A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination (87 page)

Over time:
Memo from CIA officer Scott Breckinridge, “Memo for the Record: Conversation with Ann [
sic
] Goodpasture,” July 18, 1978, NARA (document: 1993.08.09.10:37:28:500060). Also see Goodpasture Deposition, pp. 27, 32. See also Morley,
Our Man
, passim.

CHAPTER 12

Whitten put together:
Testimony of John Scelso (pseudonym for John Whitten), Whitten Senate Testimony, p. 76000140416, NARA, available from
www.maryferrell.org
(accessed May 13, 2013).

By this point:
Testimony of John Scelso, Whitten House Testimony, pp. 1–114/001896 through 1–116/001898.

Whitten saw no evidence:
Whitten Senate Testimony, pp. 76000140443 and 76000140446.

As he finished the report:
Whitten Senate Testimony, p. 76000140417; Whitten House Testimony, p. 1–73/001854.

He confronted Angleton:
Whitten House Testimony, p. 1–74/001855.

Without Whitten’s knowledge:
Whitten Senate Testimony, p. 76000140469; Whitten House Testimony, pp. 1–73/001854 through 1–74/001855.

“You go tell him”:
Whitten House Testimony, p. 1–74/001855.

Whitten began to worry:
Whitten House Testimony, pp. 1–74/1855 and 1–114/001896 through 1–116/001898; Whitten Senate Testimony, pp. 76000140417 through 76000140418.

Whitten was also startled to discover:
Whitten House Testimony, p. 1–114/001896.

As he read on:
“vast amount of information,” Whitten Senate Testimony, p. 76000140473; “simultaneously outdated,” ibid., p. 76000140469; “useless,” ibid., p. 76000140470. This episode is also covered in Whitten House Testimony, pp. 1–115/001897 through 1–116/001898.

The situation:
This episode is outlined in Whitten House Testimony, pp. 1–115/001897 through 1–116/001898; “so full of errors…” and “it was never,” Whitten Senate Testimony, p. 76000140470.

Angleton urged:
Whitten Senate Testimony, p. 76000140472.

Whitten was struck that:
Ibid.

Within the CIA:
Testimony of Richard Helms, HSCA, 1978, JFK Assassination Files, CIA NARA, record number: 104–10051–10025, p. 9 (hereafter Helms House Testimony). Also see Whitten Senate Testimony, pp. 76000140471 through 76000140471 and Whitten House Testimony, pp. 1–115/001897 through 1–116/001898.

Whitten’s specialty:
Whitten House Testimony, pp. 1–4/001784 and 1–5/001785; investigation had expanded, Whitten Senate Testimony, pp. 76000140471 through 76000140472 and Whitten House Testimony, pp. 1–135/001917 through 1–138/001920.

Years later:
That Whitten was outraged, ibid., pp. 76000140441, 76000140466, and 76000140495; Whitten House Testimony, pp. 1–137/001918 and 1–153/001935.

He typically ended:
Powers,
The Man Who Kept the Secrets
, p. 3.

“The whole thrust”:
Helms House Testimony, p. 10.

“It is an untidy”:
Ibid., September 22, 1978, HSCA, p. 172.

David Slawson, still new:
Slawson interviews. See also Testimony of W. David Slawson, November 15, 1977, HSCA. Text from
HSCA Security Classified Testimony
, available from the Assassination Archives and Research Center (accessed May 22, 2013).

He was struck:
Slawson interviews.

The CIA had done:
Slawson interviews. See also Testimony of Raymond Rocca, July 17, 1978, HSCA. Text from
HSCA Security Classified Testimony
, available from the Assassination Archives and Research Center (accessed May 22, 2013).

Rocca, a San Franciscan:
See obituary of Rocca, “Raymond Rocca, CIA Deputy and Specialist on Soviets, 76,”
Washington Post
, November 14, 1993.

Slawson said he found:
Slawson interviews.

The SAS had its own:
Church Committee, “The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy,” Vol. 5, pp. 57–58.

On February 20:
“Memorandum for Chief, Subject; Documents Available in Oswald’s 201 file,” February 20, 1964, as reproduced in the transcript of the Helms House testimony, September 22, 1978.

CHAPTER 13

“The only thing”:
Warren interview with Alfred Goldberg, March 26, 1974, as found in Warren Commission files, Warren papers, LOC.

“I never put any faith”:
Ibid.

“I never heard”:
Rankin Deposition.

“I assumed conspiracy”:
Belin,
Final Disclosure
, p. 50.

“I felt it was highly”:
Belin,
November 22, 1963; You Are the Jury
, p. 4.

“My initial reaction”:
Griffin interviews.

When he entered:
Griffin interviews.

“I thought the FBI”:
Griffin interviews. See also Griffin testimony to the HSCA, November 17, 1977.

Their office:
Griffin interviews.

As he introduced:
Griffin interviews.

It was like:
Eisenberg interviews.

The odd man out:
Griffin, Slawson, Specter interviews. Also see Specter memoir transcripts.

He told Specter:
Specter interviews; Specter memoir transcripts.

Slawson remembered a few:
Slawson interviews.

According to memos:
Memo from Eisenberg to files, “First Staff Conference (January 20, 1964),” February 14, 1964, staff files, Warren Commission, NARA. Also see memo from Willens “for the record,” “Staff Meeting of Jan. 20, 1964,” January 21, 1964, staff files, Warren Commission, NARA.

CHAPTER 14

Hugh Aynesworth:
Aynesworth interviews. See also Aynesworth,
JFK: Breaking the News
, passim.

At first, Aynesworth:
Aynesworth interviews.

Aynesworth understood:
Aynesworth interviews; Aynesworth,
JFK: Breaking
, p. 7.

“I felt badly”:
Aynesworth interviews; Aynesworth,
JFK: Breaking
, pp. 6–7.

The paper was controlled:
History of the
Dallas Morning News
available on the Web site of the Texas State Historical Association,
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eed12
(accessed June 15, 2013).

Jacqueline Kennedy:
Manchester,
Death
, p. 121.

Aynesworth had many gifts:
Description of Aynesworth taken from William Broyles, “The Man Who Saw Too Much,”
Texas Monthly
, March 1976.

He had no notepad:
Aynesworth interviews; Aynesworth,
JFK: Breaking
, p. 22.

“I knew he was”:
Aynesworth interviews; Aynesworth
: JFK: Breaking
, p. 29.

Helen Markham:
Aynesworth,
JFK: Breaking
, p. 33.

Aynesworth watched:
Aynesworth interviews; Aynesworth,
JFK: Breaking
, p. 47.

“He was a nut”:
Aynesworth interviews; Aynesworth,
JFK: Breaking
, pp. 104–16.

Aynesworth was horrified:
Aynesworth interviews.

The first, he said:
Aynesworth,
JFK: Breaking
, pp. 69, 216.

In that category:
Ibid., p. 217; Aynesworth interviews.

“He told me”:
Aynesworth interviews; Aynesworth,
JFK: Breaking
, pp. 222–23.

Among the most persistent:
Aynesworth,
JFK: Breaking
, pp. 126–27.

The byline was:
Houston Post
, January 1, 1964.

In his column for:
Washington Merry-Go-Round, December 2, 1963, available in the Drew Pearson archives maintained by American University,
http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/bitstream/2041/50086/b18f09–1202zdisplay.pdf#search=”
.

Any move to discipline:
Testimony of James Rowley, Warren Appendix, Vol. 5, June 18, 1964, passim.

In his diary:
Pearson Diaries, December 1963, Pearson papers, LBJ Library.

Later in December:
Washington Merry-Go-Round, December 14, 1963,
http://dspace.wrlc.org/doc/bitstream/2041/50099/b18f09–1214zdisplay.pdf#search=”
.

CHAPTER 15

Before Christmas:
Memo from Willens to Rankin, “Outline of Commission’s Work,” December 30, 1963, staff files, Warren Commission, NARA.

“We have an important”:
Memo from Rankin to staff, January 13, 1964, staff files, Warren Commission, NARA.

Warren opened:
Warren Commission Executive Session, January 21, 1963, NARA, p. 8.

Gerald Ford:
Ibid., pp. 34–35.

“It is not too early”:
Ibid., p. 12.

He asked Russell:
Ibid., pp. 24–25.

Hoover said he:
Church Committee, Vol. 5, p. 47.

“To have them just lie”:
Rankin Deposition, pp. 15–16.

Rankin recalled:
Ibid., p. 129. See also Warren Commission Executive Session, January 22 and January 27, 1964, NARA.

Ford was in a hearing:
Ford,
Portrait of the Assassin
, pp. 15–16.

He was struck:
Ibid., p. 21.

“You wouldn’t pick up”:
Warren Commission Executive Session, January 22, 1964, NARA, p. 6.

“They found their”:
Ibid.

“You would have people think”:
Ibid., p. 12.

Time
magazine:
Warren Commission Executive Session, January 27, 1964, NARA, p. 152.

“We do have a dirty”:
Ibid., p. 139.

Warren and Rankin had:
Ibid., pp. 160, 137.

“I would be frank”:
Ibid., p. 137.

The chief justice said:
Ibid., pp. 152–54.

“There is no man”:
Ibid., p. 158.

Warren: “If you tell”:
Ibid., p. 164.

“They have tried the case”:
Ibid., p. 171.

CHAPTER 16

Rankin was ushered:
Hoover appointment calendar, January 24, 1964, FBI, accessed through Mary Ferrell Foundation,
http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=141177&relPageId=16
.

Assistant Director Cartha:
DeLoach,
Hoover’s FBI
, p. 12.

In an outer office:
Ibid., p. 29.

The effect:
Ibid., p. 13.

FBI employees:
Ibid., p. 24.

Like Chief Justice Warren:
Testimony of J. Lee Rankin, HSCA, September 21, 1978 (hereafter Rankin Testimony), p. 19.