| Subject: The Problems With Garrison's Theory |
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anand
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Date Posted: 11:46:33 02/27/02 Wed
In reply to:
Mr Torres
's message, "Miscellaneous" on 11:31:58 02/06/02 Wed
The Problems With Garrison's Theory
1.Garrison claims a fourth bullet was found during the autopsy.
A fourth bullet was apparently found during Kennedy's autopsy. The chief pathologist, Commander
James Humes, told the Warren Commission that he had not found any bullets during the autopsy.
However, an FBI memo from November 22, 1963, released under the Freedom of Information Act,
acknowledged the receipt of a missile removed by Commander Humes on that date.
The memo is dated November 22, 1963 and is signed by agents Francis O'Neill, Jr. and James
Sibert. It reads:
1. We hereby acknowledge the receipt of a missle [sic] removed by Commander James
J. Humes, MC, USN on this date.
The FBI report and the autopsy report show that the FBI memo was actually referring to fragments
removed from JFK's brain.
From FBI Agent O'Neills report written shortly after the autopsy:
During the autopsy inspection of the area of the brain, two fragments of metal were
removed by Dr. HUMES, namely, one fragment measuring 7X2 millimeters, which was
removed from the right side of the brain. An additional fragment of metal measuring 1X3
millimeters was also removed from this area, both of which were placed in a glass jar
containing a black metal top which were thereafter marked for identification and
following the signing of the proper receipt were transported by Bureau agents to the FBI
Laboratory.
.
.
.
The two metal fragments removed from the brain area were hand carried by SAs
SILBERT and ONEILL to the FBI Laboratory immediately following the autopsy and
were turned over to SA KURT FRAZIER.
From Humes's Pathological Examination Report:
From the surface of the disrupted right cerebral cortex two small irregularly shaped
fragments of metal are recovered. These measure 7 x 2 mm. and 3 x 1 mm. These are
placed in the custody of Agents Francis X. O'Neill, Jr. and James W. Sibert, of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, who executed a receipt therefor (attached).
Apparently, the HSCA looked into this as well and found that the memo was written by an FBI
orderly who had not actually look at the fragments.
2.Garrison suspects Oswald never made his trip to Mexico City.
Garrison reports the suspicious aspects of Oswald's trip to Mexico: the CIA photo of Oswald that
clearly isn't Oswald, the missing CIA tape recording of Oswald that FBI agents said was not of
Oswald, Duran's poor description of Oswald, Cuban Consul Azcue's denial that the man he met was
Oswald. Garrison implies that Oswald was impersonated and refers to Oswald's visit as his
"supposed trip to Mexico City."
Here is some evidence for this trip compiled by Joel Grant and posted to the net (sources: WCR,
WCH, HSCA, "Marina & Lee," Newman):
September 17: Oswald visits the Mexican consulate in New Orleans where he pays 50 cents for a
Mexican tourist card, No. 24085, valid for 15 days in Mexico.
September 26: Oswald takes Continental Trailways bus #5133, leaving Houston at 2:35 a.m. Copies
of the tickets were turned up by the investigators. At approximately six o'clock in the morning,
Oswald is noticed by two British tourists on the bus, John and Meryl McFarland. They spoke with
Oswald at length, for a number of hours. As they cross the Mexican border, Oswald's tourist card is
date-stamped. Oswald and the McFarlands board the Flecha Rojas bus #516, bound for Mexico
City. Oswald's name was on the manifest. On this trip, two Australian tourists, Pamela Mumford
and Patricia Wilson, also converse at length with Oswald.
9/27: Oswald's bus arrives in Mexico City at 10:00 a.m. Oswald checks into the Hotel del Comercia,
room 18. Oswald's handwriting on the guest register is authenticated. One of the hotel maids
subsequently identifies Oswald as the man who stayed in room 18. While staying in Mexico City,
Oswald frequented a particular restaurant; two employees of the restaurant identify Oswald as their
regular patron during this period. Oswald first visits the Cuban consulate and speaks with Sylvia
Duran. At some point, Duran gives Oswald her name and consulate phone number, which Oswald
copies into his address book - thus, the quick link to and suspicions of Duran when the book is
examined after the assassination.
10/2: Oswald leaves Mexico City via Transportes del Norte bus #332. At Monterrey, transfers to
relief bus #373. Again, passenger manifests list his name. Several individuals along the route later
recall and identify Oswald.
Tirado [Sylvia Duran] stated that the photo attached to Oswald's visa application was taken in
Mexico City. She had told Oswald he would need to give her a photo, and told Oswald where he
could go, locally, to get his picture taken. Oswald left. Upon his return, he had four photos. She
verified that the man in the photos in front of her were of the man standing in front of her, noticed
he was wearing the same clothes that he was wearing in the photos, and attached one of the photos
to the visa application. This application was handed over by the Revolutionary Government of
Cuba.
In a November 12 letter to the Soviet Embasssy, Oswald refers in detail to his visit to Mexico City.
The visa application has been released by the Cuban government and has a photo of Oswald
attached. There has been recent confirmation from KGB officers who worked at the Soviet
Embassy that Oswald visited the embassy.
3.The shooting of officer Tippit
Garrison claims that the case against Oswald is weak. He mentions that the closest witness,
Domingo Benavides, wouldn't identify Oswald as the murderer, and that another witness, Warren
Reynolds, first reported that he would hesitate to name Oswald as Tippit's murderer but then did
name Oswald after Reynold's was shot in the head in a car basement. Garrison also reports some of
Helen Markham's shaky WC testimony and dismisses all other witnesses as "inconsequential".
Garrison quotes some of Markham's testimony where it she struggles with the definition of the word
"recognize":
Mr. Ball: Did you recognize anyone in the line-up?
Mrs. Markham: No, sir.
Mr. Ball: You did not? Did you see anybody - I have asked you that question before -
did you recognize anybody from their face?
Mrs. Markham: From their face, no.
Garrison does not mention the following testimony:
Mr. Ball: Well, the man that you identified as the number two man in the lineup in the
police station, you identified him as the man you had seen shoot Officer Tippit?
Mrs Markham: Yes, I did.
Mr. Ball: Did you identify him because of his clothing that he had on at that time in the
lineup?
Mrs Markham: Just like I told you. I mostly looked at his face, his eyes, and his clothing,
too.
Helen Markham was the only person who witnessed the shooting of Tippit and who identified
Oswald in a line-up. Garrison exploits this fact to imply that there is not much of a case against
Oswald. But there were many witnesses who saw Oswald fleeing the scene with a gun in his hand
who later identified Oswald in police line-ups.
Virginia and Barbara Davis saw Oswald cut across the corner of their lawn, shaking shells from his
revolver.
William Scoggins heard the shots from his cab, saw Tippit fall and hid behind his cab as Oswald ran
toward him. Oswald looked back as he ran by and Scoggins got a good look at his face.
Ted Callaway saw Oswald after he rounded the corner of 10th and Patton and ran by a used car lot.
Calloway testified to the Warren Commision that Oswald looked right at him as he fled the shooting
scene. He had not seen any TV or newspaper photos of Oswald before he picked him out of a
line-up. He also testified that the men in the police lineup were of similar age and build.
Witnesses said Oswald was wearing a jacket at the scene of the shooting. He was not wearing one
when he was arrested but the jacket was found beneath a car in the gas station that he ran through
after he passed Callaway.
Garrison also reports that the initial report from the scene said the shells indicated that an automatic
had been used. Oswald was found with a revolver. The confusion was apparently caused because
Oswald emptied the shells from his gun as he ran past the Davis's home. Apparently, someone saw
the shells and immediately assumed they had been discharged from an automatic. This would seem
more likely than a gunman leaving incriminating evidence behind. But Oswald had been seen
emptying the shells and the shells were matched with his gun. Garrison does not mention that one of
the four bullets recovered from Tippit's body was also matched with the gun. He only mentions that
the chain of possession for the shells was suspect and that that the types of bullets found (two
Winchester and two Remington-Peters) did not match the shells found (three Winchester and one
Remington-Peters). The WC explained away the latter by claiming there were five shots, three being
Winchesters and two Remington-Peters. There were varying accounts of the number of shots fired
from the ear witnesses:
#shots #witnesses
------ ----------
2 2
3 3
4 2
4-6 1
5 1
6 2
Four of the eleven support a 5 bullet theory. One can argue that it is inconsistent for the WC to posit
three shots in Dealey Plaza based on witness testimony and then to argue for five shots in the Tippit
slaying when most witnesses heard less. However, a revolver can fire more rapidly than a rifle and
the rapid sequence of shots would be easier to confuse.
An ambulance attendant, Ed Kinsley, said that when he unloaded Tippit's body, he kicked a loose
bullet.
4.Oswald fleeing TSBD vs. Craig's Rambler story
Garrison reports Roger Craig's story of seeing Oswald run down the grassy knoll into a green Nash
Rambler station wagon. Garrison does not give any of the evidence that Oswald had actually fled
eastward, got on a bus (a former landlady of his was on the bus and later identified him), and then
left the bus and got in a taxi which drove him a few blocks from the boardinghouse where he was
renting a room. When Oswald was arrested, a bus transfer was found on him from the bus he was
seen on.
5.Garrison gives a straw man version of the Single Bullet Theory (SBT):
The bullet entered Kennedy's body traveling downward at 17 degrees and then traveled upward,
departing through his neck. The bullet then entered Connally at the rear of his right armpit heading
leftward. It traveled downward at 27 degrees, hitting Connally's fifth rib and exiting his chest. The
bullet continued downward and passed through Connally's left wrist, shattering his radius bone, and
finally lodged in his left leg.
Garrison does not mention any of the evidence supporting the SBT:
1.The doctors who treated Connally all agree he was hit by one shot.
2.The pristine bullet, CE399, found near Connally's stretcher was matched with Oswald's rifle.
3.The lead removed from Connally's wrist, was matched via NAA to CE399.
4.The slight deformation of CE399 indicates it was traveling at a greatly reduced velocity when it
struck Connally's radial bone.
5.The angle of entry of Connally's back wound comes from too high to be from a direct shot.
This suggests that the bullet was tumbling when it hit Connally and the only thing behind
Connally that could have caused it to tumble was Kennedy.
6.Studies by the House Select Committee on Assassinations and by Failure Analysis concluded
that the wounds of Kennedy and Connally did line up at Zapruder frame 190 and/or 223 and
that the alignment of the wounds indicated the source could have been the TSBD sniper's nest
on the sixth floor.
7.Most Dealey plaza witnesses heard only three shots. Most of the witnesses who expressed an
opinion about the direction of the shots said they came from the TSBD.
From Josiah Thompson's _Six Seconds in Dallas_
Total reporting = 172
Saying 3 shots = 136
Saying 2 shots = 12
Saying 4 shots = 6
Saying >4 shots = 3
Saying 2 or 3 = 10
Saying 3 or 4 = 5
From the HSCA:
Mr. BLAKEY. The committee's analysis of this testimony shows that out of a majority who could
establish a direction, 49 of them--or 27.5 percent--thought the shots had come from the Book
Depository; but 21 others--or 11.8 percent--believed that they had come from the grassy knoll; 30
of them--16.9 percent--thought they had originated elsewhere; and 78--or 43.8 percent--were unable
to tell.
6.The conspiracy meetings.
Garrison's evidence for the Shaw, Bannister, Ferrie, Oswald conspiracy comes from only eight
witnesses:
1.Jack Martin - on November 24, 1963 provided information to Garrison's office that David
Ferrie had been in Dallas two weeks before and that he knew Oswald. He later admitted he
was drunk when he made the call and that he was seeking personal revenge on Ferrie for
excluding him from some recent private investigation cases. Martin was a drunk who spent
time in prison and mental institutions. An acquaintance of Martin's said he had a local
reputation for "crazy and wild stories."
2.Perry Russo -
February 24, 1967
gives television interview where he says that he knew Ferrie but had never heard of
Oswald until the assassination.
February 25, 1967
interviewed by assistant D.A. Andrew Sciambra. Russo says Ferrie never issued a direct
threat against Kennedy. On seeing a photo of Shaw, Russo says he may have seen him
twice, at gas station and at the Nashville Street Wharf.
February 27, 1967
at Garrison's request, Russo takes sodium pentathal.
February 28, 1967
Garrison takes Russo to Shaw's house where Russo rings the bell and introduces himself
as an insurance salesman.
March 1, 1967
Garrison hires a hypnotist who suggests a scene at Ferrie's apartment where there is a
"white-haired man... They are talking about assassinating somebody." At this point Russo
talks about a plot to kill somebody for the first time.
The above chronology is from Posner. Posner apparently contradicts his assertion that Russo
never mentioned an assassination plot until he had been hypnotized in the next paragraph of his
book. He says that Garrison had given Saturday Evening Post reporter, Jim Phelan, a copy of
the memo Sciambra wrote after his interview with Russo on Febuary 25th. After reading the
memo, Phelan asked Garrison why the plotters would discuss the details of their plan to kill
JFK in front of a witness who could turn them into the FBI. This clearly indicates that Russo
mentions the assassination plot before he was drugged or hypnotized, which is what Garrison
claims in "On the Trails of the Assassins". Sciambra wrote two memos. He says he wrote the
first memo on February 27th, after Russo took the sodium pentathal. This memo mentions the
assassination party with Ferrie, Shaw and Oswald. The second memo was written about a
week later and only mentions shaw at the JFK speech at the Nashville Street Wharf and at
David Ferrie's gas station.
To further confuse this issue, Garrison's book indicates problems with the memo not matching
Russo's later testimony when he describes Russo's testimony at the Shaw trial. Russo testified
that since he did not write the memo he is not responsible for the errors it contains.
In the NBC report, Russo, according to Posner, "admitted to reporter Walter Sheridan that his
testimony against Shaw was a mixture of truth, fantasy, and lies, but he feared that if he
changed his testimony, Garrison would charge him with perjury."
Russo gave Shaw's attorney's the following tape-recorded statement in April 1971: "It was sort
of a script and I was playing my part. I guess I played a too good one, huh? I never dreamed
he [Garrison] only had me. I guess I always knew he [Shaw] had nothing to do with anything."
3.Vernon Bundy - a narcotics offender who had gone out to Lake Pontchartrain to get a fix. He
testified that while preparing a heroin injection for himself he saw Clay Shaw and Oswald talk
for fifteen minutes. Shaw handed Oswald what was apparently a roll of money.
NBC interviewed two fellow inmates of Bundy, John Cancler and Miguel Torres. They
claimed in separate interviews that Bundy had boasted he would testify against Shaw so that
he would get a reduced prison term.
Garrison, however, points out that when both Cancler and Torres testified before a grand jury
both men refused to repeat the charge and each took the Fifth Amendment, apparently to
prevent perjury charges.
4.Richard Nagell - claimed to be a federal intelligence agent who was supposed to kill Oswald,
on Soviet orders, to prevent Kennedy's assassination. Instead, he walked into a bank and fired
a gun to land himself in jail. He said Oswald had been manipulated by Shaw, Ferrie and
Bannister. Garrison says that Nagell was willing to testify at the Shaw trial but that he would
not let him because Nagell would not identify the government agency he worked for and
Garrison was afraid the jury would consider him a crackpot.
5.Raymond Broshears - a friend of Ferrie's who claimed to have eaten dinner in a restaurant
with Ferrie and Shaw. Broshears said that Ferrie would discuss the Kennedy assassination only
when he was drunk and that then he would emphasize that his role was marginal. Broshears
said that Ferrie's role was to drive to Houston where he was to pick up two members of the
assassination team and fly them to a more distant location.
6.Edward Whalen - a professional criminal, told Garrison that Ferrie and Shaw had offered him
$25,000 to kill Garrison. Whalen said that they had been tipped off by Dean Andrews about
Garrison's investigation. Whalen refused the offer because he did not want to kill a district
attorney.
7.Charles Spiesel - an accountant from New York, said he met Ferrie and Shaw on a trip to New
Orleans and heard them discuss the possible assassination of Kennedy. Spiesel was thoroughly
discredited under cross examination. He testified that the New York city police had hypnotized
and tortured him. He could tell when an attempt was being made to hypnotize "when someone
tries to get your attention - catch your eye. That's a clue right off." He said that he been
hypnotized in order to plant thoughts in his head that were untrue. Spiesel also admitted that he
fingerprinted his daughter whenever she left for school at L.S.U. and again when she returned
to make sure she was the same person.
8.Al Beauboeuf, who had accompanied Ferrie on his trip to Houston the weekend of the
assassination, said that Lynn Loisel, an investigator on Garrison's staff had offered him a bribe.
Loisel described the scenario they wanted testimony for: cross fire, escape routes, an
overheard argument between Ferrie and Shaw or Oswald and Shaw, something "along that
line." Lynn told Beauboeuf that Garrison could get him a job and could "put $3,000 just like
that." This bribe attempt was supposedly tape recorded and the incident was reported in
Newsweek. Beauboeuf eventually signed a statement absolving the district attorney's office of
any misconduct.
He told Posner he did this just to get Garrison off his back, that a Garrison staff investigator
had threatened to kill him if he exposed them and that they also threatened to give out pictures
that made him out to be Ferrie's lover.
7.The dictabelt tape.
Garrison mentions the dictabelt tape but he does not mention the National Academy of Science
study (published six years before "On the Trail of the Assassins") which argues against the dictabelt
having recorded the assassination. The shots impulses on the tape were found to have occurred after
the assassination took place.
8.The Dallas Morning News map of the motorcade route.
The front page of the Dallas Morning News for November 22 showed a map of the planned parade
route. This route shown did not go by the Texas Book Depository but instead continued on down
Main. A copy of the front page that was introduced as a Warren Commission exhibit had a large
square of solid gray on the five-sixths of the page that showed the motorcade route.
From a post by Tony Simon:
The map is so small (and not detailed) that you would not have room to indicate a turn
onto Elm. Elm is not mentioned in the picture at all. If one had tried to indicate the turn
on Elm, then the map would have been very cluttered. >From the overall size of the map
and the relative lack of detail, I do not think that the map in the newspaper can be used
as an argument for a change in parade route.
Furthermore, I believe that anybody who was familiar with the area would probably
assume that some kind of turn onto Elm would have to be made at some point due to the
logistics, i. e., the impractability of crossing the curb further down Main to get to
Stemmons.
9.The Mauser found on the 6th floor.
Garrison reports that some of the police officers on the sixth floor of the TSBD thought the rifle was
a German made Mauser, not a Mannlicher- Carcano. But the discovery of the rifle was filmed by a
reporter and the film shows it to be an MC, Oswald's MC in fact. The rifle was also photographed
in place where it was discovered and this photograph shows it to be an MC. The rifle was not
handled by the officers who thought it was a Mauser. It was left in place, stuffed behind some
boxes, until an officer who could test it for fingerprints arrived. The Mauser is similar looking to an
MC.
10.Oswald was a poor shooter.
Garrison reports that Oswald was a poor shot and that his fellow Marines said he would get
"Maggie's drawers" sometimes when firing on the rifle range. But Oswald qualified as a sharpshooter
in his first test (and as a marksman in his second), hitting the target 9 out of 10 times from 200
yards. In Dealey Plaza, the limousine was less than 90 yards away at its farthest and moved slowly
away from the TSBD in close to a straight line. Oswald was able to brace his rifle against the
window sill and the boxes.
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