Miscellanea, Errata, Et Cetera

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a lower court order that Connick honor a subpoena from the Assassination Records Review Board.

The ARRB wants tapes and documents concerning the investigation conducted by Connick's predecessor Jim Garrison, who unsuccessfully prosecuted businessman Clay Shaw for conspiracy in the assassination. The case was depicted in the movie JFK.

The records from the case are in a file cabinet in Connick's office.

An attorney for Connick said he will appeal to the Supreme Court.

The dispute began after New Orleans TV reporter Richard Angelico obtained grand jury transcripts of the Shaw investigation and turned them over to the records board. Connick unsuccessfully asked for their return and then refused to turn over additional records.

Connick said grand jury transcripts are forever sealed under state law. He also brought contempt charges against Angelico, of WDSU, but the case was thrown out by an appeals court.

After that, Connick refused to cooperate with the board.

Connick's attorney has argued that the papers shed no new light on who killed Kennedy. But the ARRB contends that they are still of historical value, and that the agency is entitled to have them under federal law.

Selections from the former First Lady's taped diary were broadcast in early October on the ABC-News program Nightline, hosted by Ted Koppel. All of the broadcast exerpts were from the assassination weekend.

After stating that she heard shots from her right rear, Mrs. Johnson told her diary, "A Secret Service man vaulted over the front seat on top of Lyndon, threw him to the floor and said, 'Get down!' Senator Yarborough and I ducked our heads. The car was accelerated terrifically fast, faster and faster. Then suddenly they put on the brakes so hard that I wondered if they were going to make it as they wheeled left around a corner. I looked up and saw it said 'hospital'. Only then did I believe that this might be what it was."

The diary recordings were intercut with news footage from the weekend, with familiar audio clips, and with the tape-recorded comments of LBJ. The intercutting by Nightline obscured how many gunshots were counted by Lady Bird. It appeared to be the official number three.

Speaking of the time they were still at Parkland Hospital, Mrs. Johnson made the following observation about her husband: "Throughout it all, Lyndon was remarkably calm and quiet. He said, 'We'd better move the plane to another part of the field.' He spoke of going back out to the plane in black cars."

The Nightline coverage aired in two parts. On the second night, Mrs. Johnson appeared. Asked by Koppel of her most vivid memory of that weekend more than thirty years before, she replied, "I guess it has to be one of the discipline shown by the Kennedy family, especially by Mrs. Kennedy and my respect and admiration for it. And my anger burns so hot that our state should have been tarnished by that, and that added to my determination to try to fulfill every obligation I had as the wife of a president."

The John F. Kennedy Library has made available for research approximately 24 hours of tape recordings of meetings and conversations that took place in the Oval Office and Cabinet Room at the White House from August through October 1963. The conversations between President John F Kennedy and his advisors concern UD [sic] policy toward Vietnam, Laos, Korea, Portuguese Africa, Berlin, China, and the USSR.

Of principle interest are discussions of the events leading up to and including the overthrow and assassination of South Vietnam's President Ngo Dinh Diem in November 1963.

Declassification and release of these tape recordings represent the largest quantity of tape-recorded material, totaling 23 hours and 53 minutes, released by the Library at one time. In October 1996, the Library released more than 15 hours of tape recordings of President Kennedy's and his advisors' discussions concerning the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.

The tapes represent raw historical material. The sound quality of the recordings varies widely. Although most of the recorded conversation is understandable, the tapes include passages of extremely poor sound quality with considerable background noise and passages when the identity of the speakers is unclear.

The recordings and finding aides guide are available for purchase at the John F Kennedy Library, Columbia Point, Boston MA 02125, or by calling (617) 929-4529.

Old habits die hard. It has been widely reported (in what we might term the "JFK press") that Gerald Ford, the former president and last surviving member of the Warren Commission, edited portions of the Warren Report that adversely influenced our understanding of the events of Dealey Plaza.

According to reports made public this past summer, Ford's editing --- some have called it rewriting --- made it appear the wound to Kennedy's back was higher than it really was, thus lending greater credibility to the lone assassin scenario. Walt Brown, the noted author and co-editor of JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly, wrote that what Ford did "approaches criminality."

It is worth recalling that this is not the first known case of Gerald Ford editing important documents in a way that altered their meaning. Check out Harold Weisberg's Whitewash IV: JFK Assassination Transcript. Starting on page 124, Weisberg reproduces the research of Paul Hoch, which reveals Ford's "unindicated editing of the January 27, 1964 TOP SECRET" transcript of a Warren Commission Executive Session, as published in Ford's Portrait of the Assassin.

As Weisberg noted, "The deliberateness and extensiveness of Ford's misrepresentation is apparent. Whatever his motive, the result is to suppress that which and those whom he chose to protect. Because his editing is not indicated in any way, it amounts to planned dishonesty."

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Two CD-ROMs: A Review

1. JFK Assassination: A Visual Investigation
   Medio Multimedia
   Windows
   USD$15.00

2. Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination
   Zane Publishers
   Windows / Mac OS
   USD$ 19.00

1. JFK Assassination - A Visual Investigation

The better of the 2 CD-ROMs.

Very nice video "intro presentation".

*** Has a 3-D computer rendition of Dealey Plaza including all the surrounding buildings, Grassy Knoll, etc; the path of the limousine, the supposed trajectory of the magic bullet, view from Zapruder's position, and other views of Dealey Plaza. I found this section to be very unique!

Contains all the important (or should I say "available") assassination photos taken that day, along with their exact locations on a map of Dealey Plaza. Also includes photos of Oswald, the limo, bloody jacket, autopsy, key players, JFK funeral etc.

Includes these movies: Zapruder, Nix, Hughes, and Muchmore.

Has a search engine and index.

Maps. Includes a "witness" map which maps out who was standing where in Dealey Plaza.

Has 3 books included:
i. The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: A complete book of facts
ii. Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy, by Jim Marrs
iii. Report of The Warren Commission: The Assassination Of Kennedy

Rating: 4 1/2 stars (out of five). I suppose there are lots of books and information out there that could not be included in the CD-ROM. If I'm not mistaken, this CD-ROM won an award for best CD-ROM.

2. Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination

Very much like an electronic book.

Has over 500 still photos including pictures, documents, newspaper cuttings, etc. No movies.

Has an audio and still photo and text (no video) "intro presentation" which gives a very nice and general introduction to the JFK assassination. Very good for people who have no idea about anything related to JFK's assassination. From there on, you have to read everything!

Has a search engine and index.

Categorised topics and photos.

Trivia game on JFK's investigation.

Came with a free JFK video, which gives an overview of what happened and the usual suspects (e.g. Hoffa, Giacanna) in the assassination. No mention of the number of shots fired, the bloody suit JFK wore, the limo, the sluggish Secret Service men, etc.

Rating: 3 stars (out of five).

Review by Pepper Lim

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Suit Dismissed

A defamation suit filed by a retired Secret Service against the publishers of a book alleging he accidentally killed President Kennedy has been thrown out.

A U.S. District court judge in Baltimore said the suit by George W. Hickey Jr. was filed too long after publication of the book Mortal Error.

The book by Bonar Menninger, published in February 1992, claimed that Hickey accidentally shot and killed JFK on November 22, 1963, when the car he was riding in behind Kennedy in the Dallas motorcade suddenly changed speed. Menninger did not dispute the Warren Commission finding that Lee Oswald opened fire on the motorcade from an overlooking building.

Hickey did not sue until April, 1995, which exceeds Maryland's one-year statute of limitation on defamation suits. The suit was aimed at St. Martin's Press, Simon & Shuster, and Menninger.

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