The following article was article 483 on the original Federal Observer, published in Conspiracy Chronicles on September 28, 2001. ~ Editor.
Canadian filmmaker uncovers evidence that Warren Commission suppressed section of Jacqueline Kennedy’s testimony on the assassination of her husband, former U.S. President John F. Kennedy – testimony that may have offered a more complete account of his killing.
A Canadian filmmaker has uncovered evidence that the Warren Commission suppressed a section of Jacqueline Kennedy’s testimony on the assassination of her husband, former U.S. president John F. Kennedy – testimony that may have offered a more complete account of his killing.
“This is key testimony by the closest witness that was suppressed,” said Mark Sobel, a 41-year-old filmmaker and director who left his home in Toronto for Los Angeles about 25 years ago. “It shows she had a very clear recollection of what happened. We know she got a very good look and could have revealed much more if only she”d been asked.”
As originally released, Mrs. Kennedy’s testimony about the bullet wounds was relatively nondescript – she spoke of a flesh-coloured piece of skull and blood. But a copy of the original court tape acquired by Mr. Sobel through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act offers more details. “I could see a piece of his skull sort of wedge-shaped, like that, and I remember that it was flesh coloured with little ridges at the top,” Mrs. Kennedy says in the transcript.
If the House Select Committee on Assassinations had seen the complete transcript before its 1978 hearings, Mrs. Kennedy would likely have been called as a witness, said the co-owner of the Texas-based Kennedy research group JFK Lancer Productions and Publications. They could have gone back to her and said, “We understand that you’re describing a specific bone. Can you tell us where it was on the head? Was it in the back, was it on the top, was it on the side? Did it fall off the car? Was it still attached?“
“But they didn’t,” said Debra Conway, whose organization has verified Mr. Sobel’s discovery.
“Had they felt like they could ask her these questions, based on all of her testimony I think it would have solved a tremendous amount of the problems that we have today.”
Do you remember??? Do you BELIEVE that Anything has changed?
Mr. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. Although the Warren Commission concluded the shots were fired by a single assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, there have been countless conspiracy theories and allegations of coverup. Many of the debates have revolved around the location of the shooter and the direction from which the bullet entered the president’s skull.
The House committee found the evidence that Mr. Oswald killed the president to be overwhelming, but did not rule out the possibility of a second gunman or a mob conspiracy.
Mrs. Kennedy died in 1994.
Mr. Sobel, director of a dozen movies, including the 1993’s Ordeal in the Arctic starring Richard Chamberlain, uncovered the transcript while doing research for a documentary film on the former president. Surprised that the Warren Commission didn’t ask Mrs. Kennedy more questions about what she saw the day her husband was assassinated, he filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to have the court reporter’s original tape of Mrs. Kennedy’s testimony unsealed.
“I wondered if it was possible if it had somehow been sanitized before it was released,” he said. “It was just a hunch.”
The additional testimony, however, came as a surprise to many who believed all of Mrs. Kennedy’s 1964 testimony had been released in the early 1970s, following a court ruling that required the government to disclose the contents of the still-classified section of her testimony.
Researchers had been outraged that a portion of her testimony was omitted, flagged by the phrase: “Reference to wounds deleted.” The government released the omitted section after the court ruling. In it, Mrs. Kennedy described how she tried to hold her husband’s hair and skull to his head.
“I’m sure it was a matter of taste, not evil,” Mr. Sobel said of the withheld testimony. “But it’s shocking she wasn’t asked for more details.”
But Ms. Conway said the discovery didn’t surprise her, and she doesn’t believe the testimony slipped through the cracks. “First you think that it’s just an oversight, but how many times can it always be an oversight when it’s something we should have known?” she asked. “The lesson in all this is, whether it’s a conspiracy or bureaucracy at its finest, it’s important that each citizen follow up.”
Written by Bev Wake for the The Ottawa Citizen.