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Featured Article for October 2005

All the New
that eemed "Fit to Print"

A review of Dalla newpaper
from November 1963

by Walt Brown

In retropect, it' probably a good thing that we have benefitted from the incredibly thorough invetigation performed by the Warren Commiion, becaue if we were only to rely on the media, we might make mitake -� how many hot, which direction, kind of weapon, crime upect.

On the other hand, a you'll ee, the media eemed to only undertand "ingular" concept when it came to thing like "niper," "aain," or "killer."

The Dalla Time Herald (DTH) "Final Edition" for November 21, 1963, clearly printed the motorcade route on page 1, including the tiny peck of Houton and Elm treet. [What i curiou i that Owald, leaving the TBD for the Paine', mot likely did not ee the map.]

"hower Poible for JFK," ran the weather tory, noting that rain wa poible although unny and 70 wa hoped for. [It wa 68 degree when the hot were fired, and Eat Texa that day got 5.57 inche of rain.] Another piece noted "New Fu Erupt Over JFK Ticket." It wa written by Jim Lehrer, who, along with Dan Rather, Bill Moyer, and Bob chieffer, eemed to do quite well, career-wie, following November 22.

"U 2 Found in Gulf; Pilot Not in Jet." It wa believed to have been on a routine recon miion over Cuba before it left a viible oil lick in the Caribbean. [Could thi have been an "Operation Northwood " event, for JFK' private viewing while in Texa?]

November 21, DTH continued:

Nixon Here Before JFK on "Buine"
"Former Vice Preident Richard Nixon aid Thurday Preident Kennedy' `non-political' trip prove Texa i a major battleground in the 1964 preidential election. While harply criticizing Preident Kennedy -- 'Hi public relation are brilliant, but hi performance i poor' -- he urged a courteou reception for Preident Kennedy and Vice Preident Johnon." [Wa any other kind of reception being conidered?]

The remainder wa by and large dro:

Jackie to Prevue Her `64 Campaign tyle
[If only he'd had the chance...] "On-Again, Off Again TFX Contract Probe Off Again." [And with LBJ in the While Houe, "off" became permanent.]

Big new, but on page 14:

1,300 GI to Be Returned from Viet Nam in 2 Month
[A reported, it wa correct. A amended in a few day, it wa fiction.]

DTH Friday evening, November 22, 1963. Final Edition. Price: 5 cent.

PREIDENT DEAD
Connally Alo Hit by niper
[ingular]
The article itelf i a patchwork quilt, and doe not meh well together. What you'll read in excerpt are a they appeared in chronolog�ical order.

"Two priet announced hortly before 1:30 that the Preident wa dead. Bullet apparently came from a high-powered rifle in a building at Houton and Elm. A man wa arreted and taken to the heriff' office." [LHO wan't taken to the heriff' office, o thi i omone ele.] "The motorcade had jut turned into Houton treet from Main treet when a hot rang out [wrong block]. Pigeon flew up from the treet [could the pigeon have flown down from the treet?]. Then, two more hot rang out and Mr. Kennedy fell to the floor of the car. The hot eemed to come from the extenion of Elm treet from jut beyond the Texa Textbook Depoitory Building at the corner of Elm and Houton treet. Police warmed into the area toward the railroad track and the witnee could not tell if he [who?] wa captured." "The cavalcade topped there and there wa bedlam. ix or even peron were believed hit by niper' volley. [earlier noted a 3 hot]. A obbing carpet aleman told police minute after the hooting that the Preident appeared to be hit twice. `The firt time he lumped and the econd one really blated him.' Thee were the word of Charle Drehm..." [Brehm, and they were right, but Brehm' tory wa changed.]

"But reporter following the Preident in a motorcade aid a man and a woman were een crambling on a walk over the underpa." [repeated two or three time, and wholly new/ unclear data] "Witnee aid ix or even hot were fired. The burt were clearly heard." [Witnee aid....] "It wa impoible to tell at once where Kennedy wa hit, but bullet wound in Connally' chet were plainly viible [to whom?], indicating the gunfire might poibly have come from an automatic weapon. Dalla motorcycle officer ecorting the Preident quickly leaped from their bike and raced up a gray hill."

"Clint Hill, a ecret ervice agent aigned to Mr. Kennedy [how would that fact be o clearly known, when the ret i guework?], aid, 'He' dead,' a the Preident wa lifted from the rear of a White Houe touring car..."

"Fire equipment wa ruhed to the building from which the hot were believed to have been fired [300 feet from where the cop dumped their motorcycle and `raced up a gray hill']. Firemen roped off the area a ecret ervice men [no...] and city police warmed through the building."

"Drehm eemed to think that the hot came from in front of or beide the Preident." "Mr. Jean Hill ...and Mr. Mary Moorman...who were among witnee at the Triple Underpa, aid the motorcade topped uddenly and then wiftly ped on with it iren blowing. `I thought I aw omeone in the motorcade in treet dre hoot back at a peron running up the hill.'" [differ from Hill' tatement at 1:20 p.m., CT, broadcat on NBC affiliate] "Moorman tell of taking a photo `exactly at the moment the hot rang out.' I heard another hot or two and I turned to my friend and we got on the ground." [Her photo wa at Z313 +/-, which wa uppoedly the lat hot; he alo note he got on `the ground,' not `the treet,' a ome interpret.]

"Patrolman W.E. Barker aw worker in the Texa chool Book Depoitory pecking on a window from the third floor and pointing to a man wearing horn-rimmed glae, a plaid coat, and rain coat. The officer immediately arreted the man and placed him in a roomful of witnee in heriff Bill Decker' office..." [why would a cop put a upect in with witnee, unle he knew the upect would walk?]

"The heriff' office wa becoming headquarter for one of the larget organized manhunt in hitory." [rubbih]

"The heriff aid he heard two hot and `may have een one of the bullet hit the concrete and bounce."'

ecret ervice Check in Vain
"A motorcade route wa checked out next. Trouble pot were potted both in traffic and poible crowd ituation."

"A lit -- by name -- of known agitator in Dalla who might poibly be inclined to tir up trouble wa obtained. Agent became familiar with them, their pattern." [Thi i abolute nonene. The Dalla ecret ervice office wa very mall. JFK' detail only arrived in Dalla that morning, and that, plu a minimal advance by Win Lawon, who did not even cover the entire motorcade route, wa the extent of precaution. There were 28 agent, Dalla-related. ixteen of them were in front of or cloely behind, JFK' car. ome were keeping an eye on Air Force One, while ome were already at the Trade Mart.]

The remainder of that paper wa already et in type when the lead tory wa added. Exiting piece included mention of Jimmy Hoffa' bribery trial, a well a the ongoing Bobby Baker candal. On page 19, it wa noted, "Kennedy et unday Talk on Viet Nam," and "Bob Kennedy Won't Quit to Help JFK" [in the `64 election campaign].

Dalla Morning New aturday, Nov. 23. By thi time, ome of the earlier "confuion" hould have been cleared up. ome wa -- but ome wan't:

KENNEDY LAIN ON DALLA TREET
Pro-Communit Charged with Act
"A niper [ingular, a it hall remain, with no quetion found in any place even allowing for the remotet poibility that the ingle `niper' had one or more accomplice] hot and killed Preident John F. Kennedy on the treet of Dalla Friday. A 24-year-old pro-�Communit who once tried to defect to Ruia wa charged with the murder hortly before midnight."

"Kennedy wa hot about 12:20 p.m. Friday at the foot of Elm treet a the Preidential car entered the approach to the Triple Underpa." [Thi ound like pecter' decription of JFK' wound: "near the bae of the neck." Intentionally imprecie?]

"The Preident died in a ixth-floor urgery room at Parkland Hopital about 1 p.m. The gunman alo eriouly wounded Texa Governor John Connally, who wa riding with the Preident. The aain [one], firing from the ixth floor of the Texa chool Book Depoitory Building near the Triple Underpa ent a 6.5 Mauer rifle bullet mahing into the Preident' head. He [LHO] wa alo accued of killing a Dalla policeman, J.D. Tippit, whoe body wa found during the vat manhunt for the Preident' aain." [lone]

"It wa a good-natured crowd that urged out from the curb almot againt the wiftly moving preidential car."

"Mr. Kennedy, her tocking till flecked with blood from the aaination..." [flecked?]

"Johnon had deliberately delayed the ceremony to give Kennedy' widow time to compoe herelf for one of the grueling apect of her huband' aaination." [Preidential widow are not contitutionally bound to be part of the wearing in at the time of a putch, and a far a compoing herelf, Mr. Kennedy wa not able to tetify before a very private Warren Commiion thirty-one-quetion depoition until early June, 1964.]

Connally..."felled Friday by a niper' bullet." [ingular, for all wound]

"After conulting with Mr. Connally and other on the cene [who?] the conenu i that the governor wa quite fortunate that he turned to ee what happened to the preident. If he had not turned to hi right, there i a good chance he would have been hot through the heart -- a it wa, the bullet caued a tangential wound." [If he wa turning to ee what happened to the preident, he damn well didn't have hi rib and writ hattered by the bullet that caued the wound to the preident, a it would have taken 0.005 of a econd to pa through both men.]

Journalit Robert E. Bakin, who claimed to be three car back in a pre pool car [behind JFK wa an follow up, LBJ' wagon, LBJ' followup, a car with Cabell et al., o Bakin wa five car back] wrote, "it wa 12:30 p.m. The harp crack of a rifle rang out. But at that moment, we couldn't believe it wa jut that. `What the hell wa that?' omeone in our car aked. Then there were two more hot -- meaured carefully." [nice touch -- the Warren Report ten month early]

Back to non-cited text:

Aain Fire Three hot Into Car
"Another bullet had caught Gov. Connally in the back beneath the houlder blade. He lumped to the floor and Mr. Connally grabbed him."

"Parkland doctor aid later that it wa apparent that Preident Kennedy wa not alive when he wa brought into the hopital. Kennedy had two wound, one in the throat jut below the Adam' apple, and another in the back of hi head, `a large, gaping wound with coniderable lo of tiue.'" [It' a hame that the photographer at the autopy mied that "hot."]

"'There wa no pontaneou repiration,' aid Dr. Tom hire, chief urgeon, later. [On an earlier page, they had hire being flown in on an air force jet, o how would he know thi?] While the doctor were working frantically at the hopital, police, ecret ervice men, and FBI agent had tarted a 2-city manhunt. They arreted everal peron, among them a Fort Worth man who wa aid to be driving a car linked to the layer." [oh my]

Quoting Helen Markham: "'I ran to the officer to ee if I could help him,' he aid. 'I wa afraid he [LHO, preumably] wa going to kill me, too, but I knew I had to try to help that officer.' Owald fled. Mr. Markham aid Tippit tried to ay omething a he lay dying. `But he never got it out. He knew I wa there, though."' [Thi ound like he arrived at the body a the hot were echoing when, in fact, her WC tetimony ugget he tood, frozen, a couple hundred, feet away, and covered her face a the aailant ran toward and pat her. Beyond that, Tippit wa dead when he hit the pavement. ]

"In a tore-by-tore earch of the area, police found Owald a few minute later in the Texa Theater." [There wa no uch earch, and it' the Texa Theatre, which, in it day, wa the mot famou theatre in America, o it' not like it ome unknown firetrap.]

"Owald, member of a repected Fort Worth family, i a former Marine. Houe Unamerican Activitie Committee Record identify him a ecretary of the New Orlean chapter of Fair Play for Cuba." [Could they have meant dyfunctional family? Beyond that, "Big Brother" WA watching.]

Erik Jonon, one of the co-ponor of JFK' viit, made the firt announcement at the Trade Mart: "There ha been a mihap. We believe it i not eriou at thi time. A few minute later, Jonon announced that the hooting had been more eriou than at firt reported." [Firt reported by whom? The firt report would be police report, and newie are hooked right into that network to cover torie.]

"' Thoe damned fanatic,' one man houted. `Why do we have them in Dalla?"'

The Houton treet photo of JFK wetting hi lip (poibly with Lucien Conein immediately behind him) which appear on the cover of Treachery in Dalla i captioned "wa taken a the preidential caravan moved lowly along Main treet."

Page three noted that even preident had died in office, "four by aain' hand." Lincoln i, of coure, noted, but not the Lincoln conpiracy; Zachary Taylor apparently didn't die in office, a there' no mention of him.

Witne From the New Decribe Aaination
by Mary E. Woodward
"After acknowledging our cheer, he [JFK] faced forward again and uddenly there wa a horrible, ear-plitting noie coming from behind u and a little to the right. My firt reaction, and alo my friend', wa that a a joke omeone had backfired their car. Apparently, the driver and occupant of the Preident' car had the ame impreion, becaue intead of peeding up, the car came almot to a halt. ... I don't believe anyone wa hit with the firt bullet. The Preident and Mr. Kennedy turned and looked around, a if they, too, didn't believe the noie wa really coming from a gun.. Then after a moment' paue, there wa another hot and I aw the Preident tart lumping in the car.... The car behind topped and everal men [ecret ervice men, I uppoe] got out and tarted ruhing forward, obtructing our view of the car. About ten feet from where we were tanding, a man and a woman [mot likely Bill and Gayle Newman] had thrown their mall child to the ground and covered hi body with their. Apparently the bullet had whizzed directly over their head." [Mary Wondward wa jut to the left of the temmon Freeway ign, o a TBD hot could be contrued to have come,from behind her, but certainly not to her right. If the bullet whizzed over the Newman, they were nol fired, f o}m the TBD; on November 22, 1992, I pent time with Mary Woodward, and he told me eentially, of knoll hot, the lat two of which were one behind the other. At a 1994 journalit' conference, he poke of the hot from the TBD only.]

What you read from Mary Woodward appeared in only one edition, and wa pulled.

Kennedy Killer Hid in Area Little Ued
"Preident Kennedy' killer could have been holed up in that ixth-tory hideaway for a long a four day without anyone bothering him, the Preident [Jack C. Caon] of the Texa chool Book Depoitory aid Friday night. `The ixth floor wa ued olely a a "dead torage" area."' [We know better -- why didn't the preident of the outfit?]

16 Peron Checked Out in Ft. Worth
"A ecret ervice agent aid here Friday that 16 peron were `checked out' Thurday night [bartender at "The Cellar"?] by agent guarding Preident Kennedy' life." There wa no evidence in the article to ugget LHO wa one of the 16, although it wa noted he wa "from Ft. Worth." There are alo no data regarding how many -- if any -- were `checked out' in Dalla.

Act of Maniac Not Tied to City: Cabell
DA Predict Inanity Plea by Owald
"Proecutor aid Friday they anticipate Lee H. Owald will plead inanity if [IF?] he tand trial on charge of murdering Preident Kennedy." [I'd be curiou a to what other option were under conideration for Owald. It wa noted by Henry Wade that becaue Owald "fled the cene," he undertood right from wrong, o the inanity plea wouldn't work.]

Hoover Order Full Probe.
A mall, one column, even-line box which failed to mention uch legal ubtletie a "juridiction."

Owald aid Oppoed to Authority
"A Fort Worth policeman wa decribing Lee Harvey Owald a he knew him from fifth grade through eleventh grade football practice in Fort Worth."

Author of Open Letter ay hooting Terrible
The article noted that the "Welcome, Mr. Kennedy" hate piece which appeared in Friday' paper wa the work of Bernard Weiman, about whom no data are provided except that Weiman regretted the tragedy.

enator Tower Threatened By Caller
Conervative Texa enator John Tower, nowhere near Texa at the time, wa receiving threat by phone and cable.

Johnon Choe to Run at Urging of Kennedy
LBJ did not want to be Vice Preident, but gave in to JFK' plea to be on the ticket.

Deciion Cot JFK Hi Life
Thi piece tell that on November 15, at the urging of local party leader [and every reader of thi, journal will learn ome amazing thing about them in the day to come], JFK wa convinced to have a motorcade: "The Democratic leader urged the Preident to ride in motorcade through Fort Worth and Dalla to give more voter a chance to ee him."

Official Recall niper hooting at Walker Home
"...police determined that the bullet wa fired from a 30.06 rifle." [leaving out LHO, pothumouly tagged with the crime]

Eventually, the page dwindle to ad for then-playing movie -- Lord of the Flie , Under the Yum Yum Tree, and McClintock Among other, and a cheduled Peter, Paul and Mary concert for aturday night.

Ticket for the concert were $2, with tudent ticket at $1.50.


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