OSWALD left Ruth Paine's house at 7:15 a.m. Ruth Paine testified that she did not see him leave. Marina Oswald agreed - except for one occasion - when she said OSWALD had his lunch sack with him when he left: "I think he had a package with his lunch." [1WH73 - cited by Mary Farrel] OSWALD told the Dallas Police that his "lunch consisted of cheese, bread, fruit and apples, and was the only package he had with him when he went to work." [WR p622]

About a half block away from Ruth Paine's house was the home of Linnie Mae Randle. Linnie Mae Randle said that on that morning, while her brother was eating breakfast, she looked out her window and saw OSWALD cross the street and walk toward her home. This was the first time OSWALD came to her house for a lift - Buell Wesley Frazier usually picked him up at Ruth Paine's house. OSWALD was carrying a "heavy brown bag." Linnie Mae Randle recalled: "It tapered, like this, as he hugged it in his hand. It was...more bulky toward the bottom." Linnie Mae Randle thought the color of the bag was similar to the bag found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository that afternoon.

Buell Wesley Frazier greeted OSWALD at the kitchen door, and they walked to the car together. From the open kitchen door, Linnie Mae Randle saw OSWALD open the right rear door of her brother's car, and place a package on the back seat. Buell Wesley Frazier asked, "What's in the package, LEE?" OSWALD replied, "Curtain rods."

Buell Wesley Frazier and Linnie Mae Randle testified that from what they could ascertain from the shape of this package, the rifle it contained was different from a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. They told the FBI OSWALD had carried the package with his hand cupped beneath it, (OSWALD'S palm print was found on the bottom of the bag), tucking the upper part under his armpit. [WR p133-135] A disassembled Mannlicher-Carcano was too long to be carried in this fashion. Both said the package was shorter than a disassembled Mannlicher-Carcano. Buell Wesley Frazier and Linnie Mae Randle later admitted that they were mistaken about this minor detail. Buell Wesley Frazier: "I only glanced at it...hardly paid any attention to it. He had the package parallel to his body, and it could have extended beyond his body, and I wouldn't have noticed it." [London Weekend Television - Trial of LHO cited by Posner] In any event, they both agreed OSWALD had a package with him that morning. During post-assassination interrogation, the FBI claimed OSWALD said: "He had a cheese sandwich and some fruit and that was the only package he had brought with him to work, and he denied that he had brought the package described by Frazier and his sister." [WR p605] OSWALD also denied he told Buell Wesley Frazier that he had curtain rods in the package. When asked if he owned a rifle, OSWALD claimed he did not. [WR p600]

OSWALD realized that his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle had been used to assassinate President Kennedy and he had to disassociate himself from it.

Buell Wesley Frazier parked in the company parking lot, two blocks north of the Texas School Book Depository. OSWALD took his package, quickly got out, and headed for the Texas School Book Depository. Frazier "states that OSWALD left the automobile ahead of him and in fact preceded him all the way to the building. Frazier informs that he did not catch up to OSWALD and that OSWALD entered the building through the doorway referred to as the Houston Street loading dock. Frazier states that OSWALD was about 50 feet in front of him as he entered the building." [FBI 105-82555-260] As they crossed the railroad tracks, Buell Wesley Frazier paused to watch the railroad cars.

This was the first time OSWALD had not accompanied Buell Wesley Frazier from the lot to the entrance of the building. OSWALD was up to something that morning.

When Buell Wesley Frazier entered the building, OSWALD was gone. Jack Dougherty, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository, believed that he had seen OSWALD coming to work, but he did not remember if OSWALD had anything in his hands as he entered. No other employee had seen OSWALD enter that morning. [WR p133; 6WH337; FBI-105-82555-260]

OSWALD brought his disassembled Mannlicher-Carcano with him to the Texas School Book Depository on the morning of November 22, 1963, because he had been instructed to do so. HEMMING had fired the weapon on the weekend before the assassination, and told OSWALD that he liked it a lot and would purchase it for him on next Friday. HEMMING: "Just offer him double the value of his gun. It wouldn't make anyone nervous. A crime like this hadn't occurred since McKinley, it wouldn't have been uppermost in his mind about the President, or any other kind of bullshit."

OSWALD entered the Texas School Book Depository carrying the package, and went up to the sixth floor. He hid the package between some book cartons. HEMMING had assured OSWALD it was to be picked up. OSWALD was told to go to the lunchroom between 12:15 p.m. and 12:45 p.m. so he would not see the person who picked up the rifle. HEMMING: "I would presume he was in the lunchroom. Maybe he was waiting to meet somebody there? Would these people anticipate pictures being taken? What if it was OSWALD in the doorway of the Texas School Book Depository and not Lovelady." Billy Lovelady, who looked like OSWALD, was photographed in the doorway of the Texas School Book Depository. This led to speculation that he was OSWALD.

OSWALD'S Mannlicher-Carcano rifle was used to murder President John F. Kennedy, then left in the Texas School Book Depository to incriminate OSWALD. The Mannlicher-Carcano rifle could easily be traced to OSWALD'S Post Office box. According to Frank Ellsworth, a former Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agent, after the Kennedy assassination, Dallas Homicide Detective Will Fritz cabled Washington and asked if Frank Ellsworth could be in charge of tracing the weapon: "A mail order place in Chicago came forward without effort on my part. So that ended my part of the firearms investigation. We were gearing up to do some major weapons tracing. It turned out it was unnecessary." FBI S.A. Nat Pinkston disagreed. He said that an informant told him two gun vendors specialized in Mannlicher-Carcanos. He checked with the one in Chicago and found OSWALD'S order form. S.A. Nat Pinkston was listed as having been present at OSWALD'S interrogation, but when questioned, he said he did hear any of it since a plate glass window separated him from the suspect. [Interview with Pinkston by AJ in 1994]

The morning passed uneventfully at the Texas School Book Depository.

OSWALD was seen on the sixth floor by Charles Douglas Givens, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository, at approximately 35 minutes before the assassination, at 11:55 a.m. [WR p143]

At 12:00 p.m., Eddie Piper, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository (born January 23, 1908; died November 1984) said he had seen OSWALD on the first floor of the Texas School Book Depository. [9WH499; 6WH383]

At 12:10 p.m. Carolyn Arnold, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository, saw OSWALD on the first floor of the Texas School Book Depository. [WCD 5] Carolyn Arnold's estimate of the time as "a few minutes before 12:15 p.m." may have been early; in a later, signed FBI statement, Carolyn Arnold said 12:25 p.m. [22WH635] Gerald Posner wrote: "In a second statement she did not see him at all." The statement cited read: "I did not see LEE HARVEY OSWALD at the time President Kennedy was shot [12:30 p.m.]." [WCE 1381 V10 p635]

If we allow Carolyn Arnold's testimony, it would have been impossible for OSWALD to have shot the President Kennedy. Someone had been spotted in the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository before 12:25 p.m.

If we accept the 12:15 p.m. figure, OSWALD still could not have done it: it took two minutes to walk up the six flights of stairs - longer if he took the elevator; 30 seconds to remove the rifle from the paper; two minutes to assemble it (HEMMING claimed that after reassembly the sight on the rifle would have to realigned); 30 seconds to load it; two minutes to set up the cartons which shielded OSWALD from anyone on the sixth floor who failed to go behind them. He would not have been ready to fire until 12:22 p.m., three minutes before the motorcade speeded by. Had the President's motorcade been on time (the motorcade was due at the Trade Mart, where the President was scheduled to speak, at 12:30 p.m. ) he would have missed his window of opportunity. [WR p.49] OSWALD worked in the Texas School Book Depository. He could have set up his nest and the cartons behind him, hidden the rifle between some boxes, and waited there without drawing suspicion. Why show up at the last moment?

When Carolyn Arnold saw OSWALD at 12:25 p.m. (or 12:15 p.m. ), he was going to the domino room, which doubled as a first floor lunchroom. When OSWALD got there, the room was empty. No witnesses who were in the domino room at the time of the assassination have ever come forward to testify that OSWALD was not there. Similarly, no one could testify that he was there. OSWALD'S jacket was recovered from the domino room in late November. [WR p163]

Gerald Posner: "Troy West was in the domino room eating lunch from nearly 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. and did not see OSWALD during that half hour." Gerald Posner cited Volume Six of the Warren Commission Hearings, pages 360 to 361, however, when we examine this text we find no support for Posner's contention:

Belin: How old are you Mr. West?

West: Well, I was born in 1907. That would be 57, I think...I went to the seventh grade, I had to come out of school and go to work on the farm...I have been working at the School Book Depository for 16 or 17 years.

Belin: Are you still working for them?

West: Yes, sir, I am a mail wrapper.

Belin: Where did you go when you got to work?

West: Well, when I first got to work I always made coffee in the morning at the store. That is the first thing I do in the morning.

Belin: Where do you make the coffee?

West: Well, it is down on the first floor in the same department where I wrap mail at.

Belin: I have here a first floor map of the School Book Depository. Here is Elm Street and here is the front entrance. Here is Mr. Truly's office, and here is Mr. Shelly's office. There is the stairway down to the basement and there are elevators and the back stairway. There are the toilets there. About where would you wrap mail there? Here is the domino room and the shower. You are looking here, that is north, that is north Elm Street runs this way and Houston Street runs that way. It is shown on that diagram.

West: Well, my place was in the west side of the other building.

Belin: Was it near the stairway?

West: No; it wasn't close to the stairway.

Belin: Was it closer to the Elm Street side of the building.

West: No, sir.

Belin: What was it close to? The west side is the side near the railroad tracks and the triple underpass. Is that what you think is the west side?

West: Yes sir, that is what I would call the west side.

Belin: Well, now the northwest part is by the stairway and the southwest part would be toward the corner near Elm Street. Do you mean toward the Elm or more toward the wooden dock in the back?

West: Well, it was about, I would say middle ways between Elm and the dock.

Belin: Well, there are a couple of overhead doors on that west side, aren't there?

West: Yes, sir.

Belin: You see where it is marked on the first floor diagram, overhead door and overhead door? Two doorways here on the west side.

West: Yes, sir.

Belin: Then it was near either one of those doorways?

West: Well it was near this one, pretty close to this one.

Belin: Well, it was close to what I would call a doorway, approximately at the middle side of the west wall of the first floor?

West: Yes.

Belin: That is where you wrapped the mail?

West: Yes.

Belin: That is where you have your coffee machine?

West: Yes...

Belin: When did you quit for lunch that day?

West: We always quit at 12:00 p.m. in the day.

Belin: Is that when you quit on November 22, 1963?

West: Yes sir.

Belin: Then what did you do?

West: Well I went in and washed my hands and face and then got ready to put my coffee on. Make it in the morning, and then I make it about 12:00 p.m., between 12:00 p.m. and 12:30 p.m.

Belin: Then what did you do? Did you put your coffee on?

West: Yes sir.

Belin: In the west part of the first floor where you generally work?

West: Yes.

Belin: Then what did you do?

West: I went to get my lunch to eat a bite right there close to my machine, by my wrapping machine that I use all the time, that I always kept my lunch. I have a little place underneath and I keep it there all the time...

Belin: Now after you quit for lunch you made coffee then?

West: Yes sir.

Belin: Where did you make the coffee?

West: I made the coffee right there close to the wrapping mail table where I wrap mail.

Belin: Then what did you do?

West: Well, I sit down to eat my lunch.

Belin: Then what did you do?

West: Well, I had just, after I made the coffee, I just had started to eat my lunch because I was a little hungry - I didn't eat anything that morning before I went to work - and I had started to eat my lunch. But before I got through, well, all of this was, I mean the police and things was coming in, and I was just spellbound. I just didn't know what was the matter. So I didn't get through eating. So I had to eat about half my lunch and that is all.

Belin: Did you hear any shots fired?

West: I didn't hear a one.

Belin: Did you see anyone else on the first floor when you were eating your lunch? Anyone else at all did you see on the first floor?

West: It wasn't anybody. I didn't see anybody around at that time.

Belin: At any time while you were making coffee or eating your lunch, did you see anyone else on the first floor?

West: No sir, I didn't see.

Belin: Where did you make the coffee?

West: I made the coffee right there close to the wrapping mail table.

Belin: Then what did you do?

West: Well, I had just, after I made coffee, I just started to eat my lunch because I was a little hungry. But before I got through...the police and things were coming in.

Belin: Did you see anyone else on the first floor while you were eating your lunch? Anyone else at all did you see on the first floor?

West: No sir, I didn't see.

Belin: Did you see Roy Truly coming in at all that time? Do you know Mr. Truly?

West: Yes, sir I think he came in with the police.

Belin: Were you facing the elevator when you were eating your lunch?

West: I would always be with my back towards the elevators.

Troy West was on the same floor as OSWALD, not in the same room. Troy West's statement to the FBI read: "When JFK was shot I was on the first floor making coffee for the employees. I was alone at the time and did not know JFK had been shot...I do not recall seeing LEE HARVEY OSWALD at any time on November 22, 1963." [FBI 3.18.64 Trettis] Gerald Posner's book fell apart when his references were examined.

During his post-assassination interrogation, OSWALD created alibi witnesses. The FBI reported: "He recalled possibly two Negro employees walking through the [lunch] room during this period." In another interview he stated: "He ate his lunch with the colored boys who worked with him. He described one of them as 'Junior,' a colored boy, and the other was a little short Negro boy."

OSWALD'S alibi was non-existent because he was alone in the Domino Room at the time of the assassination, so he had to invent an alibi.

The Warren Commission could not place OSWALD on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository at 12:30 p.m. A section of the Warren Commission Report was titled: "OSWALD'S Presence on Sixth Floor Approximately 35 Minutes Before the Assassination." It quoted Charles Douglas Givens. When Charles Douglas Givens was arrested in 1978, he told Dallas Police he was disabled. The HSCA studied OSWALD'S whereabouts at 12:30 p.m. "The Committee considered the testimony of OSWALD'S fellow employees at the Texas School Book Depository. Although a number of them placed him on the fifth or sixth floor just before noon, a half-hour before the assassination, one recalled he was on the first floor at that same time. The committee decided not to try to reconcile the testimony of these witnesses...There was no witness who said he saw OSWALD anywhere at the time of the assassination, and there was no witness who claimed to have been on the sixth floor, and therefore in a position to have seen OSWALD, had he been there."

OSWALD faintly heard shots while in the domino room, followed by sirens. HEMMING told this researcher: "I would think he would have thought it was backfiring." He left the domino room and went to the better equipped lunchroom on the second floor of the Texas School Book Depository.

The Warren Commission claimed that OSWALD "descended by stairway from the sixth floor to the second floor lunchroom," despite testimony from Texas School Book Depository employees James Jarman, Norman, Williams and Jack Dougherty, who all ran to the back of the fifth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, where the stairwell was located. The Warren Commission attributed their failure to see OSWALD racing down the stairs was due to the "anxiety of the moment, and because of the books which may have blocked the view." [WR p154]

Victoria Elizabeth Adams, who worked on the fourth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, claimed that within a minute following the shots she ran down the rear stairs to the first floor. She did not encounter OSWALD.

OSWALD purchased a Coca-Cola at approximately 12:31 p.m. in the second floor lunchroom. He was the only one in the second floor lunchroom.

Patrolman Marion L. Baker had been riding a two-wheeled motorcycle behind the first press car in the motorcade. When he reached Main and Houston, he heard shots, and then saw pigeons fly from the roof of the Texas School Book Depository. He screeched to a halt. While parking, he noticed that people were "falling, and they were rolling around down there...grabbing their children."

Patrolman Marion L. Baker was at the crime scene seconds after the assassination. If OSWALD had assassinated President Kennedy he would have been either still been on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository or on his way down the stairs or elevator.

Patrolman Marion L. Baker ran up to the entrance of the Texas School Book Depository, and entered the lobby, where he "spoke out and asked where the stairs or elevator was." Roy Truly introduced himself. Patrolman Marion L. Baker and Roy Truly ran to the elevators, then up the stairs and into the vestibule. They had to choose which of the two areas they wished to search. One door led to the office space, the other to the second floor lunch room. Patrolman Marion L. Baker chose the lunchroom, looked through the glass on door, and saw OSWALD leaving: "I was kind of scanning, you know, and I caught a glimpse of this man walking away from this - I happened to see him through this window in this door. I don't know how come I saw him, but I had a glimpse of him...go away from me...I ran on over there...and when I got to where I could see him he was walking away from me about 20 feet...I hollered at him at that time and said, 'Come here.' I had my gun...approximately three feet [from OSWALD]. He turned and walked right straight back to me...He appeared normal you know. He never did say a word or nothing. In fact, he didn't change his expression one bit."

Roy Truly, who had searched the third floor, came back to the lunch room just as this confrontation was taking place. Patrolman Marion L. Baker turned to Roy Truly and said: "Do you know this man, does he work here?" Roy Truly said: "Yeah." The two men went on with their search.

Marion Baker had seen pigeons fly from the roof of the Texas School Book Depository. They would do this when the first shot rang out. Marion Baker ran as fast as he could into the Texas School Depository to see what happened. He began his search and the first man he found was OSWALD. OSWALD was calm and was not out of breath when he encountered Marion Baker. OSWALD did not know the President had been shot.

HEMMING told this researcher: "Baker coming in was OSWALD'S first clue that's something's happened, when he sees a cop with a gun in his hand. How many times did anyone ever see a cop with gun in his hand in the Texas School Book Depository? The first thing going through his mind is 'There's been a robbery in the fucking place.' It probably doesn't take a few seconds but he's wondering, he's probably stunned, 'What the fuck this guy's got to do with me?' And he continues drinking his fucking coke. Not until either people pouring back into the building, or as he's going out, does he get the word. Everyone's excited. He's not a guy that gets excited, he's not a guy that thinks that anybody knows as much as he does. He's a smart ass. He don't let people tell him something, until he takes an interest in it, and asks a fucking question. He probably asked, 'How do you know it was shots and not backfire?' That was probably his fucking attitude for a time."

OSWALD knew President Kennedy's motorcade was going to pass the Texas School Book Depository. When OSWALD found out that an assassination attempt had occurred nearby, OSWALD knew he would soon be a prime suspect. OSWALD was first beginning to suspect that he had been set up, however, he had no concrete evidence. HEMMING told this researcher: "OSWALD caught on earlier than he was supposed to. I think that's what caused the grief. That's why you, and other people, are doing research now. They fucked-up. They should have taken him out in the lunchroom. That would have ended it. They were in too big of a fucking hurry to bug out of the place."

OSWALD had a bottle of Coke in his hand. The Warren Commission's conclusion that OSWALD was the lone assassin of President Kennedy rested on the assumption that OSWALD did not have the bottle of Coca-Cola in his hand when he first encountered Patrolman Marion L. Baker.

Something was going on inside the Texas School Book Depository that OSWALD was unaware of. Would he have stopped to purchase a Coca Cola before he began to inquire 'What the hell has happened here?' OSWALD had purchased the Coca Cola before encountering Marion Baker because he did not bring any lunch to work on November 22, 1963, and he was hungry.

Warren Commission Counsel David Belin stated this in his book, You Are The Jury that OSWALD could not have killed the President, wiped his fingerprints off the rifle, hidden the rifle, run down the six flights of stairs, then purchased a Coca-Cola in approximately one minute - and not have been out of breath when he talked to Patrolman Marion L. Baker because it would have taken him more than 14 seconds to fish out a nickel from his pocket, buy the Coca-Cola, then open it.

The case formulated by David Belin rested on the trivial question of whether or not OSWALD purchased the Coca-Cola before or after he encountered Marion Baker. We are talking about a matter of seconds, not minutes. The Warren Commission admitted it was improbable OSWALD could have been in the second floor lunch room so quickly, even if OSWALD did not buy the coke before Patrolman Marion L. Baker walked in. To prove it could be done, the Commission reenacted the scene, with Patrolman Marion L. Baker on his motorcycle and an FBI agent at the sixth floor window playing "OSWALD." The FBI found that the time it took Patrolman Marion L. Baker to enter the Texas School Book Depository and make his way to the lunch room (First trial: A minute, 30 seconds. Second trial a minute, 15 seconds) was within three seconds of the time it took the FBI agent to go from the sixth floor window, hide the rifle, and walk downstairs to the lunchroom - without wiping his fingerprints off of the rifle.

It was impossible to replicate the events of November 22, 1963, and the sense of panic they engendered in Patrolman Marion L. Baker. He might have ran much faster and been in the building seconds after the shots. By this time Baker knew that the conclusions of the FBI rested on him.

Walking from one end of the Texas School Book Depository to the other, walking, not running, down 6 flights of stairs then walking to the lunch room in one minute 15 seconds seems improbable. How long would it have taken him to wipe off his prints? Who was to say the agent and OSWALD were in the same physical condition?

Patrolman Marion L. Baker said nothing about OSWALD having the bottle of Coca-Cola in his hand or not having the bottle in his hand until the question was posed after the re-enactment. It was then that he decided that OSWALD did not have a bottle of Coke in his hands when they met. Patrolman Marion L. Baker told the Warren Commission: "He had nothing [in his hands] at that time." [WC Test. p251] A statement by Patrolman Marion L. Baker dated September 23, 1964, read: "On the second floor where the lunchroom is located I saw a man standing in the lunchroom drinking a coke. (MLB)." [WCE 3076]

Another witness as to whether OSWALD had a Coke in his hand was OSWALD. After the assassination, he said he "was on the second floor drinking a Coca-Cola when the Officer came in." [WR p600] He also said he "was on the second floor of said building, having just purchased a Coca-Cola from the soft drink machine, at which time a police officer came in the room with his pistol drawn." [WR p619]

Could OSWALD have know that the State's case would rest upon the Coca Cola issue and lied about when he purchased the Coca Cola. How could OSWALD have been aware of the significance of this minor detail at so early a stage? OSWALD could not have killed the President and Marion Baker was a witness to this.

The Warren Commission: "Within a minute after Marion Baker and Roy Truly left the lunchroom, [12:32 p.m], Mrs. Robert A. Reid, a supervisor at the Texas School Book Depository, saw him walk through the second floor clerical office toward the door leading to the front stairway...He was walking into the office from the back hallway, carrying a full bottle of Coca-Cola in his hand, presumably purchased after the encounter with Baker and Truly." David Belin asked Mrs. Robert A. Reid, "Was the Coke full or empty?" She answered "It was full." He then asked if she remembered in which hand OSWALD was carrying the Coke bottle. She answered: "His right." Earlier in her testimony she had stated: "He had gotten a Coke and was holding it in his hands..." When she wrote her statement for the Dallas Police Mrs. Robert A. Reid added this to it after completion: "He had a Coke in his hand."

How could Mrs. Robert A. Reid have known if the bottle was full or empty? OSWALD'S hand was wrapped around it. Even if she had observed it, how could she have remembered such a minute detail? Additionally, OSWALD could have purchased the Coke just before Marion Baker came into the lunchroom, and not have had time to drink it.

When questioned about a less minute detail - the color and pattern of the shirt OSWALD wore when she had seen him - Mrs. Robert A. Reid's memory failed her: "What he was wearing, he had on, a white T-shirt and some kind of wash trousers." She was shown the trousers that OSWALD had on, but she could not identify them, nor could she identify his shirt: "I have never, so far as I know, seen that shirt." OSWALD left the Texas School Book Depository at 12:33 p.m.

When OSWALD reached the street, it was filled with police cars. What had happened that day in Dealey Plaza?

HEMMING told this researcher: "The squad had keys to the building. They got in there the night before and went up on the roof. Nobody had been up on that roof under the Hertz sign since the Hertz guy checked it out a month before. Nobody went up on the roof. That's where they would stay. Then they would come down a separate ladder to the seventh floor. And they'd do their operation moving down from the seventh floor. Always control the high ground. They got there around three or four o'clock in the morning. The roof was locked. The weapons were stashed. Who gave a shit about the Texas School Book Depository?"

Lee Bowers, a railroad employee, was standing in a 14-foot high tower behind the Texas School Book Depository, and had an unobstructed view of the back door of the Texas School Book Depository. He could also see the area behind the fence on top of the grassy knoll on Elm Street. The Dallas Police Department cut off traffic into the area at 10:00 a.m. At 11:55 a.m., a blue over white 1959 Oldsmobile station wagon with out-of-state plates, covered with red mud and Goldwater-for-President stickers circled in front of the tower, catching the attention of Lee Bowers. It was occupied by a middle aged white male with partially grey hair. About 20 minutes later, a 1957 black Ford Tudor with Texas plates entered. Lee Bowers believed "the occupant of this second car was a police officer," because he observed him "talking into a radio telephone or transmitter." [1WH285] This car was driven by a white man, 25 to 35. At 12:22 p.m., a 1961 Chevy Impala (muddied, with bumper stickers and out-of-state plates) "circled the area and probed one spot at the tower." This car was driven by a middle aged white male, 25 to 35, with blonde hair. HEMMING told this researcher: "This was a parking situation. The station wagon may have ended up being parked in the lot."

After the last car left, Lee Bowers observed two men standing behind the fence on top of the knoll: "These were the only two strangers in the area. The others were workers whom I knew. They were standing within ten or 15 feet of each other and gave no appearance of being together..."

One of them was middle-aged, heavy-set, and wearing a white shirt and dark trousers. The other man was in his mid-20's, wearing either a plaid shirt, or plaid jacket. Lee Bowers reported seeing the pair a few minutes later "following the caravan [motorcade] as it came down the street." After the assassination, Lee Bowers noticed a motorcycle officer run up the incline toward the trees in the general area of where the two men had been standing. [HSCA V12 p1; Interview with Bowers - Lane Rush To Judgement p32; 1WH284] About 12:15 p.m., when Lee Bowers observed the second car, people began to see figures in the east-corner windows of the Texas School Book Depository.

Carolyn Walthers saw two men, one with a rifle. In a FBI interview dated December 4, 1963, Carolyn Walthers stated that at the time of the motorcade, she looked up at the windows of the Texas School Book Depository and saw a man in the Southeast corner window of the fourth or fifth floor. Carolyn Walthers was positive the window was not as high as the sixth floor. Carolyn Walthers said the man was holding a rifle in his hands; the barrel of the rifle was pointing downward, and the man was looking toward Houston Street. Both his hands were extended across the window ledge. She described the man as having light brown or blonde hair and wearing a white shirt. She described the rifle as having a short barrel and being possibly a machine gun. She noticed no other features of the rifle.

Carolyn Walthers said that she had seen a second man standing in the same window to the left of the man with the rifle. He was wearing a brown suit coat; she could only see his body from the waist to the shoulders and his head was hidden by part of the window. [HSCA V12 p4] According to Carolyn Walthers, the man without the rifle was standing erect, with his head high enough to be seen from the street. Carolyn Walthers told the FBI that the motorcade approached Houston Street almost immediately after she had seen the second man in the window. Carolyn Walthers was not called to testify before the Warren Commission.

Carolyn Walthers was contacted in April 1993. She refused comment. Gerald Posner attempted to discredit Carolyn Walthers and wrote that she never told her story to Pearl Springler, who watched the motorcade with her. Posner omitted the statement by Carolyn Walthers that she "thought that apparently there were guards everywhere." If she had believed these men were from the United States Secret Service, she would not have mentioned their presence to her friend. [24WH522-23; Posner p231] Josiah Thompson's book, Six Seconds In Dallas, contained a photograph of the Texas School Book Depository seconds before the shots were fired; two figures could be seen in the sixth floor window. In 1979 the HSCA uncovered a new film of the Texas School Book Depository shot minutes before the assassination. The film, taken by Charles Bronson, shows two figures in the sixth floor window. The HSCA: "The film came to the attention of the HSCA toward the end of its investigation...the limited review conducted was not sufficient to determine definitively if the film contained evidence of motion made by human figures. Because of its high quality, it was recommended the Bronson film be analyzed further." [HSCA R p49] Gerald Posner: The Hughes and Bronson film were enhanced "by the HSCA." [Closed p231]

Like Carolyn Walthers, Arnold Rowland (born April 29, 1945), told the Warren Commission that there were two men in the window of the Texas School Book Depository. Arnold Rowland and his wife were awaiting the motorcade, standing on the east side of Houston Street, between Main and Elm. At 12:15 p.m. Arnold Rowland looked toward the Texas School Book Depository and noticed a man holding a rifle and standing back from the sixth floor Southwest corner window of the Texas School Book Depository: "We looked and at that time I noticed on the sixth floor of the building that there was a man back from the window, not hanging out the window. He was standing and holding a rifle. This appeared to me to be a fairly high powered rifle because of the scope and the relative proportion of the scope to the rifle, you can tell about what type of rifle it is. You can tell it isn't a .22 you know, and we thought momentarily that maybe we should tell someone, but then the thought came to us that it is a security agent. We had seen in the movies before where they have security men up in windows, and places like that, with rifles to watch the crowds, and we brushed it aside at that, at the time, and thought nothing else about it until after the event happened." Arnold Rowland was unable to identify the person as OSWALD. When they looked back at the window, the man was gone. Arnold Rowland signed an affidavit to this effect. In his Warren Commission testimony Arnold Rowland claimed to have seen a second person on the sixth floor. Before he noticed the man with the rifle, Arnold Rowland had seen an elderly black man "hanging out that window...very thin, an elderly gentleman, bald or practically bald, between 50 to 60 years of age, 5'8" to 5'10" tall, with fairly dark complexion." [WR p251] As a further description, Arnold Rowland stated the person "had on a plaid shirt..Seemed like his face was either, I can't recall detail, but it was either very wrinkled or marked in some way." The man appeared in the window five or six minutes before the motorcade came. About ten minutes after the assassination, Arnold Rowland told a representative from the Dallas Sheriff's Office that he had seen "two men on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository over there, one of them had a rifle with a telescopic sight on it, but he thought they were Secret Service agents or guards and didn't report it."

The Warren Report contained a section titled: "Eyewitness Identification of Assassin." In the six- to eight-minute period before the motorcade arrived, Howard Leslie Brennan saw a man leave and return to the Northeast corner window on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository "a couple of times." Upon hearing the first shot, which he thought was a motorcycle backfiring, Howard Leslie Brennan glanced up at the window: "This man I saw previously was aiming for his last shot..." Howard Leslie Brennan saw the man fire the last shot, then disappear from the window. Within minutes, Howard Leslie Brennan described the man to the police. This description led to the police radio alert at 12:45 p.m., in which the suspect was described as "in his early 30's, about 5' 10" tall, 165 lbs., white, slender." In his statement to police later that day, Howard Leslie Brennan described the man as "white male, early 30's, appeared to be about 5'10", 165 pounds, no hat, wearing light colored clothes, possibly khaki, could have been wearing a sweater or light weight jacket." In his testimony before the Warren Commission, Brennan described the person he had seen as "a man in his early 30's, possibly 5' 10", 160 to 170 lbs., fair complexion, slender, but neat." OSWALD was 24, 5' 9" and weighed 140 lbs. Howard Leslie Brennan declared, "He looked much younger on television than he did from my picture of him in the window - say five years younger." [Addition To WC Test. of Howard Brennan V28 Hearings-3.24.64] During the evening of November 22, 1963, Howard Leslie Brennan identified OSWALD as the person in the lineup who most closely resembled the man in the window, but said he was unable to make a positive identification. Warren Commission Counsel Joe Ball attributed Howard Leslie Brennan's hesitation to positively identify OSWALD to, "a fear that the Communists would murder his family or something." [Mike Ewing HSCA interview with Ball 12.18.78 ARA doc.] Howard Leslie Brennan, born March 20, 1919, died in December 1983.

Ronald B. Fischer and Robert Edwin Edwards were standing on the curb at the southwest corner of Elm and Houston when they noticed a man in the Texas School Book Depository window about a half-minute to one minute before the motorcade passed the Texas School Book Depository. They offered partial descriptions of the man, although neither witness had seen the rifle being fired. [2WH165; 24WH522; 6WH200; 6WH191; 6WH19?] Ronald Fischer was shown a photograph of OSWALD by the Dallas Police: "He could not say definitely this man was the man, but said that it looked like the man." [DPD Supp. Rep. 11.25.63 Turner] Ronald Fischer commented, "No that's not true. I was never shown a photo by the Dallas Police. Never happened. I never talked to them. I gave a deposition on the late afternoon or evening of the assassination. They had 13 of us locked up as material witnesses in Sheriff Bill Decker's office. They took us one at a time. I don't think anybody ever showed me a photo. I could see his face, but he was far away. Then I gave a Federal deposition before David Belin. He got into a heated argument with me about the color of the man's hair. At one point he stopped the deposition taking, and stormed out of the room. Five minutes later he returned, he had himself composed, and we went on with the deposition. He only touched on the color once after that. At the time, I didn't know what the hell was the matter with this guy. Looking back at it now, I realize he was angry because I didn't say 'the right thing.' His hairline fit OSWALD. Belin wanted me say he had dark hair. I wouldn't say that. He had light-colored clothes on. All I could see was just a little bit below his shoulders and up. He was facing the triple underpass. He was not facing Houston Street where the parade was going to come from. Most everyone was looking to the intersection of Houston and Main Street waiting for the parade. This guy was seated so that he was facing the triple underpass. What also caught my attention was that he didn't move. He didn't move at all. In fact, if you were watching him close enough and had binoculars, you might say 'he didn't bat an eye.' No movement whatsoever. He was staring. I watched him for about 30 seconds."

Compare the descriptions of Arnold Rowland, Robert Edwards & Ronald Fischer and Carolyn Walthers of the man seen holding a rifle in the window with the description of TRAMP A who was arrested on November 22, 1963, in the vicinity of the Texas School Book Depository. George Smith of the Fort Worth Star Telegram took two pictures.

Photograph one [P1] was a frontal shot as the tramps marched past the cyclone fence in front of the loading dock of the Texas School Book Depository.

Photograph two [P2] was a profile shot taken as they passed in front of the Texas School Book Depository's distinctive masonry facade. Jack Beers of the Dallas Morning News took two photographs. Photograph three [P3] had the front entrance of the Texas School Book Depository as a background. Photograph four [P4] was taken as the tramps walked by the intersection of Houston and Elm. William Allen of the Dallas Times Herald got three photographs. Photograph five [P5] was taken in front of the Texas School Book Depository. Photograph six [P6] was taken as they crossed Houston and Elm. Photograph seven [P7] was taken as they neared the Sheriff's Office. In the first two tramp shots the tallest tramp is in front. In the rest of the tramp shots another one of the tramps wearing a jacket leads the line. The oldest tramp is always in the back of the line. We will call the tramp who leads the three in Tramp shots 3 to 7 TRAMP A. We will call the oldest looking tramp, TRAMP B, and we will call the other tramp, TRAMP C.

Tramp A, who was seen in the window of the Texas School Book Depository was DAVID LEMAR CHRIST. He switched positions with TRAMP C because he was the least well known. HEMMING supplied me with this information in 1978: "You know that tramp you keep buggin' the shit out of me about? 'Frenchy?' Look at these photos. And, A.J., when you give them back to me, make sure they don't stick together. The tramp's name is DANIEL CARSWELL." In 1994 HEMMING stated: "In the circle of my immediate Miami acquaintances the tramp resembled CHRIST. He buddied up with us. He figured we were the real thing. We didn't give a fuck who he was. He felt he had been betrayed. He wanted to work with something that was legitimate." HEMMING was asked how CHRIST reacted when his identity was revealed: "It could be he felt I was in charge, and I knew what I was doing."

Howard Kenneth Davis was sent a photograph of CHRIST then asked:

Q. Did you ever see DAVID CHRIST around INTERPEN?

A. Yeah, I saw him around, I didn't know him well.

Q. You saw CHRIST?

A. Yeah, I did. I believe I did if I can remember. I think I saw him over there a couple of times. People would wander in and out all the time - even CIA people. That was no big secret. FIORINI had a relationship with the Company. That is absolute. We knew it at the time, it was no secret in Miami.

When CHRIST entered Cuba, his ID contained the following description: "Height 6', Weight 190, Age 41." CHRIST fit Howard Brennan's description of the assassin better than OSWALD did.

This researcher first realized this on November 22, 1973. On that day I had organized a demonstration in front of the National Archives to protest the removal of President Kennedy's brain from that institution. When Tom Forcade and Aron Kay distributed leaflets about the demonstration at an assassination research conference staged by attorney Bernard Fensterwald at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C., Bernard Fensterwald had his security guards eject my crew. I attended the convention the next day with Phil Ochs. When I arrived, researcher Sherman Skolnick was haranguing Bernard Fensterwald: "We all know about the Committee to Investigate Assassinations, all you want to do is pick our brains, Fensterwald. We know that Georgetown University's School of International Affairs is a CIA front. Why would they let us meet here? How about the money the CIA gave you? McCORD'S lawyer talked about it during Watergate, for Pete's sake! We demand an alternative panel!" The Washington Star News reported: "Another dissident, A.J. ajweberman, a well-known figure in the underground press, said that 'left-wing assassinologists have been excluded from the conference.' He added that the sessions at Georgetown University 'could be a CIA front to keep an eye on what people are learning about the assassinations.'" [Star 11.25.73]

After having appeared on Sherman Skolnick's alternative panel this researcher proceeded smoke a marijuana cigarette on the steps of one of Georgetown University's buildings with a female student I had met during the conference, who did not like Fensterwald. When several nuns began walking in and out of this building were decided it would be safer to go to the room of the student. There, I was introduced to Steven Sotor, a Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University's Center for Radio physics and Space Research, who later became the chief of research for Carl Sagan's Cosmos series aired on the Public Broadcasting System. Steve Sotor showed me a photograph of FRANK STURGIS from The New York Times and compared it with a photograph of TRAMP C. He shook his head and said : "A.J., before I came to this conference I thought that one of the three tramps in this photograph was FRANK STURGIS. But Bud Fensterwald told me he had done a height study in Dallas and there was a discrepancy between STURGIS and the tramp." "Steve" I said, "Fensterwald is a slimy fucking CIA Agent, not a researcher. Don't believe a word he says." This researcher studied the tramp shots for the first time. STURGIS did look a little like the tramp but this was inconclusive. Then I realized that one tramp had a sort of washed-out Protestant face, devoid of any ethnicity, like a man named Harold Henkel who I rented a room to when I was a landlord at Michigan State University. Harold Henkel looked like HOWARD HUNT. One tramp picked up on the scene of the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy could look like STURGIS and not be him, but how could one tramp look like STURGIS and the other look like HUNT, both of Watergate fame, without there being an actual identity between the tramps and HUNT and STURGIS.

Before examining the photographs remember this: Suppose you knew someone who resembled one of the tramps. This was within the realm of possibility. But suppose you knew two men who knew each other, and each of these men resembled one of two tramps. There was much smaller chance of this happening than of having known one man who looks like one of the three tramps. Finally, what is the likelihood of have known three men, all of whom knew each other, and each of whom looked like a different one of the three tramps? How were these odds affected by the fact that:

(1) The men who resembled the tramps were all involved in CIA-sponsored anti-Castro activity at the same time.

(2) STURGIS and CHRIST had been imprisoned by Fidel Castro.

(3) CHRIST was a CIA assassinations weapons expert.

(4) HUNT testified that his job at the CIA "had to do with the subversion of the prominent political figures abroad, the overthrow of governments and that sort of thing." [U.S. v. Erlichman p908] In regard to Jacobo Arbenz, he stated: "The Communists were thrown out. A dictatorship took place, which was supplanted by a democratic election." HUNT had his name on a letter written by OSWALD.

(5) The name FIORINI appeared in OSWALD'S notebook.

(6) STURGIS had been approached by the CIA and asked to do a domestic assassination.

HUNT, STURGIS and CHRIST'S appearance in Dealey Plaza was logical. They all had the motive and the ability to assassinate a world leader. In this authors estimation, if men with this sort of background left the slightest traces of their presence in Dealey Plaza, even traces that were in themselves indefinitive, chances are they killed President Kennedy.

In June 1994 Marina Oswald was sent the tramp shots by this researcher. She stated: "I do not know. I like, by the way, you're little plastic overlay. It was wonderful. But I'm not expert. You have to have expertise. All this time I thought the HUNT was the oil man Hunt. I think you did very wonderful research. You want help with book? I do not know the answers."

In August 1993 Michael Paine was sent Coup D'Etat in America. He commented, "HUNT [resembles the tramp] maybe the most. I couldn't really decide on STURGIS. Actually, I wasn't sure of the picture with the overlay. When they're together like that they seem to fit. When I look at them individually, I'm not persuaded. All I can say is HUNT works especially for me. And I didn't spend much time trying to analyze STURGIS. He was a possibility, but I didn't say 'Oh yeah, that's it!'" Paine was asked if the tramp shots made him wonder if there was a conspiracy. He responded, "I guess I've always had an opening for...We expected trouble from the right. The feeling in Dallas at the time invoked that kind of thought. I don't believe that OSWALD would knowingly participate with the right-wing in any way. I also believe he was acting like a spy, especially in the weeks before the assassination. But I didn't assume that had anything to do with the President. And if he been planning all along to kill the President, he wouldn't come out and get his rifle the night before.

"There are too many people in the CIA that have a patriotism that would not allow them to shoot the President. You might find one or two who would keep this a secret from the CIA. I think there are a lot of people like that. They honestly believed they were doing the right thing and protecting this country from tendencies they thought were dangerous. They felt they were doing a patriotic thing. A tiny percentage of CIA people."

When I told Ruth Paine what Michael Paine said, she stated: "I didn't get that impression from him. What he told me was that he looked at the pictures. I said, 'Do you find these pictures pretty convincing?' and he said 'No, I really don't find them convincing.' I am also unconvinced." James Hosty agreed with Ruth Paine and he told this researcher: "They weren't there. It's just a figment of your imagination."

Wallace Shanley stated to this researcher: "Havana, Miami, and New Orleans, were headed toward Dallas. It's kind of hard to deal with. You stir up some rather deep soup and things come floatin' to the top. INTERPEN was a group into which OSWALD could have well have inserted himself. A man with pseudo-expertise in all sorts of things. He would certainly be with one of these groups. But FRANK is not the tramp."

In 1975 Charles Ashmann wrote The CIA-Mafia Link, in which he stated that a "tramp" arrested on November 22, 1963, "bore a striking resemblance" to his former client, FRANK STURGIS. HEMMING told this researcher: "I could not see where Ashmann would pick-up on any of this Kennedy shit, and all of a sudden, his pocketbook comes out. I said, 'What the fuck? What has Ashmann been reading? Why the fuck would Ashmann take a look at the Kennedy situation?' Last guy in the world. As far as I was concerned he had no connection, no knowledge, shit, I figured he must know something that I don't know. He cranked out a little rinky-dink book with all these speculations in it."

STURGIS was asked:

Q. Do you know that your former attorney, Charles Ashmann, believes you to be the tramp in Dealey Plaza?

A. Well, if he stated that he believed I'm the tramp in Dealey Plaza, it's a lie because I saw the pictures in Washington and these two people that I saw up there that look like me, forget it.

Howard Kenneth Davis was mailed a copy of Coup D'Etat In America and recontacted in June 1993. He stated: "The one photograph you attributed to being STURGIS, in my mind that is absolutely not STURGIS. I don't know if he was in Dallas, or not, but I would give my eye teeth if that photograph were STURGIS.

Q. What about the overlay?

A. That was very, very interesting. There are similarities there, absolutely, and I really can't say about the other tramps...I hate to say it, because if you were to tell me you have other evidence that FIORINI was involved, I could believe it wholeheartedly. If you tell me he was involved, I won't argue with you one bit.

The Cuban Intelligence Service believed the tramp shots were significant. In Cuba, the HSCA was told :

ANTONIO: I would like to point out that these speculations have been made by FRANK STURGIS, who has been the principal propagator of this supposed visit by RUBY to Cuba. Such a lie, as others, has been propagated also by this individual. It catches our eye also that in this campaign to try to tie Cuba with the assassination he has been using published theories. The same American press has related STURGIS with the assassination of President Kennedy. Perhaps yesterday afternoon one of the questions that most caught our attention, and which we asked Blakey, was on these individuals who appeared at Dealey Plaza where it is said that one of those who appear in the photograph was FRANK STURGIS.

BUERGO: In relation to this question, it is also to keep in mind that STURGIS had a close relationship for many years with HOWARD HUNT. This must even be seen in relation to participation that both had in the events of Watergate, well known by you all, and the ties that this group had with President NIXON. It must also be viewed a little later; it is necessary to see the ties of these groups with the attitude maintained with respect to the Cuban Revolution. He was the first official of the American Government who recommended taking actions against Cuba after the interview that he held with President Castro during his visit to the United States in 1959. These elements are to show the ties of these counter-revolutionary people with leaders of the United States and that the same ones had been used in matters such as Watergate and activities against Cuba and that, therefore, it is logical that they could be used for all of this false information.

BLAKEY: Do you have knowledge of some documentary evidence that concretely ties HOWARD HUNT with STURGIS before 1964.

VILLA: Before 1964, no, and later what we know of him has been generated by other newsmen and investigators. We knew some things about HOWARD HUNT when he was working against Cuba in Miami. [HSCA NARA 11710100 4.2.78]

H.R. Haldeman was mailed a copy of Coup D'Etat in America then asked to comment: "I glanced through the thing. I didn't see of any particular area that I could be of any help on. I'm not a photographic expert in any way, shape or form. I've never met HOWARD HUNT. When he was at the White House, Colson had contact. When he was in the Re-election Committee, it was Liddy."

Edward Petty received copies of the tramp shots: "I have to tell you I was pretty impressed by the comparison of the HUNT picture. Which surprised me. I didn't think I was going to be. I have done a lot of photo comparisons. Photo identity is a really difficult thing. But you did a good job on that."

John Mertz commented: "I think you're nuts! Did you read in the paper STURGIS died yesterday? He was a nice guy. That frontal picture, the photograph the CIA gave the HSCA, doesn't look anything like CHRIST as I remember him. I don't think that's CHRIST. It doesn't look anything like the guy. It doesn't ring any bells for me. I don't think that was a picture of him.

Q. How about the photograph of the man coming off the plane with a pipe? Is that him?

A. I didn't see any picture of him...

Q. It's in the book.

A. It's in the book, I haven't come across that. I checked a number of them but I never saw any coming off the plane with a pipe. I don't recall that he smokes a pipe, and hell, he wouldn't have had a pipe comin' out of jail down there. He didn't have anything. It could have been, I don't know.

Q. What about the tramp shots?

A. I don't think any of them, I don't...I know HUNT better than I know CHRIST. I worked with him in Japan, shared an office with him. That sure as hell is no picture of HUNT. I never saw STURGIS.

Peter Dale Scott: "The frontal face shots (HOWARD HUNT? FRANK STURGIS?) have proven inconclusive."

Dr. Scott wrote that Fletcher Prouty "believes he could identify the back of Edwin Landsdale's neck in the so-called 'tramp' photographs." [Scott, Deep Pol. p377] Fletcher Prouty met with the leaders of the Cuban Revolutionary Council when they visited General Erskine on August 26, 1960. He sympathized with their plight. Fletcher Prouty told Senator Howard Baker that he met HUNT in the offices of Robert R. Mullen and Company: "The date was in either February or March 1971. It was in the offices of the Mullen Company. The man I went to see was Bob Bennett. After a brief talk, primarily with what I wanted done, he said, well, I have a man that can help you with that. And he called in an office and said, HOWARD. And HOWARD came out, and it was HOWARD HUNT. I knew HUNT, I had known him at least since the Bay of Pigs program. But I knew in CIA practice you don't recognize people. So, I never said a word, never batted an eye at him. But I knew he was CIA and I knew in my mind he was on duty. I didn't know he had retired. That was immaterial. The subject didn't come up. Bennett introduced me to HUNT. And we shook hands. And he said he would take the account work. And the name Butterfield was the name that was mentioned, and the only name mentioned. I was satisfied...After putting in weeks of work and researching to find who was going to do the job for us, and after going there for no other reason than to get a firm that would contact the White House." Prouty said he knew that Mullen and Company was a CIA front from a long list of fronts he once possessed and that "I would tell any body today that I don't think McCORD ever served really as a CIA man. But you see, nobody can uncover that Sheffield Edwards, Bob Bannerman or JIM McCORD were anything but FBI men like me, an Air Force guy, but working for the CIA. That is the way they worked. And they kept their connection. And I have been at lunch with McCORD when FBI men went by and they were just like old buddies. And I have had him volunteer FBI support of something I wanted officially. And I would say, if I had to analyze in my years of experience with him..." [NARA SSCIA 157-10011-10041] Fletcher Prouty was a consultant to Oliver Stone during the filming of JFK and was widely credited with convincing Oliver Stone that the military industrial complex was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy rather than NIXON and the tramps.

The Liberty Lobby Populist Action Committee

According to the Spotlight, the other persons named to the advisory board were:

• Abe Austin, described as an Illinois businessman and expert on money;
• Mike Blair, Spotlight writer whose articles on government repression were highlighted by Project Censored;
• Ken Bohnsack, an Illinois resident called the founder of the Sovereignty movement;
• Howard Carson, a Spotlight distributor;
• William Gill, president of the protectionist American Coalition for Competitive Trade;
• Boyd Godlove Jr., chairman of the Populist Party of Maryland;
• Martin Larson, a contributor to The Journal of Historical Review which maintains the Holocaust was a Jewish hoax;
• Roger Lourie, president of Devin-Adair Publishing;
• Pauline Mackey, national treasurer for the 1988 David Duke Populist Party Presidential campaign;
• Tom McIntyre, national chairman of the Populist Party from 1987-1990;
• John Nugent, who ran for Congress from Tennessee as a Republican in 1990;
• Lawrence Patterson, publisher of the far-right ultra-conspiratorial Criminal Politics newsletter;
• Jerry Pope, chair of the Kentucky Populist Party;
• John Rakus, president of the National Justice Foundation;
• Hon. John R. Rarick, former Democratic House member now in Louisiana;
• Sherman Skolnick, a Chicagoan who has peddled bizarre conspiracy theories for over a decade;
• Major James H. Townsend, editor of the National Educator from California;
• Jim Tucker, Spotlight contributor who specializes on covering the Bilderberger banking group;
• Tom Valentine, Midwest bureau chief for Spotlight and host of Liberty Lobby's Radio Free America;
• Raymond Walk, an Illinois critic of free trade;
• Robert H. Weems, founding national chairman of the Populist Party.

Skolnick also says he was never "officially" asked to be on the advisory board, but although he is aware he was named to the panel, he refuses to distance himself from the board or Liberty Lobby.(Telephone interview with Skolnick.)

Ronald Fischer received the CHRIST/tramp shots: "I couldn't make out the face of the man I saw in the window."

HEMMING: "The first time I saw the tramp shots was through Garrison. Weisberg brought it to his attention. He was the first to have them. They were comparing the pictures with the No Name Key crew."

The first shot was fired by HOWARD HUNT from the Southeast corner window of the Texas School Book Depository. HEMMING told this researcher: "The shot came from the other end of the floor. Through the trees into the President's back. That's the shallow wound in his back. This shot penetrated Kennedy's back, and exited through his throat. This was the meat shot. This was for fucking planting evidence. This wasn't for killing anybody. If it kills him, that's good too. It has the force to penetrate. If you're dumpin' the blame, the set up weapon has to be fired into a soft area of the target. You don't want this round deforming, because it has to be identified later on by the lands and grooves on it. This is not a killing round. This one went in two and a half inches. We figured that CPR popped the fucker out. This was the magic bullet. It's the closest shot. You can't miss. It's from 60 feet away. That's what pistol people shoot at. He's up six floors and 20 feet across the street. With a shoulder stock and a scope you ain't gonna miss with a sabot round. A sabot round is a plastic and metal sleeve that holds a smaller round. The sabot round they used was copper. Remember somebody talking about something making marks on the sidewalk? That's the sleeve. The jacket around the sabot round that breaks. It's a small piece, it can't be identified. It's got a wax filler. As that hot powder is burning, those gases are pushing it out. As soon as it leaves the muzzle the wax melts in a sabot round jacket that has already started to separate. The whole idea is, they fucked up totally, it became a pristine round because it was so underpowered. That's why I figure it was a short barreled sabot round. If they fired it out of a Carcano, they'd have been nothing left of the slug, except cadaver samples, and you can't see any rifling at all. What sends the flag up is the pristine round that tells the whole fucking story of professionalism. The use of silenced weapons and sabot rounds."

The first shot was designed to link the assassination bullet with OSWALD'S gun and was underpowered. This shot went through the President's back and out his throat and then entered Governor Connally. It, and all the shots fired that day, were fired from behind the President, so the autopsy evidence was relatively consistent with the shots having been fired from the Texas School Book Depository. No shots were fired from the grassy knoll. HEMMING told this researcher: "The first shot that should have been fired would be right after the turn onto Houston Street. There you have the target moving towards you, it's a full frontal shot. There's no deviation, there's no declination. The guy's moving straight at your ass. You're looking him right in the eye. You can get him right between the headlights. A professional that has a plan to get away, not a kamikaze, would know the Secret Service are not allowed to fire back, the ones that are on the outrider vehicles, and engage in a fire fight. They are there to take the spears. They are there to protect the President with their body. The outriders would be looking into the buildings where the shots are coming from. If you don't want to call attention to your shooting position for a variety of reasons, then you'll want a shot with the target moving away from you. They're going to be running away from you. They're not going to be looking at your ass. This messes memories up. This protects you in your E. & E. out of the area. If they looked up and saw someone poking a weapon out a window or suspected they saw a shooter in front of them, they'd carry it to their fucking graves."

Shortly after Governor John Connally was removed from his stretcher, Darrell C. Tomlinson (died late 1993) took the stretcher to the first floor of the hospital and placed it alongside another stretcher. A few minutes later, he bumped a stretcher against the wall and the meat shot rolled out. Darrell C. Tomlinson was not sure whether the bullet came from the stretcher of Governor John Connally or an adjacent one. [WR p81] The FBI determined that the meat shot had been fired from OSWALD'S Mannlicher-Carcano, to the exclusion of all other weapons.

The Warren Commission described the trajectory of the magic bullet:

(1) Penetrated the back of John F. Kennedy.

(2) Exited the throat of John F. Kennedy.

(3) Entered the chest of Governor John Connally shattering his rib.

(4) Exited below the right nipple of Governor John Connally.

(5) Entered the wrist of Governor John Connally.

(6) Exited the wrist of Governor John Connally.

(7) Entered the thigh of Governor John Connally.

(8) Exited the thigh of Governor John Connally when he was on the stretcher.

(9) Still weighed a nearly pristine 158.6 grams.

The meat shot was underpowered and could not have done that much damage. When the Warren Commission received the medical determinations regarding the wounds of John F. Kennedy and Governor John Connally, the findings had to be reconciled with the Commission's theory that OSWALD was the lone assassin. The Warren Commission determined that three shots had been fired from the Texas School Book Depository - and one had missed. One of these had clearly struck the head of the President. The other, therefore, would logically have had to have done all the remaining damage. The Warren Commission had no idea about "meat shots" and it had to account for the pristine bullet. The Magic Bullet was born.

HEMMING told this researcher: "That bullet, because of the bulge and the oval shape at the rear of the slug, shows that it was not fired into cotton wadding, it was fired into water. Who fired it into water to put lands and grooves on it so it would appear to have been fired? They were in a hurry. They fired it into a water tank. That distends the end. It causes the lead to bulge out the rear side and give an oval fish tail. That was a sabot round used to plant evidence.

"This whole thing of somebody dropping it on a stretcher. In a million fucking years who's going to find it? They're doing CPR on his ass and it popped out of the fucking hole. An underpowered round. It was supposed to go in about three inches, they didn't want any distortion on it. Someday I'll give you a demonstration of how it is done."

When Governor John Connally died on June 16, 1993, it was suggested that the bullet fragments lodged inside him be removed and weighed. If the weight of these fragments added to the weight of the magic bullet exceeded 160 grains, then the magic bullet was planted. The Connally family, however, objected to this procedure. Gerald Posner cited a study by Failure Analysis Associates that stated the magic bullet wasn't magic, after all, then admitted: "A complete recreation of CE 399 may be impossible."

While visiting HEMMING'S private detective office, late one evening in 1978, he told me: "FRANK was firing from the Records Building." HEMMING later denied he had said this. HEMMING 1994: "Take another fucking toke, A.J., STURGIS was a low echelon fucking throwaway. What were you taking, acid, that night? A.J., you know what you are? You're an unreconstructed hippie. You're stuck with having published a whole bunch of shit about the tramps which may lead somewhere someday. You have a team in the Texas School Book Depository. You have a team that's split up in another building. You probably have a team on the other side of the whole Plaza area. When the target makes it to the underpass, that's where they give him a blast. These people were trying to be selective. Jackie wasn't hit. Mrs. Connally wasn't hit. No Secret Service men were hit. These are bullets whizzing around these people."

The second shot which was fired from the Records Building by STURGIS further wounded Governor John Connally but missed John Kennedy. Mrs. Connally, testified that she thought her husband was hit by a second shot fired immediately after President Kennedy grabbed his throat. Governor John Connally told Life magazine: "There is my absolute knowledge, and Nellie's too, the one bullet caused the President's wound, and an entirely separate shot struck me...I'll never change my mind." [Life 10.30.66]

Gerald Posner stated that after he informed Governor John Connally about new technologies, John Connally realized he had been mistaken: "It may well be that Mrs. Connally was mistaken about seeing the President raise his arms after the first shot. That might have been after the second shot. And if that is true, it would make it all very consistent...[and] the second bullet could have hit us both." Earlier accounts of an incident are often more accurate.

When Failure Analysis Associates did a computer reconstruction of Dealey Plaza, creating a computer generated trajectory that "could then be splayed on to a cone," part of the cone covered the Records Building. [Posner Case Closed p477; Frontline: Who was LHO?] The height and isolation of the Records Building would have prevented the detection of STURGIS by eyewitnesses in Dealey Plaza. The roof lines of the Records Building were traced by low walls that hid him from the crowds below and provided a convenient gun rest. No one in Dealey Plaza saw any one fire from there.

F. Lee Mudd reported that he thought one or two of the shots came from the direction of the Dal-Tex Building. Standing at the north curb of Elm Street, he dropped to the ground when the shots were fired and looked toward the corner of Elm and Houston Street: "He looked around him [the FBI report related] and he recalled that in looking toward the building nearby, he noted several broken windows on the fourth floor of the Dal-Tex Building, and the thought occurred to him that possibly the shots had been fired through these broken windows...[He] stated that when the shots were fired, they sounded as if they came from the direction of the Dal-Tex Building." [24WH538]

CHARLES BREHM

Eyewitness Charles Brehm told the FBI that "it seemed quite apparent to him that the shots came from one of two buildings back at the corner of Elm and Houston Streets." [22WH837] In 1993 Charles Brehm stated, "They all came from the same place. Either the Records Building or the Texas School Book Depository."

Assistant Dallas County District Attorney Sam Paternostro told the FBI that he recalled hearing a shot that "came from the Texas School Book Depository building or the Criminal Courts Building." [24WH536] A physical feature of the Criminal Courts Building ruled it out as a source of the shots. A brick parapet 15 feet high and less than two feet wide bordered the Houston Street roof line, making a shot from there almost impossible.

Other witnesses pointed specifically to the Records and Criminal Court Buildings.

Elsie Dorman watched the motorcade from an open window on the fourth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Two days after the assassination, she advised the FBI that "she felt that these shots were coming from the area of the Records Building."

Otis N. Williams watched the motorcade from the steps of the Texas School Book Depository. Just after the Presidential limousine had passed the building and dipped out of sight down Elm Street, Otis N. Williams heard "three loud blasts." Otis N. Williams told the FBI that he "thought these blasts came from the location of the court house." [WCD 5] Both the Dallas County Records Building, and the Criminal Courts Building, stood between Otis N. Williams and the Court House.

Josiah Thompson wrote: "Such witness reports establish only the possibility that one or more shots may have come from the east boundary of Dealey Plaza. What turns this possibility into a probability is the web of evidence and logic that necessitates another gun besides OSWALD'S firing on the motorcade from behind...the most probable point of origin for such a bullet would be the roof of the Dallas County Records Building."

STURGIS may have used one of HEMMING'S Mannlicher-Carcano rifles. HEMMING told this researcher: "Rifle barrels produced in Italy at that time, the Carcanos, were out of 22 foot stock. So they ran the lands and grooves through 22 feet of pipe. The same tool is used on thousands of weapons. The factory, in the Pough Valley of Italy, only had two tools to do lands and grooves. Every one had these same tool markings on them."

The Warren Commission concluded that three shots were fired. On October 31, 2003 this finding was contradicted by Nellie Connally, the wife of John Connally, who told the New York Times that she heard three shots.

CHRIST fired the last shot while standing at the northeast corner window. This was the shot that blew part of President Kennedy's head off. HEMMING told this researcher: "One shot was fired out of OSWALD'S Mannlicher-Carcano. The gunman was standing up. He used a frangible round. It had been cut so it came apart on impact. It spread to a wide pattern on impact. You know what a dum-dum is? They used to say you carved an 'X' on the nose of it. You know what a hollow point is? It mushrooms. When it hits you it opens up a big goddamn hole. Frangible bullets don't mushroom. They become six separate slugs the minute they hit skin."

At least one Mannlicher-Carcano had been used in the assassination. Its accuracy was improved since its bolt did not have to be worked. HEMMING: "Every time you work the bolt you have to re-acquire the target."

CHRIST was an expert on modified weaponry so the possibility existed that the bullet which exited from the head of President John F. Kennedy was a fragile round which threw the head of President Kennedy backwards, and blew away a quarter of his skull. This made it appear as if he had been hit from the front. An excerpt from President Kennedy's autopsy stated: "Clearly visible in the above described large skull defect and exuding from it is lacerated brain tissue which on close inspection proves to represent the major portion of the right cerebral hemisphere." [WR p541] The wound in the back of President Kennedy's skull measured six millimeters. The beveling or conning shape found was consistent with an entrance wound. In Deadly Secrets former Ramparts writers William Turner and Warren Hinckle wrote that they interviewed "a former Cuban mercenary for the CIA" who stated: "The array of outlawed weaponry with which we were familiarized included bullets that exploded on impact." [Hinckle Deadly Secrets p47] HEMMING: "There are no bullets less than 20 millimeters that actually explode. Twenty millimeter is the smallest you can put a fuse assembly in. The Germans came up with the first one. Hydroshock rounds were developed in the last 20 years. It's a hydraulic function that turns it into a frangible bullet. They want the bullet to penetrate and then explode. Another procedure involves boring out a hole in the bullet, then the same exact weight of the lead that was removed is replaced with solder. Then a little brass plug is put in it. As that sucker is traveling through the air, it's getting hotter and hotter. The solder is melting. It melts at the back of the slug before it melts at the front. When that copper jacket hits anything that gives resistance, the little brass nut starts traveling forward and a hydraulic action occurs. It starts mushrooming and splitting the bullet. The bullet has started to stop, but that little brass plug in the rear of the bullet wants to keep on going. There's nothing to stop it but the liquid. This is squeezing the liquid. You can't compress liquids, and it transfers a foot pound energy throughout that liquid. If the fucker hits metal, it will explode like a fucking firecracker into many fragments. If it hits skin, it will only explode probably after it's penetrated three or four inches. Then it starts coming apart into a lot of small pieces. You'll recover solder, copper and lead. The solder melts. It becomes black speckles. It won't even seem metallic."

There was medical evidence a frangible round, or a hydroshock round, was employed. In the Warren Report, Dr. Alfred G. Olivier, who had spent seven years doing wounds ballistic research for the U.S. Army stated: "I didn't think this type of a stable bullet would cause a massive head wound, I thought it would go through making a small entrance and exit..." In the May 1992 Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. James Humes wrote: "The X-rays disclosed fine, dustlike, metallic fragments from back to front where the bullet traversed the head before creating an explosive exit wound on the right temporal-parietal area. These fragments were not grossly visible. Two small bullet fragments were recovered from inside the skull - measuring three by one millimeters and seven by two millimeters... The head was so devastated by the exploding bullet and the gaping jagged stellate wound it created...two thirds of the right cerebrum had been blown away...After the brain was removed, we looked more closely at the wound, and noted that the inside of the rear of the skullbone was absolutely intact and beveled and there could be no question from whence cometh that bullet - [from rear to front]."

The Warren Commission stated that a bullet fragment from the head wound hit a curbstone causing a chip of concrete to hit bystander Walter Teague in the cheek, causing him to bleed. When the FBI ran a spectrographic analysis on the curb it showed "traces of lead with a trace of antimony." [15WH700] Since there was no copper found in the curb (the 6.5 mm ammo was copper-jacketed) S.A. Shaneyfeldt told the Warren Commission the lead came from the core of the bullet. Was the chip of concrete that hit Walter Teague in the face set into motion by a fragment from frangible bullet? Was this why, when the curbstone was tested, the traces on it were from the core of the bullet, rather then from the part of the bullet that came into contact with the copper shell casing, that is, the outside of the bullet? Or did the fragment of a jacket around a sabot hit the sidewalk, as HEMMING suggested?

Gerald Posner believed: "What is likely is that after the bullet fragmented against a tree branch, the stable lead core remained in a straight line from the Depository and struck the curb, over 500 feet away. The destablized copper jacket hit the pavement, giving Virgie Rachley the impression of sparks. Neither fragment was every recovered...No part of a third bullet was ever found." [NYT 5.26.92; JAMA 5.27.92; Crenshaw JFK Conspiracy of Silence - questionable book]

J. Edgar Hoover disagreed with Gerald Posner: "Assuming this mark was made by a fragment of a bullet from the assassin's rifle, the evidence present is insufficient to establish whether it was caused by a fragment of a bullet striking the occupants of the Presidential limousine, such as the bullet that struck the President's head, or whether it is the fragment of a shot that may have missed the Presidential limousine." [FBI Hoover to Rankin 8.12.64] J. Edgar Hoover also stated: "The piece of curbing containing the mark was removed on August 5, 1964, and examined in the FBI Laboratory. Small foreign metal smears were found adhering to the curbing section within the area of the mark. These metal smears were spectrographically determined to be essentially lead with a trace of antimony. No copper was found. The lead could have originated from the lead core of a mutilated metal-jacketed bullet such as the type of bullet loaded into the 6.5 millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano cartridges or from some other source having the same composition. The absence of copper precludes the possibility that the mark on the curbing section was made by an unmutilated military-type full metal-jacket bullet..."

The size of the fragments also indicated an frangible or hydroshock round was used. The FBI found:

(1) A bullet fragment weighing 44.6 grains - about a quarter of a bullet, since each intact bullet weighed about 160 to 161 grains before firing, and 158.6 grains after firing. This bullet fragment was found in the seat cushion of the Presidential limousine.

(2) One bullet fragment weighing 21.0 grains - about an eighth of a bullet, found beside the back seat of the limousine.

(3) One metal fragment weighing 1.65 grains, taken from the head of the President.

(4) One metal fragment weighing 0.15 grains, taken from the head of the President.

(5) One metal fragment weighing 0.5 grains, removed from the arm of Governor Connally.

(6) Three metal fragments weighing 0.9, 0.7, 0.7, removed from the rear floorboard carpet.

When FBI firearms experts examined the two larger fragments, they concluded that they had been fired from OSWALD'S Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. However, it was not possible to determine whether the two bullet fragments were from the same bullet or from two different bullets. [FBI 62-109060-3452, 3440]

The Warren Commission determined that the wounds of President Kennedy and those of Governor John Connally were consistent with a total of only two shots: "One shot passed through the President's neck and then most probably passed through the Governor's body and a subsequent shot penetrated the President's head." No other shots struck any part of the automobile. Therefore, if three shots were fired, it followed that one shot had missed the car. But which shot? The Warren Commission stated that "The evidence is inconclusive as to whether it was the first, second or third shot which missed." [WR p111] The Warren Commission could not present a clear picture of what happened in Dealey Plaza because the "bullet that missed" was never recovered.

The third shot was fired from the Texas School Book Depository, however, a firecracker was set off at the knoll, as a diversionary measure. The men observed standing behind the picket fence did not fire a weapon at President Kennedy. Lee Bowers perceived their activity as a "commotion." The firecracker sounded like a gunshot, and was followed by a puff of white smoke. When a gun discharges, black smoke is released or, if the bullet contains smokeless, the discharge releases a trace of smoke, visible only in strong sunlight. The smoke from a firecracker is white, and highly visible.

The diversionary effort worked. Most of the people in Dealey Plaza looked toward the knoll as the shots were fired and immediately ran toward it. Even the stock boys in the Texas School Book Depository, who had been watching the motorcade from the window directly under the sniper's nest, ran to the other side of the Texas School Book Depository and looked at the railroad tracks that ran behind the knoll. One of them saw a policeman on top of a freight car. Could this have been an assassin going into hiding?

Lee Bowers observed the area behind the fence, on top of the knoll, during the shooting. Asked by Joe Ball about what attracted his attention to this area, he replied: "I just am unable to describe...it was something out of the ordinary, a sort of milling around, but something occurred in this particular spot which was out of the ordinary, which attracted my eye for some reason, which I could not identify." Dallas Policeman Seymour Weitzman ran up on the knoll. He told the FBI: "As he came to the fence at the top of the grassy slope, some bystander mentioned that the firecracker or shot had come from the other side of the fence, and he requested a bystander to bend over and he used the bystanders back as a step and vaulted over the fence." [WCD 5]

Several railroad men standing on the railroad bridge near the triple overpass said they had seen smoke coming from behind the knoll fence. Sterling Mayfield Holland, who had been on the bridge since 11:45 a.m., testified: "There was a shot, a report...and a puff of smoke came out about six or eight feet above the ground right out from under those trees. And at just about this location from where I was standing you could see that puff of smoke, like someone had thrown a firecracker, or something out, and that is just about the way it sounded. It wasn't as loud as the previous reports or shots." [6WH244] In 1966 Sterling Holland told Josiah Thompson: "It was just like somebody had thrown a firecracker and left a little puff of smoke there. It was a white smoke; it wasn't a black smoke or like a black powder. It was like the puff of a cigarette, but it was about nine feet off the ground. It would be just about in line with, or maybe just a little bit higher than that fence, but by the time it got underneath the tree, well, it would be about eight or nine feet...(the ground slopes off sharply in front of the fence.)" [Thompson Six Seconds in Dallas taped interview with Holland 11.30.66]

Sterling Holland placed the time of the puff of smoke as coinciding with the first noise: "When they got just about to the Arcade, I heard what I thought for the moment was a firecracker, and he slumped over..." Sterling Holland died on April 29, 1969. Gerald Posner called Sterling Holland "confused about several issues, thinking Mrs. Kennedy was trying to climb into the back seat to join her husband." Sterling Holland told the Dallas Police Department: "I am signal supervisor for the Union Terminal and I was inspecting signals and switches and stopped to watch the parade. I was standing on top of the triple underpass and the President's car was coming down Elm Street and when they got just about to the arcade I heard what I thought for a moment was a fire cracker and he slumped over and I looked toward the arcade and trees and saw a puff of smoke come from the trees and I heard three more shots after the first shot, but that was the only puff of smoke I saw. I immediately ran around to where I could see behind the arcade and did not see anyone running from there. But the puff of smoke I saw definitely came from behind the arcade through the trees. After the first shot the President slumped over and Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and tried to get over in the back seat to him, and then the second shot rang out. After the first shot the Secret Service man raised up in the seat with a machine gun and then dropped back down in the seat. And they immediately sped off. Everything is spinning in my head and if I remember anything else later I will come back and tell Bill."

Gerald Posner attempted to discredit Holland's testimony about the puff of smoke in this fashion: "[Holland stated] that a Secret Service agent in the President's car had 'raised up in the seat with a machine gun.'"Because Holland might have been in error, and Secret Servicemen in another vehicle had deployed their weapons, as was to be expected, and not in the President's vehicle, does not mean that Holland's testimony about the puff of smoke was in error. Posner did not take into account that Holland was dealing with a situation that was frightening, confusing and fast moving. We are talking about events taking place in fast moving cars - Holland said that his head was "spinning." [Decker Ex. 5323 page 480]

Posner also questioned Holland's testimony that: "After the first shot the President slumped over and Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and tried to get over in the back seat to him and then the second shot rang out." Jackie Kennedy tried to get out of the limo by climbing over the trunk. Holland interpreted this differently.

Holland was in error about the location of certain events, however, all these events did occur. Holland was a responsible citizen, a railroad signal inspector. People depended on him for their safety. He was not prone to hallucinate. Because he was confused, Posner attempted to make him into a liar.

In a notarized statement dated November 22, 1963, for the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, Austin Lawrence Miller stated that when he heard three shots and saw people in the Presidential limousine react, he saw "something which I thought was smoke or steam coming from a group of trees north of Elm off the railroad tracks." At that time, Austin Lawrence Miller was standing on the bridge of the triple underpass. Four other railroad men had also seen the smoke. Patrolman J.M. Smith, the second policeman to scale the fence on the knoll, "smelled gunpowder...in the parking lot near the Texas School Book Depository" and so did another patrolman. Lee Bowers noticed that "At the time of the shooting, in the vicinity of where the two men I have described were, there was a flash of light or smoke..." [6WH239; 24WH217; 22WH833; 22WH836; interview with Winborn Murphy cited in Rush To Judgment Lane p40; WCD 205 p39]

Seymour Weitzman was the first Dallas Police Officer to scale the fence on top of the knoll. He told Warren Commission Counsel Joseph Ball that he "noticed numerous kinds of footprints..." Although Seymour Weitzman had scaled the fence first, the officer behind him, J.M. Smith, was the first to encounter a Secret Service Agent there: "I wasn't alone. There was some Deputy Sheriff and I believe one Secret Service man when I got there...I pulled my pistol from my holster, and I thought, 'This is silly, I don't know who I am looking for'...Just as I did he showed me he was a Secret Service Agent..." [7WH531] Weitzman had also seen this man and told Joseph Ball: "[There were] other officers, Secret Service as well." [7WH105] Sterling Holland, who had run to the area where he saw the puff of smoke, noticed footprints between a station wagon and the picket fence: "It was muddy...a hundred tracks in one location. There was mud on the bumper as if someone had cleaned their foot...there were 12 or 15 policemen, or plainclothesmen, and we looked for empty shells..." [7WH284; WNEW-TV transcript 3.24.66]

The Warren Commission questioned every Secret Service Agent on the scene that day, and they stated that they went to Parkland Hospital or stayed at the Trade Center. [WCD 1095]

The HSCA questioned J.M. Smith: "One witness who did not base his Secret Service identification merely upon observing a plainclothesman in the presence of uniformed police officers was Dallas police officer Joseph M. Smith. Smith, who had been riding as a motorcycle escort in the motorcade, ran up the grassy knoll immediately after the shooting occurred. He testified to the Warren Commission that at that time he encountered a man who stated that he was a Secret Service agent and offered supporting credentials..."

The HSCA made an effort to identify the person who talked to Joseph M. Smith. "FBI S.A. James P. Hosty stated that Frank Ellsworth, then an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent, had indicated that he had been in the knoll area and for some reason had identified himself to someone as a Secret Service Agent. The HSCA deposed Frank Ellsworth, who denied S.A. Hosty's allegation." James Hosty: "That's not what I said. I said Ellsworth told me after the assassination that he had gone over there and participated in the building and grounds search. I suggested to the HSCA that there were Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agents at the scene and maybe they were the ones who had been mistaken for Secret Service Agents. It was a mass of confusion, you have to remember." Frank Ellsworth: "He was wrong. He knew precisely what I was doing that day. I spent the entire time searching the Texas School Book Depository. I talked to him about it later." Frank Ellsworth said he heard about the assassination on the radio, then ran to the Texas School Book Depository, where he found two uniformed officers: "This was three minutes or four minutes after the assassination."

HEMMING told this researcher: "Most of the time, if someone grabs one of your guys, you come up with I.D. and snatch him away. You make sure the cops closest to your guys are on your payroll. They don't know shit. They're not told a goddamn thing. Either they are given a code word, or are told to watch for a particular type of I.D. If some one from a particular agency tells you to boo, you boo. That's all. They don't know shit."

When Michael Canfield visited Dallas in April 1975 he interviewed Seymour Weitzman, who was in a home for aged veterans. Seymour Weitzman had a nervous breakdown in June 1972 - shortly after Watergate. He requested that his doctor, Charles Laburda, be present during the interview. Seymour Weitzman told Michael Canfield he had encountered a Secret Service Agent in the parking lot who produced credentials and told him everything was under control. He described the man as being of medium height, dark hair and wearing a light windbreaker. Michael Canfield showed him photographs of Watergate burglars STURGIS and BARKER, and asked him if either of these men resembled the "Secret Service Agent" he had encountered on November 22, 1963. He pointed to BERNARD BARKER. He told Michael Canfield: "I can't remember for sure, but it looked like him. Couldn't swear it was him though...anyway so many witnesses are dead...two Cubans once forced their way into my house and waited for me when I got home. I had to chase them out with my service revolver...I feared for my life." A recent JFK Records Collection Computer search revealed that one page of a Warren Commission document that dealt with Seymour Weitzman and the tramps was referred to another agency for review. [NARA 180-10095-10367; see 180-10095-10355] When the HSCA attempted to question Seymour Weitzman, Dr. Charles Laburda objected: "Since Mr. Weitzman was treated for emotional illness for many years...information sought from him should be extracted from his testimony and depositions made at that time [1963 to 1964]." [ltr. VA Laburda 6.1.78] Seymour Weitzman, born January 28, 1922, died in July 1985.

HEMMING told this researcher: "BARKER never went on any operations. He was around these BRAC (Bureau for Suppression of Communism) assholes. Hey, if he'd gone out and done an assassination or two in Miami, like those are coward-assed motherfuckers, okay. He don't even do that. His job was to snitch us out."

When BARKER was questioned, under oath, about his whereabouts on November 22 he stated: "This is a question that came up during the Watergate Hearing. I said that since I was a Cuban Revolutionary Council agent, they would have me on record. I was working for the Agency, they know exactly everywhere I was, I reported to them daily. I can tell you I was watching the whole thing on T.V. when it happened. I was home, in Miami, Florida, I remember definitely. My wife was with me. I saw many people at the time. I was constantly seeing people. For your information, if it would help you any, I was in Miami quite definitely because I remember seeing the thing on T.V. I don't recall who else saw me aside from my wife...my family, my neighbors [Peter Arent 4400 NW 5th St; 420 NW 44th Ave Miami], the people who lived next door." Then he was asked why he was at home watching television that day, instead of being at work? He responded: "I didn't report necessarily every day, but just about every day I would get a call or assignment." BARKER was asked what soap opera he was watching at 1:30 p.m., Friday, November 22, 1963. He could not remember. Then he was asked if he heard of the assassination via a news flash. He responded: "No, I think I saw the parade, how the whole thing happened."

The HSCA's photo enhancement of the Philip Willis photograph of the stockade fence atop the knoll, taken seconds before HUNT, STURGIS and CHRIST opened fire, showed "an object whose size and shape were consistent with a human being, positioned just inside the retaining wall. The object possessed colors with a distinct resemblance to flesh tones, as revealed on the color display. The Panel perceived the object to be that of a badly blurred image of a person, dressed in dark clothing, standing or leaning just inside the retaining wall." The HSCA continued: "In this photograph, which shows the person standing behind the concrete wall, there is visible, near the region of that person's hands, a very distinct straight line feature which extends from the lower right to the upper right. Nevertheless, because of the blur of the object in the photograph, the panel was not able to determine the actual length of the object and could not conclude whether it was or was not a weapon." [HSCA V6 p123-127] The Nix film, which captured the area in question around the same time, revealed: "An object that can be construed as having a shape similar to that of a person. It is also possible to interpret this object as being of the same general shape as the person identified at the wall of the Willis #5 photograph." [HSCA V5 p131] The HSCA found no photographic evidence this man had a rifle with him nor did it find photographic evidence of the puff of smoke. [HSCA V4 p424]

Two men set firecrackers off behind the fence on the grassy knoll as a diversionary effort. They turned into Secret Service agents after the assassination. One of them was BERNARD BARKER, the other was ROY HARGRAVES.

STURGIS told the Rockefeller Commission about an attempt that he planned on the life of Fidel Castro: "I again did these exercises to try to get a diversion that if I would get the nod to do the execution, that I would have some means of diversionary tactics to draw attention away from the people who did the execution, and I was there with my people to prevent it because of security."

The Warren Commission Report stated: "Roger Craig, a Deputy Sheriff of Dallas County, claimed that about 15 minutes after the assassination he saw a man who he later identified as OSWALD coming from the direction of the Texas School Book Depository Building and running down the hill north of Elm Street toward a light colored Nash Rambler station wagon which was moving slowly along Elm Street toward the underpass. The station wagon stopped to pick up the man then drove off. Craig testified that later in the afternoon he saw OSWALD in the police interrogation room and told Captain Fritz that OSWALD was the man he saw. Craig also claimed that when Fritz pointed out to OSWALD that Craig had identified him, OSWALD rose from his chair, looked directly at Fritz, and said, 'Everyone will know who I am now.' The Warren Commission could not accept important elements of Craig's testimony. Captain Fritz stated that a deputy sheriff whom he could not identify did ask to see him that afternoon and told him a similar story to Craig's. Fritz did not bring him in his office to identify OSWALD but turned him over to Lieutenant Baker for questioning. If Craig saw OSWALD that afternoon, he saw him through the glass windows of the office. And neither Captain Fritz nor any other officer can remember that OSWALD dramatically arose from his chair and said, 'Everybody will know who I am now.' If OSWALD had made such a statement Captain Fritz and the others present would probably have remembered it. Craig may have seen a person enter a white Rambler station wagon 15 or 20 minutes after the shooting and travel west on Elm Street, but the Commission concluded that this man was not OSWALD because of the overwhelming evidence that OSWALD was far away from the building by that time." [WR p160]

Roger Craig was interviewed by Mark Lane and Jim Garrison on October 25, 1967. He added this to his story: "He recognized OSWALD, seated alongside the desk, as the man he had seen in Dealey Plaza. Fritz said to OSWALD that CRAIG saw him enter a car after the assassination. OSWALD became angry - stood up and raised his voice as he spoke to -- almost shouted at Fritz. OSWALD said that the station wagon and Mrs. Paine had nothing to do with it. Craig said that OSWALD then seemed to realize that he had revealed too much information -- having answered by referring to a station wagon." Roger Craig said his uncle was Roy Vaughn, one of the Dallas Police Officers who picked up the tramps. In an Affidavit Roger Craig said the man driving the station wagon was Eugene Edgar Bradley.

Roger Craig might have seen someone get into a Rambler station wagon, but it was not OSWALD. Roger Craig had exaggerated and had outright lied about confronting OSWALD in Fritz's office. Roger Craig was twisting the truth and lying in order to make himself into a hero.

Roger Craig resigned from the Sheriff's Department after eight years of service in July 1967 and became a private investigator for a bail bondsmen. Roger Craig told the Dallas Times Herald that on November 1, 1967, someone shot at him in a parking lot in Dallas."The article contended that Craig said he believed his going to New Orleans last week for interrogation by District Attorney Garrison was probably connected with the attempt on his life. The article stated that Craig had indicated he was 'tailed' while in New Orleans and was still being 'tailed' in Dallas." [Dallas Times Herald 11.3.67] In 1968, Roger Craig served as a Municipal Judge in Midlothian, Texas. In 1973 he was injured in an automobile accident. He committed suicide on May 15, 1975, at the age of 39. Just before he shot himself with a .22 caliber rifle, the Social Security Administration had refused to pay him disability.

On February 9, 1976, the widow of Roger Craig, along with her new husband, Jerry Hahn, Assistant Vice President-in-Charge of Loans at the National Bank of Commerce, Dallas, Texas, visited the Dallas FBI. They were accompanied by Mr. M.J. McNicholas, Attorney-at-law. Jerry Hahn demanded that the FBI stop harassing his wife. Mrs. Hahn was followed, and had photographed the men who had followed her. When she picked up these photographs from the developer, they all turned out blank. After Jerry Hahn's visit, the harassment ceased. Jerry Hahn stated: "Had the harassment of his wife not ceased after their visit to the Dallas FBI, he had planned to approach the CIA, because he felt that Agency could be the only other source of harassment." On December 27, 1976, Jerry Hahn returned to the Dallas FBI office. He told the agents he had heard S.A. Gemberling was retiring on December 30, 1976, and "desired to ascertain from S.A. Gemberling whether or not the FBI had conducted a surveillance of his wife, (deleted) in early 1976, or otherwise had investigated her in connection with the assassination investigation." The FBI assured him it had not harassed his wife. [FBI 62-109060-7598]

The testimony of Roger Craig about a man getting into the Nash station wagon was supported by Marvin Robinson. In a FBI interview dated November 23, 1963, Marvin Robinson said he was traveling west on Elm toward Houston Street after the assassination. Just as he crossed Elm and Houston and was in front of the Texas School Book Depository, a light-colored Nash station wagon appeared before him. He said the station wagon stopped, and he had seen a white male come down the grassy hill between the building and the street and enter the station wagon. Mr. Marvin Robinson did not testify before the Warren Commission and the HSCA was not able to locate him. [HSCA V12 p18]

On December 17, 1976, the HSCA received a letter fr