Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination (45 page)

Sources and Notes

Abbreviations

If not described in full,
source books are referred to here under the authors’ names and the notation. Full details of these can be found in the bibliography.

Information deriving from research done by the author and Robbyn Swan for their December 1994
Vanity Fair
article, “The Ghosts of November,” will be referred to by the abbreviation
VF.

Citations referring to official reports will be abbreviated as follows:

Warren Commission Report, Report, p. –.

Material in the twenty-six volumes that accompany the Warren Commission Report are referred to by volume and page, e.g., XXII.25.

Warren Commission Exhibits are referred to as, e.g., CE 2021.

Warren Commission Documents are referred to by document number, e.g., CD 16.

The
Report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations
(1979) is referred to as, e.g., HSCA Report, p.–.

The twelve Kennedy volumes of
Hearings and Appendices
of the House Select Committee on Assassinations are referred to by volume and page number, e.g., HSCA V.250.

References to documents held by the National Archives and Records Administration are cited as NARA and their record number, e.g., NARA 124-10193-10468.

The
Interim Report
(1975) of the
Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate—Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders
is referred to as Sen. Int. Cttee.,
Assassination Plots
.

The Final Report of the above Select Committee (1976), entitled
The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies
, is referred to as Sen. Int. Cttee.,
Performance of Intelligence Agencies
.

Assassinations Records Review Board citations are referred to as AARB.

All the above are published by the U.S. Government Printing Office and listed in the bibliography to this book. Most are available online at MaryFerrell.org.

Preface

x
     From the start: Prof. Sheldon Appleton, “The Mystery of the Kennedy Assassination: What the American Public Believes,”
The Public Perspective
, November/December 1998.

2013 poll: Conservative Intelligence Briefing, January 25, 2013.

2009 poll: CBS News, February 11, 2009.

“probably” HSCA Report, p. 1.

Warren:
New York Times
, February 4 & 5, 1964;
Washington Post
, February 4, 1964;
Los Angeles Times
, February 5, 1964;
Dallas Morning News
, February 5, 1964.

xi
     
Note 1
: Until the collapse of the Soviet Union, certainly, intelligence information involving the Soviets was highly sensitive. Most of the information about the KGB defector Yuri Nosenko, and his claim to have knowledge of how the KGB had handled
Oswald in the Soviet Union, was long top secret (see Chapters 8 and 10). CIA operations in or against Castro’s Cuba—especially where they involve living people—may yet be sensitive. The Mexican authorities’ part in CIA surveillance operations in Mexico City (see Chapter 19) may still be seen as politically sensitive within Mexico.

Army Intelligence files: See Chapters 5 & 16.

Secret Service destroyed: ARRB Report, p. 149 & see p. 64–

Naval Intelligence files:
ibid
., p. 157, “The Railroading of LCDR Terri Pike,” by William Kelly, www.jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com, corr. William Kelly, transcript int. CDR (USNR) Robert. D. Steele, February 1, 2013, HSCA XI.541

Archives Stated: Gary M. Stern, General Counsel to Jim Lesar, Assassination Archives & Research Center, June 12, 2012.

Blakey: (“bureaucratic jargon”)
Salon
, June 14,2012; (“playing”)
Robert Blakey to Paul Hoch
et al
., February 11, 2013.

xii
     “unless the President”: Stern to Lesar,
supra
.

1. Ambush

5
     Poem:
Poems
by Alan Seeger (Charles Scribner & Sons, 1916).

Kennedy and danger in Dallas: Manchester,
op. cit.
, pp. 13, 15, 45.

6
     Leading lights: Major General Edwin Walker, Mayor Earle Cabell, H. L. Hunt.

Kennedy talk/speeches: Manchester,
op. cit.
, pp. 86, 96.

Advertisement:
Dallas Morning News
, November 22, 1963; XVIII.835; inserted by John Birch Society members and rightists.

Kennedy comment: Manchester,
op. cit.
, p. 137; and Bishop,
op. cit.
, p. 25; VII.455—testimony of Kenneth O’Donnell.

7
     Miami scare: CD 1347/20 and author’s interview with Miami Police Intelligence Captain Charles Sapp, 1978; but see HSCA Report, p. 635n44.

Spectator comment: Manchester,
op. cit.
, p. 154.

Nellie Connally comment: IV.147, IV.131.

9
     Officer’s remark:
Bishop,
op. cit.
, p. 147.

Time: (calculated for HSCA) HSCA II.40; HSCA Report, p. 48 (Agent Youngblood noticed the clock on the Book Depository).

President’s cry: II.73, 74.

Note 1
: It has been suggested that Secret Service Agent Kellerman imagined he heard the President speak, because of the possibility his throat wound made speech unfeasible. Doctors differ on this point, but it seems speech may briefly have been possible (HSCA VII.278, 295, 305).

Events in car: (Mrs. Kennedy’s cry) V.179–; (“You know when he was shot”) Theodore White’s unpublished notes on his interview with Mrs. Kennedy, November 29, 1963; JFK Library—for this citation, the author is indebted to David Talbot and his book,
Brothers
, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007, p. 247–; (Mrs. Connally) IV.148; (Gov. Connally) IV.133; (“buckshot”) HSCA I.54.

10
     Doctor breaks news: Manchester,
op. cit.
, p. 215.

I. DALLAS: The Open-and-Shut Case

2. The Evidence Before You

13
     Cartridges found: III.283 (Mooney).

Gun found: III.293 (Boone) and VII.107 (Weitzman); (described) III.392 (Frazier) IV.260 (Day).

14
Note 1
: There has been controversy over the identification of the rifle, because it was initially described as a Mauser. Although one of these descriptions came from one of the officers who found the weapon (who was familiar with guns), the author believes this was simply a mistake. The author does not subscribe to the theory that the rifle was subsequently switched for the one supposedly owned by Lee Harvey Oswald, as some claim. HSCA experts agree confusion is the probable explanation (HSCA VII.372). But see Dick
Russell,
op. cit.
, for suggestion the Carcano was found on the
fourth
floor. (Russell,
op. cit.
, p. 568)

Bullet fragments (listed): HSCA VII.365.

Intact bullet (found): Report, p. 79.

Note 2
: The bullet was found by Darrell Tomlinson, the hospital’s chief engineer, when he moved the stretcher. Tomlinson was not at all convinced that the stretcher was the one that had been used for Governor Connally. The Warren Commission, however, decided it was that stretcher. The uncertainty has fueled suspicions that the bullet was perhaps planted as part of a plan to inculpate Lee Oswald. To this author, that posits too complex a plot and is improbable. (Report, p. 79, and VI.126–.)

Cartridges, bullets, and fragments linked to rifle: Report, p. 84–; HSCA VII.367–.

Note 3
: Admiral Osborne, who attended the Kennedy autopsy, said he saw and even handled an intact bullet during the procedure. He thought it turned up in the body’s wrappings, though he was open to the possibility that it arrived independently—which may mean he merely saw the famous “single bullet” later, after its separate transfer from Dallas. However, the possibility remains that he did see a second mystery bullet, and full questioning of the other doctors should have been able to resolve this (Lifton,
op. cit.
, Chapter 29, & HSCA VII.15). Speculation has also arisen because FBI agents signed a receipt for a “missile” received from the autopsy doctors (Lifton,
op. cit.
, & HSCA VII.12).

15
     Argument over body: McKinley,
op. cit.
, p. 120.

“at gunpoint”: int. Dr. Robert Shaw, 1978.

Helpern: Marshall Houts,
op. cit.
p. 52.

Not shaved/not sectioned:
VF
, December 1994, HSCA interviews released 1995; and HSCA VII.17, 25.

16
     Baden: HSCA I.298; and
cf
. HSCA VII.177.

Handicapped: HSCA VII.13; and
VF
, December 1994; HSCA VII.13–; and
cf
. State of Louisiana v. Clay Shaw—Finck testimony, February 24, 1967; and (on clothing) HSCA VII.192.

Kennedy disease:
New York Times
, October 6, 1992, report on
Journal of the American Medical Association
article just published.

Autopsy summary: Report, p. 86, HSCA VII.6–, 87–.

17
     Probed: CD7.4; HSCA VII.12–.

Series of reexaminations: HSCA VII.3–, 89.

Small wound: HSCA VII.85; and
cf
. HSCA VII.175–.

Serious mistake: HSCA VII.104; and
cf.
HSCA VII.176.

18
Note 4
: Some photographs were apparently “liberated” by a person working for the House Assassinations Committee, and others were reportedly produced by a former Secret Service photographer, James Fox. In August 1979, a freelance journalist, Harrison Livingstone, revealed that he had copies of five Kennedy autopsy photographs. They were eventually published in his book
High Treason
, written with Robert Groden. (See
New York Times
, August 19, 1979, and Bibliography.)

Head wound: See Thompson, Josiah,
op. cit.
, and Lifton, David,
op. cit
., for early and late studies of entire autopsy area;
VF
, December 1994.

Hill: Livingstone/Groden,
op. cit.
, p. 388. Jacqueline Kennedy: Lifton,
op. cit.
, p. 312 and
Nova
(PBS-TV program), November 15, 1988.

McClelland: VI.33, (drawing) Thompson,
op. cit.
, p. 140;

19
     Parkland descriptions: Lifton and Livingstone/Groden
, op cit.

Clark: Lifton, p. 318.

20
     Custer (and colleague Edward Reed): Lifton,
op. cit.
, p. 773.

Secret Service:
VF
, December 1994, and HSCA interviews released 1995.

drawings:
ibid
.; Bashour: Livingstone/Groden, p. 39.

22
     McClelland: int. May 1989.

Note 5
: Dr. McClelland’s statement is supported by the autopsy surgeons’ report of January 26, 1967, reprinted in Harold Weisberg,
op. cit., Post
-
Mortem
, pp. 577–579.

Vanished photos: (Humes) HSCA VII.253; (Finck) HSCA interview released 1994, p. 90; (Director of Photography) John Stringer, HSCA Agency File No. 002070.

23
     Photos forgery:
VF
,
December 1994; HSCA VII.37;
Boston Globe
, June 21,1981; Lifton
, op cit.

Note 6
: The Assassinations Committee’s study of the autopsy materials led to scandal, when a safe containing the pictures and X-rays was opened. A folder had been removed, and one photograph of the dead President ripped out of its cover. A fingerprint check located the culprit, a CIA employee named Regis Blahut assigned to protecting secret CIA documents temporarily in the custody of the Committee. He was fired, and the CIA told the Committee that Blahut had acted out of “mere curiosity.” The picture in which Blahut was apparently especially interested featured the late President’s head, and thus was one of those that was at the center of controversy about the source of the shot or shots that caused the fatal head wound. (
Washington Post
, June 18, 19, 28, 1979;
Clandestine America
, III.2, p. 4; statement by Rep. Louis Stokes to House of Representatives, June 28, 1979.)

Missing brain: HSCA VII.25, Assassinations Record Review Board, contact report, April 1, 1997, posted on http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.ie.

24
     McClelland on X-rays:
Inside Edition
(TV program), July 1989.

Custer:
VF
, December 1994.

Mantik:
ibid
., & int., 1995.

Note 7
: The authenticity of the autopsy photographs and X-rays was questioned as early as 1981, in the book
Best Evidence
, by David Lifton (see Bibliography). His thesis, that the President’s body was tampered with surgically between Dallas and the Bethesda autopsy, is dealt with at length in the Aftermath chapter of the previous (Paragon) edition of this book, published at the time under the title
Conspiracy
. The theory seems preposterous, yet it is hard to dismiss the testimony of many of the witnesses Lifton interviewed. He certainly raised troubling questions about the movement of the President’s body.

Zapruder film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq1PbgeBoQ4 & available for viewing at National Archives.

26
Dictabelt: author’s research in Dallas, 1978; HSCA II.16, 107.

Acoustics: HSCA II.17–, V.645; author’s ints.