The Day Kennedy Was Shot (96 page)

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All final decisions were made by Mrs. Kennedy. Archbishop O'Boyle was the ranking Catholic churchman in Washington. Mrs. Kennedy did not want him. She substituted Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston, a family friend. As a sop, O'Boyle's auxiliary bishop, Philip Hannan, was permitted to read excerpts from President Kennedy's speeches at the funeral Mass.

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At the White House a month before he died, President Kennedy told me that, as a matter of practice, he always said a night prayer but never a morning one. Lyndon Johnson, on the other hand, seldom uttered a formal prayer night or day, but inwardly said: “Thank God” whenever he heard good news about the welfare of his family or his nation.

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At the White House in June 1965, President Johnson told me that, even in the midst of the fight with Kennedy for the Democratic nomination, he was certain that he would not win it. When he was elected Vice-President, Johnson counted on four, or at most eight, years in the office and was certain that he would be able to retire to his ranch in January 1969 at the age of sixty.

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As Dr. Humes expected, his call to Parkland and Dr. Perry the following morning altered his thinking. He was told that the tracheostomy in the neck had originally been a wound and had been expanded to improve breathing. A tube had been inserted. Cardiac arrest occurred and closed-chest massage was futile. Humes, Boswell, and Finck realized that the shot in the shoulder strap muscles had come from above and behind, emerging at the bottom of the throat. It was a wound from which the President would probably have recovered without incident.

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Attorney John Abt of New York was spending a weekend with his wife in a cabin they owned in a farm area of Connecticut. It was not equipped with television or radio. The next day, when reporters located him, Mr. Abt said that he doubted he could defend Lee Harvey Oswald because of his legal commitments. Failing to contact John Abt, Lee Harvey Oswald phoned his wife Saturday but found that the
Life
magazine men had taken her and his mother from the Paine household. He asked Mrs. Paine to contact John Abt in New York.

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The author wants to make it clear that no record was kept of any of the interrogations of Oswald. He makes no claim that the questions and answers are in proper sequence. From interviews and recollections of persons who were present, these scenes represent an approximation of what was said. There is no doubt that some of them are not properly juxtaposed, in spite of information from Dallas and Washington observers.

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In the morning, Dr. Humes called Dallas and spoke to Dr. Malcolm Perry of Parkland Memorial Hospital. The Bethesda doctor identified himself and said that he could not discuss the findings of the necropsy, but he would like to know more about the tracheostomy. Perry said that when President Kennedy arrived at the hospital, the wound in the lower anterior portion of the throat was noticeable. Bloody bubbled air was standing in it. There was no time to dwell on it or even to measure it for size. Medically, breathing had to be restored at once if the patient was not already dead. The hole in the throat was enlarged and incised by Dr. Perry, who stuck a tube in it. What had appeared to be a surgical incision was proved to be an exit wound.

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Untrue. Oswald appears to have spoken the truth when he said that the map was used in conjunction with job opportunities published in the newspapers. His habit, before he secured work at the Depository, was to mark off several places where a job might be obtained and then try to figure the cheapest way to get to them by using a bus and free transfers. The X at the Depository building turned out to be the final place he looked for work. There were no street markings showing the route of the President's motorcade.

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Untrue. Johnston had yet to read the assassination charge to Oswald.

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In cases where feelings are described, they are culled from later recollections of that person or from testimony of persons who were at the scene. In this case, the feelings of Ruby come from his depositions after shooting Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963.

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The Bar Association of Dallas County did not concern itself with the rights of the prisoner to counsel until the following day. An Eastern dean of a law school phoned a Dallas attorney about the matter of counsel. The Dallas lawyer phoned H. Louis Nichols, president of the Dallas Bar Association. Mr. Nichols phoned a criminal lawyer to “refresh my memory.” The criminal lawyer said there was an obligation to appoint counsel after a prisoner has been indicted. Mr. Nichols asked himself if the bar association owed anything to Oswald. Saturday afternoon he visited Oswald in his cell. The prisoner was interested in representation by “John Abt” or someone from the Civil Liberties Union. Nichols did not know Abt or a lawyer from ACLU. The interview was friendly and fruitless.

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Each of the bullets fired at President Kennedy weighed 161 grains: total 483 grains. The final accounting is: (1) The first shot probably missed the car on the right side, ricocheting off the curb and spraying James Tague at the Commerce Street underpass; 161 grains; (2) the bullet on the stretcher weighed 158.6 grains; (3) fragment
found in front section of President's car: 44.6 grains; (4) fragment on front floor of car: 21 grains; (5) two fragments from Kennedy's head: 1.65 grains and 0.15 grains; (6) fragment from wrist of Governor Connally; .5 of a grain; (7) fragment from rear rug of car: .9 of a grain; (8) fragment from rear floorboard of car: .7 of a grain; (9) fragment from rear carpet of car: .7 of a grain. Total found: 228.80 grains; first bullet missing: 161 grains. Total: 389.80. Unaccounted for: 93.20 grains.

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The dent was found to have been made in a New York garage when someone tried to close the convertible top and hit the aluminum frame of the windshield.

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One of the small mysteries is what happened to the Dallas casket. The Department of the Navy professed ignorance. Bethesda Hospital, at that time and for several years thereafter, was under the command of Captain R. O. Canada. In May 1968, Canada sent word to the author that he would not be permitted to see the empty autopsy room, unless he had an “okay from the White House.” The public relations officers professed to know nothing of the disposal of the Dallas casket.

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In testimony before the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, J. P. Johnston swore he apprised Lee Harvey Oswald of his constitutional rights “again.” Chief Jesse Curry, a witness in the same hearings, swore: “I do not recall whether he did or not.”

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Had the plea been granted, it would have saved the life of Lee Harvey Oswald. Thirty-four hours later, he was shot to death in the basement of police headquarters by Jack Ruby. In a prison ward, Ruby died of cancer three years later.

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At 4
A.M.
Dallas time, the order for C2766 was located. It was a coupon clipped from the
American Rifleman
of February 1963. It was ordered by “A. Hidel, P.O. Box 2915, Dallas, Tex.” It was paid for by “A. Hidell,” a name Lee Harvey Oswald told Captain Fritz he used now and then. The price of the rifle, with four-power scope on it, was $19.95. There was an additional charge of $1.50 for postage and handling. The Mannlicher-Carcano had been mailed to the purchaser on March 20, 1963.