A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination (84 page)

PROLOGUE

On Monday, April 12:
Death certificate, District of Columbia Department of Health; Cynthia Thomas interviews.

And since he had:
The description of the term “selected out” described in unsigned article, “Undiplomatic Reforms,”
Time
, November 15, 1971.

At first, he thought:
Thomas interviews.

And on July 25:
Copies of Thomas’s memos were obtained from his widow, Cynthia. Copies are also found in the archives of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, NARA.

He wanted to be remembered:
Thomas interviews.

Thomas was a self-made man:
State Department personnel records on Charles Thomas were obtained from Cynthia Thomas; Thomas interviews.

In September 1964, the presidential commission:
Warren Report, pp. 21, 24.

In the body of the memo:
Biographical material on Garro is available from several sources, including: Cypess,
Uncivil Wars
, and from Garro’s obituary in the
New York Times
, August 28, 1998.

He made sure:
Biographical material on Scott and information on his friendship with Angleton are available in Morley,
Our Man in Mexico
, the definitive biography of Scott.

After his suicide two years later:
Washington Post
, April 14, 1971.

“I always thought it”:
Interview with former House of Representatives investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Former senator Birch Bayh of Indiana:
Bayh interview.

The caller was someone I had never met:
Interview with former Warren Commission staff lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In interviews shortly:
Hosty interviews.

The title of this book:
Warren Report, p. 1.

The records of the Warren Commission:
“Introduction to the Records of the Warren Commission,” NARA Web site,
http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/intro.html
(accessed June 10, 2013).

The rose-pink suit worn:
Washington Post
, February 5, 2011. President Kennedy’s comment is reported in “Remembering Jackie,”
New Yorker
, May 30, 1994.

A separate vault:
Associated Press, April 2, 1997.

Much of Warren’s personal paperwork
: “Collection Summary: Earl Warren, 1864–1974,” LOC Web site,
http://lccn.loc.gov/mm82052258
.

CHAPTER 1

Navy Commander James Humes:
Deposition of Dr. James Joseph Humes, ARRB, February 13, 1996, p. 138 (hereafter Humes Deposition). Humes gave testimony or interviews about the autopsy to several government investigations, including an interview with a panel of medical experts to the HSCA on September 16, 1977, in Washington (hereafter Humes interview) and less detailed testimony to the HSCA on September 7, 1978 (hereafter Humes Testimony).

At about eleven that night:
Humes Deposition, p. 135. Description of home in interview with Humes’s son James Jr.

“It
doesn’t
have to be done”:
Jacqueline Kennedy, as quoted by Burkley in an interview for the JFK Library, October 17, 1967, p. 8.

He reminded her:
The most authoritative account of the conversation aboard Air Force One was obtained by William Manchester for his book
The Death of a President
, the history that was originally authorized by the Kennedy family, pp. 349–50. Also see Burkley interview with JFK Library, passim.

Commander J. Thornton Boswell:
Deposition of J. Thornton Boswell, ARRB, February 26, 1996, p. 15 (hereafter Boswell Deposition).

Neither Humes nor Boswell:
Ibid., p. 18.

What might recommend:
Humes Deposition, p. 51.

The autopsy room:
Ibid., p. 57.

The president’s body arrived:
Boswell Deposition, p. 14.

The autopsy was:
Ibid., p. 46. Also see Humes Deposition, interview.

“Those people were in”:
Boswell Deposition, p. 101.

He knew the Kennedy family:
Ibid., p. 24. Also see Burkley interview with JFK Library.

“Let them see”:
Manchester,
Death
, p. 348.

Burkley had another:
Humes Deposition, p. 29.

“He promised George Burkley”:
Boswell Deposition, p. 11.

Days after the autopsy:
Humes Deposition, p. 38.

“He told me”:
Ibid., p. 148.

The doctors began to worry:
Boswell Deposition, p. 109.

“There was no way we could”:
Humes interview, p. 243.

“I x-rayed the president”:
Humes Deposition, pp. 34, 113.

“The minute he said”:
Humes interview, p. 257.

That Saturday night:
Humes Deposition, pp. 125, 126; Boswell Deposition, p. 111.

“I sat down”:
Humes Testimony, p. 5.

“When I noticed”:
Humes Deposition, p. 126.

Humes gave the original notes:
Ibid., pp. 133–35.

On Friday, hours after:
Testimony of Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald, February 5, 1964, Warren Appendix, Vol. 1, p. 79. Also see commission exhibit 1788 from Warren Appendix, Vol. 23, “FBI report setting forth circumstances surrounding the publication in
Life
magazine and other publications of Oswald holding rifle,” pp. 400–401.

Her mother-in-law would later insist:
Testimony of Mrs. Marguerite Oswald, February 10, 1964, Warren Appendix, Vol. 1, p. 152.

At about six p.m. Sunday:
Hosty interviews; Hosty,
Assignment: Oswald
, pp. 59, 29.

Hosty had a lot to protect:
Hosty,
Assignment
, pp. 16, 83.

CHAPTER 2

The knock on the heavy oak door:
Warren,
The Memoirs of Chief Justice Earl Warren
, p. 351.

“The President was shot”:
The text of the note is as it is found in Warren,
Memoirs
, p. 351. (Obituaries of McHugh offer a slightly different text: “It was reported that the President has been shot while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas.”)
The members of the court:
Warren,
Memoirs
, p. 352.

Warren and the other justices:
Ibid., pp. 351–52.

During the 1960 campaign:
New York Times
, November 5, 1960.

At the White House reception:
Ibid.

The assassination was “like”:
Warren, as quoted in Weaver,
Warren, the Man, the Court, the Era
, p. 300.

“The days and nights”:
Undated letter from Warren to journalist Jim Bishop, Warren Commission correspondence files, Earl Warren papers, LOC.

After receiving confirmation:
Manchester,
Death
, p. 205.

It was the fulfillment:
Warren,
Memoirs
, p. 260.

Eisenhower came to regret:
The “biggest damned fool” remark has been repeatedly attributed to Eisenhower, including in the
New York Times
obituary of Earl Warren, July 10, 1974. Although friends and advisers to Eisenhower say the comment reflected his views about Warren, there has been debate about whether the former president actually uttered those specific words.

Within hours of the assassination:
Warren statements, November 22, 1963, Warren papers, LOC.

Later that day:
Warren,
Memoirs
, p. 352; Johnson,
The Vantage Point
, p. 26.

At about nine that evening:
Warren,
Memoirs
, pp. 352–53.

“John Fitzgerald Kennedy—a good”:
as published in Warren,
Memoirs
, pp. 353–54.

Robert Kennedy told friends:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy and His Times
, p. 611. (Schlesinger suggests he was given access to a transcript of Kennedy’s interviews with William Manchester for his book
The Death of a President.
The Manchester transcripts have not been made public by the JFK Library in Boston.)
Senator Richard Brevard Russell:
Russell note, December 5, 1963, Russell Library.

On the afternoon:
Mudd,
The Place to Be
, p. 127.

Soon, however, Russell would have cause:
Holland,
The Kennedy Assassination Tapes
, pp. 196–206.

In a horrible twist of fate:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy: His Life
, p. 276.

Seconds after receiving word:
Manchester,
Death
, p. 196.

Morgenthau recalled later:
Manchester,
Death
, p. 196.

Years later:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, p. 608.

“There’s been so much hate”:
Guthman,
We Band of Brothers
, p. 244.

After the debacle:
New York Times
, April 25, 1966. The article reported: “President Kennedy, as the enormity of the Bay of Pigs disaster came home to him, said to one of the highest officials of his administration that he wanted ‘to splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.’”

“I asked McCone”:
Walter Sheridan, RFK Oral History Project, JFK Library, June 12, 1979. As quoted in Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, p. 616.

Rather than wait for others to investigate:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy
, p. 277. (Thomas’s book provides the richest, most authoritative history of what happened at Hickory Hill on the afternoon the assassination.)

CHAPTER 3

He had often felt humiliated:
The use of “Uncle Cornpone” by Kennedy aides described in several places in Caro,
The Passage of Power
, passim.

Now, in his first panicky minutes:
As recounted by Johnson in phone conversation with aide Bill Moyers, December 26, 1966, as published in Holland,
The Kennedy Assassination Tapes
, p. 363.

One of Johnson’s first orders:
Manchester,
Death
, p. 220.

Fearful of snipers:
Johnson,
The Vantage Point
, p. 12.

Although Secret Service agents:
Elements of this scene are captured in Johnson,
The Vantage Point
; Manchester,
Death
; and Caro,
Passage.