Transcript: John Connally’s Role in the Planning of the Trip - Part 2
Assassination Symposium on JFK “CONNALLY” Breakout Session
Assassination Symposium on John F. Kennedy
November 18-22, 1993
Hyatt Regency Hotel at Reunion Square, Dallas Texas
Panel: New Leads & Revelations: Break-out Topics;
Topic: John Connally’s role in the planning of the trip. Date/Room: Saturday November 20, 1993/Cascade B
Speaker: George Michael Evica
ABSTRACT:
CONTINUED FROM PART 11
[Beginning of Tape 1, Side B]
MR. EVICA:
...Dallas. Larry O’Brien also said the very same thing to William Manchester.
And I think this is important and I think I'll be able, still, to develop it for you. Word was passed through Thomas to the Texas people that —and all the rest of the state’s congressional delegation — that all local details for the entire Texas trip and all the Texas cities to be visited were to be handled by Austin, by Connally’s Austin office. John F. Kennedy, therefore, responded to a personal appeal from a beloved, dying Texas representative, accepting an invitation to attend a testimonial dinner in his honor, in Houston, on November 21st 1963. Following the usual format for developing a presidential visit, the trip, with the testimonial dinner as its fixed point, was then filled out with other cities and dates, constituting the so-called package.
Governor Connally was then given complete control of the Texas trip, its itinerary, including the visit to Dallas. JFK was confident of victory both in Texas and in the nation, refusing to involve himself in the political storm that was soon to sweep over Texas — that is, had he lived. If that storm resulted in LBJ becoming a liability on the national ticket, several reliable sources have suggested that JFK was willing to face that possibility.
John Connally demanded and received control of the Texas trip, control of the Texas luncheon site on November 22nd, and therefore be able to control the inevitable Dallas motorcade route — John Connally and the enemies of JFK.
Connally demanded and received control of the Texas trip, control of the Texas luncheon site on November 22nd, and therefore [was] able to control the inevitable Dallas motorcade route.
I think you know that in 1938, he became a lawyer on the Texas bar. He was a legislative aide for Lyndon Johnson. He had a number of important navy links.
AUDIENCE:
[unintelligible question]
MR. EVICA:
Connally worked for Johnson. He served in several capacities in the navy when he entered it. Most notably, he was legal assistant to Undersecretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal. I think there are some intelligence links there but I — they’re circumstantial.
He ran LBJ’s campaign for the senate in ‘48. He became Johnson’s administrative assistant for ‘49. LBJ opened a lot of doors for him. He became — he joined a strongly bond Texas circle, powerful lone star movers and shakers, Pickle, Clark, Finney [phonetic], Deason, Jenkins, Kellam. He retained ties with — Connally — with key figures in broadcasting, lobbying for military hardware, petrochemical industry, electronics contracts, Interstate Commerce Commission, Internal Revenue Service, Texas state college boards of regents, federal judicial system, right through to the Texas Governor’s mansion, in the U.S. Senate and finally the White House.
For several years following LBJ’s ‘48 election, John Connally labored in Austin as a front office lawyer with Johnson’s old fixer, political and maybe corrupt, advisor Alvin Wirtz. The firm of Powell, Wirtz and Rauhut serviced the legal affairs of the Brown and Root construction company, a major financial supporter of LBJ. Herman Root did not care for Connally. And when Wirtz died in October ‘51, Connally lost his protector. He needed to move on. So in ‘52 he became attorney for the firm of Richardson and Bass, often called independent oil operators. Connally sided with Texas corporate power throughout his career. For example, he supported Brown and Root against unionization in the 1950s and remained an unofficial advisor of Brown and Root while he was a governor. On February 19th, 1969, the multimillion dollar Halliburton Company, the parent company of Brown and Root, rewarded Connally, announcing his election to the board of directors.
He moved with fast moving, wheeling and dealing people; lobbying for Sid Richardson; he was a member of the so-called “Airstrip set”; his intimacy with the rich Texas power structure was based on oil; [if] Connally had any fugleman (that’s model) — Manchester said it was Sid Richardson, the Fort Worth oil millionaire; he was ultimately appointed major administrator [and] chief lobbyist for Sid Richardson’s financial holdings; and with Perry Bass they really worked on an extraordinary [amount] of operations.
He traveled extensively. This part of his life people don’t know a whole lot about, and they generally tell you about LBJ, but it’s Connally you ought to be interested in here. Connally traveled extensively in the company of his boss, Sid Richardson, to his far-flung and always luxurious places of bachelor amusement.
One of Richardson’s favorite spots was the Hotel Del Charro near the racetrack known as the Del Mar Turf Club. Clint Murchison had built the Hotel Del Charro, and it was Murchison’s store outside of Texas where he met with friends and clients, political contacts, his patronage largely oil business.
A very select set of guests there — I think you know them — were allowed in. Most prominent, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, who sometimes stayed at the Murchison hotel when certain notorious Mafia figures were also there having drinks around the pool. McCarthy and Hoover — that’s Joe McCarthy — took trips together to California, and they stayed at the Hotel Del Charro. Murchison picked up their tabs. But the FBI Director was most often in the company, as you know, of Clyde Tolson. And always Clint Murchison picked up the tab.
But Murchison built the hotel — the hotel and racetrack were owned by Murchison and Richardson, and it was Sid Richardson who, when in residence, was boss. They would throw out anyone who was in the Richardson rooms, He would stay there four to six weeks. He had a special place at the pool. He was Del Charro’s top gun. And when Richardson’s lawyer and Richardson’s confidante, who happened to be named John Connally, was flown in to Del Charro on Richardson’s private plane...
AUDIENCE:
Who was it?
MR. EVICA:
John Connally
AUDIENCE:
Oh, I didn’t...
MR. EVICA:
Yeah, John Connally. They moved the guy who was next door to Richardson out, no matter who he was, and John Connally got the room next door to him — next to Richardson’s.
Controlling the Del Mar Turf Club was the racetrack’s parent corporation, Boys, Incorporated. I think you know that that was a scam. J. Edgar Hoover helped it and ultimately made millions of dollars. Pearson and Allen were livid about it and the reason it was not investigated was that former Navy Secretary, Treasury Secretary Robert Anderson, close friend of Texas oil, intimate of Sid Richardson and a man named John Connally, was the secretary of the treasury. And therefore, no IRS investigation was made. Because, you see, the Treasury Secretary would have been turning in his friend John Connally. The director of Boys, Incorporated, the sometime beneficiary of the Richardson-Murchison Del Mar racetrack where syndicate heavies and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover both laid down their bets, was in fact, John Connally.
Texas oilmen who first supported Johnson then Connally included, as you know, included Mecom, West, McCollum of Conoco, Tenneco people, the Murchison family, and of course, Sid Richardson.
I’m not going to give you the whole story of Robert Anderson, but there was an extraordinary scheme which started with — was a payoff. Anderson bought one dollar shares and it went through a process through five oil companies and it came back and Perry Bass, a member of the family and co-heir of everything with Richardson — the money came back in and as it went by, Richardson took his cut and it was just under one million dollars. I think it’s generally — I think Peter Dale Scott would say, “payoff.” Alright? The man who engineered that was John Connally.
Accordingly the insider, that is, the chief mover in this money merry-go-round, who had key connections to its major players Sid Richardson, Robert Anderson and Perry Bass, was Perry Bass’s law partner John Connally. Sid Richardson died, [and] Connally took over as co-executor. He never held office, but he learned politics, as you know, at the ward level.
Most importantly, in terms of making deals again, but on a political level, during the Democratic nomination struggle where John F. Kennedy and LBJ were in contention, James Riddle Hoffa, leader of the corrupt teamsters, major ally of the syndicate figures, and CIA agents implicated in assassination plots against Fidel Castro, [the] target of RFK and JFK when they were counsel and member respectively of the Senate rackets committee, bitterly opposed John F. Kennedy in the presidential primaries and afterward in the national presidential election, Hoffa admitted that one of LBJ’s top supporters “came to see me,” I’m quoting, and asked for the support of the teamsters in trying to stop John F. Kennedy. Indeed, one of Senator Johnson’s top political aides tried to work out an arrangement by which teamster resources would be pooled with the Johnson campaign to keep the 1960 nomination away from JFK.
What is less well known is that the powerful mediator between Johnson’s political representative and Jimmy Hoffa was I. Irving Davidson, who arranged the anti-Kennedy, Hoffa-LBJ strategy meeting. While J. Edgar Hoover often spent his happy, idle vacation hours at the Hotel Del Charro in the company of conservative oil millionaires and syndicate dons, at his FBI office in Washington, Hoover’s door was always open for I. Irving Davidson. The dense network of profitable political relations centered in I. Irving Davidson — he, by the way, is connected to everyone in this story, including his close friendship with Jack Anderson, who had extensive CIA sources, and with whom Davidson shared an office; Davidson's significant financial ties to the Murchison family of Texas; his intimacy with Lyndon Baines Johnson; Davidson represented Hoffa’s teamsters interests; the Samoza family’s Nicaraguan affairs; with the political and financial concerns of the Dominican Republic’s dictator Trujillo in his pocket, Davidson was, finally, a close friend of U.S. intelligence, especially the CIA.
I. Irving Davidson’s ties to Texas were especially significant because he ran Hoffa-Dorfman teamsters’ pension loans funds for the Murchisons, a fund controlled by Allen Dorfman. There’s also a marvelous connection between Hamco, a meat slaughtering operation in Haiti, which involved I. Irving Davidson, Bobby Baker, Meyer Lansky’s associate Ed Levinson, Cliff Jones, and others in Hamco. Baker’s negotiations in this operation included Murchison’s Washington lawyers Webb and Law. Baker received help. And we come all the way around again to I. Irving Davidson. One of the people who worked for the Murchisons in Hamco — and you always pay off your friends and the Murchisons supported his friends at the Bay of Pigs and elsewhere — was Manuel Artime. You may remember him. He was the political officer for the Bay of Pigs operation, and he bagged money for the people at Watergate. Now, that gives you an extraordinary structural relationship that takes you right back to the Murchison family.
Attempting to stop John Kennedy from achieving the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency in the 1960 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles, I. Irving Davidson arranged a private meeting between Jimmy Hoffa and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson’s old Texas friend, John Connally. John Connally was the key LBJ associate who met with I. Irving Davidson and Jimmy Hoffa in an anti-JFK alliance in 1960. Hoffa further promised Connally to support Johnson in the general election in his try for the presidential — if it [Johnson’s attempt to get the nomination] was successful. Alright?
John Connally was the key LBJ associate who met with I. Irving Davidson and Jimmy Hoffa in an anti-JFK alliance in 1960.
Later, by the way, when reports circulated [that] Connally may have brokered a very large teamsters pension fund through Allen Dorfman, he resigned abruptly from the Treasury. Now before that — and you have to know that what you see in the future is probably what you see in the past — he ran Track Four. Track One was the central intelligence track. Track Two was central intelligence track. Track ITT was ITT’s intelligence operation. All three [are] against Salvador Allende, the legally elected president of Chile. There was a fourth track, Track T. That was the Treasury track run by Treasury intelligence and other intelligence officers with copper companies and other companies that had massive investments in Chile. That was run by the Treasury Secretary. His name was John Connally. Track One, Track Two, Track Three, Track Four, four tracks which brought down Salvador Allende and may very well have assassinated him.
Connally was reported to have links to Mafia associated teamsters after the assassination, especially during Connally’s tenure as the secretary of the treasury. Then, you know, he finally in ‘61 — and we’re just up to ‘61 right? Someone, MacNamara, it is suggested, said, “Hey get that guy he’s — he’ll be really good as secretary of the navy.” And he resigned in December of ‘61 to become the new front man for the conservative Democrats in Texas.
Who is Albert Thomas of Texas? Because we want to know at least some of the background of Connally, right? We have shifted now to an extraordinary relationship with the Murchisons and Sid Richardson, I. Irving Davidson, the Hoffa pension fund, the laying... Yes.
AUDIENCE:
[unintelligible question about the candlelight ceremony in Dealey Plaza]
MR. EVICA:
Well I’m going to go to about 10:30 so if you have to go to the candlelight ceremony, do.
Albert Thomas of Texas. Thomas was first elected in Congress in 1936. His district included Houston. He derived much of his electoral support from blacks, Mexican-Americans, and the organized labor movement of that city. Thomas shared with Senator Ralph Yarborough, therefore, and with San Antonio representative Henry Gonzalez, the same populist liberal constituency. In the House, Thomas was extraordinary in his support of the Kennedy Administration. Eighty-nine percent, Eighty-three percent, and Eighty percent of key roll call votes in ‘61, ‘62 and ‘63. He was among the nine southern Democrats who voted most consistently against the southern Democratic-Republican conservative coalition. He was the 4th ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee. He wielded considerable power in Congress. He often used his position on the Appropriations Committee to trim expenditures, increase congressional control over spending.
His main source of power was his chairpersonship — and I think it’s extremely important and I can’t develop it fully but I’ve got — and Jack Valenti is very important in this story. There is a Humble Oil, NASA, housing development, and Rice University connection. Valenti was in on that, and Thomas has a connection to it. Major source of power. He was chairman of the Independent Offices Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee in charge of funds for the Atomic Energy Commission, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (that is, NASA) and many other agencies. His most significant activity as chairman during the presidency was his key role in NASA’s decision in September of ‘61 to build its manned spacecraft center near Houston; widely criticized because of its distance from the rocket launching site at Cape Canaveral, Florida. As head of the Independent Offices Subcommittee, he influenced the selection of the site because he controlled funding. As expected, the spacecraft center brought a major industrial boom to the Houston area.
First elected to the House of Representatives in ‘36, he was ill with terminal cancer in ‘63. He died in office [in] February of ‘66. President Kennedy was extremely fond of representative Thomas both as a political ally and a friend. David Hackett — they were examining what kind of — not improper but patronage pressure was put on the White House and Kennedy, in terms of, for example, public welfare programs. And David Hackett recalled to an historian, only two groups grants in Kennedy’s entire public welfare program politically motivated. One of them was a program requested by Albert Thomas of Houston.
Now, if the assassination of JFK was not an opportunistic event perpetuated by one assassin but rather a carefully planned public execution, then it was absolutely imperative to fix a specific date in a specific Texas city for a motorcade to move slowly at noon through an insecure location with multiple weapon locations. With a JFK calendar filled with events to be attended in Washington, overseas and around the country, the plotters needed an extremely persuasive argument to insure that John F. Kennedy would come to Texas when they wanted him to.
Now, if the assassination of JFK was not an opportunistic event perpetuated by one assassin but rather a carefully planned public execution, then it was absolutely imperative to fix a specific date in a specific Texas city for a motorcade to move slowly at noon through an insecure location with multiple weapon locations.
What would make coming to Texas on a specific date in ‘63 irresistible to Jonn F. Kennedy? What powerful forces would be able to influence that date and place? As I said, the irresistible force was a ceremonial dinner planned in honor of Representative Albert Thomas.
The local Houston committee organizing and controlling the Thomas ceremonial dinner was chaired by Connally associate Jack Valenti. Now I know you associate him with LBJ. In the first year, I traced — it’s a kind of matrix relationship - 12 major Connally people — alright? — when the Connally ship started to go down, jumped ship, and became instant LBJ supporters. Twelve major Connally people went into the White House. And many people called them, in ‘64 [sic, ‘63] and ‘64, “The Texas Gang.” Connally supporters moved in and, in effect, made a ring around LBJ. The local committee organizing and controlling — chaired by Connally associate Jack Valenti.
Through Valenti, by the way — and I can only give you half a paragraph — all of the forces represented by John Connally and opposed to John F. Kennedy could bring their influence to bear on Albert Thomas and supporters. But even more ominous than these pressures on the Thomas dinner committee was a single individual close to Albert Thomas through the 1950s who had intimate links to all the groups suspected of complicity in the JFK murder. That person was — some of you know his name — Jack Halfen of Houston.
Earlier, a Dallas gangster, he associated with Pretty Boy Floyd, Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow. He eventually organized the rackets in Houston by the late 1930s. Was ruling as the big fix. He established working relations with — John [Davis] is going to be unhappy he didn’t hear this, right?
AUDIENCE:
H-A-L-P-I-N?
MR. EVICA:
H-A-L-F — pardon me. H-A-L-F-E-N. Earlier, a gangster, he established working relations with Carlos Marcello, supplied Houston bookmakers with a racing wire service, and through Marcello was able to meet the top men in the syndicate. By the late ‘40s, Texas was, in fact, syndicate controlled. Eastern Texas was like Louisiana, Marcello territory where Marcello had made Mafia boss — had been made a boss by Costello and Lansky. John Davis characterized Jack Halfen as, quote, “Carlos Marcello’s Texas bagman ... whose special job [it] had been to funnel ...” Marcello funds to the “campaigns of ...” — and John does not know what he is saying here because it is true and extremely important — Marcello funds went through Halfen to the campaigns of “Houston Congressman Albert Thomas ... and U.S. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson.” Among the officials who benefited from Halfen’s criminal largess were said to be Houston Sheriff Neil Polk, Houston Congressman Albert Thomas, and according to Halfen himself, Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Now there’s an extraordinary amount of Halfen material that I’ve gotten together, which includes this. I’m skipping down. According to Halfen — sworn testimony — Halfen’s partner in the Great Southern Airways operation was Congressman Albert Thomas. They did an operation which included flying gamblers to “Owney” Madden’s Casino’s in Hot Springs Arkansas.
Now you know I gave an extraordinarily good side to Albert Thomas, right? What I’m talking about now, the kinds of pressures through Halfen that would suggest possibly the same people that we’ve heard about who were unhappy with John F. Kennedy could have worked their way through Albert Thomas to fix that date to bring John Kennedy here. Halfen’s partner in a surplus plane deal was Albert Thomas. More documentation. I think you’ll find this extraordinary about Halfen because it needs to come from about six sources. The Treasury Department finally caught up with him. He spent four years in jail; he got some time off; fifteen thousand dollar fine; he served his time; he left Texas and became a gunrunner in Latin America. Halfen smuggled guns and surplus American bombers to Fidel Castro when the bearded revolutionary was still attempting to overthrow Cuban dictator Batista in a deal which apparently involved Carlos Prios Socarras and his Texas associate Robert McKeown. And I think we're getting close. McKeown was of course Jack Ruby’s Cuban business contact. The same munitions smuggling to Castro through Carlos Prio did in fact include Jack Ruby. I’ve got an enormous amount of documentation.
AUDIENCE:
[unintelligible question]
MR. EVICA:
Yes. Yes. Halfen smuggled stuff to Castro. Halfen worked with Carlos Prio Socarras and his Texas associate Robert McKeown. McKeown was Jack Ruby’s Cuban business contact. And the entire ring of relationships was Ruby and McKeown, McKeown and Prio, Ruby and Prio, and Halfen was part of that.
You see, when Halfen is putting pressure on Albert Thomas, he’s putting pressure on people who initially supported Fidel Castro. And we know that they had State Department support. They had Central Intelligence support; anti-Batista, pro-Castro operations that were then turned into the plots against Fidel Castro. Ruby was part of that.
Carlos Prio’s support of Castro was further sustained by intelligence and mercenary figures including Frank Sturgis, a part of the pro-Castro operations backed covertly by the teamsters and organized crime out of Teamsters Local 320, and the ever-present I. Irving Davidson working with Jimmy Hoffa and Santo Trafficante, and the State Department’s Cuban-based intelligence operations. They got to Halfen again and people were on pins and needles until 1968. Johnson retired from politics. Halfen was no longer a threat to his career.
Albert Thomas was closely linked, therefore, in the 1950s, with Jack Halfen, a syndicate payoff and bagman who worked with Houston gamblers Carlos Marcello and other syndicate leaders, influential Texas political figures, and munitions smugglers supporting Fidel Castro in the late 1950s, including Jack Ruby and CIA connected agents. And the ceremonial dinner in Houston on the evening of November 2lst ‘63 for Albert Thomas, the political ally of John F. Kennedy, was the irresistible reason for JFK coming to Texas and finally to Dallas.
Albert Thomas was closely linked … with Houston gamblers … syndicate leaders, influential Texas political figures, and … smugglers … including Jack Ruby and CIA connected agents. And the ceremonial dinner in Houston on … November 2lst ‘63 for Albert Thomas … was the irresistible reason for JFK coming to Texas and finally to Dallas.
Alright, the next — I’ll try for that — for a 10:30 spot? Okay, this is the route, site selection and the Dallas motorcade. October 28th, we pick up our time again. Jerry Bruno lands at the Austin airport [and] is met by both Connally and Yarborough delegations. Yarborough — Bruno said, “I never saw so many Connally men who were set-ups.” There was a Connally black and a Connally labor man. Every one of these were cardboard figures. They wanted to say, “Here’s our black. Here’s our labor man.” And Bruno saw through it. Connally was intending to suggest that he was the man for all the people.
From the time that Bruno arrived in Texas through the final decision to allow Connally his choice of the Dallas luncheon site, intense political and personal pressure was exerted on Jerry Bruno by Connally and Connally’s aides and associates. No evidence of such pressure on Sorrels. And unfortunately, we lost him. Mary Ferrell told me that he died at 90-something. And he’s an extraordinarily crucial figure. I would have suggested that among the ten or twelve people to immunize and get testimony from, Sorrels was crucial. I’m sorry we lost him. No evidence of such pressure on Sorrels and the Dallas Secret Service in Dallas is in the public record.
When Bruno arrived in Texas, no Dallas luncheon site had been formally chosen. October 29th, Connally and Bruno meet at the Forty Acres in Austin. It’s an incredible story pieced together from three sources. Bruno’s recollection is marked by irony, but he makes clear it was an unpleasant experience. Connally was the head of a long conference table. All around him on either side of the table were his aides, And Don Lesar [phonetic] said that everybody was wearing boots. Right? And Bruno says, “I wasn’t wearing boots. All around him were his aides. They brought in lunch. They brought a juicy steak to Connally, a sandwich for me. You know what they’re trying to tell you with a move like that.”
Connally began outlining the schedule for Kennedy’s trip. He was firm: “It’s my state, and if the President doesn’t like it, he can stay home.” Bruno is — he can’t really believe this. Connally makes it manifestly clear that he and only he was going to run this show. It’s going to be my way or no way. Bruno was not prepared for quite this level of high-handedness. He grew more unsettled as he looked over the schedule Connally had handed him. It was not well worked out. So Bruno tries to pass over it and says — and this is what he usually said to people — “Well, I want to look over all the sites. It will be up to the White House. He’s the president. I’m just here to get everybody’s recommendation. I'll make a report to the White House, and they’ll get back to you. They’ll decide.” Bruno then reported that Connally became, the word is “unhinged.”
“Leaping out of his chair, the Governor strode to a telephone, picked it up, and in a loud voice demanded, ‘Get me the White House.’ We waited. ‘Get me Kenny O’Donnell.’” When O’Donnell apparently came on the line, Connally went over the entire itinerary, reading the whole thing from the sheet with him in a loud stage voice. Obviously, for Bruno’s benefit. [After] four or five minutes on the phone Connally said, “Fine. Fine. I’1l get back to you.” [He] put the phone down, got back and said, “It’s all confirmed. This is the itinerary. This is what we want JFK to do.”
But O’Donnell had not confirmed the Connally schedule at all. Connally had, in fact, faked the O’Donnell conversation. It never happened. O’Donnell, in an interview for example, supports Reston’s analysis: “I learned only later,” says Bruno, “a lot later after the assassination, when it really didn’t make any difference, that Kenny had told him the same thing I had. The White House would make any final decisions.”
Bruno recollected that he and Connally then went around one or two more times. And then Connally got really upset. And he got up and left. Bruno was not only the only person, by the way, who remarked on — and I’ll summarize — Connally’s stubborn arrogant and rude behavior in demanding his own way for the itinerary for for Dallas, for the luncheon site, and therefore for the motorcade.
October 30th, Bruno flies to survey the entire route; that is, itinerary of the trip. The House Select Committee, more accurately, gives another date, but it's only 24 hours. The end of October, the beginning of November, he visits Dallas. He apparently confers with Sorrels and the Dallas Secret Service and probably reviews the Dallas luncheon sites. October 30th, he takes a look at the Trade Mart, and he objects to it immediately on security grounds and records his objection in his diary. That’s the October 30th 1963 Bruno objection.
[October] 31st, at JFK’s press conference in D.C. no Texas trip questions, no Dallas trip questions were asked, and no information was given. Now, this is extraordinarily curious. Extraordinarily curious. But in fact nobody’s being given any information at all. Connally’s control of the Dallas luncheon site: Bruno said, “The location of a speech shouldn’t really stir anyone's emotions.” But in fact, choosing a Dallas luncheon site was really a matter of deciding what kind of trip Kennedy would make and whom he would be allowed to speak to. There were, by the way — it’s a fiction — five initial sites. The hotel ballroom — it’s either one or two ballrooms. People can’t make up their minds in Dallas. The Dallas Memorial Auditorium, that would be good. It would have had a lot of [support from] Yarborough, Gonzalez, and other supporters. People who were really going to support Kennedy. But the Connally controlled host committee reportedly feared what they called “cranks” in such a large crowd. So the auditorium option was dropped. There could be “cranks” there. No public record indicates what role Sorrels and the Dallas secret police — I mean Secret Service — office played in this evaluation of “cranks.”
Three: the Women’s Building; Bruno commented, “This would be perfect for us. He could give the speech. We don’t care who they bring in, all these business people. And then we open up the doors, and all the people stream in. We have organized labor committees, Chicano committees, women, blacks. Turn the people out. It would have been a way for Kennedy to say symbolically, ‘I want to speak to all the people of Dallas.’”
It’s a marvelous idea. This description of those who would attend the event at the Women’s Building sounds remarkably like the anti-Connally liberal populist coalition that Connally feared and hated. By the way, choosing that building would have meant, as Bruno Says, “traveling to the site two blocks farther away from Dealey Plaza.” (As if they couldn’t kill him elsewhere, Right? And at a much faster rate.) Then there’s, of course, the Trade Mart. He did not like it. It was an enclosed setting. The lunch would be an expensive affair. More important, it would be closed off and it would be run completely — this is Bruno — “completely by John Connally and the Dallas Power elite under the Connally allied Dallas Citizens Council,” the Establishment group that ran the politics, the social life and everything else in Dallas. There is more about that. Bruno, therefore, preferred the Women’s Building rather than the Trade Mart. But the Connally-dominated local hosts were disconsolate — that’s the word, “disconsolate” — at the possibility of Bruno’s choice prevailing, urging the showy Trade Mart instead.
Charles Ashman, by the way, grasped the significant linkage. And he’s very early in seeing what relationship it had. You choose a luncheon site, you choose the motorcade. You control the luncheon site, you control the motorcade. And Ashman said, “That’s it. Connally, if he gets his luncheon site choice, he will control the direction of the motorcade and where it goes from Love Field to the site. Lawson, oddly enough — let’s see. Ashman: “Connally insisted on the Trade Mart that made it virtually certain that the motorcade would proceed down Elm Street, approach the Stemmons Freeway since Elm was the main Civic Center entrance to the freeway. Lawson (House Select Committee on Assassinations Committee interview) agreed, quote, “The decision to send the motorcade in an eastward or westward direction along Main Street was dependent upon prior selection of he luncheon site.” There it is. He says it. They have no control. If Connally chooses the Trade Mart and they start at Love Field, they go through Dealey Plaza.
Early November, probably November 1st, FBI agents — I’m sorry. A Secret Service agent, in his memoirs, says, “Texas trip dates definite.”
November 3rd, again, we have further information from newspaper sources. Bruno came back about November 5th with photographs of the Trade Mart. Bruno brought them to support his anti-Trade Mart arguments. Bruno took them to Behn, in charge of Texas trip security. Behn looked at them and said, I quote, “We’re never going to go there,” and rejected the Trade Mart at least when he spoke to Bruno in Bruno’s presence.
Early November again, November 4th, Kenny O’Donnell, special assistant to the president, discussed the itinerary with Jerry Behn. Behn met with Bruno and Kenny O’Donnell apparently to go over security measures. Following this meeting or meetings with Bruno and O’Donnell, Behn announced on November 5th that he favored the Women’s Building. This statement by G. Robert Blakey and Cornwall and another House Select Committee on Assassinations aide for the House Select Committee is suspiciously worded: “No public record of a Behn announcement is available.” And only Blakey is the source for much of this material. Not testimony taken under oath by Behn, but to Jerry Bruno. The Blakey statement should have been, and I quote (this is what the record shows), “According to Jerry Bruno, Behn agreed with Bruno’s negative security assessment of the Trade Mart,” unquote. Blakey also stated, “Behn had instructed O’Donnell that the Women’s Building was his selection.” But the only documentation given for Bruno’s is Bruno’s House Select Committee on Assassinations deposition and Bruno’s contemporaneous notes. “Bruno stated that O’Donnell personally confirmed this version of the course of events.” Again, there is no documentation.
By the way, if you’re beginning to hear obfuscation, it’s from the 11th volume. Blakey has to make very certain that he can keep you as confused as possible about what the events were. Blakey apparently avoided asking Behn the obviously crucial questions about his meetings with Bruno and O’Donnell and about his agreement that the Trade Mart was insecure. Unfortunately — and then Blakey gives you more disinformation, frequently through the House Select committee on Assassinations JFK assassination text — Blakey inserts bottom of the page notes, sometimes awkwardly composed, muddying an already difficult discussion. On page 517, 11th volume, appendix, an important admission made by Behn to Bruno: Bruno stated in his House Select Committee deposition that Behn disclosed to Bruno that Behn “implicitly, having ultimate power to decide where to send the motorcade, chose the Women’s Building on November 5th.”
That’s a very difficult sentence to follow. But it’s very clear. What Blakey is telling you is that Behn agreed with Bruno, having seen the pictures, and therefore chose the Women’s Building. Testimony from Behn, of course, would have established whether indeed he had said anything like, “the ultimate power to choose.” Still, crippled as the Blakey sentence is, it is clear. Given only two sites in Dallas from which to choose, a negative security decision on one site, or a more positive security decision on the other site would obviously determine the motorcade route, if the White House accepted the Secret Service’s security evaluation. Blakey then added an irrelevant contradiction. He muddied the waters again.
AUDIENCE:
Where’s the Women’s Building?
MR. EVICA:
It is on the fairgrounds. And it is also the sight of [Dallas Police Lieutenant Jack] Revill’s Special Services Bureau. They were not in the Dallas police office. They had their site right there. Therefore, the unit that would be in charge of special security precautions for the president of the United States, of the Dallas police, would be right there at the Women’s Building. It’s bizarre. Yes sir.
AUDIENCE:
Wasn’t there also a plan to take the President, once in town, to the University of Texas?
MR. EVICA:
Yes. And I can’t cover that but that’s part of fluidity. Bruno, not strongly suspected, he believed that Connally manufactured first the apparent choice of Kennedy to get a degree, and then stopped it. That meant — at one time Connally said, “We don’t know where he’s going to sleep when he’s in Fort Worth.” Can you believe that? A very late announcement. And it had to do with the cancellation of a degree that was promised to John Kennedy by Texas Christian. And Connally had the chutzpa, you know, the testicular fortitude, to say to Bruno, he said, “Well you know, he’s a Catholic.” Bruno should have hit him in the mouth.” That’s a terrible thing to have said about John Kennedy. That Texas Christian is not going to give him a degree because he’s Catholic? But Connally was so rude, so arrogant, and so in charge, that he felt he could say anything like this. Bruno had to then make reparations. He had to suggest it had only been fluid. John Kennedy did not say to Bruno, “Didn’t you promise me a degree?” He just accepted the fact they had to make new arrangements.
AUDIENCE:
I think the fact is that if they had taken him by helicopter from Love Field to UTD... [unintelligible] then taken him to the Trade Mart... [unintelligible] there never would have been any motorcade.
MR. EVICA:
There would be no motorcade. Absolutely true. That’s the kind of thing that, when you put the whole damned thing together, you feel how structured it was. Yes sir.
AUDIENCE:
Didn’t they hold up selling tickets to the luncheon so that [unintelligible].
MR. EVICA:
Oh yes, and the ticket sales were very, very slow. Extremely...
AUDIENCE:
They claimed that they tried to get it to the Women’s Building, but he wanted the Trade Mart.
MR. EVICA:
And he wanted the Trade Mart. That’s right. Now, while all this is going on, the advance work for the Texas trip is left primarily to the White House Secret Service detail. The Dallas Secret Service advance people begin the job, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Unfortunately, you see, they’re not going to get down there until too late.
November 4th, Lawson in Washington is notified of the Texas trip. November 4th, Sorrels in Dallas and Lawson still in Washington becomes responsible for the Dallas trip. Sorrels in Dallas receives a call from White House Detail head of the Secret Service, Gerald A. Behn on November 4th. Sorrels testifies that Behn told him — Now get this: We have only two sites. We know what the names of the sites are. We know that the motorcade depends upon the luncheon site. We know that Behn has disallowed the Trade Mart on security grounds. And here’s what Sorrels testifies to: “Behn called me and said JFK would probably visit Dallas about November 21st, and there are a couple of buildings that have been suggested as sites.” The Warren Commission accepted that. And then the House Select Committee on Assassinations didn’t come after him and say, “Didn’t you say this? Isn’t that untrue?” They just let it go by.
There’s a note — a disturbing vagueness, I’d say, in the text when more precise information was available. Lawson is given further information on the Texas trip by Boring. Lawson was notified of his Dallas assignment by Boring on November 4th. The Warren Commission and the House Select Committee are both clear about Lawson receiving two calls, the first from Behn. He testified to that to the Warren Commission on Dallas and then on a couple of potential luncheon sites. And the second call, according to the House Select Committee on Assassinations, from Boring with further information.
Now, no one picked up on this because no one did a chronology. No one looked at it carefully. But hear this: There is no specificity about that second call. This reported Boring call may be extremely significant since it may be the lost transmission of Bruno’s direction to the Secret Service to choose the Women’s Building and therefore overcome Connally’s iron control of the Dallas agenda. What I found out, and it’s extremely important, is Bruno comes back, he shows the pictures and he says, “It's impossible down there. So here’s what I want you to do. I want you to call down there and say it is the judgment of the Secret Service that the Trade Mart be disallowed.” That’s a Secret Service judgment. We go with the Women's Building. And Behn said he transmitted that call. It never got through, says Bruno. He doesn’t know how or why. But it may be that that second call without specificity is indeed Bruno’s — the direction to the Secret Service to choose the Women’s Building, the so-called “lost call.”
Sorrels indicated that Behn had given him more information, unspecified, about the Trade Mart. Sounds remarkably like it might be that call. Again, nobody follows up because nobody has done a contextual, chronological analysis on the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Or maybe they don’t want to. Could this Behn — could this Behn call have been, in fact, that call that would have disallowed the Connally operations? Bruno attempts, therefore, to circumvent the Connally control. And approximately at that time, he sends Bill Moyers down to be advance man in Austin. Bill Moyers would be one of the people I would call and immunize. Bill Moyers is, according to Bruno’s sources, the man who was sent down to adjudicate the luncheon site and motorcade. If that’s so, Bill Moyers has a great deal of information that he’s not talked about. When he gave his deposition (they never called him as a witness under oath), he suddenly could not remember anything. And I’d have to say that’s extraordinarily suspicious. I also feel that coming from a conservative, if not reactionary, background, supported by all oil millionaire money as he was, that Bill Moyers may have since then felt extraordinarily guilty. He’s the one that’s responsible for publishing the motorcade route. And he worked through [the] Austin Secret Service office with Secret Service Officer William Paine. And Bill Moyers has characterized William Paine as the Secret Service man in charge of the Texas trip, specifically the Dallas itinerary. I think I know what that’s about, because if he’s speaking for Connally that means — you may say it’s the Secret Service in Austin or in Dallas; and you may say that the White House has made the decision, but in fact it is Connally. Because Bruno says, “We got word back from Dallas that the Secret Service had approved the Trade Mart.” And that information is coming from John Connally.
Bill Moyers has a great deal of information that he’s not talked about. When he gave his deposition (they never called him as a witness under oath), he suddenly could not remember anything. And I’d have to say that’s extraordinarily suspicious.
Now it either comes directly, therefore — remember Bruno’s the one who’s telling us this — it either comes directly from Connally or it comes from Bill Moyers and/or William Paine, the Secret Service office in Austin. They’re down there, and no one has decided anything apparently, except Sorrels and our man Lawson arrived in Dallas November 12th. Only Sorrels and the Dallas Secret Service agents there, reportedly, have visited the sites [and] reportedly have evaluated them. And on November 13th, to be brief — I’ve got about three pages of it — on November 13th, apparently without seeing the Women’s Building, except to have been driven there by a Trade Mart supporter, they choose the Trade Mart. Got it? They have made their decision.
Lawson is there less than 24 hours. And they choose the Trade Mart. And they send the word back, probably through Bill Moyers and Bill Paine. Now Lawson and Sorrels are under tremendous pressure, along with [Jack] Puterbaugh. They meet with an enormous number of Dallas power brokers closely associated with John Connally, brought together by Robert Cullum, for example, a member of the local host committee. Cullum was acting as a subcommittee chairperson for the local committee. They discuss the program, okay, per Sam Bloom of the host committee. All the other Trade Mart people are meeting together, They are driven to the Women’s building on the State Fair grounds — just to the building. A key backer for Connally’s choice for the luncheon site is the one who drives them there. No persons supporting the Women’s Building are recorded as having met with Lawson and Puterbaugh under the auspices of the local committee. They’re all Connally supported, Connally dominated Trade Mart people. And they make their decision on November 13th.
AUDIENCE:
[unintelligible]
MR. EVICA:
He is the advance man for Dallas. They had decided on a new system. Jerry Bruno said, and he — by the way, if you know about the structure, the language, when you see everything slip into the passive voice, suspect what is going on. Because suddenly when they talk about this trip it’s in the passive voice. Got it?
[End of Tape 1; to Tape 2, side A]
...new plan. Instead of my being the advance man, associated with Secret Service and security and sites, I’m now going to stay in Washington and I’m going to be in constant touch with advance men in all the cities. Except he wasn’t. Except the system broke down. Also, Salinger didn’t get to go, Kilduff went. Alright? So Bruno’s not there, Salinger’s not there. And Puterbaugh is under such enormous pressure, he gets very upset with them. Because the moment he’s there, they are already maneuvering him out of the system so that Lawson and Sorrels can choose the Trade Mart. He’s Jerry Bruno’s advance man for Dallas. He had absolutely no power whatsoever.
AUDIENCE:
You know he was supposed to — also, Jerry Behn normally would have gone.
MR. EVICA:
He would normally have gone. He didn’t. So what we have is not just security stripping. We have people stripping.
Lawson forwards a favorable report — “forwards” — on November 13th. Now “forward” is wrong. I found out that it was a telephone call. He okayed the Trade Mart as acceptable from a security point of view. He gave a whole lot of reasons why they shouldn’t go to the Women’s Building: “You see, it has a better commercial security system than the Women’s Building,” which is I think a first in the history of the Secret Service in which a private commercial security system is found to be better than the Secret Service. Number two: “There’s no kitchen at the Women’s Building.” And my question back is, were there no other buildings on the fairgrounds with kitchens? No reliable catering business available for the presidential luncheon? And, by the way, there was an obstruction of proper TV coverage in the Women’s Building interior. By the way, this objection is from the local host committee dominated by Connally. [The] Secret Service have nothing to do with local TV coverage. Also, Lawson agreed with Sorrels. Sorrels had come in and he said, “This is a poor interior,” [meaning] aesthetically it is not nice. The word that is used by them is “unseemly.” I’m going to check that. They were going to send the President to an “unseemly” building. Lawson supports the earlier Sorrels aesthetic criticism of the Women’s building. Oh, a very good security reason.
The Warren Commission avoided Jerry Bruno completely, ignored Behn, relied only on the self-serving testimony of Sorrels and Lawson. Blakey, apparently realizing how damaging the public testimony of both Bruno and Behn could be, used only Bruno’s notes and a deposition. [5-second gap in tape] ..like to see the transcript of that — withholding his testimony, he fragmented his testimony, he... [8-second gap in tape] ...the White House, and O’Donnell and Bruno made the selection. It’s absolutely not true. Given the evidence, my hypothesis, supported largely by ignored depositions, including Bill Moyers’ deposition, is this: The Dallas Secret Service agents agreed to the Trade Mart choice, the host committee notified Austin, and William Paine in the Austin Secret Service office transmitted the choice to Washington. And that’s when Bruno said, “It’s coming from Connally.” Hear it? So it goes from Dallas into Austin and then to Washington, where they then transmit it back. Therefore, the Warren Commission obviously had to avoid calling Jerry Bruno.
They tested, on November 14th, a proposed route from the airport to where? Trade Mart, obviously. Alright? And at the approximate speed to be taken by the motorcade. And, by the way, it is a lie that they looked over security factors. There were no security factors looked over. This ride was to time the ride from Love Field to the Trade Mart. They established it at 45 minutes. That’s all they were interested in. They did not see, therefore, as they went through Dealey Plaza, apparently, or refused to acknowledge the massive contradiction in Lawson’s deposition. Because if they went through Main Street to the Trade Mart, that dictated Dealey Plaza. But he said, “Oh no.” As of October 14th, I believe — November 14th I mean, he said, “We had chosen only Main Street, not Dealey Plaza.” And you know that’s untrue. Because if they chose Main Street and it was going from Love Field to the Trade Mart, they must go through Dealey Plaza. Most of them did not want to hear any of this.
November 15th. The final motorcade route through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas was selected on November 15th. Okay. Who chose the actual route from Love Field through Dealey Plaza? Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry said, I quote, “We left the parade route up to the local Dallas host committee. They chose the route.”
The motorcade and the turns. Secret Service agents Lawson and Sorrels reportedly drove the motorcade route. But at least two versions exist, and I think that’s because of disinformation, Alright, now we have a discussion [on the] 17th and the 18th, and we’re not told who Elizabeth Harris is. Elizabeth Harris argues, she says, “practically against the entire Connally group,” for publication of the route. “We’ve got to get the people out. This is a people’s motorcade. Please, let’s have it come out.” And they say no.
AUDIENCE:
Wasn’t she with Moyers from what we know?
MR. EVICA:
She’s Moyers' advance person. That’s very scary. She was very close to Moyers. She was operating with the Austin Secret Service office with Bill Moyers and with the people choosing the motorcade route. So, I would immunize Elizabeth Harris because it seems to me that we're very close to discovering how they manipulated it. Because on that same day in Washington, the Washington correspondents around Salinger — they finally know that the President’s going — and they say, “Where’s he going?” He tells them the cities. And they say, “Then give us the routes.” And he says, “No, we’re giving out no routes whatsoever. They will not be published,” the same day that Elizabeth Harris in Dallas is arguing for the Austin Connally office, as the assigned representative of Bill Moyers, to publish the route. On the same day, therefore, they decide in Dallas to publish, and in Washington, they refuse to give the routes out because the Secret Service said it was dangerous. Alright? You can hear, right through the publication of the motorcade routes, that disinformation set of contradictions.
She’s Moyers' advance person. That’s very scary. She was very close to Moyers. She was operating with the Austin Secret Service office with Bill Moyers and with the people choosing the motorcade route. So, I would immunize Elizabeth Harris because it seems to me that we're very close to discovering how they manipulated it.
AUDIENCE:
At this time, when was the motorcade route published?
MR. EVICA:
When was it published?
AUDIENCE:
It was the 19th.
MR. EVICA:
Absolutely, the 19th. By the way, Lawson sends in his preliminary report on the Dallas trip on the 19th. Everything happens on single dates of that kind. Alright, now, they’re attending to final arrangements on the 20th, the 21st, and finally early on the 22nd. Let’s go back to November 18th. I can finish this with the turns in Dealey Plaza.
AUDIENCE:
Wouldn’t it be worth mentioning what the Dallas News did with the parade route on the morning of the parade then? [unintelligible sentence]
MR. EVICA:
I know, that’s — I’m really interested, however, in, as distinct from the publication — now we know that there was a major contradiction — what about the turns? Alright? Let me just -
Sorrels and Lawson drove the motorcade route on November 18th ‘63, All the questions which have been raised about the selection of the Plaza’s twisting turns are wrong-headed. No selection was necessary. But Blakey keeps on saying, “selection,” and “who selected.” So people have focused on who sent them that way.
No selection was necessary. All that was necessary was that neither Lawson nor Sorrels raise an objection. They did not. Given Lawson’s extraordinary passivity, on the record, and pliability, on the record, dealing with the Connally dominated local people and the Dallas [Citizens] Council directed Dallas police, coming after his late arrival relative to the so-called luncheon site controversy — by the way, Jesse Curry was a police chief who was not given his chiefdom by seniority. He was elected. These very same people directed him. Got it? He was beholden to the Dallas Council and the whole operation. Only, given all of this structure then, only Sorrels, who I assumed lived in Dallas, certainly worked in Dallas, even had his dentist’s office on the motorcade route, was left to raise a single objection about the insecurity of Dealey Plaza in its norman legal function as the access to the Stemmons Freeway. He did not. See that? Now we have all the people over here, and only one man that might raise objection. In opposition to Jerry Rose, I find, therefore, it extremely incriminating that neither Sorrels nor Lawson decided against the turns in order to choose a more secure transit through Dealey Plaza. Because that’s what either of those Secret Service men should have done. They should have chosen against the normal legal turns. Warren Commission counsel were well aware of the serious problem they faced in justifying the lack of decision to bypass the deadly plaza turns.
“Stern: Why didn’t you route the motorcade on Main Street under the triple overpass and onto the freeway instead of going to Houston and Elm?
“Sorrels: Well, because you cannot get to the the entrance to Stemmons Expressway on Main Street. The traffic is not routed that way. It is impractical. On the other side of the first underpass, there is a section built up to prevent cars from cutting in from Main Street to get over to Elm Street there. And if a person would try that, they would have to either hurdle this built up place there, this island you might call it, or you would have to go down on Main Street past where you would ordinarily turn off, then come back against the traffic...” (No. That would be dangerous for the motorcade to come back against traffic.) “...which would be one way that way, make hairpin turns and come back and get on the Stemmons Freeway there. It is just not done.”
Whew! The riser, however, was not — and we just went down there, and we took pictures — was not an impediment. And so far as I can see is still not an impediment to traffic flow. Rather, the mounded concrete riser similar to a speed bump was illegally traversed in ‘63 every day by Dallas motorists to get onto the Stemmons Expressway from Main Street.
Zirbel: “This routine crossover practice would therefore have been extremely safe for the motorcade, especially without any other traffic in the area.” Now, all that traffic should have been cut out. Everyone should have been over — out of the overpass. And Manchester, in a remarkable footnote, established by a key figure in the Secret Service that the Texas School Book Depository should have been checked in Dealey Plaza. The entire area was, as Jerry Rose called it, “uniquely insecure.” Do you remember a man who, just before the assassination, drove his car onto the overpass and stood there and got his cheek — James Tague establishes that they did not stop traffic underneath there. They did not stop train traffic. There was a train going through. Cars came through. It’s incredible. Now that’s a whole other item, and Vince Palamara, I hope, will do that. But that riser was not an impediment. This was a routine crossover. Since Sorrels was a resident Secret Service agent, why didn’t he urge this perfectly appropriate alternative to the dangerous turns in Dealey Plaza.
Now Hepburn, in Farewell America, was aware of this everyday reality and he points out — and I’ve got the — they were buried but I think you may know them if you want to see them when we’re done. These are Commission Exhibits which are not attached to anyone's testimony. What they were very much interested in was the possibility of a secure and quick crossover onto Stemmons Freeway by going down Main Street. You’ll find that the photographs are not very good so we took one photograph ourselves. Now very close up at 17 yards and 34 yards where you can cross over and go right up on Stemmons Freeway. Just now as then. And I assure you that the Warren Commission was quite worried about this fact. Here it is. Hepburn was aware. The Warren Commission declared that a sign located on this built up area — it’s gone now — instructed Main Street traffic not to make any turns; that is, such a turn would be normally illegal and would be dangerous, that is, if there was traffic coming. But on November 21st [sic, i.e. 22nd], all the streets had been cleared or should have been cleared to make way for the motorcade. And it would have been normal in terms of usual Secret Service measures to follow the easiest, the quickest, and the safest route onto the freeway.
Blakey was well aware of the Dealey Plaza problem. First, he stated, “Sorrels told the Warren Commission he selected...” (Notice that? No one selects those turns, They’re just there legally.) Sorrels selected the turns (lay it on Sorrels) through Dealey Plaza because it was the most direct route to the Trade Mart. It was, in fact, the most direct legal normal route, but of course, a president might be able to circumvent those. Blakey also — but Sorrels did not select the turns. They were legal turns drivers always took unless they jumped the barrier.
Blakey also attempted to justify Sorrels not “choosing” another and safer route — not choosing the [route] or selecting that but of the safer route — by supporting Sorrels contention that the motorcade would have had an almost impossible task in making the turns onte Stemmons Freeway. Oddly enough, Dallas drivers were accomplishing that almost impossible task without the streets even being cleared for them as they would or should have been for the President.
Blakey then attributed the next piece of vital information to the constraints of the question and answer process that the Warren Commission used. If they only had not used questions and answers, they would have gotten at the truth. Apparently, therefore, “The motorcade could have progressed...” — this is Blakey, page 522, 11th volume, buried in it in the appendix — “The motorcade could have progressed westward through Dealey Plaza on Main Street, passed under the overpass, and then proceeded on Industrial Boulevard to the Trade Mart.”
You therefore have the illegal turn that could have been made by simply deciding to make the illegal turn, not the legal turn, or going directly to Industrial Boulevard. And Blakey tells you that. Of course, he tells you it in the 11th or 12th volumes on page 522, which almost no one has read. You can get very tired reading those books. Apparently, the Dallas police also rated aesthetic criteria above security, as did the Secret Service. According to Blakey, Assistant Police Chief George L. Lumpkin had been consulted by the Secret Service: “George? What do you think about security planning for the motorcade if we take Industrial Boulevard?” Lumpkin raised important non-security objections to Industrial Boulevard: “You know there are winos and the scenery is not very nice.” And with those non-security objections in mind, according to Lumpkin, the route on Industrial Boulevard directly through Main Street and to the Trade Mart was rejected by the Secret Service. That’s page 522. Though Blakey apparently took Lumpkin’s word, no other documentation exists for this continuing concern for the aesthetics of motorcades versus the security of the president of the United States. Lumpkin also added another reason not to take Industrial Boulevard. It’s presented by Blakey with a straight face. I quote, “There would have been no crowds on Industrial Boulevard,” unquote, Lumpkin deposed. Of course there would have been no crowds on Industrial Boulevard. The motorcade, as a people’s event, ended at Dealey Plaza, as planned. Now Blakey gives you that quote as if somehow that’s information. No crowds on Industrial Boulevard? Hey, don’t take it. But no crowds are on Industrial Boulevard because they’re going to drive directly to the Trade Mart. The motorcade’s over. Though without text, Commission Exhibits 2113, [pages] 4, 5, 6 and 7 here — again, by the way they’re in the 24th volume in the impossible volumes at the end of the 26 volumes that you find some interesting things in — they clearly indicate that the Warren Commission counsels were concerned for the possibility of avoiding the Dealey Plaza turns.
Warren Commissioner [sic, i.e., Commission Counsel] Liebeler, one of the three or four counsel on the Warren Commission [who] I believe were quite well aware they could have done an alternative, and they knew that the Secret Service passively accepted the legal turns. Remember who set it up. John Connally and his associates got very early control of the entire Texas trip. They got very early control of the Dallas itinerary. They got control of the luncheon site, which determined the motorcade route. And that motorcade route from Love Field to the Trade Mart had to go through Dealey Plaza. Accepting passively, those turns meant you put John F. Kennedy under the guns.
“Liebeler: What would have prevented the motorcade from going directly down Main Street under the triple underpass? Remembering now that the motorcade wanted to go to Stemmons Freeway.
“Smith: ...” (Joe Marshal Smith, good policeman) “I don’t know, sir.
“Liebeler: Now, would you have gone...” (making it personal, right?) “...would you have gone straight down Main Street and gotten onto Stemmons Freeway there at the triple underpass?
“Smith: Yes, sir.
“Liebeler: There’s a concrete barrier between Elm Street and Main Street, is there not?
“Smith: What do you mean?
“Liebeler: As far as you know, there was then no reason why the motorcade couldn’t have gone straight down Main Street and gone to Stemmons Freeway headed for the Trade Mart?”
Good policeman Smith: “As far as I know, there was no reason. No reason at all.”
Except that the forces that impelled Connally and his associates to demand their choice of the luncheon site and therefore their motorcade route, taking the twisting legal turns in deadly Dealey Plaza had scheduled John F, Kennedy to die on Elm Street in Dallas, Texas.
ENDNOTES:
Richard Bartholomew, “Transcript: John Connally’s Role in the Planning of the Trip - Part 1,” bartholoviews.substack.com