Sylvia Meagher - Accessories After the Fact: The Warren Commission, the Authorities & the Report on the JFK Assassination

Accessories After The Fact

The Warren Commission, The Authorities and The Report

Accessories After The Fact

The Warren Commission, The Authorities, and The Report

by Sylvia Meagher

Preface by Senator Richard S. Schweiker Introduction by Peter Dale Scott

Vintage Books

A Division of Random House, Inc. New York

VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, JUNE 1992

Copyright 1967 by Sylvia Meagher Preface and Introduction Copyright 1976 by Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published by The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., in 1967.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Meagher, Sylvia.

Accessories after the fact.

Includes bibliographical references.

1. United States. Warren Commission. Report of the Presidents Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 2. Kennedy, John Fitzgerald, Pres. U.S.,1917-1963Assassination. 1. Title.

[E842.9.M39 1976] 364.1'524'0973 75-39081 ISBN 679-74315-4

Manufactured in the United States of America 10 987654321

This book is dedicated to the innocent victims of a society which often inflicts indignity, imprisonment, and even death on the obscure and helpless.

Contents

Preface xi

Introduction xiii

Presidents Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy xix

Key to Symbols xx

Foreword xxi

PART I. THE ASSASSINATION

Chapter 1. The Motorcade and the Shots 3

The Speed of the Presidential Car 3

The Mark on the Curb 5

Where Did the Shots Come From? 9

The Zapruder Film 27

Chapter 2. The Book Depository 36

Prior Knowledge of the Motorcade Route 36

The Chicken Lunch 39

The Shield of Cartons 41

The Short , Bulky Package 45

The Sixth Floor at Noon 64

Chapter 3. The Escape 70

The Departure from the Book Depository 70

The Bus Ride 75

The Cab Ride 83

Establishing a Link 85

Oswalds A ddresses 90

Chapter 4. The Rifle 94

The Vanished Mauser 95

The Guilty Carcano 100

vii

viii Contents

Contents

The Dog Next Door 289

The Boy Next Door 290

Marina Tidies Up 291

Chapter 15. Betty MacDonald: Another Prisoner Lost 293

Chapter 16. Death and Misadventure 298

PART IV. THE INVESTIGATION

Chapter 17. The Distorting Mirror 305

A Strange Arraignment 305

Listening with a Third Ear 309

A Watchful Neighbor 310

Presidential Protectors 311

... and the Carriers of the Mail 312

... and the Guardians of the Border 313

Chapter 18. The Feebees 316

Investigative Work 317

Alleged Intimidation 320

A lleged Misreporting 323

Chapter 19. Oswald and the State Department 327

The Defection 329

The Disappearance 331

The Lookout Cards 332

The Money 333

A Perfect Record 334

The Freedom of Oswalds Travel 334

The Passport Application 336

Military Secrets, Anyone? 339

The Americanization of Marina 343

Best Interests 345

Chapter 20. Truth Was Their Only Client 347

Chapter 21. No Conspiracy? 351

The Auto Demonstration 351

A Second Rifle 356

Two Oswalds 359

The Man in the Doorway 362

The Grocer 364

Western Union 365

The Gunsmith and the Furniture Store Ladies 367

The Rifle Range 370

The Bartender 372

The Lawyer 374

The Proof of the Plot 376

x Contents

PART V. MURDER ON TELEVISION

Chapter 22. The Essential Ruby 391

Chapter 23. Ruby at Parkland Hospital 394

Chapter 24. Homicide in the Police Basement 398

The Anonymous Threats 398

Protecting Oswald 402

The Perfect Timing of Jack Ruby 403

Chapter 25. Ruby the Buff 422

Chapter 26. Pendent Rubies 442

Chapter 27. Ruby Farewell 452

Epilogue: A New Investigation 455

Appendix: The News Media and the Warren Report 458

Index 465

Preface

As a Senator investigating certain aspects of the Warren Commission inquiry, I have found Sylvia Meaghers Accessories After the Fact to be an indispensable research tool.

Yet to appreciate fully the significance of Mrs. Meaghers work, it is necessary to go back to the fall of 1964, when the Warren Commission Report was released.

Most Americans initially accepted the Commissions findings that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated President Kennedy. Some had doubts but dismissed them because of the reputation of the men and agencies who served the Commission, the major medias immediate endorsement of the Report, and the hyperbolic and wildly speculative assertions of some Warren Commission skeptics.

Fortunately, Sylvia Meagher had the courage to cast a critical eyeand, more importantly, an objective eyeon the Warren Report.

It wasnt until Watergate and my services on the Senate Intelligence Committee that I began to question much of what I had accepted about the Report. And when I had questions, there always seemed to be answers in Accessories After the Fact.

The significance of this book cannot be overstated. It is by far the most meticulous and compelling indictment of the Warren Commission Report. Through her painstaking attention to detail, Sylvia Meagher has exposed the gross inconsistencies between the Commissions Final Report and the twenty-six volumes of evidence it reviewed. One only need read her passage on the appearance of the magic bullet at Parkland Hospital, or the Oswald police lineup, to appreciate the degree to which the Report has been devastated.

In addition to Accessories After the Fact , Mrs. Meagher has made a second major contribution to research in this field by compiling a complete index to the Warren Report and exhibits. For reasons yet unknown, the