The contributions of my wife, Trish, are indispensable once again. She remains the best editor I have ever worked with.

  The last members of the group are Giselle, probably the smartest of us all, a beautiful all-black German Shepherd, and Squash, an orange cat who is the most gentle and loving member of the gang.

  There are authors whose works have provided information and analysis and I am grateful to them. They include:

  • John Marks and his historic work both in securing information and in writing The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate:” The CIA and Mind Control.

  • Abraham Bolden, a courageous and patriotic American, for his contributions and for his book, The Echo from Dealey Plaza.

  • James W. Douglass, for his kindness to me in sharing information, and for his book JFK and the Unspeakable.

  • Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, for their book, Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press.

  And of course, for Google and Wikipedia, the indispensable research tools.

  At the outset there were student volunteers from all over the nation who joined with us in New York and later in Washington, D.C. They asked not what their country could do for them but what they could for their country, and by their tireless work they answered their president’s call.

  Hundreds of ordinary people, teachers, housewives, businessmen, and authors became extraordinary citizen investigators and joined in the effort to obtain greater transparency from their government. Some became life long friends and supporters including Peter Tomasino, researcher, analyst, and business executive, and Pauley Perrette of NCIS-TV fame (Abby) who became the director and producer of the documentary film Citizen Lane soon to be opening at film festivals and maybe at a theatre near you.

  With the development of the Internet, voices previously silenced could be heard and heeded. New means of communication helped to shape the Arab Spring and an international and spontaneous cry for democracy and the truth. In our own country it created a means for exchange and a call for the release of previously suppressed information about unsolved national questions. Among haunting questions were efforts to settle properly doubts about the death of our president. Websites were created and decades later a new generation of Americans were engaged. We are all indebted to those who have given life to serious efforts to explore serious questions for they honored the First Amendment. No doubt the founders never even dreamed of the possibility of the Internet, with the possible exception of Benjamin Franklin, but they knew that all forms of inquiry, those familiar and creations yet to come, must be free and untrammeled if democracy is to thrive. They knew that suppression and coverup was the dark way of tyranny and transparency the way of light. I urge you to join the discussion by checking out maryferrell.org, Spartacus.schoolnet.com.uk/JFK.htm, educationforum.com’s JFK debate, Brent Holland’s radio show at brenthollandshow.com and Len Osanic’s Black Ops Radio at blackopradio.com.

  And there are others who agreed to be tribunes of the people including Harvey Levin and TMZ-TV and Harvey’s TMZ website.

  It is customary to thank your publisher whether it is deserved or not. It this case it is most appropriate, in fact mandatory. Those who labor at Skyhorse Publishing deserve our respect and gratitude, for this has not been an easy book to publish in the United States in the year 2011. Its lessons are all too clear and its meaning unambiguous. Thank you, Tony Lyons, Herman Graf and Jennifer McCartney.

  I have run out of superlatives just when I was most in need of them. But words are inadequate to express my appreciation for Bob Tanenbaum’s heroic introduction. When the country’s best former prosecutor (also presently among its most successful authors) says kind things about a defense lawyer, we note that we have achieved something. I predict that many may obtain this book to read his opening remarks.

  Mark Lane may be contacted at marklane.com