Murder Tales: The JFK Conspiracies Read online

  At 12.25 p.m. the emergency medical team that had been placed on standby in case anything untoward happened to the motorcade, was called to Dealey Plaza, a man was having an epileptic fit in front of the Texas School Book Depository. The paramedics assessed twenty-three year old mail-room clerk Jerry Belknap at the scene, and decided to take him in the ambulance to Parkland Memorial Hospital. By the time the ambulance had arrived at Parkland Memorial, Belknap had recovered from the unusual episode. He explained he did not have epilepsy; but suffered from fainting attacks after a car-crash, if he did not take his medication he blacked-out. He informed the paramedics that he had not taken his medication that morning; as he had been so excited at the thought of seeing the President, he had forgotten. Belknap refused any further treatment, or to even to be looked over by a doctor; and he left the hospital. This astounded the paramedics; as the whole hospital was meant to be in lockdown due to the motorcade, the paramedics themselves had been refused permission to leave the hospital again due to this very lockdown. Several of the paramedics connected the seizure incident to several crank calls in the weeks leading up to the President’s visit, which had all requested ambulances to go to the corner of Elm Street and Houston. In each case when the ambulances arrived they had discovered that there were no medical emergencies. In the wake of what was to happen several paramedics mooted the idea that perhaps someone had been secretly timing the ambulances; to see how quickly they would respond to a medical emergency in the Dealey Plaza area. Whatever the case, the Belknap farrago meant that there would be no immediate emergency medical help for the President or any of his entourage if anything where to happen to them between Dealey Plaza and the Trade Mart.

  12.29 p.m. the radios allowing communication between the cars in the motorcade, the secret service and the police, all suddenly died. For a few moments there was slight confusion and nervousness as the security officials realised that they had lost the ability to communicate with one another. It was later concluded that motorcycle Officer H. B. McLean’s radio microphone had become ‘stuck open’ at this juncture, blocking the official channel, and as a result their ability to broadcast. Again; whatever the case, this peculiar incident rendered communication in the motorcade impossible for four crucial minutes.

  Texas School Book Depository employee Geneva Hine was sat on the second floor of the building; finishing her lunch, to her surprise she suddenly realised that the electricity supply to the book depository had been switched off, she went to a nearby telephone and picked up the receiver, the phone was dead also. In response Miss Hines left the lunchroom; in order to find the building supervisor, Roy Truly, and tell him about the unusual events. On her way she tried several light-switches, and found them all to be unresponsive.

  At 12.30 p.m. the motorcade was almost at its destination, only minutes away from the Trade Mart. As the cheering and whooping crowds on the pavement became so thick, people had been forced to stand in the road, Governor Connally’s wife turned in her seat to face President Kennedy and announced, ‘Mr President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you’. Almost immediately after these sentiments had been uttered; the motorcade slowed down to make a 90 degree turn from Main Street onto Houston Street; and enter Dealey Plaza, the so-called ‘Birthplace of Dallas’. The car then slowed to ten miles an hour to turn onto Elm Street, as it did so three shots rang out that would change the world. Kennedy’s hands rose to his throat; and he slumped towards his wife, Jackie cried out, ‘Oh my god! What are they doing to him?’ as suddenly the right side of the President’s head exploded with the impact of the final bullet. Blood, bone and the President’s brain showered over the car; covering everything within range. Jackie; in shock, clambered onto the boot of the car and grasped at a lump of the Presidents ejected brain matter. Secret Service agent Clint Hill was the first Secret Service agent to act, he dismounted from the car immediately behind the President’s, ran to the Presidential limo and threw himself onto the back of the car; pushing Jackie Kennedy back into her seat.

  James Tague had been in Dallas to have lunch with a friend, not knowing about the Presidential visit that day; he’d been caught up in a traffic jam caused by the many road closures in the area. He abandoned his car and decided to go and see the President for himself. He was stood in front of the motorcade, near the triple underpass, when the shots began to be fired, just after the second shot rang out Tague felt a sharp stinging on his right cheek. His hand instinctively rose to protect his face, and as he pulled his fingers away he could feel the unmistakable wetness of fresh blood. Tague; shocked by the horror of the assassination and his own injury, began to leave the area in a daze, when moments after the assassination he was stopped by Deputy Sherriff Buddy Walthers. Walthers had become concerned by the sight of Tague’s bloody face. Walthers and Tague immediately examined the area where Tague had been stood, and on the south curb of upper Main Street they discovered ‘a fresh scar’. It was concluded much later that a bullet had missed the President, bounced off the kerb; and luckily only afforded Tague a glancing ricocheting scratch across his cheek.

  Upon hearing the gunshots; Motorcycle Officer Marion Baker instinctively looked up, he immediately saw pigeons flying in fright from the alcoves and roof of the Texas School Book Depository. To Officer Baker’s analytical mind this meant that the gunshots must have come from either the Texas School Book Depository or next door from the Dal-Tex Building. Despite having received orders to stick with the Presidential limo no matter what, Officer Baker left the motorcade and pulled over to a stop outside of the Texas School Book Depository. Standing from his motorcycle he removed his gun from its holster and rushed into the building.

  At the same time that Marion Baker had looked up and assumed the shots had come from the Texas School Book Depository, there just happened to be twenty off duty Sherriff’s Deputies stood on the kerb near to the Texas School Book Depository. These men had decided to watch the President’s motorcade together on their day off. When the shots were fired, out of the twenty deputies, sixteen of them believed the shots originated from the Grassy Knoll on the north-western side of the plaza. These sixteen officers immediately began to race towards the grassy knoll, and when they arrive in the area they discovered that several other members of the public had also discerned that the shots had originated from this area, and had likewise rushed to investigate. Among these members of the public was NBC News reporter Robert McNeil, he had been on the press bus when the shots were fired, he had ordered the bus to stop and had run to the area where he ascertained that the shots had been fired from, the grassy knoll. Moments later; Dallas Police Officer Joe Marshall Smith and Deputy Sherriff Seymour Weitzman joined the group on the grassy knoll, both these lawmen believed that the gunfire had come from this area. Both Smith and Weitzman believed that they could smell gunpowder in the air. Smith was so concerned by the smell of fresh gunpowder he drew his gun; as he attempted to climb over the stockade fence at the top of the hill; and investigate the car-park beyond. Suddenly Smith and Weitzman were confronted by a man who appeared to be loitering in the area, the mysterious gentleman showed the officers a set of Secret Service credentials; and he was allowed to go about his business.

  Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was riding in an open top car some sixty-feet behind the Presidential limo. He had no idea what was going on, his initial belief was that the reports echoing around Dealey Plaza were firecrackers being let off by the jubilant crowd. Secret Service agent Rufus Youngblood suddenly seeing the Presidential limo speed off, when taken in conjunction with the three loud reports of gunfire, and Youngblood knew it was a clear indication that something was very wrong. In response he acted immediately and selflessly, jumping from the front seat of his car and throwing himself over Vice President Johnson, and pushing him to the floor of the vehicle. Youngblood yelled orders for the driver to speed up the Vice Presidential car and to stick with the Presidential limo. As Youngblood realised they were racing to Parkland’s Memorial Hospital; he had one op
tion open to him, get the Vice President inside the hospital, and find him a secure and safe location.

  Officer Baker had reached the lobby of the Texas School Book Depository, he was now accompanied by building Superintendent Roy Truly, who had witnessed Baker rush into the building. They attempted to call the elevator to the lobby, but found it to be stuck on the fifth floor; due to the strange power outage the building was suffering. Instead they both began to hare their way up the stairs, in the second floor lunch room Officer Baker saw a man with his back to the door; walking across the room. Baker entered the lunch room to find out just who the man was, Truly being older and less fit than Baker eventually caught up with Baker; as Baker had his gun trained on the man’s stomach. Truly, in a panic, vouched for the man, he was a Texas School Book Depository employee called Lee Harvey Oswald. Baker then left the lunch room to continue his search of the building.

  At 12.33 p.m. Lee Harvey Oswald left the Texas School Book Depository via its main entrance. As he exited the building his heart suddenly jumped into his mouth as a Secret Service agent firmly placed a hand around his arm to halt him. The agent asked Oswald where he could locate a telephone, Oswald directed the agent into the Texas School Book Depository; before himself rushing off down the street.

  Also at 12.33 p.m. the interference on Police Band Channel 1 came to an end, but before radio contact was re-established all those listening in heard a mysterious, chilling and simple message tapped out in Morse code, VICTORY. Peculiarly at the precise same time that Police Band Channel 1 began to work again, all telecommunications were cut off in Washington D.C. and all communication equipment aboard Air Force One ceased to function. As a result Washington D.C. and the staff aboard Air Force One knew that President Kennedy had been shot, but were unable to get any follow up information for over an hour, leading to panic, confusion and a heightened sense of hysteria in the corridors of power.

  12.34 p.m. The radio telephone in the press car of the motorcade suddenly ceased to function. The malfunction occurred immediately after reporter Merriman Smith had sent the first report over the wire of the President having been shot. This temporarily left the rest of the world like Washington, knowing that President Kennedy had been shot, but confused and uninformed as to his continuing condition.

  12.36 p.m. Seven blocks east from the assassination, on the corner of Commerce and Houston, Lee Harvey Oswald boarded the number 1213 bus bound for Oak Cliff. He wasn’t on the bus long, he’d travelled only two blocks, the assassination had caused all sorts of havoc with the local traffic, and on the intersection near Lamar Street the bus came to a complete standstill. Impatient to keep moving; Oswald got off the bus. Again, for the moment, Oswald appeared to have the luck of the devil on his side; just minutes after he had alighted; the police boarded the bus and began to interrogate the passengers.

  Also at 12.36 p.m. an alert was put out over Police Radio Band 2 by the dispatcher, stating that witness Amos L. Euins had seen the shooter in the fifth story window of the Texas School Book Depository. Suddenly the Texas School Book Depository was swamped with police officers and Sheriff’s Deputies joining Marion Baker in his search.

  Seven minutes after the President had been shot; the Presidential limo pulled up outside of the trauma unit of Parkland’s Memorial Hospital. Secret Service agent Emory Roberts took a look at President Kennedy’s injuries for the first time, he immediately realised that the President was dead, and sad as that fact was, his number one priority now had to be to protect the President’s de-facto-replacement, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Emory detailed a group of men to form a tight circle around Johnson and to escort him into the hospital. At the same moment Governor Connally recovered consciousness from where he had fainted into the arms of his wife in the Presidential limo. He stood from the limo on shaking legs, but suddenly the excruciating pain from a gunshot wound he had received filled his body; and with a pained cry he collapsed onto the pavement. He was hastily picked up by the medics, placed onto a gurney; and rushed into the hospital. Meanwhile Jackie Kennedy was lying on the floor of the Presidential limo, her face buried into her dead husband’s chest, as she wept inconsolably. The First Lady had to be pulled away from her husband so that he could be bundled onto a gurney, his head was hastily covered with a jacket, so that no one could see who had been so fatally wounded in the shooting, suddenly the seriousness of the President’s injuries dawned on those around him, Secret Service agent Winston Lawson commented later, ‘You could see the damage to the head, which was devastating. You could see the colour of the skin, which was grey, but not grey, really. I knew it had to be a fatal wound. I never saw the President alive again, or his body again’. Only after the injuries had been hidden away from the eyes of a world eager for news, was the President then rushed into the hospital. From that moment the President’s protectors were under no delusions as to what chance President Kennedy stood. As his body was whisked away, Secret Service agent Merriman Smith approached his colleague Clint Hill. Hill was leaning on the back of the Presidential car, a look of hopelessness, anger and bitter sadness etched upon his downturned face. ‘How badly was he hit Clint?’ Merriman asked; Clint looked up; tears beginning to form in his steely eyes, ‘He’s dead’ Clint replied in a short angry burst, before moving off like a wounded animal.

  Meanwhile Vice President Johnson had been ushered into a small waiting room; where he and his wife, Lady Bird, sat waiting for news. Secret Service agent Emory Roberts entered ashen faced, he informed Johnson that President Kennedy had been shot and that his injuries were most likely fatal. The reason for Roberts’ lie was simple; he couldn’t inform Johnson that the President was dead until a doctor had officially declared it, no matter how obvious the deceased President’s condition had been to him. Roberts implored Johnson to leave Parkland Memorial Hospital that very minute, to get to Air Force One and fly back to the Whitehouse. If the assassination was the beginning of a plot to decapitate the Kennedy administration, then Johnson needed to be somewhere safe. Not stuck in a little room in a public building; which would soon be swarming with reporters and public well-wishers. Johnson refused to go; he would not leave the hospital until he knew for certain that President Kennedy was dead.

  High up above the Pacific Ocean; six key members of the Kennedy administration were onboard a Boeing 707, flying on a diplomatic trip to Japan. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, Labour Secretary W. W. Wirtz, Secretary of Commerce Luther Hodges, Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman and Whitehouse Press Secretary Pierre Salinger. These cabinet members had been surprised when they were all ordered on this diplomatic sortie, as it was the first time in history that so many key members of the cabinet had been asked to travel together on the one flight. Obviously if anything had happened to the plane, losing six key members of the cabinet could have crippled Kennedy’s administration, so such situations were usually avoided at all costs. The trip had been called ‘unprecedented’ and no official reason for the trip had been given to the cabinet members assigned to go, there just seemed to be no need for the trip. Suddenly over the teletype came the devastating news that President Kennedy had been shot. Immediately; Secretary of State Rusk wanted to contact the Whitehouse and get more details. Only he couldn’t, the official code book held on every Presidential plane, essential for contacting the Whitehouse, was missing. Without this book the cabinet was cut off from the world, and news of the President’s condition.

  In the Pentagon; the Defence Intelligence Agency contacted the Whitehouse to ask one simple question, with the President down, and at best seriously injured, who was now in charge of the country? Commander Oliver Hallet and McGeorge Bundy in the Whitehouse situation room quickly mulled the question over, they knew that Vice President Johnson had a serious drink problem, and that Kennedy would not have wanted him to have any real or serious power or influence if anything were to happen to him, so Hallet and Bundy gave the Pentagon one simple answer, with th
e President down it was Defence Secretary George McNamara who was now running the country.