OSWALD'S MURDER III

October 3, 2012

The book that couldn't be printed!

WHITEWASH-the report on the Warren Report by Harold Weisberg, Chapter 8 : Oswald's Murder: The Press & The Police III

Knoxville, Tennessee (JFKASSASSINATION) Today JFKASSASSINATION continues our report on Chapter 8 of Harold Weisberg's book "Whitewash--the report on the Warren Report", published in 1965. 

The title of Chapter 8 is OSWALD'S MURDER.

Harold Weisberg says that there was NEVER any security on the 3rd floor where newsmen & others were crowded together nor was anyone given identification credentials.

It seems that anybody could have just waltzed in, including JACK RUBY.

In this atmosphere, Lee Harvey Oswald was paraded up & down the hallways 'at least 15 times.'

And the normal practice of not allowing photographs of prisoners to be taken without the permission of the Dallas Police & the prisoners themselves was, in this case, not applied.

In regard to the attempted transfer of Oswald from the City to the County Jail which resulted in his being shot, Mr. Weisberg writes "There is no indication of a need either for the transfer or for the police to make it."

He points out, however, that the Sheriff's Department in Dallas, as well as the FBI, "were quite worried" about the transfer.

There were telephoned threats on the morning of November 24 to the Dallas Police Department that Oswald would be killed.

Police Chief Jesse Curry, in fact, informed the press of the approximate time of the transfer.

Interestingly, Weisberg tells us that Secret Service agent Sorrels asked that the time of transfer be unannounced, but obviously that advice was not heeded.

Also, the Dallas Police secured the basement more than an hour before the transfer but, according to Harold Weisberg, "there still existed one & perhaps two weak points."

The weakest appears to be the entrance at the top of the ramp into the basement from the Main Street entrance.  Here, a single guard, Patrolman Roy E. Vaughn, was stationed.  

Despite the fact there were more than 70 officers in the basement, along with more than 40 newsmen, the Dallas Police placed only 1 guard at the Main Street entrance.

Another weak point is the area where the newsmen were standing just outside the door leading to the garage in the basement.  Mr. Weisberg tells us that no police officers were assigned to this area.

So, if Jack Ruby did come down the Main Street ramp as he later claimed, he not only gained admittance to the basement, he was also able to walk unchecked down into the area where the newsmen were standing with no police officers there to turn him away.

Weisberg makes another point.  Even with Ruby in a position to shoot Oswald, he could not have done so if there had been officers in front of Oswald as he was led out.  There were officers on both sides, one at the rear but NONE IN FRONT.

Mr. Weisberg pulls no punches in his criticism of the Warren Report's treatment of the shooting of Oswald.  He writes:

"No aspect (of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald) was examined by the Report in any manner suggesting the possibility of a conspiracy involving the police."