JFK Place on the Web



First Reports, Great Bend Tribune-Sun, 6/4/76


All emphasis is my own..........Michael Parks
bhart@cyberramp.net (Michael Parks)


Start quote


LBJ, HOOVER IMPLICATED IN JFK DEATH ‘COVER UP’
By Homer Kruckenberg



   Sunday, June 27, 1976, Senator Richard Schweider said on CBS ‘Face the Nation’ that his work 
during the last 18 months indicates that there is need to look into the role which Lyndon 
Johnson’s White House played in the Warren Commission’s investigation.  He cited the specific 
possibility of COVER UP BY PEOPLE HIGH IN THE JOHNSON WHITE HOUSE AND STATE DEPARTMENT.  The 
behavior of Lyndon Johnson’s White House during the summer of 1964 is indeed mysterious if it is 
looked at in light of the fact that Lyndon Johnson was anxious to hurry the Report on John F. 
Kennedy’s assassination to a conclusion before the November elections.  Also questionable are 
the actions of LBJ’s White House and the strange behavior it pursued against Robert Kennedy who 
at that time was Attorney General.


   Yarborough Connection
   One of the reasons for John Kennedy’s fateful trip to Texas in November of 1963 was that he 
was lending the prestige of Presidential Democrat leadership to a political feud between Texas 
Democrats; Lyndon Johnson, Senator Ralph Yarborough and Governor John Connally.  In the fateful 
Dallas motorcade, the Governor rode with JFK while Yarborough rode with Johnson two cars behind 
the assassination vehicle.  Accordingly, it would appear that the testimony of  Johnson nor 
Yarborough would be second only to Connally’s.  Mysteriously, however, neither Johnson nor 
Yarborough were called to testify before the Warren Commission - only written disposition was 
asked for.  Yarborough has stated that he was repeatedly pressured in the summer of 1964 by 
nervous and demanding FBI agents.  They wanted him to hurry his report.  Yarborough has also 
stated that the White House reports of Lyndon Johnson were not submitted to the Warren 
Commission until after Yarborough submitted his on July 10, 1964.  The story of pressuring Ralph 
Yarborough, however, was not LBJ’s principal worry during the summer of 1964.
   Johnson’s first political worry, during the 1964 summer, was to make sure the Democratic 
nomination did not escape him and go to Robert Kennedy.  Accordingly, LBJ had taken 
extra-ordinary measures to make sure that Robert Kennedy, for who he had deep political 
contempt, did not slip up on his renomination.  Originally, Johnson had the investigative 
structure of the Warren Commission - FBI - Department of Justice take on a public appearance of 
making certain that Attorney General Robert Kennedy, brother of the slain JFK, knew any and all 
information that the assassination investigation revealed.


   ‘...window dressing’
   The public appearance of Robert Kennedy being the first to know about vital assassination 
facts was, in reality, just so much window dressing.  On Dec. 6, 1963, the Associated Press 
carried this report: “The FBI’s completed report on the assassination of President John Kennedy 
will not be made public for at least a week, and quite possibly not until still later.  Justice 
Dept. officials now have the report.  It will be delivered to President Johnson and then 
forwarded to the high level investigation Commission.”  That report says a lot.  First, it put 
the onus of responsibility on Robert Kennedy’s Justice Dept. and left the impression that Robert 
Kennedy got the facts before Johnson.  Second, the AP report revealed that LBJ got all 
information before it ever went to the Warren Commission.  ACCORDINGLY, THERE IS LITTLE WONDER 
THAT THE FBI PEOPLE AND LYNDON JOHNSON’S WHITE HOUSE WERE CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT RALPH YARBOROUGH 
WAS GOING TO TELL THE WARREN COMMISSION - THE FBI AND JOHNSON’S WHITE HOUSE COULD CONTROL WHAT 
ROBERT KENNEDY WOULD SEE OR HIS DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WOULD SAY; THEY COULD NOT, HOWEVER, 
CONTROL RALPH YARBOROUGH.
   According to J. Edgar Hoover’s own testimony of May 11, 1964, he acknowledged that he 
submitted vital information to LBJ first and second to Robert Kennedy’s Justice Department.  
THUS, THE JUSTICE DEPT. RECEIVED ONLY WHAT LBJ AND HOOVER WANTED.  THE TWO-TIMING OF ROBERT 
KENNEDY BY JOHNSON AND HOOVER WAS A MUTUAL THING - BOTH DETESTED ROBERT KENNEDY’S ASSUMPTION OF 
POWER DURING HIS BROTHER’S PRESIDENCY.  NOT ONLY DID JOHNSON AND HOOVER CONTROL WHAT ROBERT 
KENNEDY FOUND OUT AND PUT OUT ABOUT THE WARREN COMMISSION’S INVESTIGATION; THEY ALSO WATCHED HIM 
IN A VERY SUSPICIOUS FASHION DURING THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION IN ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. 
DURING AUGUST OF 1964.  THE CHURCH COMMITTEE’S REPORT OF APRIL 1976, REVEALS EVIDENCE OF A 
SO-CALLED ‘SPECIAL SQUAD’ OF FBI AGENTS.  THIS ‘SPECIAL SQUAD’ WAS EXCLUSIVELY AT THE INDIVIDUAL 
BEHEST OF LBJ and its main concern at the Democratic Convention WAS TO SPY ON ROBERT KENNEDY 
(who under Constitutional provisions should have been the person to authorize any such ‘special 
squads’).


   Early Day Plumbers
   The Church Committee Report further stated that the ‘special squads’ information that was 
gathered on Robert Kennedy went exclusively to Johnson’s no. 1 administrative assistant, Walter 
Jenkins.  Jenkins reported individually to LBJ on what Robert Kennedy was up to.  During 
Watergate, these ‘special squads’ were labeled ‘plumbers,’ but back in the summer of 1964, they 
were just ‘special squads’ to keep Lyndon Johnson informed about Robert Kennedy’s activities 
during the ostentatious Democratic Convention that awarded Lyndon Johnson the nomination on his 
birthday.  POLITICS ASIDE, HOWEVER, THESE FACTS OF ROBERT KENNEDY AND LYNDON JOHNSON SHOULD BE 
REMEMBERED IN THE TIME-FRAME IN WHICH THIS POLITICAL SPYING WAS GOING ON - AT THE SAME TIME THE 
WARREN COMMISSION WAS RUSHING TOWARDS ITS JUDGMENT THAT OSWALD ACTED ALONE AND THAT THERE WAS NO 
CONSPIRACY, THERE WAS STILL THE OVERRIDING CONCERN ABOUT ROBERT KENNEDY.
   On September 24, 1964, Lyndon Johnson accepted his copy of the Warren Report.  HE DID SO 
AMIDST GREAT FANFARE THAT PROCLAIMED THE FACT THAT OURS WAS AN OPEN NATION THAT GOT ALL THE 
FACTS ABOUT THE ASSASSINATION BEFORE ITS PEOPLE.  Johnson accepted the Warren Report as final; 
and then he dismissed the Warren Commission from official existence, He did not want any, 
Commission or evidence, questioning the legitimacy of his succession to the Presidency.  Two 
years later, Nov. 24, 1966, at a Presidential news conference, LBJ was asked about the 
assassination investigation done by the Warren Commission.  He responded in the characteristic 
fashion of shifting any blame to Robert Kennedy in these words: “IF THERE IS ANY EVIDENCE AND IT 
IS BROUGHT FORTH, I AM SURE THE COMMISSION WILL TAKE ANY ACTION THAT MAY BE JUSTIFIED.....THE 
LATE, BELOVED PRESIDENT’S BROTHER WAS ATTORNEY GENERAL DURING THE PERIOD THE WARREN COMMISSION 
WAS STUDYING THIS THING.  I CERTAINLY WOULD THINK HE WOULD HAVE HAD A VERY THOROUGH INTEREST IN 
SEEING THAT THE TRUTH WAS MADE EVIDENT.”
   There you have it - first Lyndon Johnson pushed the blame of the Warren Report questions onto 
Robert Kennedy; second, LBJ talked about evidence being “brought forth;” and finally, Johnson 
had disbanded the Commission in 1964; while in 1966, he talked about it taking further action - 
a glaring inconsistency which no one bothered to question.  Today, we know that Lyndon Johnson 
did not really accept the work of the Warren Commission as final even though he told the 
American people that he did.


End quote