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.
And Arlen Specter helped with that with the single bullet theory to rule out any possibility of another shooter...
Goes also to show how the FBI was more concerned about image than reality....
Comey / Mueller two snakes who carried on the tradition....
The most ridiculous forensic ‘theory’ ever put forth in a legal document.
Had we had the Internet back in those days, it would have been ridiculed off the face of the earth..........
We, the people, must be kept in the dark, so we can trudge to work in order to pay our taxes and finance those in government. If we knew the truth, it may be dangerous for “stability.”
Before they start wondering why the government doesn't want them digging for the truth.
Wasn’t JEH a flamer?
Despite the sensationally deceptive headline, the above quote, deep in the article, IMO, demonstrates that Hoover believed Oswald acted alone and would have been convinced as such in a court of law. If this were not his belief he would not have warned the Dallas police department 4 times that Oswald's life was in danger. Rather, he would have been satisfied that Oswald were taken out if he wanted something covered up. Hoover seemed genuinely concerned about conspiracy theories and that the public might believe some malevolent group was at large.
I was young when all the JFK stuff happened, and I trusted the government reports, even though things seemed a bit far fetched.
However, given that we now know that virtually every branch of government has been corrupted by career leeches possessing no talent save for that of creating words and empty ideas, methinks that no sane person should take anything from any branch of our “gubmit” without considerable sacks of salt.
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.”
Typical CYA on the part of Hoover. He always put the public image of the FBI ahead of any other consideration.
Interesting that he was so concerned that the public be convinced that Oswald acted alone.
It was never in his job description to create public opinion, but that is what he seems to have taken most seriously for his entire career.
He must have read “Manufacturing Consent”.
Mary was right, why the hell did the Dallas police parade Oswald in front of all those people? Of course someone is going to attack him. Unreal.
If ‘scholars and other experts’ don’t believe there is anything groundbreaking in these documents, why were they withheld from public for all these years?
That was kinda SOP back in those days.
They do it in Mexico to this day.
Perhaps it was a cultural holdover...............
Yep and the Mafia blackmailed him which is why they were virtually untouchable during the entire time he was in office.
And he knew there was no conspiracy upon the death of Oswald how?
Like with all things, only our BETTERS can know the truth. Us lackeys just are not able to process it.
He read the history of Elizabeth I, Queen of England...................
Because he said so...................
I think they knew that Oswald had mental issues, so they wanted that chance of him getting killed so that someone could take care of their dirty work for them, and making sure an insanity plea wouldn’t Dave him from death. At least what Oswald’s own wife said about him pointing an unloaded rifle at himself and dry firing it was right, something was not right in his head.
Sort of reminds me of the incident on Las Vegas: believe he acted alone, they were warned,blah, blah. One would think they could change the script after 50 years.
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