Lee Oswald- The Rest of the Story

DALLAS- On November 22, 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. We are all aware the story told to us that Kennedy was shot by a lone gunman by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald who was a rabid Communist, a loner and someone who wanted to make a name for himself by gunning down the most powerful man in the world. Was Oswald a loner? We will soon discover that Oswald was not only not a loner, but very well connected among prominent members of society. Once we learn the facts about who Lee Oswald truly was, and learn the facts of what happened on the events leading up to and including that tragic day, it may cause you to reconsider our views and opinions about our own national government. This same government who has lied to the American people on countless other events such as hiding from the public that millions of Americans in the 1950’s were injected with cancer causing agents found in the polio vaccine and the government kept it secret, Watergate, Iran-Contra, Whitewater and a government that failed us by allowing an unconstitutional law such as obamacare to become the law of the land. Most Americans in 1963 had a naive view that our government would never lie to its citizens. Many today in 2014 would question that premise.

Oswald- the 1950’s

Lee Oswald was born October 18, 1939. In 1953 Lee when Lee was 13, a new television program debuted called “I Led Three Lives”. The show is a story of an FBI informant who posed as a communist spy, and it had a huge impact on Lee’s future as he had developed very early his intent to become a spy. When Oswald was 15, he joined the Civil Air Patrol. His CAP leader was a man named David Ferrie. Ferrie was an airline pilot, private investigator, and an outspoken right-winger, and an ardent anti-communist. He once wrote to the US Secretary of Defense, “There is nothing I would enjoy better than blowing the head off of every damn Russian, communist… Between my friends, you and I, we can cook up a crew that can really blow them to hell… I want to train killers.”  Someone in the CIA must have seen the value of an airline pilot who wanted to train killers, because years later Ferrie started moonlighting as a pilot for the CIA. Ferrie would later be a major influence on Lee’s life and his ultimate destiny.

Ferrie recommended Lee to the contacts in the Marines as a candidate for intelligence training as a spy- Lee's great dream. All he had to do was survive marine boot camp. He received two years of specialized training.  Oswald was so eager to join the Marines that in the fall of 1955 even going to have his mother sign a false affidavit stating he was 17 so he could join. He had to wait another full year before eventually joining, and on October 26, 1956 Oswald arrived at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego.  He then was shipped to Japan in August 1957 to work at one of two bases where the top secret U-2 spy plane flights were originating. He was assigned to Atsugi base, which housed a large CIA facility. It was in Japan that Oswald began working as a US Intelligence Operative. One night Oswald was sitting alone at a bar when an attractive woman approached him and began questioning him about his work in Japan. Since his work involved the highly secret U-2 plane, Oswald reported this meeting to his superior officer. Oswald was told that he could do his country a great service by giving false information to the woman, a known KGB agent. It was about this time that the military began teaching Oswald Russian. Lieutenant Colonel Folsom testified as part of the Warren Commission’s report on Oswald’s training that he was given a Russian examination at El Toro. You may be asking yourself why was a marine given a Russian language test? The fact that Oswald had in early 1959 received some intelligence training is a big red flag.  On August 17, 1959, Oswald applied for a dependency discharge from the Marines, and his reason was to help his mother, and he was released from the service on September 11, 1959. On September 4, 1959 however, Oswald applied for a passport and indicated that he may travel to various countries including Russia and Cuba. This was of course in opposition of his claim that he was going home to Fort Worth to take care of his mother.  On September 20, 1959, Oswald left on the first leg of his journey that would take him to his destiny- via Russia.

Oswald “defects” to the Soviet Union

Oswald lived and worked in the Soviet Union from late 1959, married a Russian woman before arriving back in New York in June 1962. Oswald's apartment in Minsk was far nicer than that of the average Russian worker. By spring 1961, shortly after Oswald made his request to return to the US, he met a Russian woman that would ultimately become his wife. At a trade union dance, Oswald met Marina Prusakova. Marina said they spoke Russian and she believed Oswald to be a Soviet citizen, but from the Baltic area based on his accent. They married on April 30, 1961 less than six weeks after they met. They had a baby girl- June Lee Oswald- was born on February 15, 1962.

It was noteworthy that the State Department approved Oswald’s return, although it could have easily refused a ‘defector’s’ request. In reality, he never actually defected because he never gave up his American citizenship. They added there was no indication in FBI reports that Oswald was a communist. Oswald’s passport also renewed by the American embassy in August 1961. In addition, when he left the Soviet Union to return the United States, he did so upon a military flight- which would indicate that he was no defector, but instead would suggest that he was working for the American government. The matter in which Oswald travelled so easily in and out of Russia as well as his unaccounted-for-funds he used suggests intelligence guidance. The ability of an American “defector” to leave the Soviet Union with his Russian-born wife at a time when most Russians were being denied exit permits raises serious red flags. The ease at which this would-be defector obtained passports in both 1959 and 1963 is also noteworthy.

Ordinarily, when a US citizen goes abroad and commits and act indicating allegiance to another country, particularly the Soviet Union, the Passport Office automatically prepares a ‘lookout’ card. No such ‘lookout’ card was ever prepared for Oswald. The United States government’s actions demonstrated a steady, uninterrupted pattern of preferential treatment towards Oswald. The government never prosecuted Oswald for his alleged defection.

A former CIA finance officer, James Wilcott, testified to the House Select Committee on Assassinations that Oswald had been recruited from the military by the CIA and was a secret operative for a spy agency in Japan. Wilcott, who served in the CIA from 1957 through 1966, said after Kennedy’s assassination he had several conversations with CIA personnel, he became convinced that Oswald was brought into the CIA while serving as a radar operator in Japan and later was sent to infiltrate Russia as a spy.  Gerry Patrick Hemming, a Marine with Oswald who was recruited into the CIA, has told of meeting Oswald in the Cuban consulate. Hemming, himself working naval intelligence, said Oswald seemed to be “an informant or some type of agent working for somebody.” Judge Botelho, Oswald’s former roommate from the Marines told of his reaction to Oswald’s trip to Russia: “If he Oswald was a communist, I would have taken violent action against him and so would many of the other Marines in the unit… Then when no real investigation about Oswald occurred at the base, I was sure Oswald was on an intelligence assignment in Russia. When the Marine Corps and American intelligence decided not to probe the reason for the “defection”, I knew then what I know now; Oswald was on assignment in Russia for American Intelligence.” So we have a CIA officer and two former marines have both stated that Oswald worked for US intelligence which confirms that Oswald was not a lone-nut, but quite connected within the US government. 

Oswald returns to the United States

In October 1962, Oswald was back in North Texas and obtained a job that would be highly unlikely for a former defector to the Soviet Union. His job was at Jagger-Chiles-Stovall, a photography and mapping company that specialized in classified government and military work. Part of the work appeared to be related to top-secret U-2 missions, some of which were making flights over Cuba. This job required an extremely high security classification. Lee Oswald not only was given the job within one week of his arrival in Dallas, but also had access to a variety of classified materials. If Oswald truly had leanings towards communism- as our government had assured us- then how in the world did he obtain such a highly classified position in less than one week to gain employment at an employer that was privy to such classified US government information?  

By 1963, Oswald, his wife and daughters had relocated to New Orleans. His marriage was on the rocks and Lee claimed that Marina was sleeping around and that they were headed towards divorce.  Lee’s mother also lived in New Orleans. She was connected to the mafia through her various boyfriends over the years, one of which was New Orleans crime boss Marcello’s driver. She had also worked for the law firm that represented Marcello. Lee also was reacquainted with his former Civil Air Patrol teacher David Ferrie. Ferrie also went on to have connections with New Orleans mafia boss Carlos Marcello, anti-Castro Cuban groups, FBI agent Guy Bannister and the CIA. Ferrie’s role as CIA agent was confirmed in 1975 when Victor Marchetti, former executive assistant to the CIA’s deputy director, stated that during high-level CIA meetings in 1969, CIA director Richard Helms discovered the Ferrie had indeed worked for the agency aiding the anti-Castro Cubans.  Guy Bannister was the former head of the Chicago FBI office. Bannister along with David Ferrie also had the reputation as staunch anti-communists. Bannister along with Ferrie would be two of the most influential figures in Lee Oswald’s life and both men were connected with US intelligence agencies.

It was at 544 Camp Street in New Orleans that the paths of Lee Oswald, the FBI, the CIA, anti-Castro Cubans, and organized crime all crossed. Bannister, being a former FBI man had connections reaching into the bureau, the CIA, and organized crime as well as the Cuban exiles. In 1978, Bannister’s secretary, Delphine Roberts, told the Dallas Morning News that Oswald worked for Bannister as “an undercover agent” in the summer of 1963. During that same time, another of Bannister’s employees was Oswald’s former Civil Air Patrol leader, David Ferrie, who worked for both the CIA and the New Orleans mob.

By the spring of 1963, Oswald, Ferrie and Bannister were all heavily involved in a plot to overthrow Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro. Ferrie was hired by the CIA used to train Cuban guerrillas for the purpose of overthrowing Castro. This was also at a time where Oswald met a woman named Judy Vary Baker. Baker was a promising science student who was recognized by professors and scientists alike for her work with cancer research while in high school. Her work with Melanoma in 1961 caught the eye of Dr. Alton Ochsner. Dr. Ochsner was the past president of the American Cancer society and founder of the OchsnerClinic in New Orleans. Oschner shared Bannister’s and Ferrie’s staunch anti-communist views. Ochsner was so impressed with Baker’s research on cancer, that he invited her to come work under the direction of noted cancer specialist, Dr. Mary Sherman for a summer internship with the promise that she would gain early entry into Tulane Medical School. Dr. Sherman was the Director of the Bone Pathology Lab at the Ochsner Clinic. She was a cancer researcher and a professor at Tulane Medical School. Soon thereafter, Dr. Ochsner then asked Judy to take part in a top-secret CIA sponsored project to secretly develop a bioweapon by creating a cancer-causing virus to inject into Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Oswald would eventually be involved in this bioweapon project to kill Castro, and this lead to both Baker and Oswald spending a lot of time together and becoming very close personally.

Oswald worked for Bannister during the spring and summer of 1963. With the perception that Oswald was a communist sympathizer, he ironically became a valuable weapon for Bannister’s anti-communist agenda. On April 29, 1963, Guy Bannister told Judy Vary Baker that Oswald was working with him, and was being groomed to do his part to save Cuba from communism in their “Get Castro” project. Bannister and Oswald would conspire together to make Lee appear to be a communist so that he could more easily gain access into Cuba with the intent that he could deliver the bioweapon to anti-Castro doctors where they could inject Castro with the bioweapon so that he would contract caner. Soon Lee began to learn procedures to keep the cell cultures alive.

On May 4, 1963, Lee was a reading a newspaper article when he devised a plan that would get him into Cuba as he realized his best bet to gain entry into Cuba is if the public believed he was a pro-communist. Bannister and Lee then concocted a plan where he would hand out pro-Castro fliers in a public place and insure the news media and TV cameras there to take pictures. Lee said, “If I can create a pro-Castro ‘incident’ with the TV cameras there,” he said smiling, I’ll make a good impression.”  On May 5, 1963, Lee, Baker and David Ferrie discussed what would be referred to as “The Project”, which their goal was to create a cancer virus that would make anyone or anything in contact with the virus to contract cancer. They would first test this virus first in mice, then monkeys, then humans and if they all succumbed to cancer, then they would inject Castro with the virus. Dr. Oschner would oversee the project, while Dr. Mary Sherman and Judy Vary Baker were also actively involved.

In May 1963, both Oswald and Judy began working cover jobs at Reily’s Coffee Company.  Below is a copy of one of Baker’s paystubs.

On May 6, 1963, Ferrie introduces Judy Vary Baker to Jack Ruby. Ruby was in town from Dallas as a guest of Ferrie at his apartment. At one point during the night, Ruby was kidding around with Judy about her physique. At one point of the evening, Ruby demonstrated his own physical abilities by walking around the apartment on his hands. After Ruby’s demonstration was done, Ruby and Judy begin to talk about Lee. Ruby said, “I’ve known Lee ever since he was a little boy”. When Ruby was first getting setup in the mob, by Marcello’s helper, he met Lee’s mother and uncle. Lee's uncle was in the mob. Ferrie also told Judy that Ruby cared about Oswald like a son. Retired Army General Edwin Walker confirmed that Ruby had known Oswald.

By July 1963, Lee had been at Ferrie's for hours killing cancerous mice by the hundreds and cutting tumors out of their bodies. On July 18, 1963, Lee tells Judy that he is loaned to the CIA, but sometimes he helps the FBI. He also said he didn’t know who is main handler was. On July 29, 1963, Lee met with Judy, and for the first time confided to her that he thought he was going to be killed. He added that because his efforts to advance in the ranks were being stymied, probably because it was too risky to trust a returned fake defector. Lee believed that they would no longer send him into Cuba because he knew too much. He also knew that there was an increasing interest to have President Kennedy killed. Lee commented that there was an elite circle of powerful men, mostly from Texas, composed of politicians, oil magistrates, including CIA officers. From their perspective, the country was being held hostage by a President slow enough to welcome war which would bring communism to its knees and reap lucrative benefits for Texas and its power brokers.  Lee added, “My concern is this. They want to kill the chief. And as the only “insider” with a publicly provable motive to shoot him- since I look like a Castro agent – they could set me up so easily. I can see it coming.” When Judy asked him to get out now, Lee said that he couldn’t because they would kill David Ferrie, Dr. Mary and possible Judy and he was not willing to do that.

By August 1963, it was time for Bannister’s plan for Oswald to take shape.  On Friday August 9, 1963, the time had come for Lee to take to the street to puff up his pro Castro image by publicly pronouncing support for Cuba so that he would gain the reputation of being a communist so that it would be easier for him to courier the bioweapon into Cuba via Mexico. This was a staged event planned by both Lee and Guy Bannister. Lee began handing out fliers with a message for America to keep its hands off of Cuba. Lee also went on TV to promote this 'pro-Cuba' image he was trying to portray. The following week, Lee would again he handing out flyers again on Canal Street. This time Bannister had Oschner to invite his friends at WDSU-TV to bring their cameras out and film Oswald handing out flyers.

You will notice that one of the fliers inadvertently had the 544 Camp Street address on it. That address was Guy Bannister’s office address. To reiterate, Bannister was a former FBI man in Chicago and was known for being a fierce anti-communist. So the question to answer is why was Oswald’s pro-communist flier include the address of such a staunch anti-communist? The answer is simply reconfirming that Bannister and Oswald had a relationship and this was simply an effort by both men to have Oswald appear pro-communist so that he could enter Cuba to deliver the bioweapon used to kill Castro.

The bioweapon had been a success in transferring cancer cells in both mice and monkeys and now their next goal was to test this bioweapon on a human. On August 29, 1963, Lee, Ferrie, and Clay Shaw drove to the state penitentiary to perform their final test on their “Project” where they had arranged for a “volunteer” to be the recipient of the test.  Lee carried the bioweapon into the prison in his lunch sack. Ferrie gave the injections to the prisoner and Lee watched and took notes. It would take a few days for Judy to review the results. She then realized that the man injected with the bioweapon did not have cancer and she was horrified. Judy was both furious and terrified that the test had been performed on somebody not suffering from cancer. Judy confronted Ferrie about this and the following day she made a decision that would change her life forever as she so knew it. On August 30, 1963, Judy wrote a letter to Dr. Oschner to protest the direction the project was going. She felt what they were doing was evil and that Oschner was violating the Hippocratic Oath. It was the beginning of the end of Judy’s medical career. Oschner read the note and was furious. When he met with her, he threatened her and told her she would, “regret every damned word you ever said.” Oschner told her that she and Lee would have to be separated, and if anything bad happened to her, it would not be his fault. On August 31, 1963 Judy reviewed the slides of from the injections from the ‘volunteer’ and the early results indicated that there were cancer cells present, which was an excellent sign that the bioweapon worked. Later, Judy and Ferrie discussed what happened, and he was very sensitive to her situation. It would be the last time Judy would ever see Ferrie.  On September 3, 1963 Judy departed for Florida and said goodbye to Lee and it was the last time she would ever see Oswald.

By September 1963, Lee was on the move to Dallas to meet his handler and his contact who would make sure the bioweapon got into Cuba. Lee was then ordered back to New Orleans to lay low. It would now be a waiting game to see if the prisoner injected with cancer would die. On September 23, 1963, Lee received the phone call that the prisoner had died, and that meant Lee must soon leave for Mexico City with the bioweapon. Judy had already departed New Orleans back to Florida, but secretly Judy would be ready to ready to disappear with Lee in Mexico at his signal. A pilot, Alex Rourke, would fly her to meet Lee and they would start their new life together in Mexico. However Alex never made it to Mexico which would again raise Lee’s suspicions about being setup. Prior to Lee's trip to Mexico he again met with Jack Ruby.

Lee arrived in Mexico City on September, 27, 1963. The evening came where he was going to handoff the bioweapon. He went to the designated drop-off point to handoff the bioweapon to the technician who would continue to keep the cells alive. But the technician failed to show. When Lee attempted to contact his handler, he could not get ahold of him.  However Lee made one final attempt to get the bioweapon into Cuba because of his loyalty to Kennedy. Lee liked President Kennedy. He said, “if we can keep men like Kennedy in office, who don’t owe their souls to cartels and corporations, and will keep us from blowing ourselves to hell.” Lee then contacted the Mexico City CIA station, but they ordered him back to Dallas for “debriefing”. Everything in Mexico City had gone wrong and now it was obvious to Lee that he had been betrayed. The mission to kill Castro had failed and his attention was now focused on what would happen to President Kennedy.

On October 1963, Lee Oswald moved from New Orleans to Dallas. Ruth Paine obtained an interview for Lee at the Texas School Book Depository and he obtained the job. It is interesting to note that the Paine’s tax returns are classified as secret on the grounds of national security. What was so protective about this particular family that made the federal government so protective of them? Lee's boss told him that Lee was working undercover for the FBI. Three days later Lee told Judy over the phone, “that I won't live to see another birthday unless I can get out of here.” Lee also told Judy that he had been an invited to be an actual participant in the assassination plans against Kennedy. Lee was spending evenings with men who were plotting the death of the President of the United States.

By November 17, 1963, Lee had learned that Kennedy would be killed in one of three places: Love Field, the Trade Mart, or Dealy Plaza. Lee knew if he didn't follow orders that not only he would die, but his loved ones would also die. Also, former FBI employee William Walter was on night duty at the New Orleans FBI office he received a teletype from FBI headquarters warming against a possible assassination attempt on Kennedy during the coming trip to Dallas on November 22. Walter passed the info to five agents. It is a conjecture that what we know about Lee, that he was the one that sent this message.  In James Douglass’ book, JFK and the Unspeakable, Douglass explains that Kennedy was supposed to be assassinated on November 2, 1963 in Chicago. However the plot had been foiled from an informant named “Lee.” When the assassination occurred, Walter reviewed the file for the telex. The important question to ask is who sent the teletype? While it is quite possible that Oswald sent the teletype, we now know with no doubt that the government’s claim that the assassin was a “lone-nut” was obviously false unless you believe that the reports of a possible assassination and the act of it by a lone nut is just an odd coincidence. Later Walter discovered that the original teletype was destroyed.

On Wednesday night, November 20^th, 1963, only two days before the assassination, Judy had her last phone call with Oswald. It was highly emotional as Baker begged him to get out of the plot. But Oswald said he was trying to foil the plan and added, “If I stay, there will be one less bullet fired at Kennedy.” Oswald also repeated the name David Atlee Phillips, saying this was the man he believed was organizing the assassination. Philips was also named by E. Howard Hunt in a 2007 deathbed statement as one of many who was involved in the assassination plot.

The Witnesses from November 22, 1963

At just before 12:30 PM CDT, President Kennedy arrived in Dealy Plaza in downtown Dallas. He was assassinated shortly thereafter and Oswald was quickly named the suspect.

At 12:15 PM, fifteen minutes prior to the assassination, one witness identified at the easternmost end of the sixth floor Book Depository (the alleged “assassin’s lair), a dark skinned man. However at the westernmost end of the building, the witness identified a man just back from the window with a rifle in his hands. Another witness also noticed a man on the sixth floor of the Depository wearing a white shirt and another man in the same window wearing a brown suit. After the shooting began, another witness identified a shooter had a distinct bald spot on his head. He described the bald area as going back about two and a half inches from the hairline. Another witness, Sherriff Roger Craig of the Dallas Sheriff’s office, identified Dallas police interviewing and subsequently releasing a dark-skinned man. A few minutes later, a Nash Rambler station wagon pulled up and picked up Oswald and then sped off. Oswald admitted this to police indicating he wanted to find out what had happened. Oswald also identified the Nash Rambler wagon as belonging to Ruth Paine- who got him the interview at the School Book Depository. Oswald did not have a distinct bald spot, nor was he dark skinned. In addition to the eyewitness descriptions, other evidence pointed away from Oswald. For example, Oswald’s fingerprints were never found on the rifle he was have alleged to use.

Several different employees provided an alibi for Oswald during the time prior to and during the shooting. Eddie Piper was a janitor at the Texas School Book Depository. Piper told authorities he saw Oswald on the first floor about noon. Carolyn Arnold was a secretary working at the depository. She indicated that she saw Oswald just inside the building, close to the front door when she left the Depository at 12:25 PM.  James “Junior” Jarman and Harold Norman, who indirectly attested to Oswald’s presence on the first floor at “between 12:20 and 12:25.”  We must also not forget that other witnesses mentioned earlier testified that they saw men with rifles on the sixth floor of the depository at 12:15. Oswald has an alibi that he was on the first floor of the depository from at least 12 PM to at least 12:25.

Kennedy was then shot at 12:30 PM. Within two minutes after the assassination, motorcycle policeman Marrion L. Baker and Depository Superintendent Roy Truly would encounter Oswald in the second-floor lunchroom in the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald would have had to have fire the shots causing eight wounds, stopped to rearrange his box supports, then race to the opposite end of the Depository’s sixth floor to stash his rifle, then raced silently down four flights of stairs unseen by others, stop for a Coke in the vending machine- all in less than two minutes without losing his breath and then be discovered calmly by Baker and Truly less than two minutes later would have been impossible. His three alibi’s had him on the first floor of the depository from at least 12PM to 12:25, and now two more individuals can confirm Oswald on the second floor within two minutes after the assassination in a very calm tone while other testimony confirms men seen with shotguns on the sixth floor at the time Oswald was seen on the first floor.

Julia Ann Mercer was a very important witness. She was a few feet away when one of the riflemen unloaded at the grassy knoll shortly before the arrival of the presidential motorcade. She gave statements to both the FBI and Dallas Sheriff's office. She later read her transcripts printed in the Warren Commission’s exhibit and said all of her statements had been altered. Even her signature was altered. About an hour before the assassination she witnessed two men with a rifle and one left the truck and walk up the grassy knoll. The second man in the truck she identified later as Jack Ruby.

Dr. John Nichols is an expert in pathology and studied the Zapruder film. He testified under oath that the kill shot had been delivered from the front. He also testified that President Kennedy had also been shot from behind.

Navy commander Thomas Atkins was assigned to film major events involving President Kennedy. Atkins was in Dallas when Kennedy was shot and said, “the shots came from below and off the right side from where I was [the location of the Grassy Knoll].”

As the motorcade passed Dealey Plaza, it passed nearly twenty sheriff department deputies standing at the intersection of Main and Houston. In affidavits, the deputies almost unanimously agreed that they thought the shots came from the railroad yards located just behind the Grassy Knoll. They all began running towards the Grassy Knoll after the shots were fired.

James Tague was driving east on Commerce Street but was halted at Houston Street in traffic due to the arrival of the presidential motorcade. He said, “The shots were coming from the Grassy Knoll behind the concrete monument.” Tague watched a policeman run up the Grassy Knoll with a pistol drawn when another policeman came up to him and asked him what happened.  

About 40 witnesses on or around the Grassy Knoll saw that they heard shots or saw smoke in that area. Sam M. Holland, a track and signal supervisor for the Union Terminal Railroad Company said, “There was a shot, a report. I don’t know whether it was a shot. I can’t say that. And a puff of smoke came out about six or eight feet above the ground right out from under those trees.” James Simmons, also of Union Terminal confirms Holland’s statements. He said in his report to the FBI that smoke was seen near the front of the Grassy Knoll fence. Cheryl McKinnon, who later went to work for the San Diego Star News wrote, “Suddenly three shots in rapid succession rang out. Myself and dozens of others standing nearby turned in horror toward the back of the Grassy Knoll where it seemed the sounds had originated.  Puffs of white smoke still hung in the air in small patches.

Abraham Zapruder filmed his famous video of the assassination on top of a four-foot high concrete on the Grassy Knoll. Zapruder told the Warren Commission that following the shooting that he saw motorcycle policeman, “running right behind me … in the line of the shooting.”

Texas Governor John Connally told the Warren Commission that, “There were either two or three people involved or more in this or someone was shooting with an automatic rifle.”

Bill and Gayle Newman were just down the slope from the Grassy Knoll from Zapruder. He said he heard Mrs. Kennedy say, “Oh, my God no, they shot Jack!” Newman added, “He was knocked violently back against the seat, almost as if he had been hit by a baseball bat. At the time, I was looking right at the president and I thought the shots were coming directly behind us.” He then told his wife to get directly down to the ground.

Ed Hoffman was another Grassy Knoll witness. He was deaf since birth and therefore as is common with this disability, he cannot speak. Hoffman could not hear the motorcade coming, but he became aware of movement along the north side of the picket fence along the Grassy Knoll. He became aware of a man running west along the backside of the fence wearing a dark suit and a tie. The man was carrying a rifle in his hands. As the man reached a metal-pie railing at the west side of the pipe near the railroad tracks, a second man was wearing white coveralls and a railroad worker’s hat. The second man caught the rifle, ducked behind a large railroad switch box- and knelt down. The man dissembled the rifle and placed it in a soft brown bag, then walked nonchalantly north into the rail yards in the general direction of the railroad tower. Hoffman could not see or hear what was happening at that point. As Kennedy’s car came into sight, Hoffman saw the president lying on the seat of the blood spattered car and realized something terrible had occurred. Hoffman tried to alert Secret Service agents to what he had witnessed. He ran down the grassy incline waving his arms and trying to make them understand that he had seen something, when one of the agent’s in the president’s follow-up car produced a machine gun which he leveled at him. Hoffman stopped and threw his hands in the air and could only watch helplessly as the motorcade rushed past him. Hoffman then went trying to locate the man with the brown bag but was unsuccessful in finding him. Hoffman then drove to the Dallas FBI office, but because he was deaf and mute, they felt his story was unbelievable. One FBI man had told him to keep quiet about what he had seen or, “you might get killed.”

Other Nuggets– November 22, 1963

President Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1PM (CST) by Dr. Kenny Clark of Parkland Hospital. Dr. Charles A. Crenshaw was among the team that worked on saving the President. In 1992, he stated. “I stated that President Kennedy was shot at least once, and I believe twice, from the front, and Oswald could not have been a “lone gunman.” Dr. Crenshaw also mentioned that he received a call from President Johnson while trying to save the life of Lee Harvey Oswald. Crenshaw said that Johnson told him, “Dr. Crenshaw, I want a death-bed confession from the accused assassin. There’s a man in the operating room who take the statement. I expect full cooperation in this matter.”

The president death was legally a Texas homicide and by law, the body could not be removed until after an autopsy or coroner’s ruling, which would have involved further medical investigation. Dallas county medical examiner Dr. Earl Rose, tried to block the efforts of the Secret Service agents trying to remove Kennedy’s body from Parkland. But after some shouting, including profanities and, by some accounts, even drawn weapons, Dr. Rose was forced to step aside.

Both the Dallas Police, Dallas Sheriff’s office and the Dallas District Attorney identified a rifle found in the School Book Depository, as a Mauser 7.65 rifle. A deputy sheriff later executed a sworn affidavit in which he described the rifle as a Mauser. However three empty cartridges not from a Mauser, but from a Mannlicher-Carcano gun were found in the same room. The police and Warren Commission simply pass incorrect identification of a gun simply as a “mistake”. However years later, reports surfaced that shells from a Mauser gun were also found in Dealy Plaza which confirms shells from more than one gun were shot in Dealy Plaza which confirms at least two guns were used which confirms a conspiracy.

The shooting of Officer JT Tippit

The chief witness On Dallas Police Officer JT Tippit’s murder for the Warren Commission was Helen Markham. Markham claimed to have talked for some time with the dying Tippit, yet medical authorities said Tippit was killed instantly. Two witnesses to the shooting also indicate that they never saw Markham in the minutes following the shooting. Markham’s testimony as also inconsistent. She initially said that Tippit’s killer was short and stocky with bushy hair, which does not describe Oswald.

Several other witnesses include Acquilla Clemons, a black woman who claimed two men were involved in the Tippit shooting. Her description of the shooter was that he was, “kind of a short guy… kind of heavy.” Oswald was 5 feet eight inches weighing 135 pounds. Clemons was threatened into silence with a man with a gun and was never questioned and she later denied giving this description.

Another witness was Warren Reynolds, who chased Tippit’s killer. He, too, failed to identify Oswald as Tippit’s killer until after he was shot in the head two months later.

Dallas police sergeant Gerald Hill radioed the police dispatcher saying, “The shells at the scene indicate that the suspect is armed with an automatic .38.” Other officers at the scene believed an automatic weapon was used, based on the distance from Tippit’s body to where the shells were found.  The gun found on Oswald at the Texas Theatre at the time of his arrest was a revolver, not an automatic.

The bullets found in Tippit’s body and the cartridges found at the scene of his murder yielded further evidence of a setup. The coroner conducted an autopsy on Tippit’s body and removed four bullets. Three of the bullets were copper coated, and had been manufactured by Winchester Western. The fourth however was a lead bullet made by Remington Peters. What makes this important is that bullets are never sold in mixed lots. Gun users either bought a box of all Westerners or all Remington’s, but not some of each. The discovery of two different types of bullets in Tippit’s body would indicate that two different gunmen did the shooting, which would confirm what one witness testified to. Even more condemning for the government was that the FBI lab received only one bullet to be analyzed. The bureau’s lab found that the bullet did not match Oswald’s revolver.

It has been confirmed that Tippit was shot at 1:10 PM or later. According to a Butch Burroughs, a concession salesman in the Texas Theatre, he sold Oswald popcorn at 1:15 PM, which meant he was in the theatre at the time of the Tippit shooting. Aside from all of the physical evidence, Oswald was already in the Texas Theatre at the time that Tippit was shot.

The First 48

Dr. Malcom Perry performed the tracheostomy on Kennedy in an attempt to save his life. That afternoon, Dr. Perry told reporters that the President had been shot in the throat from in front.

Oswald never admitted his guilt and here he communicates that said he was setup.

Oswald was interrogated by Dallas police for more than 12 hours, yet nothing he said was recorded or even transcribed. Dallas cops claimed that there was not enough space in the interrogation room for a tape recorder or a secretary--for the most important murder investigation in American history! It was normal police procedure to record or transcribe every interrogation no matter the crime. The Dallas Police however felt the murder of the President of the United States however did not need to follow proper procedure.

On Saturday November 23, 1963, the day following the assassination, Ferrie called Judy Vary Baker. He told her, “It’s hopeless if you want to stay alive… promise me you will keep your mouth shut!”  Ferrie added, “I don’t want to lose you too… If there is any chance to save him, we’ll get him out of there, I swear to you. So play the dumb broad and save yourself.”

On Sunday November 24, 1963 on live TV, Dallas Police escorted Oswald out for a transfer from the basement of Dallas police headquarters to the county jail. Oswald’s long-time friend Jack Ruby emerged from the crowd and shot Oswald at point blank range. Oswald was taken to Parkland hospital but he was cut open without any anesthesia and was not given any oxygen. Oswald died soon thereafter.

Who was Jack Ruby?

As mentioned earlier, Ruby had known Oswald since Oswald was a young boy. Both had connections to New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello and it was this relationship that initially brought these men together as family since Oswald’s mother had dated Marcello’s driver and since she worked for the law firm representing Marcello.  In 1959, Jack Ruby made at-least two trips to Cuba making contacts with gununners in regards to Castro. Like Oswald, he also was involved in overthrowing Castro. According to Beverly Oliver, Ferrie and Oswald were seen together in Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club shortly before the assassination.

In was in the early morning hours of November 24, 1963 that Ruby may have tried to avert his rapidly approaching confrontation with Oswald. Even the Warren Commission noted this strange incident by reporting, “Between 2:30 and 3 AM, the local office of the FBI and the Dallas Police Department office received telephone calls from an unidentified man who warned that a committee had decided to ‘kill the man who killed the president”. Dallas police lieutenant Billy Grammer came on the phone. Ruby told Grammer, “you are going to have to make some other plans [with Oswald’s transportation from Dallas Police Department] or we are going to kill Oswald right there in the basement.” Lieutenant Grammer asked who was the on the phone, but Ruby would not give his name. However Lieutenant Grammer did recognize the voice. The police department and ultimately Chief Curry were informed of both threats. Later in the morning Grammer was awakened by his wife, who told him that Jack Ruby had just shot Oswald in the basement of the police station. A stunned Grammer told his wife that he suddenly realized that the familiar voice on the phone was Ruby’s. The public was never told about these events. In the video below, Lieutenant Grammer details specifically these events.

Mob boss Johnny Roselli was from Chicago which was Ruby’s hometown. According to columnist Jack Anderson, Roselli once told him, “When Oswald was picked up, the underworld conspirators feared he would crack and disclose information that might lead to them. This almost certainly would have brought a massive U.S. crackdown on the Mafia. So Jack Ruby was told to eliminate Oswald.”

After Ruby shot Oswald he was taken to jail and one of his inmates was named Don Ray Archer. Archer told British television in 1988 that, “his behavior was very hyper. He was sweating profusely. I could see his heart beating. He asked me for one of my cigarettes. I gave him a cigarette. Finally the head of the Secret Service came up and I conferred with him and he told me that Oswald … had died. This should have shocked [Ruby] because it would mean the death penalty. Instead of being shocked, he became calm, he quit sweating, his heart slowed down. I asked him if he wanted a cigarette and he advised me that he didn’t smoke. I was just astonished at the complete difference of behavior from what I had expected. I would say his life had depended on him getting Oswald.”

The House Selection Committee on Assassinations determined that there were many connections between Marcello and the JFK assassination- Marcello’s associate in Dallas, Joe Civello, was close with Jack Ruby, a Marcello employee.

The New Orleans Connection

Former New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison was the first to argue that Kennedy was killed as a part of a conspiracy. Garrison is the only person to ever bring criminal charges resulting from the assassination. The movie JFK brings to light much of what Garrison concluded. The media was very harsh on Garrison, but based on what we now know many years later, many should offer him a sincere apology. Garrison named David Ferrie as one of the chief suspects in a plot to assassinate President Kennedy and described him as, “one of history’s most important individuals.”

In New Orleans on November 22, 1963, the day of the assassination, former FBI man and current private investigator Guy Bannister and his investigator Jack Martin were involved in an argument. An angry Martin whispered to friends that Bannister had often been in the company of David Ferrie, who Martin claimed to drive to Texas that day of Kennedy’s assassination to serve as a getaway pilot for the assassins. Martin’s word soon reached the ears of District Attorney Jim Garrison, who arrested Ferrie upon his return to New Orleans, thus beginning an investigation into the JFK assassination that eventually turned into a worldwide media circus. The FBI never charged Ferrie with anything and the matter was dropped.

Several years later, Garrison had a conversation with Senator Long and he suggested that Kennedy was murdered as a part of a conspiracy. Garrison at that point starting revisiting the case by reading every word of the lengthy Warren Report. The more Garrison read the Warren Commission’s report the more he realized it was poorly written that was filled with more opinion than fact. Garrison is a former military man and therefore he was particularly shocked to read in the report that Oswald received a Russian examination. Garrison knew the mere fact that Oswald had been tested in Russian indicated that he had received intelligence training. Later Ferrie attempted to hire a man named Edward Whalen to kill Garrison for $25,000. Ferrie also told Whalen that Oswald was a CIA agent who had been well taken care of until he made some mistakes that necessitated his death. Now that Garrison had more information than years earlier when had Ferrie arrested, he moved towards having Ferrie arrested again. On February 22, 1967, less than a week after the newspapers broke the story of the Garrison investigation, his chief suspect, David Ferrie, was found dead in his apartment. Ferrie told Garrison earlier that if he talked, that he would be a dead man. Garrison then turned his focus to Clay Shaw. He obtained Shaw’s address book and it had a listing for Lee Odom, PO Box 19106, Dallas, Texas. This same name and address also appeared in Lee Oswald’s address book. Jim Garrison received a lot of negative public scrutiny during this time but he was a man well ahead of the curve on knowing that Kennedy was killed as part of a conspiracy.

For a thirty minute commentary on the assassination from Jim Garrison, please see proceed to the following site:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqo2c_SxQag

KGB and Soviet’s opinion on the Assassination

According to documents obtained by the Assassination Records Review Board by the fall of 1965, Colonel Boris Ivanov, chief of the Soviet Committee for State Security, told KGB personnel in New York City that the KGB was in possession of data purporting to indicate that President Johnson was responsible for Kennedy’s assassination.  Moscow firmly believed that Kennedy’s assassination was a scheme by “reactionary forces” within the United States seeking to damage the new trend in relations. The Kremlin ridiculed the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald acted on his own as the sole assassin.

Oswald- US Government Agent or “Lone Nut”?

As mentioned earlier, both a CIA officer and two former marines have both stated that Oswald worked for US intelligence which confirms that Oswald was not a lone-nut, but quite connected within the US government.  According to Judy Van Baker, Lee received $200 per month from both the FBI and CIA. He also received funds through American Express for special expenses he couldn't cover. Let’s review other facts relevant to the assassination.

On January 22, 1964, the Warren Commission was hurriedly called into secret session because of the explosive news that Texas authorities had information that Oswald had been an undercover informant for the FBI. The information on Oswald’s FBI background came from Dallas Assistant District Attorney William Alexander. Alexander communicated that Oswald was paid $200 a month as FBI informant S-179. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison later confirmed this information.

Following Oswald’s arrest on a Friday in New Orleans for an altercation for disturbing the peace resulting from the passing out pro-communist fliers, Oswald did not ask to meet with an attorney, but instead with the FBI- specifically FBI Agent, James Hosty. The day following the arrest was a Saturday and the weekend is hardly a time for a quick FBI response for a simple infraction such as disturbing the peace. FBI agent John Quigley however arrived on the scene, and met with Oswald for an hour and a half.  Oswald had Hosty’s phone number in his unlisted address book. The Warren Commission omitted his information from their report.

In 1964 according to an FBI memorandum, Dallas FBI agent Will Hayden Griffin reportedly told people that Oswald was definitely an FBI informant and that files in Washington would prove it. Griffin later denied making such a statement. 

One of the strongest pieces of evidence proving Oswald’s spy work concerns a small Minox camera found among his effects by the Dallas police. Information developed by the Dallas Morning News in 1978 revealed the camera was not available to the public in 1963. It may have been spy equipment issued to Oswald. This evidence was so explosive that the FBI tried to get Dallas detectives to change their report regarding the camera and for nearly fifteen years kept hidden photos taken by Oswald.

In 1976, a CIA document was released that showed that the agency indeed had considered Oswald for recruitment.

The United States Government’s role in Kennedy’s assassination

One of the last conversations Lee had with Judy Vary Baker was a discussion of possible parties involved in the president’s assassination. Oswald told Judy that CIA officer David lee Phillips was coordinating the JFK assassination plot. Also in 2007, a deathbed statement from former CIA agent E Howard Hunt, named Phillips as a participant in the JFK assassination.  Lee asked Judy to remember two other names- Bobby Baker, and Billy Sol Estes. Baker was an advisor to Lyndon Johnson. After LBJ’s death, Estes admitted to secretly funding millions of dollars to LBJ and it was LBJ who ordered the murder of President John F. Kennedy. Estes had his attorney wrote a letter to the US Department of Justice stating, “Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings and that he transmitted orders to Cliff Carter through Malcolm Wallace, who executed the murders. It should also be noted that it was Cliff Carter who called the Dallas Police Department from the White House and instructed them to bring Oswald outside for the television cameras on Sunday November 24, 1963 where Jack Ruby shot him. Further, Mac Wallace’s fingerprint was found on a box of books stacked in the so-called “sniper’s nest” on the 6^th floor of the Texas School Book Depository on November 22, 1963, the day that President Kennedy was shot in downtown Dallas.

Questionable deaths for many involved

Interesting enough, many of the major players were dead within a few years after the assassination. In July 1964, Dr. Mary Sherman was murdered. There was a massive cover-up in her death that can be detailed in Ed Haslem’s book entitled, Dr. Mary’s Monkey. Jack Ruby died suddenly from “cancer” on January 3, 1967. Ruby told both his jailer and his family that he was injected with cancer by a phony doctor. This event parallels a similar event from 1963 when David Ferrie had injected the prisoner with cancer and he also died less than 30 days after. David Ferrie died under suspicious circumstances a year later. Ferrie, like Oswald, also predicted that he would be killed, and Jim Garrison’s book details his prophetic statement. Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig who also identified that the shells found in the Depository did not match the rifle found in the building had many attempts on his life, until he like many others involved in this tragedy had committed “suicide”.

CIA motives to murder President Kennedy

In 1959, Fidel Castro led a Cuban revolution which lead to Cuba becoming a revolutionary socialist nation. Castro nationalized former American-controlled industries, and shut down the Mafia’s beloved gambling and sex trade.  The CIA had a very aggressive view in eliminating communism, and it coincided with President Eisenhower’s view. The CIA began to develop strategies to remove Castro from office, including a plot by the CIA-planned invasion of Cuba. In 1960, President Kennedy won the Presidential Election. The Cold War foreign policy had been the lifeblood of the CIA. The CIA had trained and armed angry Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro’s new regime. The invaders landed on April 15, 1961 which became known as the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy was not aware of the planned invasion. An air strike lead by the CIA however ensued and Kennedy was furious. The invasion was a disaster, and the CIA asked for more air support and Kennedy denied it.  A second attack could have probably destroyed Castro’s air force but Kennedy would not allow it. Kennedy felt betrayed by the CIA, and the CIA felt betrayed by Kennedy as well for failing to support the second attack. The CIA was refusing to be controlled by the White House. Therefore Kennedy fired the CIA’s three top officers- Allen Dulles, Richard Bissell, and Dulles’ deputy, General Charles Cabell. An interesting note was that Charles Cabell was the brother of Earle Cabell, the mayor of the city of Dallas when Kennedy was assassinated. Kennedy’s parade route was changed at the last minute. It was never supposed to deviate from Main Street. Who had the ability to change the route? The Dallas mayor- Earle Cabell. Cabell's hatred of President Kennedy was well known in Washington. This leads to the conclusion that if the parade route was never changed then President Kennedy wouldn’t have been shot, at least not from the Depository and Grassy Knoll. It asks the question did Dallas Mayor Cabell, have any previous knowledge of this plot to kill the President? It begs the question on why did Cabell at the last minute change the parade route? After Cabell was fired, Robert Kennedy took over the responsibility for Cuban affairs. Kennedy had a policy of détente with the Soviet Union and had a plan in place to withdrawal all American forces from Vietnam by 1965.

In 1975, a senate committee headed by Frank Church found that the CIA had planned a number of assassination operations including the premier of the Congo (Zaire), Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, President Diem of South Vietnam, and General Schneider of Chile. The committee’s conclusion was that the CIA helped plan the assassination of a number of national leaders. So the CIA’s plan to murder a nation’s leader was not something new for them.

President Johnson formed the Warren Commission shortly after Kennedy’s death and worked alongside his buddy FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. On November 24, 1963 Hoover talked with Johnson aide Walter Jenkins stating, “The thing I am concerned about, and so is [deputy attorney general Nicholas D.] Katzenbach, is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is a real assassin. Mr. Katzenbach thinks that the President might appoint a Presidential Commission of three outstanding citizens to make a determination.”

Physical Evidence Confirms Conspiracy

Oswald was given a Paraffin test by the Dallas Police Department on the evening of the assassination to determine if Oswald had gunpowder residue on his skin. This test reveals the deposits of nitrate on the individual's cheek which can either help substantiate or disprove if someone has fired a rifle in the past 24 hours. The Paraffin test results indicated that Lee Oswald had not fired a rifle on November 22 1963.

In March 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations had uncovered a bombshell in the JFK Assassination. Sophisticated scientific studies of a Dallas police radio recording indicated that more than one assassin was involved in Kennedy’s death. A Dallas policeman- a motorcycle officer opened his microphone about two minutes before the shooting started and left it open for about eight minutes. The sound had been enhanced and the quality of the tape concluded that the recording indicated as many as seven shots. The tapes were turned over for independent review by two professors, Mark Weiss and Ernest Aschkenasy. Weiss and Aschkenasy concluded, “with a certainty factor of 95 percent or better, there was a shot fired at the presidential limousine from the Grassy Knoll.

US Congress reviews Warren Commission’s findings

The House Select Committee on Assassinations issued a preliminary report on December 30, 1978. Out of time and money, but faced with the acoustical test results, it could conclude that President Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. They also concluded that at least two assassins were involved.

Conclusions

·      Oswald was involved in intelligence activities with the US Government and this fact alone automatically disqualifies the Warren Commission’s argument the Oswald was a lone nut. Years later, testimony from government officials confirmed this fact.

·        The fact that a “Communist sympathizer” had obtained a highly classified intelligence job that you or I could have never obtained Oswald’s immediate return from living in the Soviet Union is illogical.

·         Physical and scientific evidence exonerates Oswald. The Paraffin test that Oswald had not shot a gun within 24 hours of November 22, 1963. An audio recording demonstrates that up to seven shots with one of the shots coming from the Grassy Knoll.

·         40 witnesses of the assassination who indicated that the shots came from the Grassy Knoll. Testimony from others that smoke was seen from the Grassy Knoll. Testimony from another witness who witnessed a man in a suit running with a rifle running away from the Grassy Knoll and the away from Dealy Plaza passing the gun off to someone else who quickly dismantled the gun while leaving the area.

·      Eyewitness accounts who attest to Oswald being on the first floor of the depository between 12:20 and 12:25, while other witnesses indicating that they had seen men with rifles at 12:15 PM on the sixth floor of the depository. Dallas Police Officer Baker found Oswald on the second floor of the depository two minutes after the shooting.

·        Paraffin test that confirms that Oswald did not fire a gun on November 22, 1963

·       The evidence in the murder of JD Tippit helps prove Oswald’s innocence. Witness testimony indicated that a short-fat guy shot murdered Tippit. Unfortunately for the government, Oswald more closely resembled a bean pole weighing in at 135 pounds instead of a short-fat guy. Shell casings from JD Tippit murder also do not match Oswald’s gun, and were from an automatic not a revolver. The fact that we have both witness and physical evidence that shows that Oswald didn’t shoot Tippit destroys the government’s original lynch pin that Oswald killed Kennedy.

·        Lee Oswald and Jack Ruby knew each other personally and had a close relationship with each other since Lee was a boy. He would not have shot Oswald unless he was forced to do it in order to keep Lee quiet.  

·         Dr. Malcom Perry’s who performed the tracheotomy on the President said that Kennedy had been shot in the throat from in front. The Texas Schoolbook depository was behind Kennedy and was where Oswald resided at the time Kennedy was shot.

·        Evidence that New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison had that accumulated several years after Kennedy was killed as part of a conspiracy is has gone mostly ignored. 

·        The House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation concluded that President Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.

And now you know … The Rest of the Story.