The Passage of Power (146 page)

Don Reynolds walked in; had brought documents with him:
No transcript of Don Reynolds’s testimony exists in the files of the Senate Rules Committee at the National Archives, and if it exists anywhere else, the author has not been able to find it. After an extensive search of the archives and of Senate records, the Senate Historian Donald A. Ritchie said, “There was less archival control of Senate committee records in those days and some documents of consequence were not preserved.” A written summary made of the interview is referred to during the Rules Committee hearings in January 1964 (“I am reading from notes, a summary of testimony—it is called ‘Summary of Mr. Reynolds in Executive Session,’ ” Senator Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania says at one point [p. 103 of the Senate hearings of Jan. 9, 17, 1964]), but that cannot be found, either. The questioning of Reynolds was led by the Rules Committee’s minority counsel, Burkett Van Kirk. Both he and Drennan had died before I could interview them, or, to be more accurate, before I knew it was necessary to interview them, but Van Kirk was to recall Reynolds’s testimony on November 22, 1963, for a television documentary: “LBJ vs. Kennedy—Chasing Demons,” The History Channel, 2003. “Don presented a good case. He could back it up. Everything he had, he had a receipt for. It’s hard to argue with a receipt. Or a cancelled check. Or an invoice. It’s hard
to argue with documentation.” Mollenhoff, the Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter for the
Des Moines Register
was, in November 1963, working closely—and on virtually a daily basis—with Senator Williams and the Rules Committee staff. He was to write that “It was a few minutes before 10 A.M. when Reynolds and Fitzgerald were escorted to Room 312, where two committee staff members (Van Kirk and Drennan) waited.” Mollenhoff was to report that “in the first two hours, the questioning ranged over the whole scope of Baker’s financial operations,” including those concerning the District of Columbia Stadium (Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
pp. 295–97).

The journalist Sy Hersh had a series of interviews with Van Kirk, and writes that “at ten o’clock” Reynolds “walked with his lawyer into a small hearing room … and began providing … Van Kirk … with eagerly awaited evidence” (Hersh,
Dark Side of Camelot,
p. 446). Senator Carl Curtis of Nebraska, the ranking Republican member of the Rules Committee, who was told in 1963 about Reynolds’s testimony by Van Kirk, confirmed that Reynolds had provided documentation. Also Curtis Files, Curtis Papers; Curtis interview. Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
pp. 295–98; Rowe,
The Bobby Baker Story,
pp. 84–86; Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy,
pp. 602, 611.

The
Life
meeting:
Graves, Lambert, Sackett interviews.
“With every”
:
Lambert interview.

“I don’t care”
:
O’Brien,
No Final Victories,
p. 156.
“If he doesn’t:”
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 23. See also Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 113.
If he valued:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 116.
“Yarborough’s going”
:
O’Brien,
No Final Victories,
p. 157.
Taking Connally:
O’Donnell and Powers,
“Johnny, We Hardly,”
p. 26.

“Kennedy weather”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p.122.
“There is Mrs.”
:
Bugliosi,
Reclaiming History,
p. 27.
“There never”
:
Robert J. Donovan, quoted in Bugliosi,
Re-claiming History,
p. 27.
O’Brien made sure:
O’Brien,
No Final Victories,
pp. 156–57.

Senate hearings:
In “Construction of the District of Columbia Stadium, Part II,” “Testimony of Don B. Reynolds,” p. 192,” Reynolds says he testified from “about 10 to 1,” but the committee’s counsel says, “You were interviewed practically the whole day,” and Mollenhoff, who was working closely, on a daily basis, with the committee’s staff, writes that “It was almost time for the usual noon luncheon break when the insurance man got started on his story of how he had been pressured into taking advertising time on the L.B.J. television station … and about the gift stereo.… It was about 12:30 P.M., Washington time—11:30 A.M. in Dallas, Texas—when Van Kirk and Drennan suggested they send a girl for sandwiches and milk, rather than interrupt Reynolds’s testimony by going out to eat. The questioning and the discussion of the L.B.J. Company’s affairs, as Reynolds knew them, went on” (Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
pp. 295–97). Also see Rowe,
Bobby Baker Story,
pp. 84, 85; Steinberg,
Sam Johnson’s Boy,
pp. 602, 611; Curtis interview.
“Mr. President”
:
Nellie Connally,
From Love Field,
p. 7.

In Washington, at about the same time, Reynolds was showing:
Between 1:30 and 2:30, “he [Reynolds] produced records to substantiate his story” (Mollenhoff,
Despoilers of Democracy,
p.297). The invoices and checks are Exhibits 7 (p. 36), 8–11 (pp. 38–41), 12 (p. 43) in of “Reynolds Testimony,” Part 1, Jan. 9, 17, 1964, which is when they were introduced into the public record at open hearings of the committee. On page 97, the committee’s counsel notes “they are in the examination of Don B. Reynolds. They are in the original.”

In New York,
Life
editors:
Lambert, Sackett interviews.

“Startled”
;
“report or explosion”
:
“Statement of the President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, concerning the events of Nov. 22, 1963,” attached to Johnson to Warren, July 10, 1964, p. 2 (hereafter referred to as “Johnson Statement.”)
Connally knew:
Connally interview.

“Not normal”
:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years in the Secret Service: My Life with Five Presidents,”
p. 113. In his typed report to Chief of the Secret Service James J. Rowley, he describes the movements as “very abnormal.”
Youngblood to Chief, Subject: “Statement of Rufus W. Youngblood, Vice Presidential Detail (office 1–22) concerning details of events occurring in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963.” Youngblood, “Secret Service Reports,” Box 3, SP-ASS (hereafter referred to as Youngblood to Chief).
“Voice I had never”
:
“Notes taken during interview with Mrs. Johnson, June 15, 1964,” p. 2 (hereafter cited as “Mrs. Johnson’s Notes”).

Grabbing Johnson’s shoulder:
“I turned in my seat and with my left arm grasped and shoved the Vice President, at his right shoulder, down and toward Mrs. Johnson and Sen. Yarborough. At the same time I shouted, ‘Get down!’ I believe I said this more than once.… I quickly looked all around again and could see nothing to shoot at, so I stepped over into the back seat and sat on top of the Vice President.…” (Youngblood to Chief, p. 3). In his memoir, Youngblood wrote, “I turned instinctively in my seat and with my left hand I grasped Johnson’s right shoulder and … forced him downward. ‘Get down,’ I shouted, ‘get down.’ (p. 113). I swung across the back seat and sat on top of him” (Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 562). See also “Transcript from Mrs. Johnson’s tapes relating to November 22, 1963,” p. 1 (hereafter referred to as “Mrs. Johnson’s Transcript”). The day after the assassination, Johnson wrote Rowley: “Upon hearing the first shot, Mr. Youngblood instantly vaulted across the front seat of my car, pushed me to the floor and shielded my body with own body, ready to sacrifice his life for mine” (Johnson to Rowley, Diary Backup, Box 1, Nov. 23, “November 23”).
“His knees”
:
Transcript, CBS News Special, “LBJ: Tragedy and Transition,” May 2, 1970, p. 5.

“Close it up”
:
Testimony of Rufus Wayne Youngblood, Special Agent, Secret Service,”
Hearings Before the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, Washington, 1964,
Vol. II, p. 149 (hereafter referred to as Youngblood Testimony).

He knew he would have:
“Statement of Herschel Jacks, Texas Highway Patrolman, Made on Nov. 28, 1963,” Commission Exhibit 1024, “Hearings,” Vol. XVIII, p. 801.

“Terrifically fast”
:
“Transcript from Mrs. Johnson’s tapes relating to November 22, 1963” (hereafter referred to as “Lady Bird Transcript”), p. 1.
“Zoomed”
:
Johnson, “Reminiscences,” p. 11.
“Stay with them—keep close”
:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 113; “To: Chief James J. Rowley, From: ATSAIC Emory Roberts, The White House Detail, SUBJECT: Schedule of events prior to and after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, November 22, 1963,” p. 3,
Report of the U.S. Secret Service
(hereafter referred to as “Roberts Report”), “Secret Service Reports,” Box 3, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL.

Shortwave radio:
Youngblood to Chief, pp. 1, 2. See also “Statement by Jerry D. Kivett concerning the events of Nov. 22, 1963,”
Report of the U.S. Secret Service on the Assassination of President Kennedy,
U.S. Treasury Department, p. 2, Box 3, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL (“Kivett Statement”), and Kivett Testimony,
Hearings before the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, Washington, 1964
(these hearings, commonly referred to as the Warren Commission, will hereafter be referred to as “Hearings”), p. 1.
Now Johnson heard:
Transcript, CBS News Special, “LBJ: Tragedy and Transition,” May 2, 1970, p. 4.
“I am switching”
:
Manchester,
Death of a President,
p. 166.
“He’s hit!”
“Kivett Statement,” p. 1.
“Let’s get out of here”
:
“Lady Bird Transcript,” p. 1; Johnson, Transcript, CBS News Special, p. 4.
“Hospital”
:
Bugliosi,
Reclaiming History,
p. 41; Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 114.
What Youngblood was seeing:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 113.
Thumbs-down:
Bugliosi,
Reclaiming History,
p. 44.

“Hospital”
:
“Johnson Statement,” p. 562; “To: Chief; From: SA Jerry D. Kivett—Vice Presidential Detail; Statement regarding events in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, November 22, 1963,”
Report of the U.S. Secret Service on the Assassination of President Kennedy,
U.S. Treasury Department, p. 1, Box 3, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL (hereafter referred to as “Kivett Report”).
“Tight-lipped and cool”
:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 114.

Lying quietly:
Youngblood to Chief, p. 3; Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 114; “Johnson Statement,” p. 562.
“An absolute physical coward”
:
Vernon Whiteside, quoted in Caro,
The Path to Power,
p. 156.
World War II episode:
Caro,
Means of Ascent,
Chapters 2 and 3.
Heart attack episode:
Caro,
Master of the Senate,
Chapter 27, “Go Ahead with the Blue.”

“A good man”
:
Lady Bird Johnson,
A White House Diary,
p. 7.

“All right, Rufus”
:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 114.
A single word:
Fletcher Knebel, “Lyndon Johnson, Trained for Power,”
Look,
Dec. 31, 1963.
Told Johnson:
“Johnson Statement,” p. 562; Johnson, “Reminiscences,” p. 12; Johnson,
The Vantage Point,
p. 9.
“Okay, pardner”
:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 114.

“I wondered if”
:
“Lady Bird Transcript,” p. 2.
Slammed back:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 115.
Hands were grabbing:
Johnson, “Reminiscences,” p. 12.

His left shoulder hurt:
Travell interview.
Hustled:
Johnson, “Reminiscences,” p. 12.
“One last look”
:
“Lady Bird Transcript,” p. 2.

Small white room:
Youngblood,
Twenty Years,
p. 116.
Stationing men:
G. D’Andelot Belin (General Counsel, U.S. Secret Service) to Rowley, “Secret Service Report on the Assassination of President Kennedy,” March 19, 1964, “Secret Service Reports,” Box 3, Special Files, Assassination, LBJL; “Youngblood Testimony,” pp. 149, 152.

“Look here, I’m not leaving”
:
“Mrs. Johnson’s Notes.”
Remembering
: In her transcript Lady Bird says, “I even remember one little thing he said in that hospital room, ‘Tell the children to get a Secret Service man with them’ ” (“Lady Bird Transcript, p. 5). William Manchester interviewed Youngblood on November 17, 1964. In his book,
The Death of a President,
he says (p. 232) that Youngblood told him that Johnson “said to Bird, ‘I want you to give me the current whereabouts of Lynda and Lucy,’ ” and that it was after she gave Johnson that information that Youngblood told the agent, Jerry Kivett, to “put the girls under protection.”

The notes of Manchester’s interview with Youngblood are among the papers at Wesleyan University that the university has refused to open to researchers, including this author, so Manchester’s notes have not been read. But Manchester’s account, and that of the many Johnson biographers who have accepted that account, does not square with statements Youngblood made, a week after the assassination, in a typed report to the chief of the White House Secret Service detail, Gerald A. Behn, or in his sworn testimony before the Warren Commission. In his typed report to Behn, dated November 29, 1963, Youngblood says of his time in the cubicle, “During this time, many things occurred and I don’t recall now the exact order. I talked to Mrs. Johnson and obtained information about Lynda and Lucy, and told SA [Special Agent] Kivett to make the necessary calls to have them placed under Secret Service protection” (Youngblood to Chief, p. 4). In his testimony before the Warren Commission, Youngblood did not mention Johnson’s daughters in his initial statement. Asked by Arlen Specter, the commission’s assistant counsel, to “describe briefly what security arrangements if any were instituted … for the Vice President’s daughters,” he said, “While we were in the hospital … I asked Mrs. Johnson—I knew generally where Luci and Lynda were, but I wanted get the very latest from her, since sometimes these girls might visit a friend or a relative.… So I confirmed the locations with Mrs. Johnson and then told Agent Kivett … to make the necessary calls to have Secret Service protection placed around Lynda and Luci.” “Youngblood Testimony.” In his memoir,
Twenty Years in the Secret Service,
Youngblood wrote (p. 117), “While their father was Vice President, the Johnson daughters did not receive Secret Service protection.… We needed to assign men to them as quickly as possible. I asked Mrs. Johnson for their precise whereabouts and then told Jerry Kivett to inform headquarters and arrange protection for them at once.” In none of his accounts about the time following the assassination does Youngblood mention Johnson asking about his daughters at all.