friday, november 21, 1975
page 6
daily nebraskan
mystery
By Dick Piersol
Omaha The assassination of President
John F. Kennedy occurred 12 years ago
this Saturday, but some people still are
looking into the events surrounding the
assassination and the Warren report which
has been used to explain it.
One of those organizations, the Assassin
ation Information Bureau (AIB) of Cam
bridge, Mass., also is dedicated to collecting
information on the murders of other polit
ical figures in this country, according to
AIB member Carl Oglesby.
Oglesby, 1965-66 president of Students
for a Democratic Society, AIB member
Jeff Cohen and Doug Porter, member of
the Fifth Estate, a Washington, D.C., based
organization specializing in intelligence
community research, presented a symposi
us called "Who Killed JFK," at the Univer
sity of Nebraska at Omaha this week.
Another AIB member, Bob Katz, whose
specialty is the JFK assassination, was
scheduled to appear in the Omaha sym
posium, but was called by the speaker of
the Massachusetts House of Representa
tives to make his presentation there
Wednesday, according to Oglesby.
State investigation
He said the Massachusetts House is
"seriously considering" conducting its own
investigation of the JFK assassination.
In addition, Oglesby said, the AIB sup
ports three current Congressional moves to
reopen investigations into the JFK, Robert
Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King
assassinations.
Representatives Henry Gonzalez, (D
Tex.), and Robert Downing, (D-Va.), have
introduced resolutions with more than 100
co-sponsors to investigate the assassinations,
Oglesby said.
In the Senate, a subcommittee led by
Sen. Richard Schweicker (R-Pa.) and Sen,
Philip Hart, (D-Mich.), of Sen. Frank
Church's (D-Idaho) special committee on
intelligence, is considering action on rein
vestigation, Oglesby said.
Americans doubtful
Those actions, and AIB's, he said, are in
response to public opinion polls which
show that 70-80 per cent of Americans
doubt the major conclusion of the Warren
Commission report: that Lee Harvey Os
wald was solely responsible for the death
of John Kennedy and the wounding of
then Texas Gov. John Connally.
Oglesby said that zlthough the national
news media supported the findings of the
Warren Commission when they were re
leased in 1964, some have reconsidered and
are planning new coverage and review.
He said Time magazine is planning a
cover story and CBS a four-hour special on
developments in the JFK assassination and
unanswered questions left by the Warren
report.
Although AIB members have their own
theories of who killed Kennedy, Oglesby
said their aim is not to determine the true
killer, but to show that the official explan
ation contained in the Warren report does
not follow the evidence.
He said AIB is urging the government to
reopen the investigation because private
citizens, even if they wanted, do not have
the investigative powers and resources to
do it properly.
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Daily Nabratkan photo
A symposium at the University
of Nebraska at Omaha, this
week, probed the assassination
of John F. Kennedy.
Symposium points out Warren Commission flaws
By Dick Piersol
Omaha-If Oswald didn't do it-who
did?
This question follows the Assassination
Information Bureau (AIB) wherever it pre
sents its symposium, "Who Killed JFK?"
This week, 12 years after President John F.
Kennedy's assassination, AIB presented its
case at the University of Nebraska at
Omaha (UNO).
AIB member Carl Oglesby said, "It is
not our obligation as citizens, with zero
investigative capability, to decide. It is our
duty, however, to point out the flaws in
the official investigation and explanation."
Oglesby said major arguments against
the Warren Commission report on the
assassination lie in a careful analysis of
Dallas dressmaker Abraham Zapruder's
film of the assassination and the condition
of what he called "the magic bullet."
That bullet, the Warren report says,
passed through Kennedy, entered Texas
Gov. Connally, broke two ribs, passed
through his wrist breaking the radius and
lodged in Connally's thigh. The bullet, a
commission exhibit, shows no sign of
damage. Oglesby called it "nearly pristine,"
except for a tiny piece the FBI took for
spectfographic analysis.
Three shots
Oglesby said the Warren report contends
that only three shots were fired at the
motorcade; that one struck 130 feet in
front of the Presidential limousine, causing
pieces of pavement to hit the crowd; that
one passed through both Kennedy and
Connally lodging in the governor's thigh,
and that one struck Kennedy in the back
of the head.
Showing what he called a "bootleg
copy" of the Zapruder film, Oglesby said it
is clear Kennedy is reacting to his first
wound as the limousine emerges from be
hind a sign. Almost two seconds later Con
nally reacts to his wounds and finally, a
third shot strikes Kennedy's head.
Elapsed time from Kennedy's first re
action to his fatal head wound was about
5.7 seconds, according to Oglesby. He said
FBI and U.S. Army marksmen were able to
fire Oswald's gun three times in about five
seconds, without taking time to aim.
Another feature of the Zapruder film
that Oglesby said defies the Warren con
clusions is the way Kennedy's body is visi
bly slammed back into the seat by the final
shot. He said the Warren report explana
tion is that the driver accelerated rapidly at
that moment, but Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs.
Connally do not react accordingly.
Oglesby added that the rifle Oswald
allegedly used had a defective sight, and
the Warren report said that probably
helped Oswald's chances of hitting the
President, since he was an experienced, but
not expert marksman.
Ignored evidence
Oglesby said there is evidence the re
port ignored and features of the Warren
report which do not follow the evidence.
He exhibited a photograph showing
several people, including a policeman look
ing up and running toward the famous
"grassy knoll." Dallas policeman Billy Har
gis ran over the knoll and detained a man
running through a parking lot, Oglesby
said. The man produced what he said were
Secret Service credentials and Hargis re
leased him, according to Oglesby. No Se
cret Service agent was identified as that
man, he said.
One photograph shows a man standing
in the Texas School Book Depository, Os
wald's place of employment and the
building from which the Warren report says
he fired. Oglesby said the man looks like
both Oswald and a fellow employe, Billy
Lovelady.
He said the Warren report identified the
man as Lovelady, but Lovelady said it is not
him. Oglesby said the man's clothes match
those Oswald wore that day.
Letter destroyed
He said the FBI destroyed what might
have been the most important piece of evi
dence it had: a letter Oswald wrote to the
Dallas FBI office shortly before the assas
sination. Oglesby said Oswald's address book con
tained the unlisted phone number of FBI
agent James Hoste, an agent involved in
destroying the letter. The Warren Commis
sion knew of Oswald's possible contacts
with the FBI but did not follow that lead,
he said.
Oswald's relationship to a pro-Castro
cause is another area the Warren commis
sion failed to investigate fully, Oglesby said.
He explained that at one time Oswald
was sole member of the New Orleans Fair
Play for Cuba Committee and distributed
leaflets bearing the address, 544 Camp St.
He said when checked, that building con
tained a private detective's office and an
office of the Cuban- Revolutionary Coun
cil, a right-wing anti-Castro organization
founded by E. Howard Hunt, convicted
Watergate burglar and a CIA agent at the
time.
Mexico City appearance
The Warren report states that in Octo
ber, 1963, Oswald made a scene at the
Russian embassy in Mexico City, shouting
his name and his desire to go to Cuba.
Oglesby said the Warren report also ig
nores evidence concerning Jack Ruby, the
man who shot Oswald.
Ruby, he said, had known contacts with
Cuban exile gunrunners, had visited H.L.
Hunt, a Texas oil millionaire and espouser
of right wing causes, the day before JFK's
assassination.
Ruby also had to beg Warren Commis
sioners to talk to him while he was in jail,
he said. Transcripts of that conversation
among Ruby, Supreme Court Chief Jus
tice Warren, and then Rep. Gerald Ford, re
veal that Ruby wanted to be taken to
Washington where he could speak freely,
Oglesby said. Warren replied that if Ruby
had something he could not tell them in
Dallas, not to tell them anything, accord
ing to Oglesby.
AIB member Jeff Cohen said new evi
dence was uncovered recently which re
news the possibility that former New Or
leans District Atty. Jim Garrison was on
the right track when he prosecuted Clay
Shaw, a New Orleans businessman, on
charges of conspiracy in the JFK
assassination.
Garrison, he said, was encouraged by
Warren Commission members Senators
Richard Russell and Russell Long.
He said that four days after the New
Orleans States-Item published a story
uncovering Garrison's investigation, one
of the principals in the case, David Ferrie,
died. Ferrie was a known CIA pilot trainer,
and died with two suicide notes near him,
although his death was attributed to natur
al causes, Cohen said.
Shaw was exonerated because federal
authorities would not cooperate with
Garrison, Cohen said. The jury believed
that Garrison had discovered a conspiracy
but did not believe Shaw had been proven
part of it nor had Garrison proved Shaw a
CIA agent, he said.
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