CROSSFIRE
BASIC BOOKS
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
New York
Copyright © 2013 by Jim Marrs
Published by Basic Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
First hardcover published by Carroll & Graf in 1989
Previous paperback edition published by Basic Books in 1993
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Designed by Jeff Williams
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marrs, Jim.
Crossfire : the plot that killed Kennedy / Jim Marrs. -- Revised and updated edition.
pages cm
Originally published: New York : Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1989.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-465-05087-1 (e-book) 1. Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963—Assassination. I. Title.
E842.9.M36 2013
973.922092—dc23
2013030290
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The great masses of the people will more easily
fall victims to a great lie than to a small one . . .
—ADOLF HITLER, MEIN KAMPF
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction to the Revised Edition
PART I: THE KILL ZONE
DALLAS—The Stage Is Set
The Thirty-fifth President
DEALEY PLAZA—November 22, 1963
The Motorcade
The Crowd
Two Suspicious Men
The Babushka Lady
The Texas School Book Depository
The Distracting Seizure
The Man in the Doorway
The Oswald Encounter
The Triple Underpass
Smoke on the Grassy Knoll
The Third Wounded Man
The Grassy Knoll
The Zapruder Film
The Black Dog Man
The Badge Man
A Grassy Knoll Witness
PART II: MEANS, MOTIVES, AND OPPORTUNITIES
LEE HARVEY OSWALD—ASSASSIN OR PATSY?
Oswald’s Library Card
Semper Fidelis
Oswald Overseas
Oswaldskovich the Marine
RUSSIANS (Soviets and Solidarists)
Oswald and the U-2
Robert E. Webster—Another Oswald?
A Phony Defection
Comrade Oswald
A Whirlwind Romance
A Soviet Defector’s Story
CUBANS (Pro- and Anti-Castro Cubans)
Fidel Castro
Disaster at the Bay of Pigs
544 Camp Street
Oswald and the Exiles
Oswald’s Girlfriend
MOBSTERS (Organized Crime)
Bootleggers and Boozers
Lucky Goes to War
Carlos Marcello
Santos Trafficante and Cuba
The War on Hoffa
Momo and His Girlfriends
AGENTS (The CIA and Other Intelligence Agencies)
The Manchurian Candidates
CIA-Mafia Death Plots
New Orleans
The Saga of Tosh Plumlee
Was Oswald a Spy?
A Message from Oswald
DeMohrenschildt and the Agency
The French Connection to the Assassination
G-MEN (J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI and the Secret Service)
The Top G-man
Did Oswald Work for the FBI?
Cuban Grand Central Station
The Secret Service
A Few Drinks at the Cellar
REDNECKS AND OILMEN (Right-wing Extremists and Texas Millionaires)
A Bullet for the General
The Miami Prophet
Nixon and the JFK Assassination
A Killing on Wall Street
Kennedy and Oilmen
Oswald’s Friends
All the Way with LBJ
SOLDIERS (The Military)
The Military-Industrial Complex
Kennedy and Vietnam
The Man Who Was to Kill Oswald
Lone Gunmen on the Grassy Knoll
PART III: AFTERMATH
DALLAS
Mysterious Secret Service Men
The Black Car Chase
The Account of Roger Craig
The Three Tramps
The Mafia Man in Dealey Plaza
The Shooting of J. D. Tippit
The Arrest of Oswald
The FBI Takes Control
TWO HOSPITALS
Jack Ruby at Parkland
The Switching of Bodies
JACK RUBY
Jack Ruby—Gangster
Jack Ruby—Gunrunner and FBI Informant
The Woman Who Foresaw the Assassination
Did Ruby and Oswald Know Each Other?
The Shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald
Jack Ruby’s Warnings
The Sudden Death of Jack Ruby
THE EVIDENCE
An Incriminating Palm Print
Questionable Backyard Photos
Reenactment Problems
THE WARREN COMMISSION
The Reluctant Chairman
Oswald and the FBI
Conflicts in the Testimony
The Single-Bullet Theory
THE GARRISON INVESTIGATION
Clay Shaw and Permindex
THE HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS
Blakey at the Helm
The Dallas Police Radio Recording
THE OLIVER STONE FILM JFK
Preemptive Attacks
THE ASSASSINATIONS RECORDS REVIEW BOARD
Douglas Horne’s Discoveries
The Zapruder Film: Fundamental or Fraud?
Hollywood Takes a Look
A QUESTION OF OSWALD
An Impostor
Was Oswald Really Oswald?
The Oswald Exhumation
CONVENIENT DEATHS
Early Deaths
Strange Deaths Continue
PART IV: CONCLUSIONS
Assassination Coverage
Sources and Notes
Index
Photographs follow page 302
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When a final “truth” concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is generally accepted by the population of the United States, it will have to be acknowledged that this truth came not from the government, the legal profession, or the news media—rather that truth will have come from the legion of individual citizens who have refused to accept official but superficial and unsupported explanations. At the fiftieth anniversary, this legion of researchers had grown too numerous to cite by name.
Special thanks for this edition of Crossfire go to Maritha Gan, Tom Ruffner, Larry Sells, Robert Fullilove, Chip DeNure, Stan Szerszen, Larry Hancock, and Ed Haslem, and to the superb editorial team at Basic Books, including Alex Littlefield, Collin Tracy, Jeff Williams, and Karl Yambert.
Every citizen who gave of their time, effort, and resources to study, assimilate, and disse
minate assassination information should come to be regarded as an object lesson on how the individual citizen can make an impact on a system that has proven either unable or unwilling to police itself.
INTRODUCTION TO THE REVISED EDITION
“Will we ever know the truth about the Kennedy assassination?”
This is a question I have been asked many times over the years.
The answer is unequivocally yes. We know the truth today. It has been staring us in the face at least since the public was able to see in the Zapruder film Kennedy’s body being thrust to the rear by a frontal shot.
If Lee Harvey Oswald was solely involved, then all information regarding him and the assassination should be available and Oswald should be as forgotten as Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker who was the lone assassin of President James A. Garfield in 1881. Unlike with Guiteau, because of the ongoing questions and controversy over the JFK assassination, virtually everyone in the educated world knows the name Lee Harvey Oswald.
Fifty years after the event, basic evidence, such as location of wounds, autopsy photographs and X-rays, fingerprints, accuracy of the weapon, even the famous Zapruder film, remain controversial. This is indicative of conspiracy and cover-up.
But, it is argued, if there was a conspiracy, wouldn’t someone have spoken out by now? They have. For years now, many books and speakers, along with myriad witnesses and whistle-blowers, have brought forward bits of the truth, only to be ignored, drowned out, and ridiculed by the corporate-controlled mass media, which to this very day has failed to present the full range of assassination information in a comprehensive manner.
Anyone could have shot the president—Castro agents, Mafia hit men, rogue CIA operatives, KGB assassins, even the proverbial lone nut. But only high officials of the federal government and their financial rulers had the power to misdirect an honest investigation and keep the truth of the JFK assassination from the public for half a century.
So, the real question being asked is: “Will there ever be a news conference in which a ranking government official gives us the truth about the assassination?”
The answer to this question is probably no. Too many careers are involved. The Establishment fears the loss of public trust even though their attempts through the years to stifle the truth of many issues have merely resulted in that very loss.
In the case of the JFK assassination, trust has long been part of the problem. When it comes to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, don’t trust any one source. Don’t trust this book. Don’t trust even the government’s basic documentation and pronouncements. Today the evidence of duplicity and fraud is too apparent to ignore.
The assassination today is recognized as a turning point in American history. Beginning on November 22, 1963, American attitudes slowly changed from post–World War II optimism and idealism to cynicism and mistrust of government. This loss of faith in government accelerated in the wake of the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Waco deaths, the Oklahoma City bombing cover-up, and the many unanswered questions about the attacks of September 11, 2001. The wide gulf between the official government version of the Kennedy assassination and the findings of those who have objectively studied the case has prompted cynicism and controversy.
This updated edition of Crossfire provides detailed background information on the men and organizations most likely to have been involved in a plot against the president. Also covered are the various attempts by governmental bodies to investigate and resolve what happened in Dallas. Attention is paid to the people behind these investigations, how they arrived at their conclusions, the reliability of the information made available to them, and the possibility of misdirection and deceit.
As an award-winning Texas journalist with more than fifty years of news-gathering experience, I have been in the singular position to learn the true story of the assassination. I have talked with many people involved, including Dallas-area government and law-enforcement officials and news reporters. I spent time with Oswald’s wife, Marina, his mother, Marguerite, and Jeanne DeMohrenschildt, who along with her husband, George DeMohrenschildt, was a close friends of Oswald’s. I have interviewed assassination witnesses, including James Tague, Jean Hill, Bill and Gayle Newman, Charles Brehm, Malcolm Summers, Phil Willis, and many others. I have interviewed witnesses never questioned by the official investigations, such as Ed Hoffman, Gordon Arnold, Ester Mash, Beverly Oliver, and Madeleine Brown. And I have kept in contact with serious researchers of the assassination, collecting and correlating their work.
Most important, I lived in the Dallas area during the time of the assassination.
As a university journalism major, I met Jack Ruby while visiting his Carousel Club in the fall of 1963. In the fall of 1964, I interviewed Major General Edwin A. Walker, himself a suspect. Within five years of the assassination, I was working as a professional reporter in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex.
A native Texan who grew up in this area, I understand its people, history, and politics. Yet, as a journalist, I have tried to maintain a professional objectivity. I was fortunate to have the time to study the JFK assassination as both a working newsman and a researcher. I have no personal associations or theories to protect.
In 1976 I was invited to teach a course on the JFK assassination at the University of Texas at Arlington. I am told that mine was the first university-level course in the United States to cover the assassination. Through this course, many new leads were developed—such as a witness to a gunman on the Grassy Knoll and the intimidation of Dallas witnesses by Warren Commission staff members and FBI agents. After thirty years, I retired from UTA with my view of the assassination unchanged.
Only by gaining a broad view of the assassination can we begin to detect the outlines of the conspiracy that resulted in the deaths of Kennedy, Officer J. D. Tippit, and the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Any one particular issue can be rationalized away as coincidence or happenstance.
Always keep in mind that the United States in 1963 was an entirely different place and time than today. The public had a blind faith in government, which seems hard to believe in light of today’s cynical standards. The news media uncritically accepted official pronouncements and police work was conducted in an unsophisticated, even slipshod manner that would shock the highly trained and educated officers of today.
Witnesses tried to distance themselves from the accused assassin. Some, due to either ignorance or a desire to be helpful, or on orders, lied about critical evidence in the case, while the statements of others were misrepresented by investigating officials—for reasons both benign and otherwise. Government agencies were fearful of rumors that might have linked Oswald to them.
Not one single matter of fact in this case can be accepted uncritically. Evidence of deceit, misrepresentation, and manipulation abounds. The very people charged with finding the truth engaged in fabrication, alteration, and suppression of evidence as well as intimidation of witnesses.
So, what is the truth of the assassination?
The front page of the December 1, 1976, edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram carried my story concerning a new congressional committee tasked with investigating modern American assassinations. My lead paragraph stated:
The new House Committee on Assassinations may find itself faced with the distinct possibility that a coup d’état occurred in 1963—with the complicity of U.S. Government officials.
Today, nearly forty years after that statement, nothing has been made public that warrants changing that conclusion. With the hindsight of events such as Watergate, Vietnam, the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., Ruby Ridge, Waco, the attacks of 9/11, the economic meltdown of 2008, and unfounded wars in the Middle East, Americans have begun to see the lies, corruption, and outright criminal activity within their own government.
Within the probable coup that was the JFK assassination we can find efforts by certain US government officials not only to cover up critical evid
ence but to block any meaningful investigation. Such attempts at cover-up in a murder case are a serious crime. Obviously, such activity cannot be ascribed to a lone individual or even organized-crime members and certainly not Fidel Castro or Nikita Khrushchev. The plot, though not a conscious action of the government as a whole, nevertheless was homegrown, cultivated within government agencies, especially the military. It was a palace revolt.
Can this be proven? Turn the page and join me in studying the information that collectively reveals the plot that killed Kennedy.
Why seek the truth of this man’s death? The answer is simple. Unless we as a nation come to a truthful understanding of what happened to our chief elected official in 1963, we obviously cannot begin to correctly understand the events that are affecting us today or take action to correct past wrongs.
Not only do I seek the killers of President Kennedy, I seek the persons who planned the probable coup against Camelot—those who killed the confidence and faith of the American people in their government and institutions. I seek elementary justice—for both the accused assassin and for the United States of America.
J.M. 2013
Don’t let it be forgot
That once there was a spot
For one brief shining moment
That was known as Camelot
—ALAN JAY LERNER
PART I
THE KILL ZONE
Dallas—The Stage Is Set
Although one of the youngest cities in Texas, Dallas has recorded a meteoric rise to greatness and prosperity. Beginning in the days before Texas became a state, Dallas has grown from a small way station for pioneers to a center of corporate business, insurance, banking, and oil and gas. By 1963, Dallas already was the most influential city in the Lone Star State, second only to oil-rich Houston.
However, Dallas also had gained a reputation for being the stronghold of archconservatives, if not outright right-wing extremists. It is well-known in Texas police circles that during the 1940s and 1950s—and stretching into the early 1960s—that if a man wanted a job as a Dallas policeman, it helped if he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, or at least the John Birch Society. The city police and other governmental offices were filled with members of these and other right-wing groups.