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Oswald had help, ex-agent says
Rocky Mountain News ^ | 11-21 | Rocky Mountain News

Posted on 12/07/2003 7:38:21 PM PST by ambrose

Rocky Mountain News
 
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URL: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_2445221,00.html
Oswald had help, ex-agent says

Coloradan convinced that more than one

By Ellen Miller, Special To The News
November 21, 2003

GRAND JUNCTION - Lee Harvey Oswald didn't act alone when he killed President John F. Kennedy, and the president died because Secret Service agents failed at their jobs, a retired agent says.

"Officially, the answer to Oswald when somebody asks - because we were ordered to say it - is that the Warren Commission found that he acted alone," retired agent Jerry O'Rourke said. "But was there more than one gunman? Yes, personally I believe so. And my personal opinion about Jack Ruby is that he was paid to kill Oswald."

O'Rourke grew up in Telluride and attended Western State and Regis colleges, then spent 22 years in the Secret Service. Now retired and back home, he spoke this week to the downtown Grand Junction Rotary Club.

O'Rourke said his group of about 10 agents had protected Kennedy the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, at a breakfast speech in Fort Worth. Then the group left by air for Austin, the next stop planned on the president's Texas tour.

"We got the word (of the assassination) in the air, and we didn't believe it at first," he said. "Most of the agents had tears in their eyes. Agents believed in Kennedy, and we knew we failed our job in Dallas."

After his White House tour ended during Johnson's presidency, O'Rourke spent a year in the Secret Service intelligence division, which offered him glimpses into the investigation of Kennedy's death.

Those glimpses, and the accounts of other agents, have convinced O'Rourke that Oswald didn't act alone.

He cited several reasons:

Kennedy had a number of enemies, any of whom could have plotted against him. They included people angered by his insistence on civil rights; organized crime; labor unions unhappy with investigations of them by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; Cuban dissidents angry over the failed Bay of Pigs invasion; and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

The shots attributed to Oswald were impossible to make. O'Rourke learned to shoot as a boy and trained as a military marksman. He said his visits to Oswald's perch at the Texas Book Depository have convinced him that no one could have fired a rifle three times so quickly, hitting the president and Texas Gov. John Connolly.

The trajectory of one of the shots could not have been made by a gunman on the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository. The shot entered Kennedy's body at his lower back and traveled up, to exit near his throat.

The circumstances of the autopsy were irregular. Texas law requires autopsies to be done in state, but agents, acting on the orders of White House, took Kennedy's body back to Washington, D.C. The autopsy was performed at Bethesda Naval Medical Center under secrecy that prevails to this day.

Evidence was destroyed. O'Rourke said that on the day of the assassination, one agent was ordered to clean out the cars used in the motorcade, getting rid of blood and other evidence. The agent told O'Rourke that he found a piece of skull, asked the White House doctor what to do with it, and was told to destroy it.

Instructions were given to lie. The agent in charge of motorcade protection told O'Rourke that he was told by the Warren Commission during his testimony that he did not hear a fourth shot and did not see someone running across the grassy knoll. But the agent insisted that his account was accurate.

Evidence about the shots is in conflict. An open microphone on a motorcycle in the motorcade picked up four shots, not three.

"In my opinion, Hoover wanted the commission to find that Oswald acted alone," O'Rourke said.

"The complete file won't be released until 2027, and the reason for that is most of us will be dead by then."

Copyright 2003, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.



TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: conspiracy; jfk; jfkassassination; kennedyassassination; oswald
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1 posted on 12/07/2003 7:38:22 PM PST by ambrose
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To: Az Joe
ping
2 posted on 12/07/2003 7:38:46 PM PST by ambrose
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To: ambrose
Oswald had help, ex-agent says

Howard Dean: "There is a theory, and it has not been proved, that George W. Bush had a hand in assassinating President Kennedy. Now, the fact that he won't release all of his records is troubling."

3 posted on 12/07/2003 7:41:00 PM PST by Paul Atreides (Is it really so difficult to post the entire article?)
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To: ambrose

I didn't do it!
Nobody saw me do it!
You can't prove anything!

4 posted on 12/07/2003 7:44:29 PM PST by Revolting cat! (Merry Shopping Season and a Happy Pre-Christmas Storewide Sales Event!)
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To: ambrose
Not to be rude, but I didn't see one thing in that report that I haven't heard a thousand times.
5 posted on 12/07/2003 7:46:35 PM PST by Texas Eagle
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To: ambrose
And my personal opinion about Jack Ruby is that he was paid to kill Oswald.

OK - everyone relax. Think about the circumstances of Oswald's murder - how much $$$ would you take to do that, knowing you'd never see a penny?

I've been offered $50,000 to jump into a volcano - wish me luck!

6 posted on 12/07/2003 7:48:10 PM PST by Senator Pardek
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To: Senator Pardek
Yeah, that's always been the flaw in that theory, unless Ruby had a wife and kids that would be taken care of if he sacrificed himself to off Oswald(versus the alternative of the mob would knock him off and leave them with debts. 'Offer he can't refuse kinda' stuff.), but I have no idea what his family life was.
7 posted on 12/07/2003 7:51:54 PM PST by Diddle E. Squat (www.firethebcs.com, www.weneedaplayoff.com, www.firemackbrown.com, www.firecarlreese.com)
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To: Texas Eagle
I know. There hasn't been any new news on this story since 1963.
8 posted on 12/07/2003 7:52:08 PM PST by ambrose
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To: Senator Pardek
I've been offered $50,000 to jump into a volcano - wish me luck!

You'll need some of this:


9 posted on 12/07/2003 7:52:34 PM PST by NYC GOP Chick (Dick Gephardt, Before He Can Do It To You!)
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To: Diddle E. Squat
Make that: 'Offer he can't refuse' kinda stuff.
10 posted on 12/07/2003 7:52:42 PM PST by Diddle E. Squat (www.firethebcs.com, www.weneedaplayoff.com, www.firemackbrown.com, www.firecarlreese.com)
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To: Senator Pardek
Actually, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect a short prison sentence or even jury nullification for killing the president's assassin.
11 posted on 12/07/2003 7:53:34 PM PST by ambrose
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To: Senator Pardek
Don't do it! It's a trick!
12 posted on 12/07/2003 7:54:37 PM PST by Abcdefg
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To: ambrose
Interesting on how these (tin foil hat on as Im writing)
all these conspiracy theroies get pooh poohed and
the pooh poohers always seem to be of the belief that the
"Government wouldnt lie" obviously they are trained liars.
Police regularly lie to citizens, the pentagon lies steadfastly and daily. Most business people are lying to
everyone around them especially car dealers. Quite frankly that is the hallmark of the wealthy they are great liars.
A pox on them all I say ,burn in hell!
13 posted on 12/07/2003 7:55:40 PM PST by claptrap
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To: Paul Atreides
There actually is a theory that George H. W. Bush was involved with the Kennedy assassination, but I've never seen any explanation as to how. Here's a link I just Googled up: Kennedy: The George Bush Connection.*

*I didn't actually bother reading the link past the first paragraph, so can't comment on details.

14 posted on 12/07/2003 8:02:23 PM PST by AntiGuv (When the countdown hits zero, something's gonna happen..)
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To: ambrose
The shots attributed to Oswald were impossible to make. O'Rourke learned to shoot as a boy and trained as a military marksman. He said his visits to Oswald's perch at the Texas Book Depository have convinced him that no one could have fired a rifle three times so quickly, hitting the president and Texas Gov. John Connolly.

WRONG!
In "Mortal Error" (Menninger) an NRA instructor/sharpshooter/ballistics expert not only repeated, but bettered the performance attributed to Oswald. The subsequent forensic analysis is also quite interesting. The shooter was hired to write a report backing up the Warren commission, but insisted on making an independent study rather than say 'because I could do it then Oswald must have done it'. He puts the 'magic bullet' theory to bed, and concludes, convincingly, that although there may have been only 1 assassin, more than 1 gun was fired. A must read for conspiracy buffs and ballistics/forensics geeks alike.

15 posted on 12/07/2003 8:04:52 PM PST by BlueNgold (Feed the Tree .....)
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To: claptrap; honway; aristeides; rubbertramp; metalbird1; thinden; Plummz
"In my opinion, Hoover wanted the commission to find that Oswald acted alone," O'Rourke said.

A retired agent states the obvious. Yes, claptrap, our government lies and most citizens swallow the lies like potato chips.

16 posted on 12/07/2003 8:05:11 PM PST by Fred Mertz
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To: AntiGuv
There is mention in an FBI report that an agent in Dallas passed information to Mr. George Bush of the CIA. The CIA explained this reference as alluding to a file clerk working at Langley at the time. Later interviews revealed that the clerk in question was not a field agent and had never been to Dallas at the time of the assassination. This reference was previously unnoticed and there was no cause for concern until it was brought to light in the 70's during the joint select committee on assassination hearings as GHWB was rising in stature and assuming the directorate of the CIA.
17 posted on 12/07/2003 8:08:28 PM PST by BlueNgold (Feed the Tree .....)
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To: Senator Pardek
I've been offered $50,000 to jump into a volcano

What are you crazy?!
Hold out for $100,000.

18 posted on 12/07/2003 8:11:35 PM PST by eddie willers
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To: ambrose
It's always been obvious to all but the "experts". When a prez or high profile person in gov't. or politics, the experts WILL NOT buy an "only one" senerio.
19 posted on 12/07/2003 8:19:19 PM PST by Waco
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To: ambrose
OK, I'll bite, and read this one later.
20 posted on 12/07/2003 8:19:41 PM PST by dix
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