TX TX - President John F. Kennedy, 46, Dallas, 22 Nov 1963

[Richard]

On 22 November 1963, President Kennedy's body was flown from Dallas, Texas to Andrews AFB, Washington DC. Waiting to receive the bronze casket which contained the President's body was a 1963 Pontiac Bonneville Ambulance from Bethesda Naval Hospital. The casket was lowered from the aircraft, with First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy and Robert Kennedy standing beside it. When the casket was placed inside the ambulance, Jacqueline tried to open the left side door behind the driver, but could not do it. Robert Kennedy opened it for her. Secret Service agent Greer, who had driven the Presidential Limousine in Dallas, got behind the wheel and they drove off through Washington, DC on their way to Bethesda Naval Hospital. The ambulance's Navy driver and crew were left behind at Andrews AFB.

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[URL='http://imcdb.org/i314710.jpg'][/URL]

In 2011, a car auction house advertised that it would be selling the original Navy Ambulance. It claimed to have the proper documentation, VIN number plates, etc. to authenticate the item. Other researchers, however came up with counter information which indicated that the ambulance being sold was actually a replica of the original and that the original had been destroyed at a wrecking yard because of the wishes of the Kennedy family. Just another one of the many mysteries surrounding this case...

 

[Richard]

Group sues National Archives and President Joe Biden to release all remaining documents relating to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Friday 22 November 1963.

LINK:

'What are they hiding?': Group sues Biden and National Archives over JFK assassination records

The largest online source of JFK assassination records is suing President Biden and the National Archives to force the release of all remaining documents tied to the 1963 killing.

www.aol.com

 

[Richard]

Detective Jim Leavelle (in light suit and hat) escorts Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of the Dallas Police Department as Jack Ruby steps from the crowd of news reporters to shoot Oswald on Sunday 24 November 1963.


James Robert "Jim" Leavelle (August 23, 1920 – August 29, 2019) was a Dallas Police Department homicide detective who, on November 24, 1963, was escorting John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald through the basement of Dallas Police headquarters when Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby. Leavelle prominently appeared in several famous photographs—including one that won a Pulitzer Prize—taken of Oswald just before and as Ruby pulled the trigger.

When he passed away at age 99, he was one of the last living persons connected directly with the Assassination and its aftermath events.

LINKS:

Jim Leavelle - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Retired Dallas Detective Jim Leavelle, Who Escorted Lee Harvey Oswald When He Was Killed By Jack Ruby, Has Died At 99

Leavelle was the man in the white hat who escorted Lee Harvey Oswald when the JFK assassin was shot and killed by Jack Ruby.

www.cbsnews.com

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/jim-leavelle-dallas-detective-handcuffed-to-history-dies-at-99/2019/08/30/18909df0-cb26-11e9-a1fe-ca46e8d573c0_story.html

 

[Richard]

https://www.axios.com/2022/10/19/jfk-records-lawsuit-biden-national-archives
Group sues Biden, National Archives over JFK assassination records

 

[Richard]

The "group" which is currently suing the National Archives and President Biden to release all remaining files and redactions relating to the Kennedy Assassination is the Mary Ferrell Foundation. Here is a very long and detailed narrative explaining who Mary Ferrell was, and a bit about the organization with her name:

LINK:

Mary Ferrell’s Enigmatic Past, And How Her Namesake Foundation Added Even More Enigmata to the Mix

— Or, How Mary Ferrell, Entrusted with National Secrets, Was Ultimately Exposed by Her Own Long Buried Secrets Mary Ferrell inside the special building she had constructed to house her collection o…

lbjthemasterofdeceit.com

 

[Elley Mae]

JFK Files: Cuban Intelligence Was in Contact With Oswald, Praised His Shooting Ability | HISTORY

Here are the 10 most revealing highlights from the 2,800 newly declassified JFK assassination files.

www.history.com

Jack Ruby always puzzled me, how did he think he’d get away? Was he told ahead that a deal would be cut after? First trial guilty, gets a second on appeal and dies of cancer, like 3 yrs after JFK assassination.

Jmo

 

[Richard]

JFK Files: Cuban Intelligence Was in Contact With Oswald, Praised His Shooting Ability | HISTORY

Here are the 10 most revealing highlights from the 2,800 newly declassified JFK assassination files.

www.history.com

Jack Ruby always puzzled me, how did he think he’d get away? Was he told ahead that a deal would be cut after? First trial guilty, gets a second on appeal and dies of cancer, like 3 yrs after JFK assassination.

Jmo

Jack Ruby on trial for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Norman Mailer wrote a book: Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery. He discusses a number of topics and covers Oswald in great detail.

Jack Ruby's reasons and motivations are very difficult to fathom. He seems to have been stalking Oswald while he was under arrest, but in the end, his actions seemed random and unplanned - like a "spur of the moment" event. He had moments before the shooting, he had been in the Western Union office across the street from the jail buying and sending a money order. He arrived in the basement of the jail just prior to Oswald coming off the elevator. Ruby had left his pet Dacshund dogs in his 1960 Oldsmobile outside. Had he planned to kill Oswald all along, he would have left the dogs home or with a friend.

In fact, he claimed to have simply been so upset about the assassination that he acted automatically, drawing his .38 Colt revolver and shooting Oswald.

Norman Mailer presented in his book a viable and reasonable scenario which might explain in a different manner Ruby and his actions in killing Oswald. He suggested that IF the Mafia had a "contract" out on Kennedy's life, they would have done it in such a way that it could not be directly linked to them. In other words, they wouldn't be in direct contact with any assassins, but rather things would be set up through a number of intermediaries.

When Kennedy was, in fact, assassinated, the Mafia may have assumed that it was their hit. BUT here is Oswald claiming to be a Patsey on national television. He would have appeared to be a loose cannon who could put the finger on them. The Mafia would have wanted him silenced immediately, but who could they get to do such a thing inside the Dallas Police station?

Although Jack Ruby was not a professional hit man, he did know most of the Dallas Police, and had access to their head quarters as a regular visitor and glad hander. He owned a strip club and many police officers were customers of his. Was Ruby's shooting of Oswald ordered by the Mafia? Norman Mailer seems to think that was the case.

 

[Richard]

Recently, Secret Service Agent Paul Landis, who was riding on the right rear running board of the Follow Up car behind the Presidential Limousine in Dallas on 22 November 1963 has made some statements regarding his handling of a key piece of evidence in the assassination of JFK, and the Warren Commission's investigation which followed.

Former Secret Service Officer Paul Landis, author of "The Final Witness"

After a silence of almost 60 years, Paul Landis has revealed in his book "The Final Witness" that it was he who found an expended bullet in the rear seat of the Presidential Limousine and that he placed it on a gurney outside the emergency room at Parkland Hospital while President Kennedy was being tended to by medical personnel.

That bullet became an important piece of evidence considered by the Warren Commission when they investigated the murder and attempted to explain how both President Kennedy and Governor John Connally were shot on 22 November 1963.

The bullet was actually a bit of a problem for the Commission in their attempt to explain the wounds to both men and to eliminate any question as to whether or not there were multiple shooters or just one.

Arlen Spector (later a US Senator) was a young attorney working for the Commission and he came up with what he called "The Single Bullet Theory" which explained that this one bullet passed through President Kennedy's back and neck before striking Governor Connally in the back, emerging from his chest, passing through his right wrist, and then entering his left thigh. It was theorized that it fell out of his leg onto his gurney when he was being transported from the limousine to the emergency room.

The problem with this theory, which soon was dubbed "The Magic Bullet Theory" by critics, is that the bullet, although only slightly deformed, was largely intact. It had lost only about one grain of weight and more than that was found in Connally's wrist alone.

Another bullet, allegedly fired from the same rifle, totally fragmented when it hit Kennedy's head, causing a massive wound. This inconsistency was not lost on critics of the Warren Commission Report.

A bullet, which matched somewhat the "Magic" bullet, struck the upper frame of the limousine's windshield just to the right of the rear view mirror.

One other bullet, which was never found, hit a portion of concrete curbing and ricocheted striking a bystander, James Tague in the cheek.

Three expended shell casings were found on the 6th floor of the Dallas School Book Depository Building next to the corner window known as the "sniper's nest". Only one unfired cartridge remained chambered in the Italian Manlicher Carcano 6.5mm rifle found on that floor. All three of those casings were matched to the rifle found there by comparison to test rounds. The two recovered bullets were also matched forensically to the rifle.

It is possible that one of those shell casings had been fired at a previous time, but the official report was that three shots were fired on 22 November. Eye witnesses, however, (including several Secret Service men) claimed to have only heard two shots fired. Some claimed to have heard a noise sounding like a firecracker or tire blow-out just prior to the two louder shots.

Terminal ballistics is something that is hard to predict or to explain. A bullet, upon striking something, is no longer behaving like one which leaves the rifle and travels unimpeded to a target. It may deform, it may retain its original shape, or it may completely miss its intended target due to deflection when it hits another object (such as a tree branch).

The controversy here will be that if this bullet only traveled to Kennedy and then to the back of the car seat, what caused all the other wounds? And most importantly - was there another shooter or shooters? If so, you have a conspiracy rather than a lone nut assassin.

LINK:

Ex-Secret Service agent reveals new JFK assassination detail

Ex-Secret Service agent Paul Landis reveals a new detail some say upends the "single bullet theory".

news.yahoo.com

MSN

MSN

Former Secret Service Agent Makes Startling Claim About Bullet Found After Kennedy Assassination

An upcoming book by former Secret Service agent Paul Landis raises questions about the bullets fired in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963

www.yahoo.com

 

[Richard]

Did this bullet (CE399) cause seven wounds in two men, including two major broken bones?

If it was found in the seat behind John Kennedy, it hardly seems possible.

The below link contains an interesting discussion along with diagrams about the Single Bullet Theory. It was made before the recent revelations by former Secret Service Officer Paul Landis, who states that he found the bullet (Commission Exhibit 399) in the back seat of the Presidential Limousine when it was parked at Parkland Hospital immediately after its arrival there.

LINK:

The JFK ‘Magic Bullet’ is Proven to be Less Magical than We Thought, but it Cannot Save the ‘Single Bullet Theory’ Fairy Tale! - Through the 'Oswald' Window

throughtheoswaldwindow.com

What Is the Single-Bullet Theory?

Among the melee of conspiracy theories that have risen and fallen in the years since the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, one theory has remained the focus of intense debate: the single-bullet theory.

www.livescience.com

 

[Richard]

Friday, 22 November 1963: President John F. Kennedy rides through the streets of Dallas, Texas shortly before his assassination. Beside him is First Lady Jackie Kennedy, and in front of them, sitting in jump seats are Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie. Driving is Secret Service Agent William Greer and seated in the front right seat is Roy Kellerman, head of the Secret Service detail.

Following closely behind the 1961 Lincoln Limousine is a 1955 Cadillac filled with Secret Service Agents. Standing on the front left running board of the Follow-Up car is Agent Clint Hill, who would run forward following the shooting, and climb into the Presidential Limousine from the rear, guiding Jackie back into the vehicle after she had climbed on to the trunk.

Below is a long article which goes into detail about Agent Paul Landis's revelations and discusses some of their ramifications regarding the Warren Commission's conclusions concerning the shooting and their belief that it was all the work of a lone shooter.

Agent Landis states that he found the bullet (Commission Exhibit 399) on the top, back of the seat in which Kennedy was sitting. It was in a crack or crevice between the upholstery and the metal exterior - where the car's top would be placed. If this was indeed the case, it could not possibly have been the bullet which hit Governor Connally. Further, Landis is certain that he placed the bullet on Kennedy's gurney and NOT on Connally's - an assumption that the Warren Commission included in their acceptance of the "Single Bullet Theory".

LINK:

A New JFK Assassination Revelation Could Upend the Long-Held “Lone Gunman” Theory

In a new book, former Secret Service agent Paul Landis, largely silent for 60 years, says he found a bullet in Kennedy’s limo. A sometime presidential historian explains why that’s so significant, if true.

www.vanityfair.com

 

[Betty P]

A cute story former Agent Landis told a few years ago

I'm not sure what to think about this latest revelation. Possibly its true and he refrained from saying anything because he feared he had done something wrong by picking up the bullet and putting it in his pocket. He was relatively young at the time (age 28). Maybe he wasn't sure what to do about it. If accurate, it does explain some things.

 

[Betty P]

Friday, 22 November 1963: President John F. Kennedy rides through the streets of Dallas, Texas shortly before his assassination. Beside him is First Lady Jackie Kennedy, and in front of them, sitting in jump seats are Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie. Driving is Secret Service Agent William Greer and seated in the front right seat is Roy Kellerman, head of the Secret Service detail.

Following closely behind the 1961 Lincoln Limousine is a 1955 Cadillac filled with Secret Service Agents. Standing on the front left running board of the Follow-Up car is Agent Clint Hill, who would run forward following the shooting, and climb into the Presidential Limousine from the rear, guiding Jackie back into the vehicle after she had climbed on to the trunk.

Below is a long article which goes into detail about Agent Paul Landis's revelations and discusses some of their ramifications regarding the Warren Commission's conclusions concerning the shooting and their belief that it was all the work of a lone shooter.

Agent Landis states that he found the bullet (Commission Exhibit 399) on the top, back of the seat in which Kennedy was sitting. It was in a crack or crevice between the upholstery and the metal exterior - where the car's top would be placed. If this was indeed the case, it could not possibly have been the bullet which hit Governor Connally. Further, Landis is certain that he placed the bullet on Kennedy's gurney and NOT on Connally's - an assumption that the Warren Commission included in their acceptance of the "Single Bullet Theory".

LINK:

A New JFK Assassination Revelation Could Upend the Long-Held “Lone Gunman” Theory

In a new book, former Secret Service agent Paul Landis, largely silent for 60 years, says he found a bullet in Kennedy’s limo. A sometime presidential historian explains why that’s so significant, if true.

www.vanityfair.com

He must have been very traumatized by the assassination and it's aftermath. He was the agent who, with Clint Hill, had to persuade Jackie Kennedy to let go of her husband so they could take him from the back seat of the limo into Parkland Hospital.

That horror was compounded when the president’s limo reached Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Landis and Clint Hill tried to coax Jackie to release the president, whom, by that point, she had cradled in her lap. Climbing into the back seat area, which had been spattered with blood and brains and bullet fragments, both agents, according to their subsequent accounts, gently encouraged the first lady to let go.
As she did—standing up to follow Hill and another agent, Roy Kellerman, who lifted her husband’s body onto a gurney and raced into the hospital—Landis saw and did something that he has kept secret for six decades, he says now. He claims he spotted a bullet resting on the top of the back of the seat. He says he picked it up, put it in his pocket, and brought it into the hospital. Then, upon entering Trauma Room No. 1 (at that stage, he was the only nonmedical person in the room besides Mrs. Kennedy, and both stayed for only a short period), he insists, he placed the bullet on a white cotton blanket on the president’s stretcher.

It's amazing that he remembered to take care of those details during some very traumatic moments.

ETA: Reading the Vanity Fair article. For some reason, he wasn't interviewed by anyone, Warren Commission, FBI, etc. about what happened or what he did that day.

Like a lot of us, I assumed the FBI, etc. interviewed all of the SS agents on the scene that day. Why not?

 

[Richard]

Several professional and amateur photographers as well as some home movie enthusiasts were in Dealey Plaza on 22 November 1963, filming the Presidential Motorcade.

One of them was Abraham Zapruder, a dress maker and business man who had a good view of the motorcade route. With his 8mm movie camera, he filmed the entire assassination. His film became the primary piece of evidence in available to the Warren Commission and to so many other investigators. There was no sound recorded with the original film.

The movie camera shot at a speed of 18 frames per second. Based on that, investigators could calculate the exact time between shots based on the visual clues in each frame.

There have been many attempts to enhance the Zapruder film digitally, making the images more clear, the colors brighter, the movement of the camera more stable, running it at slow motion, etc.

At the time of the motorcade, one of the motorcycle cops keyed his microphone and it stuck in the "open/on" position. A dictaphone recording machine at the police station was running at the time, and what was believed to be gunfire was recorded. This recording was analyzed carefully by the US House of Representatives Assassinations Investigation in 1979. Their eventual conclusion was that there were probably more than one shooter.

At the link below is one of the digitalized restorations of the Zapruder film and the first run-through has that Dictaphone recording included. Note that there are what sound like four shots heard which take place within about 8 seconds total - rather than the 6 seconds for three shots as concluded by the Warren Commission. Although it might be possible to fire Oswald's Bolt action rifle 3 times in six seconds, note that the last two shots are within one second of each other.

The person who made this combined sight and sound presentation, might have been a second off in the synchronization, as it seems that the last two shot sounds are a second earlier than the obvious hit on Connally and the final head shot on Kennedy. But if those shots were in fact as they appear, it would mean that there had to have been at least one other shooter.

Warning: This is a very graphic film.

LINK:

zapruder film and dictaphone recording - - Video Search Results

The search engine that helps you find exactly what you're looking for. Find the most relevant information, video, images, and answers from all across the Web.

video.search.yahoo.com

 

[DeDee]

Most all of those people surrounding the President during those promising days of Camelot were deeply traumatized by his untimely passing. The nation, nay, the world was in shock. Jackie had recently returned from a vacation in Greece in order to rest after losing baby Patrick.
I'd need to be reminded about how close any of the SS Agents remained with Jackie; except to add, DPowers and Jackie had lunch together every day as they mourned the death of the President that first year. DP quit his job in Boston years earlier in order to work for JFK's Presidential campaign.

Nice photos, Richard.

 

[Betty P]

Most all of those people surrounding the President during those promising days of Camelot were deeply traumatized by his untimely passing. The nation, nay, the world was in shock. Jackie had recently returned from a vacation in Greece in order to rest after losing baby Patrick.
I'd need to be reminded about how close any of the SS Agents remained with Jackie; except to add, DPowers and Jackie had lunch together every day as they mourned the death of the President that first year. DP quit his job in Boston years earlier in order to work for JFK's Presidential campaign.

Nice photos, Richard.

Clint Hill remained close to her for quite a while after the assassination. He's the one who climbed over the trunk of the limo to push her back into the car. Clint wrote a book some years ago about the years of PTSD he suffered afterwards. He felt guilty that he didn't do more to protect the president.

He had a new book out last year

They all suffered quite a bit, but especially Hill, Kellerman and, now we know, Landis. JMO, Hill suffered the worst.

Richard, at your link above of the Zapruder film, I can hear 4 shots. This new information may explain part of that. IIRC, though, the gun Oswald used was a bolt action rifle. He had to draw back the bolt after each shot. Almost impossible to do that quickly.

 

[Betty P]

Good interview with Landis. At the end, he gives a detailed description of what happened. ETA: Landis believes there were only 3 bullets, total and that Oswald was the lone assasin.

 

[StarryStarryNight]

I’m really not buying what this retired Secret Service guy is saying.
He says he picked up the bullet from the seat because he knew it was an important piece of evidence. Yet he tosses this important piece of evidence onto a stretcher instead of properly preserving it and where it was found.
He speculates that the important piece of evidence rolled onto the Governor’s stretcher that ignited the magic bullet theory. Yet he never went to anyone and said “oh wait. That bullet was on the car seat, I put it on the stretcher, so your magic bullet theory is unnecessary.”
Never went to anyone for decades to explain this even though debate raged about that bullet during all that time.
Nope.

 

[Betty P]

I’m really not buying what this retired Secret Service guy is saying.
He says he picked up the bullet from the seat because he knew it was an important piece of evidence. Yet he tosses this important piece of evidence onto a stretcher instead of properly preserving it and where it was found.
He speculates that the important piece of evidence rolled onto the Governor’s stretcher that ignited the magic bullet theory. Yet he never went to anyone and said “oh wait. That bullet was on the car seat, I put it on the stretcher, so your magic bullet theory is unnecessary.”
Never went to anyone for decades to explain this even though debate raged about that bullet during all that time.
Nope.

Have you read the Vanity Fair article? It seems possible. He didn't read any books about it, nor followed any discussions or debates. I don't know.

I think it's possible he was so traumatized by it that he just put it aside for many years. He didn't want to revisit any of it. Some of the other SS agents there that day did the same. It's how people, especially men, coped with stress in that era. He left the Secret Service several months later and pursued a different career.

 

[Richard]

Most all of those people surrounding the President during those promising days of Camelot were deeply traumatized by his untimely passing. The nation, nay, the world was in shock. Jackie had recently returned from a vacation in Greece in order to rest after losing baby Patrick.
I'd need to be reminded about how close any of the SS Agents remained with Jackie; except to add, DPowers and Jackie had lunch together every day as they mourned the death of the President that first year. DP quit his job in Boston years earlier in order to work for JFK's Presidential campaign.

Nice photos, Richard.

Dave Powers and Ken O'Donnell were the two Kennedy staff members who rode in the Follow Up car with 8 Secret Service men that day in Dallas. They were very close to the Presidential Limousine when the shootings took place (the cars were about five feet apart). They were interviewed by the Warren Commission and their statements are included in the final report.

 

[Richard]

Have you read the Vanity Fair article? It seems possible. He didn't read any books about it, nor followed any discussions or debates. I don't know.

I think it's possible he was so traumatized by it that he just put it aside for many years. He didn't want to revisit any of it. Some of the other SS agents there that day did the same. It's how people, especially men, coped with stress in that era. He left the Secret Service several months later and pursued a different career.

Landis left the Secret Service in August of 1964 and the Warren Commission Report was not released until the next month. So none of the controversy about the Single/Magic bullet theory had even come out yet.

According to Landis, he did not hear of it until around 2014, when he read an old 1966 book titled "Six Seconds in Dallas" - which was about the space of time that the Warren Commission determined it took for the three shots to be fired.

To be fair to Landis, there has been a LOT of controversy and doubt about the official version of the assassination since September 1964 - regardless of his recent revelations. I can even recall a very early article (1965 or 66) in which it was theorized that the bullet in question might have come from an underpowered round that only penetrated Kennedy's back an inch or two and might have fallen out or been pushed out during CPR attempts to revive him.

The strongest clue that argues for there being two or more shooters is the short one second interval between the time Connally reacts to being hit and the shot to the President's head. A bolt action rifle simply cannot be operated that quickly, and even a semi automatic (one that shoots as quickly as you squeeze the trigger) would require more time for the shooter to fire a round and regain the target for another shot.

Connally was a hunter and a rifleman himself, and he was adamant that he was struck by the second bullet, because he heard the first shot, turned to his right (where he had heard the shot) trying to see the President. Although he said that he could not see the President, it is clear that Kennedy has already been hit before Connally begins to turn to his right. As Connally was turning back, he suddenly is struck. His cheeks puff out, his hat (held in his right hand) flips up, and he goes down with a look of pain on his face. One second later, Kennedy is struck in the head.