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NE
RIN
E. G
UN
Red
Roses F
rom T
exas
FR
ED
ER
ICK
MU
LL
ER
LIM
ITE
D
LO
ND
ON
•
Illustrations
The fateful visit to D
allas begins . . T
he assassination D
allas police guard the building believed to house the assassin
A plain-clothes officer carries the high.pow
ere'd ring used to kill tha President
48 D
etective Bill W
althers pictured retrieving what
the author believelewas the fourth bullet
49 R
obert and Jacqueline Kennedy w
atch as the P
resident's body returns to Washington; M
rs K
ennedy witnesses the sw
earing in of the new
President, L
yndon Johnson 8o
The arrest of L
ee Harvey O
swald
8 t N
o. r suspect Lee O
swald, his m
other and wife,
Marina
The m
oment of death for L
ee Osw
ald T
he President's casket is carried at the beginning
of its journey to Washington's St M
atthew's
Cathedral; the procession leaves the C
apitol 128
The new
President, Lyndon Johnson, and his w
ife leave the M
ass at St Matthew
's Cathedral
129 T
he Kennedy fam
ily attend the funeral of the late President
. Mrs K
enn
edy at th
e graveside in
the A
rlington
N
ational Cem
etary i• T
he co
pyrig
hts to
the
111,
:)•,• thr • ̀
•
'
facing Page 32
33
48
g6
97
144
it
First published in G
reat Britain in 1964
by Frederick M
uller Lim
ited P
rinted by Tonbridgs P
rinters Lim
ited, P
each Hall W
orks, Tonbridge, K
ent
"T
hree tim
es that day in
Texas w
e were greeted w
ith
bouquets of the yellow roses of Texas. O
nly in Dallas they
gave me red roses. I rem
ember 'thinking: H
ow funny—
red roses for m
e."
MR
S JO
HN
F. K
EN
NE
DY
Copyright
Neria E
. Gun, 1964
•
Thirty-one m
inutes past twelve on a
Novem
ber afternoon in Dallas, T
exas ... T
he sun was shining, T
exans were
welco
min
g th
e K
ennedys w
ith u
nexp
ecte
d
friendliness and the President him
self had just agreed that "Y
ou can never say after this that they don't love you in T
exas." It was
then that one of the most able politicians the
world has know
n was assassinated by
someone w
hose identity has never been
pro
ved.
Exactly how
he was assassinated is also
unkn
ow
n. It m
ight h
ave
been an A
merica
n
politica
l actio
n, it m
ight h
ave
been
Castro-inspired, it m
ight merely have been
the work of a psychopath..
In a
ttem
ptin
g to
thro
w n
ew
light o
n th
e '
assassination, Nerin G
un has investigated th
e h
our-b
y-hour e
vents p
rece
din
g a
nd
follo
win
g th
e tra
gedy a
nd fu
lly exa
min
es th
e
backg
round o
f the le
adin
g p
rota
gonists
involved. He traced the steps of Lee H
arvey O
swald as far as M
exico and presents a penetrating portrait of the N
o. 1 suspect. He
also poses many pertinent questions
regarding the alleged assassin. Who, for
example, exactly w
as he ? Was he a U
.S.
Secret S
ervice agent ? Was he the only
killer, or were there others ? W
hy hasn't the.
(con
tinu
ed o
n b
ack flap)
25/- n
et
Contents
z 2 3
Noon C
avalcade in Dallas
Counting O
ur Blessings
'Join The M
arines — T
hey will m
ake a Man
24
out of You!'
38 4
It is the Fashion to H
ate . . . 53
5 H
e didn't like the 'Sardine Can'
67 6
The P
romoter
85 7
The C
hatelaine zoo.
8 'T
hey're Going to K
ill Us A
ll!' z zo
g `Si V
ivis, Ego T
e Absolvo'
. 121
To 'M
umm
y, Why isn't there any M
ickey Mouse
on the Television ?'
132 11
A B
ad Tipper
147 12
Anatom
y of the Accused
x 6 x 13
'I could stay here for ever' 178
14 T
he Devil's A
dvocate 192
CH
AP
TE
R O
NE
Noon C
avalcade in Dallas
TH
E P
ITIL
ES
S G
LA
RE
of the Texan sun w
as making Jacque-
line Kennedy .very uncom
fortable, but she dared not put on her blue-tinted sunglasses; she m
ust keep on waving and
smiling at the crow
ds cheering along both sides of the route. It w
as a joy-day in Dallas. T
he enthusiasm of the tow
ns-folk had surprised all those in the procession. John F
itz-gerald
Ken
ned
y, seated
on th
e right o
f the h
uge b
lue
Lincoln-C
ontinental bearing the number-plate G
G-3oo of
the Colum
bia district, was thoroughly enjoying it all. H
e kept turning from
right to left, and back again, waving and
beaming that w
ide presidential smile.
He had been w
arned to expect something quite different
from this from
the hair-trigger-tempered T
exans. He had
been told that they would spit in his face —
as had happened a few
weeks before to A
dlii Stevenson. T
his was, after all,
the domain of his bitter rival, S
enator Barry G
oldwater, w
ho w
anted to turn back the clock to the days of King G
eorge III. Y
et no
w h
e was b
eing
received
with
acclamatio
n,
"How
dy Jack" and "Viva Jacuelina" resounding on every
side, received yet more w
armly than in P
aris, Mexico or
even Berlin. T
he very weather had changed for him
, despite the w
arnings of last evening's papers, which had forecast
fain and mist. T
he temperature w
as 85 ° F in
the sh
ade. It
was F
riday, Novem
ber 22 nd, 1963.
I2
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
The presidential procession w
as preceded only by motor-
cycle o
utrid
ers from
the lo
cal po
lice. Th
ey h
ad b
een
ord
ered n
ot to
use th
eir sirens at all, p
erhap
s so th
at the
cheers of the crowd, expected to be far less w
arm, should be
heard to the full. A
t midday, the procession arrived at the centre of D
allas, that w
ide-spreading town —
in Texas everything and every-
body is larger than anywhere else —
whose real population
centre is relatively tiny. There is just,the one principal road,
Main S
treet, reflected in several parallel byways.
President K
ennedy glanced at the small w
hitewashed
build
ing, p
seudo-S
pan
ish in
style, stan
din
g at th
e sharp
corner w
here Harw
ood Street turns into M
ain Street. T
his w
as the City H
all, whose basem
ent houses the police head-quarters. F
rom a w
indow of his office on the third floor,
District A
ttorney Wade w
as watching the passing of the
cavalcad
e. Just ab
ov
e him
was th
e deten
tion
centre fo
r "his" suspects.
ON
TH
E tw
o bucket-seats of the special Lincoln, opposite
the P
residen
t and M
rs Ken
ned
y, w
ere John C
onnally
, also
on th
e right, an
d h
is wife N
ellie. Connally
is the
Governor of T
exas, and a loyal supporter of the President -
whose N
avy Minister he had been not long previously.
The original plan had been for the T
exas Senator, R
alph Y
arbo
rou
gh
, to h
ave th
e ho
no
ur o
f travellin
g w
ith th
e presidential couple. Y
arborough is the leader of the Texan
liberals, an
d w
as at the tim
e mak
ing th
ings d
ifficult all
round because of the presence of Vice-P
resident Johnson, w
hom he considered a rival. In fact, he had obstinately and
persistently refused to sit beside Lyndon Johnson, calling
him "the sleeping m
umm
y"; and Kennedy, w
ho had come
to T
exas in
ord
er to re-u
nite th
e party
there, tried
to
smooth him
down by offering him
a place in his own car.
But that m
orning Yarborough's ill-hum
our seemed to have
NO
ON
CA
VA
LC
AD
E IN
DA
LL
AS
13
vanished like, the fog and mists of the previous evening.
Sm
iling an
d sh
akin
g h
ands, h
e got w
illingly
into
the
Johnsons' car.
TH
E JO
HN
SO
NS
' car was the third in the procession, being
preceded by the "Queen M
ary" — the S
ecret Service m
en's shuttered vehicle, w
ith officers armed w
ith sub-machine-
guns on the running-boards. Som
e of these faced forward,
and o
thers b
ack to
ward
s Johnso
n, an
added
precau
tion
since for obvious reasons the President and V
ice-President
should never travel together. "B
ut here in Texas," grum
bled Winson G
. Law
son, head of the presidential bodyguard, "nobody listens to reason." A
t his side, but outside the car, standing balanced upon the left running-board, w
as special agent Clint H
ill, complain-
ing of the great heat, and that he was hungry.
The press car w
as further back. The reporters w
ere also hungry
, and still m
ore th
irsty. T
hey
were w
onderin
g
whether they w
ould be able to get some S
cotch at the Trade
Mart, their destination, w
hile the banquet was going on.
Dallas is a "dry" tow
n, where alcohol cannot be bought
in a p
ublic b
ar; you h
ave to
belo
ng to
a club, o
r buy a
bottle and take it back to your hotel room to drink. F
or-tunately, a colleague on the D
allas Times had passed round
som
e booklets o
f vouch
ers auth
orisin
g th
e purch
ase of
drinks at the Press C
lub premises. S
o from tim
e to time one
of the journalists stopped the press bus, leaving the proccs-sion and m
aking tracks for the Press C
lub. R
ear-Adm
iral George B
uckley, the President's doctor,
dozed in the last car of all, far away from
the Kennedys.
These affairs tired
him
out, an
d h
e had
not p
roperly
digested his hotel breakfast.
PR
ES
IDE
NT
KE
NN
ED
Y
smiled
across at a d
ark, w
ell-b
uilt w
oman
wh
o was ap
plau
din
g spirited
ly. Th
is was
14
R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
Anto
nietta S
tella, prim
a donna o
f the D
allas Opera,
wh
o h
ad in
terrup
ted reh
earsals for
Ballo in
Masch
era, soon to have a gala first night, because she w
ished to see K
ennedy. T
hen, for a mom
ent forgetting the crowds, the P
resident stu
died
the b
untin
g stru
ng fro
m b
uild
ing
to b
uild
ing
, prettily transform
ing the appearance of Main S
treet. These
decorations were not for him
; the silver angels with gilded
wings and red-and-w
hite plastic Santa C
lauses, hand-in-hand w
ere part of the traditional display which every self-
respecting Am
erican town puts on as C
hristmas draw
s near. C
ertainly, Decem
ber 25th was still far off —
but in Dallas,
the town of the new
ly-rich, where everyone is extrem
ely rich, they alw
ays start well ahead of "the rest".
John Kennedy m
ust have thought then of the presents he w
ould take back to his children when he returned hom
e on M
onday. It would be a special occasion. John-John (as he
lovingly called him, disliking the bourgeois term
"junior") w
ould
be th
ree years o
ld o
n th
at day
. And C
arolin
e, the
charming, im
pudent "big girl", would be six on W
ednes-day. T
hat very morning, the P
resident had been given an enorm
ous cowboy hat; he could im
agine John-John's joy w
hen he took it back to him . . . W
ould there be time to buy
something else as w
ell?
AT
TIL
E T
rade Mart —
a sort of exhibition hall — hundreds
of th
e tow
n's lead
ing
citizens h
ad b
egu
n th
eir meal,
expecting to hear Kennedy's speech at dessert. T
he text had alread
y b
een d
istributed
in ad
van
ce to th
e journ
alists p
resent b
y a W
hite H
ou
se aide. The g
uests h
ad p
aid a
hundred dollars a head for the privilege of being there. For
this, they were served great w
edges of Kansas steak and
baked potatoes Idaho. The R
everend J. A. S
chumacher,
of th
e Dallas d
iocese, h
ad g
ranted
a special d
ispen
sa-tion fo
r the d
ay, a
lthou
gh
a F
riday, so
that h
is Cath
olic
NO
ON
CA
VA
LC
AD
E IN
DA
LL
AS
15
flock
could
eat their steak
s in
the P
residen
t's honour.
David M
iller, a seventeen-year-old cashier at a nearby superm
Zrket, had finished w
ork, and taken along his new
instantprint camera, m
eaning to use it this same afternoon
for the first time. H
e saw the procession near the N
eiman,
Marcus crossing, but decided to take his pictures further
alon
g, w
here it w
as mo
re op
en, w
ith n
o sk
yscrap
ers to
shadow his subject. T
here .was plenty of tim
e, since the procession w
as moving forw
ard at only about fifteen miles
an hour, and now and then com
ing to a standstill.
ALL D
AL
LA
S seem
ed to be on the street: the schoolchildren w
aving flags, mostly C
onfederate ones, true,• but what did
that matter? S
hirt-sleeved men cried• "H
ooray". Confetti
poured from the w
indows. T
he police looked on smiling, not
interfering as people swarm
ed all over the footpaths to get nearer the presidential car. T
hey looked rather as if they h
ad step
ped
ou
t of a Jo
hn
Fo
rd film
, these D
allas p
olicem
en, in
their g
old
-emb
roid
ered g
rey u
nifo
rm,
with huge stetsons pulled dow
n over their eyes, revolvers in
laid w
ith silv
er and b
elts dotted
with
semi-p
recious
stones. Y
es, all Dallas w
as out on the street — except, perhaps, for
the duty editorial staff of the Dallas N
ews, preparing the
evening edition. Obviously they hadn't too m
uch to do: the speech had already gone to press, w
ith an account of the visit w
ritten up in advande, and a photo of the arrival at the airport already in place above six colum
ns of "copy" on the front page. T
he unexpected apart, all was ready. In any
case, the Friday evening edition w
as always rather routine -
people don't read much on a S
aturday, day of odd jobs and departures for the w
eek-end.
TO
NI Z
OP
PI,
edito
r of th
e show
busin
ess pag
e, had
a visitor, a certain Jack R
uby, who cam
e in to talk about his
ti
e•
16 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
club, the Carousel. He seem
ed quite unconcerned with w
hat w
as going on in the town.
Sid
ney
Marcu
s, boss o
f Niem
an-M
arcus, th
e most
exclusive store in Texas, certainly in A
merica, perhaps in
the world, w
as waiting on the m
ain entrance steps. He w
as w
ondering whether Jacqueline K
ennedy would find tim
e to
com
e and b
uy so
meth
ing th
ere. Than
k g
oodness, th
e store did not need the publicity —
petrol millionaires queue
up
to g
et in —
bu
t to h
ave as a' cu
stom
er a First L
ady
renow
ned for her elegant good taste would certainly do no
harm
. A
remarkable shop, this N
ieman-M
arcus: and everyone in the procession instinctively looked into its w
indows,. as
they drew level. P
erhaps they recalled the story of the Texan
blessed by the Oil-gods w
ho came to M
arcus one morning,
a few days before C
hristmas, and declared:
"I'll buy all th
e win
dow
-disp
lays as th
ey stan
d. Ju
st shift the lot to m
y ranch, around my w
ife's window
— it's m
y C
hristmas present to her."
The story is true. T
rue, too, the one about the farmw
ife w
ho came to the store bare-footed. S
he made purchases
right an
d left, to
the v
alue o
f hundred
s of th
ousan
ds o
f dollars, and finally bought one pair of shoes, w
hich she put on on the spot.
"But —
forgive me, M
adame —
why did you com
e bare-footed ?"
"They O
nly struck oil on our land the day before yester-day. I've never had any shoes in m
y life before." A
t Niem
an, M
arcus th
ey sell m
ore m
ink
coats th
an
anywhere else in A
merica, and that in a region w
here it is alm
ost alw
ays trem
endously
hot. T
hey
hav
e a Barg
ain
Co
un
ter with
a min
imu
m p
rice of ten
tho
usan
d d
ollars.
The sugar in the sugar-bow
ls of the restaurant is sea-blue, to m
atch the walls. F
or eight thousand dollars you can buy a ready-m
ade library. Or M
arcus will choose a collection
NO
ON
CA
VA
LC
AD
E IN
DA
LL
AS
17
of Picassos or B
racques for you, and send a professor to. instruct you in the rudim
ents of the history of art . . . Or
hire guests for your daughter's wedding
Niem
an, Marcus is the pride of D
allas, as Dallas is the
pride of Texas.
TH
E "
SN
OB
S"
who live there claim
that Dallas is the P
aris of th
e oil-m
illionaires. B
ut th
e Cham
ber o
f Com
merce
frowns upon any such com
parison. For ninety per cent of
the town's 634,462 inhabitants have never in their lives
heard of Paris —
unless you mean the' village of that nam
e about a hundred m
iles away to the east, lost in the great
Texan plains. D
allas is a smart city, w
himsically and artificially con-
structcd in the desert. It sparkles like one of those shining cars all over chrom
e, in brilliant colours, with push-button
conversion, radio, pick-up and bar, abandoned in a sand-dune. It is a m
etropolis not only because it has a theatre and occasional opera (very rate things in the F
ar West), and a
fine university, but above all because it is the capital for cotton, banking and oil.
Dallas is a fabulous city, w
ith homes w
here the kitchen taps run not only w
ith cold and hot water, and iced w
ater, but also w
ith foaming w
ine on demand..It has a building
whose tenants can w
atch what goes on in the vestibule and
corridors through closed-circuit colour television. It has a sixteen-lane m
otorway, the biggest in the w
orld. Biggest in
the world, too, is its m
otel, where the w
aitresses are dressed as slaves of ancient R
ome, and serve their custom
ers on terraces decorated like those of the P
alace . of the Caesars..
• D
allas owes its nam
e to one of the most obscure, vice-
, presidents of the United S
tates, a Philadelphian w
ho served under P
olk. It has an airport where the public m
ove from
one counter to another by means of a m
oving pavement. It
has th
e mo
st lux
urio
us v
illas of th
e con
tinen
t — Jo
hn
I.
1 8
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
Murcheson's is as big as the W
hite House, and in D
allas lives H
. L. H
unt, whose incom
e is $150,000 a day. Dallas is
also very proud of its District A
ttorney, Henry W
ade, who
has the reputation of being infallible: out of twenty-four
accused persons for capital offences, he has sent twenty-tw
o to the electric chair.
DO
UG
LA
S K
IKE
R, special correspondent of the N
ew T
urk H
erald Tribune, was w
ondering if the press car would arrive
at its destination in time to allow
him to telephone to his
office: it was now
a quarter past twelve.
He had decided to w
rite a piece about Jacqueline. That
day she was radiant. S
uch, at least, was K
iker's impression
as he watched her sm
iling, slightly waving a hand, m
aking rem
arks to her husband which seem
ed to amuse him
.. Her
strawberry-pink w
ool dress suited her like a dream, her pill-
box hat was of the sam
e colour and Chanel could be proud
of her. O
rdin
arily, Jacq
uelin
e dislik
es hats; so
much
so, th
at on o
ne o
ccasion sh
e received
a petitio
n fro
m a n
ational
delegation of despairing milliners. B
ut on this particular clay
she w
anted
to p
lease the lo
cal matro
ns. F
or all its
dreams of grandeur, D
allas is still only a provincial city, and in A
merica provincial ladies consider the hat indispensable
— as m
uch for themselves as for a general in uniform
. They
wear hats to go shopping, w
hile taking tea, at church and at concerts. E
ven at the office, they work w
ith hats on their heads . . .
The P
resident was• obviously delighted w
ith his wife at
that m
om
ent, p
rou
d o
f her ch
arm, h
er elegan
ce, her
popularity . . . He knew
that Jacqueline was his greatest
electoral asset, and was the first to say so. T
hat morning,
while speaking to the crow
d assembled before his hotel at
Fort W
orth
, he h
ad ex
plain
ed w
hy h
e had
com
e out
alone:
NO
ON
CA
VA
LC
AD
E IN
DA
LL
AS
1
9
"Mrs K
enn
edy
's still gettin
g read
y . . . S
he tak
es a bit '-
lon
ger th
an w
e do
, bu
t then
she's a lo
t better-lo
ok
ing
!" T
hey had been married exactly ten years, tw
o months
and ten days, give or take a minute or so, at that m
oment
when the car drew
near to Houston S
treet, a road running alo
ng th
e South
side o
f the rectan
gle reg
arded
as the
"do
wn
tow
n" o
f Dallas —
the cen
tre of th
e city. M
adge
Yaltin, an em
ployee of the Survey D
epartment, rem
arked to her friend Julie T
arati: "Y
ou'd think they were on honeym
oon!" E
ven
the h
arden
ed p
ressmen
were asto
nish
ed to
see Jacqueline K
ennedy so gay, so lively, so very much the
"politician
's wife". A
t the start o
f the jo
urn
ey, w
hen
A
ndrew H
atcher, the negro Assistant P
ress Secretary, had
announced that Mrs K
ennedy would be there, there had
been some sarcastic com
ments.
The F
irst Lady hated electoral tours; she had kept out of
election
eering
' since th
e presid
ential n
om
inatio
n an
d
candidature. But today she w
as more the "professional"
than even the party diehards. She w
as in her element.
It was tw
enty seven minutes past tw
elve. D
etective Buddy W
althers was on the corner of M
ain and H
ousto
n S
treets when
the p
residen
tial Lin
coln
passed
, turning right close up to the pavem
ent. Walthers w
as not on d
uty
. One o
f the C
ounty
Sheriff's m
en, w
ho h
ad n
o
responsibility at all for public order in the town, he had
just come to see the show
. But from
time to tim
e he looked tow
ards the provincial lock-up on the top three floors of the building there, w
here many of the prisoners had been given
permission to look out of the w
indows.
• T
o b
e precise, it sh
ould
be said
that th
ere were tw
o
bu
ildin
gs u
nd
er the S
heriff's ju
risdictio
n. O
ne, o
n th
e opposite side of the road, on the left, looked like an old deserted castle, H
ere were the court-house, the R
ecords D
epartm
ent an
d certain
adm
inistrativ
e offices. S
heriff
20
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
Decker's offices, and the prison, w
ere in the new building
on the right. T
he p
residen
tial pro
cession h
ad little m
ore th
an a
hundred yards to go along Houston S
treet before making
yet another turn, sharp left into Elm
Street.
Just in front of the Sheriff's offices w
as a kind of monu-
ment, apparently copied from
the Joliette of the Schoen-
brunn Palace at V
ienna, its centre-piece a statue of Sam
Houston, the T
exan hero. Beyond w
ere green lawns hap-
hazardly but efficiently cries-crossed by roads leading into
the Stem
mons m
otorway, w
hich cuts Dallas in tw
o. Once
on this motorw
ay, the procession would pick up speed and
arrive within a few
minutes at the T
rade Mart, just a few
miles fu
rther o
n. F
urth
er still, again
at the rig
ht o
f the
motorw
ay, was the P
arkland Municipal H
ospital.
There w
ere almost no m
ore police left along Elm
Street;
James M
. Chaney, the m
otorcyclist preceding the presi-
dential car by a few yeards noted that here the crow
d was
much less dense, and m
ainly consisted of negroes.
The n
egro
es rather lo
oked
upon K
enned
y as th
eir
champion, but had preferred to group together here, apart
from
the w
hites. A
t Dallas, d
espite a seem
ing v
eneer o
f
liberalisation, racial barriers remain firm
.
PH
OT
OG
RA
PH
ER
JAC
KS
ON
, of the Dallas T
imes H
erald, was
trying to get a reflection of Kennedy in the w
ater of a small
rectangular pool lying between the statue in the centre and
the Elm
Street crossing. S
uddenly he realised that he had
used up his film, and began to re-charge his cam
era.
The pool also reflected the im
age of a big yellow building
topped
by a h
uge n
eon sig
n. In
the w
ater, the b
uild
ing •
seemed to have som
ething graceful about it, but in fact it
was h
orrib
ly u
gly
— a cu
bic stru
cture w
ith d
ead-lev
el
window
s, stark in these semi-rural surroundings, an outrage
to its id
yllic settin
g o
f lawns an
d g
arden
s. This w
as the
• N
OO
N C
AV
AL
CA
DE
IN D
AL
LA
S
21
Texas B
ook Depository B
uilding, headquarters of a private ".
firm supplying the S
tate's schools with text-books, exercise
books and atlases. The top floors had becii turned into a
Warehouse. •
NE
AR
LY
AL
L the em
ployees were at the w
indows: on the
fourth floor, at the right, were R
alph Erw
ing and Washing-
ton Harris, tw
o negroes very excited at the thought of seeing
the President for the first tim
e in their lives. The w
indows
or dip floor above were deserted. O
ne was half-open ; on the
sill was a cardboard box, left there no doubt by a thought-
less employee.
Roy S
. Truly, the m
anager, was outside the door facing
the junction of Houston and E
lm S
treets. He w
as talking
to a frien
d, a certain
Abrah
am Z
apru
der, p
roprieto
r of
"Jennifer Junior", a gown shop nearby. Z
apruder was an
economical person. H
e was explaining to T
ruly that while
he wanted to film
Kennedy's passing, he w
anted to use up
as little film as possible.
"Kodachrom
e costs money —
four dollars for twenty-five
feet — and the cam
era eats it up..I'll get Kennedy just as he
passes . ." H
e decid
ed u
pon a m
ore fav
ourab
le angle, an
d w
ent
twenty yards or so further on, to the platform
in front of a
little arcade o
verlo
okin
g th
e grassed
area tow
ards E
lm
Street. T
here he was right in the m
iddle, between the cross-
roads and the bridge over the motorw
ay. There w
as no-one
in front of him, and on the opposite side of the road 'only a•
few sightseers sitting on the grass as if for a picnic.
AT
TW
EL
VE
-TH
IRT
Y (one-thirty W
ashington time) C
aro-
line and John were sleeping peacefully in their separate
rooms on the second floor of the E
ast Wing of the W
hite
House. U
sually John was troublesom
e, but today he had
been yeti, good when the tim
e came for their afternoon rest.
•
22 R
ED
RO
SES FR
OM
TE
XA
S
He had been prom
ised that when he w
oke up he could w
atch his parents' arrival at Austin, the T
exan capital, on th
e televisio
n. T
heir sto
p at D
allas had
not b
een co
n-
sidered important enough to be televised as a w
hole. F
or the first time in his life "John-John" had not cried
when
his fath
er left on th
e prev
ious d
ay. B
ut h
e had
w
atched silently, and then asked sadly: "Why does D
addy alw
ays leave me alone ?"
IT W
AS
twelve-thirty exactly as the blue L
incoln turned the co
rner. D
avid
Miller to
ok h
is photo
grap
h, b
ut h
avin
g
noted that just at that mom
ent Kennedy and his w
ife were
lookin
g th
e opposite w
ay, h
e decid
ed to
run ro
und 'th
e T
exas Book D
epository Building in order to get another
picture when the car reached the m
otorway.
Secret S
ervice man C
lint Hill looked attentively ahead,
tow
ards th
e brid
ge, b
eneath
which
the p
rocessio
n m
ust
shortly
pass. T
here w
ere three o
r fou
r peo
ple o
n it, an
d
Secret S
ervice m
en are alw
ays w
ary o
f brid
ges an
d b
al-conies.
Ken
ned
y, to
o, w
as loo
kin
g to
ward
s this b
ridg
e, and
bey
ond it, at th
e silhouettes o
f several su
n-g
ilded
sky-
scrapers in the direction of Oak C
liff — regarded as one of
the town's m
ore proletarian suburbs. T
he chauffeur slowed dow
n again, enabling the tailor-turned-film
-man Z
apruder to get a better picture. It w
as twelve-thirty and fifty-five seconds.
It was th
en th
at ' Nellie C
onnally
, still clutch
ing h
er bouquet o
f pale y
ellow
roses, tu
rned
to K
enned
y an
d
exclaimed trium
phantly: "W
hat. a recep
tion
, Mr P
residen
t! Yo
u can
nev
er say
after this that they don't love you in Dallas . . ."
I • 1TH
E F
EW
seconds which follow
ed twill last an eternity in the
NO
ON
CA
VA
LC
AD
E IN
DA
LL
AS
23
history of the United S
tates. The chain of events then about -
to unfold would have such consequences as to be like an
earthquake to all Am
erica, and therefore to the rest of the w
orld — since nothing im
portant could happen there with-
out the whole w
orld necessarily being affected. Y
et desp
ite the h
ug
e crow
ds, d
espite th
e presen
ce of
forty-six Secret S
ervice men, of policem
en, officials, journa-lists, the C
ounty detectives at the window
of the prison opposite, and of the thousands of cam
eras of every make and
all sizes, there was to be not one single real w
itness to what
happened. T
his was a country the sm
allest phases of whose existence
are televised night and day, where photographers w
orm
their way into the m
ost private sectors of the lives of imp6r-
tant people, where technology is so advanced that one can
photograph the planets electronically, see in the dark, and transm
it sound and pictures from continent to continent by
means of m
irrors floating in space. Yet, in that sam
e coun-try, by a strange irony of F
ate, there was to b
e no sin
gle really con
crete docu
men
tation of th
e most sign
ificant
happening of the century. Apart from
the blurred snaps of a few
amateu
rs, noth
ing.
All th
e world w
as there, but nobody saw a thing, on that
fatal day of Novem
ber 22nd
, 1963;at twelve thirty-one,
Am
erican continental time.
L
CH
AP
TE
R T
WO
Counting O
ur Blessings
ON
TH
AT
FA
TE
FU
L F
riday, a drama w
as being enacted in several different places at once, as if on a revolving stage. It began under a fine rain at F
ort Worth.
It was a little after m
idnight when the K
ennedys entered their apartm
ent at the Texas H
otel. T
hey had not been given the most expensive quarters -
No. 1348, called the W
ill Rogers S
uite, after the old Holly-
wood actor, an idol of a form
er generation — because the
Secret S
ervice h
ad o
bjected
that it h
ad sev
eral differen
t access doors. It w
as the Johnsons who had to occupy it,
to th
e great an
noyan
ce of L
ady B
ird, w
ho, as a g
ood
economical housekeeper, did not see w
hy she should pay .$
1oo th
e nig
ht w
hile th
e Presid
ent h
imself p
aid o
nly
,
$75. T
his w
as the p
rice of ap
artmen
t No. 8
50, o
n th
e eighth
.
floor, which had only one access door (guarded by a pair of
Secret S
ervice men and a C
ity policeman), despite its tw
o bedroom
s, sitting-room and three bathroom
s. T
he apartment had recently been decorated in "m
odern
orien
tal" style, w
ith v
ery lo
w co
uch
es covered
in g
old
brocade, standing out from
walls covered in blue silk paper.
In addition, Mrs J. L
ee Johnson III, a lady prominent in
Fort W
orth "aristocracy", had turned the place into an art gallery by installing thirty or so pictures, from
Rem
brandts
24
CO
UN
TIN
G O
UR
BL
ES
SIN
GS
25
to Picassos, and som
e pieces of sculpture and pottery from
her own collection and those of other local notables. In each
roo
m sh
e had
pu
t hu
ge b
ou
qu
ets of y
ellow
roses, th
e national flow
er of Texas.
TH
E F
IRS
T lady w
as, in any case, too worn out that night to
exam
ine h
er little temporary
museu
m. S
he h
ad b
een
stand
ing
almo
st all day
, since at 1
.31
p.m
. she h
ad left
the b
lue an
d w
hite B
oein
g 7
07 p
residen
tial jet at San
A
ntonio airport. A w
onderful day, certainly . . . there had been too,000 people, according to the m
ayor, to welcom
e them
. And at H
ouston, twice as m
any. Jacqueline m
ade a little speech in Spanish at a gathering
at the Rice H
otel: "E
stoy muy contenta de estar en el gran estado de Texas."
All those present, m
ost of Mexican origin, gave her a w
ild ovation. T
he "mariachi" (itinerant m
usicians) yelled "The
Yellow
Rose" in her honour, and som
e cried "Ole" as if at a
bullfight. T
here was a short stop at the C
entre for Space M
edicine at B
rooks Base; then on to arrive at F
ort Worth, illum
inated w
ith small yellow
lamps in their honour.
No
w Jacq
uelin
e was d
rop
pin
g w
ith sleep
, and
with
a tender goodnight w
ent to her room.
TH
E P
RE
SID
EN
T w
as also tired, and had to be up very early in the m
orning for his last and most taxing day of the T
exan tour. B
ut he wanted first to listen to the local television
news, to hear w
hat was said of his visit; and since there w
as still another ten m
inutes to go before the news bulletin, he
looked through a copy of Life m
agazine. A
pro
min
ent illu
strated article cau
ght h
is attentio
n.
Splashed across several pages w
as a series of pictures and photographs of the tim
e, showing the funeral cerem
onies of K
ing Edw
ard VII of E
ngland. Here w
ere almost all the
26 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
rulers of the earth, following the coffin of the sovereign best
remem
bered as the architect o
f the "en
tente co
rdiale".
Wilh
elm II, in
the g
littering
un
iform
of th
e Gren
adier
Guards, his fam
ous moustaches pointing aggressively up-
ward, rode beside E
ngland's new K
ing, George V
. They
headed a showy parade of uniform
s, decorations and jewels
from seven other kings, five C
rown P
rinces, forty princes of th
e blo
od, sev
en q
ueen
s and a m
ultitu
de o
f dip
lom
ats representing seventy nations of the w
orld. "N
ever again could this grandiose spectacle of May t 910
be repeated," thought Kennedy. "O
ur modern w
orld is too realistic to
waste tim
e ov
er on
e, man
's fun
eral." Th
e P
resident smiled as he saw
that the United S
tates repre-sentative w
as one of the last in the cortege: ex-president T
heodore Roosevelt, ill at ease in his tight frock-coat . . .
The U
nited
States h
adn't co
unted
for m
uch
in th
ose
days. T
he article w
hich
so cau
gh
t Ken
ned
y's atten
tion
was
inspired by a bedside book of his, August 5914 by B
arbara . W
. Tuch
man
. Ken
ned
y h
ad g
iven
copies o
f it to h
is frien
ds; th
e British
Prim
e Min
ister, Macm
illan, h
ad
received
on
e on
his last v
isit. Ken
ned
y w
as particu
larly
struck, in this book, by the way in w
hich a whim
of Fate
can overturn the world. 1
914 w
as a Golden A
ge in Europe
but it had needed no more than a few
pistol-shots from an
unknown at S
arajevo to change everything, destroy every-thing, w
ipe it all out. K
ennedy remem
bered what he had said to S
enator Mike
Mansfield, head of the D
emocrat m
ajority in the Senate,
before leaving Washington:
"I am v
ery w
orried
abo
ut R
om
ulo
Beth
anco
urt" (th
e V
enezu
elan P
residen
t). "These V
enezu
elans are m
ad.
They
're capab
le of sh
ootin
g h
im an
d in
a few seco
nds
reducing the country to nothing . .." •
The U
nited States, certainly, w
as not a turbulent nation
CO
UN
TIN
G O
UR
BL
ES
SIN
GS
27
like Venezuela. S
till you would have had to go .a long w
ay back to find a day w
hich began as serenely as that Novem
-ber 22nd.
JO
E B
RO
WN
, his wife and their seven children w
ere waiting
at that mom
ent, some m
inutes after one in the morning, for
their train at Pennsylvania S
tation, New
York. T
hey had to get to V
ermont, to spend the holiday w
ith the rest of the fam
ily. A
lthough so late, the station was full of travellers, for
this was the beginning of the great exodus of the long w
eek-en
d o
f "Th
ank
sgiv
ing
". Th
is takes p
lace on
the last
Thursday in N
ovember, and is the m
ost Am
erican of all• festivals, since on that day everyone, w
ithout distinction of religion, origin or race, 'stays at hom
e to give thanks to P
rovidence. The tradition stem
s from the pioneers w
ho debarked at P
lymouth m
ore than three centuries ago. Like
them, one eats a turkey dinner and "counts one's blessings".
TH
E N
AT
ION
had plenty' for which to give thanks: it .w
as only necessary to look through the new
spapers bearing to-m
orrow's date, but already on sale in the big tow
ns, to see that. T
he papers were all very thick, w
ith lots of adyertising; gigantic C
hristmas sales w
ere expected. T
he Queen E
lizabeth had weighed anchor w
ith a re-cord num
ber of passengers on board, and that day more than
thirty other ships were to take 2
2,0
00 A
mericans on holiday
cruises to the four corners of the world.
The D
aily New
s, the best-selling Am
erican newspaper,
with a 4,000,000 circulation, announced on the front page
that Zsa Z
sa Gabor had 'been robbed, but that the police
had recovered part of the booty. But the day's big new
s, at any rate for those interested in crim
inal cases, was that of
the Minneapolis law
yer, Gene T
hompson, accused of hav-
ing p
rocu
red th
e murd
er of h
is wife, C
arol.; T
he affair
•■■■■••••■
-•.*
28 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
C
OU
NT
ING
OU
R B
LE
SS
ING
S
29
fascinated the public because of the extraordinary details rev
ealed b
y th
e pro
secutio
n. T
ho
mp
son
had
hired
the
services o
f a killer, an
d th
e consp
iracy sh
ow
ed m
arked
resem
blance to one uncovered by the Italian police when
the wife of a M
ilanese business man w
as murdered in R
ome.
That n
ight, an
entirely
new
editio
n o
f Who's W
ho in C
afé Society went on sale, edited by C
leveland Arm
ory. For
the first time, alongside those of the negro leader D
r Martin
Luther K
ing and the inevitable Elizabeth T
aylor, it con-tained the nam
e of Caroline K
ennedy- T
hat n
igh
t, at Sp
ring
field, in
the F
ederal p
rison
, died
R
obert Stroud, know
n to the world as "T
he Bird-M
an of A
lcatraz", the D
r Faria o
f "The R
ock
" in S
an F
rancisco
B
ay; the old man, kept in solitary confinem
ent since igto, knew
how to talk to the birds.
In the big stores, Father C
hristmas costum
es were being
given out to the men w
ho for the next month w
ould spend all their tim
e taking kiddies on their knee to hear what they
wanted for C
hristmas.
At th
e Cen
tral Po
st Office in
Wash
ing
ton
the p
ostal
code number 2500o had been given to F
ather Christm
as, w
ho was already receiving the first hundreds of the som
e half a m
illion letters which w
ould be addressed to him by
Am
erican children. That year, progress w
as making itself
felt every
where. A
n electro
nic b
rain w
ould
reply
to th
e letters —
which w
as the reason for the announcement that
it wo
uld
n't d
o an
y lo
ng
er for th
e yo
un
g o
nes to
add
ress th
em to
San
ta at the N
orth
Po
le, but m
ust p
ut th
e ZIP
-C
ode number 2500o on the envelope instead.
In S
eattle, they
had
just fin
ished
installin
g in
a sho
p-
window
another electronic machine; this one told parents
instantly what they should buy for their children's presents.
John Henry F
aulk, a former radio com
mentator banned
as an alleg
ed C
om
mu
nist sy
mp
athiser in
the M
cCarth
y
era, had
his $
3,5
11
,00
0 in
dam
ages red
uced
to a m
ere
$550,000 by the Court of A
ppeal. But even this lim
ited verdict w
as a severe setback for the political calumniators;
it would have been inconceivable under any other president
but Kennedy.
At H
arvard
Univ
ersity, th
e mem
bers o
f the stu
den
t ru
gby team
had
gone to
bed
early; th
e traditio
nal clash
w
ith their rivals of Yale (A
merica's "O
xford-and-Cam
-bridge") w
ould take place on Saturday. H
arvard, though u
sually
beaten
, wan
ted to
hav
e a brillian
t reven
ge th
is tim
e, by way of show
ing their gratitude to their "old boy", K
enned
y, w
ho h
ad n
ot o
nly
filled th
e top jo
bs in
his
adm
inistratio
n w
ith H
arvard
grad
uates, b
ut h
ad strictly
barred those of Y
ale. N
onetheless, there was one m
ember of Y
ale University
with a very personal reason to be.grateful to the P
resident at th
at mo
men
t. At a few
min
utes after m
idn
igh
t, he
entered his apartment on the eleventh floor of loo, Y
ork A
venue, at New
Haven.
Desp
ite the p
resence o
f an arm
ed p
olicem
an sen
t by
th
e State D
epartm
ent, all w
as quiet in
that u
niv
ersity
residence. Professor F
rederick C. B
arghoorn had come in
late, and tired out — but happy to be there, and not in the
narrow little cell 87, at the L
ubianka Prison in M
oscow.
The professor, an expert in S
oviet social problems, had
been arrested in Moscow
, for no apparent good reason -w
hile leaving the Am
erican Em
bassy, where he had been
for cocktails — and accused of espionage. W
ithout the very energetic intervention of K
ennedy, who m
ade imm
ediate representations to the K
remlin, B
arghoorn would probably
still be.confined in the celebrated fortress of Catherine II,
cut off from the rest of the w
orld. K
ruschev had freed him in order to please K
ennedy, and that victory w
as perhaps the Am
erican President's m
ost personal and m
ost buman diplom
atic triumph. T
he time
had
go
ne b
y w
hen
wh
ole fleets w
ere sent to
secure th
e
30
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
safety of a single citizen; yet Kennedy had achieved som
e-
thing similar for an unknow
n pedagogue.
YE
S, K
EN
NE
DY
could be proud that night, listening to the
latest new
s about B
arghoorn
on th
e televisio
n. Y
ale
Univ
ersity h
ad o
rgan
ised a m
eeting in
the P
residen
t's
honour by way of show
ing their gratitude.
AN
OT
HE
R IN
TE
LL
EC
TU
AL
was aw
ake late th
at nig
ht. H
e
was w
ork
ing in
his stu
dio
at Prin
ceton U
niv
ersity o
n a
speech
which
he w
as to d
eliver a few
. day
s later, at the
presentation of the Enrico F
ermi P
rize, at the White H
ouse.
Dr J. R
obert Oppenheim
er, one of the scientists to whom
Am
erica ow
es her ato
mic su
perio
rity, h
ad b
een b
arred
from the program
me under the E
isenhower A
dministration
as "a risk". But K
ennedy, showing great politiC
al courage,
was going to receive him
publicly and give him the $50,000
prize, w
hose sy
mbolical v
alue w
as pro
bab
ly a h
undred
times greater.
AT
TH
E U
nited Nations a resolution had been passed w
ith
acclamatio
n, p
roclaim
ing "th
e year o
f intern
ational co
-
operation". T
he world's day w
as beginning peacefully. Certainly,
the S
oviets h
ad b
rought d
ow
n an
'Iranian
plan
e, but
as their p
residen
t, Brezh
nev
, was at th
at mom
ent th
e
guest o
f the S
hah
, the in
ciden
t did
not seem
grav
e.
Prem
ier Norodom
Sihanouk of C
ambodge had renounced
Am
erican eco
nom
ic aid. F
ar from
irritating p
ublic '
opinion, this had caused some am
usement in W
ashington:
at last the h
ead o
f a foreig
n state w
ho w
as not going on
begging for dollars. N
othing new in V
iet-Nam
. E
rhard, the new G
erman C
hancellor, had gone to Paris
to pay h
is respects to General d
e'Gau
lle, bu
t it was u
n-
CO
UN
TIN
G O
UR
BL
ES
SIN
GS
31
likely that a new anti-U
.S. intrigue w
as brewing there -
hadn't de Gaulle him
self announced a visit to Kennedy for
next year? A
t the V
atican, th
e Eucu
men
ical Council h
ad ju
st
auth
orised
the u
se of th
e English
languag
e durin
g th
e
sacraments —
a little complim
ent from R
ome to the first
Catholic president of the U
nited States.
All th
e new
spap
ers had
the p
hoto
of an
aged
Tex
an,
wearing, of course, a ten-gallon hat, and w
atching two tele-
vision receivers at once, because just one picture bored him.
The ag
ed T
exan
was Jo
hn N
ance (called
"Cactu
s")
Garner, fam
ous in the U.S
.A. not only for having been V
ice-
President under R
oosevelt, but for being ninety-five years
old
. Ken
ned
y h
ad telep
honed
him
this ev
enin
g. A
ll
presidents with an election ahead telephone G
arner. •
AN
OT
HE
R V
ICE
-PR
ES
IDE
NT
w
as in
Texas th
at n
ight:
Richard M
. Nixon and his w
ife, waiting at D
allas airfield
for the plane which w
ould take them to N
ew Y
ork. It is not
exactly known w
hat Nixon (w
ho claimed to be interested
only in the Bar, but w
as most active politically) w
as doing
in Dallas several hours before K
ennedy's arrival. He had
mad
e a' vag
ue sp
eech th
ere in w
hich
he criticised
the
President's policies; but in T
exas he had not much follow
-
ing, the darling of the opposition there being still Senator
Barry G
oldwater.
Thin
kin
g b
ack th
ree years, to
the electio
n n
ight o
f
Novem
ber 1960, it is difficult to realise that this same N
ixon
only just missed being elected P
resident; a few thousand
more v
otes w
ould
hav
e been
enough fo
r him
to b
eat
Ken
ned
y. A
flood w
hich
' had
put o
ut o
f action a few
Dem
ocrat v
illages; a tactical erro
r in C
hicag
o; a few
Republican voters w
ho had given up their fishing trips on
Election D
ay in favour of going to vote — and it w
ould have
been Nixon w
ho now rode trium
phantly into Dallas, and
Th
e fateful visit to,
Dallas b
egins as th
e K
enn
eclys arrive at L
ove Field
airport.
Right, V
ice-Presid
ent
John
son m
akes th
e in
trodu
ctions to
Dallas d
ignitaries
wh
ile beh
ind
the •
Presid
ent, G
overnor
Con
nally h
elps h
is w
ife from th
e plan
e. B
elow, M
rs Ken
ned
y h
olds h
er red roses
32
R
ED
. RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
.
Kennedy w
ho waited, unnoticed by anyone, on that rustic
chair at the airport restaurant. T
here was som
e talk of Dw
ight Eisenhow
er having been back to C
olumbia U
niversity, to receive a medal m
arking the tenth anniversary of the day on w
hich he assumed its
presidency. The general w
as welcom
ed by a young under-graduate, D
avid Syrett, who once as a child had m
et him
in the road outside the University and offered him
a plastic gun. D
wight D
. Eisenhow
er did not talk politics, preferring not to risk his prestige in a battle he believes already lost for the R
epublicans. A
noth
er presid
ent slep
t, watch
ed over b
y a nu
rse, in
his vast apartment in the W
aldorf-Astoria T
owers: H
erbert H
oover, despite age and cancer refusing still to give up. H
arry Trum
an, that night, was aw
ake in his studio on the third floor of his house at Independence, M
issouri. He
was w
riting an article for the next day's papers, an article in w
hich he launched an indirect attack upon Kennedy's
policy of racial equality. M
acy's, the b
ig New
York
store, had
pu
blish
ed an
advertisem
ent, splashed across several pages: "
Tom
orrow, F
riday N
ovemb
er 22nd
, there's ju
st one
thing to do: Buy our bargain-price W
hisky. It'll cheer us up —
we shall need it."
Another advertisem
ent, by a motion-picture com
pany, announced a new
film.
"There are other w
ays of getting rid of a president than by an election," it proclaim
ed. In all the papers appearing that F
riday, Novem
ber 22nd, P
aramount published an advertisem
ent in huge type of its film
Seven
Days in
May, in w
hich a right-wing fanatic, B
urt L
ancaster, p
lots to get rid of th
e presid
ent of th
e Un
ited
States, played by Frederic M
arch. "
Th
e presid
ent,"
ran th
e advertisem
ent, "
kn
ew m
ore than 25,000 people —
but could trust no more than five."
i t
j i
) ..--eff.,' .I
••, . F,...1%....1 - - ( , ... ,,/; ,::, /,
I
A
•O'S
,'' l 1
i PS:Y .' l'"
. ^ '
:;;
1:7-\'''''"*Iv°
• • .
CO
UN
TIN
G O
UR
BL
ES
SIN
GS
33
It is strange to note how m
any films w
ere being made at
the time, or had just been released, w
hich had this theme of
an attempt on a president's life. P
eter Sellers; the celebrated
British actor, had played a president threatened by rebels,
and in
Fail Safe the president's life w
as also in danger. A
fantastic p
lot to
kill th
e presid
ent d
urin
g a M
adiso
n
Square G
arden meeting occurs in The M
anchurian Candidate.
The D
es Moines T
elevision Station that night show
ed th
e film
Suddenly, w
ith F
rank S
inatra, as its m
idnig
ht
matinee; an old "B
" film, w
hich was probably being show
n at the sam
e time by a dozen other stations, and w
hich had . been telecast all over A
merica during the previous year. It
shows F
rank Sinatra as a killer in the pay of conspirators
who arrive in a sm
all town w
here the Am
erican president is expected. H
e shuts himself into a sm
all house overlooking the station and the road dow
n which the presidential pro-
cession will pass. H
e sets up an automatic rifle w
ith tele-sco
pic len
s at a win
dow
. but in
the film
, the S
ecret S
ervice men intervene in tithe.
ON
BR
OA
DW
AY
, the night's shows w
ere coming to an end.
The p
rogram
mes w
ere rather m
ore ch
eerful: C
harlie
Chaplin (no longer banned) in C
ity Lights; W
alt Disney's
charm
ing sto
ry, p
leasing to
both
old
and y
oung, o
f the
search by two dogs and • a siam
ese cat for their master;
Fellini's m
ystifying 8. M
eanwhile, at star level, at S
ardi's Restaurant, at the E
l M
orocco and Rom
a di Notte, all the talk w
as of who w
ould be lucky enough to be invited to the great reception the K
ennedys were to give at the W
hite House for the elite of
the film w
orld. T
he Kennedys had done a great deal for the theatre. T
he show
s they had been to, How
. To Succeed in Business W
ithout R
eally ,Trying and B
eyond The Fringe, h
ad h
ad en
orm
ous
success. Another, The B
est Man, a kind of reconstruction of
Th
e assassination. Above, M
rs Ken
ned
y h
elps ag
ent C
lint H
ill clim
b into the car. Below
, the race to Parkland H
ospital
34 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
the atm
osp
here o
f an electo
ral camp
aign
, had
had
an
indifferen
t receptio
n; K
enned
y w
ent to
see it, and im
-m
ediately thereafter it was "house full" for m
onths. B
y organising the first-ever performances of the ballet
at the White H
ouse, Jacqueline Kennedy had done m
uch for dancing. It w
as she who, w
ith her husband, influenced the decision of the F
ord Foundation to grant $20,000,000
to the principal dance schools in Am
erica. There w
as there-fore a great crow
d that night pouring out after seeing the M
exican Ballet.
At th
e pay
box o
f the B
iltmore T
heatre, tw
o step
s off
from B
roadway, hopeful provincials w
ere still being told th
at Barefoot in the P
ark (with a young actress closely re-
sembling Jacqueline) w
as sold out until April.
Mary, M
ary had
been
runnin
g fo
r three y
ears. There
would be a long w
ait, too, for anyone wanting to see the
British revue, Stop the W
orld, I Want T
o Get O
ff, which
Jacqueline had seen with her sister, P
rincess Radziw
ill. B
roadway, therefore, had good reason, despite the ever-
increasing competition of television, for expecting a record
season.
AL
TH
OU
GH
IT w
as half-past one in the morning (N
ew Y
ork tim
e bein
g an
ho
ur ah
ead o
f Tex
as) the o
ffices of th
e finance house, Ira H
aupt and Co., one of the m
ost impor-
tant on the stock market, w
ere not in darkness. The firm
w
as facing
ban
kru
ptcy
, to th
e tun
e of $
30
,00
0,0
00
, and
the S
tock Exchange had frozen the accounts of its 2
0,0
00
clients: All W
all Street w
as in a hubbub and share values had fallen sharply by nine points —
a fall graver than any since the last great crisis of m
ore than two years before.
Kennedy w
as unintentionally the cause of this fall. He
had delayed the conclusion of an agreement w
hich would
have allowed the S
oviets to buy large quantities of grain in order to supplem
ent their bad harvests.
CO
UN
TIN
G O
UR
BL
ES
SIN
GS
35
The m
en of Moscow
had made it know
n that they wanted
to buy soya oil. A speculator, A
nthony de Angelis, president
of Allied C
rude Oil, had bought up alm
ost all available supplies. T
o finance the deal (according to the findings of the later enquiry) he borrow
ed some 9o%
of the necessary capital from
his stockbrokers. In freezing the negotiations, K
ennedy had given a shock to the Stock E
xchange, and share values fell sharply.
Wall S
treet cou
ld m
eanw
hile h
ave ig
no
red th
is con
-tretem
ps, since share values had shown a constant rise since
the beginning of the year — from
20 to
35%
omitting in-
creases in dividends. The T
elephone Com
pany had that very evening announced a doubling of revenue for its tw
o m
illion sh
arehold
ers. But sin
ce the q
uarrel w
ith R
oger
Blough, C
hairman of the B
oard of the gigantic U.S
. Steel,
Wall S
treet was alw
ays a b
it susp
iciou
s of Jo
hn
F.
Kennedy. T
he President had deplored this that very afternoon, to a
journ
alist in th
e aeroplan
e, while th
e air-hostess, Jan
T
yrell, had been serving their coffee: "I talk
ed fo
r a long time th
e oth
er day
at Miam
i to a
business man and begged him
to understand that I am not
`anti-business' . . . You accuse m
e of putting obstacles in your w
ay, I to
ld h
im, an
d b
lame it o
n m
e each tim
e the
Exch
ange h
as a tremor . . . b
ut w
hen
you m
ake reco
rd
profits, you don't give me the credit:"
BU
T T
HE
Stock E
xchange was one of the lesser K
ennedy w
orries. The P
resident had every reason, that night, before going to bed, to count his blessings —
he too, like every other A
merican.
On
his n
igh
t-table w
as a little go
ld' p
laqu
e, on
e of a
number w
hich he had, had engraved to give away to his
friends. It was a calendar, the calendar of O
ctober 1962. H
e thought back now to those thirteen days in O
ctober,
36 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
those of the Cuba crisis. H
e had saved his country and the w
orld from
the h
orrbrs of atom
ic destru
ction, yet at th
e sam
e time confirm
ed his stature as a great President and
put Com
munism
on the run. The plaque bore his initials
and Jacqueline's, JFK
and IBK
, for without his w
ife at his side he could not have gone through that tim
e. Since that O
ctober of crisis, a year had gone by, a year of m
any d
ramatic even
ts wh
ich K
enn
edy h
ad con
fronted
w
ith d
ignity an
d flair. H
e had
overcome th
e Mississip
pi
crisis, kept hold on the Atlantic A
lliance, prevented Viet-
Nam
from fallin
g into ch
aos, insp
ired th
e historic N
egro m
arch on Washington, and stood up against the w
hims of
Con
gress. Ab
ove all, he h
ad con
clud
ed th
e pact en
din
g atom
ic bomb tests, perhaps the m
ost important diplom
atic achievem
ent of post-war years.
Kennedy had hoped to receive the N
obel Prize for that,
and was very disappointed to learn that P
rofessor Linus
Paulling had been chosen —
Paulling, w
ho this very day had left his C
alifornian home to begin the journey to Stockholm
for th
e prize-givin
g ceremon
y. Never m
ind
! Th
e Soviets
were talking now
of closer relations, and of co-operation in Space. T
he end of the cold war w
as in sight. A
s the young Senator Edm
undsen was to say later:
"I don't know w
hy the President needs to m
ake an election tour here. H
e will be elected w
ith acclamation next N
ovember."
He w
as right. B
ut K
enn
edy loved
the crow
ds, loved
talking to them
, loved the fight. H
e must also bow
to the political rule that every president m
ust give up one year in four of his term of office to his re-
election. Perhaps he w
anted to get such electoral unanimity
that his "dynasty" would thereby be firm
ly established in A
merican political life.
So it is lik
ely that K
enn
edy w
ent to sleep
that n
ight
thinking of his chances of conquering the votes of a reluctant D
allas.
CO
UN
TING
OU
R BLESSIN
GS
37
TH
E N
EX
T day's ' horoscope, syndicated in hundreds of
Am
erican newspapers, read:
Serious political surprises may be expected.
And in P
aris, where the new
spaper kiosks were already
re-opened, there was w
idely displayed a strange booklet of astrological predictions by A
ndre Barbault, published by
Albin M
ichel. On page go it forecast "for N
ovember 1963,
the tragic end of the President of the U
nited States." H
ad K
enn
edy read
that b
ook, h
e wou
ld on
ly have
laugh
ed at it. O
ne of h
is friend
s, Stefan
Loren
t, had
re-m
arked to him som
e days earlier on the evil coincidence that ever since 1840, the president elected in every tw
entieth year had died in office. R
oosevelt, re-elected in 1940, died • in office in 5945. K
ennedy had replied: "Y
ou'll see. I'll put an end to that superstition."
CH
AP
TE
R T
HR
EE
`Join the Marines—
They w
ill m
ake a Man out of Y
ou!'
TH
E S
HA
BB
Y W
OO
DE
N bungalow
at 1026 North B
eckley, in the O
ak Hill quarter —
"on the other side of the tracks" -
was in darkness. M
rs A. C
. Johnson owns that jum
ble of a house, w
hose builder musthave thought he w
as constructing a m
aze, it is so difficult to find your way round.
Mrs Jo
hnso
n is a v
ery g
ood m
anag
er indeed
. She h
as seventeen room
s, let furnished at modest prices. T
he tenant
who o
n O
ctober 1
4th
had
taken
the sm
all room
off th
e
main sitting-room
near the entrance paid only $8 a week —
w
hich is reasonable in any country in the world, and above
all in Dallas.
The room
was no bigger than a railw
ay carriage, some
6ft. by 8ft; with a w
indow (and air-conditioning it is true),
a very small, plain bed, and a child's cupboard, w
hite with
blue painted flowers —
bed and cupboard taking up almost
all the available space. Anyw
ay, the tenant had almost no
possessions: a small radio and a half-em
pty suitcase, said
Mrs Johnson. T
he room w
as too small to hide anything.
The tenant behaved very w
ell, giving no trouble, never
asking for anything and paying the rent regularly. What
more could M
rs Johnson — w
ho, with her husband, w
as
busy
not o
nly
with
this n
ice little place b
ut also
with
a
restaurant nearby — have w
ished for? T
he tenant, whose nam
e was 0. H
. Lee, w
ent regularly
to work every m
orning and returned every evening almost
'JOIN
TH
E M
AR
INE
S
39
as regularly at about nine o'clock. He read in his room
, or
listened to the radio. Som
etimes, at m
idnight, he would go
into the big sitting-room for the television new
s bulletin. B
ut he never made any com
ment upon it. L
ee was a very
silent person. T
hat n
ight, h
e did
not co
me in
at new
s-time. N
o-o
ne
noticed his absence. Mrs Johnson w
as at the restaurant, and th
e housek
eeper, H
elen R
oberts, h
ad o
ther th
ings to
do
than bother with the tenants.
Som
e weeks before, an unknow
n wom
an had telephoned
and asked to speak to a certain "Osw
ald". "N
o-one of that name here —
and I'm not a telephonist,"
Mrs R
oberts had snapped, cutting off the caller's protests. H
ad she been a bit more friendly, she m
ight perhaps have realised that the initials of 0:H
. Lee w
ere those of this Lee
Harv
ey O
swald
— an
d m
ight h
ave p
ut a sp
oke, in
the
wheels of destiny . . .
IN T
HE
same d
istrict, a quarter o
f an h
our's w
alk aw
ay,
lived policeman J. D
. Tippitt, w
ho had at last made up his
mind to go to bed. W
hen not on duty, he was alw
ays at
home w
ith his family, helping his w
ife, Marie.
They ow
ned their own little house, but in _theory only,
since it was heavily m
ortgaged. A salary of $oo w
as quite
insu
fficient; th
ere- was n
o b
utter o
n th
e bread
after the
zoth of each month —
and Tippitt, w
ho at thirty-nine had
served for ten years in the City police, w
orked on Fridays
and Saturdays in a restaurant.
The next day he w
ould be free (he did not• have to go to the restaurant until the evening), and had therefore been
able to
chat at len
gth
to h
is elder so
n. T
his w
as Allen
,
fourteen years old, whose am
bition it was to be an astro-
nau
t. B
renda K
ay, ten
, was h
elpin
g h
er moth
er wash
up;
little• Curtis R
ay, four, had long since been in bed:.
38
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
"Tippitt? A
good guy, a real buddy," his Sergeant said
of him. "N
ever talks about anything eiccept his family ...
They're poor, but they're happy." N
ext day was to be a holiday for them
, since owing to
Kennedy's arrival and the festivities w
hich would follow
, the children w
ould not go to school.
JA
CK
RU
BY
, the p
rop
rietor o
f the C
arousel Clu
b, h
ad n
ot
yet gone home. D
espite its pretentious sign, the Carousel
was nothing but a sleazy bar, w
here watching the "strip-
tease" show the custom
ers bought more and m
ore drinks for the hostesses. R
uby usually stayed at the club until the m
iddle of the last show, about tw
o' in the morning, then
checked the cash and deposited the evening's takings in the night-safe of a nearby bank.
His real n
ame w
as Jack L
eon R
ubin
stein, b
ut h
e had
shortened it. E
ither because that is often done in Am
erica, or because in D
allas, despite the presence of a strong and prosperous Jew
ish minority, anti-sem
itism is latent —
and in R
uby's m
étier one can
not affo
rd th
e luxury
of m
akin
g
enemies for non-com
mercial reasons.
Ruby w
as very
popular w
ith ev
erybody, as a n
ight-
club proprietor must be —
above all with the police. T
he H
eadquarters men, and those of the S
heriff's office, often cam
e in. They ate and drank free, joked w
ith the girls, and w
ent o
ff again
with
ou
t so m
uch
as leavin
g a tip
for th
e w
aiter, bu
t giv
ing
"Jack, m
y p
al" a friend
ly tap
on
the
should
er in p
assing. T
hat w
as "busin
ess" too; in
dry
T
exas, 'where alcohol is sold in clubs, you have obviously
to keep in with the police.
Jack Ruby gave him
self "little Al C
apone of Dallas" airs,
believed he resembled "S
carface", and dressed to imitate
him. H
e was born obscurely in the ghetto of C
hicago's West
Side. T
he word ghetto is n
ot a m
etaph
or h
ere: every
big
A
merican city has its ghetto, w
here the Jewish poor herd
`JOIN
TH
E M
AR
INE
S . .
41 to
geth
er by ch
oice, an
d th
ey co
ntin
ue to
be g
iven
that
name. H
is father, Joseph, a building contractor, brought him
up very strictly, together with his three brothers and
four sisters. B
ut R
uby early
detach
ed h
imself fro
m th
e family
; at fifteen
he w
as already
well k
no
wn
in C
hicag
o's u
nd
er-w
orld
, selling tick
ets for sp
ortin
g ev
ents an
d actin
g as
bookie's runner. H
e becam
e on
e of th
e characters o
f the "L
oo
p" (th
e city's S
oho). They called him
"Sparky", because although
he never seemed to have any m
oney he always m
anaged to be flashily dressed. T
he Chicago police did not take him
very seriously. O
nce he tried to get into a boxing match
without paying, w
as severely beaten and has ever since carried a steel plate in his 'skull. L
ater, Rubinstein becam
e a com
mercial traveller in cruets; then organised the m
ore or less shady activities of a syndicate of road-sw
eepers. R
uby left Chicago for S
an Francisco, w
here during the lean years of the D
epression he tried to make his w
ay in that jum
ble of dance-halls, houses of assignation, 'nude show
s and sleazy dives which is the "B
arbary Coast". B
ut the native gangsters chased him
off. H
e went back to C
hicago, and timidly- and unnoticed
frequented the violent world of T
ony Accardo, P
artin Ochs
and Paul "N
o-Nose" L
abriola. He, offered to "tell all" to
Kefauver's S
enate Com
mittee, w
hich was enquiring into
crime in the U
nited States. W
ashington laughed at him;
humiliated, R
uby in 1952 agreed to his sister, Eve G
rant's, suggestion that he should take over the m
anagement of a
• bar which she had inherited.
In Dallas Jack R
uby found fortune. He at once becam
e "th
e Ch
icago
cow
bo
y", lo
ok
ed o
n b
y ev
eryo
ne
. as' a tourist sight. H
e bought another bar, then the Carousel, and
despite five recorded arrests seems never to have paid the
smallest penalty.
42
R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
"Really, he w
as never interested in politics," said his best strip
-tease artiste, Jada C
onfo
rto, a red
-head
of tw
enty
-sev
en. "A
nd I d
idn't th
ink h
e could
hurt a fly
. He co
uld
never m
ake up his mind."
TH
AT
NIG
HT
, Ruby returned late to his apartm
ent. He had
three rooms in the M
arsala Building, 233 E
rwing S
treet. T
he ren
t was o
nly
$1
25
, bu
t Ru
by
, alway
s careful w
ith
money, shared it w
ith a postcard seller, George S
enator. T
hey
had
been
friend
s for a lo
ng
time, an
d S
enato
r . thought him
a "regular guy, good-hearted, with a code of
his own —
not everybody's, but still a code." R
uby was a bachelor, and gave all his love to his basset-
hound, a ch
estnut-co
loured
dog called
Sch
atzi. Neith
er S
enator, nor his staff at the club, nor the police knew that
he also had a revolver.
TH
E W
OM
AN
wh
o h
ad so
un
season
ably
teleph
on
ed th
e room
ing-house at Beckley S
treet was a pleasant blonde,
very tall and well-built, of R
ussian origin (like her husband) and professing the Q
uaker faith. "O
swald reproached m
e very much for that telephone
call," Mrs R
uth Paine said later. "T
hen he calmed dow
n w
hen I explained that his wife, w
ho was pregnant, w
asn't w
ell and needed him. S
ure, I ought to have been alarmed
by this business of the false name. B
ut I knew how
much
trouble he'd had to get work in D
allas, with his past. A
nd it isn't a crim
e in the United S
tates to go under an alias." H
ow
had
it com
e about th
at this q
uiet m
iddleclass
wom
an — living at Irving, a sm
all village some ten m
iles from
Dallas, and w
hose husband Michael w
orked in the B
ell factory making helicopters —
should know O
swald?
It's an odd story. M
rs Pain
e stud
ied R
ussian
at St M
arks S
cho
ol in
D
allas, and never missed a chance of perfecting herself in
'JOIN
TH
E M
AR
INE
S . . .2
43
the langtiage. She w
as born in New
York, but grew
up in P
hiladelphia, and had lived at Dallas for only four years.
She m
ixed
a great d
eal with
White R
ussian
s, and
militant anti-C
omm
unists who also w
anted — in order to
pursue, their activities — to increase their know
ledge of R
ussian. In D
allas, everyone is anti-Com
munist in the sam
e way
that at the Vatican everyone is C
atholic. O
ne day, a chemist invited her to a sm
all cocktail party.. "W
e're expecting a man called O
swald, w
ho has lived in R
ussia and came back disillusioned about ten m
onths ago. H
is wife is also R
ussian, born during the Stalin era. T
o her, A
merica m
ust be like fairyland." • •
Ruth P
aine was to say later that O
swald m
ade a very bad im
pression on her: "O
bstin
ate, vio
lent, alw
ays arg
uin
g . ." B
ut M
arina,
the young Russian, w
as charming, gentle, eager to please,
always talking about her little girl, June L
ee. "W
e got on together like sisters, and as her husband had not taught her E
nglish she was a valuable teacher, since w
e alw
ays talked Russian together."
The W
hite Russians and other refugees from
Com
munist
persecution were to confirm
that Osw
ald was an im
possible person, and that he treated his young and lovely yvifc very • badly indeed. H
e hit her, did not buy milk for the child,
and treated her like a servant. Marina w
as to admit that
he d
id n
ot m
ake lo
ve to
her m
ore th
an o
nce ev
ery tw
o
mo
nth
s or so
. Bu
t Marin
a lov
ed h
im, an
d a w
om
an in
love puts up w
ith everything. T
hey say that she did try two or three tim
es to leave him,
and even thought of asking the help of the Soviet em
bassy. B
ut sh
e did
no
t dare, b
elievin
g h
erself too
deep
ly co
m-
promised in the eyes of M
oscow because of the friends she
had made in D
allas and because of her marriage.
Ruth P
aine often visited Marina, but believed that the
44 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
couple got on well together. T
hen, one morning in A
pril, she found the young R
ussian in tears. "L
ee has lo
st his jo
b, an
d h
ere I am p
regnan
t ."
Osw
ald had been working for six m
onths at Jaggers, Chiles
and. S
towall, a photo-engraving firm
. T
he official reason, as given by Robert S
towall, its head,
was: "H
e made no progress at all as a specialist printer in the
photographic lab." T
he true reason was quite different. T
he other workers
• were in
dig
nan
t at seeing O
swald
readin
g a co
py o
f the
Daily W
orker, org
an o
f the A
merican
Com
munist P
arty,
while eating his lunch. T
hey insisted on his dismissal.
Mrs P
aine,-who lived apart from
her husband, took pity on th
em an
d o
ffered to
shelter M
arina an
d little Ju
ne
while O
swald
wen
t to N
ew O
rleans, h
is nativ
e tow
n, to
look for w
ork. T
he real life-sto
ry o
f Lee H
arvey
Osw
ald w
ill not b
e rev
ealed fo
r som
e time, w
hen
the "S
ecret" stamp is re-
moved from
his dossier. Perhaps even then the w
hole truth w
ill not . b
e know
n ab
out h
im —
his p
ast, his id
eas, his
plans. Y
es; there are hundreds and hundreds of witnesses; but
the h
um
an M
emory
is not an
electronic b
rain w
hich
reco
rds ev
ery d
etail passiv
ely an
d o
bjectiv
ely. U
nco
n-
sciously
, peo
ple rem
ember o
nly
wh
at is dero
gato
ry to
him
. W
hat is certain
is that ap
art from
his w
ife, whom
he
loved, Osw
ald had not a single fiiend in the world. It m
ay therefore never be know
n with certainty if he really w
as the central figure of that fatal F
riday, Novem
ber 22nd; or sim
ply the victim of a freak of destiny.
How
ever that may be, he now
belongs to history, and we
shall try to give a true picture of that strange man w
ho had all his life been a rebel —
a rebel without a cause.
'JO
IN T
HE
MA
RIN
ES
. 45
LE
E H
AR
VE
Y O
SW
AL
D ,w
as born on October i8th, 1939 in
New
Orleans, city of jazz slaves and carnival. H
is father, an insurance agent, had died a few
months before.
His m
other, Marguerite O
swald, w
ho today lives on the outskirts of F
ort Worth, at 2
200 T
homas P
lace, where she
works as a living-in nurse, w
as in her second marriage. S
he had had one child of her first husband, John E
dward P
ic, now
a regular officer in the Am
erican Air F
orce. Lee had an
elder brother, Robert, w
ho today has his own fam
ily, and w
orks near Dallas as a brick m
erchant. T
rouble was the lot of the O
swalds.
At th
e age o
f three, little L
ee and
his b
roth
ers were
placed in a Lutheran institution.
The m
other decided to re-marry, to a certain E
dwin A
. E
ckdahl, an engineer living at Fort W
orth. This proved a
tumultuous m
arriage, and in 1948 Eckdahl accused his w
ife of cruelty and of going through his pockets. H
is lawyer,
Fred K
orth, who later becam
e Navy M
inister, got him a
divorce — and one w
ithout alimony.
In order to bring up her children, Mrs O
swald w
orked in a sw
eet factory. Lee w
ent to the Fort W
orth elementary
school: a quiet child, a great reader, who did not join m
uch in the gam
es of his classmates. A
s a pupil, his rating was
average. W
hen
his m
oth
er decid
ed to
go to
live in
New
York
, w
here the elder son was doing his m
ilitary service, Lee w
as sent to the public high school in the B
ronx. But he very
often played truant: forty-seven days in four months. It w
as decided that he should be put in the care of the children's court.
The investigator John C
arro discovered that the fourteen-year-old boy preferred staying at hom
e to watch television.
His m
other refused to take the matter seriously, and L
ee w
as summ
oned before the children's court despite all her p
rotests. T
o th
is day
, Mrs O
swald
claims th
at the o
nly
46
R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
reason for her son's trouble was that in class he w
as mocked
because of his Southern accent.
"Butr she says, "w
e were poor, and w
ith the poor 'they do w
hat they like." D
r Renatus H
artogs examined the w
eedy little boy for a m
onth, and classed him as "potentially dangerous". H
e was
found to be violent under his quiet appearance, to have a hatred of authority, to be aggressive, unfeeling, obstinate and solitary.
Bu
t the N
ew Y
ork
auth
orities, w
ho
hav
e man
aged
to
preserv
e and fin
d th
is curio
us m
edical rep
ort ten
years
later, did
noth
ing to
cure h
im. T
he _
tow
n h
adn't th
e necessary funds for such sm
all matters.
The m
oth
er return
ed to
New
Orlean
s. Lee seem
ed to
im
pro
ve, an
d so
meh
ow
got h
is hig
h sch
ool g
raduatio
n
dip
lom
a. He h
aun
ted th
e libraries, an
d d
iscov
ered K
arl M
arx's Das ;C
apital. Later he w
as to say: "T
hat day I was like a very religious m
an who opens the
Bible for the first tim
e in his life." Y
et another move, and the O
swalds w
ere back in Fort
Wo
rth. H
ere, at the h
igh
scho
ol L
ee attend
ed, a g
irl fell m
adly
in lo
ve w
ith h
im. T
he y
outh
was g
auch
e, dan
ced
badly, was not generous —
and with good reason —
but there w
ere mom
ents when he could show
a great deal of passion. T
he affair did not last long. Lee w
as seventeen. S
even
teen is th
e min
imum
age fo
r volu
nteerin
g fo
r the
Marines. T
he Marines (or expeditionary corps of soldier-
sailors) are the elite of the United S
tates Forces —
rather lik
e the S
.S. u
nd
er Hitler, o
r the p
arachu
tists un
der d
e G
aulle. A
marin
e is a hero
, a superm
an, a leg
end. T
he
corps takes only volunteers, and in a few m
onths transforms
bo
ys in
to m
en.
In the United S
tates, more film
s and books are produced to
the g
lory
of th
e Marin
es than
on an
y o
ther su
bject.
With
out th
e Marin
es there w
ould
nev
er hav
e been
the
'JOIN
TH
E M
AR
INE
S . .
47 landings at T
ripoli, Havana, N
ormandy, Iw
o Jima, or in
Korea. T
he Marines m
ake a cult of super-patriotism and
give hope of glory. L
ee Harvey O
swald had at last found the key to his future.
Osw
ald m
ust h
ave b
een an
excellen
t sold
ier. He w
as m
entio
ned
several tim
es in d
espatch
es, and receiv
ed a
medal for his excellent m
arksmanship. B
ut he was not over-
popular with his com
panions in arms.
"He w
asn't to
ugh en
ough, an
d h
e did
n't talk
much
. W
hen he did talk, you couldn't understand a word," says
Donald G
oodwin, his sergeant instructor.
Joh
n E
. Do
no
van
, wh
o co
mm
anded
the sectio
n at th
e T
ustin Radar B
ase in California, w
here Osw
ald served, say
s that h
e read m
any
So
viet n
ewsp
apers an
d stu
died
R
ussian literature. H
is room
-mate, M
ack O
sborn
, says th
at Lee p
raised
Marxism
. A
ll this happened while he w
as in the Marines . . .
HE
WA
S sen
t to Jap
an. H
e was im
med
iately co
urt-
martialled for the im
proper possession of a pistol. A second
court-m
artial follo
wed
, this tim
e for h
avin
g in
sulted
a sergeant-m
ajor. B
ack in the United S
tates, and after completing three
years of service, Osw
ald asked to be discharged on the pre-text that his m
other was in uncertain health. T
he request w
as granted. H
e did
in fact g
o b
ack to
Fort W
orth
. He h
ad o
n h
im
$1,600, his pay and gratuity. But he stayed only one night
with his m
other. Next m
orning he announced coldly that he w
as going to embark at N
ew O
rleans on a ship bound for L
eningrad. "W
hy d
id h
e go? D
o y
ou th
ink I co
uld
hav
e stopped
him
? He w
anted to write a book w
hich would m
ake him
famous," M
arguerite Osw
ald was to say later.
Dallas police guard the
building believed to house the assassin
A p
lain-clo
thes o
fficer carries aw
ay fro
m th
e build
ing th
e hig
h-
pow
ered rifle u
sed to
kill th
e Presid
ent
48
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
The young m
an was only tw
enty when, on O
ctober t sth 1959, in
the m
idd
le of the "
cold w
ar", h
e arrived in
M
oscow. H
e booked in at a small hotel, entering him
self in the register as "an export agent".
Som
e days later, on
the 31st of th
e same m
onth
, he
presen
ted h
imself to an
official of the U
nited
States E
m-
bassy and declared: "I've had enough. I w
ant to become a Soviet citizen."
Th
e affair caused
a stir. His m
other telep
hon
ed from
F
ort Worth
, and
he h
un
g up
on h
er., He sen
t to the E
m-
bassy a sworn declaration:
"I swear fidelity to the U
nion of Soviet Socialist Repub-
lics." T
he Com
mand of the M
arines at Washington w
ere in a state of shock lest the m
atter became know
n to Congress.
"They're capable of refusing our finance estim
ates — all
our publicity will go for nothing . . ."
So O
swald
was "
dish
onou
rably d
ischarged
" from
the
Marines on the pretext that as a R
eservist he had had no right to go to R
ussia. O
swald w
as outraged. His position in the M
arines seems
still to have b
een im
portan
t to him
, althou
gh h
e was n
o lon
ger an A
merican
citizen. H
e add
ressed a letter of
protest to the Navy M
inister, Connally —
the same w
ho was
to become G
overnor of Texas. C
onnally sent the letter to his su
ccessor, Korth
— th
e lawyer w
ho h
ad ob
tained
the
divorce decree against Osw
ald's mother . . .
The Soviets are a little m
ore difficult than the Am
ericans w
hen it comes to sheltering defectors. T
hey want only the
cream. O
swald did not inspire them
with m
uch confidence, an
d h
e had
no p
articular talen
t. He w
as refused
citizen-
ship
. He m
ust live in
Ru
ssia as a foreigner, an
d con
tent
himself w
ith a job in a steel factory at Minsk, at 8o roubles
a month.
Osw
ald w
as later to say that life th
ere was h
orrible:
•(.7'4
4f r
i• t
7
.447Q%
,
crA,
- -
Detective B
ill Waithers pictured retrieving w
hat the author believes w
as the mysterious fourth bullet a few
minutes after the assassination
`JOIN
TH
E M
AR
INE
S . .
49
mean lodgings, insufficient food, no holidays, and nothing
but long Com
munist propaganda tirades.
But there w
as Marina F
eodorovna Prusakova, the young
pharmacist at the factory. S
he was born in L
eningrad in 1941. H
er father' died when she w
as two and her m
other m
arried Alexander M
edvedyev. In 1957 her mother died
and Marina, sixteen, left hom
e for Minsk. W
hen her step-fath
er heard
of h
er marriag
e to O
swald
he im
med
iately
disowned her. M
arina fell in love straight away w
ith the exotic Y
ank. She w
as to say later: "H
e was so lonely, so sad, so very m
uch on his own."
Osw
ald had decided to go back to the United S
tates, but for that a S
oviet exit visa was necessary —
and this was
refused
him
. He h
ad to
wait fo
r it a year an
d a h
alf. He
married M
arina, and they had a little girl, June Lee,• born
on February 5th 1962. O
swald w
anted to have her bap-tised by proxy at F
ort Worth, but w
hen he learned that the P
astor w
anted
an "o
ffering" in
dollars, h
e was m
uch
annoyed, and gave up the idea.
He w
rote a letter to
the S
enato
r for T
exas,, Jo
hn G
. T
ower, a diehard conservative, declaring:
"I am a prisoner in the U
.S.S
.R. against m
y will. H
elp m
e." The S
enator intervened with the S
tate Departm
ent; later h
e said th
at he h
ad sim
ply
forw
arded
the letter,
without com
ment, T
he State D
epartment then m
ade very energetic representations to the K
remlin to obtain this visa,
and at th
e same tim
e gav
e Osw
ald a n
ew p
assport fo
r him
self and his family. .
While at M
insk, Lee w
rote often to his mother:
."Send m
e some shaving cream
, razor blades, chocolate, chew
ing gum, m
agazines and detective novels . . . a pocket edition of O
rwell's 1984... I am
going to be a papa. I hope it w
ill be a b
oy! ... M
ama, d
on't try
to co
me h
ere to see
us . . . Good new
s, we are leaving in a m
onth's time. M
ama,
do something im
portant for us — w
rite to an organisation
4
50 R
ED
RO
SES FR
OM
TE
XA
S
called the International Rescue C
omm
ittee* and ask them
for $
80
0 fo
r two
tickets, M
osco
w—
New
Yo
rk—
Tex
as. D
on
't send
us an
yth
ing
ou
t of y
ou
r ow
n p
ock
et. An
d
don't take a loan, ask for it as a gift . . ." T
he m
oth
er cou
ld n
ot g
et the m
on
ey, an
d it w
as the
United S
tates Em
bassy in Moscow
which advanced the
funds for the return journey. The G
overnment w
ere later repaid by O
swald.
TH
E O
SWA
LD
S arrived in New
York. by ship on June 13th
1962. Osw
ald gave a fantastic account of his stay in Russia
to the representative Of the A
id Organisation sent to m
eet them
. He had served as a guard at the E
mbassy and been
kid
nap
ped
by
- Co
mm
un
ist agen
ts. Osw
ald ask
ed to
be
repatriated
to T
exas at th
e org
anisatio
n's ex
pen
ie. But
they telegraphed to his brother Robert, w
ho promised by
telephone to send the necessary $300.
WH
ILE
HIS w
ife was staying w
ith Mrs P
aine, Osw
ald went
to N
ew O
rleans, w
here h
e found w
ork
with
anoth
er en
grav
er. .Bu
t wh
en M
rs Pain
e wen
t to see h
im in
Sep
-tem
ber, he was once again out of w
ork. M
arina retu
rned
to Irv
ing
with
her frien
d. T
he y
ou
ng
R
ussian wom
an was expecting another baby, and needed
care. The good M
rs Paine also took back in her car, a'1956
station waggon, all the O
swalds' possessions, including a
mysterious long object com
pletely enclosed in a covering. F
or his part, Osw
ald was supposed to be going to H
ouston. H
e did not return to Dallas until tw
elve days later, went
to sec h
is wife, an
d th
en ren
ted th
e little roo
m in
Mrs
Johnson's lodging-house under a false name.
On M
onday, October 14th, M
rs William
Randell w
ent to see her friend, D
orothy Roberts, w
ho seemed troubled ...
"You know
my neighbour —
there's a Russian living w
ith A
n Organisation for anti-C
omm
unist refugees.
'JOIN
TH
E M
AR
INE
S
51
her, a p
oor wom
an p
ersecuted
by th
e Com
mu
nists. S
he's
expecting a baby at any minute, and her husband is ou
t of • w
ork . . ." "T
ry at th
e Tex
as Book D
eposito
ry," M
rs Ran
dell
suggested. N
ote th
at on
that d
ay P
residen
t Ken
ned
y's v
isit to
Texas w
as not known of for certain, and that no-one knew
, anything of the route he w
ould take. M
rs Paine telephoned the B
ook Depository, and w
as put in touch w
ith the manager, R
. S. T
ruly. `S
end us round this future papa, we'll try to help him
..." O
swald
wen
t there n
ext d
ay, an
d m
ade an
excellen
t im
pressio
n o
n T
ruly
, whom
he to
ld th
at he h
ad o
nly
recently left the M
arines. "I en
gag
ed h
im o
n th
e spo
t at $1
.25
an h
ou
r, forty
hours a w
eek. He w
as to work from
8 in the morning to
4.45 in the afternoon, with three quarters of an hour for
lunch, from 12.15 . . .
"It was in
tend
ed," T
ruly
was later to
say. "T
hat d
ay,
two people applied. I needed one for the m
ain building and the other for an out-of-the-w
ay depot that no-one would
ever have passed . . . Osw
ald arrived first, and I decided to keep him
with m
e . . ." O
n O
ctober lo
th, M
arina g
ave b
irth to
a little girl,
Rach
el Lee, at th
e Park
land
Mu
nicip
al Ho
spital. T
he
ever-kind Mrs P
aine had sold two pints of her blood in order
to pay part of the expenses. D
r Malco
lm P
erry can
remem
ber th
e sweet, sad
and
lovely Marina. T
hey exchanged a few w
ords in Latin, of
whic
h la
nguage M
arin
a, a
s a p
harm
acist, k
new
a
little. T
he fath
er did
no
t go
to the hospital, but he was very
hap
py
at the b
irth. E
ach w
eek-en
d h
e spen
t all his tim
e w
ith th
e new
bab
y. A
nd
on
the ev
enin
g o
f Th
ursd
ay
Novem
ber 2ISI, instead of going back to.his rented room he
52
R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
asked another employee, W
esley Frazier, to give him
a lift to M
rs Paine's house .
His colleague w
as surprised. "I thought you only w
ent there at week-ends."
"I want to see m
y children, and I also have to get some
curtain-rods for the curtains in my room
. . ." O
swald played w
ith the babies, watched the television
for a bit, then went to the garage. M
rs Paine rem
embers
it, because he forgot to turn off the electric light. H
e went to bed early, as usual. F
or him1 there w
as not m
uch
poin
t in p
ausin
g to
count h
is blessin
gs. S
ince h
is return, he had not earned so m
uch as $3,000 — an absurdly
low
sum
— an
d h
ad ch
ang
ed jo
bs sev
enteen
times. H
e lived apart from
his family, and could not even provide for
the new-born child. P
eople shunned him, called him
un-balanced, arrogant, good-for-nothing.
In the F.B
.I. file on him is noted:
"He's a M
arxist who has never carried through a single
project." P
erhaps Lee H
arvey Osw
ald dreamed that night of the
act that he was to com
mit next day —
the first successful one of his life.
CH
AP
TE
R F
OU
R
It is the Fashion to H
ate . . .
TH
E H
EA
D O
F the printing departm
ent of the Dallas D
aily N
ews tried vainly that night, T
hursday—F
riday, to get in to
uch
with
the p
aper's A
dvertisin
g M
anag
er. The latter
had already taken advantage of the long week-end to go
fishing in the Gulf of M
exico. The print m
anager had a problem
: an advertiser, a certain Bernard W
eissman, w
as patiently w
aiting for the first proof of a publicity lay-out, a full page spread, but w
as insisting that the advertisement
should be framed w
ith a black border, just like those on a card announcing a death.
"There's nothing like that on m
y order-sheet," grumbled
the o
verseer. "I m
ust h
ave an
O.K
. from
upstairs ..."
Finally he got hold of the M
anaging Editor:
"Th
e ann
ou
ncem
ent b
y th
e Am
erican F
act Fin
din
g
Com
mittee? O
h yes, give it a good splash. Just think, the boss likes it so m
uch that he might even put it in free ...
That w
ould
spare h
im th
e trouble o
f writin
g h
is ow
n
editorial." In the last few
days, the Dallas D
aily New
s had indeed dev
oted
a whole b
arrage o
f edito
rials to criticism
of
Presid
ent K
enn
edy
's po
licies. Th
ey called
him
inco
m-
petent, irresponsible, idiotic, conscienceless, anti-Am
erican, an
ti-Rep
ublican
, anti-cap
italist, anti-P
rotestan
t, and o
f co
urse an
ti-Tex
an,. S
o th
e adv
ertisemen
t in g
reat black
type on page 2
of the newspaper w
hich would go on sale in
53
54 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
the early hours of Friday m
orning would not greatly shock
its readers: "Y
ou are not welcom
e, Mr P
resident. Dallas rejects your
policies and your philosophy. In fact, you are a traitor . . . "T
he people of Dallas know
that the head of the Am
eri-can C
omm
unist Party, G
us Hall, is in league w
ith you and w
ill help in your re-election "Y
ou, Kennedy, have struck the M
onroe Doctrine from
the book of our N
ation in order to replace it by the spirit of M
oscow."
BE
RN
AR
D W
EIS
SM
AN
, a y
oung Jew
of tw
enty
-six,
was
supposed to be only passing through Dallas, although he w
as liv
ing
there in
a lux
urio
us b
achelo
r apartm
ent. H
e had
obviously not had m
uch difficulty in persuading the news-
pap
er to p
ass his tex
t. Had
n't th
e head
of th
e po
litical section of the sam
e newspaper w
ritten: . "H
ere in Dallas, hating K
ennedy is a popular game." ?
Had not the director of the sam
e newspaper, T
ed Dealey,
dared to say impudently to K
ennedy, during a press con-ference at the W
hite House:
"Mr .P
residen
t, we n
eed a k
nig
ht w
ho
will lead
this
Natio
n o
n h
orseb
ack, b
ut y
ou lead
it ped
alling o
n y
our
dau
ghter C
arolin
e's tricycle . ." ? O
n h
is return
, Dallas
had feted him for saying that.
It is not known for certain just w
ho put up the $4,500 for the advertisem
ent, but in Dallas it is very easy to find the
money w
hen one wants to attack the G
overnment.
TH
E M
UL
TI-M
ILL
ION
AIR
E L
. H. H
unt, whose in
com
e from
his oil-wells is half a m
illion dollars a day, has a whole arm
y o
f "brav
i" in h
is pay
. After h
avin
g su
pp
orted
the ill-
famed S
enator Joseph McC
arthy, he now finances a daily
pro
gram
me o
n telev
ision
and
radio
wh
ich p
rop
agates
extremist view
s.
IT IS
TH
E F
AS
HIO
N T
O H
AT
E
. 55
There is D
on Snoots, w
hose Political L
etter has 55,000 subscribers, and that in a tow
n of some 400,000 inhabi-
tants. The L
etter is also read, on paid time, from
fifty radio and ten television stations. F
or Don S
noots, Washington is
a nest of traitors. T
here is the retired General, E
dwin W
alker, a profes-sio
nal so
ldier w
ho h
as gone in
to p
olitics b
ecause th
e G
overnment com
pelled him to leave his post in B
erlin, w
here he comm
anded the Am
erican garrisons. It was this
same W
alker who w
as involved in disturbances at Oxford,
Mississippi, w
hen the coloured student Meredith w
ished to enrol at the U
niversity there. The G
overnment arrested
Walk
er, then
mag
nan
imously
did
no m
ore th
an su
bm
it him
to psychiatric examination. W
alker, in protest, flew the
Am
erican flag the wrong w
ay round in front of his house -also situated in the O
ak Cliff quarter —
whenever a high
Washington personality visited D
allas. He had done it w
ith S
teven
son, an
d h
e did
it that n
ight w
ith K
enned
y. B
ut
Walker w
as not at home; he had gone, for som
e reason un-know
n, to New
Orleans, O
swald's native tow
n, where the
ex-d
efector h
ad w
ork
ed fo
r a num
ber o
f week
s befo
re returning to D
allas. A
no
ther asso
ciation
ho
stile to th
e Ken
ned
ys w
as the
Natio
nal In
dig
natio
n C
on
ven
tion
, wh
ich co
mb
ined
all th
ose w
ho
con
sidered
the G
ov
ernm
ent in
po
wer to
be
dangerous.
TH
AT
NIG
HT
T
he Thunderbolt,
a week
ly p
ub
lished
in
Alabam
a, was sold in D
allas. The title, in giant letters on
the front page, was K
EN
NE
DY
KE
EP
S MIST
RE
SSES. T
hat front-page story w
as lurid .
TH
AT
NIG
HT
, too, a group of volunteers from that section
of th
e Rep
ub
lican P
arty w
hich
up
held
Sen
ator B
arry
Go
ldw
ater finish
ed m
akin
g a h
ug
e ban
ner m
eant to
be
56
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
held aloft at the airport next morning during the P
resident's arrival.
LE
T'S
BU
RY
KIN
G JO
HN
was the slogan; and that phrase
was a little m
asterpiece of election propaganda. "L
et's bury King John" seem
s simple enough; but a play
on the word "bury" w
as intended, since when spoken w
ith th
e Am
erican accen
t, there is little d
ifference b
etween
"bury" and "B
arry" — the im
plication being that Senator
Barry G
oldwater w
ould triumph over K
ennedy. T
he nickname "K
ing John" was a m
alicious reference to the fact that in the eyes of the R
ight Wing K
ennedy was a
despot who, like N
apoleon, gave all the mem
bers of his fam
ily important positions.
But th
e word
"bury
", too, h
ad an
oth
er dan
gero
us
double m
eanin
g, an
allusio
n to
Kru
schev
's unfo
rtunate
phrase ab
out "b
ury
ing th
e United
States" —
thus sly
ly
accusing Kennedy of helping the S
oviets in their grave-digging task.
Fortunately, next day neither K
ennedy nor anyone else to
ok th
e slightest n
otice o
f this p
lacard, w
hich
was lo
st am
id th
e popular en
thusiasm
. Had
it not b
een fo
r a ch
ance p
hoto
grap
h, th
is little dram
atic detail o
f the
arrival in Dallas w
ould have been lost for ever.
Aurito
uoir R
obert W
elch th
e "pope" o
f the Jo
hn B
irch
Society (a sem
i-secret but publicity-hunting organisation) lives in S
anta Barbara, C
alifornia, most of his supporters
arc to be found in Dallas. T
he society claims to w
age con-stant w
ar on "the Com
munist conspiracy" underm
ining the A
merican w
ay of life. It looks upon Eisenhow
er as an agent of M
oscow, and the R
epublican Head of the S
upreme C
ourt, E
arl Warren, as E
nemy N
o. t of all true Am
erican patriots.
TH
E H
EA
DQ
UA
RT
ER
S staff o
f the M
inutem
en h
ad ju
st fin
ished
their w
eekly
meetin
g, an
d h
ad g
one to
hav
e a
IT IS
TH
E F
AS
HIO
N T
O H
AT
E ...
57 w
hisky or two w
ith th
eir "fueh
rer", Robert D
upugh, o
n
the seco
nd flo
or o
f the p
rivate clu
b at th
e Hilto
n H
otel.
. "Alert" w
as the watch-w
ord. The M
inutemen are a sort of
clandestin
e armed
militia, w
ho are in
constan
t trainin
g
with a view
to opposing a "Com
munist invasion". T
hey had ju
st put o
ut a p
roclam
ation an
nouncin
g th
at than
ks to
them
Dallas w
as an impregnable city, and that the R
eds w
ould be trapped by their "guerilleros" in the vast Texan
deserts.
WH
ILE
HE
was still in M
oscow, L
ee Harvey O
swald had
declared to an Am
erican journalist: "In the U
nited States it is the fashion to hate."
The phrase could w
ell that night have been applied to th
at city o
f Dallas. A
nd th
e Govern
or o
f Tex
as, John
Connally, w
as very uneasy. He had several tim
es, but in vain, asked K
ennedy to give up the idea of driving through the tow
n centre. "It's too dangerous. It'll be quite enough to go quickly
from the airport to the T
rade Mart for the speech."
But K
ennedy would not listen.
IN Ins so-expensive apartm
ent at the Texas H
otel, at Fort
Worth, V
ice-President Johnson w
as having difficulty in goin
g to
sleep. H
e too w
as worried
about w
hat m
ight
happen next day in' Dallas. H
e remem
bered that appalling incident during the cam
paign of 196o, when he and his w
ife w
ere hooted at by the mob. T
hey had spat in their faces and forced them
to take refuge in an hotel. A
nd yet he, Johnson, was a product of T
exas, the favourite so
n, ch
ampio
n o
f the S
outh
. Than
ks to
him
, Ken
ned
y
had obtained a narrow m
ajority in the State, 46,233 votes
among 2,311,845 voters; w
ithout him N
ixon would have
won everyw
here. T
here h
ad b
een, to
o, w
hat h
ad h
appen
ed to
Adlai
58 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
Stevenson, w
ho like Johnson had tried in 196o to obtain the presidential nom
ination (Kennedy beat them
both) and w
ho h
ad sin
ce as a conso
lation p
rize been
appoin
ted
ambassad
or at th
e United
Natio
ns. A
month
earlier, on
24th
Octo
ber, 1
963, S
teven
son h
ad co
me to
Dallas b
y
invitatio
n. H
e was co
olly
received
at the airp
ort. A
t the
door of the hotel, while he w
as smiling and shaking hands, a
young wom
an swathed in a m
ink cloak, Mrs C
ora Frederick,
shook a heavy placard and hit Stevenson in the face, w
hile a young m
an (who lived, like O
swald, at Irving) spat at him
. "W
e Texans," this aggressive A
mazon later explained
to the press, "we are cow
boys, who aren't satisfied just to
shout. We go into action w
hen necessary." S
ince then, Stevenson had several tim
es advised Kennedy
not to set foot in Dallas.
"The P
resident is safer in Berlin or in M
oscow, than in
Dallas" h
ad p
rophesied
Allan
Maly
, head
of th
e local
council o
f the A
FL
-CIO
, the trad
es unio
n o
rgan
isation.
And v
ery p
roperly
the p
olice ch
ief, Jesse Curry
, had
an
nounced
that h
is men
would
not allo
w th
e smallest
hostile gesture against the President's person.
Russell W
. McL
arry d
id n
ot tak
e the p
olice ch
ief's th
reat very
seriously
that n
ight. A
mach
inist b
y d
ay, h
e w
ent to night-school at Arlington U
niversity, situated in a suburb of D
allas..He had stayed on late w
ith his friends. T
hen someone had given him
a lift in a car to his home in
the Oak C
liff quarter — that sam
e district in which O
swald
had rented a little furnished room under a false nam
e. "T
omorrow
," said McL
arry, who looked a lot younger
than
his tw
enty
-one y
ears, "I shall b
e at the T
rade M
art w
ith a gun, and while K
ennedy's speaking I'll shoot him . .."
WH
AT
, TH
EN
, had John Fitzgerald K
ennedy come to do
among this assortm
ent of people? A
ll the forecasts agreed that he would be re-elected in
IT IS
TH
E F
AS
HIO
N T
O H
AT
E ...
59 1964 w
ithout need of Texas, and even w
ithout need of the S
outh
. The D
emocrat P
arty in
Tex
as was in
a chao
tic state, T
here w
as Johnso
n's factio
n, C
onnally
's, Sen
ator
Yarborough's, and that of C
ongressman H
enry Gonzalez
(the spokesman of the m
inorities). All these D
emocrats had
just one thing in comm
on — they w
ere none of them on
speaking terms. K
ennedy was the only person w
ith whom
they w
ere willing to talk.
How
ever, th
e stake w
as worth
the tro
uble; th
e stake
was this m
arvellous State of T
exas, directly south of the U
nio
n, b
ut n
ot a p
art of th
e South
. Tex
as, which
con-
siders itself an independent unit, and even often seriously talks of becom
ing independent indeed. Texas, w
hich has so m
uch influence on what is called T
he West —
the West
of m
ulti-m
illionaires, co
wboys, w
ide o
pen
spaces an
d
virgin lands. Texas, w
here is the Alam
o, that Therm
opylae of m
odern Am
erica, where a handful of heroes fought to the
last man under siege by the arm
ies of the Mexican general
Santa A
na. Texas: huge, prodigious, astonishing —
the one p
lace in th
e United
States after N
ew Y
ork
and
Wash
ingto
n w
hich
the fo
reign to
urist ab
solu
tely
must
see. A
lthough Alaska, w
hich in 196o became the 51st S
tate of the U
nion, is bigger, Texas w
ith its 267,339 square miles
is formidably large. 77 of its 257 districts are bigger than
the S
tate of R
hode Islan
d, w
hich
in tu
rn is larg
er than
L
uxembourg. If T
exas were located betw
een New
York
and Chicago, it w
ould overlap them both; if in E
urope, it w
ould stretch from L
ondon to Berlin. O
ne ranch alone -belonging to the K
ing family dynasty —
is larger than all S
witzerland.
Texas provides the w
estern world w
ith half its synthetic rubber, a third of its petroleum
, a quarter of its rice and a fifth of its cotton. It has ten m
illion inhabitants, a million
of them black and a m
illion of Mexican origin. It has ten
Go
R.E
u R
OSE
S FR
OM
T
EX
AS
m
illion cows. E
verything is on a giant scale there — even
histo
ry. •
Texas is the only S
tate of the Union w
hich was indepen-
dent for 9 years and 301 days, with its ow
n flag, a blue star on a red
field, an
d w
hich
as an in
dep
enden
t republic
volu
ntarily
agreed
to b
ecom
e part o
f the U
nited
States.
That sin
gle star g
ave rise to
the n
ame "T
he L
one S
tar S
tate". "T
exas" d
erives fro
m th
e Indian
word
tejas, meaning
friendship. The region w
as colonised by the Spanish and the
Fren
ch, th
en cam
e under M
exican
dom
inatio
n. B
ut th
e adventurers S
tephen Austin and S
am H
ouston organised a coalition w
ith the two thousand Y
ankees who had com
e to settle in
those v
ast plain
s, and in
1836 rebellion became
war. A
fter the tragedy of the Alam
o, General A
ntonio Lopez
de Santa A
na was beaten by H
ouston at San Jacinto, and
Texas proclaim
ed itself a sovereign state. It sent ambas-
sadors to London, P
aris and Berlin, and had its ow
n postal service and a fleet of six torpedo-boats.
Houston becam
e the first president, and was re-elected.
In 184.6, Texas w
as admitted to the U
nion with H
ouston as its G
overnor. His reputation.w
as formidable; he w
as nick-nam
ed, w
ith resp
ect and ad
miratio
n, "th
e great d
runk".
After th
e Civ
il War, T
exas seced
ed w
ith th
e rest of th
e S
outh, but suffered relatively less from the defeat, because
of its imm
ensity. T
he cattlemen dom
inated the State until too°. T
his was
the tim
e of th
e great ran
ches, th
e cow
boys, an
d o
f that
rom
antic co
ncep
tion later seized
on b
y literatu
re and
Hollyw
ood. Then cam
e the growth of the cities, until at
last, in to
ot, n
ear Beau
mont, cam
e the fin
din
g o
f the
Spindletop w
ell, which so suddenly that there w
as no hope of catch
men
t, gush
ed sk
yw
ards
900,000 barrels o
f oil.
Fro
m b
eing th
e largest, T
exas n
ow
becam
e the rich
est •
. IT IS
TH
E F
AS
HIO
N T
O H
AT
E . . .
61 S
tate, private bank deposits alone being today in excess of five billion dollars.
One cannot speak of T
exas as a unit. In the southeast are the im
mense forests of P
iney Woods, som
e 850,000 acres -a relatively poor area, m
ost of whose population is black.
The trees, gigantic firs, alm
ost all belong to the millionaires
of Beaum
ont and Dallas.
The south, along the border w
ith Mexico, has retained
the pleasant charm of the L
atin way of life. H
ere is great pro
sperity
. There are so
man
y p
ipe-lin
es, oil-w
ells and
sources of natural gas that it is called "the spaghetti dish". L
abour is cheap and accomm
odating, mostly M
exicans who
cross the frontier to find work in the factories and ranches.
The w
est, the redoubtable west, called T
he Panhandle,
has not yet arrived in the twentieth century. T
he popula-tion is thin, 1
50,0
00 at the m
ost; the climate capricious;
the co
untry
side d
epressin
g. N
o cars, n
o telep
hones, n
o
trees. Here an
d th
ere in th
e vast d
esert a wooden
cross
marks w
here a man died of thirst —
come from
no-one know
s whence, going no-one know
s where.
The cow
boy wears the huge B
orsalino hat and jeans, and alw
ays has a revolver at his belt. But often his horse has
been replaced by a jeep, and he probably does not use his gun except on July 4th, Independence day.
The real heart of T
exas lies in the great cities: Dallas,
Fort W
orth, Houston and A
ustin, the capital. "I love daw
ns and sunsets," said Lyndon Johnson, "and
at my ranch near A
ustin I can see both. It is a dry country," he w
ent on, "there is always the sun, and the w
ind. And w
e have birds that sing and flow
ers that grow and girls w
ho lau
gh . .. It is also
a strong co
untry
, breed
ing fearless
soldiers and men w
ith great courage. The grass is rich in
minerals, and the cow
s are strong, big . . ." B
ecause of their past, the Texans are very chauvinistic
indeed. They sell postcards w
hich show T
exas as dominat-
62 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
•
ing a m
ap o
n w
hich
the rest o
f the U
nited
States can
hardly be seen. T
heir patriotism, like everything else about
them, is out of all proportion. T
his is why they arc so easily
impressed
by ex
tremist m
ovem
ents. T
heirs is n
either a
State nor a province, but an E
mpire w
hich has preserved its feudal traditions.
Side by side w
ith great wealth there is great poverty and
much exploitation; but because they are T
exans the poor and exploited w
ill not admit to being so. T
he Texan w
ho trav
els spen
ds tw
ice as much
as he can
really affo
rd, to
prove him
self "big". And he w
ill always have ready an end-
less recital of statistics: Texas has the biggest bookshop in
the United S
tates, 59 radio stations, the deepest oil-well; the
Governor's palace is the eighth largest in the w
orld; they pro
duce th
e most g
arlic; Uvald
e, Tex
as, is the w
orld
's capital for honey; T
yler, Texas, the capital for roses; P
ort A
ransas the greatest oil-port in the world; T
exas has 410 telep
hone co
mpan
ies, 4,0
00 v
arieties of w
ild. flow
er, 95,20o oil-w
ells, and 42,0
00,0
00 chickens; w
hile in Texas
you fin
d th
e most b
eautifu
l wom
en in
Am
erica, Joan
C
rawford, G
inger Rogers and D
oris Day included.
There are less flattering statistics: the largest num
ber of illiterates, the least encouraging scholastic results, and the greatest num
ber of people refusing to cast their votes on election day.
In Texas lives M
rs Clara D
riscoll, who one day —
be-cau
se a waiter at th
e White P
laza Hotel at C
orp
us
Christi did not jum
p to answer her call —
decided to buy up th
e land facin
g th
e White P
laza and th
ere build
a sky-
scraper m
uch
hig
her. S
he tu
rned
the sk
yscrap
er into
an
hotel, went out on the terrace and cocked a snook at the
White P
laza . . .
IN O
RD
ER
not to give up some of its feudal conditions, to
protect the interests of the oil millionaires (w
ho pay less in
• IT
IS T
HE
FA
SH
ION
TO
HA
TE
. 63
taxes than the rest of the Am
ericans) and to keep high the nam
e of Texas in W
ashington, Texas has created a highly
efficient political machine. Its last boss w
as Sam
Rayburn,
Speaker of the H
ouse of Representatives and ranking third
in the succession to the presidency. It w
as with R
ayburn that Lyndon B
aines Johnson served his political apprenticeship.
Lyndon Johnson's grandfather cam
e to settle in Texas
in 1846, and with a brother founded a sm
all town w
hich w
as to be named Johnson C
ity — not in the grandfather's
honour, but because a great many people nam
ed Johnson lived there. Johnson is the com
monest nam
e in the United
States after S
mith.
The g
randfath
er raised cattle an
d to
ok so
me p
art in
politics. His son, S
amuel E
aly Johnson, went in m
ainly for politics. H
e married R
ebekah Baines, a farm
er's daughter, and their son w
as born in a poor little log cabin at Stone-
wall, now
abandoned. F
or th
e first three m
onth
s the in
fant w
as just called
"B
aby"; then the father suggested the name of C
larence, then D
ayton, and finally Linden. T
he mother agreed to the
last name, provided that it w
as spelled Lyndon.
Sam
uel died in 1936, but Rebekah lived until 1958 and
was to see her son take his seat in the S
enate at Washington.
Lyndon Johnson began life as a shoe-shine boy, then
ran away to C
alifornia and finally, after borrowing seventy-
five dollars, took .a course at the training-school in Texas.
In 1932 he went to W
ashington as secretary to a Congress-
man. W
orthy son of his father, he rapidly made his w
ay in politics.
As S
am R
ayburn's protige, he was elected C
ongressman
for Texas at tw
enty-nine; and so impressed R
oosevelt that the latter told him
: "O
ne day you will sit in m
y chair .. ." W
ashington became Johnson's country, his hom
e, and
64
R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
in 1
948 h
e was elected
to th
e Sen
ate with
.a majo
rity o
f only 87 votes over his rival, G
overnor Coke S
tevenson ... so
on h
e becam
e leader o
f the D
emocrat m
ajority
in th
e S
enate — a position w
hich made him
the• most im
portant m
an in Washington after the president. •
At a dance in 1934 at the U
niVersity of T
exas, he met
Clau
dia A
lma T
aylo
r, dau
ghter o
f Thom
as Jefferson
Taylor, a second-hand dealer in K
arnock, a poor village on the edge of the fir forest. A
negress had nicknamed the
child
Lad
y B
ird, th
inkin
g h
er bird
-like, an
d th
e nam
e stuck.
Lady B
ird has often been quoted on the remote location
of the farm w
here she grew up. It had no running w
ater or bath
room
. In su
ch su
rroundin
gs a g
irl learns to
be a
practical housekeeper. But she had m
ore than backwoods
good sen
se; she h
ad am
bitio
n. S
he fell in
love w
ith th
e young political secretary, but she w
as farsighted enough to realise that he w
as a man w
ith a future. This w
as not the starry-eyed w
ishful thinking of a bride. T
hey married w
ithin six weeks of m
eeting. It was w
ell she had learned thrift on that K
arnock farm. T
hey set. up hom
e in a small W
ashington flat. The rent w
as $47. Lady
Bird w
alked miles w
ith her shopping basket to make each
dollar do the work of tw
o. In her husband's clim
b to the political peaks she was his
wise g
uid
e and m
ore. H
er help
was p
ractical. She .b
or-
rowed $1o,000 from
her father to finance his first election cam
paign. "L
ater, a $46,000 inheritance from an aunt gave w
ider play
for h
er initiativ
e. She m
ultip
lied h
er capital m
any
times. T
oday she controls several television stations, worth
more than a m
illion dollars. Johnson, m
aster of the. Senate, expert in com
promise,
with a genius for parliam
entary manoeuvre, and popular
in the South, w
as the obvious Dem
ocrat candidate for the
IT IS
TH
E F
AS
HIO
N T
O H
AT
E . . .
presidential election in 1960. He w
as opposed by Stevenson
(whose ch
ances w
ere slender sin
ce he h
ad tw
ice been
beaten by E
isenhower), and by a young S
enator rarely seen in the H
ouse but well backed by his father's m
illions: Jack K
ennedy. T
he Am
erican public is not keen on professional poli-ticians. It m
uch prefers the "outsider", the amateur, and
the daring. Kennedy w
as chosen at Los A
ngeles. Johnson w
as very much disappointed; to such a point, indeed, that
he swore never to w
ork with the new
candidate again, and never to be in any w
ay obliged to him.
Johnson was sulking in his apartm
ent, No. 7334 of the
Biltm
ore Hotel at L
os Angeles, w
hen the telephone rang; L
ady Bird took the call.
"This is R
oom
9333," said
an u
nknow
n v
oice. It w
as K
ennedy's room, and the young candidate cam
e on the line straight aw
ay. "D
o persuade your husband to accept the post of Vice-
President. W
e need him."
Som
e hours later, the news w
as official, and everyone in th
e party
was g
reatly su
rprised
. The sp
okesm
en fo
r the
trades unions, the liberals, the ncgroes and internationalists, w
ere all horrified
: Johnso
n, th
e South
erner, th
e con-
servativ
e, the sch
emer! B
ut K
enned
y h
ad ask
ed fo
r no-
one's ad
vice; h
e need
ed Jo
hnso
n's p
restige in
ord
er to
conquer the South, and he did not w
ant a hostile Johnson m
aking difficulties for him in the S
enate. A
fter the election, Johnson was forgotten. K
ennedy was
too authoritarian to share' with another the responsibilities
of power. H
is entourage did not hide their hostility to the new
Vice-P
resident, who received m
any honours, travelled around the w
orld, but was com
pletely ignored by the White
House. A
story went the rounds that a certain L
yndon Johnson w
as waitin
g at th
e Bureau
of M
issing P
ersons o
f the
j1
/10
.4.1
7,0
*1
,/, ■••••••■ MO
OIM
I...••••••• ■•••■■■,
1,•
■•■
66 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
Washington P
olice — but no-one arrived to claim
him . . .
Johnso
n h
imself, b
y n
o m
eans lack
ing in
a sense o
f hum
our, said
that M
rs Ken
ned
y h
ad h
ad a h
uge cry
stal chandelier, w
hich clattered with every draught, installed in
his office "in order to stop me going to sleep."
But this visit to T
exas was to be a revenge for him
. Here
he was at hom
e, here he counted for something. A
nd on that very evening of F
riday, Novem
ber 22nd, Kennedy and his
wife w
ould sleep in the "Spanish R
oom" at his ,hom
e, the ranch on the P
edernales river. T
he ranch had been built by his grandfather as a strong-point against R
edskin attack. It was m
ade of great stones, w
ith loopholes for firing upon the enemy. T
hanks to his w
ife, Johnsonthad modernised and furnished it lavishly; he
kept cattle on the 40 acres surrounding the main building.
There w
as even a landing-strip, not to mention the short-
wave transm
itter, swim
ming-pool and huge garage.
That night, all the staff w
ere awake, feverishly getting
everything ready for the reception on Friday evening w
hen K
ennedy would arrive at the ranch after his D
allas meet-
ing. Jo
hnso
n w
ould
receive h
im th
ere as in o
ther d
ays a
baron received the sovereign in .his castle.
.IT W
AS
on that same night that around three o'clock M
rs Jeane D
ixon, in Washington, w
as abruptly awakened by
a nightmare. S
he at once telephoned the White H
ouse and asked for "the S
ecret Service".
"You m
ust warn the P
resident — he's going to be killed
tomorrow
. Don't let him
go to Dallas. M
y visions are always
right. I foresaw his election, and R
ockefeller's marriage ...
He m
ust be warned at once."
The officer on duty, furious at having been aw
akened for this, is reported to have not even thanked her and gone back to sleep on his sofa.
CH
AP
TE
R F
IVE
He didn't like the 'S
ardine Can'
HA
LF
-A-D
OZ
EN
SE
CR
ET
SE
RV
ICE
men
, part o
f the p
resi-den
tial escort, h
ad n
ot y
et gone to
bed
that n
ight. T
hey
w
ere at the F
ort W
orth
Press C
lub (tw
o step
s from
the
hotel at which P
resident Kennedy w
as staying) drinking beer, vodka and bourbon. It w
as against regulations, but th
e discip
line o
f the S
ecret Serv
ice had
beco
me o
ddly
relaxed under K
ennedy. E
ven
bodyguard
s are hum
an. T
hey
could
hard
ly b
e blam
ed for living it up a bit, especially when their hosts
were th
e accredited
journ
alists, much
better p
aid th
an
policemen; and since apart from
the Press C
lub there was
no alcohol to be found anywhere else in all "driest" F
ort W
orth. T
he special agents would catch up on their sleep on the
aeroplane journey and during the long procession next day —
which seem
ed likely to be very dull for them.
Gerald A
. Behn, head of the W
hite House section of the
Secret S
ervice — about w
hich there is nothing secret except th
e nam
e — h
ad n
ot co
me to
Tex
as. This w
as rather
strange, sin
ce Beh
n alw
ays to
ok p
art in p
residen
tial journeys. W
as it some sort of silent protest? T
he special agents w
ere furious because the Senate had just refused the
credits necessary to take on a further twenty-five detectives.
With only four hundred m
en, most of them
engaged in chasing counterfeiters, the S
ecret Service had no longer the
67
68 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
staff,necessary to guard a Head of S
tate in an age of rapid
com
municatio
ns, an
d w
hen
leaders feel it n
ecessary to
mix w
ith the crowds. F
or big occasions they had to apply
for re-inforcements to the F
.B.I., w
hich was quick to "lend"
its men, bU
t not without som
e ironical comm
ents . . . which
made the S
ecret Service gnash their teeth.
Tim
OR
IGIN
S o
f the S
ecret Serv
ice go b
ack to
the C
ivil
War. In 1865, som
e weeks before his death —
it was to be
one of his last legislative acts — A
braham L
incoln decided to
form a corps of adventurers (several forgers am
ong them) to
combat the traffic in counterfeit m
oney in the reconquered
Southern S
tates. Their organisation w
as very vague, and
they
were p
aid fro
m th
e Secret F
und o
f the T
reasury
Departm
ent — hence their title.
In 1901, after the assassination of President M
cKinley,
the Governm
ent decided that it was essential to do som
e-
thing for the protection of the president. They did not w
ant
to .u
se the A
rmed
Forces, th
e civil p
ow
er in th
e United
States being alw
ays suspicious, of the military. N
or, for
similar reasons, did they w
ish to create a sort of political
police; the services of public order in Washington w
ere any-
way quite insufficient. T
hen someone rem
embered the T
reasury Departm
ent's
odd corps of "gorillas", and the White H
ouse asked for a
num
ber "o
n lo
an". T
he so
lutio
n w
as all the m
ore co
n-
venient because it made it unnecessary to ask C
ongress for
funds.
SE
CR
ET
SE
RV
ICE
ag
ents m
ust all h
e very
strong an
d
health
y, w
ell-educated
and h
ighly
skilled
in th
e use o
f
weapons. W
hen in Washington, they practise every day
with pistol, rifle and sub m
achine-gun at a special range, in
the v
aults o
f the T
reasury
Dep
artmen
t. They
are taught
judo, an
d fro
m tim
e to tim
e take sp
ecial courses at th
e
HE
DID
N'T
LIR
E T
HE
'SA
RD
INE
' CA
N'
69
F.B
.I. training college. They m
ust be excellent swim
mers,
know how
to ski and pilot a helicopter (in case it is neces-
sary to save the president, from peril at sea or in the m
oun-
tains). They m
ust be excellent investigators, know how
to
examine an electrical circuit to guard against sabotage or
tappin
g; b
e experts in
explo
sives; an
d b
e able to
wear
evening dress with an air in order to m
ix with the guests at
White H
ouse receptions without it being suspected w
ho
they really are — or that they are arm
ed.
Entry is not easy, but the salary is relatively attractive:
between $600 and $1,000 a m
onth, according to seniority.
After all, a p
olicem
an is a p
olicem
an, w
hatev
er he's
called, and $600 is three times as m
uch as he could earn
elsewhere —
while the prestige is enorm
ous.
They w
ear plain clothes, but their sartorial style tends to
be characteristic: a navy blue suit, " 'varsity cut", white
shirt, and multicoloured tie. Y
ou can tell them by their w
ay
of dressing without having to look for the betraying little
blue enamel star in the lapel.
In private, they are very polite; but in public heaven help
the journalist who finds him
self in their way. W
hile he was
still just a candidate, Kennedy w
as once roughly thrust
aside when he found him
self near to Eisenhow
er.
The g
reat majo
rity o
f the fo
ur h
undred
men
of "th
e
Service" are perm
anently engaged in tracing counterfeit
money. T
he "White H
ouse Detail" consists of only fifty-six
men ; though to these m
ust be added the specialists who
supervise the mail, and those engaged in special enquiries
connected with the P
residency. The W
hite House receives
some 30,000 letters a w
eek. They are all sorted in a special
room. T
he Secret S
ervice examine them
; X-ray parcels;
make chem
ical analyses of certain papers and fluids; and
if need
arises trace the o
rigin
of th
reatenin
g telep
hone
calls. T
he p
residen
t regularly
receives. th
reats to h
is life,
70
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
warn
ing
s of attem
pts u
po
n it, th
reats to d
rop
an ato
mic
bom
b o
n th
e White H
ouse. A
lmost alw
ays th
ey co
me
from the deranged or from
practical jokers. But the S
ecret S
ervice study each one, follow up clues, and if necessary
request action against those uttering threats, whose nam
es are all placed on a long B
lack List.
Th
e Secret S
ervice also
screen th
e emp
loy
ees of th
e presidential household, and of course m
ake discreet en-quiries each tim
e a journalist or photographer is accredited to the W
hite House.
But the function of the S
ecret Service is not political. It
does not concern itself with the deep plots w
hich niay go on • in the S
enate or at the Pentagon, and w
ould do nothing to prevent a coup d'etat. T
heir w
ork
is purely
practical an
d
po
liCem
anly
. Th
ere is no
thin
g o
f the G
estapo
abo
ut
them.
How
ever, James R
owley, director of the S
ervice, by pro-
fession a law
yer, m
ust k
eep u
p-to
-date w
ith ev
ents. F
or
example, he had to surround both K
ennedy and Johnson w
ith guards imm
ediately the first of the presidential
elections were announced. D
uring a visit by a foreign Head
of State he m
ust also use a good deal of diplomacy, especi-
ally when the visitor com
es from a country behind the Iron
Curtain. T
he uniformed guard at the W
hite House should not be
confused with the S
ecret Service. A
t the beginning of the century, the W
ashington police sent a group of men to keep
guard
at the g
rilled d
oors o
f the p
residen
tial palace, in
m
uch the same w
ay that men are sent to keep order in a
theatre, or to a disorderly bar. T
hen it was decided to form
a special squad, whose m
en w
ould
be b
etter paid
and assig
ned
to p
erman
ent d
uty
. T
heir task
is relatively
easy. T
hey
open
doors, an
swer
tourists' questions and chase off the squirrels; but in the ev
ent o
f dan
ger it is th
eir duty
to fo
rm a liv
ing b
arrier.
HE
DID
N'T
LIK
E T
HE
'SA
RD
INE
CA
N'
71
That is h
ow
two o
f them
came to
be sh
ot d
ow
n b
efore
President T
ruman's door.
WH
EN
A
presid
ent trav
els, a selected g
roup o
f Secret
Service m
en precedes him in their ow
n special plane, and confer w
ith the local authorities on security plans. E
very detail of the visit is studied; hotel rooms, stations
and halls are examined w
ith special detection apparatus. A
bove all, well-arm
ed men are posted throughout the area.
Finally, the dossiers of the local police or of the F
.B.I. are
carefully studied, so that suspect persons may be kept under
surveillance, or even detained for a short time.
The head of the S
ccret Service had a pow
er of veto over the president's m
ovements. E
isenhower said once: "T
hey w
on't let me w
atch the atomic tests."
Franklin R
oosevelt complained that his private train w
as rather uncom
fortable because of its ancient springs. But the
Secret S
ervice insisted on it because the old train was m
ade of steel, and w
ould give better protection in the event of an assassination attem
pt. T
ruman didn't like having his bodyguard trotting after
him every m
orning, when at 6 o'clock he took his "con-
stitutional". "T
hey walk too slow
ly, your men," he said. A
nd once, one
Ch
ristmas E
ve, h
e delib
erately ig
no
red th
e Secret
Service veto on a proposed visit to his m
other at Kansas
City. B
ad weather had closed alm
ost all the comm
ercial airports. T
ruman w
ent, just the same, from
a military air-
field. The president m
ust never be alone is the cardinal rule of the S
ervice. Agents sw
im w
ith the president, go to the cinema
with him
and follow him
everywhere. T
he whole of the
special squad was at the Y
alta Conference; and again, later,
with K
ennedy at the Berlin W
all. W
hen President W
oodrow W
ilson was courting E
dith
ff
72
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
Bolling, w
hom he w
as to marry, he w
as aware, from
their first m
eetings, of a vague sensation of being watched all the
time. H
e telephoned the police. "B
ut, M
r Presid
ent, d
on't y
ou k
now
that tw
o S
ecret S
ervice men follow
you constantly . ?" W
ilson d
id n
ot p
rotest. "G
o • o
n. It's y
our d
uty
," he
said — and ever since there has been no private life for the
Chief E
xecutive or for the mem
bers of his family.
LIK
E H
IS
pred
ecessors, K
enned
y k
icked
again
st it. He
tried to prove his independence on the very evening of his inauguration.
He disappeared m
ysteriously at about 2 o'clock in the
morn
ing, cau
sing a v
eritable p
anic am
ong th
e Secret
Service m
en. After that, his escapades w
ere endless. He
wen
t alone in
cognito
to th
e cinem
a, and w
ent to
din
ner
with friends. D
uring the visit of King H
assan of Morocco he
left the White H
ouse on foot without telling anyone, crossed
the avenue and went to see his royal guest in B
lair•House.
During his last visit to N
ew Y
ork, on Novem
ber I4.th, a w
eek b
efore th
e journ
ey to
Dallas, h
e did
with
out h
is m
otorcycle escort and even asked that there should be no protective line of police at the roadsides. T
he New
Yorkers
had indeed protested that such security precautions were
enormously expensive, upset city traffic and w
ere bad for trade; shopkeepers could sell nothing w
hile their customers
waited for the president to go by. T
he official car even had to stop like any other at each red light.
There w
as an alarm w
hen at the corner of 72nd Street a
young man w
ent right up to the President —
taking advant-age of the fact that the car had been halted at the crossroads by the traffic signal —
and took as many photographs as he
liked before the escort could intervene. T
his carelessness of Kennedy's w
as not just a consequence of his rebellious character. H
e was an elected president,
HE
DID
N'T
LIK
E T
HE
'SA
RD
INE
CA
N'
73
whose election largely depended upon his personal popu-
larity. Like a dictator, a president of the U
nited States m
ust
satisfy the demands of the crow
d. He m
ust shake hands and sm
ile, let himself be seen.
When begged to be m
ore careful, John Kennedy w
ould reply w
ith a shrug: "It's an occupational risk." F
or him, it w
as also a matter of principle. H
e was the
leader of the free world, D
emotracy's cham
pion. He could
not refuse to be seen. He did not w
ant to hide behind closed blinds, or surround him
self with hundreds of policem
en arm
ed to the teeth like a Com
munist tyrant.
What im
pression would it have m
ade on the Berliners if
he had hid himself behind a w
all of sub machine-guns? N
o, he m
ust prove to the world that the president of the U
nited S
tates was a free m
an, living among free m
en, in safety and confidence.
It was d
ifficult fo
r the S
ecret Serv
ice to ig
no
re these
arguments; after all, it is not for nothing that they refer to
the president as "the boss". It's the boss who has the last
word. A
s U. E
. Bau
gham
, retired fro
m th
e post o
f Secret
Service head for som
e years, explained philosophically: "A
president gets the protection he deserves."
AM
ER
ICA
is today in the forefront of Dem
ocracy. But that
do
es not automatically ensure her w
isdom and experience.
She is above all a young country; her history does not yet
span
two cen
turies. S
he is also
, alas, a country
which
periodically m
urders her Heads of S
tate in as sinister a way
as Tsarist R
ussia, or some eastern em
pire. It is true that the assassinations do not alw
ays have politi-cal m
otives. At least, it has never been proved that they had.
Most of the assassins w
ere deranged; but that alone does not explain w
hat they did.
•
74
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
What lies at the root of these repeated assassinations and
attempted assassinations is the m
iasmic clim
ate of hatred'; the constant friction; the taking for granted of the use of firearm
s; the id
ea that in
politics o
ne can
be a. k
ind o
f avenging angel.
Am
erica is the Land,of Freedom
— but not the Land of Tolerance,
One m
ust not forget that within her huge frontiers live
many races, m
any religions,• many nationalities; and that
in the United S
tates today internal dissensions are as intense as they w
ere in Europe during the M
iddle Ages.
With a sort of Irish N
ationalist fervour, the Southerners
.continue to regard themselves as a conquered people. T
hey •
are alway
s wav
ing th
e Confed
erate flag, sin
gin
g
Dixie,
talking of the men of the N
orth as "Yankees" —
enemies.
(The children play in S
outhern Arm
y uniforms). T
hey still look on L
incoln, the greatest president in Am
erican history, as a m
onster; to
such
a poin
t that in
the S
outh
the tele-
vision stations ban documentaries of his life.
In su
ch an
atmosp
here, th
e functio
n o
f the S
ecret S
ervice must be essential; it is vital for the security of the
state, and perhaps Kennedy w
as wrong to undervalue it.
TU
E F
IRS
T attem
pt on a president's life took place in 1835• It fluiled.
President A
ndrew Jackson w
as attending a funeral at the C
apitol, in Washington. A
mad-looking m
an stepped out of th
e crow
d, w
ent u
p to
Jackso
n, to
ok a p
istol fro
m h
is pock
et and fired
. But th
e gun d
id n
ot g
o o
ff. At o
nce
the m
an to
ok o
ut an
oth
er pisto
l. Again
the g
un d
id n
ot
fire. R
ecovering from his surprise, the P
resident struck his assailan
t with
his w
alkin
g-stick
, and th
e man
was th
en
overpowered by the police.
Later, experts exam
ined both guns and fired them m
any tim
es without the least difficulty. It has been stated that the
HE
DID
N'T
LIK
E T
HE
'SAR
DIN
E C
AN
' 75
odds against such a double misfire w
ere a million to one.
The intending assassin, R
ichard Law
rence, was a painter
by profession, and lived in Washington. H
e was confined in
a mental hom
e, and died there sixteen years after Jackson, on June 13th, 1861.
ON
GO
OD
Friday, 1865, Abraham
Lincoln appeared in pub-
lic for the first time after the victorious conclusion of the
Civil W
ar. Ju
st five d
ays earlier G
eneral G
rant h
ad receiv
ed th
e su
rrender o
f •leis South
ern ad
versary
Gen
eral Lee, in
a schoolhouse in A
ppomattox. T
he long, appalling, bloody civil w
ar which had so fundam
entally split the nation was
over at last. L
incoln lunched with his w
ife and two children; one of
them, R
obert, had just arrived from A
ppomattox. H
e had been invited to a first night at the F
ord Theatre. T
he play w
as a farce called Our A
merican C
ousin, the fun arising from
the misadventures of an E
nglish girl in Am
erica. Lincoln
had
turn
ed d
ow
n th
e invitatio
n; h
e wan
ted to
spen
d
Easter in
quiet. T
hen
, durin
g th
e afternoon, h
e was in
-form
ed that General G
rant was not going either. B
ut the people of W
ashington wanted to celebrate their trium
ph; if neith
er wen
t, there w
ould
be g
reat disap
poin
tmen
t. So
the President decided to go.
• T
he presidential box, draped with the national flag, w
as next to the stage. M
rs Lincoln sat in the front, w
hile Lincoln
preferred a deep armchair in the shadow
s. A plain-clothes
man from
the White H
ouse moved from
the back to the front of the box, because he could see nothing from
behind th
e Presid
ent. N
o-o
rie noticed
that a h
ole h
ad b
een
pierced in the door, through which L
incoln's movem
ents could be observed.
Durin
g th
e war, L
inco
ln's p
erson h
ad b
een p
rotected
night and day, but there had never been an attem
pt on his
HE
DID
N'T
LIK
E T
HE
'SA
RD
INE
CA
N'
77
State, William
H. S
eward, cut dow
n his son before his eyes, w
ounded him in the shoulder and escaped. T
he Secretary
of State ordered m
artial law.
Booth
was traced
to a farm
in V
irgin
ia. It was set o
n
fire and he was shot dow
n while trying to escape from
it. lie never gave any reason for his crim
e, or confessed any-th
ing at all. H
is accom
plices w
ere han
ged
, as was th
e ow
ner of the house where he lodged. A
doctor who, in-
nocently he claimed, had attended him
while he w
as still at large w
as imprisoned for life.
The trial w
as held in camera. T
he accused's heads were
hooded and their hands manacled. T
hey had no legal aid. M
any people in Am
erica have never believed that Booth
was the real assassin. T
he mystery of the crim
e has never been fully cleared up, despite a good deal of investigation.
WH
EN
, IN 1881, Jam
es A. G
arfield became president, a
certain Charles G
uitea.u, claiming that he had given great
help in the election campaign, dem
anded that he should be appointed consul in P
aris by way of rew
ard. Garfield passed
him on to his S
ecretary of State, w
ho tactfully explained that for the m
oment there w
as no vacancy in the Consular
Service. G
uiteau
besieg
ed th
e White H
ouse fo
r month
s in th
e hope of being appointed. G
radually he came to hate G
ar-field, and to believe that he had a divine m
ission to exter-m
inate the President.
He b
ought a rev
olv
er, and m
ade u
p h
is min
d to
kill
Garfield one S
unday while the P
resident was sitting in his
pew in church. B
ut on the Saturday the P
resident had to leave W
ashington, and the newspapers gave the tim
e of departure. G
uiteau lay in wait for him
at the station, but w
hen the President passed near him
he was accom
panied by his w
ife. Guiteau gave up the attem
pt, not wishing to
frighten Mrs G
arfield. It was not until G
arfield came back
76
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S'
life. The only such attem
pt had been in February 1861, be-
fore Lincoln had taken the oath, and therefore w
hile he was
still only president-elect. A group of conspirators planned to
blo
w u
p L
inco
ln's train
in B
altimore statio
n b
ut w
ere arrested before they could do so.
It was during the third act; w
hile Lincoln w
as laughing heartily, that a bearded young m
an opened the door of the P
residen
t's box, lev
elled h
is long p
istol, a "d
erringer",
fired, and shouted stridently: "Sic semper tyrannis !!' (T
hus perish all tyrants.)
Lincoln's head fell forw
ard upon his chest. The bullet had
struck him in the nape of the neck and lodged near the right
eye. M
rs Lin
coln
cried "O
h, n
o!" an
d an
official tried
to
'arrest the assassin, who jum
ped from the box on to the stage,
sprain
ing an
ankle as h
e fell, then
disap
peared
into
the
wings. T
he audience was still laughing, not understanding w
hat had happened.
Soldiers carried L
incoln into a nearby house, but despite desperate efforts by the doctors the P
resident died at seven n
ext m
orn
ing. T
wo
coin
s were laid
on
his ey
es; and
the
War M
inister, S
tanto
n, said
heav
ily: "N
ow
Lin
coln
be-
longs to all time."
The assassin w
as John Wilkes B
ooth, a twenty-six year
• old actor, very intense and romantic. T
hough a Northerner
by o
rigin
he w
as a fanatical p
artisan o
f the cau
se of th
e C
onfederacy. H
is inten
tion at first w
as to k
idnap
Lin
coln
and ex
-change him
for Southern prisoners of w
ar. He put him
self at the head of a sm
all group, but his accomplices soon gave
up — perhaps because they w
ere frightened of this hand-som
e young man w
ho talked in verse, waving a dagger.
Only three stayed w
ith him. It w
as they who, w
hile Booth
was killing L
incoln, invaded the house of the Secretary of
78
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
that he followed the P
resident and shot him tw
ice in the back. T
hen he qUietly surrendered his w
eapon to the police and asked to be protected from
the crowds.
Garfield
died
three m
on
ths later, an
d G
uiteau
was
executed for his crime.
ON
SE
PT
EM
BE
R 6th, 1901, P
resident William
McK
inley was
attendin
g th
e open
ing o
f the G
reat Pan
-Am
erican E
xhi-
bition at Buffalo, near N
iagara Falls. H
e shook hands with
hundreds of visitors and when a slender, dark young m
an w
ith a bandaged hand came up to him
the President m
ade to take his other hand. T
he young man, L
eon Czolgosz, an
imm
igrant of Polish origin, offered his left hand —
and with
his right drew a pistol, w
ith which he shot M
cKinley tw
ice through the .chest.
The P
resident staggered, his friends holding him up. T
he crow
d wanted to lynch the assassin, but M
cKinley insisted
that they leave him alone. M
cKinley w
as to die eight days later.
Czolgosz w
as condemned to death.
It was after this that the S
ecret Service w
as given the task of protecting the P
resident's person.
ST
ILL
AS
SA
SS
INA
TIO
N attem
pts wenton.
. When
, on
Octo
ber 1
3th
, 19
12
, Joh
n N
. Sch
rank, a b
ar- m
an of Germ
an origin, shot at Theodore R
oosevelt as he cam
e out of the Gilpatrick H
otel in Milw
aukee, the latter w
as no longer president. But he still had a right to S
ecret S
ervice protection. T
he bullet was m
iraculously stopped by the manuscript
of the speech which R
oosevelt was about to m
ake, and his spectacle-case. R
Oosevelt m
ade his speech, and did not go to hospital for attention until tw
o hours later. The bullet
remained in his chest until his death, the doctors considering
its removal too risky.
IIE D
IDN
'T L
IKE
TIL
E 'S
AR
DIN
E C
AN
' 79
UN
TIL
1937, the presidents of the United S
tates were in-
stalled in
March
, no
t in m
id-Jan
uary
as they
are no
w.
Accordingly, F
ranklin D. R
oosevelt was still only President-
Elect w
hen in February 1933 he arrived in M
iami during a
cruise on multi-m
illionaire Vincent A
stor's yacht — a m
uch-needed post-election vacation. R
oosevelt went ashore in
order to take part in a Dem
ocrat Party m
eeting. A
n anarchist, Giuseppe Z
angara, a thirty-two-year-old
mason w
orking in Miam
i, wanted to kill P
resident Herbert
Hoover. B
ut Hoover w
as in Washington and he, Z
angara, here . . T
hen suddenly Roosevelt arrived.
Zangara told him
self that a future president was w
ell w
orth
one so
on to
retire. He m
anag
ed to
get n
ear to
Roosevelt, and shot five tim
es at point-blank range. He
missed
the P
residen
t, but k
illed th
e May
or o
f Chicag
o
instantly. A
lthough believed insane, he was nonetheless tried, and
electrocuted in Florida.
TH
E A
TT
EM
PT
upon Harry T
ruman's life w
as even more
spectacular, the work of P
uerto Rican nationalists.
Puerto R
ico, of course, is one of Am
erica's Caribbean
possessions, and receives from her huge econom
ic aid. New
Y
ork has been invaded by Puerto R
ican imm
igrants who
have the vote and receive all sorts of subsidies. It is hard to im
agine that the island really wants its independence; still
there exists a tiny "irredentist" party, whose aim
s are not ery clear. O
scar Collazo and G
riselio Torresola, tw
o young mem
-bers of this party, arrived in W
ashington on October 31st,
195o. They later claim
ed that they merely w
anted to demon-
strate in front of President T
ruman's residence; but they
were arm
ed with guns, and sixty-six bullets.
At the tim
e, Trum
an was having the W
hite House re-
decorated, and was living on the otherside of the avenue, at
+woe. .••,* ..•■•••...-
• I
f
HE
DID
N'T
LIK
E' T
HE
'SA
RD
INE
CA
N'
81
policem
en (th
e one in
the second sentry-box and a col-league) opened fire on him
. Collazo turned round, only to
find that his revolver was em
pty. H
e then did something quite unbelievable. H
e sat calmly
down on the steps and set to w
ork to re-load his revolver. T
he p
olicem
en w
ere shootin
g at h
im, b
ut a little iro
n
balustrade protected him. C
ollazo was thus able to get up
and continue the battle. He fired three tim
es, and was then
hit in the chest, collapsing in front of the door. If C
ollazo was not a very good shot, T
orresola on the other hand proved an excellent one. A
fter shooting down
Coffclt, he fired at another policem
an, Joseph H. D
own,
who w
as seriously
inju
red, th
en w
ent to
the aid
of h
is com
rade, Collazo. H
e wounded B
irzell in the other leg, thus reducing the guard to helplessness.
In h
is turn
, Torreso
la had
to re-lo
ad. B
ut th
e guard
C
offclt (w
hom
he h
ad sh
ot th
ree times at p
oin
t-blan
k
rang
e in th
e sentry
-bo
x) fo
un
d th
e streng
th, d
espite h
is terrible w
ounds, to aim his revolver at him
. Torresola w
as m
ortally wounded in the head, and died instantly.
While the policem
en were getting them
selves killed for h
im, P
residen
t Tru
man
did
a very
foo
lish an
d ch
ildish
thing, w
hich could have cost him his life. A
wakened w
ith a start by the shooting, and still in his underpants, he w
ent to th
e win
dow
to see w
hat w
as hap
pen
ing. H
ad h
e been
noticed by one of the assassins, or had there been a third, catastrophe m
ight have followed.
Collazo
recovered
, and w
as tried an
d co
ndem
ned
to
death. Trum
an comm
uted the sentence to one of imprison-
ment for life. In
19
58
and
19
59
, oth
er Pu
erto R
ican n
ation
alists plan
ned
attempts o
n th
e life of P
residen
t Eisen
how
er. T
he first in
volv
ed th
e thro
win
g o
f gren
ades u
nder h
is car; th
e second a fu
sillade o
f shots d
urin
g a p
ublic
ceremony.
• T
he arrest o
f Lee H
arvey
Osw
ald, after h
e had
been
fou
nd
in a
Dallas cinem
a
82 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
Neith
er plo
t came to
any
thin
g, th
ank
s to p
reven
tive
measures by the S
ecret Service.
•
AN
OT
HE
R P
UE
RT
O R
ican, Silverio .C
ruz, threw him
self, arm
ed, at Kennedy's car in C
hicago, while K
ennedy was
still only a candidate. T
hen
, while h
e was still P
residen
t-Elect, Jo
hn F
., • K
ennedy only just missed falling victim
to a certain Richard
P. P
avlick, who w
as apparently deranged. T
he in
ciden
t took p
lace at Palm
Beach
, where th
e. K
enn
edy
s hav
e a win
ter residen
ce, on
the m
orn
ing
of
Sunday, D
ecember t ith, 196o. P
avlick left this car, a Ford,
0 outside their luxurious villa. In it w
ere found seven sticks of d
ynam
ite with
auto
matic d
etonato
rs. The m
an h
ad
intended to engineer a collision with the future P
resident's car, an
d in
the co
nfu
sion
blo
w K
enn
edy
, him
self and
guards all sky-high.
Fortunately, that m
orningJacqueline and her daughter C
aroline were w
ith the young politician; and Pavlick, by a
miracle of sentim
entality, did not want to kill the w
ife and child as w
ell. He decided to w
ait for another chance. B
ut th
e Secret S
ervice h
ad b
een alerted
. A h
unt fo
r P
avlick
beg
an, an
d so
me d
ays later h
e was arrested
. He
made a full confession. A
t his home w
ere found films of all
Ken
ned
y's m
ov
emen
ts and
a hu
ge co
llection
of p
ho
to-
graphs. A
year later, w
hile K
enned
y —
now
Presid
ent o
f the
United S
tates — w
as preparing to go to Venezuela, a group
of m
asked
men
bu
rst 'into
the p
olice statio
n o
f the little
village of Urachiche, and after killing tw
o officers seized a quantity of arm
s and amm
unition. U
rachiche is on the motorw
ay leading from L
a Guaira
airport to Caracas, along w
hich Kennedy w
as to pass. The
bandits belonged to the so-called Liberation M
ovement,
more or less pro-C
astro.
HE
DID
N'T
LIK
E T
HE
'SA
RD
INE
CA
N'
83
Rom
olo Bethancourt, V
enezuela's President (for w
hose safety
Ken
ned
y w
as in h
is turn
to b
e concern
ed o
n
the ev
e of N
ov
emb
er 22
nd
, 19
63
) at on
ce warn
ed
Wash
ing
ton
, and
sug
gested
that th
e visit sh
ou
ld b
e postp
oned
. Diso
rder h
ad m
eanw
hile b
roken
out in
his
capita tl K
B
ut Kennedy decided to take the risk.
"After all, if N
ixon wasn't afraid, I —
Kennedy —
have no 'right to let m
yself be intimidated."
The g
uerrillas w
ere fortu
nately
put o
ut o
f action b
y
regular troops. P' hundred S
ecret Seivice m
en were sent on
ahead. Am
erican Marines w
ere debarked from the cruiser
.Vorthampton. T
he Caracas police threw
out a giant net. All
po,sible precautions were taken.
How
ever, one rebel, a certain El T
oro, did succeed in G
etting
into
the airp
ort g
rou
nd
s at La G
uaira, an
d w
ith
Grenades in his pocket. B
ut he was not able to do anything;
1w w
as surrounded by Secret Service men.
The K
ennedys' visit to Venezuela w
ent off triumphantly.
ON
TH
IS m
orning of Friday, N
ovember 22nd, 1963, special
agent Bill G
reer woke up very early.
l'or some reason, his first thought w
as that since Igor, w
hen the Secret S
ervice took on the task of protecting the ptesid
ents, th
e "record
" was u
nblem
ished
. The S
ervice
:t.'td never lost a president. All assassination attem
pts had been baulked.
Today he w
as to drive the presidential car. He w
ent to his hotel w
indow, and sate w
ith dismayed surprise that the
weather had turned fine. "D
amn!" he exclaim
ed disgustedly. In
go
od
weath
er, the "b
ub
ble-to
p" (a p
lastic do
me
specially designed to cover the passengers in the presiden-tial car w
ithout hiding them) could not be used. A
ctually, the plastic did not give 'com
plete protection against a bomb
. 84 .
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
' TE
XA
S
• or a bullet; but it w
ould.deflect them, w
hich was som
ething. U
nfo
rtunately
, Ken
ned
y (lik
e his p
redecesso
r, Eisen
-how
er) did not like this dome, and had ordered B
ill Greer
not to use it except in very bad weather.
"It's suffo
cating u
nder th
at thin
g. L
ike b
eing in
a sar-dine can," the P
resident would often say to his chauffeur.'
CH
AP
TE
R S
IX
The P
romoter
.
TH
E F
LO
OR
WA
ITE
R, G
eorge B. Jackson, a negro, served
breakfast in the President's room
punctually at half-past eight, on this fateful m
orning of Novem
ber 22nd. •
Ken
ned
y w
as already sh
aved
and d
ressed. H
e had
I Irdered orange juice, toast, coffee, and eggs boiled for five m
inutes. F
or Jacq
uelin
e, still asleep, th
ere was o
range
juice, toast, and coffee served on a hot-plate. T
he P
residen
t had
risen at q
uarter to
eight, an
d h
ad
already
had
a talk w
ith h
is aide-de-camp, G
eneral Godfrey
T. M
cHugh.
-N
othing new," that officer said. H
e handed over some '
Tapers, and tw
o pages of telegraphed reports on the situation in V
iet-Nam
and Cam
bodia. Fuller reports w
ould be supplied later, during the plane journey.
Th
e Presid
ent to
ok
the lift, sm
iling
at yo
un
g L
up
e G
uerrero, the lift-girl. She w
as quite overcome; she had
spent half a week's w
ages on a permanent w
ave in Ken-
nedy's honour, and was delighted at being noticed.
Desp
ite the n
ight's fin
e rain, a sm
all crow
d h
ad b
een
waitin
g sin
ce three in
the n
iom
ing in
front o
f the h
otel
doors. When K
ennedy came out, there w
ere about to,000. A
teen-ag
er wh
o h
ad b
een th
ere since d
awn
beg
an
shouting: "Jack, Jack, com
e here. I want to touch you. I love you.
We all love you ..." H
er name w
as Lila L
azo.
85
TH
E P
RO
MO
TE
R
87
high school played the presidential anthem, "H
ail to the C
hief". K
ennedy was seated in the centre of the table of honour.
Breakfast w
as served. Having already had his, K
ennedy just w
ent through the motions of eating. H
e was used to this
bit of play-acting, his doctor having forbidden him to eat
food served at banquets in hotels or other public places. T
hings were at the coffee stage w
hen at last Jacqueline appeared, doll-like in pink, and took her place beside her husband. S
he received a tremendous ovation.
JacqUeline excused her lateneS
s: "I travel light, and have to do m
y own hair."
There w
as noth
ing v
ery rem
arkab
le in K
enned
y's
cpeech. It was m
uch the same as before: he covered the
same ground, m
aking flattering allusions to the town and its
snore
pro
min
ent citizen
s. He sp
oke p
artly fro
m n
otes,
partly extempore. B
ut this Fort W
orth. speech must becom
e part of history because these w
ere to be John Fitzgerald
Kennedy's last public w
ords. H
e spoke ag
ain o
f the p
ow
er of A
merica, an
d o
f the
aeroplanes made at F
ort Worth. H
is elder brother, Joseph, had
been
in o
ne o
f them
, a Lib
erator, at th
e time o
f his
death
in th
e last war; an
d as if o
n a su
dden
insp
iration
Kennedy w
ent on to speak of "the very dangerous and un-certain w
orld in which w
e live .. ." 1 le broke off abruptly after that phrase. T
he audience rem
ained
pen
sive an
d silen
t, and d
id n
ot ap
plau
d as h
e left the room
.
TH
E P
RE
SID
EN
TIA
L procession w
ent slowly tow
ards the C
arswell A
ir Base, m
adly cheered all the way. K
ennedy and his w
ife shook hands hundreds of times before boarding
the aircraft. T
he p
lane to
ok o
ff at 11.24. Kennedy w
ent to the front, w
here there was a separate com
partment w
ith table, arm
chairs, two beds and a cloakroom
.
. 86 .
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
The greater part of the crow
d was w
aiting in a car-park w
hose proprietor had put it at the disposal of the Dem
ocrat P
arty o
rgan
isation. A
temporary
platfo
rm h
ad b
een
erected, and Kennedy w
ent' towards it, shaking hands and
smiling acknow
ledgement of the increasingly hysterical
cheers. Near the platform
were V
ice-President Johnson,
Governor C
onnally, Senator Y
arborough and other poli. ticians.
Kennedy w
as wearing a grey flannel suit, w
ithout coat or h
at. As th
e rain h
ad b
egun ag
ain, a su
pporter o
ffered
him a raincoat, but he refused w
ith a unite: "I'm
all right. I don't need it." H
e began to speak, without notes:
"Our h
earts are strong . T
han
ks to
the to
wn o
f Fort
Worth, w
e are militarily the m
ost powerful nation in the
world
. . . Soon w
e shall sh
oot in
to S
pace an
even
more
formidable rocket than the R
ussian ones . . . Space is a new
O
cean . . . an
d n
o-o
ne m
ust g
et ahead
of u
s there. N
ext
year we shall be first in every field." H
e finished with m
ore praise of F
ort Worth, and got dow
n from the platform
to w
alk back through the delirious crowd.
A G
RO
UP
of D
emocrats h
ad p
aid $
3 each
to atten
d a
political b
reakfast w
ith th
e Presid
ent in
the b
allroom
of
the T
exas H
otel. T
he p
rice was a n
om
inal o
ne; th
e tick
ets had
been
chan
gin
g h
ands o
n th
e black
mark
et at $15 to $20.
Ken
ned
y w
ent b
ack fo
r a mom
ent to
his su
ite befo
re joining his audience. H
e probably wanted to ask Jacqueline
to hurry up, as her absence had been noticed. He also m
ade several telephone calls. It is supposed that he talked w
ith his brother B
ob, in Washington.
He w
ent down again, to the lounge, to greet a group of
notab
les, and th
en led
them
into
the b
allroom
. It was
exactly nine o'clock. An orchestra of pupils from
a 'local
' I 88
RE
D R
OSE
S FRO
M T
EX
AS.
.
Fort W
orth is separated from D
allas by only some thirtir-
five m
iles of m
oto
rway
thro
ugh th
e desert. B
ut th
e two
tow
ns are b
itter rivals, carefu
l to ig
nore each
oth
er's
existence; it was good politics to arrive in D
allas by plane,
as if coming directly from
Washizigtori, or at least from
far aw
ay. T
he plane journey also gave some opportunity to recoup
oneself. The press used it to have a drink —
much needed,
the bars at Fort W
orth being closed — and to read through
their n
otes. -
Vice-P
resident Johnson had his own special plane. T
he
rule is that president and vice-president should never travel
in the same one, so as to avoid a succession crisis in the case
of accid
ent. H
e used
the o
pportu
nity
to talk
over T
exan
problems w
ith his friends, and to arrange the evening's big
reception at his ranch. K
ennedy himself studied im
portant dossiers sent from
Wash
ingto
n, sig
ned
a num
ber o
f letters, inclu
din
g th
e
telegram of good w
ishes to Winston C
hurchill, then began
to read the morning's new
spapers. A
mong th
e dailies w
as the
New
York H
erald Tribune,
which
he h
ad b
anned
for o
ver a y
ear from
the W
hite
House b
ecause it criticised
him
more th
an h
e liked
.
Now
he h
ad c
hanged h
is min
d, a
nd re
ad it e
ach
morning. F
inally
, he b
egan
to m
ake n
otes o
n th
e man
uscrip
t of
the Dallas speech, the text already distributed to the press
and others attending — but K
ennedy liked to make last-
minute alterations.
TH
IS SAM
E m
orning, at Tam
pa, Florida, John E
. Maguire
was collecting signatures to an address to the P
resident of
the United S
tates, thanking him for his visit of som
e days
befo
re. Mag
uire w
as altogeth
er suited
for th
is task, it
having been Kennedy w
ho had appointed him "M
at:shall"
THE PR
OM
OTER
8g
— rou
ghly eq
uivalen
t to Ch
ief Con
stable —
of Cen
tral
Florida. H
e had
kn
own
the P
residen
t for twen
ty years; since, in
fact, as radio-telegrap
hist secon
d-class h
e had
been
one of
the crew
of the n
aval patrol b
oat PT
B log, com
man
ded
by
Lieu
tenan
t Ken
ned
y. M
aguire cou
ld go to W
ashin
gton to see th
e Presid
ent
whenever he liked. T
he White H
ouse door was alw
ays open
to him
. So it w
as to William
John
son, w
ho th
at morn
ing
(desp
ite his fifty-th
ree years. and
his stom
ach u
lcer) was
drivin
g a lorry at Walth
am, M
assachu
setts, for a petrol
comp
any. Joh
nson
had
also served on
PT
B tog, an
d w
ith
him C
harles A. H
arris, called "Buckley", the ship's gunner,
who w
as that morning m
aking shoes in a Boston factory.
Mach
inist G
erald
E. Z
inser, a
posta
l emp
loyee in
-
Florid
a, and
Sau
l Ed
gar Mau
er, for eighteen
mon
ths n
ow
confin
ed to a m
ilitary hosp
ital becau
se of a nervou
s con-
dition
, could
not h
ope to see th
eir old com
man
der again
.
A fu
rther m
emb
er of the crew
, Mau
rice Kow
al, work
ed
in a cem
etery. He w
as the sailor K
enn
edy saved
from cer-
tain
dea
th a
t risk o
f his o
wn
life, wh
en P
TB
tog w
as
wrecked.
FOR
TI1E
crew and their com
mander cam
e within inches
of a h
orrib
le death
one m
oonless n
ight in
the B
lackett
Straits in
the S
olomon
Island
s, some fifty m
iles from th
eir
regular base of Randova, south of N
ew G
eorgia.
It was a
little after m
idn
igh
t, on
Au
gu
st 2n
d,
5943.
PT
B tog w
as on p
atrol, the secon
d in
comm
and
, George
Ross, at the helm
.,Suddenly, out of the darkness surged the
Am
agiri, a JapaneSe destroyer ; head
ing at 30 k
nots for th
e
Am
erican boat. It cut it in two and w
ent on its way w
ithout
slowin
g up
for a second
. T
wo m
emb
ers of the crew
were k
illed in
stantly, an
d tw
o
others w
oun
ded
. Ken
ned
y was th
rown
on to th
e brid
ge.
aw
ew
mokow
er....7
1.0.
1,,, .
.•••■■■•r.
90
. RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
The b
oat d
id n
ot sin
k, b
ut th
e sea was aflam
e. It was
expected that help would com
e quickly, but the rest of the flotilla w
ent on, believing them lost.
During the follow
ing night, the vessel went dow
n• and• the crew
swam
towards a sm
all deserted island. Kennedy,
an excellent swim
mer, tow
ed one of the wounded, holding
the sailor's life jacket between his teeth. H
aving got him
ashore, L
ieuten
ant K
enned
y d
id n
ot sto
p fo
r rest, but
plunged back into the water, carrying a lantern. A
ll night • long he sw
am around in the F
erguson Passage, m
uch used by naval units, hoping to be able to signal to one of them
, but w
ithout success. He w
ent back to his men. T
he third night, they all m
anaged to get to another island. N
ext d
ay,-K
enned
y an
d R
oss fo
und so
me w
ater and
biscuits left behind by the Japanese. There w
as also a canoe, w
hich they tried to use, but a storm sw
ept them off course.
Natives cam
e to their aid and gave them a stronger boat.
Ken
ned
y scratch
ed a b
rief messag
e on a co
conut sh
ell, indicating their position and asking for help, and gave it to a group of natives w
ho promised to go to R
andova. K
ennedy and his second in comm
and then tried to get' back to their com
rades, but the boat foundered. They w
ere sav
ed a seco
nd tim
e from
certain d
eath b
y th
e island
peOple.
It was n
ot u
ntil th
e seven
th d
ay th
at at last they
were
bro
ught a letter fro
m R
andova ... a few
hours later th
ey
were rescued. A
dmiral H
alsey gave Kennedy a m
ention in despatches, an
d h
e was d
ecorated
for v
alour. U
nfo
rtunately
, he fell
victim
to m
alaria, and h
ad to
giv
e up activ
e service. In
D
ecember he returned to the U
nited States, and w
as con-fined to a m
ilitary hospital until Autum
n 1944• A
LR
EA
DY
, WID
LE
at Harvard U
niversity (where he w
as in th
e cham
pio
n sw
imm
ing team
• and th
e rugby team
)
TH
E P
RO
MO
TE
R
91
Kennedy as a young student had seriously injured his spine.
For th
is reason, th
e Arm
y w
ould
not accep
t him
at the
outbreak of war. B
ut Kennedy did not w
ant to be an• en-forced civilian. T
hanks to the influence of his family, he
obtained a Naval com
mand.
The adventure in the w
aters of the Pacific aggravated his
physical co
nditio
n. L
ater, he h
ad to
underg
o a w
hole
series of painful operations, two of w
hich involved risk of death. H
e had to learn to walk w
ith crutches, and even at the W
hite House he had alw
ays to put up with a very strict
regimen under the direction of D
r Travell. H
is rocking-chair, therefore, w
as not a paternalist symbol but a thera-
peutic necessity. E
very cloud has its silver lining: a long stay in hospital in 1955 enabled K
ennedy to write a book prophetically titled
Profiles in Courage, w
hich brought him the P
ulitzer Prize.
WIZ
EN
I th
ink o
f John F
itzgerald
Ken
ned
y, I see h
im
alighting from his plane at T
exas, hatless and coatless, red hair flying in the w
ind. He w
anted to brave the elements in
just the same w
ay as he wanted to brave the ups and dow
ns of politics.
For him
, life was a continual challenge, w
hich he accep-ted w
ith an unchanging enthusiasm each day and night -
like a skier who plunges dow
n from the height of the track
to leap into the void. H
is one really big worry w
as time:
"I've so much to do," he w
ould say. "I shall never man-
age to finish it all in four years . . . Even in eight, I'll have •
to h
urry
." P
ower had brought about a physical change in him
. He
had got fatter, his cheeks were full, there w
ere dark circles around his eyes. H
e often gave the impression of being very
tired, d
iscourag
ed, d
isillusio
ned
. But h
e remain
ed an
idealist, and above all a m
an young in spirit.
92 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
His fondness for children w
as endearing; he would often
interrupt an important conference to go to the next floor
to see w
hat "Jo
hn Jo
hn" w
as doin
g. (H
e called th
e boy
that b
ecause h
e did
not lik
e Jack, th
e bap
tismal n
ame;
still less "Johnny" o
r "junio
r"): P
rom
inen
t on h
is table tild
e were alw
ays b
oxes o
f sw
eets, for Jo
hn an
d C
arolin
e to d
ip in
to. T
he ch
ildren
could com
e and see him often throughout the day, and not
only for the benefit of photographers. His favourite gam
e w
as to tak
e "John-Jo
hn" in
his arm
s and w
hisp
er in h
is ear; th
en th
e little boy w
ould
hiss in
his fath
er's car a vague "buzz-buzz" —
and father and son would burst into
hearty laughter. It was their "secret".
TH
E E
VE
NT
S of N
ovem
ber 2
2nd, 1
963 h
ave created
a K
ennedy myth. A
ttempts have been m
ade to turn him into
another Lincoln, a genius, a pioneer or an idol.
We o
ught n
ot to
anticip
ate the v
erdict o
f histo
ry. It
will not be possible for a long tim
e to make a true evaluation
of his uncompleted w
ork. Let us, for the m
oment, just note
that on this Friday m
orning of his journey to Dallas, he w
as under critical fire fo
r man
y reaso
ns. T
he R
epublican
gro
up in
the S
enate h
ad recen
tly p
ublish
ed a statem
ent
which called his presidency the w
orst since Harding's.
Kennedy w
as very irritated by criticisnis of this kind; perhaps his desire for repeated renew
al of contact with the
crowds w
as rooted in a need of re-assurance. D
espite fam
ily, frien
ds an
d ad
mirers, a p
residen
t is appallingly alone. H
e is perhaps the most isolated m
an in • ' th
e world
. His is a h
ard callin
g; an
d, as T
rum
an o
nce
said to me. "E
ach year at the White H
ouse is an eternity." I rem
ember K
ennedy on the evening when he thanked
his. supporters for having chosen him as their candidate for
the presidency; the atmosphere in the L
os Angeles S
tadium
was hysterical. H
e still had a boyish face then. You w
ouldn't .
TH
E P
RO
MO
TE
R
93 •
have thought that it was the future president of the U
nited S
tates up there. He looked m
ore like a page who had just
come up w
ith 'a message, and then, suddenly drunk (as in
some film
comedy), grabbed the m
icrophone. Near him
was
his mother, R
ose Kennedy.
Tuts
mater dolorosa
has b
een m
uch
neg
lected sin
ce the
Dallas trag
edy; it w
as the y
oung an
d lo
vely
Jacquelin
e K
ennedy, by her husband's side at the time, w
ho caught the public im
agination. But does a m
other suffer less be-cause she w
as not there when her son died?
Rose F
itzgerald, daughter of a famous politician, had
had the great joy of seeing her John elected to the highest office in the country; any m
other would w
ish her son one day to be president, and R
ose had wanted it m
ore than any other. B
ut she had had to pay dearly for that satisfaction. H
er eldest son, Joseph, a bomber-pilot in E
urope, left his E
nglish base on August 12th, 1944 never to return. T
hat sam
e year, her daughter Kathleen, w
ife of the Marquis of
Hartin
gto
n, w
as wid
ow
ed; sh
e was to
die in
her tu
rn in
1948, in an air disaster in the south of F
rance. R
osem
ary K
enned
y, th
e eldest o
f the fo
ur K
enned
y
daughters, has always been m
entally handicapped; she is under care in a W
isconsin sanatorium. T
he family very
brav
ely rev
ealed th
is secret in o
rder to
enco
urag
e the
creation of a vast fund in aid of retarded children. O
n D
ecember 1
9th
, 1961, R
ose's h
usb
and, Jo
seph P
. K
ennedy, succumbed to an apoplectic attack w
hich almost
completely paralyzed him
. He w
as the dens ex machina of
the clan. He had built up an im
mense fortune by daring
and not always orthodox speculation, becom
e an Am
bas-sador, dom
inated the Dem
ocrat Party and determ
ined to m
ake not just one of his sons president, but all four of them
in succession. It so chanced that I m
et the elder Kennedy in a fam
ous
n
•
94 R
ED
RO
SES FR
OM
TE
XA
S clinic on 34th S
treet in New
York. H
e was undergoing a
special course of therapy in an annexe filled with w
onderful apparatus specially devised for him
. Kennedy S
enior, alas, w
as unable to move a single m
uscle, and could close his eyes only w
ith difficulty. It will never be know
n whether he
understood all that happened at Dallas and after.
"I S
TA
RT
ED
in politics," John Kennedy once said, "because
Joe d
ied. If so
meth
ing h
appen
ed to
me to
morro
w, m
y
brother Bobby w
ould take my place, and if B
obby died too T
eddy would succeed him
." It w
as, indeed
, a matter. o
f a veritab
le dynasty
, con-
ceived in the mind of the father. K
ennedy Senior did not
only train his eight children tirelessly towards his am
bitious-objectives; he m
ade good use of his wealth and connec-
tions, his aptitude for intrigue, and all the social, family and
religious advantages to establish his children in the front rank.
Joseph Kennedy m
ust bitterly have regietted not having liv
ed in
earlier times, w
hen
the H
apsb
urg
s, Cap
ets and
Rom
anoffs founded Em
pires to pass on to their issue. E
very
thin
g, th
en, h
ad b
een o
rgan
ised fo
r Josep
h, th
e eld
est. When
the L
iberato
r crashed
som
ewhere o
ver
Germ
any, Kennedy S
enior had only to change the label: it w
as for the second son, John, to take up the standard. O
ne morning in January 196o, K
ennedy Senior w
ent to see his friend "U
ncle Dan" O
'Connell, one of the patrons.
of the Dem
ocrat Party.
"Dan, I've conic to ask for votes for m
y son .. ." "H
e's rather young, your John," was the answ
er. "Y
es, I know
. But I'm
seven
ty-tw
o, an
d I w
ant to
be
there to enjoy his conquest . .." H
e was there, but not for long.
It is said o
f him
that h
e was th
e eminence grise o
f the.
White H
ouse, that nothing was decided w
ithout his being
TH
E P
RO
MO
TE
R
95
consulted, that the Governm
ent was really a R
egency — his;
even th
at the U
nited
States w
ere ruled
collectively by th
e K
enn
edys.
EV
EN
TS PR
OV
ED
that Jo
hn K
enned
y g
rew in
stature as i
statesman after his father w
as incapacitated, and that he could m
anage very well w
ithout a mentor.
He rem
ained
in p
ow
er for o
nly
a little more th
an a
thousand days. But lie proved capable of confronting tw
o great crises w
ith authority. The first w
as Cuba; the second
was during the sum
mer of 1963, w
hen several days before the negro protest m
arch on Washington he dared to throw
overb
oard
the p
olitician
s pru
den
ce and co
nfro
nt th
e nation squarely w
ith its moral responsibility.
He did not w
ant to win. the cold w
ar. He w
anted, on the contrary, to m
ake the Am
ericans realise that it was m
adness to let them
selves be dominated by dread of it. H
e wanted to
make them
grasp the fact that the future of the country, an
d o
f the w
orld
, dep
ended
upon an
honourab
le under-
standing with the S
oviets. H
e was n
ot a th
eorist. H
is philo
sophy w
as simple: to
defend F
reedom, keep his sense of hum
our, live his life fully and tackle the highest peaks. H
e considered himself
something of a m
ountain guide. A
s a Senator he had been rather shy, and absent a good
deal of the time; he transform
ed himself into an excellent
administrator and brilliant diplom
at — and also a m
agnet to m
en. H
e knew
how
to su
rround h
imself w
ith b
rilliant
people, and how to m
ake them share in his ow
n enthusiasm
and vitality. He w
as not first-class, but had great respect for the first-class in others.
Like all other presidents in A
merican history, he did not
speak
any fo
reign lan
guag
e, yet h
e was th
e most in
ter-national of the m
asters of the White H
ouse. T
he ballet sent him to sleep; but he w
anted very much
• /.4fe
6;•■••N
T.6.1
"'lis
'
96 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
to encourage it, to create an Am
erican tradition. He pre-
ferred reading detective stories, but surrounded himself w
ith great w
riters and chose the old poet Robert F
rost to read a poem
at his inauguration. In m
any spheres he was m
ediocre, but he knew it; and
knew that w
hat mattered w
as to recognise the existence of a h
igh
er level, w
hich
he m
ust try
to attain
. After all,
Lorenzo the M
agnificent was not poet, painter or sculptor
either. H
e was a prom
oter, an im
presario
, rather th
an a states-
man
, a po
litical leader o
r a ruler; o
ne o
f tho
se men
wh
o
insp
ire, org
anise, u
tilise the talen
t of o
thers fo
r great
ends.
JOH
N F
ITZ
GE
RA
LD
Kennedy w
as born on May 29th, 1917
at Brooklyn, M
assachusetts, but his education was entirely
Bostonian. H
e was very proud of having that accent, and
often noticeably stressed it. H
is studies at Harvard therefore counted enorm
ously; and he show
ed a remarkable loyalty to his alm
a mater. It
was enough to be a H
arvard graduate to be something in his
administration.
But lie also studied at the L
ondon School of E
conomics,
du
ring
his fath
er's term as A
mb
assado
r there. H
e even
acted as private secretary to K
ennedy Senior, just before
the w
ar: He h
ad alread
y w
ritten an
d p
ublish
ed a rath
er critical thesis on the E
nglish policy of temporisation.
After h
is war-tim
e adv
entu
res and
disch
arge fro
m
hospital, he went back to L
ondon as a war correspondent.
At th
e end
of h
ostilities, h
e wen
t into
active p
olitics,
standing for Congress in B
oston in 1946. H
e went to W
ashington at the age of twenty-seven. It
was ju
st a sprin
g-b
oard
. In 1
952 h
e challen
ged
Hen
ry
Cabot L
odge (the same w
ho 'was later to be a candidate
for the vice-presidency with N
ixon) for the Senate. L
odge
it
F.
Above left, N
o. I su
spect L
ee Osw
ald in
a photo
grap
h w
hich
his
mo
ther claim
s is a lake. R
ight, with
his R
ussian
-born
wife M
arina
and bottom
left in th
e unlb
rm o
f an A
ir Cad
et. Bottom
right, Marin
a O
swald
with
her b
aby an
d m
oth
er-in-law
, Marg
uerite O
swald
. leav
e Dallas jail alter q
uestio
nin
g
1'
TH
E P
RO
MO
TE
R
97 belonged to a very old A
merican fam
ily; he represented tradition, aristocracy, prestige.
Kennedy w
as elected. S
ome years later, he spoke of the presidency, and let it
be k
now
n th
at he w
ould
temporarily
accept th
e vice-
presidency. But fortunately for him
— since the D
emocrats
were beaten —
no one took him very seriously.
The- clim
ate was very different in 1960.
Kennedy S
enior had prepared the ground very thorough-ly, and there w
as no "strong" candidate. Kennedy began
well in advance, going up and dow
n all over the country. F
rom the first he w
as convincing and people began to take notice. T
hen some started to get w
orried. "H
e is too young, lacks experience," Trum
an said of him
publicly. But Y
outh worked for • him
— the young have
votes too. "H
e's a Catholic," said the professionals, and quoted the
un
hap
py
preced
ent o
f Al S
mith
in 1
92
8. B
ut A
merica's
Catholics had profited by the lesson of, the past. T
hey knew
how to concentrate their forces, and bigotry w
as no longer w
idespread. T
he rtegroes and Jews voted for him
, in the hope that one d
ay it w
ou
ld b
ecom
e po
ssible to
vo
te for a b
lack o
r a Jew
ish president. K
ennedy — helped by his brothers, his sisters, his brothers
in law, his sisters in law
, his friends in Hollyw
ood and on B
roadway, in W
all Street, B
oston and Harvard, and by his
irresistible charm on television —
was elected, the youngest
presid
ent in
the h
istory
of th
e Un
ited S
tates. He h
ad
achieved what he had so passionately w
anted.
"H
E N
EV
ER
to
ok h
imself to
o serio
usly
," his in
timate
friend Benjam
in Bradley says of him
. "He loved stories
against himself:"
In fact, a d
isc Qn
wh
ich an
un
kn
ow
n acto
r, Vau
gh
n
L T
he m
om
ent o
f death
for L
ee O
sw
ald
. Nig
ht-c
lub o
wner ja
ck
Ruby ste
ps fo
rward
with
a g
un a
s the P
resid
ent's a
lleged a
ssassin
is e
scorte
d b
y Dalla
s police
office
rs
•
TH
E P
RO
MO
TE
R
99
after saving them from
one risk of atomic destruction, to
canalise th
eir energ
ies tow
ards th
e spiritu
al "new
fron-
tiers" which w
ould certainly — had 'he been able to rem
ain at the helm
— have brought about a decisive transform
ation of the w
hole national life. D
espite their elegance of style, his speeches always pro-
duced a great effect on the crowds. B
ut they do not allow us
to divine his real thoughts. For, alas, though it is hard to
understan
d w
hy m
en w
ho h
ave attain
ed g
reat heig
hts
should need'"ghosts" to write their speeches, K
ennedy had specialised assistants to do this for him
. He approved the
texts, certain
ly, an
d m
ade alteratio
ns, b
ut th
at do
esn't
change the fact that he read them as an actor declaim
s his role, and not as an author does his ow
n work.
There is, how
ever, a slogan which characterises the real
Kennedy, the K
ennedy who still lives on in the m
emory of
those who knew
, loved or admired him
: "D
o not ask —" he said on the day of his inauguration to
the presidency, before the steps of the Capitol —
"Do not
ask what the country can do for you. A
sk yourself what you
can do for your country."
WIT
HIN
A few
min
utes, th
e blu
e and g
old
plan
e would
land at D
allas, where his rendezvous w
ith Destiny aw
aited him
: John Fitzgerald K
ennedy was that day to receive an
answer to his ow
n question.
98
R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
Meader, im
itated his voice and made fun of a soirée at th
e W
hite House, had a phenom
enal success because Kennedy
himself praised it highly during a press conference.
"He got into trem
endous rages and broke everything in sig
ht," say
s Arth
ur S
chlesin
ger. "H
is rages lasted
fou
r m
inutes. On the fifth, he forgot it."
Desp
ite his ex
acting callin
g, K
enned
y k
new
how
to
guard the privacy of his family life. H
e would take pains
over such small details as the renting of his villa, and the
author's rights in a film on his life. H
e always found tim
e to telephone his nieces and nephew
s to wish them
a "happy b
irthd
ay".
His love for his brothers, B
ob especially, was unlim
ited. T
he boys were alw
ays fighting, and trying to out-do each other, but it w
as all in affectionate rivalry. K
ennedy never allowed the slightest rem
ark against a m
ember o
f the fam
ily. "T
he B
osto
n M
afia", as it was
called in
Wash
ing
ton
, had
total resp
ect for th
e cod
e of
family unity.
Perh
aps, u
nd
er pro
fessed ad
miratio
n fo
r Freed
om
, K
ennedy was at the bottom
of his heart something of the
dictato
r. Congress b
ored
him
; he h
ad• n
ot th
e slightest
esteem for his erstw
hile colleagues. Indeed, the sole big set-backs of his term
of office were due to his inability to
persuade them to approve his projects. It w
as perhaps that vague tendency to totalitarianism
which m
ade him (in a
letter written
in 1
938) ex
press so
me ad
miratio
n o
f the
regime of B
enito Mussolini.
Would John K
ennedy have become president w
ithout his father's $200,000,000 to $400,000,000 (no-one know
s ju
st how
much
); or .th
e prestig
e of h
is patern
al gran
d-
father; o
r the p
articular set o
f political circu
mstan
ces prevailing in 1960 ?
What does it m
atter? H
e kn
ew h
ow
to g
alvan
ise the A
merican
peo
ple, an
d
CH
AP
TE
R S
EV
EN
The C
hatelaine
WH
EN
JAC
QU
EL
INE
ST
EP
PE
D from
the plane — w
hich had
touched down gently on the tarm
ac at Love F
ield, Dallas,
promptly at 11.30 —
the Mayor's w
ife presented her with a
magnificent bouquet of red roses . . .
"Three tim
es that d
ay in
Tex
as we w
ere greeted
with
bouquets of the yellow roses of T
exas. Only in D
allas they
gave me red roses. I rem
ember thinking: H
ow funny —
red
roses for me," the F
irst .Lady w
as to say when at last she
was able to look back on things quietly. T
he yellow rose, indeed, is the em
blem of T
exas. A folk-
song dating from the C
ivil War, w
hich is to all intents and
purposes a national anthem, tells of "T
he Yellow
Rose of
Texas" —
the young girl waiting at hom
e for the warrior's
return. "C
ome; you'll be w
elcomed w
ith love, like a hero," it
says. A
college band was playing this ballad at the airport, but
the music w
as drowned by the happy cheers of the crow
ds.
WH
ILE
JAC
QU
EL
INE
was receiving her bouquet of red roses,
Lee H
arvey Osw
ald was on the fifth floor of the T
exas Book
Depository building, eating a chicken sandw
ich brought
with him
from Irving. T
he sandwich had been w
rapped up
in th
e same th
ick b
row
n p
aper w
hich
shro
uded
the lo
ng
parcel.
100
TH
E C
HA
TE
LA
INE
I0
1
Osw
ald, to
o, h
ad g
ot u
p early
, at about six
-thirty
. He
drank some black coffee, w
hich he made for him
self, and
went (w
ithout saying good-bye to wife or children —
they
were all asleep) to the garage of his w
ork-mate, W
esley
Frazier. M
arina would be late rising this m
orning; she had had to
get up twice during the night to see to the new
baby, and
was tired out. M
rs William
Ran
dall, F
razier's sister, was at h
er
window
— it w
as about half-past seven — and saw
Osw
ald
with
that lo
ng b
row
n-p
aper p
arcel. It was lo
ng in
deed
:
about a y
ard o
r so. A
t the tim
e she d
idn't tak
e any p
ar-
ticular notice; lots of people carry parcels.
Frazier saw
it, too. "W
hat have you got there, Lee?" he asked straight out.
"Curtain
-rods," rep
lied O
swald
, with
out fu
rther ex
-
planation. "T
hat was our only conversation that m
orning," reports
Frazier. "B
ut Osw
ald was taciturn. T
he only time he ever
talked was w
hen someone asked after his children. T
hen he
would laugh, tell you all about them
, and show you photos
of them . .
"We got to w
ork about eight o'clock," Frazier's account
continues. "Osw
ald said hello and went off. T
hat was the
last time I saw
him."
There are tw
o lifts in the Texas B
ook Depository build-
ing. The one at the front, to the right of the entrance door,
is automatic; it is m
ostly used by the officer workers. O
n
the o
ther sid
e of th
e build
ing, reach
ed eith
er from
the
courtyard, or by passing through the main ground-floor
office, is a goods lift worked by a lever. It is not m
uch used
except for loads of books. It seems reasonable to suppose
that Osw
ald went up in it to the fifth floor, since no one can
swear to having seen him
that morning.
The fifth floor is like a huge barn, w
ith no walls except
■•••••••
102
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
the exterior ones. The room
must be over a hundred yards
long, and about sixty-five wide. T
he books are piled up like brick
s, form
ing p
artitions; th
ere are, too, so
me m
etal filing-cabinets w
hich also divide up some areas. It is there-
fore difficult to see from the lift w
hat is happening in the m
ore distant sections, alongside the window
s, or inside the "room
s" formed by the w
alls of books and filing-cabinets. Y
ou could, in fact, live for days on end in some corners
without ever being discovered.
. T
o get a clear view of this labyrinth you w
ould have to take dow
n all the books, which w
ould take at least a week.
It would have been perfectly possible for som
eone with
evil in
tentio
ns to
go
up
the p
revio
us ev
enin
g, sp
end
the
night there, and get away again —
especially if he had an accom
plice in the place.
PR
ES
IDE
NT
KE
NN
ED
Y h
ad alread
y tak
en h
is place in
the
Lin
coln
-Contin
ental G
G3oo; b
ut Jacq
uelin
e was still
shak
ing h
ands, talk
ing to
peo
ple in
the cro
wd, say
ing
"Th
ank
yo
u" ag
ain an
d ag
ain. T
he P
residen
t decid
ed to
go and get her; he took her gently by the hand and tried to lead her tow
ards the car. He had to start shaking hands all
over again, passing close by the placard proclaiming Let's
bury King John. S
omeone in that crow
d must have been the
last person to shake hands with John K
ennedy. Jacq
uelin
e had
been
late to th
e official b
reakfast th
at m
orning because she could not make up her m
ind whether
to wear the pink suit, or a thin dress w
ith a fur coat — a
magnificent Ieopardskin, a tribute from
the Em
peror Haile
Selassie of E
thiopia. But she rem
embered w
hat the Som
ali A
mbassador, M
uhallim, had said to her; it is w
ell known,
of co
urse, th
at the E
thio
pian
s and S
om
alis are bitter
enemies.
"Ab
ov
e all, do
n't w
ear the leo
pard
in T
exas," h
e had
beg
ged
her. "T
hey
'll all wan
t to im
itate you, th
ousan
ds
TH
E C
HA
TE
LA
INE
I0
3
will be ordered, and there w
ill be another massacre —
just w
hen we are trying to prevent the species becom
ing extinct." S
ince, an
yw
ay, th
e temperatu
re was risin
g in
Dallas,
Jacqueline decided in the end not to wear the fur coat. A
F
irst Lady is, alw
ays having to cope with such diplom
atic dilem
mas; the sm
allest thing may have w
eight.
AT
AB
OU
T the sam
e time, the next S
unday's issue of the m
agazine Parade was being distributed to forty or so of the
great dailies throughout Am
erica. Parade, like
This W
eek, belongs to a class of weeklies
which
constitu
tes a phen
om
enon p
eculiar to
Am
erican
journalism. T
hey have colossal circulations — to,000,000 in
the case o
f Parade — an
d are p
rinted
week
s in ad
van
ce. E
ach d
aily is sen
t a num
ber co
rrespondin
g to
its ow
n
circulation, and the magazine is clipped into the pages of
the Sunday edition, as a free "extra".
This new
number had a big front-page article under the
appetising title Is Jackie Tired of the W
hite House? T
he
theme w
as not new, but one w
onders why just that m
oment
was chosen to return to it. R
eferring to her as "the Cleopatra of the P
otomac" —
the P
otomac is the river w
hich runs by Washington —
it said th
at her h
igh
-and
-mig
hty
way
s had
mad
e her m
any
enem
ies in the capital. S
he issues a kind of imperial ban against anyone she does
not like; as, for instance, in the case of Nina S
teers, barred fro
m th
e Wh
ite Ho
use fo
r bein
g p
ro-N
ixo
n. N
ina is
vag
uely
related to
her b
y m
arriage; h
er moth
er married
H
ugh A
uch
inclo
ss, who after p
arting fro
m h
er married
Jacqueline's m
other. Jacqueline disliked m
any facets of being a president's w
ife. She hated electioneering, had no respect at all for the
double-dealing of politicians, and for a long time regarded
the White H
ouse as a mouldering cage.
I04
R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
• In fact, she w
as not really happy except when she w
as travelling, or hunting in V
irginia.
TIL
E A
ME
RIC
AN
press—
so p
rom
pt to
publish
photo
s of
Queen E
lizabeth with skirts flying, or P
rince Philip talking
with a shopgirl —
observes the completest taboo on the
private life of the presidential couple. T
he president has at his service a highly skilled outfit w
hose official title is "Press S
ecretariat". Ir reality, they arc nothing but blatant publicity agents; they know
very w
ell how to erect a w
all of silence where m
ost needed. T
he W
hite H
ouse is n
ot ju
st anoth
er source o
f new
s am
on
g m
any
. It is an im
po
rtant cen
tre, with
a hu
nd
red
jou
rnalists p
erman
ently
accredited
to it. T
hey
live th
ere all day, and often stay there all night. T
hey have no other d
uty
bu
t to fo
llow
the p
residen
t arou
nd
and
receive h
is pronouncem
ents. F
or these journalists, the White H
ouse is a career. You
can't b
e a hero
all the tim
e; it wo
uld
ho
t be easy
to risk
your agreeable, profitable and useful job, perhaps have to m
ove h
ouse, leav
e Wash
ingto
n o
r even
the U
.S.A
., be-
cause you had violated a taboo. In any case, such details of private life, even a president's, for the m
ost part are im
portant. If we are to violate these taboos it is to enable all
the roles in this•drama to be properly focused.
DE
SP
ITE
HE
R
un
den
iable ch
arm an
d m
od
el-girl fig
ure,
Jacqueline Bouvier K
ennedy was neither the m
ost beautiful nor the youngest m
istress of the White H
ouse. D
olly Madison w
as most attractive, and m
any men lost
their heads over her. The very lovely F
rances Folsom
was
married in the B
lue Room
on June 2nd, 1886, at the age of tw
enty-one, to President G
rover Cleveland. A
nother girl of tw
enty-one, not, however, anything like so beautiful, as
Frances F
olsom, m
arried President John T
yler.
TH
E C
HA
TE
LA
INE
1
05
Jacqueline was born on July 28th
, 1929 at Southam
pton, a v
ery fash
ionab
le place o
n th
e Atlan
tic coast, ab
out a
hundred miles from
New
York; high society goes there as
in E
uro
pe th
ey w
ou
ld g
o to
Biarritz o
r San
Rem
o. T
he
Bouviers, in
deed
, belo
ng to
the "p
ure" aristo
cracy o
f A
merica.
That w
ord "aristocracy" may cause som
e smiles on the
other side of the Atlantic, since in A
merica everyone is of
obscure origins, and many of the great fortunes arise from
S
tock Exchange speculations only m
ore or less honest. But
the great adventurers of the last century, the captains of industry, the m
asters of Wall S
treet, the gold-prospectors and som
e few descendants of, political leaders, consider
themselves an
Rite, th
e Natio
n's n
ob
ility, an
d liv
e in a
strange little world of their ow
n. John V
. Bouvier, "Jackie's" father, cam
e from people
who lived in a sm
all Provencal village, but w
as himself a
stock
bro
ker. H
er mo
ther, Jan
et Lee, also
"of v
ery g
oo
d
family", rem
arried after the death of her first husband, to H
ugh D. A
uchincloss, also a financier. "Jackie" is very close to her sister, her adopted sister, her
half-brother and her two adopted brothers, but due to the
various divorces and widow
hoods the family ties are rather
involved. S
he was only just ten w
hen her parents were divorced;
but sh
e was b
rought u
p in
the b
est priv
ate schools in
A
merica. S
he did her undergraduate studies at Vassar (the
nec plus ultra of the Am
erican girl). She took a course at the
Sorb
onne, stay
ing m
eanw
hile at a
pension in
the ru
e
Vaugirard. S
he also stayed for a time in an art school in
Venice, and after returning to W
ashington took a course in journalism
at the university there. She speaks F
rench quite w
ell, can get by in Italian, is not bad at Spanish and
can even manage a little L
atin. D
espite the strong disapproval of her father, who died not
• x o6
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
long after, Jacqueline got herself a job as a photo-reporter ' on the W
ashington Post. S
he stopped people on the street to ask their view
s on current affairs. She w
as, of course, used to interview
ing top people; the other reporters were not at
all pleased. They called her "this little rich girl playing at
being a reporter", and described her as cold and distant. L
ike so many girls of her class, Jacqueline professed an
inverted snobbery, in favour of anything labelled "culture" and everything E
uropean. Thirty years ago, rich heiresses
wan
ted to
marry
impoverish
ed C
ounts m
id M
arquises,
and to dance the charleston in Trafalgar S
quare. Now
they w
ant to see Ionesco's plays, hear Stravinsky and dine w
ith P
inter — and for them
the real "great world" is that of the
intellectu
als. All th
is is by w
ay o
f reaction ag
ainst th
e philistin
ism o
f the A
merican
masses, w
ho u
nderstan
d
nothing of such things; they go to Broadw
ay to see the leg-show
s, spend their evenings watching television and never
read any but best-selling writers.
With her flow
ing chestnut hair, doe-like eyes, and soft voice (she m
urmurs rather than talks) Jacqueline looks the
arche-type of that Am
erican ideal, "the girl next door". Her
temp
eramen
t, ho
wev
er, is very
differen
t from
wh
at the
Am
erican wom
en's magazines call "the typical A
merican
wom
an". She can be headstrong and im
patient, hates house-w
ork and cooking, and is bored by the cocktail parties of the capital. N
either can she bear the affections of political ladies. If the P
resident's wife and the V
ice-President's sat side by
side their silences could be disturbing.
LE
GE
ND
SA
YS
that Jacq
uelin
e came to
know
the y
oung
Senator K
ennedy through being sent to photograph him
for her paper. It is more likely that they w
ere often thrown
together in the salons of the capital. Washington is a very
provincial city, where they could hardly not m
eet. H
e courted her ardently.
TH
E C
HA
TE
LA
INE
107
When the rich, attractive and am
bitious young politician proposed, it w
as thought that she had made the catch of the
year. T
he B
ou
viers th
emselv
es did
n't th
ink
so at all. T
hey
reg
arded
the K
enn
edy
s as peasan
ts, bein
g Irish
; and
as new
ly-rich, the father's fortune being of such recent date. W
orst of all, they were D
emocrats. It is even said that one
reason why K
ennedy so much w
anted to become president
was in order to prove to his in-law
s how very w
rong they had been.
Jacqueline was bored to death during the first m
onths at the W
hite House. S
he could not simply spend all her tim
e painting in the grounds, draw
ing caricatures of her hus-band and reading B
yron. But her husband suggested that
she should restyle each of the 107 rooms of the residence on
Pennsylvania A
venue. Jacqueline set to w
ork with a w
ill, renewing everything,
removing the tasteless bric 4 brae accum
ulated over nearly a cen
tury
. Then
she g
ave a k
ind o
f world
-wid
e house-
warm
ing, with a television program
me in w
hich she acted as guide.
The telecast had a trem
endous success, making Jacque-
line appear in a rather fairy-tale aspect — the chatelaine
whose sm
ile irradiated those so-historical premises. S
he was
that in
deed
: a chatelain
e who w
ith g
race and ex
quisite
manners received kings, presidents, w
riters, philosophers, explorers, patrons of art, actors, astronauts, queens and prin
cesses. Nev
er befo
re had
Wash
ingto
n k
now
n su
ch
splendour. Casals cam
e to give a concert. A
Midsum
mer
Night's D
ream w
as performed. It w
as Jacqueline who ar-
ranged for the Mona L
isa to visit Washington.
All this also gave rise to strong criticism
. She was accused
of sacrilege in having made alterations to the W
hite House,
and of being unfaithful to the national sport, Baseball, in
favour of foreign and esoteric pastimes.
x o8 R
ED
R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
But Jacqueline liked flouting• public opinion. S
he dared to appear in a sim
ple woollen coat in the m
iddle ofJanuary, w
hen
it was freezin
g; th
e Am
erican m
idd
le-class (wh
o
believe absolutely that you aren't a success if you haven't a m
ink
coat) w
ere ho
rrified at seein
g a p
residen
t's wife
dressed "like a typist". It would have been useless to try
to explain to them that a L
anvin coat is quite as smart as
any fur in the world.
She w
as criticised for buying her clothes in Paris, and for
spending more than $30,000 a year there.
"If that's tru
e," she rep
lied a little tartly
, "it's becau
se m
y underwear is m
ade of sable.". A
ltho
ug
h th
ere were m
any
div
orces in
the fam
ily,
Jacqueline's own adherence to the C
atholic faith is sincere. "I don't like praying in public," she says. "R
eligion is a m
atter of conscience." But she w
as brought up along strict lines, and considers her first and m
ost important duty to be
the moral training of her children.
She ad
ores th
ose ch
ildren
. For h
er, they
com
e befo
re everything. If they need her, she w
ill neglect any other task at all, an
y p
arty o
r amu
semen
t. Sh
e will g
et up
several
times during the night to see that all is as it should be in
their room.
"A ch
ild," sh
e says, "sh
ould
be su
rrounded
with
love,
security
and d
isciplin
e; but h
e must fo
llow
his in
stinct.'
The grow
th of a child should give us joy." S
he had paid a great price for the joy of being the mother
of little John and of Caroline. S
he has been known to have
had at least two m
iscarriages, one in 1954, and one in 1956 (during her husband's first preside'ntial approach). T
hen, on A
ugust 7th, 1963 she gave birth to her second son, Patrick
Bouvier K
enned
y. It w
as a prem
ature b
irth, an
d d
espite
a Caesarian operation and the efforts of the best doctors
Patrick died tw
o days later. A
lter that, Jacqueline wanted to get aw
ay from W
ashing-
TH
E C
HA
TE
LA
INE
109
ton. She went to join her sister in G
reece;* then stayed on, in sp
ite of her h
usb
and
's pleas th
at she sh
ould
come b
ack. A
t last she did so. T
'wo days before the visit to D
allas, she made
her first so
cial a
pp
eara
nce, in
vitin
g m
ore th
an
seven
h
un
dred
peop
le to the W
hite H
ouse.
Jacqu
eline alw
ays loved h
er hu
sban
d m
adly. S
he often
teased
him
, imitated
his accen
t, mad
e fun
of his n
ot always
distin
guish
ed tastes, called
him
a vulgarian
; and
wh
en
someon
e asked
him
"W
hat sort of m
usic d
o you lik
e, Mr
Presid
ent ?"
replied
for him
: "T
he p
residen
tial anth
em."
B
ut still she loved him m
adly. "I like to read history books," she w
as to confide later to th
e writer T
heod
ore H. W
hite, "
becau
se it was h
istory w
hich
mad
e Jack w
hat h
e was. Y
ou m
ust th
ink
of him
as a little sick boy, w
ho reads and reads. For Jack, history w
as a p
rocession of h
eroes. Th
at is how
it was th
at history tran
s-form
ed h
im. M
y hu
sban
d saw
the h
eroic everywh
ere. Men
are a m
ixture of good
and
bad
; Jack h
ad an
ideal view
of history —
his world w
as peopled with heroes . . ."
JAC
QU
EL
INE
HA
D on
e qu
ality wh
ich h
er hu
sban
d ad
mired
m
ost of all: her self-control. She knew how
to face up to the m
ost adverse m
omen
ts with
calm an
d reserve. S
he k
new
how
to keep a hold on herself. In
a few m
inu
tes, wh
en th
e presid
ential car w
as to turn
the corner of H
ouston and Elm
Streets in Dallas, Jacqueline
Bou
vier Ken
ned
y wou
ld n
eed to call u
pon
all that self-
con
trol. '
"Yon
CA
N'T
SA
Y now
," said Governor C
onnally's wife,
turn
ing to
ward
s the P
residen
t as the car ro
unded
the
corn
er from
Ho
usto
n S
treet into
Elm
Street, "th
at the
people of Dallas don't love you, and aren't glad to see you."
"No
, no
-on
e can say
that an
y m
ore," Jo
hn
Ken
ned
y
answered.
They w
ere his last words. A
t that mom
ent, the first bullet hit him
. He lifted a hand to his throat.
Jacqueline, who w
as smiling and w
aving to some people
on the other side of the road, turned back towards him
, to see w
hat was happening. T
he chauffeur looked up at the sm
all bridge, trying to see what had caused the noise.
Ken
ned
y slu
mp
ed d
ow
n in
the b
ack o
f the car, an
d
Jacqueline cried: "O
h m
y G
od! T
hey
've k
illed m
y h
usb
and. Jack
. . . Jack
!" T
hat was w
hen Governor C
onnally turned to the right. H
e was to say later:
"The P
resident had blood on his cheeks. He said nothing.
Then a bullet hit m
e in the shoulder. I knew that the w
ound w
as serious. I tried to get up, but collapsed into the arms of
my w
ife. It was th
en th
at I heard
a third
shot, m
aybe a
fourth. I saw that the P
resident had been hit again. I cried out: 'M
y God, they're going to kill us all'. "
It was exactly tw
elve-thirty-one, Texas tim
e. The history
I I0
CH
AP
TE
R E
IGH
T
`They're G
oing to Kill U
s All!'
'
'TH
EY
'RE
GO
ING
TO
KIL
L U
S A
LL
r III
of the United 'S
tates stopped short then, like the mechanism
of an electronic com
puter when the current is abruptly cut
off. Kennedy's 'blood w
as spattered on Jacqueline4s dress. It w
as on her stockings, on the seats, on the carpet. Throw
ing dow
n her bouquet of red roses, she took her husband's hed in her arm
s, still managing to m
ake desperate signals to the m
en of the "Queen M
ary" behind. F
or there were no guards at the side of the car w
hen it h
app
ened
. Bill G
reer, the ch
auffeu
r, had
slow
ed d
ow
n.
Beh
ind, o
n th
e runnin
g-b
oard
of th
e• "Queen
Mary
", agent C
lint Hill saw
what had happened —
he was still
looking in the direction of the bridge — and decided to go
to th
e aid o
f the K
enn
edy
s. He leap
t from
the ru
nn
ing
-b
oard
, ran o
n an
d cau
gh
t up
with
the p
residen
tial car, p
uttin
g o
ne fo
ot o
n th
e rear bu
mp
er. He slip
ped
, bu
t m
anaged to keep hold of the handle of the boot and kept on running.
At that m
oment the chauffeur cam
e out of his stupor, sa
id, "L
et's 'g
et th
e h
ell o
ut o
f here
!" and p
ut o
n
speed. M
rs Kennedy w
as still holding her husband in her arms,
as if to protect him w
ith her body. She looked round, and
saw that H
ill was not yet in the car.
"Help m
e! My G
od, help me!" she called out to him
, as if in
repro
ach. T
hen
, layin
g h
er hu
sban
d's h
ead o
n th
e car-seat, she turned and clim
bed on to the luggage com-
partment, lay flat and held out her right hand to H
ill. She
was holding on w
ith her feet; her nylon stockings turned slow
ly red. H
ill climbed into the car. H
e pushed Jacqueline into the back again, and snatched up the telephone.
"Th
e Presid
ent h
as been
sho
t," he rep
orted
to h
ead-
quarters. "Which is the nearest hospital ?"
The presidential car shot like a rocket into the m
otorway,
I 12 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
at a speed of loo m.p.h. P
oliceman H
ill punched the metal
of the car several times w
ith his fist in his agitation.• T
he, film
taken
by
amateu
r ph
oto
grap
her Z
apru
der
proves that the whole dram
a lasted exactly sixteen seconds. A
n eternity in history. A
t the time w
hen the first rifle shot rang out — for at that
distance, it could only have been from a rifle —
the presi-dential car w
as moving very slow
ly. It was exactly 'eleven
yards beyond the junction of Houston and E
lm S
treets; and on a direct line betw
een the furthest right-hand window
of the fifth floor of the T
exas Book D
epository building and the foO
t of the bridge over the motorw
ay, on' the other side of the avenue.
Because the chauffeur slow
ed down still m
ore, and even stopped for a m
oment after the second shot, the car did not
travel much m
ore than thirty yards during the whole of this
unbelievable episode. But it all happened so quickly that
nobody had a clear view of w
hat occurred. T
ailor Zapruder w
as filming, as so often happens, w
ith-out really seeing w
hat the camera w
as recording, because he w
as concen
trating so
hard
on n
ot lo
sing sig
ht o
f his
subject. S
ome cars had cut through the procession to reach the
centre lane of the three turning off the motorw
ay. It seems
fantastic, but not one of the drivers saw anything, although
the fourth bullet must only just have m
issed hitting one of them
. C
harles Brehm
tells how he saw
Kennedy's face alter,
change colour and then fall to one side. M
ary Norm
an, who w
as using her instant-print camera
to photograph Kennedy, shouted:
"My G
od, they've shot him."
David M
iller, dissatisfied with his first photographs of
the President, had m
eanwhile run round the. T
exas Book
Depository building and arrived at the side of the m
otor-:
'TH
EY
'RE
GO
ING
TO
KIL
L U
S A
LL
r 113
way. S
o it came about that he saw
a car with the A
merican
flag an
d a b
lue an
d g
old
pen
nan
t com
e tearing
alon
g
flanked
by p
olice m
oto
r cyclists. W
ithout p
roper v
iew-
find
ing
, he lev
elled h
is camera an
d to
ok a p
hoto
grap
h
which m
ust be the most striking of all the pictures taken
that day . It show
s the policeman, H
ill, standing in the back of the car trying to calm
Jacqueline and telling her to keep her head dow
n (there could well have been other attem
pts, or acco
mp
lices furth
er alon
g th
e •rou
te). Mrs C
on
nally
is h
ud
dled
up
in th
e bo
ttom
of the car, co
verin
g h
er un-
conscious husband. The P
resident's body is lying on the back seat, but one of his feet rem
ains caught on the top of th
e car. Anoth
er Secret S
ervice m
an, sittin
g n
ext to
the
chauffeur, has turned round to see what is going on, and
cannot believe his own eyes.
Young M
iller did not know until later that he w
as the last person in the w
orld to photograph Kennedy —
at least, his foot. W
hen he developed the film, he could not m
ake it out; his father then told him
about the assassination.
CH
AU
FF
EU
R B
ILL
GR
EE
R w
as now follow
ing a Dallas police
car, on the way to P
arkland Hospital. T
he sirens which had
been silenced all day so that the President could hear the
people's cheers now scream
ed madly. T
he Secret S
ervice "Q
ueen Mary" follow
ed. Its men now
had their rifles and sub m
achine-guns at the ready, fingers on triggers. N
ext carn
e Vice-P
residen
t Johnso
n's car. P
olicem
an
Rufus W
. Youngblood w
as the only one of the occupants visible.
"I thought at first, like everyone else in the procession," he w
as to say later, "that some over-enthusiastic spectator
had thrown a firew
ork or let off a rocket. But from
my point
of view, this w
as an unusual noise, and the regulations laid dow
n w
hat I m
ust d
o in
such
a case. I shouted
to th
e
114
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
peo
ple in
the car: 'G
et dow
n o
n th
e floor, q
uick
', and
repeated the same thing several tim
es, even after they had all got dow
n on the bottom of the car. I had taken the V
ice-P
resident by the shoulders and roughly pushed him dow
n on th
e seat. Johnso
n d
idn't say
even
a word
in p
rotest.
Then
I shouted
to th
e chau
ffeur: 'D
amn it, g
et out o
f here'. " A
gent Youngblood lay across L
yndon Johnson, covering him
with his ow
n body. "I heard the three shots," said M
rs Johnson, "but I said to m
yself 'What a party! N
ow w
e've got rockets . . .' We
were all so gay. T
hen I saw that P
resident Kennedy had
bent forward, and just then our S
ecret Service m
an ordered us to do the sam
e. Senator Y
arborough was lying right next
to me, and he kept telling m
e: 'The P
resident's been shot, the P
resident's been shot.' But I w
ouldn't believe it, he must
be having a nervous crisis, it was all unbelievable. Just like
in th
e film
Seven
Da
ys in M
ay.
Make-believe. T
hen, after an
eternity
, I raised m
y ey
es and I read
the w
ord
'H
osp
ital'."
LA
TE
R, W
HE
N he w
as decorated by Johnson personally, R
ufus Youngblood explained m
odestly that he had done no m
ore than follow regulations.
"I've b
een p
aid ev
ery m
onth
since 1
951 fo
r the jo
b o
f defending w
ith my life the m
an I have to protect.", H
is courage and presence of mind perhaps averted from
th
e Un
ited S
tates wh
at wo
uld
hav
e been
the g
ravest
catastrophe in
its histo
ry. Y
oungblo
od w
as not to
know
w
hether there were several assassins, or if it w
as planned to get rid of Johnson too; certainly, the m
an who had fired so
rapid
ly an
d sk
ilfully
at Ken
ned
y's car m
igh
t well h
ave
decided to have a go at Johnson's. All the indications are
that that was possible, even probable. Y
oungblood saved the situation.
'TH
EY
'RE
GO
ING
TO
KIL
L U
S A
LL
!' 115
The 'death of Johnson w
ould have created a vacuum in
Washington. H
is constitutional successor was a m
an of seventy-one, w
ith no experience whatever of governm
ent an
d u
nknow
n to
the m
asses: John W
. McC
orm
ack,
Speaker of the H
ouse of Representatives.
In the press car it was thought that Johnson had had a
heart attack, and the rumour spread like a flash. O
thers said that an attem
pt had been made on his life, and that for
security reasons the procession had nonetheless gone on to the T
rade Mart, its destination. T
he pressmen therefore
decided to go there. A
few reporters, how
ever, chose instead to go and see w
hat was happening on the law
ns which lined E
lm S
treet. D
ouglas Kiker w
as one. Supposing that there had been som
e diso
rders am
ong th
e crow
d a n
egro
dem
onstratio
n,
maybe —
he began to run down the m
iddle of the road, w
aving his press-card. It w
as pandemonium
here. P
eople w
ere lyin
g o
n th
e grass. T
here w
as shoutin
g.
Po
licemen
were w
avin
g th
eir gu
ns. S
ecret Serv
icemen
forcibly sw
ept everyone out of their way, their m
achine-guns pointing upw
ards. T
he negroes had concluded that right-wing extrem
ists w
ere about to massacre them
all; they thought it was they
who w
ere being shot at from w
indows. T
he fathers among
them had throw
n themselves across their children, stretched
on the grass. One of these negroes, John D
raster, cried: "L
ynch
! They
're goin
g to
lynch
us!" an
d tried
to ru
n
away
, pullin
g h
is little girl b
y th
e han
d. A
policem
an,
revolver in hand, ordered him to stop and get dow
n on the ground too; there m
ight be more shooting.
Then there w
as an outcry from am
ong the crowd:
"The assassin's been arrested." P
olice were sw
arming
round a fair-haired young man.
Kiker m
et Marianne M
eans, a "Hearst" correspondent.
`TH
EY
'RE
GO
ING
TO
KIL
L U
S A
LL
!' 1
17
Their confusion w
as painful to watch. F
or sixty years they had planned and practised a thousand tim
es what should
be d
on
e in th
e even
t of an
assassinatio
n attem
pt. N
ow
there they stood, like kids w
ho have lost their parents. T
he retired chief of the Service, U
. E. B
aughman, w
as later to
ask w
hy th
ey d
id n
ot rid
dle th
e win
dow
s of th
e building w
ith bullets; why they did not instantly leap to
the P
residen
t's aid at th
e first shot, w
ithout w
aiting fo
r Jacqueline K
ennedy's calls for help. L
ater the w
hole w
orld
was b
itterly to
repro
ach th
e D
allas police for having failed to protect the President, and
for the sketchiness of their investigations. But the S
ecret S
ervice, so distinguished in the intimidation of journalists,
must bear a very great part of the responsibility for w
hat happened.
MR
S C
ON
NA
LL
Y, believing her husband dead, w
as sobbing in the bottom
of the car. Policem
an Hill w
as still standing, an
d still telep
honin
g. Jacq
uelin
e was w
eepin
g silen
tly,
pressing her husband's disfigured face to her breast, like a m
other feeding her baby. H
er right sto
ckin
g w
as saturated
with
blo
od, an
d h
er pretty pink dress stained all over ... M
ary Lincoln's dress
was also
' pin
k th
at Good F
riday
even
ing at th
e Ford
T
heatre. Her pink dress, too, w
as splashed with blood .. .
TH
E P
AR
KL
AN
D M
emoria
l Hosp
ital, built in
mem
ory
of
the war-dead, is on the left-hand side of the m
otorway, half-
way betw
een the town centre and the airport. It is a huge
modern building surrounded by trees, and is visible from
very far off. It w
as here that Lee H
arvey Osw
ald was cared
for at the age of seven, after a car accident. And it w
as here that only a few
weeks before his little girl had been born.
The p
residen
tial car stopped
befo
re the E
merg
ency
entrance. B
ut there was a w
ait while attendants brought out
116
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S •
She looked desperate; great tears w
ere rolling down her •
Cheeks. • "S
omething's happened to Jack, som
ething. terrible. God
help us!" .
A secretary spoke to them
; she was still autom
atically eating a ham
roll, her lunch, without realising it, she w
as in , such a state of shock.
"Yes, the P
resident's been shot at," she said. B
ut jo
urn
alist ,Kik
er refused
to b
elieve h
er. "She's
Hysterical, like the rest of them
," he thought. T
here' was no sign of the three official cars.
A photographer w
as taking pictures of a girl 'who had
, hid
den
. herself behind a column, part of a sm
all monum
ent above the grassy slope. . M
ary Norm
an had developed her Polaroid" photo, and
stared at it in amazem
ent. Jo
urn
alist Kik
er appro
ached
one o
f the p
olice cars
which had m
eanwhile draw
n up alongside the pavement.
The radio of one of them
was turned on: A
headquarters official w
as sayin
g: "T
he P
residen
t is wounded
. He is
bein
g d
riven
at top sp
eed to
Park
land H
osp
ital. Pro
tect th
e area." Instantly another journalist, an agency representative,
started to run for the entrance to the Texas B
ook Deposi-
tory huilding, ahead of a policeman, and darted tow
ards th
e telephone n
ear the d
oor.' It w
as thus th
at the w
orld
receiv
ed th
e first intim
ation o
f what h
ad h
appen
ed in
D
allas on this terrible afternoon of Novem
ber 2261.
MO
RE
TH
AN
half the fifty-odd Secret S
ervice men w
ere still am
ong the crowd at the scene of the tragedy but not a
shot was fired. N
o cordons were set up. T
he Secret S
ervice knew
nothing at all of what w
as happening in the Texas
Book D
eposito
ry b
uild
ing. Ju
st one o
r. two m
en tried
' vag
uely
. to g
o to
ward
s the b
ridge o
ver th
e moto
rway
.
I18
• R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
stretchers. T
he S
ecret Serv
ice men
mad
e a half-circle
round the vehicle, sub machine-guns at the ready.
Vice-P
residen
t Johnso
n g
ot O
ut o
f his car, o
ne h
and
pressed
again
st the sm
all of h
is: back
, and w
ent in
side
without looking round. H
e was dead w
hite, and limping.
Those w
ho saw him
' like this at once thought that it was he
who w
as the cause of all the alarm. A
lready Washington
had
been
info
rmed
that h
e had
succu
mbed
to a h
eart attack
. A
fter two in
termin
able m
inutes, th
e stretcher-b
earers cam
e out. T
hey
saw to
Connally
first, then
bro
ught a
stretcher clo
se up to
the car an
d laid
Ken
ned
y o
n it.
Jacqueline went w
ith them, holding on to the hem
of her husband's jacket, and supported by a S
ecret Service m
an. T
he door closed behind them.
It was tw
elve-forty-two.
Senator Y
arborough gave the impression that his hair
had gone white in that quarter of an hour. H
e supported him
self against the hospital wall, just under the A
mbulance
sign, as if to stop himself falling. H
e was w
eeping. It was
like this that he faced the first journalists to arrive at the hosp
ital after the fru
itless call at the T
rade M
art. The
guests there had been told that there would be a delay in
the p
rogram
me, an
d th
at they
should
finish
the b
anquet
mean
while. T
o sto
p th
em g
etting to
o im
patien
t, Tex
an
folk-music w
as played. "I saw
noth
ing," Y
arboro
ugh said
to th
e journ
alists. "B
ut there was a sm
ell of powder in the air everyw
here. K
enned
y an
d C
onnally
are insid
e, in th
e Em
ergen
cy
room
. It's too h
orrib
le to d
escribe .. . th
eir wounds are
serious, v
ery serio
us. It is a d
evilish
act, a horro
r . . . I can't say any m
ore . . ." And he w
ept, the right honourable an
d d
istinguish
ed S
enato
r of th
e hig
hest p
arliamen
tary
assembly of the U
nited States, covering his face W
ith 'his hands.
`TH
EY
'RE
GO
ING
TO
KIL
L U
S A
LL
119
He w
ent inside in his turn, followed.by the thunderstruck
journalists. W
here was everybody? T
his is the great unanswered
question in Dallas and the police still do not like to discuss
this point. T
he Secret S
ervice men follow
ed the car of the president to the P
arkland Mem
orial Hospital; som
e were w
ith the vice president, som
e left for the airport, others stayed along the parkw
ay around the hospital ... only a few rem
ained on the spot to guard the retreat and then left for the airport. T
heir duty was to protect the president, not to m
aintain order.
Som
e have criticized this attitude, stating that the Secret
Service should have split and tried to catch the killer.
TH
ER
E W
ER
E very few
policemen from
the Dallas police
force on the spot as this was the end of the itinerary and
there was no crow
d. Elm
Street is only an access to the
parkway and there is thus no need for great police protec-
tion. All but one of the agents w
ere on motor-cycles and
they
were first to
reach th
e presid
ential car. T
hey
then
rushed tow
ard the building while several others tried to
calm the people.
There w
as chaos. Som
e detectives ran towards the bridge
as they thought the shooting came from
there. By the tim
e . they had reached the building and returned to the scene th
ere was n
oth
ing b
ut b
ewild
ered n
ewsp
aperm
en an
d
spectators.
TH
E P
RE
SID
EN
TIA
L
car, the w
onderfu
l blu
e Lin
coln
-C
ontinental, stood deserted alongside an ambulance. O
n th
e bonnet w
as the h
at which
Ken
ned
y n
ever w
ore b
ut
always took w
ith him to w
ave to the crowds. T
he blood-soaked carpet w
as strewn w
ith the yellow roses presented to
Mrs C
onnally and Jacqueline's bouquet of red ones.
I20
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
. .
Most of the rem
aining police alOng the route had left
their p
osts w
hen
the p
residen
tial ..car had
passed
by,
either to cat or to return to headquarters for new assign-
ments. T
hey were inform
ed of the events like everyone else, by rum
ours and radio. Som
e just stayed where they w
ere, bew
ildered
, talkin
g. S
om
e phoned
head
quarters, b
ut n
o
one h
ad g
iven
them
instru
ctions w
hat to
do in
such
an
event. The w
hole of Dallas w
as confused, the police more
than anyone else.
CH
AP
TE
R N
INE
`Si Vivis, E
go Te A
bsolvo'
TH
E L
OU
DS
PE
AK
ER
SU
MM
ON
S
irked Dr M
alcolm . P
erry, peacefully sw
allowing salm
on croquettes in the canteen of the P
arkland Municipal H
ospital. "S
TA
T for D
r Tom
Shires!"
ST
AT
was the code-w
ord for "disaster". But there w
ere on an average 273 urgent cases at the hospital daily, and D
r Shires, the resident head of surgery, w
as never called out for them
in this way. A
nyway, today he w
as absent. It was
for D
r Perry
, pro
fessor in
surg
ery, an
d h
is assistant, to
respond to the sum
mons.
Unw
illingly, he picked up a telephone and called the operator:
"Mary, you're crazy.' C
an't one even eat something in
peace ?" "P
resident Kennedy is dying. S
TA
T. H
e has just been brought into C
asualty." T
here w
ere two C
asitalty ro
om
s in th
e hosp
ital, dis-
tinguish
ed as T
raum
a Room
I and T
raum
a Room
2.
Kennedy had been taken to num
ber T, and C
onnally to num
ber 2.
Dr M
alcolm P
erry went dow
n one floor, to ground level, to that narrow
room w
ith grey tiled walls and cream
ceiling. In the m
iddle — still on the sam
e wheeled stretcher of
aluminium
, since it had been thought best not to take the risk of m
oving him on to an operating table —
the President
121
122
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
of the United S
tates lay on his back, dying. A huge lam
p flooded his face w
ith pale light. P
erry noticed a young wom
an in a pink dress, shrunk back
again
st the w
all. She stay
ed th
ere perfectly
still, saying nothing, her eyes fixed on K
ennedy's face. There
was b
lood o
n h
er dress, o
n . th
e stretcher, an
d in
great
quantities on the floor. The pool w
ent on growing. M
ixed w
ith th
e blo
od w
as brain
tissue, an
d o
n a n
earby tab
le P
erry noted a fragment of the P
resident's brain almost an
inch thick. D
r Carrico
had
cut aw
ay th
e Presid
ent's jack
et, shirt
and cotton vest. "H
ow
big
he is, th
e Presid
ent. M
uch
big
ger th
an I'd
hav
e thought . ." w
ent th
rough P
erry's m
ind. H
e un-
butto
ned
the rest o
f the p
laid sp
orts jack
et, and th
rew it
down near the pool of blood. T
hen he held out his hands to a young nurse, w
ho put on the rubber gloves. O
ne thought obsessed him: H
ere in front of me is the one
man m
ost important to the w
orld's destiny . . . His life depends on
me . . . A
nd mentally he w
ent over all he had ever learned of the technique of resuscitation.
OU
TS
IDE
, IN
the an
te-room
, journ
alist Douglas K
iker,
overco
me b
y em
otio
n, tu
rned
the co
rner so
fast that h
e collided w
ith a negro male nurse w
ho was carrying a large
dish of boiled potatoes. The negro staggered, the boiled
potatoes showered dow
n on the flagstones, and Kiker, the
male n
urse, an
d S
ecret Serv
ice men
guard
ing T
raum
a R
oom t nil hurried to pick them
up. K
iker was still on his knees w
hen he saw the outline of the
black silhouette of a soutane. It was the R
everend Oscar
Huber, o
f the S
ociety
of Jesu
s, priest o
f Holy
Trin
ity
church
. He w
as accom
pan
ied b
y F
ather T
hom
pso
n, h
is assistant.
• "N
o, no-one told me to com
e. But the hospital area is in
VIV
IS, E
GO
TE
AB
SO
LV
O'
I23
our p
arish. I w
as at the ed
ge o
f the m
oto
rway
with
the
children of my school ... W
e saw all the confusion. S
o I took the children back to school, and then the television an
nounced
rum
ours o
f an assassin
ation attem
pt. S
o I
came . .."
DR
CH
AR
LE
S
James C
arrico, a tw
enty
-eight-y
ear-old
internee, w
ho had qualified in 1962, had been the first to exam
ine the President, at tw
elve-forty-three. A
ll the d
octo
rs on d
uty
that trag
ic Frid
ay m
ade im
-m
ediate an
d sep
arate detailed
reports o
f what th
ey h
ad
done an
d th
eir observ
ations. It is o
n an
exam
inatio
n o
f these reports, a historical docum
ent of inestimable value,
that th
is account is b
ased. T
he F
ederal p
olice an
d th
e S
ecret Service did not take them
over — one does not know
w
hy. Perhaps they w
ere unaware of this m
edical practice. T
here are v
ery stro
ng reaso
ns fo
r uncertain
ty as to
the
number of bullets w
hich actually wounded K
ennedy; and upon their num
ber depends the validity of the theory of a single assassin. T
herefore these reports constitute the only authentic and irrefutable evidence.
So —
according to Dr C
arrico — w
hen the patient entered T
rauma R
oom t he w
as already dying; there were som
e effo
rts to b
reathe, an
d u
ncertain
heartb
eats could
be
detected by auscultation. The young doctor took im
mediate
note of two external w
ounds. One w
as low dow
n at the back of the neck. P
art of the brain tissue had been expelled from
the other, larger one; therefore the bullet must have
entered at the front of the head. T
he d
octo
r inserted
an en
dotrach
eal tube in
to th
e throat in order to facilitate artificial respiration. E
xamining
the inside of the throat with a laryngoscope, he at once saw
an appalling w
ound in the trachea, below the larynx. T
he tu
be w
as push
ed b
eyond th
is laceration, an
d artificial
respiration began. Air w
as forced into the President's lungs
_V_
'SI V
IVIS
, EG
O T
E A
BS
OL
VO
' 125
solution, also called "white blood", w
hich is injected while
awaiting blood transfusion. T
he flask of 0 Negative blood
arrived almost im
mediately after, and the change-over w
as m
ade. No one w
ill ever know w
ho gave his blood to the P
residen
t; the flask
was lab
elled "u
niv
ersal donor" -
anonymous.
When the nurse had the door opened to bring in the blood-
bottle, a big, strong, broad-shouldered man tried to force his
way into the room
. But the S
ecret Service m
an on guard at the door knocked him
' down w
ith ,a vicious upper-cut. "I'm
from
the R
BI," p
rotested
the n
ewco
mer, g
etting
up on his knees and w
aving his warrant card. "I've got to
telephone J. Edgar H
oover." But the S
ecret Service had
paralysed the whole telephone netw
ork at Dallas; he had to
wait ten m
inutes before he could get through.
TH
E T
HR
OA
T w
ound was such that m
ixed blood and air w
ere com
pressed
insid
e the ch
est. Dr P
erry d
ecided
to
operate and called for a scalpel. He intended to perform
a tracheotom
y; that is, to open the throat below the w
ound and insert a tube into the respiratory tract so as to be able to pum
p out the blood and air in the lungs, which otherw
ise w
ould smother the patient.
PE
RR
Y S
AW
nothing now but the appalling w
ound; and, beyond, deep in the shadow
s, the face of a wom
an, still as a statue, w
hose eyes were fixed upon him
. K
ennedy had not been anaesthetised; that would have
been superfluous — he no longer felt anything. M
alcolm
Perry
had
satisfied h
imself fro
m th
e start that th
e first bullet had rendered the P
resident unconscious. Kennedy
never knew w
hat had happened to him som
e seconds after tw
elve-thirty-one. T
he front of the mobile stretcher had been w
inched up in order to place K
ennedy in a slightly tilted position — so
12
4 •
'
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
• by means of an electric air pum
p; later' hand pumps w
ere used, for greater speed.
At the sam
e time, a lactate solution w
as injected intra-venously in the patient's right leg. A
' nurse took a sample of
the President's blood: O
Rh N
egative. It is usual in A
merica to w
ear a bracelet or carry a card indicating one's blood-group. T
he President had neither.'
No-one had thought of asking him
to take this vital pre-caution. H
owever, a bottle of this type of blood w
as im-
mediately obtained from
the hospital blood-bank.
IT W
AS
at this mom
ent that Dr P
erry arrived. He realised
• at o
nce th
at his task
was an
impossib
le one, th
at he w
as bein
g ask
ed to
do m
iracles. His p
atient w
as no lo
nger
breathing. The chest w
as still, the' back of the head half-shattered, and blood w
as pouring out over the stretcher and on to the floor. It is difficult, to im
agine the damage that
can be done by a rifle bullet. "S
end out an urgent call for Doctors C
lark, McC
lelland an
d B
axter," h
e cried to
on
e of th
e three n
urses p
resent.
He S
had not realised that Dr B
axter, another surgeon, was
behind him; D
r Jones was also present.
Dr C
arrico n
ow
remem
bered
hav
ing read
som
ewhere
that K
enned
y su
ffered fro
m an
adren
al deficien
cy, a
malfunction of the kidneys. H
e suggested another injection, O
f liquid
cortiso
ne. D
r Jones m
ade an
incisio
n in
the
patient's arm and inserted a' second tube. D
r Curtis arrived
meanw
hile, and took charge of the intravenous injection hi
the leg. In cases as serious as this, the m
edical staff of the hospital autom
atically go to the Casualty room
, in accordance with
a well-w
ork
ed-o
ut p
lan w
hose tim
ing is calcu
lated in
tenths of a second. In those short eighteen m
inutes, fifteen doctors w
ere thus to come to the P
resident's side. W
hat w
as pum
ped
into
his v
eins w
as a Ringer lactate
126
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
that the blood might be helped to return to the heart. N
ow
Dr M
cClelland, another surgeon, noted that air-bubbles
were escap
ing fro
m th
e patien
t's mouth
. .. indicatin
g a
hole in the lung. D
r Peters, assistant professor in urology, therefore in-
serted a tube in the upper part of the right lung, just under the shoulder; w
hile Dr C
harles Crem
shaw, an internee, did
the same on the other side. A
nasogastric tube was passed•
into the stomach.
DR
W
ILL
IAM
KE
MP
CL
AR
K, doyen of the neurosurgical
dep
artmen
t, and h
ighest-ran
kin
g o
f those p
resent at th
e hospital, w
as lecturing to his pupils at the time of the alarm
. H
e was the last to arrive in T
rauma R
oom I —
five minutes
after the rest. H
e at once established that there was no longer a pulse.
"Kennedy's pupils w
ere widely dilated and fixed glassily
on the light-bulb. The eyes w
ere divergent, there was no
reflex o
f the ten
don —
that is to
say, th
e muscle at th
e botto
m o
f the leg
(called th
e Ach
illes heel).
Any m
edical student w
ould know w
hat that meant!"
DR
CL
AR
K w
anted
to sp
eak to
Malco
lm P
erry, b
ut th
e latter stopped him
with a quick m
ovement and w
ith a look indicated Jacqueline, still flattened against the w
all. Perry
had guessed what D
r Clark w
as about to say. C
lark went over to M
rs Kennedy and said in a polite but
authoritarian tone: "W
ouldn't you rather leave, Madam
?" B
ut without m
oving her lips Jacqueline answered firm
ly:
ME
AN
WH
ILE
, DR
Jenkins, aided by Doctors G
iesecke and H
unt, h
ad set u
p an
anaesth
etic mach
ine to
pum
p p
ure
oxygen into the patient's lungs. •
`SI V
IVIS
, EG
O T
E A
BS
OL
VO
' 127
•
Dr C
lark began artificial respiration as a last resort, to try to resuscitate K
ennedy, pressing the chest with both
hands in regular rhythm. T
hen he asked for a "torpedo", m
eaning, in hospital slang, a machine for m
easuring the m
ovement of the heart. T
hey are shown on a screen, like
radar, a luminous oscillating line representing the heart-
beats. B
ut th
e little green
line rem
ained
appallin
gly
as level as a calm
, mid-sum
mer sea.
Dr C
lark stopped his work; and forgetting Jacqueline's
presence exclaimed in despair:
"Mac, it's too late . . ." (M
ac is a very familiar A
merican
expressio
n, lik
e calling so
meo
ne "o
ld m
an". N
ever, in
norm
al circumstances, w
ould Dr C
lark have used it to a colleague).
It was tw
elve-fifty. B
ut Perry w
ouldn't listen. He began furiously to con-
tinue working on the chest. S
weat poured from
his fore-head, still he w
ent on. At one point, he shouted:
"For G
od's sake, someone give m
e a stool." D
r Giesecke brought one at once, and P
erry continued his w
ork. D
r Clark had asked, for a precise cardiogram
. Dr F
ouad A
. BashoU
r, a Lebanese doing a term
as associate professor in
cardio
logy, w
as info
rmed
by telep
hone, an
d at o
nce
brought in an oscilloscope. He w
as accompanied by D
r D
onald Seldin, doyen of internee staff.
Dr C
lark n
ow
exam
ined
the w
ounds. T
he o
ne in
the
occiput, the back of the head, was very large; part of the
skull had been shattered. He found a bullet on the stretcher,
doubtless fallen from one of the w
ounds during the surgical treatm
ent. T
here w
as blo
od ev
eryw
here: m
ore th
an 1
,50o c.c.,
according to Clark's estim
ate. There w
as a small hole at
the back of the middle of the neck, and the huge w
ound in the throat.
l'; '-4.1
ki-
rr
i• ;,,, 7. . 1..,,,,, . , 0
4.4
4....4
.4„ _.....,. -
- -
.. [ clc
: < ..:-.2.,...,.....;-_
--, • -,....:.-;-J,;,..._—.01"
--' tr.........,
—..... --- —
11 .1.41•01.16,10Mf .. ..010■0111111:1111
. r ...„ i
=,,,, ',:,
r i:::,iir . "Pt .' , „..i- . ',■ :;4:' s- , 1
,..
..,;('- CA
' 1 ;:L.L ef?',? 7 "".".""*...."*".*'".71j
;. j,, j aiialaal
128
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
The doctors of P
arkland Hospital are accustom
ed to the sight of gunshot w
ounds; the Texans' are alw
ays shooting each other. T
here was no doubt in the opinions of C
lark, P
erry and the rest that one bullet entering from the front
had caused the throat wound.
Dr B
ashour had attached the electrodes of the oscillo-graph to K
ennedy's wrists. P
erry continued to give artificial respiration like one possessed. H
e was sw
eating heavily, the d
rop
s falling
up
on
the red
chest' o
f the P
residen
t. An
attendant stood by w
ith two w
ooden batons, used in such cases to pound the patient so that the shock m
ay re-start the heart-beat.
The oscillograph rem
ained still. D
r William
Kem
p C
lark p
ut o
ut a h
and
and
stop
ped
M
alcolm
Perry
. It was o
ne o
'clock
exactly
by
the IB
M
electric clock on the grey wall of the room
. John F
itzgerald Kennedy w
as officially pronounced dead. It w
as then that Mrs K
ennedy said: "Call a priest."
Dr Jenkins cut off the flow
of oxygen. K
ennedy was dressed only in his trousers and the support
worn for his injured back. D
r Baxter w
ent and got a clean sheet, and w
ith the help of Dr Jenkins gently drew
it over the P
resident's body. T
he floor was strew
n with bottles, flasks, labels, cotton-
wool, bandages and blood. D
r Peters gathered up K
ennedy's shoes, and put them on
his clothes, piled on a little steel cupboard.
OU
TS
IDE
, SIT
TIN
G o
n a fo
rm, face in
han
ds, in
a state of
great shock, was L
yndon Baines Johnson. H
e d
id n
ot y
et know
that he had become the thirty-sixth president of the
United S
tates of Am
erica.
Right, the flag-draped
President's casket is
carried by mem
bers of th
e United
States
Services on the
beginning of its journey to W
ashington's St
Matth
ew's C
athed
ral. B
elow, the procession
leaves the Capitol
a
' .;, i1 ; 1 ' ;;. 7
.n -\f
,
.., 1 r
,ri , ,
L........;"
""'. 7
k..) ,;4
Ti
• • -Z...7.
IiRd
■ :K.' ,1
4
.%14 •?,1
• "
SU
PP
OR
TE
D B
Y tw
o Secret S
ervice men, w
ho had come in
at the same tim
e as the Reverend O
scar L. H
uber, Jacque- i''' •
,
.4' rp,T;.‘...... A [;;:is.:;,--. , •
.4 . r"---
-.1i,11i P, L;
.4 • •
:..." ' , - gs r. •i: tz,1•••
,fr7s..; 1:
1 '
' ' ''
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. s s" *-.-"- .1
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... t
(44
TAN
-.
The new
President, L
yndon Johnson, and his wife 'leave the M
ass at S
t Matth
ew's C
athed
ral with
bow
ed h
eads
`si viv
o, k
G0 T
E A
BS
OL
VO
' I29
line Kennedy w
ent towarcts the stretcher. T
he sheet did not cover the feet. Jacqueline kissed the toes of the right foot. T
hen she took three steps 'forward and stood at the right of
her h
usb
and's h
ead. T
he p
riest had
lifted th
e linen
in
order to uncover and tough the face. "P
lease accept my deepest sym
pathy, Madam
," he said. "T
hank you, Father . . ."
The R
everend Huber had never before seen the P
resi-dent, except on television.
"Kennedy looked dead, B
ut I was told that there m
ight still be a faint heart-beat. I didn't w
ant to ask questions in front of his w
ife. So I began the conditional rites." T
hese rites are accorded by the catholic C
hurch when a person is
un
con
sciou
s, and
incap
able o
f receivin
g th
e full rite o
f absolution.
"Si vivis — If thou livest —
John Fitzgerald K
ennedy, Ego to absolvo ab om
nibus censuris et peccatis, in nomine Patris, et
Filii et Spiritus Sancti," said the Jesuit F
ather, extending his hands to m
ake the sign of the cross on the President's fore-
head.. "A
men," m
urmured Jacqueline.
Then w
ith his finger Father H
uber traced another cross . in holy oil:
"Per istam
sanctam U
nctionem indulgeat tibi D
ominus quidquid
deliquisti. Am
en." Then, finally:
"Ego, facultate m
ihi ab Apostolica Side tributa, indulgentiam
plenarium
et remissionem
omnium
peccatorium tibi concedo, et
benedicto te. In nomine P
aris . . . "G
ive him eternal rest, O
h Lord," the priest w
ent on in E
nglish. "A
nd may perpetual light shine upon him
," responded Jacqueline. T
hen she said: "T
hank you for your care of the President."
"I am persuaded," the priest said, "that the soul had not
yet left the body. This last sacram
ent was valid . . ."
130
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
Jacqueline was then left alone in T
rauma R
oom i. N
ow
John belonged to her. •
OU
TS
IDE
, IN the ante-room
, the feverish impatience of the
journalists was getting out of hand. T
hey swarm
ed round the priest.
"Yes, the P
resident is dead, gentlemen . ."
. . B
ut the world w
as not yet to know it. T
he Secret S
ervice still blocked the telephones.
The doctors w
ere conferring in one of the nearby rooms.
Who S
hould sign the death certificate? It was decided that
this should fall to Clark, since officially the cause of death
was the destruction of the nervous system
. In T
rauma R
oom 2, G
overnor Connally w
as saved by a team
of five doctors. He w
as wounded in the chest, arm
and th
igh b
y th
e smile b
ullet. H
e was d
eclared o
ut o
f im-
mediate danger som
e minutes after one o'clock.
But the doctors of P
arkland Hospital had not yet finished
their lab
ou
rs. An
ho
ur an
d a h
alf later, the b
od
y o
f a policem
an was brought to them
: Tippitt. H
e was declared
DO
A (D
ead on Arrival).
Bill G
reer, the presidential chauffeur, looked through the telephone book. H
e stopped at one page, rang a number.
"Oneal F
uneral H
om
e," replied
a voice, th
at of th
e ow
ner himself, V
ernon B. O
neal, living at 3206 Oak L
awn,
.1) right opposite Father H
uber's church. "T
his is the Secret S
ervice. Please select the best casket
• you h
ave in
stock
and b
ring it h
ere as fast 'as hum
anly
possible. It is for the P
resident of the United S
tates." Jacqueline w
as still alone with her husband. S
he bent to kiss first his cheek, then his hands. R
ound his neck she saw
a medal of S
t Christopher. S
he would have liked to take
it with her, but then she rem
embered . . .
John, to whom
she had given a similar m
edal, had put it into the coffin of little P
atrick. He had asked her to give
`SI V
IVIS
, EG
O T
E A
BS
OL
VO
' 131
him
ano
ther fo
r their w
edd
ing
ann
iversary
, wh
ich h
ad
been a month after the infant's death.
This m
edal belonged to John. She could not put it into
his coffin as a remem
brance of her. He w
ould want som
e-thing specifically hers, som
ething he had loved . . . S
o she took off her wedding ring and put it on John's
finger.
IT W
AS
one o'clock in the afternoon in Dallas.
In Washington, in their little blue and pink room
s at the W
hite H
ouse,. Jo
hn-Jo
hn an
d C
arolin
e still slept lik
e angels.
CH
AP
TE
R T
EN
`Mum
my, W
hy isn't there any M
ickey Mouse on the T
elevision?'
MA
RIE
WIL
SO
N, S
EC
RE
TA
RY
IO a N
ew Y
ork lawyer, w
as m
onotonously typing a conveyance,, in her office on the . fifty-seventh floor of the E
mpire S
tate Building. S
he had left the radio sw
itched on, since it helped make her w
ork a little less b
orin
g. S
udden
ly a F
rank S
inatra so
ng w
as broken off, and a new
sflash was announced —
a special bulletin, as they say in A
merica.
"Oh
dear," said
Marie W
ilson
to h
erself imp
atiently
, "they're going to tell us that the E
ast Freew
ay is jamm
ed, or that som
e Harlem
school is in uproar . . . They do pile
it on with their `bulletins'." S
he was about to tw
ist the knob w
hen the word "K
ennedy" stopped her. "It is reported that P
resident Kennedy has been shot at
in Dallas," said the announcer. "N
othing serious. We w
ill keep you inform
ed." It m
ust, thought Marie W
ilson, be some sort of bad joke.
Perhaps one of the office-boys had set up a m
icrophone on the m
ain aerial of the sky-scraper, which feeds all the radios
and television sets in the building. Or perhaps it w
as one of th
ose d
iabolical sto
ries mad
e up b
y jo
urn
alists short o
f "copy". S
till, she snatched up the telephone; her reaction w
as that of hundreds of thousands, of millions of A
mericans.
But th
e telephone lin
es were b
lock
ed. •
It was one-forty-five, N
ew Y
ork time.
It will not be know
n with any certainty for som
e years if
132
`MU
MM
Y, W
HE
RE
'S M
ICK
EY
MO
US
E?'
133 th
e block
ing of telep
hon
e comm
un
ication w
as du
e to the
fact that th
e app
aratus, lin
es and
emp
loyees were over-
strained
– the w
hole U
.S.A
. was tryin
g to call relations,
friends, newspapers, radio and television stations, the police
and the Pentagon – or if orders had com
e from high places.
Th
is could
have b
een p
art of the p
lans for cop
ing w
ith a
national emergency; to avoid panic; to reserve the lines for
the u
se of the organ
s of nation
al and
civil defen
ce, and
to p
revent th
eir use b
y an h
ypoth
etical invad
er.
TH
E P
EN
TA
GO
N, that fortress on the edge of the dem
arca-tion
line b
etween
Wash
ington
and
the S
tate of Virgin
ia, h
ad b
een d
irectly inform
ed b
y Gen
eral God
frey T. M
c-H
ugh
, the P
residen
t's military aide-de-cam
p. He u
sed a
n
Arm
y transm
itter wh
ich w
as in his car, op
erating u
pon
a sp
ecial wave-len
gth. S
ecret Plan
"F
" of th
e Wilson
Cod
e, "
Incap
acity of the R
uler"
, came in
to operation
. (Th
is was
so named because P
resident Wilson w
as for a long time be-
fore his d
eath alm
ost entirely u
nab
le to take d
ecisions – in
practice, and secretly, his w
ife, Edith, ruled in his place.)
In th
e trebly-b
arricaded
corridors at th
e heart of th
e b
uild
ing, th
e Officers of th
e Day op
ened
sealed en
velopes
giving em
ergency ord
ers, wh
ile couriers w
arned
the fou
r Service chiefs: A
rmy, A
ir Force, N
avy and Marines.
Alm
ost at once, th
e giant m
achin
es of the S
trategic Air
Com
man
d at O
mah
a took off, th
eir atomic an
d h
ydrogen
b
omb
s ready arm
ed. P
lanes ou
t on p
atrol (there is at least
one atom
-bom
ber alw
ays in th
e air) were ord
ered to m
id-
Atlan
tic. Th
e Navy sen
t out a "
red"
signal to su
bm
arines
armed w
ith Polaris.
Wh
ile the rad
io contin
ued
to den
y the very ru
mou
rs it h
ad h
elped
to start – that K
enn
edy's con
dition
was grave,
and
even th
at he w
as dead
– the P
entagon
un
derw
ent th
e m
ost serious crisis of the post-war years; although there w
ere few
officers who really believed that the P
resident could be
134
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S.
dead. To them
, as to all Am
ericans, such an idea seemed
absurd. A
t the P
entag
on, w
here ev
eryth
ing is p
lanned
for
ahead
in. m
inutest d
etail, the id
ea of a p
lot h
ad alread
y
been considered. The P
resident might be kidnapped; false
news broadcast by a group of revolutionaries; above all,
there might be a S
oviet, or at least a Cuban invasion.
The D
allas assassination attempt m
ight be no more than
a prelude to such an invasion. It could be just part of a plot by S
outherners mad enough to try to seize pow
er — rather
like the conspirators of July uoth, 1944 in Germ
any, attack-ing B
erlin in the belief that Stauffenberg had succeeded in
eliminating A
dolf Hitler.
The possibility of a S
oviet invasion is certainly a remote
one, but thanks to its "electronic brains" the Pentagon had
already v
isualised
that a su
rprise attack
on th
e lines o
f P
earl Harb
our co
uld
start with
such
an assassin
ation
attempt. T
he Soviets w
ould launch a few rockets, announce
that others were on the w
ay, and at the same tim
e present an insulting ultim
atum.
A W
ashington without a president —
and, it seemed, per-
haps without an effective V
ice-President either, since the
most contradictory rum
ours were circulating about him
-w
ould have the greatest difficulty in facing up to the Soviet
demands. T
here was also the chaos paralysing the capital ...
The A
mericans have invented the m
ost amazing things,
bu
t a mere h
eavy
fall of sn
ow
can b
ring
all activity
to a
halt. The confusion w
as such that it would m
ost probably have been difficult if not im
possible to carry out the plans prepared by the governm
ent against a•national emergency.
Th
e Presid
ent is b
oth
Co
mm
and
er-in-C
hief an
d so
le arbiter of the retaliatory atom
ic forces. He alone has the
right to order the unleashing of the system of nuclear an-
nihilation which constitutes the sole m
eans (at any rate for the A
merican strategists) of deterring a, S
oviet aggression.
`MU
MM
Y, W
HE
RE
'S M
ICK
EY
MO
USE ?'
135 H
is successor, Johnson, was not for the m
oment in ,a
position to take on those responsibilities. In the first place, he h
ad n
ot y
et been
sworn
in. In
additio
n, m
any h
igh
officers might w
ell have refused to take orders from him
; th
ey w
ould
hav
e insisted
on h
earing K
enned
y's v
oice,
suspecting some ruse by the enem
y. The "enem
y", after all, could have m
ade up the whole story of an assassination, and
be now trying to throw
the various comm
anders into con-fusion —
either by cutting them off from
each other, or by leading them
into the trap of provoking an isolated act of aggression w
hich would justify m
assive Soviet reaction.
("Isolated
" becau
se in su
ch circu
mstan
ces the co
m-
manders are not in touch w
ith each other, and do not know
if the order for retaliation is general.) C
ertainly, there are at the Pentagon very secret instruc-
tions transferring the presidential powers to the C
hiefs of the G
eneral Staff in the event of a president's sudden death.
It is obviously impossible to know
the details of such plans. B
ut no one is sure that they are really effective. T
he "hot" teleprinter line allowing direct com
munica-
tion between the P
entagon and the Krem
lin remained un-
used on that day. Kruschev did not initiate any enquiries;
he was probably as m
uch taken by surprise as the rest of the w
orld. And no-one thought of inform
ing him personally of
wh
at had
hap
pen
ed in
Dallas. F
irst of all b
ecause o
nly
K
enned
y h
ad th
e auth
ority
to m
ake u
se of th
e tele-printer; secondly, because the m
en of the Pentagon feared
that the very act of informing the S
oviets might give them
the idea of profiting from
the situation and deciding upon an offensive.
Perhaps, then, the w
orld can find one consolation among
the m
isfortu
nes o
f that d
ay: th
e belief th
at the S
ov
iet P
remier is sincere, at any rate for the m
oment, w
hen he claim
s to w
ant p
eace. Fo
r if Kru
schev
had
desired
the
destruction of the United S
tates, Fate had given him
then
136 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
'
an unhoped-for opportunity. He could have had A
merica
at his. mercy —
or at least have made the attem
pt, like the Jap
anese at P
earl Harb
our, b
y ex
plo
iting th
e appallin
g
situation. B
etween
the tim
e when
the P
residen
t's death
becam
e gen
erally k
now
n, an
d th
at of h
is successo
r's arrival in
W
ashington, the Krem
lin could have turned the world up-
side down. It w
ould not even have been necessary to have attack
ed th
e United
States. T
hey
could
hav
e occu
pied
B
erlin, forced the Dardanelles, m
enaced Japan and taken S
aigon. A
ll that in several hours ? A
merican strategists are alw
ays saying that it could be done.
IN S
PIT
E of the still silent telephone lines, the radio suc-
ceeded in getting together bits of news on w
hat had hap-pened at D
allas — incom
plete, certainly, often contradictory an
d alw
ays m
uch
more o
ptim
istic than
the reality
. The
great number of private transm
itters — in S
ecret Service
cars, taxis, police offices and the radio stations themselves -
allowed m
essages sent "in clear" to be heard, and reports received from
correspondents on the spot. T
he first indication of the gravity of the situation was the
new
s that G
overn
or C
onnally
had
been
taken
to th
e hosp
ital's operatin
g th
eatre, while P
residen
t Ken
ned
y
still remain
ed in
the E
merg
ency
room
. This m
ust m
ean
that h
is conditio
n w
as so serio
us th
at he co
uld
not b
e m
oved. W
ork in offices stopped. People began to gather on the
corners of 5th Avenue in N
ew Y
ork, Wilshire B
oulevard in L
os Angeles, on the F
isherman W
harf at San F
rancisco, in
stations an
d airp
orts, an
d in
front o
f the w
indow
s of
television shops. Teen-age possessors' of transistor radios,
norm
ally h
eld in
horro
r, were su
rrounded
. Som
e shops
'MU
MM
Y, W
HE
RE
'S M
ICK
EY
MO
US
E?'
137 shut their doors. T
axi-drivers went hom
e. Harlem
was in a
hubbub, b
elievin
g th
at the D
allas neg
roes h
ad b
een
massacred. T
hus began a paralysis of Am
erican life which w
as to go on for four days, and w
hich caused a loss of over $1,000,000,000 in national revenue.
There w
as a sharp
fall on W
all Street, m
ore th
an six
m
illion shares changing hands. The D
ow Jones index, a sort
of Stock M
arket barometer, fell by 21.16 points in half an
hour. Such a fall h ad not been recorded since M
ay 28th, 1962, w
hen it was by 34.95 —
causing fears of another such crash as in 1928. T
he Board of G
overnors of the New
York
Stock E
xchange ordered a closure at 2.9 p.m., thus ending
a situation which could have finished in a financial panic.
Later, an enquiry revealed that in spite of plans for keeping
share dealings steady some pow
erful interests had specu-lated on the fall. F
or them, the D
allas drama w
as nothing m
ore than just another chance to get rich.
IN W
AS
HIN
GT
ON
, Gerry B
ehn, head of the White H
ouse sp
ecial detail, w
as one o
f the first p
eople to
know
for
certain o
f Ken
ned
y's d
eath, in
form
ed b
y an
agen
t in
Dallas. H
e at once sent six men to the C
apitol — the his-
toric home of the S
enate and House of R
epresentatives. T
he "gorillas" burst into the offices of the Speaker of the
House, John W
. McC
ormack; the clerks thought they w
ere bein
g raid
ed b
y g
angsters. B
ut M
cCorm
ack h
ad b
een
warned by telephone. T
he law of succession, am
ended in 1947, provides that in the event of the incapacity or death of both president and vice-president, it is the S
peaker of the House of R
epresenta-tives, as highest in the heirarchy of the electoral system
, who
automatically becom
es President of the U
nited States. (T
he S
enate has no Speaker, the vice-president acting as one
there).
138 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
.
.A m
echanised unit from the W
ashington garrison was
Ordered to speed to the C
apitol. • W
ith a presence of mind w
hich would have been m
ore
useful in Dallas, the S
ecret Service m
en took routine pre-
cautions. They entered the N
ational' Cathedral S
chbol for
Girls, and w
ent into one of the classes. They ordered L
uci
Baines, L
yndon Johnson's younger daughter, to go with them
. '
.She.N
vas tak
en h
om
e, and th
e house p
ut in
to a state o
f"
siege. In Austin, the capital of T
exas, others went to the
Univ
ersity, lo
ok
ing
for L
ynd
a, the h
eadstro
ng eld
er
dau
ghter. S
he w
as with
her b
oy-frien
d; B
ernard
Rosen
;
bach, a young naval officer. And w
hat if the young man
had put up any resistance to this strange kidnapping? "W
e'd h
ave k
no
cked
him
do
wn
with
a pu
nch
on
the
. jaw," one of the "gorillas" said later.
TH
E T
WO
small children w
ere still sleeping on the second
floor of the White H
ouse, their dreams undisturbed.
But in the S
enate, there was near-pandem
onium.
Way
ne M
orse, th
e rebel S
enato
r, bro
ke o
f a speech
criticising Kennedy's foreign policy w
hen a page brought
hint a message. H
e started, and went over to the chairm
an.
Ted
Ken
ned
y, th
e new
Sen
ator fo
r Massach
usetts, an
d
also the President's younger brother, w
as presiding over the debate.
Ted
listened
to h
im, w
ent d
readfu
lly p
ale, got u
p an
d
left the room hurriedly —
forgetting to bring the session to a
formal close. S
uch a thing had never happened before in th
at gthvo Num
-rally.
TH
E T
EL
EV
ISIO
N
stations sto
pped
their reg
ular p
ro-
gram
mes, cu
t ou
t the rau
cou
s advertisin
g sessio
ns, an
d
tried to organise themselves to keep the public inform
ed. C
omm
entators, reporters and cameram
en were even m
ore overcom
e than the audiences.
'MU
MM
Y, W
HE
RE
'S M
ICK
EY
MO
US
E ?'
139
"I operated
my cam
era like a ro
bot —
my m
ind w
as
elsewhere," explained one photographer, w
ho was film
ing
outside the hospital at Dallas.
The jovial presidential P
ress Secretary, P
ierre Salinger,
was of course ignorant of w
hat had happened, being en
route to
Japan
. In h
is absen
ce, a harassed
aide at last
admitted to the press that K
ennedy was dead.
Radio announcers sobbed as they read the brief com
-
muniqué. T
he lights went out on B
roadway. W
omen w
ent
to light candles in the churches. Car drivers stopped their
vehicles at the roadside. Manhattan, like so m
any other
Am
erican towns, w
as enveloped in a mantle of m
ist and
rain. In B
erlin, young girls threw flow
ers — red roses —
on the
"Wall of S
hame".
In Rom
e, the President of the R
epublic did not hide his
tears, but wept w
ith his face in his hands. In M
oscow, even, M
rs Nikita K
ruschev showed strong
emotion.
"I have always w
anted to know w
hat people felt on the
day Abraham
Lincoln died," said a K
ansas City student.
"Now
I know. It's dreadful to think that I am
still living
while he, K
ennedy, is dead." T
he people of Dallas hid them
selves in their homes. T
he
town had becom
e a city of shame.
.In C
hicag
o, a m
an in
front o
f the
Tribune building,
shouted, addressing himself to the S
outh: "W
e are a natio
n p
ossessed
, which
amuses itself b
y
periodically massacring its presidents."
Th
e head
of th
e Su
prem
e Co
urt o
f the U
nited
States
declared publicly: "It is the S
outhern fanatics and the extreme right-w
ing
who are responsible for the m
urder of our President."
"He has w
ritten the last but finest chapter of Profiles in
Courage," said
Rich
ard M
. Nix
on, th
e man
so n
arrow
ly
140
. R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
beaten for the presidency, of his rival. Profiles in C
ourage, . w
hich brought Kennedy a P
ulitzer Prize, w
as an anthology • of the lives of great S
enators. •
Although w
orld reaction was perhaps even m
ore solemn
than in the United S
tates, life there stood still for four days, as if a barbarian invader had clutched hold of the nation —
no theatres, no cinem
as, no bars, no cafes. P
eople mourned K
ennedy as he had been a Knight of the
Round T
able, clad in shining armour, the ideal of people of
'every land and clime. A
merica is alw
ays complaining that
she is misunderstood, and too m
uch criticised abroad; but '
she should realise that in spite of everything it is of her that others dream
, her they want to love.
The m
idin
ettes of P
aris decid
ed to
pay
hom
age to
K
ennedy by giving up their traditional fete on St C
ather-ine's D
ay.
RO
BE
RT
KE
NN
ED
Y, w
ho so Much loved his brother John,
received the terrible news w
hile lunching in the garden of his villa w
ith his wife and the w
ife of the French A
mbas-
sador in
Wash
ingto
n, M
me H
crve A
lphan
d. T
he sh
ock
m
ust have been terrible. Still it is difficult to understand
why h
e did
not, in
his cap
acity as A
ttorn
ey G
eneral, at
once fly to Dallas to take charge of the police investigations,
and u
nrav
el any p
lot w
hich
mig
ht b
e afoot. E
ven
his
:Imm
ediate — but recalcitrant —
subordinate, J. Edgar H
oo-ver, boss of the F
.B.I., did not think it necessary to go there.
Anoth
er of th
e thousan
d m
ysteries o
f that in
explicab
le day.
Rosem
ary Kennedy w
as watching television that after-
noon, in the lounge of the St C
olleta institution at Jefferson, W
isconsin, for retarded or mentally handicapped children;
she had been there for twenty-one years. It w
as thus that •
she learned of the death of her big brother. A
labourer working in the grounds of the K
ennedy estate
`MU
MM
Y, W
HE
RE
'S M
ICK
EY
MO
US
E?'
141
at Hyannis P
ort heard the news on a portable radio, and
rush
ed in
to th
e house cry
ing: "K
enned
y's b
een sh
ot!
• K
ennedy's been shot !" T
he President's m
other, who at seventy-tw
o had under-gone so m
any family troubles, did not show
surprise. She
gave the impression of having know
n that yet another mis-
fortune was on the w
ay. She w
oke up old Mr K
ennedy and to
ld h
im th
e new
s. Som
eone tu
rned
on th
e televisio
n.
Probably no one w
ill ever know w
hether Kennedy S
enior, so com
pletely paralysed, really understood what had hap-
pened to this son, the head of the 'dynasty which he had
founded. W
hen informed of the tragedy, P
eter Law
ford was in a
show at S
tateline, Nevada —
the same cabaret in w
hich som
e months later F
rank Sinatra, Jnr, appeared at the tim
e of his sensational kidnapping.
"God h
ave p
ity o
n u
s all!" he ex
claimed
, and at o
nce
telephoned his wife, E
unice, the President's sister; then his
friend F
rank S
inatra, h
ead o
f "The C
lan" —
a gro
up o
f acto
rs pro
min
ent in
the film
colo
ny. S
inatra o
rdered
general m
ourning in Hollyw
ood. John K
ennedy's grandmother, M
rs Fitzgerald (w
ife of the fam
ous politician and Mayor of B
oston), was not in-
formed; she is 96 years old. T
o this day, she does not know
that her favourite grandson is dead. • T
he trial of Gene T
hompson, the m
an accused of having procured his w
ife's murder, w
as adjourned sine die. The
presiding judge explained that the jury might w
ell be so em
otionally disturbed by the assassination as not to be able to give an objective verdict.
In Shiokaw
a, Japan; Kohei H
anami w
ept on learning of the death of the m
an he had once tried to kill. He is the
former com
mander of the cruiser w
hich so nearly did so during the w
ar, when his ship sliced L
ieutenant Kennedy's
patrol boat in two.
14.2
. R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
• • "T
he world has lost an irreplaceable m
an," said Hanam
i, • now
manager of a shoe factory. •
. Also. irr Japan, in T
okyo, Mm
e Inejiro • Asanum
a, wife
of• the Socialist leader w
ho was publicly assassinated by a
• teen-age fanatic, declared: "T
he life of a politician's wife is bitter and sad. I too `saw
• m
y husband die in my arm
s on the way to hospital ..."
But an
oth
er wid
ow
was less sy
mpath
etic: Mm
e Ngo
' Dinh N
hu, whose husband had been brutally m
urdered in S
aigon shortly before, on Novem
ber ist. In Los A
ngeles she had
told
me th
at . she h
eld Jo
hn K
enned
y resp
onsib
le fo
r his 'assassin
ation, an
d th
at she b
elieved
God w
ould
revenge it.' .
• N
ow she sent an ironical letter of condolence from
Rom
e: , . "I do not know
you, but you must understand now
what
a wife feels w
hen told that her husband has been brutally clone to death. W
hat has come to you 'is only one effect of
the frightful injustice of which m
y husband was an innocent
victim
. ." •
Cruel w
ords, and flagrantly laCking in tact; but later—
much later —
history, no sentimentalist, m
ay perhaps say that M
me N
hu was not altogether w
rong in linking the two
events. Extrem
ists who blam
ed Kennedy for N
hu's death m
ight have had some hand in his.
When K
ennedy's death was announced to the elem
en-tary
school ch
ildren
in D
allas, and th
ey w
ere told
to g
o
home, the pupils all started to clap enthusiastically, and 'D
ixie", the anthem of the S
outhern rebels. P
rincess Paola of B
elgium heard the new
s with annoy-
ance. She was clanchtg at the hom
e of Count B
ismarck, w
hen it w
as thought best to stop the orchestra playing. "N
ow they'll shut m
e up like a novice again, just as I was
having some fun for the first tim
e since Laurent's birth!"
she said. . In S
anta Barbara, C
alifornia, lives the shadowy but very
`MU
MM
Y, W
HE
RE
'S M
ICK
EY
MO
US
E ?'
143
middle-class head of the sem
i-secret John Birch S
ociety; there, K
ennedy and Warren w
ere hanged in effigy. T
he wife of E
arl Cabell, M
ayor of Dallas, w
ho that same
morning had presented M
rs Kennedy w
ith her bouquet, received a death-threat by telephone. H
er husband gave up his intention of going to W
ashington that evening after a w
arning that there was a bom
b in the plane he was going to
take. Jam
es R. H
offa, irremovable boss of the truck drivers'
unio
n, th
e man
Presid
ent K
enned
y's b
roth
er had
been
trying for years to bring dow
n, remarked w
ith a smile:
"Now
Bob K
ennedy's nothing more than any other little
no-account lawyer."
In Nashville, T
ennessee, a speaker at a plenary session of the m
unicipal council declared: "Jack
Ken
ned
y d
ied th
e death
of a ty
rant." H
e was
warm
ly applauded. In the N
ew Y
ork suburb of Brooklyn, thirteen-year-old
Johanna Malandrucca w
as alone with her sixteen-year-old
sister Mary. A
fter hearing so much talk on the television
about rifles and gunfire, the two girls decided to play w
ith their father's sporting guns, im
prudently displayed on the w
alls. Mary aim
ed a carbine at her little sister. Johanna did the sam
e, but pressed the trigger. Mary w
as killed on the spot.
In Colum
bus, Ohio, a young m
an who had m
ade a dis-paraging rem
ark about the dead President w
as stabbed to the heart by an outraged neighbour.
That day, in the U
nited States, eight deaths took place -
almost all ignored —
following argum
ents caused by the P
resident's death. Tw
o old men had fatal heart attacks.
The tw
enty-six dancers of the Joffrey Negro B
allet were
in Kiev. D
uring the evening, some m
inutes after the second act had begun, cam
e the news from
Dallas. T
he Am
erican dan
cers aban
doned
the p
erform
ance, an
d o
rgan
ised a
144 '
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
mem
orial service — in w
hich Soviet officials took part —
in the R
ussian Orthodox C
hurch of St V
ladimir.
In. Berne, S
witzerland, the new
United S
tates Am
bas-sador, T
rue W. D
avies, was due to present his credentials
next day to the President of the Sw
iss Confederation. B
ut since an am
bassador is the president's personal representa-tiv
e, the p
apers sig
ned
"Ken
ned
y" n
o lo
nger h
ad an
y
value; from the point of view
of protocol, the Am
bassador w
as noth
ing m
ore th
an a fo
reign to
urist. F
indin
g h
is position som
ewhat ridiculous, D
avies telegraphed desper-ately to the S
tate Departm
ent for new credentials, but no
one in
Wash
ingto
n d
ared to
both
er Johnso
n w
ith su
ch a
small m
atter . T
here w
as no telev
ised en
tertainm
ent w
hatso
ever.
Noth
ing b
ut d
iscussio
ns o
f what h
ad h
appen
ed, th
e rare intervals filled by concerts of sacred m
usic. With com
mon
accord, the television companies had banned all advertising.
Still the A
mericans rem
ained rooted before their screens; television, like the telephone, they realised, had grow
n into the very fabric of their lives. It w
as only the little ones —
those of about the same age as "John-John" —
who asked
vainly: "B
ut, Mum
my, w
hy isn't there any Mickey M
ouse on the television today like there usually is ?"
In th
e White H
ouse —
which
from
outsid
e seemed
deserted, and w
hose walls looked grubby under the fine
grey rain which had not ceased all day long —
the two sm
all children had, at last w
oken up. They w
ere not given time to
ask questions; they must get dressed as quickly as possible,
because they were going to be taken to their aunt's hom
e. T
he editors of Parade m
agazine tried desperately to call in all copies of the issue containing the article in w
hich it w
as claimed that Jacqueline K
ennedy was fed up w
ith the W
hite House.
In Hollyw
ood, a decision was taken to stop the show
ing of
C.
. •
The K
enned
y fam
ily atten
d th
e funeral o
f the late P
residen
t. On
Mrs K
ennedy's right is Edw
ard Kennedy, and on her left A
ttorney-G
eneral R
obert. In
front are M
rs Ken
ned
y's ch
ildren
, Caro
line
and Jo
hn
• 46
4 it e
t,
t
;:* A-•
• .
• t -,r/4g.,' •
• .1,
:rt.:;1
• i.•4
0•••
4%.
44;r" •
- ••1
S
it el
f•!"....4•14
.•,;1
• Af. .-
k • t.:1
'
L.
,••,•,^V -.k.1...
i ..... 4.,..: ,-r,.I Vt•-.00.r..... ---N, It, k-.=
.
, ..—..,
.. ,;,:',.... ‘„
A ..- /
•''''.._ .....t_l'-' 3 :'.1 01 -
.4.);`,49.11"
"ctr
-Nr-- -s- -
, t , 1,-
y,.
: ..N1-4,.'.."
- -
-). ., t
r a ...1:L... L.
..... /:,..,.._ ........1 ■:.,...,...,
:•4, ei:;,,./..k
4 .: .7
j.......14.,..,. ;
'to.,.• " 'I., ''.... -- "`i..`•-'4
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....t. ,..,- . - - --'1
,- .
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4. • ,"
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,..••••;fir., ;7
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( \ • -.., • 11.41C,,,-,.
. . L., • -• t 1. -,-
`MU
MM
Y, W
HE
RE
'S M
ICK
EY
MO
US
E ?
' 145
the film P
TI 09, inspired by the adventure in the P
acific; to postpone the prem
iere of Seven Days In M
ay, of Fail Safe an
d
of Dr Strangelove; an
d also
to sh
elve w
ithout fu
rther ad
o
all films dealing w
ith the assassination of presidents. It was
also decided to cut certain scenes; for example, w
here in the film
T
ake Her, She's M
ine a student imitates K
ennedy's voice:
A book •w
as* called in from library circulation, a book
'which, how
ever, had great success: J.F.K
.: The M
an and T
he Myth,
by
Victo
r' Lask
y. In
it, the au
tho
r sharp
ly
criticised th
e Presid
ent; it w
as feared th
at mobs m
ight
stone the shop-fronts. D
ut at the same tim
e plans were m
ade in Hollyw
ood fbr a dozen future film
s based on what had happened in D
allas; and already publishers w
ere telephoning their authors to discuss books, albU
ms, gram
ophone records, photo and portrait d
istributio
ns. T
he id
ea was to
put th
em o
n th
e m
arket without losing a m
oment, to be first in the field. T
he advertising industry w
anted to cover the walls w
ith pictures and slogans honouring K
ennedy; to write his nam
e on the sky; strike m
edals; sell napkins stamped w
ith his name;
statuettes, lapel-buttons, dolls. C
apital cities, towns, villages, ham
lets, already proposed to re-nam
e their avenues, squares, airports, golf-courses, dog-tracks, nurseries and reform
schools in his honour.
DE
SP
ITE
TH
ES
E extrem
es, the whole w
orld, that evening, seem
s to have found a comm
on denominator in its affection
for the widow
in the bloodstained pink dress and the young leader so w
ickedly struck down.
Tw
elve people, however, did not sh
are in th
is univ
ersal
sorrow. T
hese were tw
elve jurors, who had been deliberat-
ing since the mo
rnin
g o
n a critn
inn
i ewe b
efore th
e Vi.( 1
, ,r,,11
Court Iti ,M
anhattan
. 11(.7
had
; •
verd
ict.„ aria had cle..:i k ird ;,, 1
,
146 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
continue their deliberations next day. As the law
compels,
they
were k
ept cu
t off fro
m th
e outsid
e world
and n
ot
allowed to talk to their guards —
still less to listen to the radio or read the new
spapers. T
hese were perhaps the only people in the U
nited States
who w
ent to bed that night ofNovem
ber 22nd, 1963 without
knowing of K
ennedy's death.
CH
AP
TE
R E
LE
VE
N
A B
ad Tipper
R. S
. TR
UL
Y, M
AN
AG
ER
of the Texas B
ook Depository, had
watched the parade from
the steps of the building. Now
he w
as pushed down on to the road by • the crow
d — som
e hurrying tow
ards the assassination spot, others trying to get aw
ay. "I d
idn't k
now
," he say
s, "that th
e shots cam
e from
our building, but I saw
a man run in there and go to the
telephone, an
d th
en a p
olicem
an d
ash in
. I thought h
e w
anted to go up on the roof, to get a full view of the scene.
I caught u
p w
ith h
im an
d said
'Com
e on, I'll sh
ow
you
the way.'
"We w
ent through the ground-floor offices to get to the back and take the goods lift. T
he front lift only goes to the fourth floor. T
he two cages of the goods lift w
ere at the top, w
hich was odd, but at the tim
e I did
n't th
ink ab
out th
at. I supposed that everyone had gone to lunch, and w
ould have brought the lifts dow
n. I pointed towards the stairs.
The policem
an leapt up them tw
o at a time; I could hardly
keep up. When I did, on the first floor, he had draw
n his revolver and w
as confronting Lee H
arvey Osw
ald. The
young man w
as in front of the door of a sort of employees'
canteen. He had ,a bottle of C
oca-Cola in his hand, w
hich he m
ust have got from one of the vending m
achines put there for the use of the staff.
"'Does this m
an work here ?' the policem
an asked me.
147
A B
AD
TIP
PE
R
1 49 L
ater, her friend Mrs P
aine told her of the assassination. "I w
as very much upset," said M
arina, when she m
ade her first free statem
ent. "I was so sorry for M
rs Kennedy.
What frig
htfu
l perso
n co
uld
hav
e done su
ch a th
ing? I
would have im
agined anything in the world except that it
could be my husband."
While T
ruly and his policeman w
ere on the roof of the T
exas B
ook D
eposito
ry, th
e Detectiv
e Cap
tain o
f the
Dallas C
ity Police, W
ill Fritz, w
as directing a systematic
search of the building. In the fifth-floor warehouse, one of
the window
s was found tw
o-thirds open. On the floor near
the window
were three 6.5 m
m. cartridges. T
hree card-board boxes, one on top of the other, had probably served to steady the gun. F
ragments of a chicken sandw
ich were
also found. F
ive minutes later the rifle w
as found, hidden under a pile of books. T
he cartridges were of the sam
e calibre. The T
exas police h
ad d
ifficulty
in reco
gnisin
g th
e mak
er's trade-
mark
. First a G
erman
Mau
ser was m
entio
ned
, then
a Japanese rifle; finally, it w
as stated that it was an Italian
Carcan
o 9
1, co
min
g fro
m su
rplu
s stock
s, and w
ith a
Japanese Canon telescopic sight.
Truly w
ent down again to the ground floor and called
together all the ninety-one employees. T
hey were all there
except one: Osw
ald. "I d
on't k
now
if it's of an
y im
portan
ce," he said
to a
detective, "But I've one m
an missing. A
guy named L
ee O
swald."
"It could
be v
ery im
portan
t indeed
," answ
ered th
e policem
an. H
e reported
to th
e Detectiv
e Cap
tain, w
ho
telephoned a description of the missing m
an to the radio control room
at police headquarters. "Tw
enty-one years old . . . A
bout five feet ten in height . .. Weight, a hundred
and sixty pounds. Nam
e: Lee O
swald."
Fritz also sent tw
o investigators to Irving, to see Mrs
148 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
" 'Yes,' I answ
ered. Then w
e went on up the stairs to the
third floor, took the lift from there to the seventh and w
ent out on the roof."
The police never thought of throw
ing a cordon round the suspected building; at the tim
e, however, no one w
as quite sure that the shots had com
e from there.
Certainly, photographer B
ob Jackson states that he saw a
rifle fired from the w
indow at the end of the fifth floor. B
ut he did not get a photograph; he w
as still changing his film.
H. L
. Bren
nan
, a turn
er, tells of h
avin
g seen
"a thin
young m
an, healthy-looking, with a rifle, press the trigger
twice . . . H
e wasn't in any hurry, that guy."
A television cam
eraman, M
el Couch, states that he saw
• a rifle, but is not certain w
hether it was on the fourth or the
fifth floor. A
photo
grap
h tak
en a few
seconds later sh
ow
s two
negroes at the end of the fourth floor. But they are looking
down at the road, not up at the w
indow above them
, where
the shot came from
. B
uddy W
althers, th
e policem
an fro
m th
e Sheriff's
office, states for his part that the shots — or at least one shot -
came from
the balustrade of the motorw
ay bridge. He ran
towards it; that w
as when, w
ith a Secret S
ervice man, he
found a rifle b
ullet in
the g
rass near th
e brid
ge —
the
"fourth bullet" ?
JAC
K R
UB
Y, alias R
ubinstein, went into the office of the
show business editor of the D
alla
s New
s at 12:45. The new
s-paper's offices are five m
inutes' walk from
the spot where
the assassination took place. He seem
ed quite untroubled. ' M
AR
INA
OS
WA
LD
had put the baby into its cot. The other
little girl p
layed
nearb
y as sh
e watch
ed a w
om
en's p
ro-
gramm
e on television. She still could not speak m
ore than sev
en w
ord
s of E
nglish
, and d
id n
ot u
nderstan
d th
e an-
nouncement w
hich interrupted the programm
e.
150 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
Paine —
hers being the only address for Osw
ald in Truly's
staff records.
LE
E IIA
RV
EY
Osw
ald had quietly gone down to the office,
where it seem
s that a telephonist said to him: "S
omeone's
tried to kill the President, isn't it terrible ?" —
to which he
did
not rep
ly. T
he telep
honist d
oes n
ot sw
ear to th
is incident.
He w
ent out the front way, m
ixed unnoticed, w
ith the crow
d, walked up the avenue, m
ade a detour, went back
again and knocked on the window
of a bus which had com
e to a halt in the m
iddle of the road because traffic was at a
standstill. T
he bus conductor, C. J. M
cWatters, says he is certain
that th
is was at
12.40. He k
ept lo
okin
g at h
is watch
all the tim
e, being late on schedule. "Osw
ald went and sat in
the middle of the car. T
here were tw
o other passengers." T
he route of the bus was m
uch the same as that of the
presidential procession. Osw
ald would pass right by w
here K
ennedy had been killed — like the m
urderer returning to th
e scene o
f his crim
e in a d
etective sto
ry. B
ut fo
r the
mom
ent the bus was still seven blocks aw
ay, to the west of
the sp
ot. It co
uld
only
creep fo
rward
. At o
ne p
oin
t, a m
otorist who w
as just in front got out of his car, went to
the fro
nt o
f the b
us, tap
ped
on th
e win
dow
and called
out: "K
ennedy's b
een k
illed." O
swald
show
ed n
o
reaction. A
wom
an in
the b
us, n
ot w
antin
g to
lose h
er train,
decided to get off. Osw
ald followed her.
"Giv
e me a tran
sfer," he said
. A tran
sfer is a ticket
permitting the use of another line w
ithout extra payment.
McW
atters franked the ticket with his day's code-letter. It
was from
this that the police traced him w
hen the ticket was
found in Osw
ald's pocket. W
illiam W
ayne Whaley, a taxi-driver, w
as waiting in
A B
AD
TIP
PE
R
151
front of the Greyhound B
us station — an intercontinental
line — som
e two hundred yards or so north on E
lm S
treet. T
here are not many taxis in D
allas, and the drivers prefer to w
ait for custom. O
swald opened the door and said to
him: "I w
ant to go to 50o North B
eckley." He didn't live
there, but the address was close to the house w
here he had• his little furnished room
in Oak C
liff. T
he taxi-man w
as used to all sorts of passengers, and was
not over-surprised by the man's silence. H
e got no answer
to the question: "W
hat the devil's going on down there?" —
meaning the
spot where the tragedy had taken place.
Perh
aps if O
swald
had
giv
en h
im a 2
5 cen
t tip, h
e w
ould
hav
e forg
otten
this fare. B
ut o
n arriv
al, with
95
cents on the meter, O
swald • gave him
just one dollar, and got o
ut w
ithout ev
en say
ing th
ank-y
ou. T
he d
river w
as furious.
The housekeeper of the lodging-house rem
embers having
seen O
swald
go in
to h
is room
at about o
ne o
'clock
. He
came out soon after changing his jacket.
At exactly one-fifteen, M
rs Helen M
arkham w
as waiting
for a b
us o
n th
e corn
er of E
ast loth
Street, ab
out a m
ile from
Osw
ald's lodging. Som
e way up the road, she saw
a w
hite police patrol car stop: No. Io. A
policeman got out:
J. D. T
ippitt. He w
as alone. No one w
ill ever know w
hy he w
ent th
ere, or w
heth
er or n
ot h
e had
received
the
"alert" message from
the control room.
Mrs M
arkham had only an indistinct vie%
<' of w
hat hap-pened. S
he "saw a m
an aged about thirty, with curly hair
and a white jacket, go tow
ards the policeman and speak
to him. T
hen the policeman w
ent nearer. They stopped.
The m
an in white said som
ething. He took a revolver from
his pocket and shot the policem
an. I thought he was going
to kill me too," said M
rs Markham
. A
t the cro
ssroad
s, Ted
Callaw
ay, seco
nd-h
and car
15
2 '
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
dealer, was standing in front of his office. H
e had heard the shocking new
s about Kennedy on the radio.
"I heard a shot, screams, I crossed m
y used-car lot, and I saw
this guy running down the other side of the road. H
e had
a gu
n in
his h
and, an
d w
as wav
ing h
is arms . . . I
called out: 'Man, w
hat goes on.?' But he did not answ
er. I am
sure that it was O
swald —
I recognised him the sam
e evening."
A couple of m
iles further on is the Texas C
inema. T
hat day they w
ere showing W
ar Is Hell. T
here were only a few
dozen people in the audience.
On the sam
e side of the pavement as the cinem
a there is a big block of houses and shops, am
ong them the H
ardy shoe- sh
op
. Salesm
an Jo
hnny B
rewer w
as loo
kin
g o
ut o
f the
window
when he saw
a man in shirt-sleeves com
ing along. H
e was behaving oddly, going from
doorway to doorw
ay, as if trying to hide. (T
he police later found a beige jacket ab
andoned
beh
ind a p
etrol-p
um
p n
ot far aw
ay). Jo
hnny
Brew
er went out and saw
the suspicious character go to- w
ards the cinema. H
e asked the cashier, Julie Postel, if she
had seen him. S
he said that she hadn't. The ticket-collector
had not seen anything either. Brew
er then asked the cashier to call the police.
There h
ad alread
y b
een tw
o alarm
s in th
e district.
Som
eone telep
honed
to say
that a d
angero
us m
an w
as hiding in a church. T
hen a wom
an ran down the street like
a mad thing. T
he police had sent out patrol-cars. ' P
oliceman M
. N. M
cDonald w
as first on the spot. "I arriv
ed at th
e cinem
a at half-p
ast one. I ask
ed fo
r rein
forcem
ents. I h
ad th
e lights p
ut o
n, an
d th
e film
was sto
pped
. Brew
er got o
n to
the stag
e and p
oin
ted
out to
me a m
an sittin
g in
the cen
tre of th
e front stalls."
Other policem
en, including the Sheriff's detective B
uddy W
althers, arrived. The theatre w
as surrounded. The rest
of the audience were asked to go up into the circle. A
gent
A' B
AD
TIP
PE
R
553
McD
onald came level w
ith Osw
ald, and "seeing that he w
as reaching for his gun, I clutched him round the w
aist. W
e fell together on to the seats. I had my hand on the butt
of his gun, but his finger was on the trigger. I heard a click.
The ham
mer didn't w
ork. That saved m
y life. The other
policem
en ju
mped
on th
e man
, and h
amm
ered h
is face w
ith their fists." O
swald is supposed to have said then:
"It's all over," but this is not quite certain. A
t the sound of sirens, a crowd had gathered outside.
Now
they yelled threats to lynch the man. O
swald answ
ered them
calmly:
"I protest this brutality." H
e was taken to the pleasant little police building near
• the S
tatler Ho
tel. He en
tered it ju
st befo
re two
o'clo
ck.
He w
as nev
er to leav
e it alive. .
WA
RN
ED
BY
radio, the officers sent to Mrs P
aine's address roughly arrested M
arina. They asked her if her husband
owned a rifle; she m
ust have said "Yes" and show
n them
the hiding-place in the, garage. B
ut the rifle was not there.
She to
o w
as taken
' to h
eadquarters, an
d su
bm
itted to
endless interrogations. T
he police claim that she recognised
the murder rifle as her husband's.
Than
ks to
a note fo
und in
Osw
ald's w
allet, the little
furn
ished
roo
m in
Beck
ley S
treet was traced
. The p
ro-
prietor, Mrs Johnson, back from
her restaurant, could not understand w
hat the police wanted: there w
as no Osw
ald living here. N
ever heard of him.
Th
en a n
eigh
bo
ur w
ho
had
been
watch
ing
televisio
n
exclaimed:
"But that m
an they've arrested, it's Lee, our L
ee." T
he police rushed into the little room, and searched it for
two hours. T
hey found nothing.
154
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
FR
OM
TH
E
first mo
men
t, Osw
ald, b
ehav
ed w
ith u
n-
believable arrogance towards his interrogators, taking the
line that they were hired toughs. G
estapo dogs, madm
en. A
ssistant D
istrict Atto
rney
William
F. A
lexan
der
charged him w
ith the murder of policem
an Tippitt. A
t the tim
e of the arrest there was no direct evidence of his in-
volv
emen
t in th
e assassinatio
n, so
the p
olice co
nten
ted
them
selves w
ith h
old
ing
him
on
this ch
arge. It w
as no
t until later, in
the ev
enin
g, th
at he w
as taken
,befo
re an
exam
inin
g m
agistrate fo
r the seco
nd
time, an
d ch
arged
w
ith th
e m
urd
er o
f "one, Jo
hn F
. Kennedy". T
he
law d
oes n
ot p
ermit th
e victim
's office o
r title to b
e m
entioned. W
hen charged by Alexander, O
swald sneered:
"Tell that to m
y legal representative." He continued to
ask for a lawyer, but did not specify w
ho it should be. At one
point, he cried: "Y
ou treat me as if w
e were in S
oviet Russia, and not in a
free country." •
Justice of the Peace D
avid Johnston told Osw
ald that he had all the rights guaranteed by the C
onstitution, and need not answ
er questions put by the police. "Y
ou treat me like a slave," O
swald shouted back. "I'm
in a concentration cam
p here." H
e refused to admit anything at all. H
e knew nothing of
Kennedy, nothing of C
onnally. He had not been near the
window
on the fifth floor, had never seen the rifle before, hadn't the least idea w
hat might have happened to police-
man
Tip
pitt. H
e had
gone q
uietly
off to
the cin
ema,
believing that all the Texas B
ook Depository em
ployees had got th
e afternoon o
ff. When
not accu
sing th
e police o
f brutality, or calling them
monsters or degenerates, he told
them, "Y
ou're mad . . ."
But he adm
itted being a Marxist and a revolutionary.
A H
AD
TIP
PE
R
155
TH
E T
EX
AS
police have an iron reputation: when they get
their hands on a suspect they know in ninety-nine cases out
of a hundred just how to extract a confession. B
ut police ch
ief Jesse Cu
rry realised
that O
swald
wo
uld
no
t talk
easily. He therefore decided to play for tim
e, get together as m
uch evidence as possible and then confront Osw
ald with it.
Malign F
ate was to decide otherw
ise. A
fter Osw
ald's arrest, an
d w
hen
he h
ad b
een p
ho
to-
grap
hed
and
fing
er-prin
ted, a req
uest w
as sent b
y tele-
printer to the F.B
.I. in Washington for an Identification. In
the h
ug
e classification
roo
m at th
e head
qu
arters of th
e S
ecretariat of Justice, on Pennsylvania A
venue, electronic brains gave the answ
er within seconds. T
en minutes later,
the D
allas police h
ad th
e info
rmatio
n: O
swald
had
re
nounced h
is natio
nality
and liv
ed in
Russia
; he
was co
nsid
ered to
be a C
om
munist ag
ent, o
r at least a sym
pathiser. A
little after three o
'clock
, still Tex
as time, a b
rief com
munique w
as issued to the press : "W
e are holding a suspect, a young man w
ho has lived in th
e Soviets . ."
Until then, the A
merican m
an in the street, politicians, journalists, television com
mentators, had supposed that the
on
ly p
ossib
le assassins m
ust b
e extrem
ists op
po
sed to
K
ennedy's policy of racial equality. Perhaps acting alone,
perhaps a group of fanatics, perhaps men in the pay of such
Southern organisations as the K
lu-Klux-K
lan, the "Citi-
zens' Councils".
Had not E
arl Warren just declared: "T
hose responsible are bigots, ultra-nationalists, those w
ho hate the negroes and oppose progress." ? H
e was a m
an of highest standing in W
ashington, ChiefJudge of the S
upreme C
ourt — and in the
Am
erican hierarchy a Chief Justice is alm
ost the President's
equal.
156
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
BU
T IF
. the w
ord
"Com
munist" d
id n
ot co
nvin
ce. the
special correspondents of the foreign press (now on their
way
from
New
York
to D
allas in a sp
ecial plan
e kin
dly
organised by the A
merican A
irlines only an hour after the new
s of the tragedy) it worked like m
agic upon the imagina-
tion of the Am
erican people. It paralysed their reasoning pow
ers as surely
as the rifle b
ullets h
ad p
aralysed
John
Ken
ned
y's n
ervous sy
stem. •
The k
iller, was a C
om
munist? —
Every
thin
g w
as ex-
plained, everything was justified, everything w
as beyond question. T
here was no point in enquiring further. A
s in all the best scripts, the C
omm
unist agent was the assassin.
Since the afternoon the people of D
allas had deserted the streets; they seem
ed very much less afflicted by the death
of the President. than by the sham
e which had fallen upon
their town. N
ow they breathed freely for the first tim
e this F
riday
. So th
e killer w
as a foreig
n ag
ent . . . H
e had
probably chosen D
allas as the scene of his crime so as to
brin
g d
ow
n sh
ame o
n th
is centre o
f anti-G
om
munism
. T
he men of D
allas, tall as giraffes, who love to parade in
their u
mbrella-lik
e hats, said
to each
oth
er in th
eir in-
comprehensible E
nglish: "O
swald
is `it' . . . It's him
. . . There aren
't any C
om
-m
unists in Dallas .. . If O
swald is a C
omm
unist he must
be th
e crimin
al, becau
se only
a Com
munist co
uld
hav
e done such a thing."
Councillor D
avies declared to a journalist: "It's a g
ood th
ing th
at they
've arrested
en o
utsid
er, a stranger . . . O
therwise blood w
ould have flowed tonight
in the South . . . T
he Yankees w
ould have decimated us ..."
As for the police —
we w
ant to be fair; the Dallas police
cannot be held entirely responsible for the errors of that ev
enin
g. T
he S
ecret Serv
ice were w
ork
ing w
ith th
em,
encouraging them in their attitude, and probably*insis‘ting
even more than they did upon O
swald's guilt —
the fact that'
A B
AD
TIP
PE
R
157
he was a R
ed was decisive evidence. T
hey didn't need any m
ore proof. S
o something extrem
ely strange happened, something
unique in the annals of police work. T
hey stopped their investigations. N
o more searches w
ere made. N
o roads were
barred. No stations w
ere raided. No nets w
ere thrown out.
No o
ne th
ought o
f check
ing o
n th
e iden
tities of p
eople
staying in the hotels. A
Pan-A
merican plane due to leave L
ove Field airport
at Dallas for G
ermany by w
ay of Frankfurt w
as able to take off w
ithout let• or hindrance. No O
fficer asked to see the passenger list; there w
as not even a Custom
s' inspection. F
oreign journalists who had com
e to the town had ex-
pressed a fear that they would not be perm
itted to leave freely, but w
ould be stuck in Dallas indefinitely. M
any had preferred to stay in W
ashington. B
ut after 5 o'clock in the evening, Dallas w
as a free city. Y
ou could have camped on the cross-roads in front of T
he B
ook Depository all night long, w
ithout fear of being dis-tu
rbed
. The d
oors o
f the b
uild
ing w
ere wid
e open
. It is true that you had to w
alk upstairs, because the lifts were not
working; but you could freely open and close any of the
window
s on this henceforth-historic fifth floor, amuse your-
self with the cardboard boxes and juggle w
ith the books. N
ow and then, indeed, you did m
eet a policeman or tw
o. B
ut th
ey d
idn't q
uestio
n y
ou. It w
as they
, rather, w
ho
wanted to talk; they poured out w
hat they had heard, and insisted that D
allas is the pleasantest town in the w
orld, and that it w
as all the fault of the Cubans. T
hey wanted to
be photographed, and the have their names noted dow
n —
they wanted to be "in the papers" too.
It is kindest to suppose that the Dallas police, like the
Secret S
ervice, were only delighted that they could present
Am
erica with
a guilty
party
just o
ne h
our an
d so
me
minutes after the assassination. T
he. Secret S
ervice had lost
• 1
A B
AD
TIP
PE
R
159
President's death; but T
exas' own inner frontiers rem
ained w
ide open. Ju
st anybody co
uld
get in
to th
e police h
eadquarters.
It was a circus, really a circus. P
hotographers stood on th
e desk
s. A jo
urn
alist was sittin
g in
the ch
ief's chair,
taking notes. Cards w
ere being played in the lift. The tele-
vision cameras w
ere there; hundreds of cables littered the floor. T
here were reflectors, giant m
irrors. Yes, it w
as like being in a H
ollywood studio.
People w
ere shouting, changing the ceiling lights, telling stories of w
hat happened that time in T
okyo or Rio —
for here w
ere journalists from the four corners of the earth.
Since m
ost of them w
ere staying at the hotel opposite, the S
tatler-Hilton, they w
ere in the habit of calling in at police headquarters, by w
ay of taking the air, each time they left
or went back to the hotel.
District A
ttorney Henry W
ade presided over this fun-fair, h
old
ing
a
no
n-sto
p p
ress con
ference. S
ince each
reporter, each radio and television station, w
anted its own
exclusive statement, he had to repeat the sam
e thing again and again. A
president had been assassinated in his town;
he had the guilty person on the floor above his office — and
he p
assed h
is time, alm
ost all h
is time, in
chit-ch
at. Oh
P
ublicity, what is not done in your nam
e? "S
ure, O
swald
's guilty
. I'm g
oin
g to
send h
im to
the
electric chair. The case is an open and shut one," he said -
not once, but a dozen tim
es. "No, there w
as no plot, no foreign responsibility. It w
as an independent act ..." H
ow could he claim
to know all that?
Osw
ald was obstinately refusing to talk; he covered his
ears when K
ennedy's name w
as mentioned. S
o he could not have denied the existence of a conspiracy. A
nd on that day, no investigation at all w
as made into the possibility of fellow
-co
nsp
irators. L
ike Jo
an o
f Arc, W
ade m
ust h
ave b
een
hearing voices .
158 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
•
its first presid
ent; th
e City
Police h
ad p
roved
unab
le to
protect the illustrious visitor. But bad things do happen .
and now they had proved their brilliance, their efficiency,
their infallibility. They had tracked dow
n their man in one
ho
ur
. . . T
he word "C
omm
unist", moreover, seem
ed to them like
-a justificatio
n. A
s a detectiv
e squ
ad ch
ief told
me: "W
e can
defen
d o
urselv
es again
st the o
rdin
ary crim
inal, o
r ag
ainst a m
alefactor w
ho 'p
lays th
e gam
e' . b
ut th
e C
omm
unists — they belong to another planet. T
heirs is a fo
rmid
able co
nsp
iracy, th
e most g
igan
tic men
ace . ." —
Rather like the Japanese G
enerals in 1945, telling the E
mperor that their honour w
as untarnished because there w
as no possible defence against an atomic bom
b.
WE
OU
GIS
T not to forget that in som
e other countries the security forces w
ould have reacted much m
ore violently and blindly to such a situation. A
suspect would probably have
been shot down on sight. T
roops would have occupied the
town. A
curfew w
ould have been declared. Not just one
Com
munist sym
pathiser, but thousands of people not in good odour w
ith the authorities would have been arrested.
The real reproach, the sole justified reproach, that can be
made against the D
allas officials is for their inactivity after O
swald
's captu
re. If ind
eed th
ey b
elieved
him
to b
e a C
omm
unist, then logically they should have reasoned that a C
omm
unist never acts on his own, or w
ithout, orders. A
search should have been made for his accom
plices. Som
e attem
pt should have been made to get to the bottom
of the conspiracy . . .
• O
swald, the killer, had gone to the cinem
a, perhaps to lay a false scent . . . but could there not have been a fellow
-conspirator w
ho took the plane from D
allas to Frankfurt,
wh
ence it is so
easy to
reach B
erlin? M
exico
closed
its fro
ntiers w
ith th
e Un
ited S
tates hard
ly an
ho
ur after th
e
TI1
E E
VID
EN
CE
AG
AIN
ST
Lee H
arvey Osw
ald was .entirely
circumstantial, but dam
ning. H
e worked in the building, he w
as seen there, and he had no alibi. H
is palm-prints (not to be confused w
ith finger-prints) w
ere on the carbine. His ow
n rifle, according to his w
ife, was not in its hiding-place in M
rs Paine's garage. A
paraffin test show
ed that Osw
ald had traces of powder on
his hands. A photograph w
as found, showing O
swald hold-
ing the murder rifle. N
ear where policem
an Tippitt w
as m
urdered, cartridges were found in the street; they w
ere of the sam
e calibre as the pistol which O
swald w
as alleged to have had in his pocket at the tim
e of his arrest. The carbine
found among the books on the fifth floor of the T
exas Book
Dep
osito
ry w
as sho
wn
by
the F
.B.I. to
be, w
itho
ut th
e shadow
of a doubt, the one used to kill the President. L
ater, the F
.B.I. w
as authorised by President Johnson to m
ake an independent and full investigation —
until then, the local p
olice an
d th
e Secret S
ervice h
ad lo
ok
ed v
ery m
uch
ask
ance at an
y in
terference b
y th
e Fed
eral po
lice; they
fo
un
d b
its of tissu
e from
Osw
ald's sh
irt on
the b
utt o
f the w
eapon. S
. Klein &
Co., arm
s dealers specialising in the sale of rifles, sub m
achine-guns and revolvers from A
rmy surplus
stores, informed the F
.B.I. that they had sent the assassina-
tion weapon to a certain A
. Hidell. It w
as, to be precise, a
161
CHA
PTER TWELV
E
Anatom
y of the Accused
160
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
•
The form
idable press invasion following announcem
ent of the arrest w
as justified; their Curiosity still m
ore so. But
not th
e fun-fair atm
osp
here. A
presid
ent h
ad b
een m
ur-
dered. These w
ere historic hours. The future of the w
hole w
orld was in the balance —
things should have been done in a m
ore seemly w
ay.
OSW
AL
D M
AD
E tw
o appearances before the journalists that evening. T
he rest of the time; as if at a show
, the press was
kept quiet by showing them
the rifle, the police dossier and so on; and O
swald's w
ife Marina, his m
other, his brother and the w
itnesses were paraded before them
.. O
swald w
as very much at his ease, although his face still
bore traces of the •scuffle at the •time of his arrest. H
e ex-changed pleasantries w
ith the pressmen, show
ed his hand-cu
ffs, shook h
is han
ds p
ettishly
, as if to d
islodge th
e detective holding him
by the arm.
"I did not kill Tippitt," he said, in m
uch the same tone
as someone w
ho says "I haven't had any tea this afternoon." T
hen someone asked him
: "W
hy did you shoot Kennedy ?"
• "K
ennedy? No one has said that I w
as mixed up in that.
It's ridicu
lous." T
hen
, rather in
solen
tly: "I'm
bein
g ill-
treated here. Give m
e a lawyer, and in tw
o days I'll be out of h
ere . ." •
He could not know
in just what w
ay his prophecy would
come true.
162
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S.
Mannlichcr-C
arcano carbine, 3 ft if ins long, and weighing
lbS. T
his ty
pe o
f weap
on h
ad b
een u
sed fo
r a time in
the
training of N.A
.T.O
. forces. Then it w
as discontinued, and later sold at give-aw
ay prices. Klein &
Co. had advertised
it in sp
ortin
g an
d "g
irlie" mag
azinci, at th
e low
price o
f $12.7
8 p
ost free. T
he so
-called H
idell o
rdered
one o
n
March 2oth, 1963, to be sent to his address —
poste restante, D
allas. At h
is request, h
oles w
ere mad
e in it fo
r the in
-sertio
n o
f a Japan
ese telescopic sig
ht, w
ith q
uad
ruple
magnification, w
hich cost $7 more.
The D
allas police fo
und o
n O
swald
a • noteb
ook, in
w
hich were w
ritten the name A
. Hidell and the postal box
number to w
hich the rifle was sent. In the end, the F
.B.I.
found in Chicago the original handw
ritten letter ordering the w
eapon. According to the experts of this police organisa-
tion, the letter was w
ritten by Osw
ald. Im
mediately after the details of the gun w
ere published, alm
ost world-w
ide doubt was expressed about its potential.
In Italy, a Milan new
spaper stated that it was im
possible for such a w
eapon to fire three times in a few
seconds; it needed m
uch longer for re-loading. Innumerable • experi-
ments w
ere made; journalists, policem
en, Olym
pic cham-
pion marksm
en, and expert armourcrs expressed divergent
opinions. Possible, probably, difficult, out of the question ...
. But th
e F.B
.I.'s opin
ion b
eing th
e only
one w
hich
co
unted
, they
reported
to C
hief Ju
stice Earl W
arren's
special Com
mission:
"Osw
ald was an expert m
arksman. H
e had had special training in the M
arines. It has been proved that it is pos-sible to shoot at the intervals indicated by the film
of the assassination. F
rom the distance at w
hich Osw
ald was, it
would
only
be n
ecessary to
hav
e a telescopic len
s with
double m
agnification to be able to hit the target easily." A
Dallas detective put it m
ore picturesquely:
AN
AT
OM
Y O
F T
HE
AC
CU
SE
D
163
"Osw
ald was like a hunter lying in w
ait in the bushes for the deer to cross the path ..."
The ease w
ith which he could obtain this w
eapon caused a shock of indignation through all A
merica, and horrified
the rest of the world. T
he fact is that this is a very flourishing trade, and that anybody at all can buy deadly w
eapons very cheaply, just by going to the right kind of shop, or at a paw
n shop. S
pecialised publications abound with advertisem
ents offering bazookas, anti-tank grenades, all sorts of rifles, revolvers, daggers and even m
ines — a traffic w
ith a turn-over of m
ore than $2,0oo,000 a year. In D
allas itself, there are in some shop-w
indows m
achine-guns "w
hich once belonged to Hitler's personal guard",
and "rev
olv
ers from
the co
llection o
f Kin
g Ib
n S
aud o
f S
audi Arabia".
Only
one S
tate in th
e Unio
n b
ans th
is trade: S
outh
C
arolin
a. Only
one d
eman
ds th
e weap
on's reg
istration:
Haw
aii. Only one im
poses a licence to carry arms: N
ew
York
. Every
where else, y
ou are free to
buy y
ourself an
arsenal. T
he only restrictions are on how you transport it:
in general, it is forbidden to carry a concealed weapon in a
public place. T
he Senate is even now
diligently searching for a means
of putting an end to this dangerous situation. But oddly
enough it is the conservative elements, the ultra-nationalists
and men of the S
outh who oppose it:
"We need arm
s to defend ourselves against Com
munist
invasion" . "If w
e weren
't armed
, the Y
ankees o
f the
North w
ould invade us" ... "The C
onstitution guarantees us the right to have a w
eapon." Those w
ho urge prohibitive m
easures are accused of being enemies of the H
omeland.
It may be that in and around T
exas, the right to possess a revolver is considered as a m
ale attribute, reminiscent of
Wild W
est days. Within a few
weeks after the assassination,
S. K
lein, of Chicago, w
ho sold the type of carbine used to
164 • R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
.
kill Kennedy, w
ere completely sold out. E
veryone wanted
to buy this same M
annlicher-Carcano. . .
SCIEN
TIFIC IN
VE
ST
IGA
TIO
NS
, and reco
nstru
ctions o
f the
crime h
ave n
ot tak
en in
to acco
unt o
ne d
ecisive facto
r: chance.
Detectives covered w
ith medals, practised in the use of
their guns, may fire at a crim
inal — and he m
ay still get aw
ay quite unscathed. Hunters w
ith high-priced weapons
may
miss a b
ig stag
at a ridicu
lous d
istance. T
here are
infin
ite possib
ilities for m
iscalculatio
n: th
e turn
ing o
f a car, an atm
ospheric reflection, blinding by the sun, a bad-quality bullet —
and Arm
y surplus stocks often contain very old, defective and uncertain am
munition.
In ad
ditio
n, O
swald
had
suffered
from
nerv
ous co
n-
ditions since the age of thirteen. He had not killed before.
He had never fired from
that window
. How
did he during those unforgettable seconds, rem
ain so entirely in control of his fingers?
He w
as shooting at a moving car, in w
hich there were
five people, and yet he hit only the two chosen victim
s -and hit th
em in
vital p
arts. It w
ould scent that that afternoon he had a m
ost powerful
ally: Fate itself.
"TIIE
ItE Is no doubt at all," proclaim
ed District A
ttorney H
enry Wade, speaking of O
swald's guilt.
"So far as it is hum
anly possible to assure ourselves of it, he is g
uilty
," repeated
police ch
ief Jesse Cu
rry. "T
he
investigation is closed." T
hose who, like m
yself, saw O
swald close up, and talked
to him, on that night of N
ovember 22nd, could only record
such final statements. W
e could only note, too, that Osw
ald did indeed look like a m
aniac assassin. H
e seemed
to en
joy h
is trium
ph, an
d th
e attentio
n o
f
AN
AT
OM
Y O
F T
HE
AC
CU
SE
D
165
which he w
as the centre. A different m
an accused of so m
onstrous a crime w
ould have behaved quite differently. H
e would have struggled, protested, shouted,' w
ept — not
taken it all almost as a joke.
It is ' quite ev
iden
t that th
e explan
ation o
f Osw
ald's
criminal act lies in his character. A
ll his life he had been disgruntled, a failure, a good-for-nothing. H
e was like a
man possessed, w
ho is betrayed by that very demon w
hich has so exclusively ruled him
. The chance had com
e to hurl defian
ce at society
; to rev
enge h
imself u
pon it
en bloc (since in shooting K
ennedy he shot, as it were, m
illions and m
illions); to prove that he, the obscure, unimportant,
eternally
thru
st-to-o
ne-sid
e Lee H
arvey
Osw
ald, co
uld
change the course of history. S
o he snatched it. B
ut w
as Osw
ald a C
om
munist, o
r under C
om
munist
orders, that day? That question W
ill never receive a satis-factory answ
er. It will continue to divide A
merican opinion
for years to come. It m
ay be that the answer lies som
ewhere
in the huge ultra-secret F.B
.I. dossier — tw
o volumes of 125
typed pages, and three volumes of photographs and docu-
ments. W
ashington has wisely delayed its full publication.
Osw
ald had gone to live in Russia, and had renounced
his Am
erican nationality, but the Soviet authorities had
never been keen on hin. Why?
Why did the U
nited States E
mbassy im
mediately give
him his passport and pay the costs of his return?
All this seem
s very odd. Certainly, he claim
ed to be a M
arxist, but he had also been through the school of the M
arines, an
d w
hatev
er you say
about th
at corps d'elite, you can't say it turns out future C
omm
unists ... A
nyway, the m
ilitants of the Red parties w
ere not very pro
ud o
f him
. Not o
nly
did
the A
merican
Com
munists
diso
wn h
im in
dig
nan
tly, b
ut th
ey h
astened
to p
ublish
certain letters —
requests for propaganda leaflets — w
hich he had w
ritten to them.
166 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
.
In M
osco
w an
unpreced
ented
step w
as taken
: the
Soviet G
overnment passed over O
swald's dossier to' the
Am
erican Am
bassador. T
he Am
erican Com
mittee for F
air ,Play to C
uba — m
ore sim
ply, the centre for Castro's propaganda in the U
nited S
tates — d
eclared th
at Osw
ald w
as nev
er a pro
min
ent
mem
ber. O
n the evening of Novem
ber 22nd the Dallas police had
quite wrongly announced that O
swald w
as one of the move-
ment's leaders. H
e had done no more than ask the C
om-
mittee for leaflets, w
hich he distributed on his own account
in the streets of New
Orleans. H
e was indeed arrested by the
police during one of these appearances on the street, and fined som
e dollars. The pro-C
uba Com
mittee of course
encouraged him, as they w
ould have done anyone who gave
them support —
in their situation, they could not afford to do otherw
ise. O
swald, then, w
as rejected by those he considered his ow
n. E
ven his wife —
who on the evening of the assassination
declared that Lee w
as not easy to get on with and that she,
Marina, w
as the only person who loved him
— forsook his
mem
ory, or at least seemed to do so.
Som
e weeks later, after a visit to the hairdresser for a new
perm
anen
t wav
e and m
ore flatterin
g "m
ake-u
p", sh
e declared before the C
omm
ission of Enquiry, that she now
believed her husband to be an assassin. S
he even spoke of another crim
e: Osw
ald had told her of his attempt to kill
the extreme tight.w
hig General W
alker, who had preached
rebellion against Kennedy, and so on.
Man
y d
ocu
men
ts were fo
und at O
swald
's hom
e, in-
cluding photographs of army draft cards, lists of nam
es, and letters from
left-wing organisations. B
ut nothing of all this suggests any active part in political conspiracies. O
n the oth
er han
d, it is reaso
nab
le to su
ppose th
at anyone in
-
AN
AT
OM
Y O
F T
HE
AC
CU
SE
D
167 volved in a plot w
ould be careful not to have comprom
ising papers about.
Moscow
, too — if it had been concerned in the m
atter -could of course cynically pretend that O
swald had not been
wanted there. T
hey could forge false dossiers and send them
to Washington —
or even order a Soviet citizen to make such
statements about her husband as w
ould best serve the ends of their tortuous policies.
The F
.B.I. w
as later •to study minutely a ,list of books
borrowed from
the New
Orleans public library. O
swald's
long stay in the capital of the State of L
ouisiana — from
M
ay to Septem
ber 1963 — has never really been explained.
What w
as Osw
ald doing there? Why did he stay on there,
most of the tim
e unemployed, and far from
his family?
Osw
ald read Portrait of a P
resident, a book op Kennedy —
but w
ith a preface describing the death of Abraham
Lin-
coln, and an account of the assassination of Huey L
ong L
ouisian
a's little dictato
r; M
ao-Tse T
ung:• Portrait of a
Revolutionary; T
he Berlin W
all; and What You Should K
now
about Com
munism
. A
ll these b
ooks w
ere vio
lently
anti-
Com
munist.
He also read som
e detective stories; those written by Ian
Flem
ing — the Jam
es Bond series. T
his was John K
ennedy's favourite author.
Osw
ald himself had w
ritten a book. A young shorthand
typist, Pauline V
. Bates, of F
ort Worth, states that O
swald
dictated
to h
er most o
f a man
uscrip
t on h
is life in th
e Soviet U
nio
n, w
hich
he m
eant to
publish
. The b
ook w
as a bitter attack on the R
ussian regime. It said that living con-
ditions there were terrible, and that fear w
as the comm
on denom
inator among the people.
Osw
ald took the manuscript w
ith him; he told P
auline B
ates that he had become an A
merican secret agent, and
would soon be going to R
ussia on Washington's behalf.
Osw
ald's mother m
akes the same claim
: her son worked
168'
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
for the Central Intelligence A
gency. But she saw
her son very
rarely, an
d ev
en th
e few letter's h
e wro
te her fro
m
Russia said nothing m
uch about what he thought and did.
Osw
ald h
ad n
o co
nfid
ants. .
Once or tw
ice in Moscow
, however, he agreed to talk to
som
e Am
erican jo
urn
alists: Alin
e Mosb
y an
d P
riscilla Jo
hnso
n. W
om
en, "b
ecause w
om
en are m
ore u
nder-
standin
g . .."
He h
ad co
me to
Russia b
ecause h
e had
know
n o
nly
pen
ury
in th
e States. F
or h
im, M
arx w
as just a refu
ge.
"I've never been a Com
munist, I've never even know
n one," he claim
ed. He had saved up a longtim
e to pay his fare to R
ussia. He had learned R
ussian all by himself w
ith the help of an old gram
mar book.
But it w
as easy to divine his real motive. H
e had gone to R
ussia to better himself.
It's crazy to theorise, but one just can't help wondering
what w
ould have happened if he had stayed there much
longer. Perhaps one day he w
ould have taken a shot from a
window
at Nikita K
ruschev In N
ew O
rleans, Osw
ald also frequented agents of the an
ti-Castro
movem
ent. O
ne o
f the o
rgan
isers of su
ch a
group in exile, Carlos B
ringuer, remem
bers that Osw
ald suggested joining their m
ovement and infiltrating the ranks
of Castro's supporters on their behalf. L
ater on, perhaps, B
ringuer would have discovered that the young m
an was
playing a double game, and have reproached him
bitterly. O
SW
AL
D R
AR
EL
Y had m
ore than a dollar or two in his
pocket. His pregnant w
ife and their daughter would have to
dep
end o
n th
e gen
erosity
of stran
gers. Y
et sudden
ly h
e departed, at the end of S
eptember, for a m
ysterious.destina-tion.
With adm
irable good sense — w
hen one recalls that at D
allas even the main m
otorway through the scene of the
AN
AT
OM
Y O
F T
HE
AC
CU
SE
D
169 crim
e was not blocked —
the Mexican F
ederal Governm
ent ordered the com
plete closure of the comm
on frontier, half an hour after the official announcem
ent of Mr K
ennedy's death.
In M
exico
City
, noth
ing w
as yet k
now
n o
f Osw
ald's
arrest. It was not until next day that the M
exican Secret
police (who have the double task of guarding the P
resident of the R
epublic, and maintaining a political security check
in th
e country
) disco
vered
that so
meo
ne n
amed
Lee H
. O
swald
— h
old
ing P
assport N
.154679A
issued
by th
e A
merican
State D
epartm
ent h
ad p
assed th
e frontier at
Loredo, T
exas, on Septem
ber 26th, 1963. T
he "Frontcra" L
ine, whose buses date from
before the first w
orld war, m
ust provide the police with lists of those
passengers who cross the frontier. O
ne of these lists con-tained O
swald's nam
e. An em
ployee of the bus company,
watching television after the D
allas tragedy, remem
bered him
; Osw
ald had made rather a nuisance of him
self, first asking to be show
n a cheap hotel and then trying to get a reduction of the F
ederal tax on the ticket. I h
ave sp
oken
with
the em
plo
yee, L
ucio
Lopez, w
ho
showed m
e his records. These reveal that O
swald told him
he in
tended
to g
o to
Cuba, an
d ask
ed if th
ere were a
clandestine route.
I WE
NT
to M
exic
o
from
Dallas b
ecause I th
ought it
should
be v
ery in
teresting to
follo
w h
is tracks in
that
country. In the Mexican capital I discovered som
e remark-
able facts. It is know
n that Osw
ald stayed there from S
eptember
26th
to O
ctober 3
rd; an
d w
hen
a man
has fo
r month
s nursed and perfectly laid a diabolical plan, w
hich has led to the m
ost dramatic political assassination of the century,
he does not go to Mexico just to breathe m
ountain air or hear the "m
ariachi".
is
170
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
Osw
ald, who w
as always short of m
oney, did not go to M
exico
with
out v
ery stro
ng reaso
n. H
ad it b
een ju
st a questio
n o
f obtain
ing a v
isa for a retu
rn to
the S
oviet
Union, he could have got this directly in W
ashington, by post; o
r by m
akin
g an
oth
er appro
ach th
rough a to
urist
agency. If it was the action of an unbalanced m
an, subject to
crazy im
pulses, th
en w
hy d
id h
e stay so
long in
this
foreign town, in an unknow
n country whose language he
could not speak, and wheie he knew
no one? T
here is a q
uite sim
ple an
d lo
gical an
swer. O
swald
w
anted to prepare his get-away. H
e hoped to get back into M
exico, taking advantage of lax protection of the frontier, and go on to C
uba. If he held a pre-dated visa, this would
arouse no suspicion. B
ut I found out something else in M
exico: in the first place, that the C
uban Consulate has not told all the truth
about the Osw
ald case, and is trying to cover his tracks. T
han
ks to
the v
aluab
le help
of an
old
friend in
the
"secret police" (he was one of the bodyguards assigned to
both Kennedy and E
isenhower w
hen the two presidents
visited Mexico) I found out that O
swald had had tim
e to go to
Hav
ana. A
n u
nderg
round liaiso
n ex
ists betw
een
Mexico and C
uba. It is only necessary to go by plane or bus to
Merid
a, and fro
m th
ere more o
r less clandestin
e P
lanes w
ill fly y
ou to
Hav
ana. O
r one can
even
take a
plan
e directly
from
Mex
ico C
ity airp
ort. T
he d
ates of
dep
arture an
d arriv
al co-in
cide w
ith th
ose of O
swald's
stay. F
or this, it is only necessary to hold a laissez-passev from
the Cuban C
onsulate, recognised by the Mexican authori-
ties. Since alm
ost always these laissez passer are in
false nam
es, the Mexican Im
migration service have no m
eans of know
ing if Osw
ald made such a•journey. T
he Cubans of
course deny it, but no one in Mexico believes a w
ord they say.
AN
AT
OM
Y O
F T
HE
AC
CU
SE
D
171
The other point established is even m
ore 'striking. I had talks w
ith people high up in the Mexican G
overn-m
ent, and with influential foreign diplom
ats well inform
ed on the situation: I w
as told that Mexico believes O
swald to
have been involved in a Cuban plot; that he w
as, indeed, acting for a group of C
omm
unist Cubans operating w
ithout C
astro's approval or knowledge. T
his group may be under
the in
fluen
ce of n
eo-S
talinists, an
d th
eir motiv
es in in
-stigating such a crim
e are easily divined. T
hey may have w
anted to create chaos, a chaos which, in
the end — in view
of the political situation in Latin A
merica
— could only profit the extrem
ist agitators of the Left. O
r th
ey m
ay h
ave so
ught to
strike a h
istoric b
low
whose
propaganda value would com
pensate for political point-lessness. W
e should not overlook the fact that we have to do
here w
ith rev
olu
tionaries, an
d th
at fanatics are rarely
diplom
ats of the classical school. S
o co
mpletely
is Mex
ico co
nvin
ced o
f this th
at the
President no longer opposes m
ilitary action by the United
States against C
uba, as always in the past.
Moreover, the A
merican S
tate Departm
ent would have
been fully informed of this plot. W
hy then did Washington
remain silent —
unless because it was not desired to inflam
e A
merican public opinion? T
o reveal officially that Havana
was even indirectly responsible w
ould have led to such a reaction that the situation w
ould have got completely out
of control. There is m
ore than one general at the Pentagon
quite capable of duplicating — against C
uba — R
uby's action against O
swald.
The change of governm
ent in Washington also neces-
sitated a pause for reflection and evaluation.
I FO
LL
OW
ED
, then, step by step in Osw
ald's tracks. From
the bus station he w
ent to the little "Com
mercial" hotel -
or rather inn — in a lane nam
ed Bernardo de S
ahugan.
172
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
It has four floors, is built in glazed red brick, and is very difficult to find. It is an ideal hide-out. T
he inside is clean, even m
odern — but not the kind of place w
here you would
expect to
find an
Am
erican. T
he cu
stom
ers arc mostly
In
dian
lorry
-driv
ers, and —
accord
ing to
the p
olice -
smugglers and pickpockets.. T
he ch
amberm
aid, M
atildra G
uarn
ica Hern
andez,
showed m
e the fourth-floor room O
swald occupied —
small,
but comfortable, w
ith its own show
er-bath. Osw
ald paid 16 pesos a day for this room
, No. 18: $1.6o in A
merican
money. H
e had no suitcases, but a haversack. He w
ashed his shirt him
self and talked to no-one; in any case, he knew
almost no S
panish. H
e had
no v
isitors, certain
ly n
o w
om
en v
isitors. N
ot
that th
e hotel co
ncern
ed itself ab
out th
at; there w
as a second door w
hich could have been used. T
he night porter who received O
swald, S
ebastian Perez
Hernandez, told m
e that as he was an A
merican he asked
him to sign the register; and that he show
ed his passport. (W
hy in heaven's name did the S
tate Departm
ent give this new
passport to a man w
ho had gone over to Russia, com
e back
again
and w
as under p
artial surv
eillance b
y th
e F
.B.I.?)
Usually, said the porter, they do not bother to register
everybody, but Osw
ald made no objection. , T
he Mexican
police wonder w
hy; did he wish to record the fact of his
presence in Mexico C
ity in this way?
Osw
ald ate in a kind of bar alongside the hotel, called La E
sperenza. It b
elongs to
an o
bserv
ant w
idow
, who
remem
bers Osw
ald very well. F
or an Am
erican, he was
very economical, even m
ean, asking the price of each dish in advance and never leaving a tip. A
nd he was alw
ays in shirt-sleeves, a thing w
hich in Mexico C
ity at once betrays the "Y
ankee". •
The w
idowed S
enora Dolores R
amirez de B
arrero says
AN
AT
OM
Y O
F T
HE
AC
CU
SE
D
173
that Osw
ald ate in her bar for only three days. He cam
e at exactly one o'clock and left at one-thirty..H
is menu w
as the sam
e: a beefsteak, and rice, costing altogether 4 pesos. In th
e even
ing, at ten
, he cam
e and h
ad a co
ffee, at half a
peso. It is therefore possible that O
swald w
as away for tw
o days.
I wen
t back
to th
e neig
hb
ou
ring
ho
tel, and
this tim
e talked w
ith the proprietor, who had not him
self seen Os-
wald
but w
as horrified
at the id
ea that th
e assassin o
f a C
atholic president should have lodged at his premises. H
e m
ade some calculations, and told m
e that it was quite pos-
sible for Osw
ald to have been away from
the town over the
week-end w
ithout anyone noticing. The porter w
as on leave on S
unday, and the proprietor himself took his duty. H
e did not see O
swald at all. T
he chamberm
aid does not make
the beds on a Sunday, and w
orks very irregular hours on S
aturday and Monday; after tw
o months, she could not
remem
ber if a particular client was absent or not. C
ertainly, O
swald paid the full bill.
At th
e Cuban
Consu
late, which
I appro
ached
on th
e pretext of applying for a visa, applicants are received in succession in a special room
, and interviewed in private. I
was n
ot ask
ed fo
r my p
assport, b
ut w
as told
to fill u
p a
form.
I then asked, as a journalist, to speak to the Am
bassador, Jo
achim
Hern
andes A
rmas. H
e received
me, in
the
presence of a Press attach6, F
ernandez Roa. I asked him
to talk to m
e about Osw
ald. T
he Am
bassador repeated the official story, as if by rote. O
swald had gone to the C
onsulate, in the Cajo F
ernandez M
arkes, on the morning of S
eptember 27th, and asked for
a transit v
isa to R
ussia. H
e talked
to an
emplo
yee, th
e C
onsul being "away travelling". H
e was told that in order
to get a transit visa he must first have a S
oviet visa. His
174 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
•
passp
ort w
as not in
any case v
alid fo
r Cuba. O
swald
• • shO
Wecl im
patience and disappointment.
. I asked
to see th
e dossier, an
d to
talk to
the secretary
concerned.
"Senora S
ilva Duran is resting,". the A
mbassador replied;
"She w
as so u
pset b
y th
e questio
nin
g o
f the M
exican
police, that she had to go to the country for a rest. A
s for the dossier, the F
ederal political police have impounded it . .• . •
Fortu
nately
, I had
already g
one in
to th
is, and I k
new
. th
at the p
olice h
ad d
one n
o m
ore th
an p
hoto
grap
h th
is dossicr, w
hich as a diplomatic docum
ent they could not im
pound. T
he Am
bassador said then that he would enquire, and
that I should come back later that afternoon to see the files,
and also to photograph him. T
his I did. But only to be told
that the Am
bassador was out —
he had left for Acapulco.
There w
ere no instructions for me, and no m
essage. T
he Iron Curtain had snapped dow
n in my face.
I have reliable information that on the day follow
ing the assassination, the M
exican Federal police arrested S
enora S
ilva Duran. T
he political police seem to have know
n of several m
eetings between her and O
swald. T
he dossiers were
seized, but later returned. S
enora Duran w
as severely interrogated, and her home
searched from top to bottom
. The M
exican police accused 1. her of being concerned in the conspiracy.
So secret w
as this interrogation that at first it was thought
that S
enora D
uran
had
•been
kid
nap
ped
by an
ti-Castro
extrem
ists. The regular police took the m
atter up, and so becam
e the unwitting m
eans of letting the cat out of the bag
. The C
onsu
late then
interv
ened
and o
btain
ed th
e S
enora's release. S
enor Roa, the C
uban Minister for F
oreign Affairs, sent
a very strong Note to M
exico. Its language, indeed, was so
violent that the Mexican G
overnment not only refused to
AN
AT
OM
Y O
F T
IIE A
CC
US
ED
175
accept it, but at one point threatened to break off diplo-m
atic relations. The C
ubans backed down after the M
exi-cans had freed S
enora Duran and returned the files. T
he M
exican
s said th
at she h
ad b
een arrested
in erro
r, as a M
exican citizen, because she had "never said that she had C
uban nationality." W
hy, it is asked in diplomatic circles, did C
uba send su
ch a p
rotest? T
he in
ciden
t was u
nim
po
rtant, an
d it
would
hav
e been
norm
al to accep
t the q
uestio
nin
g o
f em
ployees on such a matter as. this. W
hy, above all, did S
enora Duran im
mediately go back to C
uba (the Am
bas-sador w
as not telling the truth when he said that she w
as in the country) if her part in the affair w
as only that of a mere
secretary accepting an application for a visa? T
he Soviet C
onsulate and Em
bassy are only a hundred yard
s or so
from
the C
uban
ones. T
here O
swald
was
cold
ly receiv
ed, lik
e anyone else w
ho en
ters a Soviet
Em
bassy ... it's always like that w
ith the Russians. H
e was
told that his application would be forw
arded to Moscow
, and that that w
ould take time.
No-one in M
exico City doubts in the least the version
given by the Soviet G
overnment. It is perfectly norm
al for the E
mbassy to do this; they have no pow
er to grant a visa w
ithout authorisation. Nor w
as Osw
ald important enough
for a telegram to be sent —
which in any case Soviet consuls
do very rarely. On the contrary, in view
of Osw
ald's past 'history, the fact that he w
as not resident in Mexico and
other peculiarities, it was natural for the C
onsular officials to be circum
spect. Mexican agents stationed in the street
state that Osw
ald left the Soviet E
mbassy looking furious,
and that he made scornful rem
arks about the Soviets to
them.
But w
hat is, interesting here is that, as I have established, the R
ussian Consulate only takes applications on F
ridays. O
n all other days the doors are closed, and no one, whoever
176
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
he is, can
get in
. Sep
tember 2
7th
was 'a F
riday
. It was
natural, then, for Osw
ald to go to the Soviet C
onsulate, so near the C
uban one, on that Friday; and to learn then that
the offices were closed the rest of the tim
e. In that case, w
hy did he stay in Mexico until O
ctober 3rd? If it was in
order to return to the Soviet consulate, w
hy did he not wait
until the 4th, also a Friday?
On T
hursd
ay, O
ctober 3
rd, O
swald
wen
t to th
e bus
station at 2
.3o p
.m.; th
at day
's bus w
as late starting. H
e bought a tick
et for L
aredo, T
exas, v
ia Rio
Gran
de; fo
r ' 75 pesos. ( $5.71). T
he 690-mile journey took nearly tw
enty hours. H
e arrived
at the fro
ntier at ab
out eig
ht in
the
morn
ing o
n th
e follo
win
g d
ay. • •
HA
D O
SW
AL
D,
while in
Mex
ico, b
een in
contact w
ith
other conspirators, perhaps also with R
ight-wing groups?
It should
not b
e forg
otten
that th
e anti-C
astro elem
ents •
were rath
er embittered
again
st Ken
ned
y, w
hom
they
accused of having betrayed the exiles' revolutionary m
ove-m
ent ... N
o o
ne k
now
s. The cap
ital of M
exico
has fiv
e m
illion inhabitants, a swarm
ing world in w
hich a scent is soon lost.
Osw
ald co
uld
hav
e been
acting fo
r pro
-Chin
a Cuban
C
omm
unists who w
ished thus to damage either the U
nited S
tates or Kruschev.
Osw
ald h
ad v
ery b
itter mem
ories o
f Russia, b
ut h
e retain
ed a liv
ely ad
miratio
n fo
r Castro
, a man
whose
exuberan
ce and rash
ness ap
pealed
to h
im. C
astro h
ad
called Kennedy an idiot and a dem
agogue, and said that if "the rulers of A
merica seek to elim
inate the Cuban revo-.
lutionaries, they themselves in their turn w
ill be in mortal
dan
ger."
I recall that some m
onths before his death, in his cell in the prison of S
t Quentin in C
alifornia, Caryll C
hessman
talked to me at length of his plan to "kill or kidnap H
itler",
AN
AT
OM
Y O
F T
HE
AC
CU
SE
D
1.77 and m
ake a triumphal )return to the U
nited. States — he,
the dregs of society, gangster and public enemy N
o. I. P
erhaps Osw
ald followed the sam
e mad dream
. To k
ill K
enn
edy, an
d th
en flee to C
ub
a or to Moscow
, wh
ere surely —
such would be his naive reasoning —
he would be
looked upon as the greatest hero of our times.
CO
UL
D S
TA
Y H
ER
E F
OR
EV
ER
' 178
CH
AP
TE
R T
HIR
TE
EN
`I cpuld stay here fOr ever'
• WH
EN
TIL
E 'S
EC
RE
T S
erviCe m
an pushed Lyndon Johnson
..roughly down on
to the floor of the car, the Vice-P
resident cam
e close to fainting. He w
as nearly suffocated beneath Y
oungblood's heavy body, his living shield. "W
hat's happening ?" he groaned. But Y
oungblood did not know
what to answ
er. Jack
s, the ch
auffeu
r, had
been
tryin
g v
ainly
to co
ntact
agent Roy K
ellerman by radio; the latter w
as out in front, sitting next to the driver in the presidential car. T
he only answ
er he got was "F
ollow us to the hospital." L
ater, Em
ory P
. Roberts, head of the S
pecial Detail, ordered Y
oungblood "P
rotect your man."
Johnson staggered as he got out of the car in front of the hospital. H
is pallor and silence, and his mechanical m
ove-m
ents, sh
arply
struck
all who saw
him
. That is w
hy th
e ru
mour ran
thro
ugh th
e whole co
untry
that Jo
hnso
n h
ad
had
a heart attack
. In o
ne cin
ema, th
e perfo
rman
ce was .
interrupted for au announcement of, thedeaths of all three: •
Kennedy, C
onnally and Johnson. Jo
hnso
n w
as taken
into
a part o
f the h
osp
ital norm
ally
used for less serious .opetatio
ns: o
ne larg
e room
and o
ne
small one, w
ith fluorescent lighting. Johnson sat down on a
stretcher, and inhaled oxygen through a special mask.
It will be very difficult for a historian to sift truth from
leg
end w
hen
it com
es to reco
rdin
g o
bjectiv
ely ju
st what
Johnson did during the terrible hour he had to live through 178
betw
een h
is arrival at the h
ospital an
d th
e mom
ent h
e took
the O
ath as p
residen
t. It is said
that h
e brok
e dow
n an
d cou
ld n
ot decid
e wh
at to d
o and
that h
e wish
ed to go b
ack to W
ashin
gton at on
ce w
ithou
t waitin
g for Jacqu
eline K
enn
edy. S
he, for h
er part,
wan
ted to stay w
ith h
er hu
sban
d's b
ody an
d tak
e it back
w
ith her to the White H
ouse, in the plane Air F
orce I. In
Wash
ingto
n, th
ey a
re just a
s good
at re-w
riting
History as in
Moscow
. Tod
ay John
son is p
residen
t of the
Un
ited S
tates, and
may rem
ain so for an
other fou
r years yet. H
e has a
t his o
rders p
ub
licity a
gen
ts wh
o a
re the
cleverest and
best p
aid in
the cou
ntry. T
hey are also th
e m
ost unscrupulous. He has the pow
er. He is surrounded by
a crowd of journalists, m
ost of whom
do nothing else all the tim
e bu
t try to
plea
se the W
hite H
ou
se "b
oss"
, an
d
meekly, respect all the taboos. T
here w
ere not m
any w
itnesses of w
hat exactly h
ap-
pened in those two room
s at the hospital. The shutters w
ere closed
, and
the d
oors strictly guard
ed b
y armed
men
. We
must therefore follow
the official version. W
hen President Johnson w
as told of Kennedy's death, lie
feared arm
ed con
spiracy, even
revolution
. He th
erefore d
ecided
that in
the cou
ntry's b
est interests h
e mu
st at all costs w
ithdraw from
the dangers of Dallas and return to the
capital. T
his roman
tic idea of a "
consp
iracy" seem
s reasonab
le en
ough
at first sight. It m
ight b
e asked
, how
ever, wh
y this
ihterp
retation of th
e facts had
to wait several w
eeks b
efore b
ecomin
g kn
own
; .the revelation
came from
the W
hite
House. T
he details given out, and spread through the world
at the time, w
ere sheer bromide.
If there w
as any q
uestion
of a consp
iracy, wh
y did
the
Dallas p
olice beh
ave as if the m
urd
er was th
e work
of one
man
on h
is own
? Wh
y did
the S
ecret Service n
ot use th
eir arm
s, call in
the m
ilitary
, ask
for th
e pro
clam
atio
n o
f
180
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
martial law
in D
allas, or at least d
eman
d an
' escort o
f • fighter jets to protect A
ir Force Ion its w
ay back to Washing- . •
ton with the new
president and all his suite? A
man w
ho believes himself threatened by conspiracy or'
rebellion, coup d' clot or in
vasio
n, starts rig
ht aw
ay in
his
hosp
ital room
to g
ive o
rders, co
ntact th
e Pen
tagon, th
e C
entral Intelligence Agency and his m
inisters. He doei not
waste precious hours doing nothing, or risk being. out of
touch for another two hours on the flight betw
een Dallas
and W
ashin
gto
n. H
e would
thin
k th
at plo
tters mig
ht h
ave '
hidden a bomb in his plane, or prepared an aerial attack —
.since, after all, one is m
uch more vulnerable in a plane than
on th
e gro
und. H
e would
thin
k tw
ice about g
oin
g to
W
ashin
gto
n at all, sin
ce it mig
ht b
e in th
e han
ds o
f the
"rebels" o
r "invad
ers". And o
nce in
Wash
ingto
n h
e w
ould
not g
o to
his o
wn h
om
e, as Johnso
n d
id, b
ut to
a m
ilitary strongpoint — or at least som
ewhere easily guarded.
The p
lane w
ith Jo
hnso
n ab
oard
took o
ff from
Love
Field
, Dallas, at 2
.47 p
.m. T
exas tim
e. But b
y th
en,
Osw
ald had been arrested, the Dallas police had declared
themselves satisfied of his guilt, had rejected the conspiracy
theo
ry an
d h
ad p
ractically ceased
furth
er investig
ation.
There w
as not a single road-block on the roads between
hospital and airport. Love F
ield itself looked just the same
as on any other day. Departures, even departures abroad,
had not been interrupted. Y
et there is not the slightest allusion. to this in the ac-counts of the m
atter inspired by the White H
ouse. Johnson w
as informed of O
swald's capture. W
hat was his
reaetlon ? H
ere is a man w
ho learns that his predecessor's assassin -w
ho may perhaps have w
anted to kill him too —
has been caught. W
hy did he not give orders for a full investigation? W
hy did he not himself take charge of it?
Johnso
n telep
honed
Robert .K
enned
y fd
r his ad
vice.
'I CO
UL
D S
TA
Y H
ER
E F
OR
EV
ER
' 181
Why did he not say to B
ob: "The brother you loved so m
uch h
as been
wick
edly m
urd
ered. C
ome at on
ce to Dallas,
you're the Attorney G
eneral, with all pow
er to punish his killer." O
r: "Bob, order J. E
dgar Hoover, your subordinate,
the boss of the F.B
.I., to come to D
allas at once. Tell him
to bring his best investigators, squads, apparatus, forensic equipm
ent — all that kind of thing —
and let in some light on
this matter."
Maybe these questions now
serve no purpose, but many
peop
le in A
merica are ask
ing th
em, in
the b
ars and
the
subway, in their hom
es by the fireside — and in E
mbassy
boudoirs.
TH
E G
RE
AT
Am
erican magazines have given us the official
version in minutest detail:
At 12.38, w
hen all hope for Kennedy seem
ed at an end, a little m
an one vaguely remem
bered having seen .around the W
hite House corridors w
as sitting in front of the door of the room
in which Johnson w
as waiting. O
n his knees was
the "football" —'the W
ashington slang term for the briefcase
which holds all the codes in w
hich the presidential orders m
ust b
e given to th
e atomic p
atrols and
strike-force
centres. R
oberts, h
ead of th
e Wh
ite Hou
se detail in
Dallas (h
e had served tw
enty years in the corps), telephoned Colonel
James Sw
indal, pilot of the presidential plane, and told him
to get ready to tak
e off with
out d
elay. Th
e pilot at on
ce ordered com
plete re-fuelling, the plane's tanks being almost
empty —
not much fuel w
ould have been needed to get to A
ustin, which should have been the next stop.
Johnson asked for assistance. Four C
ongressmen from
th
e Texas d
elegation th
erefore wen
t into th
e room an
d
stood round him as if to protect him
. A
t 1.13 p.m
. the m
an gu
ardin
g the d
oor of Trau
ma
Room
I reported that Kennedy w
as dead.
18
2
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
• I
` I CO
UL
D S
TA
Y H
ER
E F
OR
EV
ER
' 183
Malcolm
Kilduff then asked Johnson if he could confirm
the sad new
s to the journalists, "N
o, M
ac," Joh
nso
n rep
lied. ,"B
etter to w
ait a bit. I
must get out of here first and get on the 'plane. F
or all we
known there could be a w
orld plot, and they might m
ean to kill m
e as they have Kennedy . . . W
e don't know." A
nd Jo
hnso
n w
ent o
n to
recall the assassin
ation o
f Presid
ent
Lincoln.
IN W
AS
HIN
GT
ON
, at that• mom
ent, a Senate C
omm
ittee of E
nquiry
was in
pro
cess of th
row
ing
som
e light o
n th
e R
obert Baker scandal. B
aker, Senate m
ajority Secretary to
the Senate, had enjoyed the friendship of the vice-president
and the witness R
eynolds was at that tim
e making revela-
tions extremely em
barrassing to Johnson. When the C
hair-m
an of the. C
omm
ittee learned that Kennedy w
as dead, and that the m
an indirectly involved by the witness w
as now
President of the U
nited States, he abruptly adjourned the
sitting.
JOH
NSO
N L
EF
T the hospital shortly before 1.30 p.m
., and got dow
n on the floor of the car in such a position that his h
ead co
uld
no
t be seen
from
ou
tside. In
this cro
uch
ed
position he arrived at Love F
ield. A
ccord
ing to
the C
onstitu
tion, Jo
hnso
n w
as not y
et president; he m
ust first take the Oath. Johnson w
anted to do that in W
ashington, because he was in a hurry to leave -
but what w
ould happen if the plane should be held up by bad w
eather? Am
erica could not wait.
So Johnson telephoned B
ob Kennedy, w
ho was at. the
time w
ith John McC
one, head of the Am
erican Intelligence Service —
the C.I.A
. "Y
ou must take the O
ath imm
ediately," said Bob. "W
e w
ill telephone th
rough th
e whole tex
t. Any ju
dge can
adm
inister it."
Johnson knew S
arah T. H
ughes, a wom
an of sixty-seven, w
hom he had had appointed to the F
ederal Court.
"Yes, I'll b
e there in
ten m
inutes." S
he arriv
ed at th
e w
heel of her little red Fiat sports car, w
ith a Bible in her
lap. "W
e must w
ait for Mrs K
ennedy," said Lyndon Johnson.
"She is bringing her husband's coffin." S
omeone com
mented that M
rs Kennedy's presence at the
ceremony w
ould in a way confirm
the continuity of the regim
e; she would, so to speak, "legitim
ise" the new presi-
dent. A
t 2.1
8 p
.m Jacq
uelin
e Ken
ned
y arriv
ed. T
hree
Secret S
ervice men, and som
e soldiers, carried the coffin to the back of the plane —
but still in the passenger cabin. Jacqueline sat dow
n beside it. W
hen
Joh
nso
n to
ok
the O
ath, A
rmy
Cap
tain C
ecil S
tou
gh
ton
, official p
ho
tog
raph
er at the W
hite H
ou
se, recorded the scene on a special 5o m
m. cam
era. He took
nin
e ph
oto
s. Th
ree jou
rnalists b
oard
ed th
e plan
e, as representing the w
orld press. Jacqueline w
as on Johnson's left, as the latter repeated the C
onstitutional formula after Judge H
ughes. The w
oman
jud
ge w
as tremb
ling
; she d
id n
ot u
se the B
ible sh
e had
brought w
ith her, but a small C
atholic Missal, found in the
plane near Kennedy's bed.
Johnson gently kissed Jacqueline on the cheek, then his w
ife. Then he said firm
ly: "Now
let's take the plane back to W
ashington . . ." A
ir Force I w
as airborne from L
ove Field at exactly 2.47 -
with
in a few
min
utes, ju
st three h
ou
rs after its land
ing
there.
The first act of the D
allas drama had thus lasted three
hours. Three hours in w
hich life in the United S
tates had been turned upside dow
n. T
he flight took two hours thirteen m
inutes.
584
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
Telep
hone calls w
ere mad
e to R
ose K
enned
y, th
e m
other of the murdered president, to offer condolences; to
mem
bers o
f the C
abin
et; and to
officials su
mm
oned
in
haste to the White H
ouse. While Johnson conferred w
ith his
aides, th
ose clo
sest to K
enned
y p
referred to
retire discreetly
to th
e rear com
partm
ent. T
he n
ew p
residen
t seem
ed very much on edge, drank caffein-free coffee and a
good deal of water w
ith whisky.
Jacqueline Kennedy did not go to the telephone to speak
to her husband's mother. S
he sat quite still, like a Madonna
near the coffin. A
t her husband's request, Mrs Johnson took notes, on
which
would
be b
ased th
e later writin
g o
r re-writin
g o
f w
hat took place during those hours of upheaval.
BY
TH
E tim
e the plane arrived at Washington's A
ndrews
Military
Airp
ort, an
impressiv
e crow
d h
ad g
athered
. It had
been
arranged
for th
e press to
be th
ere, so as to
put
an en
d to
the p
ersistent ru
mours o
f Johnso
n's d
eath.
Ministers, diplom
ats, senators, high officials, relations and friends w
ere waiting, .their faces betraying their extrem
e agitation. M
any were w
eeping. Am
ong them w
as Senator•
Herbert H
umphrey, leader of the m
ajority in the Senate -
he h
ad su
cceeded
Johnso
n in
that p
ositio
n. H
e had
a handkerchief to his eyes; sobbing, and clinging to his w
ife.. B
ob Kennedy w
as the first to board the plane. Holding
Jacqueline by the hand, he led her gently to a black Cadillac
ready waiting near the m
obile platform dow
n which the
passen
gers cam
e. But Jacq
uelin
e wan
ted to
go in
the
ambulance w
hich would take • her husband's body to the
Beth
esda N
aval H
osp
ital, where th
e auto
psy
must tak
e place. S
he spoke and moved as if hypnotised.
It was sh
e who to
ok th
e initial d
ecisions ab
out th
e funeral arrangem
ents. From
the hospital where she w
atched by her husband, she telephoned a request for a history book
'I CO
UL
D S
TA
Y H
ER
E F
OR
EV
ER
' 185
giving details of the conduct of Lincoln's funeral. S
he gave orders that all the funeral cerem
onies should be exactly m
odelled on this — even to the design of the catafalque in
the White H
ouse. S
he ask
ed to
o th
at her h
usb
and's face sh
ould
not b
e ex
posed
, as is usu
al at State fu
nerals, w
hen
the cro
wd
passed the bier, either at the White H
ouse or the Capitol.
This m
ust certainly have been for religious reasons, the C
atholic C
hurch
not ap
pro
vin
g th
is pro
cedure. B
ut th
e fact is that the P
resident's face was so m
uch disfigured that to have exposed it w
ould have horrified the public. The
world m
ust not be left with such a last picture of K
ennedy.
CA
RO
LIN
E A
ND
John were taken back to the W
hite House
at about sev
en o
'clock
by th
eir matern
al gran
dm
oth
er, M
rs Hugh D
. Auchincloss. T
hey still knew nothing, but
they
realised th
at som
ethin
g d
readfu
l had
hap
pen
ed.
They asked questions no one dared answ
er.
JOH
NS
ON
, HIS
wife and his colleagues had already arrived
by helicopter. T
hree secretaries had stripped John Kennedy's office of
the personal mem
entos which decorated it: the coconut on
which he had scratched the m
essage asking for help when
his ship had foundered in the Pacific; the m
etal calendar on w
hich were engraved the dates of the C
uba crisis, which
had so nearly unleashed a world w
ar; photos of Jacqueline an
d th
e child
ren. B
ut Jo
hnso
n d
id n
o m
ore th
an p
ass th
rough th
at room
; that ev
enin
g, h
e dared
not sit in
K
ennedy's rocking-chair. H
e visited
the S
ituatio
n R
oom
, where G
eneral S
taff officers gave him
a summ
ary of the military situation. T
hen he w
ent to his own office, on the other side of the grounds,
where he first w
rote a letter, meant to be read later on, to
Caro
line an
d Jo
hn. T
hen
he telep
honed
ex-P
residen
ts
I86 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
Eisenhow
er and Trum
an. Hoover, being sick, w
as inac-cessible.
At nine o'clock, he w
ent home to his villa, The E
lms, on
the o
utsk
irts of W
ashin
gto
n, an
d to
ok a lig
ht m
cal. He
passed the evening watching television —
which kept up a
non-stop coverage of the drama —
and in conferring with
his aides.
JAC
QU
EL
INE
ST
AY
ED
near her husband's body. T
here w
ere only
a few lig
hts o
n in
the W
hite H
ouse,
where the children w
ere once more asleep.
The fine grey rain w
ent on falling pitilessly.
AT
MID
NIG
HT
on this fateful Novem
ber 22nd, 1963, the cannon of F
ort Meyer sounded the first salvo.
At th
e same m
om
ent, o
ther can
on ech
oed
this last
salute to their Com
mander-in-C
hief: at all the Am
erican m
ilitary establishments in the hom
eland and in its overseas territo
ries, aboard
warsh
ips o
n all th
e ocean
s, at bases
throughout the world. T
his cannonade was to go on all next
day at half-hour intervals.
TH
ER
E A
RE
histo
ric day
s which
do n
ot co
me to
an en
d
when the clock-hands m
eet at "twelve". In this w
ay, this. N
ovember 22nd w
as to go on beyond its desolate midnight,
through the weekend, until tw
ilight on the Monday of those
grandiose funeral ceremonies.
It was at fo
ur in
the m
orn
ing, o
n th
e Satu
rday
, that
Kennedy's body w
as brought back to the White H
ouse. It w
as taken
straight to
the E
ast Room
, Lin
coln
's room
. S
till Jacquelin
e watch
ed sto
ically o
ver th
e coffin
. She
waited until daw
n, then for her children's awakening. It
was she w
ho told them of their father's death.
Caroline, know
ing beyond her years,.understood at once. F
or John, "a bad man has hurt D
addy . . ."
CO
UL
D S
TA
Y H
ER
E F
OR
EV
ER
' 187
Only then did Jacqueline agree to take som
e rest. She put
'on the table beside her big empty bed tw
o red roses which
had been given to her by Dr B
uckley, the White H
ouse physician. T
hese two red roses cam
e from the bouquet
given to her on her arrival in Dallas. D
uring the tragedy, the flo
wers slip
ped
under th
e Presid
ent's sh
irt. The d
octo
r found them
, bloodstained, when the dead m
an's clothes w
ere given to him at the hospital.
Jacqueline also held the wedding-ring w
hich she had put on K
ennedy's; finger, before leaving him the first tim
e, in th
e grey
Trau
ma R
oom
I in th
e Dallas h
osp
ital. Ken
ny
O'D
onnell, one of the President's staff, w
ho had been in the autopsy room
at Bethesda, had rem
oved the ring from
Kennedy's finger and brought it back to Jacqueline.
I ON
CE
saw black-clad . G
reek peasant wom
en at Chypre
watch w
ith regal impassivity the burial of their children,
bru
tally m
assacred b
y th
e Turk
s. Jacquelin
e Ken
ned
y,
whose S
panish mantilla heightened the livid pallor of her
face, reminded m
e of them next day.
It was on the S
unday, when, holding C
aroline and John by the hand, she clim
bed the thirty-six marble steps leading
to the magnificent rotunda of the C
apitol. Inside, she kissed the catafalque and knelt to pray. A
fter her, more than 250,000 people cam
e to pay their resp
ects, takin
g eig
hteen
hours to
pass. A
nd th
anks to
television, the w
hole world paid hom
age to Kennedy then,
despite the shock of the second drama unfolding in D
allas. T
hat m
orn
ing, K
enned
y's co
ffin h
ad b
een tak
en to
th
e Cap
itol o
n a g
un-carriag
e. In acco
rdan
ce with
a very
old
traditio
n, th
e corteg
e was led
by a rid
er-less horse. In the tim
e of Genghis K
han and the Mongol
hordes, the sacrificial horse must precede his m
aster through "the great door of the sky", to serve him
in the Beyond.
188 R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
ON
TH
IS sam
e Sunday, all the S
enators were present in the
right wing of the C
apitol when their colleague, M
argaret ,C
hase Sm
ith (later to be the first wom
an to seek presidential nom
ination) laid a red rose on the desk which John F
itz-gerald K
ennedy had used so long as a Senator.
IT W
ILL
be remem
bered that on the evening before his death
, the P
residen
t had
pondered
the sp
lendour o
f the
funeral of King E
dward V
II in May, 19to
. "Th
at cou
ldn
't hap
pen
tod
ay . .." h
e had
tho
ug
ht .
But on the follow
ing Monday – w
ith amazing speed and
• discipline – it w
as shown that he too could be paid quite as
impressive a hom
age. The tim
e has gone by indeed when
the President of the U
nited States is relegated to the end of
a procession. A
n Em
peror, three sovereigns, five presidents, six here-d
itary p
rinces, th
irteen h
eads o
f go
vern
men
t and
in-
numerable m
inisters and high dignitaries – representing fifty-three countries – cam
e from all over the w
orld to take part in the solem
n funeral Mass in S
t Matthew
's Cathedral,
and then walked in procession to the cem
etery. D
c Gaulle, the inaccessible, w
as there – though during his lifetim
e Ken
ned
y h
ad v
ainly
hoped
to see h
im in
. W
ashington. Mikoyan, the m
an of the Soviets, too, w
ho had brought a m
essage from K
ruschev expressing deep feeling. ,.K
ruschev had wanted to com
e himself, but the A
mericans
had dissuaded him because of the danger involved. .It w
as in any case necessary to take unprecedented m
easures to protect all these Iieoth of S
tate, who had faced the risk tttiti
discomfort of hurried journeys decided upon in a m
atter of hours. In W
ashington, it was feared that there m
ight be an outburst of popular indignation against the R
ussians, and the E
mbassies of the C
omm
unist bloc were closely guarded.
Persisten
t rum
ours circu
lated ab
out an
assassinatio
n
attempt on G
eneral de Gaulle.
'I CO
UL
D S
TA
Y H
ER
E F
OR
EV
ER
' 189
On every seat in the huge cathedral lay a sm
all card with
a photograph of the dead President, and the w
ords: May
29th, 1917 — N
ovember, 22nd, 1963.
Dear G
od, take care of your servant, John F
itzgerald Kennedy. T
he dead man had said
this that day when before all W
ashington he took the Oath
as the new president.
Cardinal C
ushing, Archbishop of B
oston, celebrated the fu
neral M
ass. It was h
e wh
o h
ad m
arried Jo
hn
and
Jacq
uelin
e, ten y
ears befo
re. Lu
igi V
ena, w
ho
sang
the
Ave M
aria, had sung at the couple's wedding. .
All the fam
ily were there except the patriarch, Joseph
Kennedy, the -head of the dynasty, w
hose paralysis pre-v
ented
his b
eing
presen
t; and
the 9
6-y
ear-old
gran
d-
mother. A
mong them
was the little cousin from
Ireland, M
ary Ann R
yan, a nurse, brought in a special plane from
Shannon A
irport. It w
as a fine funeral, attended by kings and emperors,
dictators and prime m
inisters; with kilted S
cottish pipers; that K
ennedy liked so much; w
ith hundreds of thousands of people kneeling and w
eeping along the route. O
f it all, I was to retain only one clear picture: of little
Joh
n, stan
din
g u
prig
ht at th
e salute, as h
is father w
ou
ld
have wished, as the coffin left the C
athedral. That very day
he should have been celebrating his third birthday. H
is father should have been doing what he loved to do:
whispering in his car, then laughing loudly, crying "S
ecret, 'secret!" A
nd the little boy should have been opening the parcel to find out at last w
hat Daddy had brought back for
him from
his visit to Dallas . . .
TH
ER
E A
RE
only
two p
residen
ts buried
at Arlin
gto
n. It
is a national cemetery, the resting-place of the U
nknown
Soldier, reserved for the heroes of the battle-field – and
for all those who have borne arm
s in their country's service. Jacqueline K
ennedy chose this place unhesitatingly .
190
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
T
EX
AS
.
she, remem
bered a day, in March, w
hen her husband had taken a w
alk near the cemetery w
ith a friend. Breathing in
deeply the warm
air of Spring, he had rem
arked: "I could stay here for ever . . ." It is there that his body w
ill return to the earth, near to the grave of his son, P
atrick, born some m
onths before. T
here w
ere presid
ents an
d k
ing
s at the g
ravesid
e, am
bassad
ors an
d card
inals, g
enerals an
d ad
mirals; b
ut
there were, above all, the hum
ble and nameless m
en come
from
great d
istances, m
en o
f the S
outh
equally
with
the
men of the N
orth, who w
ept as if they had lost a brother ... T
here was the m
arine stationed on guard, Who let his
rifle sink to the ground as he sobbed. There w
as the young w
oman w
ho laid a 'huge bouquet of red roses — still m
ore red roses —
near the grave; when a journalist asked w
hy she did so, she answ
ered: "B
ecause I loved him . .
5
MR
S K
EN
NE
DY
has ordered a mem
orial to be designed by a g
reat architect. U
ntil it can
ibe b
uilt, an
eternal flam
e burns near the grave. B
ut even while exceptional credits
were being voted w
hich would m
ake it possible for Mrs
Kennedy to reply personally to the hundreds of thousands
of letters of sympathy from
all over the world, a m
ember of
Congress dem
anded to know w
ho was going to pay for this
flame . . . B
ack already to the double-dealings of politics! F
ortunately, the bereaved family does not have td w
orry about such questions of expense. T
he Will revealed that the
widow
and orphans inherit more than $5o,000,000.
I DO
not know w
hat the final wording of the epitaph on
Kennedy's tom
b will be. T
he most obvious choice w
ould be the concluding phrases of his speech that day in D
allas, of w
hich
the tex
t had
been
issued
in ad
van
ce, and
wh
ich
may be sum
marised thus:
'I CO
UL
D S
TA
Y H
ER
E F
OR
EV
ER
' 595
"Our g
eneratio
n, b
y d
estiny rath
er than
by ch
oice, is
the sentinel at the wall of L
iberty. Let us be w
orthy of our pow
er and of our responsibility. Let us use our strength
with w
isdom and prudence. W
e must realise, in our ow
n tim
e and for all time, the ideal of ancient w
isdom: peace on
earth and goodwill to all m
en."
ON
TH
E night of the funeral, Jacqueline K
ennedy went to
Arlington C
emetery a second tim
e, to pray, and to lay on the grave the tw
o bloodstained red roses. Then she w
ent back to the desert of her W
hite House apartm
ents. And
there, for the first time,, she w
ept. She w
ept for a very long tim
e . . . A
nd John-John, just three years old that day, but now
the man of the fam
ily, wandered about am
ong the furniture as if he did not believe this story of a "bad m
an who has
hurt Daddy so m
uch . .." "B
ut if Daddy has gone on this long journey," he said
sadly, "I shan't have anybody to play with any m
ore ..."
CH
AP
TE
R F
OU
RT
EE
N
The D
evil's Advocate
PH
OT
OG
RA
PH
ER
JAC
KS
ON
WA
S in the m
iddle of changing
his film w
hen Kennedy w
as assassinated. But he w
as less
unlucky when in the basem
ent .of the DaH
a's police head-
quarters Jack
Ruby sh
ot p
oin
t-blan
k at O
swald
, cryin
g,
"Tak
e that —
" Jackso
n g
ot a startlin
g p
hoto
grap
h o
f
that and was to receive the P
ulitzer Prize for it.
There h
ad b
een n
o real w
itness to
the P
residen
t's
murder, but thanks to the m
arvel of the relay satellite the
whole w
orld was to see that second D
allas tragedy in minute
vivid detail on their television screens. At the W
hite House,
even
, Mrs K
enned
y, h
er bro
ther-in
-law B
ob, P
residen
t
Johnso
n an
d th
ose w
ith th
em w
ere all witn
esses of th
at
amazing scene —
since at the time the netw
orks were sup-
posed to be going to televise the ceremonies at the C
apitol
but made a last-m
inute change.
IT W
AS
11.2
0 on S
unday morning, N
ovember 24th, T
exas
time, a little less than 47 hours after K
ennedy's assassina-
tion. But in A
merica one seem
ed to be still living through
that fateful Friday, as if all the clocks had stopped then.
"I did
not w
ant M
rs Ken
ned
y to
hav
e to g
o th
rough a
trial," Jack Ruby w
as to say in explanation of what he had
done. Later, clever law
yers would stage a fascinating trial,
pleading insanity and making the situation m
ore involved
than ever.
TH
E D
EV
IL'S
AD
VO
CA
TE
193
All A
merica w
atched the dramatic lynching, the first in
the history of television, with horror. A
ll Am
erica realised
that th
is third
murd
er must m
odify
com
pletely
all pre-
conceived ideas on the matter.
Fr is co
rrect that Jacq
uelin
e Ken
ned
y, an
d P
residen
t
Johnso
n to
o, w
ould
in th
eory
hav
e had
to ap
pear at
Osw
ald's eventual trial; though it is difficult to imagine
Defence C
ounsel asking for their attendance, which w
ould
auto
matically
hav
e mean
t his clien
t's convictio
n. B
ut
imm
ediately after his arrest, Ruby gave a num
ber of other,
contrad
ictory
, explan
ations o
f his actio
n —
quite ap
art
from those, suggested by his experienced law
yers, to be put
forward at his trial.
He w
anted to punish a Com
munist; he w
anted to un-
mask the extrem
ist right-wing organisations w
hose appeals
to hatred had incited Osw
ald; he simply w
anted to fight
the wave of anti-sem
itism (sw
astikas had been drawn on the
window
s of his nightclub) by proving that a Jew is not to
be put upon; to get publicity for himself as an avenging
angel; to avenge himself for the fact that after the m
urder he
had had to close up for a while; or even just that he had
done it b
ecause "h
e felt an u
nco
ntro
llable h
orro
r of th
e
President's killer." T
his last motive is plausible, and all D
allas — all the
South —
will alw
ays believe it, since during those days al-
most an
yone in
the U
nited
States w
ould
hav
e done th
e
same. B
ut it is difficult to understand why Jack R
uby did
not do it that very evening of the murder, w
hen in fact he
was close to O
swald —
who w
as being shown to the press on
the ground floor of police headquarters. The tim
e and the
opportunity were there.
Why did he w
ait two days? E
specially since he belonged
to the town, and had had tim
e to think things over.
192
194
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S,
ON
TH
IS S
unday morning, R
uby went to buy a sandw
ich, then sent off a $25 m
oney order 'by telegram to enable his'
girl-friend, Karen L
ynn Bennett; a stripper at his club, to
visit her sick mother. T
hen Ruby took his dog for a w
alk, ,• w
ent off to kill Osw
ald under the eyes of his, churns, the police. H
e just happened to have a revolver on him .. .
Even for D
allas, it seems a bit odd.
And w
hat h
as beco
me o
f that fam
ous rep
ort in
the '
dossier . of Martin D
ies, ex-:president of the well-docum
ented and very pow
erful Congressional C
omm
ission on Anti-
Am
erican Activities, stating that a certain Jack R
uby was a'
"killer" in the service of the Am
erican Com
munist P
arty -a report ten years old? H
owever, it m
ust be admitted that
Ruby is not only a com
mon nam
e but that Jack Ruby's real
name is R
ubenstein. T
he invisible scriptwriter of the D
allas drama so arranged
things that the dying Osw
ald was taken at 11.32 T
exas time
to that same P
arkland Hospital w
here vain attempts w
ere m
ade to resuscitate Kennedy, w
here Tippitt died, w
here O
swald him
self was cared for at the age of seven, and w
here his daughter R
achel had just been born. O
swald
was tak
en to
Trau
ma R
oo
m 2, an
d th
en (at
11.42, the doctors making superhum
an efforts to save him)
to the large operating theatre. D
octo
rs Malco
lm P
erry, M
cClellan
d, Jo
nes, Jen
kin
s, A
kin, and Pollock w
ere present; together with D
r Bashour,
the Lebanese, w
ith 'his cardiac apparatus. In additioh, Dr
Shires, the chief surgeon, w
as in charge of the team. (H
e had b
oo
await d
urin
g th
ki trv
attno
t4 o
t X§
ntiP
tir, bu
t had
driven m
ore than six hundred miles at top speed in order
to operate upon Governor C
onnally.) R
uby's bullet had penetrated the lower left side of the
abdomen, perforating the stom
ach, and had emerged near
the right kidney. When O
swald w
as brought in, there was
very little bleeding, and his pulse was .i3o. B
ut when the
TH
E D
EV
IL'S
AD
VO
CA
TE
195
wound w
as open
ed in
ord
er to ex
amin
e the p
ath o
f the
bullet, an internal haemorrhage w
as discovered Several
pints of blood were pum
ped out, and two transfusions given.
The m
edical report by the eighteen doctors concerned is very long and detailed. It suffices to say that O
swald never
regained consciousness, that the pulse-rate fell rapidly to 40, 20, and then to nil. T
he doctors made every effort. T
hey tried all possible m
ethods, including injections and electric shock. Indeed, they did• even m
ore for Osw
ald than they had been able to do for P
resident Kennedy.
In vain. At 12.55 D
r Bashour's oscillograph cam
e to a standstill. A
t 1.07 Osw
ald was pronounced dead —
48 hours 6 m
inutes after Kennedy.
His w
ife and his mother w
ere waiting outside.
In the operating theatre, two F
.B.I. agents w
ere standing by, in hope of catching a last w
ord ... perhaps a confession.
OS
WA
LD
WA
S buried, in the presence of his fam
ily and of an im
posing force of police — one hour after the funeral cere-
mony at the A
rlington Cem
etery in Washington —
in the R
ose Hill public burial-ground at F
ort Worth; and at the
expen
se of th
e State o
f Tex
as. At th
e last mom
ent, th
e R
everend Louis S
anders, a Protestant, agreed to preside at
this sombre service —
other ministers had declined.
Marguerite O
swald, his m
other, had refused to have him
.cremated, and refused even m
ore strongly to bury him in a
cemetery further aw
ay. "M
y son is an Am
erican. He died innocent, as guaranteed
by the Constitution, and he w
ill be buried here." T
he grave was just a,sloping piece of ground w
ith a small
wooden
cross an
d a slip
of p
aper b
earing th
e unhap
py
young man's nam
e. There are alw
ays flowers on it, brought
by Marina —
red roses. T
hreats of desecration have not been carried out. But
there is always a policem
an on duty near the grave.
196
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
This officer, H
oward T
enty, put this odd question to me:
"Tell m
e, sir, is wh
at I'm' d
oin
g h
ere ho
no
urab
le? S
hould
I be p
roud o
f it, or is it a . sh
amefu
l task, to
be
guarding the remains of a w
retch?' T
hat may w
ell evermore be the epitaph of L
ee Harvey
Osw
ald.
PO
LIC
EM
AN
J. D. T
IPP
ITT
was buried at alm
ost the same
time; but his funeral cerem
ony was a glorious one. F
or him
tht:re were flags, a hand and a m
ilitary salute, in the Laurel
Land P
ark near to his home, south of D
allas: It was televised.
The fnture of his w
idow and children has been provided
for. They have received m
ore than $600,000 in aid, and m
oney is still coming in.
. One w
onders why so m
uch money should have been sent
for this unknown policem
an, the exact reason for whose
death remains a m
ystery. The policem
en who died defend-
ing Trum
an were never the objects of so m
uch solicitude. D
oes Am
erica want to soothe her conscience w
ith dollars? M
ore than $40,000 has also been sent to Osw
ald's widow
. M
rs Tippitt behaved very w
ell through it all. With great
dignity she has tried to avoid publicity and insisted upon rem
aining obscure; so far she has not touched a cent of all that m
oney. T
his is more than can be said for the other people con-
corn
ed. P
eople alleg
edly
represen
ting R
uby, : M
arina
Osw
ald and Osw
ald's mother, offer their "m
emoirs" for
sale at unheard-of prices: $50,000, $too,000, .$200,000; nod feud thornsgivo to on m
otto of publitity trokootuvros its order to push the price higher still. O
nly in Am
erica could killers or the relations of killers autom
atically become best-
selling authors.
IMM
ED
IAT
EL
Y A
FT
ER
the murder, M
arina Osw
ald .pro, claim
ed that she had been a great admirer of K
ennedy, that
THE D
EVIL'S A
DV
OC
ATE
197
she had never suspected even for a mom
ent that her hus-band could be the m
urderer, and that he had never spoken to
her o
f any
such
plan
. In a b
rief sole in
terview
with
a foreign journalist, she declared O
swald's innocence.
Later, how
ever, she began to make statem
ents contradict-ing this, and even told how
some m
onths before Osw
ald had tried to shoot G
eneral Walker.
It is difficu
lt to assess M
arina O
swald
: a foreig
ner;
brought up in a totalitarian country considered an enemy
by the United S
tates; wife of a• m
an accused• of an odious crim
e and tragically dead and practically a prisoner of the governm
ental' police. She seem
s,' on the other hand, to have developed a taste for the luxury life offered her by the sam
e police and shows every intention of staying in a city
where sh
e is surro
unded
by h
atred, in
a country
whose
language she does not know, and of w
anting to bring up her-children there, although in A
merica their very nam
e will
always rem
ain accursed. W
hy has the Federal police m
aintained a "wall" around
Marina? W
hy should anyone be afraid that she might speak
freely? Why could not her ow
n mother-in-law
go to see her? O
r Mrs P
aine, who foi' so long gave her a roof and a place at
her own table?
The m
other, Marguerite O
swald, w
ho lives in a small
bu
ng
alow
on
the o
utsk
irts of F
ort W
orth
, adam
antly
d
efend
s her so
n. "T
he C
on
stitutio
n say
s that a m
an is
innocent until proved guilty," she insists. "My son alw
ays had to suffer because 'he w
as poor. That's w
hy he went to
Russia. If at the tim
e of his arrest in Dallas he had had the
means to pay a good law
yer, he would be alive today. L
ook at R
uby — he's rich. H
e has a defence counsel and his trial is a m
asquerade. "I w
ant my son's interests defended during the enquiry
at Washington by E
arl Warren's C
omm
ission. The police
must not be both prosecution and judge."
199
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
Mrs O
swald is right. D
oubt of Osw
ald's guilt persists in the A
merican subconscious. If it is tw
it dissipated, it will go
far to poison the life of the Nation, creating divisions, being
exploited by factions, undermining m
orale. This doubt has
seriously damaged U
nited States prestige abroad, and had
the effect of a grave diplomatic defeat.
An attem
pt m
ust b
e mad
e to fin
d o
ut th
e truth
; and if
that tru
th co
incid
es with
the o
fficial versio
n, to
giv
e ir- refutable proof.
. T
he fate o
f Marin
a Osw
ald, o
f his m
oth
er, or o
f R
uby, th
e van
ity o
f policem
en, th
e imag
e of D
allas, do not really count. W
hat matters is D
emocracy itself, and
there can he no real Dem
ocracy without real Justice.
IT Is therefore necessary to present a posthum
ous defence of O
swald. A
"Devil's A
dvocate" should have been present alongside Jam
es Lee R
ankin, the liberal lawyer w
ho con-ducted the final enquiry in the nam
e of the Warren C
om-
mission. B
ut who w
ould dare defend Osw
ald? T
here is no shortage of lawyers,! and even som
e indepen-dent A
merican journals have dared to press the them
e of doubt.
"Osw
ald's d
efence is a d
uty
for all ju
rists," affirmed
P
rofesso
r Pau
l Freu
nd, d
oyen
of th
e Facu
lty o
f Law
at H
arvard University. "If K
ennedy were still alive, he w
ould be the one to insist upon such a defence. A
ll violation of the spirit of 'fair play' is in fact an insult to K
ennedy's mem
-o
ry."
. Society cannot blot out a m
an's life without regard for
its own rules, and w
ithout guaranteeing that his rights will
be p
rotected
. Ru
by
's action
was a crim
e; bu
t equ
ally
criminal has been the attitude of the police, the A
merican
press and the authorities.
TH
E D
EV
IL'S
AD
VO
CA
TE
19
9
AD
VO
CA
TE
PE
RC
Y W
orman, president of the A
ssociation of D
efence Law
yers in Texas, w
ho was to defend R
uby for tw
o short days, declared: "L
ike everyone else,1I believe Osw
ald guilty. But Justice
cannot be based on opinions, instincts, press news, or on
deduction. Justice must be based upon facts, on facts as
presented in a Court of L
aw. H
ad I been able to defend O
swald
, he w
ould
hav
e escaped
the d
eath p
enalty
. It w
ould have been decided that he was not fully responsible.
But in D
allas there was no trial, since the trial w
as held by the press and television. O
ne could never have found in D
allas twelve im
partial jurors — short of discovering som
e sick persons w
ho had been cut off for a couple of months
from the rest of the w
orld." C
ertainly, lawyer W
orman recognised that the press and
television were only doing their job. A
fter all, presidents aren't assassinated every day of the w
eek, and a lack of new
s might w
ell have given rise to a state of panic through-out the country.
Am
erican jurists recognise that the gravity of a crime
does not justify extraordinary measures by the police, or
vio
lation o
f the rig
hts o
f the in
div
idual. O
therw
ise, o
ne is b
ack w
ith d
ictatorsh
ip an
d "sp
ecial tribu
nals".
Hitler d
oo
med
his o
pp
on
ents "leg
ally", arg
uin
g th
at th
e p
lot a
gain
st his p
erso
n w
as so
serio
us a
s to
justify
the u
se of ex
ceptio
nal p
roced
ures. S
talin, to
o,
during the "purges", and the condemnation of the Jew
ish doctors.
"In the conflict between the rights of the m
ass and those of the individual, the rights of the individual should alw
ays trium
ph," says Professor F
reund. "The S
upreme C
ourt of th
e Un
ited S
tates alway
s main
tains th
is fun
dam
ental
principle. It would certainly have quashed any sentence
by a Texas tribunal w
hich clashed with these principles of
the Am
erican Constitution."
TIM
DE
VIL
'S A
DV
OC
AT
E
201
Yes; b
ut th
ere were n
early a hu
nd
red oth
er emp
loyees in
it that d
ay. (2) P
rosecution
Evid
ence: O
swald
was d
rink
ing on
the
second floor. 'B
ut th
at show
s that n
o one su
spected
him
, becau
se the
policem
an took
no n
otice of him
; and
that h
e did
not try to
get away. H
ow could he in a few
seconds have put down his
rifle and
run
(with
out b
eing seen
) dow
n to th
e second
floor —
the lifts remaining above?
(3) Prosecution E
vidence: Osw
ald left the building. T
hat w
as not forb
idd
en. A
man
with
Osw
ald's p
ast was
bou
nd
to feel un
easy in a b
uild
ing tak
en over b
y police.
No on
e told h
im to stay.
(4) Prosecu
tion evid
ence: O
swald
took a b
us.
An
d w
hy n
ot? Did
n't h
e take th
e bu
s to go hom
e from
work ? (5) P
rosecution
Evid
ence: H
e left the b
us to tak
e a taxi. O
thers did, too. The bus being held up, it w
as sensible to take a taxi.
(6) Prosecu
tion E
viden
ce: He w
as seen b
y the h
ouse-
keeper of the rooming-house at one o'clock.
What m
ore natural than for a man to go hom
e? But if the
witn
esses are telling th
e truth
, both
bu
s and
taxi wen
t very slow
ly; and
if Osw
ald w
ent p
art of the w
ay on foot, h
ow
could
he in
ten m
inu
tes have m
ade a jou
rney w
hich
nor-
mally took
twen
ty? Th
e hou
sekeep
er could
not h
ave seen
him
com
e back at o
ne o
'clock
. Her sta
temen
t wou
ld
certainly have been thrown out by a good law
yer. (7) P
rosecution
Evid
ence: O
swald
killed
Tip
pitt.
It hasn
't been
conclu
sively proved
that an
yone saw
him
sh
oot T
ipp
itt, or sp
eak
to h
im. F
ive m
on
ths a
fter the
crime, alth
ough
prod
ucin
g man
y other item
s of eviden
ce, th
e police h
ave never yet sh
own
the revolver u
sed to k
ill T
ippitt, shown the finger-prints, or proved that the revolver
belonged to Osw
ald — or even that O
swald had a revolver?
200
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S,
ON
E S
IIOU
LD
perhaps detail here some aspects of A
merican
law. .
In the first place, the importance of the victim
has no • bearing at all. W
hether Osw
ald murdered a P
resident of the U
nited States or a tram
p should make no difference. In
practice, the charge against Osw
ald' of killing policeman
Tip
pitt w
ould
hav
e been
the o
ne to
be p
ressed, sin
ce K
ennedy's murder w
ould have been more difficult to prove.
Further, m
uch of the evidence against Osw
ald could not have been presented in court. T
he Suprem
e Court (a kind
of C
ourt o
f Appeal) is v
ery m
eticulo
us o
n th
is poin
t: a piece of evidence m
ust have been obtained legally. If the police have entered a house w
ithout a search warrant, they
cannot make use of docum
ents seized there. No statem
ent by the accused can be put in unless he w
as first formally
charged. No arrest can be m
ade at random: there m
ust in the first place be som
e grounds for suspicion, based upon evidence.
The S
upreme C
ourt has set free guilty persons, who had
confessed to their crime, because there had been a flaw
in th
eir arrest. The C
ourt's stan
dpoin
t is clear: better o
ne
guilty person at liberty than tolerate the least violation of the rights of the individual.
Osw
ald resisted
his arrest in
the cin
ema b
ut a g
ood
lawyer m
ight have been able to have shown this w
as under-standable self-defence. It w
ould also have been shown that
as a sick man O
swald w
as not fully responsible for his actions. D
r Lew
is Robbin
s, directo
r of a clin
ic in N
ew Y
ork
, ex
amin
ed O
swald
and d
iagnosed
him
as an ad
van
ced
paranoiac — "a psychopath w
ho deliberately leaves tracks because he w
ants to be punished, perhaps for a crime he did
not co
mm
it." Let P
ercy W
orm
an b
e our "D
evil's A
dvo-
cate". Here is his defence of O
swald:
(I) Prosecution E
vidence: Osw
ald worked in the build-
ing from w
hich the shots were fired.
202
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
(8) Pro
secutio
n E
vid
ence: H
elen M
arkham
saw T
ip-
pitt's murder.
But fro
m a d
istance, an
d sh
e has n
ever id
entified
Osw
ald. A
nyw
ay, T
ippitt's m
urd
er does n
ot p
rove th
e
murd
er of K
enned
y. O
swald
mig
ht h
ave h
ad a d
ozen
reasons for killing Tippitt: a quarrel, to get his ow
n back,
an act of madness, over som
e wom
an . . There had been
seventy murders in D
allas during the previous ten months.
(9) Prosecution E
vidence: At the m
oment of his arrest,
Osw
ald said: "It's all over." T
his is n
ot certain
. Nor d
oes it p
rove th
at he w
as
referring to Kennedy, or to a crim
e. t o) P
rosecution Evidence: O
swald's finger-prints w
ere
found on the window
-sill at the Texas B
ook Depository, and
on some boxes.
Why not? H
e worked on that floor, all the tim
e touching
the boxes and opening and shutting the window
s. There
were also hundreds of other prints there. (it) P
rosecu
tion E
vid
ence: T
he p
olice fo
und p
alm-
prints on the rifle. A
ny good lawyer w
ould show that such prints are not
legal evidence because there is not a sufficiently large stock
of palm-prints to prove that no tw
o are alike.
(52) Prosecution E
vidence: Paraffin tests show
ed that
there were traces of pow
der on Osw
ald's fingers, proving
that he had discharged a gun. A
dvocate Worm
an says that nine times out of ten 'such
tests arc inconclusive. Paraffin reveals the firing•of a gun as
much as six w
eeks beforehand. (13) P
rosecution Evidence: M
arina Osw
ald stated that
her husband owned a rifle, w
hich could not be found in its
usual hiding-place. F
irst of all, acco
rdin
g to
Am
erican law
a wife can
not
bear witness against her husband, even if she so w
ishes.
This statem
ent co
uld
therefo
re. nev
er be p
resented
in
TH
E D
EV
IL'S
AD
VO
CA
TE
203
court. Further, M
arina Osw
ald is not an arms expert, and
to m
ost w
om
en all g
uns lo
ok alik
e. How
could
she b
e
certain it was her husband's? P
erhaps Osw
ald had changed
its hiding-place. And since the w
ord "hiding-place" means
what it does, he could deliberately not have told his w
ife
where it w
as. Perhaps his rifle is still hidden there.
(54) Prosecution E
vidence: Mrs O
swald has not defen-
ded her husband's innocence. M
rs Osw
ald's first reaction when inform
ed of the arrest
of h
er husb
and w
as that h
e was in
nocen
t, but later sh
e
made conflicting statem
ents. She m
ay very well have hated
her h
usb
and. A
nyw
ay, w
hat w
eight can
be g
iven
to th
e
reactions of a wom
an brought up in a totalitarian country,
whose hom
e is brutally invaded by the police who seques-
trate her for months?
(is) Pro
secutio
n E
vid
ence: O
swald
had
bought a
Carcano rifle. Y
es, but in Texas everyone buys rifles. O
therwise they
wouldn't be sold w
holesale, they wouldn't be advertised in
the newspapers. A
nyway, w
hy didn't the police mention
a Carcano rifle u
ntil th
ree day
s later, after the F
.B.I. h
ad
discovered an invoice for the despatch to Dallas of such a
rifle? (16) P
rosecution Evidence: O
swald had ordered a rifle
by post. B
ut under a false name. N
o one saw him
take delivery
of this rifle, no one saw him
with it. T
he handwriting of the
letter was d
isguised
. Sev
eral han
dw
riting ex
perts h
ave
stated that it was in O
swald's handw
riting but others have
said that it was not. A
nyway, w
hen the rifle was ordered he
could not have been meditating killing K
ennedy with it
because the President's tour in the S
outh had not yet been
decided upon. Why then use a false nam
e? Osw
ald could
have ordered the weapon for a friend, for an accom
plice,
to re-sell it, to export it to Mexico —
and so on.
204
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
(17) Prosecution E
vidence: There are w
itnesses who say
they saw him
at the window
. . Im
possible to recognise any.one at that distance. (18) P
rosecution Evidence: D
ocuments and letters w
ere seized from
his home.
Such a seizure w
as illegal, being without a search w
ar-rant, and the docum
ents could not have been admitted by
the court.
OS
WA
LD
WA
S not inform
ed of his constitutional rights,' he w
as not. allowed to telephone a law
yer, or his family; no
legal rep
resentativ
e was assig
ned
him
. All th
is would
certainly have led to a quashing-of the trial by the S
upreme
Court. T
hen there is the episode of the F.B
.I. agent who in 1961
had suggested to Osw
ald that he should join the pro-Castro
organisations and inform on them
to him —
Joseph Hesty -
and through him to the F
.B.I.
Why did the F
.B.I., w
hich had Osw
ald listed as "dan-gerous", not inform
the police and the Secret S
ervice? For
there are 250,000 schizophrenics on that list . . . therefore 250,000 persons just as M
uch suspect as Osw
ald.
How
CO
UL
D
Osw
ald sin
gle-h
anded
hav
e man
aged
to
wound the P
resident from the back in the nape of the neck,.
and from the front in the throat?
The doctors of P
arkland Hospital are certain that there
were tw
o wounds, from
opposite directions. - "W
e have two hundred cases a day; w
e know w
hen a bullet en
ters ftom
in fro
nt an
d an
oth
er from
beh
ind."
Their report w
as published in the Texas Medical Journal.
Tailor Z
apruder's film show
s that Kennedy did not turn
round; he could not in any case have turned round in such a w
ay th
at a bullet fired
from
beh
ind co
uld
enter th
e th
roat.
TH
E D
EV
IL'S
AD
VO
CA
TE
205
The autopsy petform
ed at the Bethesda-M
ilitary Hospi-
tal in Washington refers only to tw
o bullets (apart from
Governor C
onnaly's one) and to two w
ounds at the. back. B
ut after all the Dallas surgeons had had to do, the P
resi-dent's body w
as surely in such a condition that no autopsy co
uld
giv
e any clear p
icture o
f the p
oin
ts of en
try an
d
egress of the bullets. W
hy is the existence of a fourth rifle bullet denied? D
etective B
ill Walth
ers declares th
at he fo
und it. H
e describ
ed to
me h
imself h
ow
he fo
und th
e bullet an
d a
picture taken imm
ediately after the shooting by a Dallas
Times
photo
grap
her sh
ow
s this d
etective an
d a S
ecret S
ervice man in the act of retrieving a bullet from
the turf at the roadside.
A journalist of the St Louis P
ost Dispatch states that the
win
dscreen
of th
e presid
ential car w
as splin
tered b
y a
bullet. W
hy has the medical report from
the Parkland H
ospital never been taken into consideration?
FIN
AL
LY
, was an
yone fro
m th
e Chicag
o o
r New
York
underw
orld
s that d
ay in
Dallas? T
hose q
uarters h
ad
recently not been on the best of terms w
ith the Kcnnedys:
Bob, the brother, had started a crusade against the M
afia and other gangsters, giving rise to the spectacular revela-tions of V
alachi. O
swald's m
other, who is absolutely determ
ined to main-
tain her son's innocence, has made m
any contradictory and often ill-advised statem
ents. But her recollections and the
voluminous papers she has put at m
y disposal, suggest a theory w
hich may be defended w
ith some success:
"My son is the victim
of a plot. A few
minutes after his
arrest, the p
olice g
ave th
e press a m
ass of b
iograp
hical
detail in which everything detrim
ental was carefully under-
lined
... How
did
it hap
pen
that th
e police h
ad all th
is
20
6
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
information about m
y son ready to hand, when they say
they didn't know he existed a few
hours before? "W
e arc a patriotic family. A
ll my three children volun-
teered for service in the armed forces. L
ee wanted to enlist
in ffic Marines at sixteen years old —
he was rejected as
bein
g to
o y
ou
ng
. Bu
t he w
as a mem
ber o
f the C
adet
Aviation C
orps, and they wanted to m
ake him a pilot —
the A
merican A
ir Force doesn't norm
ally recruit young people w
hose patriotism is in do.ubt. A
n officer often came to' the
house to
talk to
Lee. T
hat's h
ow
he cam
e to read
ha
s K
apital; but at the same tim
e he learned by heart the big• w
ordy manual,
The P
erfect Marine. A
t seven
teen, h
e en-
listed, and his letters said he was happy. H
e was decorated.
He did not receive a m
edal for being a sharp-shooter; it was
his battalion which received that -d
istinctio
n . . . b
ut th
e police and the press lied, m
aking the world believe that m
y son w
as a champion rifle-shot.
"I am su
re that th
e Marin
es trained
Lee to
be a secret
agent. True, he did not tell m
e so, nor does anyone say so today. B
ut since when cilia secret agents tell their m
others w
hat they were doing? O
r the secret services acknowledge
their mem
bers? "L
ee was never in contact w
ith Com
munists. If he be-
came a M
arxist, it w
as becau
se the M
arines m
ade a
Marxist of him
.. . "L
ee decid
ed all in
a min
ute to
go
to R
ussia . . . as if
he'd
received
an o
rder. H
e, alway
s so tru
thfu
l with
me,
told
me th
at he w
as go
ing
to g
et on
a cargo
-bo
at for
Europe. H
ow could he, in the tw
o days he stayed with m
e after leaving the m
ilitary base, have arranged so quickly to get a passport, a S
oviet visa and a passage to Russia?
"Why (lid
the R
ussian
s nev
er believ
e in h
is story
of
defectio
n? W
hy h
aven
't the S
oviet d
ossiers o
n m
y so
n,
passed
by
Mo
scow
to th
e Am
erican G
ov
ernm
ent, b
een
TH
E D
EV
IL'S
AD
VO
CA
TE
2
07
made public? W
hy was L
ee, after renouncing his nation-ality, so very m
uch interested in keeping his status in the ' M
arines; to such, a point that he wrote a letter from
Moscow
to G
overnor Connally, asking him
to annul his discharge from
the Marines? A
Com
munist ought not to have cared
about defending his military prestige in one of the U
.S.
forces ... "A
fter he came back, L
ee kept away from
me for a long
time. H
e didn't want to com
promise m
e. He w
as on secret w
ork. I believe that Lee, as an agent, w
as trying to infiltrate reactio
nary
circles in T
exas, p
erhap
s to u
nco
ver a p
lot
again
st Ken
ned
y. H
e was, th
en, th
e victim
and
no
t the
instigator of the tragedy. He w
as used as a scapegoat. By
whom
? Those w
ho had discovered his role? "W
ith th
e help
of frien
ds, I h
ave m
ade m
y o
wn en
-quiries. I have discovered that the policem
an, Tippitt, w
as seen in R
uby's night-club some days before the assassina-
tion. A w
itness of Tippitt's m
urder says that the killer was
square-set, short, fat .. . that description does not fit my
son. Another w
itness saw an unidentified m
an leave the B
ook Depository B
uilding just after the assassination and go off in a car belonging to an extrem
e right-wing organisation.
"As a m
other, I know that L
ee did not comm
it murder. I
know too that if he had done so, he w
ould have boasted of it. L
ee was alw
ays proud of his actions, and never denied his m
istakes .. . He w
ould have told me . . . H
is last words,
when he said good-bye to his w
ife and me som
e hours before his cruel death, w
ere, 'Don't forget to buy June som
e shoes . . Is th
at an assassin
's go
od
-by
e?" L
ee Harvey O
swald a secret agent?
Why not? C
ouldn't lie have been acting on behalf of the C
entral Intelligence Agency? It isn't im
possible that he. w
as on th
e trail of th
e inten
din
g assassin
s. After all,
Johnson's entourage, and the new P
resident himself, did not
exclude the possibility of a conspiracy in Dallas.
208
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
There arc m
any u
nan
swered
questio
ns. W
hy, fo
r exam
ple, was the head of the C
.I.A. closeted w
ith Robert
Ken
ned
y, th
e Atto
rney
-Gen
eral, instead
of ru
nnin
g
straight to the Pentagon, as w
as his duty? Why did he go to
see Bob K
enned
y, w
ho h
ad n
oth
ing to
do w
ith secret
service matters? W
ouldn't the logical answer be: "B
ecause one of his agents had been m
istakenly arrested in Dallas,
and he was asking B
ob Kennedy, head of the F
.B.I., to get
him out of the clutches of the D
allas police . .." ? A
nd why did E
arl Warren, after studying secret docu-
men
ts, declare p
ublicly
: "Pro
bab
ly certain
facts in th
is affair w
ill never be made-public in our generation." T
his w
as the Chief Justice of the S
upreme C
ourt, the first magis-
trate, chairman of the nation's ad hoc C
omm
ission — and the
man entrusted by P
resident Johnson with th
e task o
f in-
vestigating the assassination.
ON
LY
TIIE
future, then, will lift the veil from
what really
happened in Dallas on that unbelievable and unforgettable
Novem
ber 22nd, 1963. It m
ay co
nfirm
the co
nven
ient o
fficial versio
n o
f the
facts — just as m
uch possible as a hundred others. Or it m
ay, by rev
ealing in
num
erable fu
rther co
ntrad
ictions, m
ake
even more m
ysterious what seem
s like the most far-fetched
and thrilling "whodunit" of post-w
ar years. •
l•
18o R
ED
RO
SE
S F
RO
M T
EX
AS
martial law
in D
allas, or at least d
eman
d an
escort o
f fighter jets to protect A
ir Force I. on its w
ay back to Washing-
ton with the new
president and all his suite? A
man w
ho believes himself threatened by conspiracy or
rebellion, coup d' clot or in
vasio
n, starts rig
ht aw
ay in
his
ho
spital ro
om
to g
ive o
rders, co
ntact th
e Pen
tago
n, th
e C
entral Intelligence Agency and his m
inisters. He does not
waste precious hours doing nothing, or risk being out of
touch for another two hours on the flight betw
een Dallas
and Washington. H
e would think that plotters m
ight have hidden a bom
b in his plane, or prepared an aerial attack — ,
since, after all, one is much m
ore vulnerable in a plane than on th
e gro
und. H
e would
thin
k tw
ice about g
oin
g to
W
ashin
gto
n at all, sin
ce it mig
ht b
e in th
e han
ds o
f the
"rebels" o
r "inv
aders". A
nd
on
ce in W
ashin
gto
n h
e w
ould
not g
o to
his o
wn h
om
e, as Johnso
n d
id, b
ut to
a m
ilitary- strongpoint — or at least som
ewhere easily guarded.
Th
e plan
e with
John
son ab
oard
took o
ff from
Love
Field
, Dallas, at 2
.47 p
.m. T
exas tim
e. But b
y th
en,
Osw
ald had been arrested, the Dallas police had declared
themselves satisfied of his guilt, had rejected the conspiracy
theo
ry an
d h
ad p
ractically ceased
furth
er inv
estigatio
n.
There w
as not a single road-block on the roads between
hospital and airport. Love F
ield itself looked just the same
as on any other day. Departures, even departures abroad,
had not been interrupted. Y
et there is n
ot th
e slightest allu
sion to
this in
the ac-
counts of the matter inspired by the W
hite House.
Johnson was inform
ed of Osw
ald's capture. What w
as his reaction ?
Here is a m
an who learns that his predecessor's assassin -
who m
ay perhaps have wanted to kill him
too — has been
caught. Why did he not give orders for a full investigation?
Why did he not him
self take charge of it? Jo
hnso
n telep
honed
Robert K
enned
y fo
r his ad
vice.
CO
UL
D S
TA
Y H
ER
E F
OR
EV
ER
' 181
Why did he not say to B
ob: "The brother you loved so m
uch h
as been
wick
edly
mu
rdered
. Co
me at o
nce to
Dallas,
you're the Attorney G
eneral, with all pow
er to punish his killer." O
r: "Bob, order J. E
dgar Hoover, your subordinate,
the boss of the F.B
.I., to come to D
allas at once. Tell him
to bring his best investigators, squads, apparatus, forensic equipm
ent — all that kind of thing —
and let in some light on
this matter."
Maybe these questions now
serve no purpose, but many
peo
ple in
Am
erica are askin
g th
em, in
the b
ars and
the
subway, in their hom
es by the fireside — and in E
mbassy
boudoirs.
TH
E G
RE
AT
Am
erican magazines have given us the official
version in minutest detail:
At 12.38, w
hen all hope for Kennedy seem
ed at an end, a little m
an one vaguely remem
bered having seen around the W
hite House corridors w
as sitting in front of the door of the room
in which Johnson w
as waiting. O
n his knees was
the "football" — the W
ashington slang term for the briefcase
which holds all the codes in w
hich the presidential orders m
ust b
e giv
en to
the ato
mic p
atrols an
d strik
e-force
centres. R
oberts, head of the White H
ouse detail in Dallas (he
had served twenty years in the corps), telephoned C
olonel Jam
es Sw
indal, pilot of the presidential plane, and told him
to get ready to take off without delay. T
he pilot at once ordered com
plete re-fuelling, the plane's tanks being almost
empty —
not much fuel w
ould have been needed to get to A
ustin, which should have been the next stop.
Johnson asked for assistance. Four C
ongressmen from
th
e Tex
as deleg
ation th
erefore w
ent in
to th
e room
and
stood round him as if to protect him
. A
t 1.1
3 p
.m. th
e man
guard
ing th
e door o
f Trau
ma
Room
I reported that Kennedy w
as dead.
!I
18
2
RE
D R
OS
ES
FR
OM
TE
XA
S
Malcolm
Kilduff then asked Johnson if he could confirm
the sad new
s to the journalists. "N
o, M
ac," Johnso
n rep
lied. "B
etter to w
ait a bit.• I
must get out of here first and get on the 'plane. F
or all we
known there could be a w
orld plot, and they might m
ean to kill m
e as they have Kennedy ... W
e don't know." A
nd Jo
hnso
n w
ent o
n to
recall the assassin
ation o
f Presid
ent
Lincoln.
IN W
AS
HIN
GT
ON
, at that mom
ent, a Senate C
omm
ittee of E
nquiry
was in
pro
cess of th
row
ing so
me lig
ht o
n th
e R
obert Baker scandal. B
aker, Senate m
ajority Secretary to
the Senate, had enjoyed the friendship of the vice-president
and the witness R
eynolds was at that tim
e making revela-
tions extremely em
barrassing to Johnson. When the C
hair-m
an of the Com
mittee learned that K
ennedy was dead, and
that the man indirectly involved by the w
itness was now
P
resident of the United S
tates, he abruptly adjourned the sitting.
JOH
NS
ON
LE
FT
the hospital shortly before I.3o p.m., and
got down on the floor of the car in such a position that his
head
could
not b
e seen fro
m o
utsid
e. In th
is crouch
ed
position he arrived at Love F
ield. . A
ccord
ing
to th
e Co
nstitu
tion
, Joh
nso
n w
as no
t yet
president; he must first take the O
ath. Johnson wanted to
do that in Washington, because he w
as in a hurry to leave -but w
hat would happen if the plane should be held up by
bad weather? A
merica could not w
ait. S
o Johnson telephoned Bob K
ennedy, who w
as at the tim
e with John M
cCone, head of the A
merican Intelligence
Service — the C
.I.A.
"You m
ust take the Oath im
mediately," said B
ob. "We
will telep
hone th
rough th
e whole tex
t. Any ju
dge can
adm
inister it."
`I CO
UL
D S
TA
Y H
ER
E F
OR
EV
ER
' 183
Johnson knew S
arah T. H
ughes, a wom
an of sixty-seven, w
hom he had had appointed to the F
ederal Court.
"Yes, I'll b
e there in
ten m
inutes." S
he arriv
ed at th
e w
heel of her little red Fiat sports car, w
ith a Bible in her
lap. We m
ust wait for M
rs Kennedy," said L
yndon Johnson. "S
he is bringing her husband's coffin." S
omeone com
mented that M
rs Kennedy's presence at the
ceremony w
ould in a way confirm
the continuity of the regim
e; she would, so to speak, "legitim
ise" the new presi-
dent. A
t 2.1
8 p
.m Jacq
uelin
e Ken
ned
y arriv
ed. T
hree
Secret S
ervice men, and som
e soldiers, carried the coffin to the back of the plane —
but still in the passenger cabin. Jacqueline sat dow
n beside it. W
hen
Johnso
n to
ok th
e Oath
, Arm
y C
aptain
Cecil
Sto
ug
hto
n, o
fficial ph
oto
grap
her at th
e Wh
ite Ho
use,
recorded the scene on a special 5o mm
. camera. H
e took n
ine p
ho
tos. T
hree jo
urn
alists bo
arded
' the p
lane, as
representing the world press.
Jacqueline was on Johnson's left, as the latter repeated
the Constitutional form
ula after Judge Hughes. T
he wom
an ju
dge w
as tremblin
g; sh
e did
not u
se the B
ible sh
e had
brought w
ith her, but a small C
atholic Missal, found in the
plane near Kennedy's bed.
Johnson gently kissed Jacqueline on the cheek, then his w
ife. Then he said firm
ly: "Now
let's take the plane back to W
ashington . . ." A
ir Force I w
as airborne from L
ove Field at exactly 2.47 -
with
in a few
min
utes, ju
st three h
ours after its lan
din
g
there. T
he first act of 'the Dallas dram
a had thus lasted three hours. T
hree hours in which life in the U
nited States had
been turned upside down.
The flight took tw
o hours thirteen minutes.
•
Nerin
E
. Gun
Ted it
-5e/c
contin
ued fro
m fro
nt fla
p)
revo
lver w
hich
killed
po
licem
an
Tip
pitt b
ee
n
produced and what are the inferences to be
drawn from
the fact that it has never been proved that O
swald possessed such a
fire-arm ?
Red R
oses From
Texas is a
timely d
ocu
ment
that sets the scene for the tragic events of that N
ovember afternoon and enables us to
view the great A
merican tragedy in broader
pe
rspective
.
NA
GE
L G
UID
ES
co
ve
r the
Wo
rld
Availab
le from
all Bo
oksellers
Fu
ll list from
FR
ED
ER
ICK
MU
LL
ER
110 Fleet S
treet Lo
nd
on
EC
4
Jacke
t desig
n b
y Arn
old
Sch
wartzm
an
An
Ou
tstan
din
g P
olitica
l Bio
gra
ph
y:
AD
EP
tIAU
ER
- D
EM
OC
RA
TIC
DIC
TA
TO
R
, b
y C
ha
rles W
igh
ton
Konra
d A
denauer is o
ne o
f the m
ost co
ntro
versia
l figure
s in E
uro
pean
po
st-wa
r histo
ry. In h
is yea
rs as F
ed
era
l Ge
rma
n C
ha
nce
llor h
e h
as d
on
e
mu
ch
for h
is fe
llow
-co
un
trym
en
. Bu
t to m
an
y p
eo
ple
of lib
era
l vie
ws,
bo
th in
Ge
rma
ny a
nd
be
yon
d, th
e n
am
e o
f Ad
en
au
er sta
nd
s for a
man
wh
o, u
nd
er th
e c
loa
k o
f pa
rliam
en
tary
de
mo
cra
cy, h
as s
ucce
ed
ed
in
esta
blish
ing
an
au
tho
ritaria
n g
ove
rnm
en
t on
alm
ost cla
ssic Ge
rma
n lin
es.
This is th
e criticism
made b
y Charle
s Wig
hto
n, a
lready w
ell kn
ow
n fo
r his
studie
s of p
erso
nalitie
s of th
e N
azi p
erio
d, in
a h
ard
-hittin
g w
ork b
ase
d o
n
first-ha
nd
ob
serva
tion
ma
de
du
ring
ma
ny ye
ars in
po
st-wa
r Ge
rma
ny. A
t th
e sa
me
time
he
de
bu
nks th
e "A
de
na
ue
r myth
" pro
pa
ga
ted
by th
e la
te
JO
hn
Fo
ste
r Du
lles a
nd
oth
ers
in th
e in
tere
sts
of A
meric
an p
ost-w
ar
Atta
cking th
e "d
em
ocra
tic dicta
torsh
ip" w
hich
Adenauer h
as cre
ate
d,
Mr. W
ighto
n s
uggests
that b
y a
brillia
nt e
xplo
itatio
n o
f the tra
ditio
nal
Germ
an o
beisa
nce
to se
cula
r auth
ority, co
uple
d w
ith in
here
nt w
eak-
ne
sses in
the
Bo
nn
con
stitutio
n, A
de
na
ue
r ha
s succe
ed
ed
in se
tting
up
virtu
ally a
"one-m
an g
ove
rnm
ent" w
hich
durin
g th
e p
ast ye
ars h
as ta
ken
majo
r policy d
ecisio
ns w
ithout re
fere
nce
to h
is Cabin
et, h
is party o
r to th
e
Germ
an p
arlia
ment.
Th
e F
ed
era
l Ch
an
ce
llor's
pa
rt in a
be
tting
de
Ga
ulle
in th
e E
uro
pe
an
m
arke
t debacle
and h
is perso
nal a
lliance
with
the F
rench
Pre
sident, sig
ned
a fe
w d
ays la
ter, a
re, sa
ys the
au
tho
r, the
log
ical o
utco
me
of p
olicie
s fo
llow
ed
by A
de
na
ue
r for n
ea
rly h
alf a
ce
ntu
ry a
nd
activ
ate
d la
rge
ly
be
cau
se o
f Brita
in's o
ccup
atio
n o
f the
Rh
ine
lan
d in
the
ea
rly twe
ntie
s.
"Brillia
nt p
icture
of o
ne
of th
e m
ost co
ntro
versia
l figu
res in
E
uro
pean p
olitics to
day."
—M
an
ch
este
r Even
ing
New
s
"Mr. W
igh
ton
's re
co
rd o
f K
on
rad
Ad
en
au
er's
life is
a
conscientious one." —
Th
e L
iste
ner
"... an im
po
rtant an
d far-reach
ing
stud
y..." —
Bo
ok
s o
f the
Mo
nth
Dem
y 8vo Illu
strated
36/• n
et
FR
ED
ER
ICK
MU
LL
ER
LIM
ITE
D • L
ON
DO
t M
ULLE
R
1#
„
![~~~~E ]L~~~~...roses, but of the red rose, proud rose, sad rose of all my days. We can express our feelings about bread and roses, guns and roses, the War of the Roses, or days wine](https://img.dokumen.tips/doc/110x75/5e9568253e989f005c7cc17f/e-l-roses-but-of-the-red-rose-proud-rose-sad-rose-of-all-my-days.jpg)
