Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (119 page)

The slaying of Officer J. D. Tippit may have played some part in this
scheme to have Oswald killed, perhaps to eliminate coconspirator Tippit or
simply to anger Dallas police and cause itchy trigger fingers.

There is evidence to suggest that Tippit was killed by someone other
than Oswald. However, if Oswald was responsible it may have been that
he simply got the drop on Tippit, who-since his pistol was found lying
near his body-was approaching his suspect with a drawn weapon.

When cornered in the Texas Theater, Oswald was given every opportunity to flee through a rear exit.

Whatever the plan, it backfired. Oswald was captured alive, creating a
bad situation for the conspirators. Oswald could not be permitted to stand
trial and reveal his true connections.

Jack Ruby-the mob's "bag man" in Dallas and the man who apparently handled funds for the local activities of the assassination conspiratorsreceived his orders to kill Oswald from organized-crime leaders eager to
protect the secret of their contract, and there were no alternatives for a
mob directive.

The key to understanding the Oswald slaying is not that Ruby somehow
knew when Oswald was to be transported from the police station, but
rather, that the Oswald transfer was delayed until Ruby was in positionthanks to mob influence in the Dallas Police Department, one of the
nation's most corrupt at that time. (The House Select Committee on
Assassinations even stated that Ruby most likely entered the police basement down a back stairway with the assistance of one or more policemen.)

One shot and Oswald was dead, leaving only his mother to question the
official version of the assassination.

While this assassination scenario cannot be undisputably proven at this
time, it nevertheless represents the only theory to date that conforms to all
of the known facts.

Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president within two hours of the
assassination.

His first act as president was to order the removal of Kennedy's body
from Parkland Hospital over the objections of the Dallas medical examinerthus violating the laws of his own state. By that evening, Johnson was
exerting undue influence over the Dallas investigation both directly and
through his aides.

Within two weeks, Johnson had coerced a reluctant Chief Justice Earl
Warren into heading a special presidential commission charged with finding Oswald alone guilty of the deed. The creation of the Warren Commission effectively blocked several other assassination investigations both in
Texas and Washington.

The Warren Commission, composed of captains of both intelligence and
big business-and with Representative Gerald Ford spying on behalf of
Hoover's FBI-paid precious little attention to anything that did not tend
to prove the "lone-nut assassin" theory. The Commission had no staff of
independent investigators. It relied for information almost entirely on the FBI and CIA. Both agencies today have been officially chastised for
hiding evidence from the Commission.

Government investigators found a virtual smorgasbord of assassination
evidence available in Dallas and New Orleans. By carefully selecting data
that fit the official version of one lone gunman, they were able to present a
believable-if untruthful-account of Kennedy's death.

Meanwhile a documented campaign of intimidation of witnesses began
in Dallas. Some were simply told to keep quiet while others died under
strange circumstances. While some of this suppression might be blamed on
mob thugs, many people in Dallas have claimed that it was FBI agents
who warned them not to talk about the assassination-an odd admonition
since officially it was the work of just one lone, troubled man.

Some of the only independent investigative work occurred in Texas,
where embarrassing evidence was found indicating that Oswald was an
informant for the FBI.

There is now abundant evidence that Hoover's FBI destroyed critical
evidence in this case, suppressed other evidence, and intimidated witnesses.
The FBI solely directed the verdict that Oswald acted alone.

But many others contributed to clouding the truth of the assassination.

President Kennedy's wounds were altered between Parkland Hospital
and his autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital, making it appear that all
wounds were to the rear of his head and body and forever confusing the
medical evidence. Here lies another key to the Kennedy assassination.
Who had the power and the impunity to have the President's wounds
altered and to misdirect the national investigation? These accomplishments
could only have come from the very pinnacles of power in the United
States. Power such as that wielded by Lyndon Johnson and his friend J.
Edgar Hoover, backed by the business-banking-defense communities.

There was never a real cover-up of the assassination, only official
pronouncements for the major media and lots of red herrings for devout
investigators.

Once the Zapruder film became available to the American public in the
mid-1970s, the direction of the shots became obvious. Photographs surfaced showing other gunmen. Reticent witnesses came forward fleshing
out the assassination story. Even a local district attorney tried to prosecute
some of the lower-level conspirators, but he was belittled in the national
media, thanks to unethical statements by ranking government officials.

Despite an ever-growing amount of contradictory evidence, the U.S.
government and those closely connected to it, have remained intransigent
in their original position that the assassination was the work of a lone
gunman. For example, although Canadian and Scotland Yard photographic
experts have both concluded that the incriminating photos of Oswald in his
backyard with a rifle and communist newspapers are fakes just as Oswald
himself told Dallas Police Captain Will Fritz-the FBI still maintains the
photos are genuine.

The FBI also got national headlines in 1980 by claiming that the House
Assassinations Committee's acoustical evidence indicating that more than
one gunman had fired at Kennedy was inaccurate and its conclusions
wrong. Little attention was paid months later when the Bureau had to
admit that its study of the acoustical tests was insufficient and that the
basic findings were accurate.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations recommended that the
Justice Department conduct further investigation in the John F. Kennedy
case. No such activity was forthcoming.

As long as the U.S. government refuses to seek and reveal the truth of
what happened on November 22, 1963, it will be up to individual Americans to cull through the mounds of Kennedy assassination material and
find the elusive truth for themselves.

Who done it?-A consensus of powerful men in the leadership of U.S.
military, banking, government, intelligence, and organized-crime circles
ordered their faithful agents to manipulate Mafia-Cuban-Agency pawns to
kill the chief.

President Kennedy was killed in a military-style ambush orchestrated by
organized crime with the active assistance of elements within the federal
government of the United States.

Pressure from the top thwarted any truthful investigation.

As the years go by and further information becomes available, a more
detailed assassination scenario can be constructed.

Even today there is still pressure from the top of the American power
structure to keep the lid on this sordid affair.

When reputable Americans mention the assassination, they are often
laughed at by those who refuse to be made uncomfortable by the truth.

During a gathering in November 1980, which included former British
prime minister Harold MacMillan, famed conductor Leonard Bernstein
noted that the anniversary of Kennedy's assassination again went unreported in the media and stated: "We don't dare confront the implications. I
think we're all agreed there was a conspiracy and we don't want to know.
It involves such a powerful high force in what we call the high places, if
we do know, everything might fall apart ." "... Rubbish," commented
one listener.

Some people were told that to reveal Oswald's connections to the
Communists would result in nuclear war and must be avoided at all costs.
Others feared their involvement might become known through any meaningful investigation of their agency.

Many officials who still seek to obscure the Kennedy case played no
part in the assassination conspiracy. They simply do not want the American public to become alerted to the interconnections between the government, big business, the military, intelligence, and the mob. It might prove
bad for business.

This is why the truth still has been kept from the American public.

What then is the legacy of President John F. Kennedy`? The fact is that
we will never know. His presidency always will be remembered, not for
what he did, but for what he might have done.

But it may be worth considering what kind of America we might have
today if President Kennedy had lived. Imagine the United States if there
had been no divisive Vietnam War, with its attendant demonstrations,
riots, deaths, and loss of faith in government. There may not have been the
scandals of Watergate, other political assassinations, or the Iran-Contra
Pentagon-CIA attempt at a "secret government." Detente with Communist
Russia and China might have come years earlier, saving hundreds of
millions of wasted defense dollars-dollars that could have been put to use
caring for the needy and cleaning up the environment. Picture a nation
where no organized-crime syndicate gained control over such divergent
areas of national life as drugs, gambling, labor unions, politicians, and
even toxic waste disposal.

Is it possible to consider that we might have a nation where peace and
prosperity might have been achieved without the need for a massive
military buildup, or that we might have experienced a kinder and gentler
nation all along.

John F. Kennedy was no superman. Today there seems to be a movement to focus attention on the "morality" of his private life. But history
will eventually record that Kennedy truly believed he had the best interests
of his nation at heart. He wanted to lead America forward.

Kennedy was in the mold of Mikhail Gorbachev, complete with his own
American brand of "glasnost," or openness with the public-but he was
premature.

America-at least the backstage rulers of America-was not ready for
such innovation. So they killed him.

In the 1960s, many young people sensed what was happening. They
tried to warn of the sins of "Amerika." But most people-this author
included-didn't listen to them, just as many reading these words won't
listen now. In hindsight, they were right. But how many of us can admit
we were wrong?

Members of Kennedy's inner circle also came to understand what had
really happened. But this knowledge came too late. The proof had been
taken up and they realized the extent of the power arrayed against them.
Some kept their peace, some soon retired from government, and others left
the country.

Robert Kennedy, too, came to understand the tremendous power behind
the events in Dallas. On June 3, 1968, just two days before his own
assassination, the younger Kennedy told close friends: "I now fully realize
that only the powers of the presidency will reveal the secrets of my
brother's death." He obviously had come to realize that the truth of John
Kennedy's death could only come after he gained control over the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, and the Pentagon-all of which had become powers
unto themselves.

But today all this is nothing new. We Americans have learned much
about the connections of crime and spy agencies to the government and
business communities in many cases such as Watergate, the John DeLorean
affair, the Iran-Contra scandal, the assassination of Federal Judge John
Wood and others.

The emperor has no clothes on-or in this case, American business and
political emperors wear bloodstained clothing-but no one of any prominence wants to be the first to say so.

As we have seen, J. Edgar Hoover had experience in controlling major
criminal investigations. By the early 1960s, Hoover had undisputed power
over the FBI and undue influence over other government agencies. Lyndon
B. Johnson had long since perfected the art of using the federal bureaucracy to block and impede investigations into his dealings. And this time
there were plenty of people willing to go along with them-people who
wanted Kennedy out of the way.

Camelot was killed from within, by men whose fear and ambition
overpowered their faith and loyalty to the United States Constitution and
the people it was designed to protect.

An apt precedent for the Kennedy assassination can be found in William
Shakespeare's immortal Julius Caesar, where Roman leaders-` `all honorable men"-plotted to kill Caesar out of fear that they were losing total
power in their country. Brutus defended his participation by explaining:
"Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more." Or to
paraphrase the American officer in Vietnam who defended the destruction
of a village: "In order to save the country, they had to destroy it."