Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (19 page)

(Only someone who was there that day could have known that many
people were lining Stemmons to get a glimpse of the President since all
news coverage of the motorcade stopped after the shooting in Dealey Plaza.)

After waiting for a time, Hoffman decided to walk along the shoulder of
the freeway to a point where it crossed over Elm Street in hopes of getting
a view into Dealey Plaza. From this vantage point, Hoffman was approximately two hundred yards west of the parking lot behind the picket fence
at an elevation of about the height of the first floor of the Texas School
Book Depository.

Being unable to hear, he was not aware that Kennedy's motorcade was
passing through the plaza. However, he was aware of movement on the
north side of the picket fence. He became aware of a man running west
along the back side of the fence wearing a dark suit, tie, and an overcoat.
The man was carrying a rifle in his hands. As the man reached a metal
pipe railing at the west end of the fence, he tossed the rifle to a second
man standing on the west side of the pipe near the railroad tracks that went
south over the Triple Underpass. The second man was wearing light
coveralls and a railroad worker's hat.

The second man caught the rifle, ducked behind a large railroad switch
box-one of two at that site-and knelt down. The man disassembled the
rifle, placed it in a soft brown bag (Hoffman's description matches that of
the traditional railroad brakeman's tool bag), then walked north into the
rail yards in the general direction of the railroad tower containing Lee
Bowers.

The man in the overcoat, meanwhile, had turned and run back along the
picket fence until midway, when he stopped and began walking calmly
toward the corner of the fence. Hoffman could not see the corner of the
fence due to cars and overhanging tree branches.

Unable to hear, Hoffman was at a loss to understand what was happening as he watched these men.

However, moments later Kennedy's car came into sight out of the west
side of the Triple Underpass. Hoffman saw the President lying on the seat
of the blood-splattered car and realized something terrible had occurred.

As the presidential limousine turned onto the Stemmons access ramp
just below his position, Hoffman decided to try to alert the Secret Service
agents to what he had witnessed. He ran down the grassy incline waving
his arms and trying to make them understand that he had seen something,
when one of the agents in the President's follow-up car reached down and
produced a machine gun, which he leveled at him. Hoffman stopped and
threw up his hands and could only watch helplessly as the motorcade
rushed past him onto Stemmons in the mad rush to Parkland Hospital.

There was no mention at the time of any Secret Service man with a
machine gun, yet Hoffman was emphatic that it was an automatic weapon with a pistol grip and clip. It is now known that Secret Service agent
George W. Hickey, Jr., in the follow-up car did display an AR-15, the
civilian model of the M-16 machine gun, further corroborating Hoffman's
story.

Upset over what he had seen, Hoffman looked around for help. He saw
a Dallas policeman standing on the railroad bridge crossing Stemmons and
he walked toward him waving his arms in an attempt to communicate what
he had seen. However, the policeman, unable to understand, simply waved
him off. (This part of Hoffman's story also is corroborated, since policeman Earle Brown filed a report stating that he was on the Stemmons
railroad bridge at the time of the assassination. However, questioned
recently about these events, Brown said he has no recollection of seeing
Hoffman.)

Unable to get help, Hoffman walked back to his car, then drove behind
the Texas School Book Depository for several minutes trying to locate the
man with the rifle in the brown bag. He was unsuccessful. However, this
is indicative of the total lack of security around the Depository in the
chaotic minutes following the assassination. Hoffman was able to drive
around in the rail yards behind the Depository for some time and then
leave without being stopped or questioned by authorities.

He then drove to the Dallas FBI office but found no one there except a
receptionist. He left his name and address with the FBI. The FBI never
responded.

At the time, Hoffman had a relative at the Dallas police station, and he
drove there next, hoping to find some help. However, the station was
sealed off and the officer on the door refused to allow him to enter.

Thwarted in his attempts to tell authorities what he had seen, Hoffman
finally went home, where his parents, also deaf-mutes, urged him not to
become involved.

Hoffman remained silent until Thanksgiving 1963, when he met his
policeman relative at a family function. Despite his parents' warnings, he
told his story to the policeman, who assured him that the federal authorities were investigating the case and that, in fact, the assassin had already
been caught. Confident that the case was closed, Hoffman said he didn't
consider telling his story to anyone else.

However, as the years went by, Hoffman became more and more aware
of the official version of the assassination and knew that the theory that
one man had fired from the sixth floor of the Depository did not agree with
what he had seen.

Finally on June 28, 1967, at the urging of co-workers, Hoffman visited
the Dallas FBI once again. Apparently Hoffman had difficulty in communicating with the agents or they purposely distorted his story, because the
FBI report of that day states:

Hoffman said he observed two white males, clutching something dark to
their chests with both hands, running from the rear of the Texas School
Book Depository building. The men were running north on the railroad,
then turned east, and Hoffman lost sight of both of the men.

The report added:

Approximately two hours after the above interview with Hoffman, he
returned to the Dallas office of the FBI and advised he had just returned
from the spot on Stemmons Freeway where he had parked his automobile
and had decided he could not have seen the men running because of a
fence west of the Texas School Book Depository building. He said it was
possible that he saw these two men on the fence or something else [sic].

Whether or not the FBI agents were able to understand Hoffman correctly, they did talk to his father and brother on July 5, 1967. Both said
Hoffman loved President Kennedy and had told his story to them just after
the assassination. However they also said Hoffman "has in the past
distorted facts of events observed by him." (Of course, it was his father
who had urged him not to become involved in the case at all, so there was
motivation to downplay his son's story.)

Officially, this was the end of any investigation into Hoffman's story at
that time. Unofficially, Hoffman said one FBI agent told him to keep quiet
about what he had seen or "you might get killed."

Hoffman kept quiet until October 3, 1975, when his interest was rekindled by talk of reopening the investigation into Kennedy's death. This
provoked him to write of his experiences to Senator Edward Kennedy.
Experts in deafness who have seen the letter say it is typical of the writing
of a deaf person, many of whom try to write as they sign. Although
somewhat disjointed, the letter briefly mentioned what Hoffman had seen
and added that his relatives said he could be in danger from the CIA or
other persons if he told what he saw.

In a letter dated November 19, 1975, Kennedy responded:

My family has been aware of various theories concerning the death of
President Kennedy, just as it has been aware of many speculative
accounts which have arisen from the death of Robert Kennedy. I am
sure that it is understood that the continual speculation is painful for
members of my family. We have always accepted the findings of the
Warren Commission report and have no reason to question the quality
and the effort of those who investigated the fatal shooting of Robert
Kennedy.

Kennedy concluded that sufficient evidence to reexamine the two Kennedy deaths would have to come from "legal authorities responsible for such further investigation [and] I do not believe that their judgment should
be influenced by any feelings or discomfort by any member of my family."

Despite this further, if more gentle, attempt to tell Hoffman to be quiet,
he continued to tell his story to fellow workers at the Dallas electronics
firm where he has been employed since before the assassination.

On March 25, 1977, one of Hoffman's supervisors who understood sign
language contacted the Dallas FBI office. He said he felt that the FBI did
not fully understand what Hoffman was trying to tell them during the 1967
interview and that Hoffman deserved to be heard.

At this urging, FBI agents again talked with Hoffman on March 28,
1977, and even accompanied him to the site on Stemmons Expressway.
This time, with his supervisor acting as translator, Hoffman was able to
give more details. He said he thought he saw a puff of smoke near where
the men were standing, and essentially his story was the same as the one he
told in 1985 except he said he saw both men run north into the rail yards.

Although this time the FBI took photographs of the area based on
Hoffman's testimony, they again showed little interest in pursuing his story.

On the cover sheet of their report to the FBI director, the Dallas agents
wrote:

On Pages 71-76 of the `Report of the President's Commission on the
Assassination of President John F. Kennedy,' the witnesses at the Triple
Underpass are discussed, but the Warren Commission's investigation
has disclosed no credible evidence that any shots were fired from
anywhere other than the Texas School Book Depository building. In
view of the above, the Dallas Office is conducting no additional investigation .. .

In other words, since the federal government concluded Oswald was the
lone assassin, Hoffman must have been mistaken.

In fact, there was no mention of Hoffman or his testimony by the U.S.
government until researchers obtained reports on him through the Freedom
of Information Act in 1985.

Since Hoffman, despite his hearing disability, appears to be a most
credible witness and since his story only reinforces others who told of
gunmen on the knoll, it deserves serious consideration.

There are several interesting aspects of Hoffman's story. First, since
many of the details have been independently corroborated-the crowds on
Stemmons, the machine gun, the cop on the railroad bridge-his story may
be the best version of what happened behind the picket fence to date.
Hoffman's story also may have pinpointed the role of convicted Texas
hitman Charles V. Harrelson, who has admitted participating in the JFK
assassination. His story also serves as a vivid commentary on the FBI's
failure to follow serious leads and its attempts to intimidate witnesses into
silence.

In reviewing the experiences of the people in Dealey Plaza the day
Kennedy died, it is apparent that not one single person saw the assassination as it was described by the Warren Commission.

In the motorcade, Governor Connally's testimony-totally corroborated
by the Zapruder film-indicated that both he and Kennedy could not have
been struck by the same bullet.

Many people, including Sheriff Decker, Royce Skelton, and Austin
Miller, saw one bullet strike Elm Street. Others, like Policeman Foster,
saw -a bullet hit the grass on the south side of Elm.

Many people heard shots coming from at least two separate locations,
while those on the Triple Underpass even saw smoke drift out from under
the trees on the Grassy Knoll.

The motorcade had difficulty negotiating the sharp turn onto Elm that
the Secret Service advance men had failed to properly scrutinize. The
Secret Service also refused additional security offered by Dallas police.

An unexplained change in the motorcade lineup moved press photographers far back in line, preventing them from photographing the assassination.

Motorcade riders heard shots from separate locations, but the majority
believed shots came from the direction of the Triple Underpass. Both
Sheriff Decker and Police Chief Curry ordered their men to rush to the
railroad yards behind the Grassy Knoll.

The only Secret Service agent to react quickly to the assassination was
Clint Hill, who was not originally scheduled for the Dallas trip and was
assigned to Mrs. Kennedy.

Mrs. Cabell and former senator Yarborough, among others, reported
smelling gunpowder while passing through Dealey Plaza.

Some members of the crowd, such as Phillip Hathaway, Julia Ann
Mercer, Julius Hardie, and the Arnold Rowlands, saw men with rifles in
the area of Dealey Plaza long before the Kennedy motorcade arrived.

Several bystanders, their testimony supported by at least two films made
that day, claimed to have seen more than one man on the sixth floor of the
Texas School Book Depository moments before the assassination.

Some witnesses-Phil Willis, Jean Hill, Julia Mercer, and Dallas policeman Tom Tilson-even claim they saw Jack Ruby in Dealey Plaza at
the time of the assassination.

People standing in front of the Depository thought shots came from
down near the Triple Underpass.

Others, such as A. J. Millican, the John Chisms, and Jean Newman,
who were standing between the Depository and the Underpass, believed
the shots came from the Grassy Knoll.

Two of the most suspicious men in Dealey Plaza-subsequently nick named the "umbrella man" and the "dark-complected man"-were never
identified or even mentioned by the Warren Commission. Yet both men
made visual signals just as Kennedy drew opposite them. Moments later
the dark man appeared to be talking into a radio.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations claimed to have located
the "umbrella man," but the man they found told a story totally inconsistent with the activities of the "umbrella man" as recorded on film that
day. And the Committee never bothered to mention the man with what
appeared to be a walkie-talkie.