Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (2 page)

Other names eventually will be added to this distinguished list

Every citizen who gave of his time, effort, and resources to study,
assimilate, and disseminate assassination information will someday come
to be regarded as part of an object lesson on how the individual citizen
can indeed make an impact on a system that has proven either unable or
unwilling to police itself.

And on that day, all of the assassination researchers will receive the
public acknowledgment they so richly deserve.

Do not trust this book.

In fact, when it comes to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, don't trust any one source or even the basic evidence and testimony.

In the case of the JFK assassination, belief and trust have long been part
of the problem.

One's view of the events in Dallas in 1963 has depended upon whom
one chooses to believe.

Do you believe government experts who state that a man reputed to be a
bad shot could take a bolt-action rifle that wholesaled for three dollars and
twice hit a man in a moving car at more than two hundred yards with three
shots in less than six seconds?

Do you believe a commission handpicked by Kennedy's successor,
which concluded that Kennedy was killed by a lone assassin firing from a
building behind him and who was, in turn, killed by yet another lone
assassin?

Or do you believe witnesses who saw a rifle fired at Kennedy's right
front and films that show the rearward fall of the wounded president
indicating just such a shot?

For far too many years a majority of the American public chose to
believe their federal government, which assured them that Kennedy's
death was the result of a tragic meeting between a powerful national leader
and a warped solitary young man wanting to be somebody.

Today many people believe differently. A poll taken by the Washington
Post in 1983 showed more than 80 percent of the respondents expressed
the belief that Kennedy died as the result of a high-level conspiracy.

However, beliefs are neither facts nor knowledge.

This book is an effort to break through the massive amounts of obfuscation regarding this topic and bring to the public a basic overview of this
tragic event.

It is a distillation of the numerous books, articles, and documentaries
that have been produced over the years.

Already the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is recognized as
a turning point in American history.

Beginning on November 22, 1963, American attitudes slowly changed
from post-World War II optimism and idealism to cynicism and mistrust of government. This loss of faith in government accelerated in the wake of
the Vietnam War, the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals. A significant
portion of this cynicism has been prompted by the wide difference between
the official government version of the Kennedy assassination and the
beliefs of a majority of Americans.

Beginning only a week after the Dallas tragedy, national polls showed a
majority of Americans disbelieved the official "lone assassin" theory of
the assassination. By the late 1980s, that number has risen to nearly 90
percent of the population.

Like the attack on Pearl Harbor, November 22, 1963, has been etched
into the memory of every American who was of age on that day. In this
Information Age, more than half the population alive today followed the
events of that sad day through both broadcast and print media.

Who could forget the shock of the early announcements from Dallas, the
horror of the slaying of the chief suspect or the tears as "John John"
Kennedy saluted his father's casket?

To those today who were not yet born or of age in 1963, their knowledge of the assassination comes from history books-which for the most
part are strangely silent about the details of the tragedy-stories from older
people, and other public sources.

No event in American history has caused such an abiding interest on the
part of the general public.

The assassination has spawned a legion of independent researchers-of
all ages and classes-who study the bits of information seeking to determine what really happened to our thirty-fifth president.

Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy for the first time pulls together
the massive amount of available facts and information concerning that
tragic day in 1963. Until now, this material has been available only by
carefully studying a wide range of books-many now out of print-and by
researching periodicals on a continuing basis.

Crossfire has been designed to provide an abundance of material in a
concise and readable manner, so that both the mildly interested and serious
researcher alike may get the overview necessary to detect and understand
the broad outlines of the conspiracy behind the assassination.

Long-standing sources of controversy-such as mysterious men photographed in Dealey Plaza and the Oswald look-alike standing in the doorway of the Texas School Book Depository at the time of the shooting-are
examined as well as new issues-such as the acoustical evidence indicating the existence of a second gunman and some brand-new questions
concerning the 1981 exhumation of Lee Harvey Oswald.

This book takes a close look at the events in Dealey Plaza through the
eyes of the witnesses-including many overlooked by the government
investigations and some new witnesses whose stories have never before
been made public.

As in any good homicide investigation, a list of suspects has been drawn up with information detailing their means, motives, and opportunities.
Crossfire provides detailed background information on the men and organizations considered most likely to have been involved in a plot against the
president.

Also covered in Crossfire are the various attempts by governmental
bodies to investigate and resolve what happened in Dallas. Attention is
paid to the people behind these investigations, how they arrived at their
conclusions, the reliability of the information made available to them, and
the possibility of misdirection and deceit.

As an award-winning Texas journalist with more than twenty-five years
of news-gathering experience in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, I have
been in a unique situation to learn the true story of the assassination.

I have talked with many people closely connected to the assassination,
including Dallas area government and law-enforcement officials and
newsmen. I spent many hours with Marguerite Oswald (mother of the
accused assassin) and with Jeanne DeMohrenschildt (she and her husband,
George DeMohrenschildt, were close friends of Oswald). I have interviewed assassination witnesses such as James Tague, Jean Hill, Bill
Newman, and many others. I have talked with witnesses never questioned
by the official investigations, such as Ed Hoffman, Gordon Arnold, Ester
Mash, and Madeleine Brown.

And I have kept in contact with serious researchers of the assassination,
collecting and correlating their work.

Most important, I lived through the assassination time in the Dallas
area.

As a college student, I met Jack Ruby while visiting his Carousel Club
in September 1963. In the fall of 1964, I conducted an in-depth interview
with Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker. Within five years of the assassination, I
was working as a professional reporter in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

As a native Texan who grew up in this area, I understand its people,
history, and politics. Yet, as a journalist, I have maintained a professional
objectivity. I have had time to study the JFK assassination both as a
working newspaperman and a researcher.

Since 1976 I have taught a course on the JFK assassination at the
University of Texas at Arlington. I have been told that I was the first
person in the United States to offer a university-level course on the
assassination. Through this course, many new leads have been developedsuch as a witness to gunmen on the Grassy Knoll and the intimidation of
Dallas witnesses by Warren Commission staff members and FBI agents.

My public presentations of assassination material-including talks to
Texas police and medical-examiner organizations-have always been well
received.

To truly understand what happened in Dallas in 1963, one must get an
overview of the event. Any one particular issue can be rationalized away
as coincidence or happenstance. Only by gaining a broad view of the assassination can one begin to detect the outlines of the conspiracy that
resulted in the deaths of Kennedy, policeman J. D. Tippit, and the accused
assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Always keep in mind that the United States in 1963 was an entirely
different place and time from today. The public had a blind faith in
government, which seems hard to believe in light of today's cynical
standards. The news media uncritically accepted official pronouncements-a
far cry from today's adversary relationship with officialdom. And police
work was done in an unsophisticated manner that would shock the highly
trained and educated officers of today.

Also know that many people were untruthful in their testimony to
investigators while the statements of others were misrepresented by investigating officials-for reasons both benign and otherwise.

Many people tried to distance themselves from the accused assassin.
Some-either due to ignorance, a desire to be helpful, or on orders-lied
about critical evidence in the case. Even government agencies were deathly
afraid of rumors linking Oswald to their organizations.

Not one single matter of fact in this case can be accepted uncritically.
Evidence of deceit, misrepresentation, and manipulation is too plain to be
ignored.

What then is the truth?

One truth has become painfully obvious in recent years-the federal
government has not told the truth about the assassination to the American
people.

It has been left up to students, historians, and private researchers to
continue to dig out critical information. This book means to provide this
information to a wider audience.

While mistakes undoubtedly have slipped by, every effort has been
made to present the best account of assassination issues in this book.
Statements have been checked and double-checked; facts reviewed and
reviewed again.

Whether it is read from start to finish or simply kept as a reference
source, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy is intended to be a
thorough source book for the library of anyone with the slightest interest in
learning what actually happened in Dallas in 1963.

So, who is to be believed when it comes to the JFK assassination? No
one-not this author, not the various assassination researchers, and certainly not the government officials who have already been proven in error
about so many aspects of this case.

Think for yourself. Review all the information available in this book
and trust in your own judgment. Believe that cerebral computer designed
by God, which allows each of us to comprehend the truth around us each day.

Only by studying all of the relevant information about the assassination
and then applying common sense can one come to an understanding of the
truth of the JFK assassination.

Why seek the truth of Kennedy's death? The answer is simple. Unless
we, as a nation, come to a truthful understanding of what happened to our
chief elected official in 1963, we obviously cannot begin to correctly
understand the events that are affecting us today.

I seek not only the killers of President Kennedy, I seek the persons who
killed Camelot-who killed the confidence and faith of the American
people in their government and institutions. I seek elementary justice-for
both the accused assassin and for the United States of America.

J.M.

Don't let it be forgot
That once there was a spot
For one brief shining moment
That was known as Camelot

-Alan Jay Lerner

Although one of the youngest cities in Texas, Dallas has recorded a
meteoric rise to greatness and prosperity. Beginning in the days before
Texas became a state, Dallas has grown from a small way station for
pioneers to a center of corporate business, insurance, banking, and oil and
gas. By 1963, Dallas already was the most influential city in the Lone Star
State, next to oil-rich Houston.

However, Dallas also had a reputation for being the stronghold of
archconservatives, if not outright right-wing extremists. It is well known in
Texas police circles that during the 1940s and 1950s-and stretching into
the early 1960s-if a man wanted a job as a Dallas policeman, it helped if
he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan or, at least, the John Birch Society.
The city police and other governmental offices were filled with members
of the Klan, the John Birch Society, and other conservative groups.

But Dallas was instrumental in carrying Texas in a national election. So in
1963, it was included on a quick political trip by President John F. Kennedy.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the first U.S. president born in the twentieth century. At age forty-three, Kennedy became one of the youngest
presidents and, at the time of his death at age forty-six, he had lived a
shorter life than any other president.

His brief presidency-1,026 days-stirred the emotions of nearly every
American. Hardly anyone was neutral about Kennedy. They either loved
him or hated him.

Yet Kennedy seemed oblivious to the controversies surrounding him.
Perhaps due to his wealthy background, he appeared more concerned with
great historical issues such as civil rights, war and peace rather than the
parochial matters of business and politics.

Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, an
unpretentious middle-class suburb of Boston. He was the second oldest son
of a family that began their American life with the immigration of Patrick
Kennedy from Ireland in 1848. Both grandfathers were prominent Democratic Party ward bosses during the time when a group of Irish leaders
ruled the local party.