Posted on 10/27/2017 6:13:08 AM PDT by Red Badger
"There is nothing further on the Oswald case except that he is dead."
J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, dictated that line in a memo he issued on Nov. 24, 1963, the day Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald as Oswald was being transported to the Dallas County Jail after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The memo is one of at least 52 records never previously made public that were included in the release Thursday of about 2,800 unredacted government documents related to Kennedy's murder in Dallas two days earlier. President Donald Trump approved withholding an undisclosed number of other documents pending a 180-day national security review.
Scholars and other experts have repeatedly said it's unlikely that there's anything groundbreaking in the documents. But as journalists and historians pored through the enormous database of material Thursday night and Friday morning, some interesting nuggets were turning up, among them Hoover's Nov. 24 memo.
Hoover appeared to be particularly concerned that the public would have to be compelled to believe that Oswald was a lone actor — not part of a larger conspiracy.
In the 1964 Warren Report on Kennedy's assassination, Hoover was firm in stating that he hadn't seen "any scintilla of evidence" suggesting a conspiracy — a sentiment he expressed in other public forums, as well, but not in words as blunt as those he used the day Oswald was killed.
Referring to Nicholas Katzenbach, the deputy attorney general at the time, Hoover dictated: "The thing I am concerned about, and so is Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin."
It's not clear from the memo whether Hoover thought there might have been a conspiracy but didn't want it to be known or whether he sincerely believed Oswald acted alone and hoped to head off public fear and confusion.
Hoover also indicated that his concern may have been influenced, in part, by diplomacy, dictating that there could be serious international complications if the public thought Oswald might have been part of a larger plot.
Katzenbach is known from previously released documents to have shared Hoover's concern, writing in a memo the next day, on Nov. 25, 1963, that "the public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large; and that evidence was such that he would have been convicted at trial."
In the memo, Hoover excoriated the Dallas Police Department for not having prevented Oswald's killing by Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner. The FBI had warned the police that Oswald's life was in danger, but nothing was done, he complained.
"Oswald having been killed today after our warnings to the Dallas Police Department was inexcusable," Hoover dictated. "It will allow, I am afraid, a lot of civil rights people to raise a lot of hell because he was handcuffed and had no weapon. There are bound to be some elements of our society who will holler their heads off that his civil rights were violated — which they were."
Hoover argued against appointing an independent commission to review the evidence, contending that the matter should be left to the Justice Department, the FBI's parent agency. Lyndon Johnson, the new president, announced the creation of the Warren Commission a few days later.
Well, he IS FROM TEXAS......................
>> GHWB is still alive. <<
Isn’t Ted Cruz’s father? Hee hee hee.
Probably gay crossdressers too.
That’s why he never went after the mob. They had photos of him sucking off tolsen his lover.
“the public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large; and that evidence was such that he would have been convicted at trial.”
Both Hoover’s and Katzenbach’s memos are similarly worded and pretty surprising since they came so soon after the assassination, within 2 days. They just read funny...and reek of politcal calculation, not a request to know the truth.
Just weird and they fueled this speculation that has gone on for over 50yrs.
I was in 7th grade...got the news in math class around 2-ish I guess...and I did see Oswald get shot ...
Very sad times that weekend...
The only thing I’m sure of is that the magic bullet is impossible.
To avoid pissing off the GOPe and get his tax cuts passed. I suspect that may be why he gave them 180 days.
I wouldn't go so far as to say Bush was INVOLVED in the assassination or even involved in any conspiracy. But as the CIA director in the 70's, he certainly knows a great deal more than what we've been told. Or will ever be told.
/s!!!!!
At least his hand is. ;-)
Yep. If only they'd kept Oswald protected the whole conspiracy industry would never have started. It's all based on Ruby's killing of Oswald. Obviously Hoover knew Oswald's death would give birth to a flood of conspiracy rumors.
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The tragedy in all this is that crooked LBJ became President upon Kennedy’s death. Because LBJ was President, how many American heroes were killed in Vietnam because of LBJ’s asinine ROE and his micromanaging the Vietnam War? Then there’s the incompetence of John McNamara that caused how many lives? Not only are there over 58,000 names on The Wall, how many thousands more died because they served in Vietnam and how many are currently dying every day because they went to Vietnam?
How many did Obama get killed because of his asinine restrictive ROE?
I was in 7th grade when JFK was Killed, even then, and have ever since, thought LBJ, had JFK erased.
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