The Second Kennedy Cover-Up

At the Sirhan trial it was proven that Sirhan could not have fired the shot that killed Senator Robert Kennedy. There had to be another gunman for the fatal shot to be delivered. See future blogs for details. Dr. Michael J Deeb

Was the John Kennedy killing a Coup d’ E’tat?  Article 1

The traditional definition of a Coup d’ E’tat is as follows:

A coup d’ e’tat is a seizure of the state apparatus, meant to displace control of the government from its current leadership and the current agenda and replaced with new leadership espousing a different agenda.

The elements of a successful coup are:

1. Method: Replacement of a President of the United States must be done in such a way as to appear legitimate:  Note:   There are four ways by which a sitting president can be legitimately replaced:  1) through election being the customary method, 2) impeachment is another, 3) death while in office, or 4) retirement at the conclusion of a four year term.  In 1963, it was widely assumed that John Kennedy would win re-election in 1964. Thus, he would proceed  to implement his agenda of  detente with the Soviet Union, his liberal domestic agenda, his promise to dismantle the CIA, destroy the MAFIA and to reduce the power of the financial/industrial elites. Government and private sector elites decided they could not defeat him at the polls in 1964  and thus they would have to endure another four years of his agenda. They also realized that there was a sitting Vice-President who supported their agenda. This man, Lyndon Johnson, was under Congressional investigation and was reportedly  going to be replaced by JFK on the Democratic ticket in 1964. So, it was imperative to act asap.
2. Replaced Quickly:  The deposed leader must be replaced quickly. Thus, John Kennedy was declared  dead at one o’clock on the afternoon of November 22, 1963. Note: Vice-President Johnson, Kennedy’s legitimate successor, was at the scene of the assassination and was sworn in as president at two o’clock the same afternoon. The late president’s wife was at LBJs side during the swearing in on Air Force One, the president’s official plane.
3. The Assassin: . The assassin must be identified quickly, arrested and silenced. He must also not be seen as associated with the government and his story must be seen as legitimate. Note: Lee Oswald was identified and arrested within 90 minutes of the assassination on Friday and himself killed on Sunday while in police custody by someone not connected with the government. The assassin must not be seen as connected to the government either. His story must appear to be legitimate and believable, too. Oswald was not associated with the government. His complete life story was available and made public world-wide the afternoon of the assassination.
4. Control All the Evidence:  All evidence must be gathered and controlled by the leaders of the coup. Note: All the evidence dealing with the assassination: the body and official autopsy of the dead president, the vehicle in which he rode at the time of the killing, his clothing, films of the killing, testimony/press releases of the attending physicians and witness testimony was all immediately collected by government employees, removed from Texas and hidden from public review.
5. Symbols of Power:  The symbols of power must be transferred quickly in an acceptable manner. Note: The vice president was seen being  sworn in within two hours of the killing on Air Force One. Beside him was the dead president’s wife. He was filmed taking possession of the Oval Office in Washington D.C. the following morning.
6. Acceptance by Government Elites:  The new president must be accepted by the key government elites. Note: The majority of the late president’s cabinet was out of Washington at the time of the killing and thus unable to question the transfer of power.  Claiming a national emergency, the new president was therefore able the evening of the assassination to acquire their pledge of support to carry on the government.
7. Legitimacy:  The new leader must be seen as the legitimate successor to the assassinated leader. Note:  The evening of the assassination, the new president spoke to a nationwide television audience from Andrews Air Force Base. At his side with Air Force One in the background, was the wife of the assassinated president and the Attorney General brother of the late president, Robert Kennedy.
8. Control of the Investigation:  The leaders of the coup must maintain control of any investigation. Note: Within ten days, the FBI issued an official report claiming that a lone gunman,(Lee Harvey Oswald)  fired from behind, killed President John Kennedy and wounded Governor Connely. And when members of Congress suggested investigating the assassination, President Johnson announced the formation of the bi-partisan Warrren Commission headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to conduct a complete investigation of the assassination. This shut the door on all other investigations which would probably have been outside of President Johnson’s control.

                                          The FBI Report & the Warren Commission

The Warren Commission wanted to support the FBI Report that concluded that there was only one assassin who fired all the shots at President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

Problem #1

Because of the Zapruder film, it was apparent that 1.8 seconds after President Kennedy was hit, a shot hit Governor Connally. The FBI Report assumed that the lone assassin hit the governor with his second shot. However, expert re-in-actors were not able to fire the weapon used by the accused assassin withing the 1.8 seconds demanded by the film.

How could the members of the Warren Commission explain this without looking for a second assassin and thus repudiating the basis of the FBI Report?

Solution of the Warren Commission

In order to remain consistent with the FBI Report, the members of the Warren Commission declared that the bullet that hit President Kennedy in the back exited his throat and hit Governor in his back first, then his wrist and finally entered his leg.

Problem 

The doctors who performed the autopsy at Bethesda Hospital in Washington D>C> discovered:

1. The only wound the president suffered in the back was five and one half inches below the neck and two inches to the right of the spine.
2. The bullet penetrated his back at a downward angle of 60 degrees
3. The bullet did not exit the body.

Solution

The members of the Warren Commission simply said the bullet could ‘possibly’ have wounded both the president and the governor. Congressman Ford  (A Warren Commission member) went a bit further. For the printed report, he moved the entry wound on the president’s back up several inches.

                                                                                    Cover-up?

The FBI Report of December 1963 stated that:

1. There were three shots fired at President Kennedy
2. All shots were fired from behind him.
3. All shots were fired by one assassin.

However: There is a problem with this conclusion.

Fact: Examination of the Zapruder film of the assassination clearly showed Governor Connally being hit 1.8 seconds after the first shot hit JFK in the back.

But: The Italian made bolt action rifle used by the assassin could not be fired (by experts) within the 1.8 seconds shown in the film.

Therefore: Since Oswald could not have caused both wounds, he was not the only assassin firing in Daely Plaza on November 22nd, 1963.

More on this subject the next time. 

This e mail is to announce the beginning of a new blog series: The Kennedy Assassination.

I will begin a new series of blogs dealing with the assassination of President Kennedy starting in July 2019. The first blog of each month, and during each month going forward, I will send you a blog dealing with the  JFK assassination. The second blog of each month will continue to be Civil War related.

                                                          The Kennedy Assassination

During November of 1963, the president of the United States visited several cities in the state of Texas. At the last stop of his Texas trip, President Kennedy and his wife rode in an open vehicle through downtown of Dallas. They were to attend a lunch in that city immediately after the parade.

During the parade, President Kennedy was hit by three bullets. Rushed to near-by Parkland Hospital, he was taken to an emergency room at 12:35. There he was treated by medical personnel who were unable to save his life. Subsequently, he was declared dead by Dr. Kemp Clark at 1 o’clock the same day.

During this blog series, I will present you with the data (evidence) known by investigators before, during and immediately after the assassination of JFK. The last of the blogs will relate conclusions reached by investigators years after the assassination. And finally, as part of this series, I will examine the possibility that the assassination of President Kennedy was a coup d’ etat organized and carried out by agents of the United States government.

Enjoy.

                                        Security Requirements/Lapses During the Dallas Motorcade

Both the Warren Commission Report of 1964 and the House Committee on Assassinations Report of 1978 criticized the Secret Service for their actions on November 22, 1963. In both reports, it was decided that the men assigned to protect President John Kennedy  had not done a proper job of establishing security for his Dallas motorcade on that fateful day. Let’s take a look at the procedures the agents were supposed to follow and what actually happened.

There were November presidential motorcades planned in four Texas cities: Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Dallas. The security protocol required for motorcades was the same in all four cities.

Required Protocols Were:

1. On any motorcade parade route:  All windows in building of two or more stories were required to be closed and under observation until the motorcade had passed.
2. Motorcade speed must be at least forty miles per hour.
3. At any turn, the corner must be secured as must open areas like the Grassy Knoll. Any bridge under which or over which the president’s vehicle must travel has be cleared and under observation.
4. Security personnel must ride at the side and at the rear of the president’s vehicle. Local law enforcement personnel on motorcycles should ride alongside the president’s vehicle.

Question?

Were all such requirements followed for President Kennedy’s motorcade through Dallas on November 22, 1963?

1. The route chosen involved two sharp turns, requiring the president’s vehicle to be slowed to ten miles per hour or less. On a dry run, the Dallas Chief of Station for the Secret Service, Forrest Sorrels said: “We’d be sitting ducks here.” Never-the-less, over the objections of Kennedy’s advance team, he approved the route just the same.
2. The street-corners at each of the two required turns were not secured or under observation during the motorcade.
3. The windows of the Texas Book Depository Building on the right side of Elm Street were not closed, nor were they under observation. (In fact, none of the windows in multi-story buildings along the parade route were required to be closed or under observation.)
4. The Grassy Knoll on the right of Elm Street was not secured or under observation during the parade.
5. The overpass under which the president’s vehicle had to drive was not secured or under observation during the motorcade. In fact, it was full of observers.  (When questioned, about these lapses in security protocol,  Service spokesmen claimed that they were too short-handed to fulfill the above demands.)
6. Secret Service agents were removed from the sides and rear of the president’s vehicle. Instead, they rode in a vehicle following or walked well behind the president’s auto.
7. The motorcycle escort was removed by the ranking Secret Service agent on the scene at Love Field from the sides to the rear of the president’s vehicle.
8. The president’s military adviser was removed from his customary place in the center of the front seat of the president’s vehicle at the direction of the ranking Secret Service agent on the scene at Love Field.   (When questioned about these changes in protocol, the Secret Service spokesmen claimed that President Kennedy himself had ordered the removals/changes mention above. Contrary testimony by Kennedy aides insisted that JFK had always deferred to the security requirements suggested by the Secret Service and would have never intervened in such a manner.)

In the photograph below, you can see the local motorcycle policeman rode to the rear of the president’s vehicle, not alongside. The suited figure at the top right of the photo is a Secret Service agent who would normally be alongside the president’s vehicle. With the changes ordered by the Secret Service man in charge, he president was obviously exposed to the max on all sides.

Thus, Secret Service personnel failed to enforce routine security protocols for the Dallas motorcade. 

see: The Kennedy Assassination: Why Was Kennedy Killed? Vol 2 at www.the kennedymurder.com

President Lyndon B. Johnson 1971

In 1971, the retired president gave an interview to Leo Sands of the Atlantic Monthly. At that time he said,

“The assassination in Dallas had been part of a conspiracy. I have never believed that Oswald acted alone.”

Congressional Committee 1978

In 1978 a Congressional committee investigating the assassination of President Kennedy, issued a report in September of that year which concluded:

“We believe, and the facts strongly suggest, that President Kennedy was assassinated as the direct result of a conspiracy…”

Life (magazine) 1966: On November 25, 1966, Life magazine editors issued the following statement:

“One conclusion is inescapable: the national interest deserves clear resolution of the doubts. A new investigating body should be set up, perhaps at the initiative of Congress. In a scrupulously objective and unhurried atmosphere, without the pressure to give assurance to a shocked country, it should reexamine the evidence and consider other evidence the Warren Commission failed to evaluate.”

One or Multiple Assassins?

The FBI Report of December 9, 1963 concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, fired his rifle three times from his perch through an open window on the sixth floor of the Book Depository Building. All shots, the Report said, were from behind the President. That Report further stated that:
1. The first shot hit the President in the back

2. The second shot hit Governor Connelly in his back 1.08 seconds later.

3. The third shot hit President Kennedy in the back of the head.

However, during repeated reenactments, expert riflemen could not fire Oswald’s Italian made bolt-action carbine a second time within the 1.08 time frame demanded by the second shot. (As shown in the Zapruder film.)

Therefore, since Oswald could not have fired the shot that hit Governor Connelly, there had to be more than one assassin in Daeley Plaza on November 22, 1963.

But that conclusion did not fit the one reached by the FBI Report that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. So, the Warren Commission proposed a different scenario in support the lone gunman declaration in the FBI Report.

The Warren Commission staff suggested that the bullet that hit President Kennedy in the back, exited his body through his throat. Then, that same bullet entered the back of Governor Connelly, exited, and  hit his wrist, exited and lodged in his thigh. (see illustration below) At the time, critics called this the ‘magic bullet’ theory.

However, during the autopsy conducted at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Washington D.C., the physicians described a different scenario. They reported that a bullet had entered the President’s back five and one/half inches below his collar and two inches to the right of his spine.Further, they reported that the projectile penetrated his body at a 60 degree angle to the depth of two inches. And, they also concluded in their autopsy report, that this bullet  did not exit his body.

Therefore, we must conclude that the bullet that hit President Kennedy in the back could not have caused the wounds to Governor Connelly.

So,we must also conclude that there had to be more than one assassin in Daeley Plaza on November 22, 1963.

Emergency Room Attending Physician Reports

In their emergency room reports, several Parkland Hospital physicians described a serious and fatal wound to the president on the right rear of his head. In the attached photo, each physician graphically describes the location of the head wound (see the attached montage photograph).  The insert below is of Doctor Carrico, Dr. McCelland, Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Crenshaw. All of these men were present in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital and reported their observations of what they described as an exit wound, in their hospital reports.

The reader should remember that their observations were made immediately after the assassination and their reports were written within hours of the assassination of President Kennedy. None of these men even knew of the Zapruder film, or of the FBI Report or the Warren Commission Report in which it was insisted that all shots came from the rear of the president. These medical professionals shown here were untainted by such conclusions, made later.

These same men testified in 1964 for the Warren Commission and for the Congressional Special Committee meeting in 1977. Their testimony on those occasions was consistent (it did not change) with their Emergency room hospital reports written on November 22, 1963.

There will be two more posts on this subject.  You can order one or both volumes of The Kennedy Assassination Volume I & II at the web site, The Kennedy Murder.com using Pay Pal, or through Amazon. The e books are available through Amazon as well.

Volume I is subtitled, Was Oswald the Only Assassin? The second volume is subtitled, Why Was Kennedy Killed? See more at the web site, The Kennedy Murder.com

President Kennedy’s Fatal Head Wound

The medical professionals at Parkland Hospital’s emergency room discovered two wounds during their initial examination of President Kennedy. The first and most obvious to them, was an entry wound to the president’s throat.

The second and most damaging wound was an exit wound on the back right of JFK’s head.  It was this second wound which they judged caused the president to lose almost a  third of his brain.

Dr. Robert McClelland attached this crude freehand drawing to his Parkland Hospital emergency room report.  He testified that JFK was hit on the right front  of his head with an exit wound in the back of his head. His testimony to the Warren Commission was supported by Dr. Kemp Clark, Dr. Paul Peters, Dr. Ronald Jones, Dr. Gene Akin in their sworn testimony. All of these medical professionals testified that this head wound was an exit wound.

At the scene of the murder, Patrolman Bobby Hargis testified that his uniform and motorcycle windshield was covered with blood and flesh. In the attached photo, Patrolman is seen the rear and left of President Kennedy.

Bill and Gayle Newman were standing along the parade route. They  reported to the Dallas police on November 24, 1963 that they saw a bullet hit President Kennedy on the front right of his head

The Zapruder film clearly shows a bullet hitting the president’s head in the right front. Thirty eight onlookers testified to Warren Commission personnel that they heard gunfire coming from the Grassy Knoll along Elm Street, behind them.

Never-the-less, the FBI Report and later, the Warren Commission Report insisted that all shots came from behind the President and were all fired by Lee Harvey Oswald from the Book Depository building.  In his Warren Commission testimony, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover testified, “there is not one scintilla of proof that there was a conspiracy (more than one assassin), foreign or domestic.”

Despite the testimony of the above professionals and others (see previous blog) to the frontal wounds to the throat and the head, Congressman Gerald Ford. a member of the Warren Commission, wrote for Life Magazine in October 1864, dismissing the existence of either wound.

“There is no evidence of a second gunman, or of other shots or other guns.”