Note:As of June - 2003, write Vince Palamara at vincebethel@yahoo.com


Where There's Smoke, There's Fire:
New "Old" Evidence from the HSCA Files

by Vince Palamara 

As a researcher and student of the JFK case, I am annoyed by statements from
"officialdom," especially as they relate to the revelations gleaned from the
"new" evidence from the file releases of the last four-plus years. Complaint
number one: the
constant cry for "new" evidence--well what's wrong with looking at the old
evidence? Number two: [attributed to G. Robert Blakey, with an
acknowledgement to everybody's favorite lone-nutter, David Belin] "There are
no smoking guns in the files... I've seen everything we obtained during our
investigation." I beg to differ, largely on the first part of this premise:
if the HSCA medical evidence releases concerning the suppressed opinions of
the Bethesda autopsy witnesses don't count in this category, along with the
Sprague/Burkley memo and the Robert Knudsen interview document, just what is
a "smoking gun"? And if Blakey and Belin really saw these (and other)
documents, the plot thickens... pun intended. 

Since my specific research focus has been the Secret Service, I shall focus
on recent HSCA releases (via ARRB) that will benefit the general
reader/researcher. For those interested in the "alleged" cancellation of
JFK's trip to Chicago on 11/2/63, supposedly because of threats, there is
now confirmation: it REALLY happened and our worst fears have been confirmed.

First, agents Bill Greer and Sam Kinney told HSCA investigators on 2/28/78
that "the Chicago trip was canceled at the last minute." Furthermore,
Chicago agent James Griffiths indicated, on 2/1/78, "Isn't that the [trip]
that was canceled at the last moment?" Chicago AIC Maurice Martineau added,
in the same vein, "We got a telephone threat. The caller was not identified,
that Kennedy was going to be killed when he got to Jackson Street." Joseph
Noonan, another Chicago agent, added the coup de grace on 4/13/78: 

"(Noonan) participated directly in surveillance involving Tom Mosely and
Homer Echevarria...he and [the]other agents were uneasy that the Cubans
might have some ties to the CIA...a little later they received a call from
Headquarters to drop everything on Mosely and Echevarria and send all memos,
files, and their notebooks to Washington and not to discuss the case with
anyone." [emphasis added] By way of corroboration, both Martineau and
Abraham Bolden told me that 1) the 11/2/63 trip to Chicago was canceled at
the very last moment and 2) there was indeed a plot to kill JFK in Chicago.
Both men, along with Sam Kinney, also believe that a conspiracy took the
life of JFK on November 22. In fact, Kinney told HSCA investigators that "he
finds the idea of conspiracy plausible." Further, Kinney did tell the HSCA
about the finding of the skull fragment on the C-130 after all!! (See "More
on the Late-Arriving Fragment," by the author in JFK/DPQ, January 1996) It
is an absolute atrocity that Kinney's crucial information, like 90% of the
Chicago trip information, was not revealed in the HSCA Report or the
accompanying volumes. But there is more... 
>From Winston Lawson's 1/31/78 interview we learn much regarding the planning
of the fateful Dallas trip: Main to Industrial was an alternate route after
all (although this information was lined out on the identical type-written
version made by the
HSCA's Belford Lawson, the only Secret Service interview to be released in
"duplicate"); the motorcade vehicle sequence was changed, separate from the
controversial issues of the deleted squad car and the depleted and realigned
motorcycle escort (matters that the HSCA would term "uniquely insecure" and
blame Lawson, although my research has led me to conclude that agents David
Grant, Lawson's oft-forgotten partner, and Floyd Boring are the more likely
candidates); a Lt. Col. George Whitmeyer, who " 'taught' Army Intelligence,"
rode in the pilot car, although "he wasn't scheduled to be in the
motorcade"; erroneously claims that "Jack Puterbaugh recommended the Trade
Mart"; and "that he did not accompany Dallas Agent Forrest Sorrels on the
tour of the route which they each say they made together on 11/14/63"(?) As
for the actual mechanics of the Dealey Plaza murder, there is a lot of rich
material. Agents John Ready, Lem Johns, Glen Bennett and Tim McIntyre all
remarked that two of the three shots were close together. Johns add that
"the first two sounded like they were on the side of me towards the grassy
knoll (!)." Bennett elaborated by stating that he "saw what appeared to be a
nick in the back of President Kennedy's coat below the shoulder. He thought
the President had been hit in the back (emphasis added). McIntyre stated
that "there was no way to tell if more than one person was firing...S/A Dick
Johnsen, official keeper of CE 399, told him that he picked up a bullet from
a stretcher...he got the impression it was from the President's stretcher"
(emp. added). These comments
are particularly significant in light of the recently released HSCA document
dated 1/10/77 entitled "[Nathan] Pool's Co-Discovery of the 'Tomlinson
Bullet" whereupon Pool stated that the bullet in question looked nothing
like CE399 (it was pointed, clean, unfired) and that several Secret Service
agents were in close proximity to the bullet when it was found, prompting
HSCA attorney Belford Lawson (him, again...) to respond: "A Secret Service
agent was for a significant period of time close enough to the elevator to
plant a bullet; may lead to an identification of that agent"{!} (see back
cover, November 1994 Fourth Decade for entire document). 

Perhaps this explains Agent Johnsen's "amnesia" about CE 399 during my
interview with him on 9/27/92 (incredibly, Johnson was not interviewed by
anyone prior to me...). For his part, Agent Greer told his interviewers that
"he was puzzled by the single bullet theory. He could not see how one bullet
could have caused both Kennedy and Connally such extensive wounds," adding
that JFK had a "bullet hole in his shoulder...right shoulder" and that "he
asked the doctor [Humes] if the bullet in the back could have worked itself
out during heart massage" (sound familiar?). Incredibly, SAIC Jerry Behn
told these same men on 1/30/78 that "HE (Behn) was in the chain of custody
of CE 399... BEHN received the bullet from Johnsen, then turned it over to
the FBI" (emp. added)! This is unbelievable--"officially," SS Chief James
Rowley was the one who performed these 'duties'...what is going on here? Yet
the HSCA did not really seem to care. For his part, Agent Kinney confirmed
what he told me several times: all three shots hit the two men in the limo
with acknowledging the [known] missed shot; in fact, he told HSCA
investigators that the first shot "hit the President in the throat"(!).
Finally, Agent McIntyre stated, in regard to that same first shot, that it
was "very loud."  Agent Bert deFreese told HSCA investigators on 2/2/78 that
"in 1963 it was rare for a PRS agent from Washington to accompany an advance
agent into the field." As we know, a rarity did occur on, of all things, the
Dallas trip: S/A Glen Bennett not only went into the field, but he rode in
the follow-up car on 11/22/63, quite a first-time responsibility thrown on
an agent who functioned in an administrative capacity [read: desk job]!
Bennett told these same people that "he was detailed from PRS to the White
House Detail for the Dallas trip. This was because there was a manpower pull
for the Dallas trip," a statement not backed up by recently released Shift
Reports. Was there a special reason Bennett was given this assignment? Read
on... Agent deFreese admitted that "a threat did surface in connection with
the Miami trip(11/18/63)..there was an active threat against the President
of which the Secret Service was aware in November 1963 in the period
immediately prior to JFK's trip to Miami made by a "group of people"
(emp.added). In addition to this threat
information, and separate from the Joseph Milteer threat of 11/9/63, a CO2
PRS file, released to the HSCA on 5/3/78 and available to all of us only now
is the specific name of another individual who made a threat against JFK on
11/18/63: John Warrington (Sam Kinney also told the author of an unspecified
"organized crime" threat pertaining to this same trip). Despite all of this
date revealed to HSCA investigators, coupled with Agent Behn's admission
that PRS was "the central focus of protective operations," it did not bother
these "investigators" that Agent Lawson confirmed that a big, fat ZERO came
out of the Dallas check of potential threats to President Kennedy. This is
simply impossible, as the rabid right-wing environment, the "Wanted for
Treason" mug shots, and the October 24, 1963 attack on U.N. Ambassador Adlei
Stevenson make abundantly clear by themselves. When we also couple the
11/2/63 Chicago threats and the  1/9-11/18/63 Miami threats known to the
Secret Service before Dallas, we have to ask ourselves: was S/A Bennett
riding in the follow-up car on 11/22/63 actively searching for these known
threats? This is more than just "food for thought"  .... and the HSCA
totally lacked any appetite whatsoever. "Where there's smoke, there's fire,"
indeed -- and the only thing the HSCA was really interested in was throwing
a "wet blanket" over all the "smoldering"  details. At least we finally have
the  "new" documents --- unfortunately, they're about twenty years too late. 

***the reader is strongly encouraged to read pp.  272-281 or Peter Dale
Scott's Deep Politics and the Death of JFK in its entirety, paying specific
attention of pp. 277-278 as they relate to S/A Winston Lawson. 

SPECIAL THANKS: To Joe Backes and to the ARRB. (Note: specific RIF numbers
of the HSCA documents referred to in this article are available upon request.)