The Denton Texas Informant

SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2015

http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-denton-texas-informant.html

The Denton Texas Informant

Mr. STERN - I would like you now, Mr. Sorrels, to tell us something of the Protective Research activities that took place in preparation for the President's visit to Dallas, that you recall.

Mr. SORRELS - At that time, we had no known Protective Research subjects that we were making periodic checks on in that area. Mr. Lawson informed me that he had checked with PRS, and that was confirmed.

However, bearing in mind the incidents that had taken place some time before with Mr. Stevenson, I had instructed Special Agent John Joe Howlett, to work with the Special Services Bureau of the Police Department, and I also conferred by phone with the chief of police at Denton, Tex., because some of those individuals who were involved in the Stevenson affair were going to college there….

Mr. STERN - How soon had that happened before the President's visit?

Mr. SORRELS - I don't remember. It was probably some 60 days, maybe, before.
It was quite some time before.

But within recent time. And so Mr. Anderson, chief of police, informed me that he had an informant that was keeping in touch with the situation. I arranged with the Dallas Police Department for Lieutenant Revill to accompany Special Agent Howlett to Denton, and confer with the police there, and to also get photographs of these individuals.

When we were conferring with Mr. Felix McKnight, the managing editor of the Dallas Times Herald, I learned that--from him--that they had photographs taken at the Stevenson incident. So arrangements were made where by Special Agent Howlett and the members of the Dallas Police Department, together with the informant in the case, would view those films, so that there could be pointed out to them individuals known to have been in the incident.

We had duplicate pictures made, and they were furnished to the special agent assigned to the Trade Mart, and were shown to the police officers that were assigned out in that area.

Mr. STERN - Did anything else occur in the field of Protective Research?

Mr. SORRELS - That is all I can recall at the present time….

Mr. STERN - Was there anything else that you recall involving any person or group that might present a danger to the President?

Mr. SORRELS - There was some individuals from Grand Prairie, Tex., that were mentioned to us by the police department that were known to be the type that might appear with handbills or placards--not handbills, but with placards in the area where the President might appear. And it developed that they did show up with placards at the Trade Mart, and they were taken into custody by the police department….

Critical Reaction to History Channel's JFK Declassified

John Newman:  This was embarrassing for me to watch. It's another Phil Shennon special. Get ready for the Ken Burns documentary. They are propaganda extravaganzas that RFK got his brother killed and almost set off WWIII. Journey on.

Stuart Wexler:  Reading tea leaves from the "future episodes" clips I focused on the reference to a "safe house." The only thing approaching a potential safe house I am aware of is Harlandale Street. Well from what his interview is claiming, he is going to go there but somehow finagle it to tie back to Castro, even though Alpha 66 was militantly anti-Castro. If somehow he solidifies the Harlandale angle, that would make the show somewhat worthwhile. But if all he is going to do is recycle stuff Paul H. has been saying since the early 70s, and then somehow push it back to Castro, he will be embarrassing himself.

(As Larry Haapanen said), there are many similarities between this program and the one the same team did on Hitler escaping to South America after WWII. I see many if those similarities.

1) Am alarming willingness to take credit for research and discoveries other people already made.
2) A nasty habit of jumping to the most sinister possible interpretation of anamolous events and discoveries.
3) Proceeding to the next stages and conclusions as if #2 is a "done deal"

On the other hand, HH did get access to some people, documents and facilities that no one had before, to the extent I could find in follow up investigation. I did not buy their core argument about Hitler faking his death at all, and they only pushed me from "highly doubtful" to "vaguely plausible" that someone like Martin Borman faked his death. But a tertiary argument, that escaped Nazis and Nazi sympathizers really were proactive, if perhaps delusional, about pushing for a 4th Reich, wound up being a lot more believable than I previously thought.  So I will watch the rest of the JFK series yelling at the TV and holding my nose.

Larry Hancock:  That TV show on the History channel was totally embarrassing, it’s very hard to respect anyone associated with it.especially so since all the work was done by others ages ago.

Ed Tatro writes:  The show is full of assumptions and fallacies and absurd deductions – could haves – may haves – might haves – might prove – “All the pieces are starting to fit together” ramblings.

Based on a postcard of a bull fight arena in Oswald’s possession, these guys speculate that Oswald met secretly with KGB personnel there.

They show actors playing Russians as silent, sinister characters throughout the dramatization.

They refer to the documentation that Oswald met with Valeri Kostokov to convince their audience of an Oswald/KGB plot. Moreover they give the audience the impression that this Kostikov data is newly declassified information and never researched previously by anyone in the world. They actually show the men finding out all by themselves via computer searches that “Kostin” is Kostikov with references to Department 13 and assassination squad data.

No consideration is offered to cite a motive for Oswald or for the Russians to want JFK dead. No consideration is given to consider Oswald’s actions as an intelligence representative of the US government in any fashion.

These men make reference to the story that the FBI kept meticulous records of everything in Oswald’s possession, an inaccurate assertion which implied that the FBI had conducted an honest investigation. They continually insist that the CIA’s surveillance of Oswald and any suspicious characters in Mexico City forced the Russians to cleverly meet Oswald without detection.

The History Channel has reached a new low in disinformation. The links are incredibly juvenile and fallacious in its entirety.

The preview of episode two suggests that there is a document signed by J. Edgar Hoover, (That bastion of intergrity), in which Oswald admitted that he was going to kill Kennedy. The document was flashed quickly and the threat is shown in quotation marks.

The fact that this garbage is being broadcast now just prior to the release of more previously classified documentation in the fall is no accident.

It was difficult to watch this Orwellian hogwash. But it is proof that the propaganda machine is alive and well despite the passage of nearly 54 years.

Jeff Morley :

http://jfkfacts.org/jfk-declassified-history-channel-overlooks/ - more-25095

"Declassified documents reveal that Oswald met with the Cold War enemies of the United States, both Russia and Cuba, only eight weeks before JFK’s assassination."

This claim, made by the producers of new History Channel docu-series JFK Declassified: Tracking Oswald, is not new. The claim may just be promotional hype for the series which begins tonight and runs through May 30. But, from long experience with JFK documentaries, my fact checking antennae are tingling.

It is not too soon to say the History Channel’s claim is potentially misleading.

What is Misleading?

JFK authors and researchers have long called attention to the importance of understanding the trip of accused assassin Lee Oswald to Mexico City six weeks before the assassination of JFK  in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

Oswald, a leftist, wanted to travel to Cuba and then to the Soviet Union. Seeking a visa, Oswald spoke with various Cuban and Russian officials–some of whom were actually intelligence officers.

This is all well known. Investigators Dan Hardway and Ed Lopez journalist Anthony Summers, and historian John Newman, among many others have written in detail about these events.

I wrote about Oswald’s encounters in Mexico City in my 2008 book, Our Man in Mexico. And I will write about them in my forthcoming biography of CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton.

If presented as a revelation in 2017, the claim that Oswald met with “enemies” of the United States is a species of archaic Cold War propaganda.

Judge Tunheim on the Moscow and Mexico City Assassination Records

The Moscow KGB and Mexico City CIA Records on the Assassination of President Kennedy

By William Kelly

In his CAPA Sunshine Week talk at the National Press Club in March, Judge John Tunheim, the former chairman of the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB) called attention to the Russian KGB files on Oswald that he saw in Minsk and read in part, but was unable to obtain copies of for the JFK Collection at the National Archives (NARA).

Tunheim also said that the Review Board was pressed by almost every agency of government to keep the records relating to Oswald in Mexico City withheld because of the special relationship the US government had with the government of Mexico.

As Tunheim noted, the situation has changed considerably since the ARRB went out of business, the Cold War is over, and President Trump’s relationship with Russia might allow for the public release of Oswald’s extensive KGB file of his time in the Soviet Union.

America’s relationship with Mexico has also changed, there is a new government in power and the special relationship the US government is different than it was fifty years ago, so there is no real reason to keep those records secret.

In his CAPA Sunshine Week talk at the NPC Tunheim said of the KGB files:

 Tunheim:  “There are some documents I want to see out - the KGB file. I was there – I came very close to getting a copy of that file. It stands about five feet high when piled on top of each other – they are fascinating –and detail what Oswald did when he was in the Soviet Union. They are all in Russian but I had some read to me. Norman Mailer was there earlier than me and had some released to him, he bought some of them, and I offered to pay to make copies, but our relationship with Belarus got worse and worse and I couldn’t get them out of there. I would like to get them out. There is a full copy in the Kremlin as well. The original was sent to Belarus – when the Soviet Union broke up the KGB files were sent to the primary area of origin rather than kept in Moscow.”

       “Speaking of KGB files, there is a huge cache of KFB records in Moscow dealing the assassination of President Kennedy. Back at the time the Russians were concerned, everyone agrees there are a lot of files because there was strong suspicions that they were involved, so they had what everyone agrees was a pretty extensive investigation. I didn’t get any help from the State Department despite they were required to by law, they didn’t assist us.”

        “We had some help from Vice President Gore got some records from the Prime Minister. (But) My attempts over there didn’t work – I had the US Ambassador with me, but there was no indication that the government supported me, so I didn’t get the support I needed, and they knew my government didn’t support me so they weren’t going to give me anything."

      “I often got questions in return to my question – ‘What is your time frame on the records,’ and they would say, ‘What makes you think we have records in the files?’ I’d got a question back from them.”

        “I’d like to see that, that will probably come out, so researchers have access to that, we paid someone to keep negotiating that, but nothing really happened with that, though I thought they would be very helpful.” 

Of the Mexico City records Tunheim said:

“One more example I thought of is there’s a bunch of stuff related to Mexico City, largely related to our relationship with the Mexican government, and we received a full court press – not only from the State Department but the CIA and other agencies as well, not to release because it was thought be detrimental to our relationship with the Mexican government at the time. I guess we don’t have much of relationship with the Mexican government today (laugh) – It doesn’t matter anymore – but the political party in charge then  is no longer the controlling  party in Mexico today.”

      “So our Cooperation with Mexican Government during that time, and intelligence activities in the 1960s – there’s no real reason to protect that anymore. So that is a good example of a larger group of material that should come out.”

The Soviet KGB records on Oswald in Russia that were given to Norman Mailer are now in the possession of his former assistant Lawrence Schiller, who refused to relinquish them or copies to the ARRB.

TIME on History Channel - JFK Declassified

TIME MAGAZINE

CRIME

Former CIA Operative Argues Lee Harvey Oswald's Cuba Connections Went Deep

http://time.com/4753349/oswald-kennedy-declassified-documentary/

Olivia B. Waxman

Apr 25, 2017

After Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F. Kennedy shortly after noon on Nov. 22, 1963, things moved quickly. About an hour later, Oswald fatally shot Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit. Thirty minutes after that, police found Oswald and arrested him. Two days later, on Nov. 24, Jack Ruby shot Oswald. And just a day after the assassination, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had already expressed his preliminary finding that Oswald had acted alone.

The full Warren Commission report would later back up that finding — but more than a half-century later, polls have found that most Americans are not convinced of that fact.

That's why former CIA operative Bob Baer launched an investigation into the declassified government files on the case. As the above clip shows, on his six-part series JFK Declassified: Tracking Oswald — debuting Tuesday night on the History channel — Baer (seen in the clip above with former LAPD police lieutenant Adam Bercovici) attempts to demystify the link between Oswald and Cuban and Soviet operatives. It's no secret that, for example, Oswald went to a meeting at the Soviet embassy in Mexico eight weeks before he assassinated JFK, or that he tried to defect to the Soviet Union in 1959. But Baer pursues those leads, and further investigates Oswald's connections to the Cuban dissident group Alpha 66, which had been infiltrated by Cuban intelligence officials who were reporting their activities back to Fidel Castro's government. His conclusion is that, while Oswald acted alone when he fired the bullets that killed the President, his connections to Cuban and Soviet officials were deeper than is often assumed.

Ahead of the debut of his series, Baer spoke to TIME about why Oswald could have wanted to work with the Soviets and Cubans:

TIME: Why did you start looking into declassified government files on Lee Harvey Oswald?

BAER: I went through CIA files on it when I was working there, and there was Cuban-related stuff that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. When I got into the CIA, George H.W. Bush signed a release [of files] to me, and the archives came back and said they couldn’t find [the files I requested] anymore. Documents on it that shouldn't have disappeared had disappeared. So that raised an alarm bell. But what really got me into it was meeting a defector from Cuba and one of the best agents the CIA has ever had. He said that on the 22nd of November 1963, four hours before the assassination, he was at an intelligence site in Havana when he got a call from Castro's office, saying, "Turn all of your listening ability to high frequency communications out of Dallas because something's going to happen there."

What are the biggest revelations in the documentary?

Our hypothesis was that the Cubans knew [about Oswald's plan] in advance. We have eyewitnesses putting Oswald with Cuban intelligence in Mexico City. And the last people that Oswald was hanging out with before the assassination were Alpha 66. I do believe that, after the assassination, Oswald was heading for a safe house that was owned by Alpha 66. Now, according to the FBI, CIA and Cuban intelligence sources we talked to, in November 1963, info about anything that Alpha 66 did in the U.S. was sent back to Cuba. So if, in fact, Oswald told Alpha 66 he was going to kill the president — and we do have witnesses saying he told them this — then Castro knew. And the borders were all shut down at that point, so our assumption is he was going to this Cuban safe house, where he had been before. Whether the Cuban dissidents of Alpha 66 knew he was coming or not, we don’t know.

But I do not think that [Castro] furthered the plot. I think the Cuban dissidents reporting back to Havana informed him that there’s this American, Lee Harvey Oswald, who says he’s going to kill the president. The fact that this stuff has never been looked into I find extraordinary.

Why didn’t they?

The Warren Commission did mention it, but they just said that it was a coincidence that he met with the KGB's head of assassinations for North America in Mexico City. They didn’t look into how peculiar it is for an American, on a weekend, to meet with three KGB officers during their time off. The Warren Commission said he only went to the Cuban consulate in Mexico City and met a local employee. But I believe his Cuban connections are much deeper than the Warren Commission shows. I think [the commission] just didn't want to make that public. Johnson told the FBI that if they can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Russians and the Cubans were involved in this, then they shouldn't drag their suspicions into the public eye. But they sort of suspected it.

That reminds me of the discussion of whether the FBI should have shared its news from its investigations into Hillary Clinton's email use or possible Russian involvement in the campaign prior to the election last fall. It's this question of how and whether intelligence officials should talk about something that's still ongoing.

Yeah it’s exactly like that; If you can’t prove it, don't drag it out to the public. Except the [Oswald] evidence is stronger than so far what we've seen on Russia and its connections to the Trump campaign.

What was going on in Cold War history at this point that caused this controversy to play out the way that it did?

My assumption at the end is that Castro had every reason in the world to [want to] kill Kennedy. It's risky if there are actual Cuban agents shooting the President, that’s Armageddon, nuclear war. But if you simply hear rumors of this, you don't do anything. I’ve seen that happen in the CIA, where we heard stuff and didn’t pass the details to another government because it was a hostile government.

What about the Soviet side? Did you find any evidence that they encouraged Oswald?

There’s no evidence that the Russians took that risk, providing him money weapons or training, and I don't think the Russians encouraged him. What we think is that they were like three times removed. I think they simply monitored Oswald as best they could. The Russians probably thought, "We can't afford to deal with an American crazy person," but Cuban intelligence deals with a lot of crazy people. The Cubans didn’t give money or guns to agents; they were just looking for fellow believers.

Why did Oswald want to defect to the Soviets in the first place?

I think he was at a dead end. He had a broken childhood, and he joined the Marines to become somebody. He wanted to become a historical figure, and he thought he deserved to be one. He needed some sort of anchor to his life and that thing in 1959 was communism. When he gets there [to the Soviet Union], they don’t want him at first. And when they have to accept him after he attempts suicide, they send them to Minsk. It’s sort of the end of the earth. He’s a factory worker, not what he expected at all, so he comes back. That’s the context of the whole series, what was going through his mind at each one of these steps.

Are there any unanswered questions you still have or now have after doing the documentary?

I’d look for further confirmation that Cubans knew about this to confirm our thesis. We don't know exactly what the Cubans told him in Mexico City — was it to go back to Louisiana and Dallas and tell us what Cuban dissidents there were doing? And what did Oswald mean when he said he was a "patsy" when he was being questioned by the Dallas police? A patsy for whom?

I know the general relationship was that Russians and Cubans shared everything in those days. So did this get back to Moscow? I don't know, I don’t have the evidence. Do I suspect it did? Yes. It’s sort of like if an American went to Syria, spent a month with the Islamic State, and came back and assassinates the President. Would anyone call him a lone wolf? That's what happened with Kennedy.

Adam Marshall - Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press

Adam Marshall of the Reporter's Committee for the Freedom of the Press gave a Panel 2 presentation at the CAPA Sunshine Week Press Conference on March 16 at the National Press Club in Washington.

Adam Marshall: Good afternoon, my name is Adam Marshall, I'm an attorney at the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press. Among other things, I participate in federal FOIA litigation and state public records litigation. That's about all I do. For those of you that are unaware that the Reporter's Committee is a non-profit based here, in Washington D.C., we primarily assist reporters and news organizations and all kinds of legal issues regarding the collection and dissemination of the news. My part in our organization's responsibilities is, like I said, is getting reported information from the government.

            So I thought what I would tell you about, a little bit, because it is sunshine week, is the state of FOIA, which I'm sure you all already know, and also to talk a little bit about the recent amendments to FOIA that were brought in the 2016 updates. Then, finally to look forward a little bit in terms of what needs to be fixed with FOIA, so that we can get access to even more records.

            The state of FOIA, for all of you who use it, as I said before, you know is really terrible, the previous administration set records for denying access to more records than ever before. The 2016 numbers from the department of justice came out, and it's clear that nothing is really improving. The government set a new record, I believe this year, for responding that they could not find records responsive to requests. And this is coming from an administration that had a pretty avowed commitment to opening this, and still this is what we got.

            Jeff Sessions who is the new attorney general, not a fan of FOIA, he acted to hold up the 2016 amendments, he has not issued a memo yet on FOIA, as previous attorneys generals have. There may be a couple reasons for that, one is that there are just other things going on, and the other is that ... Part of what the 2016 amendments did is codify a back and forth that had gone on between Democratic and Republican administrations of the past, in terms of what types of lawsuits they would defend. I'll get to that in a second. One of the other interesting pieces of information that came out just recently from the Department of Justice is that last year, the Obama administration spent 36,000,000 million dollars defending FOIA lawsuits. Which is just an incredible amount of money. You can imagine that if they spent a little bit of that perhaps, towards records management or towards getting more FOIA officers, the public might be better served. Instead we have 36,000,000 million dollars defending against the public's right of access.

            So, we've already talked a little bit, and they talked a little bit, about the 2016 amendments to FOIA, the work that they've done to increase access to historical records, specifically records older than 25 years old. The FOIA amendments did a lot of other interesting things. One is that they codified the foreseeable harm standard. From now on, under FOIA, it's not enough that a record merely technically fall within the scope of an exemption. The government in this has also described how release of the record would cause harm, they reasonable foresee the release of the record would cause harm, identified by the exception.

            So a record is classified, or a law enforcement record, it's not just enough that, yes, it technically meets the scope of the exemption that is outlined in the case law today. The government now, has to take an additional step of explaining why disclosure would result in harm. There are other nice amendments with respect to administrative appeals, you now have a longer time to do that. OGIS was also strengthened for those who don't want to go to court always, because it's expensive and time consuming. OGIS now has some more independence. OGIS is the Office of Governmental Information Services, it's located within the National Archives. And they can be a really great, I think, resource for people, who just want some basic help and are getting stonewalled by agencies.

            Those improvements are nice, but there is, I think, still more work to be done. I think it's pretty clear ... We've seen that the executive branch is not interested in voluntarily increasing transparency, that they have to be dragged kicking and screaming by the legislative branch and that usually happens about once every ten years. We have in 2016 there were amendments in 2008 there were amendments, before that, in '97 or '98 there were amendments, then '86 before that. I think it would be great if we had more frequent amendments to FOIA than once a decade, because there are so many important things out there. I think in particular, we need to seriously consider reform of the law enforcement exemption. That's exemption seven. Exemption seven has gotten to such a place now, that if there is anything remotely touching on a law enforcement activity, the government pretty much routinely with holds it as a matter of course. The courts have adopted a pretty expansive interpretation of that exemption.

            It's really frustrating, any attempts to get access to anything by DOJ or other law enforcement agencies. It's made so that, I think, also there's a lot of room to reform classification, and the way that it interacts with exemption one.

            It's unclear to what extent to foreseeable harm standard is going to interact with classification and exemption one. My guess is that it probably won't have a whole lot of impact, because judges are pretty differential when it comes to agency assertions that information will be damaging if it's released already, but you never know. I think there's room for development in the case law there. 50 years on, I think that FOIA remains a really important tool, one of the primary tools that reporters use for getting information from the government. I love it, I think that it's a messy field, but not something that we should shy away from.

            I'm happy to take any questions, as long as you need, about the specifics of FOIA, the nuts and bolts and we can get into that.

Nate Jones of NSA at CAPA Sunshine Week Press Conference

Nate Jones of the NSA gave a short Panel 2 presentation at the CAPA Sunshine Week Press Conference on March 16, 2017 

Nate Jones: 

Thanks a lot, thanks for putting this on. It's great to be here today, my name is Nate Jones from the National Security Archive and despite the official sounding name, the National Security Archive is a non-profit that files thousands of FOIA and mandatory declassification review requests each year, and we fight to get previously classified information declassified and published.

            That said, I am not an expert on JFK assassination, the main reason is because the field is already crowded with experts, you here. So generally the National Security Archive focuses other matters, but I'm happy to talk today about perhaps fighting for access to records, not least of which because the JFK records collection act was one of, if not the strongest, laws ever passed for disclosing records.

            I have a few points that I'll go through and hit, and anything else we can talk about it in questions.

            So, what is needed today, or what we talked about earlier today, the JFK records collection act, is very important. The head of the government office of information service, which is in charge of bureaucrat in charge of collecting classifications government-wide. It's said on the record that government classifiers joked that they could classify a ham sandwich. The National Security Archive finally won a lawsuit for official CIA volume of Bay of Pigs history that the agency with the department justice lawyers argued to a judge and won, that its release could quote confuse the public, so it could remain secret. In this case we went to congress and congress actually passed the FOIA improvement act that, it is typically said that documents over 25 years can't use this pre-decisional exception anymore, so we won! But the executive branch didn't do it for us, just like the JFK Act, we had to go to congress, and congress had to actually pass a law, something that is rare, but these two anti-secrecy matters happened.

            Moving on, I think that the next step for these JFK records that we talked about earlier is to let the congressional foresight that they included in passing a law play out. Here is my understanding of the state of play of these records and Jack Morley knows as well, I wish he was still here, we could talk, but according my my conversations with the national archives and ... For the record, when the national declassification center said which record should we prioritize, the number one vote was for the JFK assassination documents, and even though that's not my field I said, yes, do it. It's a wealth of information, think of the PR boost, and it's the most popular, show your clout by declassifying these. I also said that Obama need not wait until October 2017 to release these remaining records. In both cases they didn't listen to me. So the state of play, so far as I know is that ... I actually have it, you can pass this around, here.

            There are currently, according to the national archives, 3,603 records withheld in full and another 41,000 records, not pages, records, that are withheld apart. My friend wisely did a FOIA request to NARA for an index of the 3001 records. Here are just some of them, you can pass them around, and you can see the names of what I think, I predict, will be coming out within months. The Nosenko transcript, talked about earlier are in them.

            Essentially what has to happen for these records and more to come out. The answer is nothing. As far as I understand the national archives is working right now to release all of the records as demanded by law, unless an agency petitions the President, and the President says do not. My conversations with NARA, and they have given some public statements, say that they are working hard to declassify ... As of months ago they had it during the Obama administration, they hadn't heard ... I asked well when are you going to hear? How are you going to hear?

They didn't really know, but they said they probably would come through agency petitions to the national security counsel and that ultimately it would be up to the president to tell NARA not to release. What's going to happen? I don't know, we've already speculated a little bit we can keep doing that, that's fun, but the issue is that the ball is in the President's court. Congress, I think, did its good job and the defacto is they're going to provide, unless the President stops release.

            I would just end with one more point and we can talk more questions, I'm sure everybody has good stuff, that the importance of the anti-secrecy strong congressional mandate of the JFK Records Act and Jim mentioned the Nazi War Crimes Act also. It still resonates and we need more of that with other documents. Here is the National Declassification Center's recent report, citing the JFK Collection Records Act in 1992, stating quote: "that this legislative critic criteria for exemption is much more stringent, than that would be later required by an executive order on classification." So today, the situation is that information that is currently technically properly classified, including those ham sandwiches that I opened with, and the fact that the Cuban missile crisis ended by taking the Jupiter missiles out of Italy, is a proper secret, is that the requirements to be classified, are far too low. Congress did the right thing with the JFK Act by saying they need to pass the credibility test or ... that's what I call, is much higher leader standards.

            My final point is that this sunshine week, you should look back and celebrate the JFK Records Review Act. Optimistically, and I hope realistically, expect that the vast bulk of the future records will be released in October 2016, that's my prediction, and celebrate the success and begin working on how we can get congress to mandate that more records, beyond this very important universe, are also released congressionally.

Howard Leslie Brennan - Key Witness Re-evaluated

Both Eyewitnesses to the Sixth Floor sniper described him wearing white or light colored shirt, while Oswald wore brown. 

Howard Leslie Brennan, the construction worker in a hard hat who stood across the street from the Texas School Book Depository, got a good look at the gunman, and later identified Oswald in a botched lineup. 

As professor John McAdams classifies witnesses as pro-conspiracy or not, Brennan is usually in the not category, but actually he is a pro-conspiracy witness, as he swore that he could identify the gunman if he saw him again, and stood directly in front of the TSBD front door in the minutes after the assassination, waiting to talk to some cops. As he was standing there he pointed out two of the black guys who he readily identified as being in the fifth floor window, just below the gunman, as they came out the door, but he didn't call anyone's attention to Oswald, who allegedly walked out the same door around the same time and waltzed right past Brennan without Brennan noticing him. 

Howard Brennan, in hard hat, stands at the front door of the Texas School Book Depository in the minutes after the assassination, and failed to notice Oswald walk out, despite swearing that if he saw the sixth floor gunman again he would recognize him. He did not recognize Oswald, so Oswald was not the Sixth Floor sniper. 

Originally Posted July 25, 2010

https://jfkcountercoup.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/howard-brennan-reevaluated/

Howard Leslie Brennan

Brennan’s statement to the Dallas Police Department:

SHERRIF’S DEPARTMENT
COUNTY OF DALLAS, TEXAS

Before me, the undersigned authority, on this 22nd day of November A.D. 1963 personally appeared Howard Leslie Brennan, Address 6814 Woodard, Dallas, Texas

Age 44, Phone No. EV1-2713

Deposes and says: I am presently employed by the Wallace and Beard Construction Company as a Steam fitter and have been so employed for about the past 7 weeks. I am working in the Kay Railroad yards at the West end of Pacific Street near the railroad tracks. We had knocked off for lunch and I had dinner at the cafeteria at Record and Main Street and had come back to see the President of the United States. I was sitting on a ledge or wall near the intersection of Houston Street and Elm Street near the red light pole. I was facing in a northerly direction looking not only at Elm but I could see the large red brick building across the street from where I was sitting. I take this building across the street to be about 7 stories anyway in the east end of the building and the second row of windows from the top I saw a man in this window. I had seen him before the President’s car arrived. He was just sitting up there looking down apparently waiting for the same thing I was to see the President. I did not notice anything unusual about this man. He was a white man in his early 30’s, slender, nice looking, slender and would weigh about 165 to 175 pounds. He had on light colored clothing but definitely not a suit. I proceeded to watch the President’s car is it turned left at the corner where I was and about 50 yards from the intersection of Elm and Houston and to a point I would say the Presidents back was in line with the last window I have previous described I heard what I thought was a backfire. It run in my mind that it might be someone throwing firecrackers out the window of the red brick building and I looked up the building. I then saw this man I have described in the window and he was taking aim with a high powered rifle. I could see all of the barrel of the gun. I do not know if it had a scope on it or not.

            I was looking at the man in this window at the time of the last explosion. Then this man let the gun down to his side and stepped down out of sight. He did not seem to be in any hurry. I could see this man from about his belt up. There was nothing unusual about him at all in appearance. I believe that I could identify this man if I ever saw him again.

H. L. Brennan

Subscribed and sworn to before me on this the 22nd day of November A.D. 1963.

C. M. Jones
Notary Public, Dallas County, Texas

WARREN COMMISSION TESTIMONY

….Mr. Belin.

Mr. Brennan, could you please tell the Commission what happened from the time you sat on that retaining wall, what you saw?

Mr. Brennan.

Well, I was more or less observing the crowd and the people in different building windows, including the fire escape across from the Texas Book Store on the east side of the Texas Book Store, and also the Texas Book Store Building windows. I observed quite a few people in different windows. In particular, I saw this one man on the sixth floor which left the window to my knowledge a couple of times.

Mr. Belin.

Now, you say the window on the sixth floor. What building are you referring to there?

Mr. Brennan.

That is the Texas Book Store.

Mr. Belin.

I am going to ask you to circle on Exhibit 477 the particular window that you said you saw a man leave and come back a couple of times. …

…..Mr. Belin.

Here is a marking pencil. Will you just mark the window that you believe you saw the man. All right. And do you want to put a letter “A”, if you would, by that. All right, now you have marked on Commission Exhibit 477 a circle with the letter “A” to show the window that you saw a man in, I believe you said, at least two times come back and forth.

Mr. Brennan.

Yes

Mr. Belin.

Did you see any other people in any other windows that you can recollect?

Mr. Brennan.

Not on that floor. There was no other person on that floor that ever came to the window that I noticed. There were people on the next floor down, which is the fifth floor, colored guys. In particular, I only remember two that I identified. ….

…Mr. Brennan.

Well, as the parade came by, I watched it from a distance of Elm and Main Street, as it came on to Houston and turned the corner at Houston and Elm, going down the incline towards the railroad underpass. And after the President had passed my position, I really couldn’t say how many feet or how far, a short distance I would say, I heard this crack that I positively thought was a backfire.

Mr. Belin

You thought it was backfire?

Mr. Brennan.

Of a motorcycle.

Mr. Belin.

Then what did you observe or hear?

Mr. Brennan.

Well, then something, just right after this explosion, made me think that it was a firecracker being thrown from the Texas Book Store. And I glanced up. And this man that I saw previous was aiming for his last shot.

Mr. Belin.

This man you saw previous? Which man are you talking about now?

Mr. Brennan.

The man in the sixth story window.

Mr. Belin.

Would you describe just exactly what you saw when you saw him this last time?

Mr. Brennan.

Well, as it appeared to me he was standing up and resting against the left window sill, with gun shouldered to his right shoulder, holding the gun with his left hand and taking positive aim and fired his last shot. As I calculate a couple of seconds. He drew the gun back from the window as though he was drawing it back to his side and maybe paused for another second as though to assure hisself that he hit his mark, and then he disappeared. And, at the same moment, I was diving off of that firewall and to the right for bullet protection of this stone wall that is a little higher on the Houston side.

Mr. Belin

Well, let me ask you. What kind of a gun did you see in that window?

Mr. Brennan.

I am not an expert on guns. It was, as I could observe, some type of a high-powered rifle.

Mr. Belin.

Could you tell whether or not it had any kind of a scope on it?

Mr. Brennan.

I did not observe a scope.

Mr. Belin.

Could you tell whether or not it had one? Do you know whether it did or not, or could you observe that it definitely did or definitely did not, or don’t you know?

Mr. Brennan.

I do not know if it had a scope or not.

Mr. Belin

I believe you said you thought the man was standing. What do you believe was the position of the people on the fifth floor that you saw–standing or sitting?

Mr. Brennan.

I thought they were standing with their elbows on the window sill leaning out.

Mr. Belin

At the time you saw this man on the sixth floor, how much of the man could you see?

Mr. Brennan.

Well, I could see at one time he came to the window and he sat sideways on the window sill. That was previous to President Kennedy getting there. And I could see practically his whole body, from his hips up. But at the time that he was firing the gun, a possibility from his belt up.

Mr. Belin.

How much of the gun do you believe that you saw?

Mr. Brennan.

I calculate 70 to 85 percent of the gun.

Mr. Belin.

Do you know what direction the gun was pointing.

Mr. Brennan.

Yes.

Mr. Belin.

And what direction was the gun pointing when you saw it?

Mr. Brennan.

At somewhat 30 degrees downward and west by south.

Mr. Belin.

Do you know down what street it was pointing?

Mr. Brennan.

Yes. Down Elm Street toward the railroad underpasses.

Mr. Belin.

Now, up to the time of the shots, did you observe anything else that you have not told us about here that you can think of right now?

Mr. Brennan.

Well, not of any importance. I don’t remember anything else except–

Mr. Belin.

Let me ask you this. How many shots did you hear?

Mr. Brennan.

Positively two. I do not recall a second shot–

Mr. Belin.

By a second shot, you mean a middle shot between the time you heard the first noise and the last noise?

Mr. Brennan.

Yes; that is right. I don’t know what made me think that there was firecrackers throwed out of the Book Store unless I did hear the second shot, because I positively thought the first shot was a backfire, and subconsciously must have heard a second shot, but I do not recall it. I could not swear to it.

Mr. Belin.

Could you describe the man you saw in the window on the sixth floor?

Mr. Brennan.

To my best description, a man in his early thirties, fair complexion, slender but neat, neat slender, possibly 5-foot 10.

Mr. Belin.

About what weight?

Mr. Brennan

Oh, at–I calculated, I think, from 160 to 170 pounds.

Mr. Belin.

A white man?

Mr. Brennan.

Yes.

Mr. Belin.

Do you remember what kind of clothes he was wearing?

Mr. Brennan.

Light colored clothes, more of a khaki color.

Mr. Belin.

Do you remember the color of his hair?

Mr. Brennan.

No

Mr. Belin.

Now, I believe you said that after the last shot you jumped off this masonry structure on which you were sitting. Why did you jump off?

Mr. Brennan.

Well, it occurred to me that there might be more than one person, that it was a plot which could mean several people, and I knew beyond reasonable doubt that there were going to be bullets flying from every direction…….

…..Mr. Brennan.

I knew I had to get to someone quick to tell them where the man was. So I ran or I walked–there is a possibility I ran, because I have a habit of, when something has to be done in a hurry, I run. And there was one officer standing at the corner of the Texas Book Store on the street. It didn’t seem to me he was going in any direction. He was standing still.

Mr. Belin.

What did you do or what did you say to him?

Mr. Brennan.

I asked him to get me someone in charge, a Secret Service man or an FBI. That it appeared to me that they were searching in the wrong direction for the man that did the shooting.
And he was definitely in the building on the sixth floor.
I did not say on the sixth floor. Correction there.
I believe I identified the window as one window from the top.

Mr. Belin.

All right.

Mr. Brennan.

Because, at that time, I did not know how many story building it was.

Representative Ford.

But you did say to the policeman it was a window on the second floor from the top?

Mr. Brennan.

Right.

Mr. Belin.

And then what happened?

Mr. Brennan

He…

The Chairman.

May I ask there. By the second floor from the top, do you mean the one directly underneath the top floor?

Mr. Brennan.

Underneath the top floor, excluding the roof, yes, sir.

Mr. Belin.

And then what happened, sir?

Mr. Brennan.

He said, “just a minute.” And he had to give some orders or something on the east side of the building on Houston Street. And then he had taken me to, I believe, Mr. Sorrels, an automobile sitting in front of the Texas Book Store.

Mr. Belin.

And then what happened there?

Mr. Brennan.

I related my information and there was a few minutes of discussion, and Mr. Sorrels had taken me then across the street to the sheriff’s building…..

IDENTIFYING THOSE FROM THE FIFTH FLOOR AS THEY LEFT THE TSBD

….Mr. Brennan

If I might add a part, that I left out a couple of minutes ago–

Mr. Belin.

Go right ahead, sir.

Mr. Brennan.

As Mr. Sorrels and some more men were discussing this, I mentioned these two colored guys.

Mr. Belin.

Yes.

Mr. Brennan.

Came out of the book store, running down the steps.

Mr. Belin.

You mean the two

Mr. Brennan.

That I had previously saw on the fifth floor.

Mr. Belin.

All right.

Mr. Brennan.

And I immediately identified these two boys to the officers and Mr. Sorrels as being on the fifth floor.

Mr. Belin

Do you have anything else you wish to add now?

Mr. Brennan.

No; that concludes that.

Mr. McCloy.

They were running out of the building?

Mr. Brennan.

They came running down the front steps of the building on the Elm street side.

Mr. McCloy.

Did they then disappear in the crowd?

Mr. Brennan.

No; they took them in custody, I suppose, and questioned them.

Representative Ford.

The law enforcement officers stopped them, and you did what, then?

Mr. Brennan.

No. I believe Mr. Sorrels or the Secret Service man stopped them.
I am not sure, but I don’t believe an officer of the police department stopped them.

Representative Ford.

But you were standing on the steps of the Texas School BookDepository Building talking to whom?

Mr. Brennan.

Mr. Sorrels and another man, and I believe there was an officer standing there, a police officer.

Representative Ford.

And these two Negroes came out of the front door?

Mr. Brennan.

Yes, sir.

Representative Ford.

And you did what then?

Mr. Brennan.

I—

Representative Ford.

Spoke to Mr. Sorrels?

Mr. Brennan.

Spoke to Mr. Sorrels, and told him that those were the two colored boys that was on the fifth floor, or on the next floor underneath the man that fired the gun.

Representative Ford.

You positively identified them?

Mr. Brennan.

I did, at that time.

THE POLICEMAN: WELCOME E. BARNETT

Mr. Belin.

All right.
Before I go any further, do you remember the name of the officer you talked to in front of the School Book DepositoryBuilding?

Mr. Brennan.

I don’t believe I ever heard it I do not remember his name….

[Note: …..This officer was W. E. Barnett of the Dallas Police Department. In a deposition to the Warren Commission on July 23, 1964 he stated…”about that time a construction worker ran from the southwest corner of the intersection (Elm and Houston) up to me and said, “I was standing over there and saw the man in the window with the rifle.” He and I and the sergeant (Howard) all three broke and ran for the door (of the School Book Depository building). I kept the man there with me. The Sergeant ran to the back to make sure it was covered. I kept the man there until they took him across the street to the courthouse…”…..Q. How long do you think it was from the time the last shot was until the time you were at the front door…A. It was around 2½ minutes.” (Barnett may have seen the car)…..]

THE LINEUP

…..Mr. Brennan.

Well, I was just more or less introduced to him in Mr. Sorrels’ room, and they told me they were going to conduct a lineup and wanted me to view it, which I did.

Mr. Belin.

Do you remember how many people were in the lineup?

Mr. Brennan

No; I don’t. A possibility seven more or less one.

Mr. Belin.

All right.
Did you see anyone in the lineup you recognized?

Mr. Brennan.

Yes.

Mr. Belin

And what did you say?

Mr. Brennan.

I told Mr. Sorrels and Captain Fritz at that time that Oswald–or the man in the lineup that I identified looking more like a closest resemblance to the man in the window than anyone in the lineup.

Mr. Belin.

Were the other people in the lineup, do you remember–were they all white, or were there some Negroes in there, or what?

Mr. Brennan.

I do not remember.

Mr. Belin.

As I understand your testimony, then, you said that you told him that this particular person looked the most like the man you saw on the sixth floor of the building there.

Mr. Brennan.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Belin

In the meantime, had you seen any pictures of Lee Harvey Oswald on television or in the newspapers?

Mr. Brennan.

Yes, on television.

Mr. Belin.

About when was that, do you believe?

Mr. Brennan.

I believe I reached home quarter to three or something of that, 15 minutes either way, and I saw his picture twice on television before I went down to the police station for the lineup.

Mr. Belin.

Now, is there anything else you told the officers at the time of the lineup?

Mr. Brennan.

Well, I told them I could not make a positive identification.

Mr. Belin

When you told them that, did you ever later tell any officer or investigating person anything different?

Mr. Brennan.

Yes.

Mr. Belin

When did that happen?

Mr. Brennan.

I believe some days later–I don’t recall exactly–and I believe the Secret Service man identified hisself as being Williams, I believe, from Houston. I won’t swear to that-whether his name was Williams or not.

Mr. Belin.

All right

Mr. Brennan.

And he could have been an FBI. As far as I remember, it could have been FBI instead of Secret Service.
But I believe it was a Secret Service man from Houston.
And I–

Mr. Belin.

What did he say to you and what did you say to him?

Mr. Brennan.

Well, he asked me he said, “You said you couldn’t make a positive identification.”
He said, “Did you do that for security reasons personally, or couldn’t you?”
And I told him I could with all honesty, but I did it more or less for security reasons–my family and myself.

Mr. Belin.

What do you mean by security reasons for your family and yourself?

Mr. Brennan.

I believe at that time, and I still believe it was a Communist activity, and I felt like there hadn’t been more than one eyewitness, and if it got to be a known fact that I was an eyewitness, my family or I, either one, might not be safe.

Mr. Belin.

Well, if you wouldn’t have identified him, might he not have been released by the police?

Mr. Brennan.

Beg pardon?

Mr. Belin.

If you would not have identified that man positively, might he not have been released by the police?

Mr. Brennan.

No. That had a great contributing factor–greater contributing factor than my personal reasons was that I already knew they had the man for murder, and I knew he would not be released.

Mr. Belin.

The murder of whom?

Mr. Brennan.

Of Officer Tippit.

Mr. Belin.

Well, what happened in between to change your mind that you later decided to come forth and tell them you could identify him?

Mr. Brennan.

After Oswald was killed, I was relieved quite a bit that as far as pressure on myself of somebody not wanting me to identify anybody, there was no longer that immediate danger.

Mr. Belin.

What is the fact as to whether or not your having seen Oswald on television would have affected your identification of him one way or the other?

Mr. Brennan.

That is something I do not know.

Mr. Belin.

Mr. Brennan, could you tell us now whether you can or cannot positively identify the man you saw on the sixth floor window as the same man that you saw in the police station?

Mr. Brennan.

I could at that time I could, with all sincerity, identify him as being the same man.

Mr. Belin.

Was the man that you saw in the window firing the rifle the same man that you had seen earlier in the window, you said at least a couple of times, first stepping up and then going back?

Mr. Brennan.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Belin.

About how far were you away from that window at the time you saw him, Mr. Brennan?

Mr. Brennan.

Well, at that time, I calculated 110-foot at an angle. But closer surveillance I believe it will run close to 122 to 126 feet at an angle.

Mr. Belin.

I believe that on Friday we paced the distance between the place where you were sitting and the front door of the Texas School Book Depository Building, and it ran about–

Mr. Brennan.

93-foot……

FILM OF BRENNAN AT THE FRONT DOOR OF TSBD MISSING?

Mr. Belin.

All right.
Will you put a mark to “G” at the end? And I believe you said that the car that you talked to the Secret Service agent in was at point “G” approximately?

Mr. Brennan.

Right.

Mr. Belin.

Now, are these accurate or approximate locations, Mr. Brennan?

Mr. Brennan

Well, don’t you have photographs of me talking to the Secret Service men right here?

Mr. Belin.

I don’t believe so.

Mr. Brennan.

You should have. It was on television before I got home my wife saw it.

Mr. Belin.

On television?

Mr. Brennan.

Yes.

Mr. Belin.

At this time we do not have them.
Do you remember what station they were on television?

Mr. Brennan.

No. But they had it. And I called I believe Mr. Lish who requested that he cut those films or get them cut of the FBI. I believe you might know about them. Somebody cut those films, because a number of times later the same films were shown, and that part was cut.

Mr. Belin.

Who would Mr. Lish be with?

Mr. Brennan

The FBI.

Mr. Belin.

All right.
We thank you very much for that information.
Is there anything else that you did at point “G” or anywhere else after the time of the assassination before you went to the Sheriff’s office?

Mr. Brennan.

I walked up the steps and stood on the outside of the doorway.

Mr. Belin.

Of what building?

Mr. Brennan.

Of the Texas Book Store, while the officers or the men that I was with gave some more orders. And then Mr. Sorrels taken me across to the Sheriff’s office.

Mr. Dulles.

You did not go inside the building?

Mr. Brennan.

No; I did not.

Mr. Belin.

Did you notice any people coming out of the front stairs of the building after these two Negroes came out?

Mr. Brennan.

Well, I recall people going in and out, but a different picture I cannot remember.

Representative Ford.

Where were you standing when you identified the two Negroes?

Mr. Brennan.

On the edge of the street, outer side of the sidewalk, when the two colored boys came out of the building and came down the steps.

Mr. Belin.

Was that at point “G”?

Mr. Brennan.

Yes, sir…..

BRENNAN: SNIPER WINDOW BOXES MOVED

…..Mr. Belin.

I note in window “A” there appear to be some boxes in the window. To the best of your recollection, what is the fact as to whether or not those boxes as shown in this exhibit appear to be similar to the ones you saw on November 22?

Mr. Brennan.

No; I could see more boxes.

Mr. Belin.

In the window or behind time window?

Mr. Brennan.

Behind the window.

Mr. Belin.

I am talking in the window itself.

Mr. Brennan.

No, no. That is–I don’t remember a box in the window, these boxes I remember are stacked up behind the window, and they were zigzagged, kind of step down, and there was a space it looked like back of here.

Mr. Belin.

Now, you are pointing to a space which would be on the east side, is that right?

Mr. Brennan.

Yes.

Mr. Belin.

When you say you don’t remember

Mr. Brennan.

Well, I can see those boxes there now. I don’t know whether you can see them or not. It seems like I can see the boxes in that picture.
Am I right?

Mr. Belin.

I don’t know, sir. I can’t see them on Exhibit 471. That could be the dirty window here.

Mr. Brennan.

Here they are here. Those boxes there.

Mr. Belin.

Well, here is Exhibit 482.
First of all, I see a box on Exhibit 482, right in the window.

Mr. Brennan.

Yes; I don’t recall that box.

Mr. Belin.

Do you recall that it definitely was not there, or just you don’t recall whether it was or was not there.

Mr. Brennan.

I do not recall that being there. So, therefore, I could not say it definitely wasn’t there…….

FROM BRENNAN’S BOOK

Eyewitness to History (Texian Press, Waco, 1987, with J. Edward Cherryholmes)

http://www.kenrahn.com/jfk/history/the_deed/brennan/Brennan_book.html – Intro

….I looked at my watch which indicated 12:18. By now I could hear as well as sense the excitement in the air. The sidewalks were lined to capacity.

….As I sat on the wall, looking around, I had an excellent view of the whole terrain. I could see people in every direction—it was a crowd that was becoming more excited by the minute.

Directly across the street from where I sat was the Texas School Book Depository Building. By now it seemed that every window in the place was open with one or more people peering out. There was a spirit of happy anticipation and I could hear much laughter and happy conversation. People were waving from the buildings and fire escapes.

I had thought all the windows in the Texas Book Depository were occupied, but as I looked closer, those occupied seemed to be confined to the lower floors. As I worked my gaze upward, I was struck by the fact that one floor, the one next to the top, seemed to be completely empty. I didn’t think much about it as I reasoned everyone would want to get on as low a floor as possible for the best view. Then, looking at the corner of the building, I noticed one man in the window. What drew my attention to him with all of the other people in the area, I don’t know. I looked at my watch and it was about 12:22. As I watched him, he went away from the window for a few seconds and then returned. I thought perhaps he was doing a special job and had just broken away from it for a moment to see what was happening outside.

There was nothing about this young man at first glance that seemed unusual. He appeared to be about average height, maybe 5’8” to 5’10” and of average weight, tending more toward the slender side. I’m not good at guessing ages, but he seemed to be 25–35. He had on light colored clothing. The thing that caught my attention was that he was alone. Most others were sharing this magic moment with someone, but he was a solitary figure who seemed to be in his own little world. After watching him for a while, I turned to look at some of the others and noticed two black men in the window directly underneath the lone man. There were exactly the opposite. They were laughing, smiling, waving to all who could see them and “having the time of their lives.” It was a festive mood which everyone seemed to find contagious.

After looking around at the crowd for a few moments, I fastened my attention again on the curious young man who was alone on the sixth floor of the building. The most unusual thing about him, I decided, was his demeanor. It stood out in sharp contrast to that of everyone else. There were undoubtedly those in the crowd who didn’t like the President. There had been reports of anti-Kennedy feeling and speculation that some kind of demonstration might take place. But from where I was sitting and from what I could hear, it was a happy, joyous crowd, glad for an opportunity to see their President who was, even then, becoming a legend. If there was animosity in Dallas, most people were keeping it to themselves.

As I looked at the man, it struck me how unsmiling and calm he was. He didn’t seem to feel one bit of excitement. His face was almost expressionless. I couldn’t detect either happiness or hate. Again he left the window for a few seconds, but almost as quickly he resumed his position there. It was only later that I discovered, along with the nation, that he was, in all probability, checking to make certain no one was coming up to the sixth floor to interrupt what he had planned.

SUSPICIOUS CAR – 55-57 OLDS

While surveying the area, I glanced away to the side of the Depository Building and found something I could not understand. At that time there was a side entrance towards the rear of the building on Houston Street. At some point during the morning hours, the police had sealed off parking in that block and forced all cars to move. Saw horses were placed at Elm and Houston to block traffic. As I looked around I saw a lone car parked beside the Book Depository with a while male seated behind the wheel. The car was an Oldsmobile, a 1955–57 model. It is difficult to tell the exact year unless one is an expert because all those years looked nearly alike. I remember wondering why all the other cars had been made to move and this one had not.

I didn’t have the chance to study the driver carefully but he was wearing civilian clothes and appeared to be middle aged.

One thing that interested me about the car was the way it was parked. The left front wheel was pulled sharply away from the curb and the driver had the door partially open. Later I wondered if the reason for this was so the car could make a quick U-turn in a speedy departure. As I was watching the man in the car I saw a policeman who was on foot walk over towards the car and begin talking to the man in a friendly, laughing manner. So far as I could see, there was no attempt made to get the man to move his car and after chatting for a minute or so, the policeman walked back to his post. It was this fact that made me think the police should have made some report about the presence of the car, but I have never seen any other account of this “mystery car.”

As each minute passed the crowd grew more and more excited and I could feel this along with everyone else. It was a tingling sensation, a kind of mass intoxication that everyone was getting caught up in. At about 12:26 the word spread that the Presidential motorcade was approaching and it would be only a few minutes until it came into view.

The crowd was now at fever pitch and it was one of the most exciting moments in my life. If nothing else happened that day, I would still remember it always. I looked up at the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository where that quiet, strange man was hunched. He hadn’t changed his position or expression at all. He was perfectly calm and his face revealed nothing out of the ordinary. If someone had told me he was shortly about to assassinate the President, there was nothing in his behavior that would have made me suspect it.

Looking back, I know that the man was too calm, too unconcerned. If one can’t become excited at seeing the President of the United States, I wondered what it would take to move him. But the thought of assassination never entered my mind. During the several minutes I studied him, our eyes never met and he didn’t know I was watching him. I have often wondered since that time what would have happened if he had known. Would he have changed his plan? I doubt it…. He seemed not to be looking at anything in particular, rather gazing blankly into space, as if his mind were a thousand miles away. I’ve thought since that he was looking at the corner of Houston and Main from where the President would come. He seemed preoccupied. He left the window one last time for just a few seconds and then returned to his lonely vigil, At no time during all these many minutes did I see any rifle or anything that would have led me to believe that he was any kind of threat to the President.

I heard the wail of sirens from cars that were slowly approaching the corner of Main and Houston and swung around in that direction. Everyone around me was trying to do the same thing. Some moved from their positions to get a better look. From my position on the wall, I was head and shoulders above everyone else and glad that I had such a good seat. I could hear a ripple of applause beginning that would continue to swell in intensity as the motorcade drew nearer.

Two cars stopped at the corner of Main and Houston and I learned later that these were Secret Service Agents trying to secure the path of the President….

As the car came abreast of where I was sitting on the wall, Kennedy turned to wave at those on the other side of the street. The next moments have remained fresh in my mind for nearly twenty years. In one respect, the whole experience seemed to take only a few seconds. In another, it resembled slow-motion action that one sees in the movies at times. What has been recorded as taking less than ten seconds seemed like an eternity to me. I’m sure others on the scene felt the same as I. When the presidential car moved just a few feet past where I was sitting, President Kennedy looked back to our side of the street. Just at that moment the whole joy and good will of the day was shattered by the sound of a shot. It took an instant to realize that something had happened. My first instinct was to disbelieve my own ears. Nothing could have been further from my mind at that moment than that someone was trying to kill the President. My first thought was that it must have been a backfire. I’m sure many other people around me must have thought the same thing for there was no instantaneous reaction from the crowd. It was as if no one could really believe that such a thing was even possible, certainly not in Dallas.

I looked up then at the Texas Book Depository Building. What I saw made my “blood run cold.”

Poised in the corner window of the sixth floor was the same young man I had noticed several times before the motorcade arrived. There was one difference—this time he held a rifle in his hands, pointing toward the Presidential car. He steadied the rifle against the cornice and while he moved quickly, he didn’t seem to be in any kind of panic. All of this happened in the matter of a second or two. Then came the sickening sound of a second shot and I looked quickly back to the presidential car which had moved only a few feet, still not apparently aware that it was the assassin’s target.

I saw Governor John Connally reacting to being wounded and the instinctive response of his wife to try and help him. I remember thinking, “Oh my God! He’s going to kill them, he’s going to kill them all!” The immensity and horror of what I was witnessing almost overwhelmed me. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t utter a sound. I could only watch the whole monstrous drama unfold.

Just then a woman close to me screamed in full realization of what was happening. She uttered something like, “Oh, my God!” But even as she did my eyes darted back to that solitary figure who was changing history. He was aiming again and I wanted to pray, to beg God to somehow make him miss his target. There wasn’t time to pray, not even time to think about what I was seeing but the sight became so fixed in my mind that I’ll never forget it for as long as I live. There was nothing I could do. It was a hopeless, sinking feeling. I would have gladly given my life in that moment to be able to save the President, but no one could move fast enough to shield him with his own body. Then another shot rang out.

All of this took only a few seconds. I didn’t realize at that moment that I was the only person who was actually watching the man firing the rifle. Simultaneous with the third shot, I swung my eyes back to the Presidential car which had moved on down to my left on Elm, and I saw a sight that made my whole being sink in despair. A spray of red came from around the President’s head. I knew the bullet had struck its intended target. Later, I would learn that the whole scene had taken less than ten seconds. In retrospect, it seemed like several minutes.

By the time the third shot had been fired, there was sheer pandemonium. Everyone was fully aware that the noise they were hearing was shots, not backfire. This was really happening. It was like a nightmare, only I couldn’t wake up from it. No one had to tell me what was ahead. The moment I saw the effects of the third shot, I knew that the assassin had been successful. No person could have survived that kind of wound.

Mass confusion and hysteria set in and I must admit, I was feeling it too. People were screaming. Men and women dressed in their fine suits and dresses, fell to the ground, getting them dirty, but hopefully getting out of the line of fire. At that moment, no one but me seemed to know where the shots had come from. By now uniformed policemen and plain clothes police, who I assumed were Secret Service or F.B.I. Agents came running from every direction. I jumped from the wall to try to get out of the line of fire. I never saw so many guns in my life. Most of the police were running towards the triple underpass which perhaps was a hundred feet or so ahead of the motorcade. Some were running towards an area to the right, slightly raised, which has come to be called the “Grassy Knoll.” Much speculation has been raised about whether there was another gunman there who was trying to catch the President in a cross-fire. Having witnessed the whole scene, I can say with certainty there was only one gunman present that day and all shots were fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. It is easy to understand why many thought the shots were coming from the area of the underpass as the buildings and open area combine to produce an “echo” effect.

Even as I hit the ground, my first instinct was to look back up to that man on the sixth floor. “Was he going to fire again?” I wondered. By now the motorcade was beginning to speed up and in only a couple of seconds the President’s car had disappeared under the triple underpass. To my amazement the man still stood there in the window! He didn’t appear to be rushed. There was no particular emotion visible on his face except for a slight smirk. It was a look of satisfaction, as if he had accomplished what he had set out to do. He seemed pleased that no one had realized where the shots were coming from. Then he did something that puzzled me. Very slowly and deliberately he set the rifle on its butt and just stayed there for a moment to savor what he had done, like a hunter who has “bagged his buck.” Then, with no sense of haste, he simply moved slowly away from the window until he disappeared from my line of vision.

I thought, “Any moment now, someone will set the police straight and they’ll charge the building to get him!” Some people were starting to get up off the ground, but as I looked around, no one was moving towards the building and I didn’t see any police available! Everyone was still trying to find out where the shots had come from.

The last thing I wanted to do was to get involved. I knew in that moment that I had to make a decision, the most important decision of my life. I didn’t have the time to think of all the possible consequences that might come to me as a result. I haven’t figured out why, of all the people who were present at the scene that day, I was the only person who saw the assassin fire, but Fate or God apparently chose me to be the witness. I was scared! I’d lived my whole life as a man who tried to mind his own business and not get involved in other’s troubles and now suddenly I was in a position where I might be called upon to play a part in one of the most momentous events in our nation’s history. As I got up from the ground, I realized I had to make a decision I would live with the rest of my life. I didn’t have time to dwell on the fact that I might be putting my life in jeopardy and possibly that of my wife as well.

I began to look for a policeman. Someone had just murdered the President of the United States before my eyes and there was no way under heaven that I was going to allow him to get away with it.

In that moment, while I was looking for police help, I heard someone say something behind me which made me angry and sick at the same time. I’ve said, before and during the time the motorcade passed I didn’t hear one adverse word directed towards the President, but just as I began to look for help, I heard a man behind me say, “I wonder if they got him!” All of my life I have tried to control a quick temper. My first instinct was to turn and go after whoever it was who had said it. I’m certain I would have taken out all of the frustration I was feeling at that moment on that individual. I didn’t even take time to think about how big he might be. At that moment I wanted to strike back for the loss that had come to me in the death of “My President.” But there were higher purposes to think about and I knew I couldn’t think about myself at that moment. I had to do everything I could to help catch THE ASSASSIN.

Finally, I saw a policeman standing at the Southwest corner of the SCHOOL BOOK DEPOSITORY and I ran across the street to get his attention.[1][4] There was much noise and confusion and people were trying to get out of the area. As I approached the policemen he said, “What do you want?” I said, “The man you want is in the building!” He said, “Are you sure?” I responded, “I sure am.” He grabbed my arm and we both ran to the front of the School Book Depository.

THE SUSPICIOUS CAR GONE

I glanced back towards the street to the side of the building. The car I had seen PARKED there before the motorcade passed WAS GONE. Although only a few moments had elapsed and all exits were blocked except one, the car had disappeared. The policeman who had been talking to the driver was gone, but I assumed he was looking for the gunman….

Many times since, especially in recent years, I have thought about the car parked alongside the Texas Book Depository and wondered where it came from and where it went. I have always wondered why the policeman allowed the car to be parked illegally beside the building with its wheels turned outward when other cars had been made to vacate the area. Of course, the paramount question in my mind was, “Who was the man sitting behind the wheel that day?”

As I watched the car, it never occurred to me that an assassination was about to take place and this might be the “get-away” car. Even though I could not have positively identified the man behind the wheel, I can say this for certain. The man was white, middle-aged and dressed in civilian clothes. I didn’t have an opportunity to study his face, so identification is impossible but I have always felt that somehow he was involved in the assassination.

Later, I would remember, “if that was a ‘get-away’ car, why didn’t it wait to pick up the killer?” Was it possible that he was being left on purpose? These questions and others tormented me for years after that experience and will never be fully answered. The one thing I knew for certain—there was a car there before the assassination and it disappeared before the assassin had time to get out of the building.

[Note: Howard did not report the presence of the car beside the Book depository Building initially because he did not make an association. Subsequent to that time he had already made a formal statement and probably realized that to insert this new item might cast some doubt on his testimony. He thus determined not to say anything he could not verify absolutely. In retrospect, he acknowledged he probably should have reported it, but he wanted to be sure his testimony would stand since it was critical.]

While I was waiting for the policeman to return, I looked around again at the scene. The chaos and anguish of a few minutes earlier had subdued. There was no one still sitting on the ground and the noise and confusion had begun to settle. A curious, almost eerie quiet had descended over the area. Shortly after we got to the front steps of the building a plain clothes policeman came out of the door.

[2][5] 

He asked me what I had seen and I told him. I gave him a description of the man I had seen on the sixth floor with the rifle. “He was a young man about 25 to 35 years old. He seemed to be of average height, not over six feet and he had dark hair that was beginning to recede.” He went to a police car that was parked nearby and broadcast the description I had given him. I learned later that this was the first description broadcast to all units of the Dallas Police Department and may have led Officer J. D. Tippit to stop Lee Harvey Oswald. After the broadcast, he and another officer returned to where I was standing. “Please come with me, I want you to show me where you saw the man with the rifle,” indicating I should follow them into the building. “Wait a minute,” I said, thinking of my wife and family, “I can’t go in there with you.” I was concerned that the man who moments before had shot the President was still in the building. “All right then will you stand right there until we come back?” I nodded yes and he went back into the building with two other policemen. Other officers were now returning from the “Grassy Knoll” and were surrounding the building.

As I stood there in front of the Depository I had a chance to think back over the past few minutes. It seemed impossible that only a short time ago I had been just another average American who had come to see the President pass by and now because of that I was an eyewitness to an assassination that would change the entire course of history.

TV REPORTER AND CAMERAMAN AT SCENE

Before I could reflect any longer I was confronted by a television reporter and cameraman. They wanted to interview me and find out what I knew about the shooting. I did not want to talk to him and I certainly did not want my picture broadcast. If there were more people involved than the young man I had seen then showing me on television as an eyewitness would be like hanging a target over my heart for someone to shoot at.

He kept asking “Who are you, what do you know about the shooting of the President?” I turned my back on him without answering. He continued to try to get me to talk even though I moved away from him. Finally I said “I don’t know anything.”

I learned later that my wife, Louise, had been watching television and was the reporter trying to interview me. Even though my name wasn’t given, she knew that I must have seen the assassination. My little grandson, who was less than two, pointed at the TV and said, “There’s Granddaddy!” My daughter Vicki had watched the whole scene in a beauty shop. I felt exposed to the whole world as I tried to evade that reporter and cameraman. I don’t know how long the reporter stayed with me, but it had to be several minutes: Each time he’d approach me I’d turn or move away a few steps. It is my sincere belief that Lee Harvey Oswald came out of the front door of the Depository while I was trying to avoid the TV reporter. If my attention had not been distracted I might have spotted him right there.[3][6]

In retrospect, maybe it’s just as well my attention was diverted. If Oswald and I had come face to face, and I showed recognition, he might have killed me to keep me from identifying him as he later killed Officer J. D. Tippit. Everything seemed to work in Oswald’s favor to make his escape from the Texas Book Depository possible.

About 25 minutes after the President was shot a man came out of the Depository and identified himself as Special Agent Forrest Sorrels with the Secret Service.[4][7] I gave him the same information that I had given to the other officers a few minutes before. Mr. Sorrels asked if I would accompany him to the Sheriffs office across the street and give them a written statement. “Of course, I will,” I said. “I want to see that man caught. I’ll do all I can to help you.”

As I shut the car door and walked towards the house, I knew I had to tell Louise that I was an eyewitness to the assassination. I couldn’t just say nothing. Sooner or later she would find out. When and if the killer was caught, I would surely have to make an identification, so I decided the best thing to do was tell her the whole thing. When I opened the front door, Louise was standing there and I can never forget the look on her face. Somehow, she knew, I thought. But how?

My little grandson, Tyson, came running towards me, crying. “Granddaddy, I saw you on TV!” In a moment I knew that Louise had seen the reporter trying to interview me and realized something was wrong. “Howard, how are you involved?” she asked, looking me straight in the eyes. I hesitated for a minute trying to think what to say, finally I said, “It’s just a case of being in the right place at the wrong time. Louise, I was there. I saw him do it. I saw the man shoot President Kennedy. It was the most terrible thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” I told her the whole story, how I’d found a good seat on the wall and watched the man before the President came. About the awful moment when all hell broke loose and the shots rang out…

…As we watched TV, they showed the reporter trying to interview me again. I felt rage and fear at the same time. My privacy was being violated and there was nothing I could do about it. I wondered who was watching TV that might recognize me. I felt panic because I realized that if I was in any danger, then certainly Louise and my daughter Vicki and grandson Tyson might also be. By now, I recognized that I must be the only eyewitness, for I had heard of no one else coming forth as one….

While we were discussing this latest news, I saw something on the television that made me quake. I’m not certain of the exact time, but I believe it was about 5:30 p.m. that the first picture of Lee Harvey Oswald was flashed on the screen. I remember thinking, “It’s him! He’s the one who did it!” But I never said a word at the time, not even to Louise. Showing the picture of Oswald before any identification was made seemed very strange to me. Millions of people were seeing Oswald before I, the one person who could positively identify him, had been taken to an official lineup. I felt a sense of resistance within myself. How is this man going to get a fair trial?” I thought. “He is already guilty in the minds of everyone who is seeing him?”….

SA ROBERT C. LISH MAKES TV FILM DISAPEAR

….Pushing my way through this mob I found the office I’d been instructed to go to. Mr. Sorrels was there and another man who identified himself as Agent Robert C. Lish of the F.B.I. Lish was a short man of a medium weight and build who curiously wore his hat most of the time. I remembered talking to him earlier on the phone. I told Mr. Lish, “I’m not at all satisfied with this situation!” Lish looked a bit puzzled. What do you mean?” he said. “My picture has been on the television several times today without my permission and I know someone is going to recognize me and put two and two together. I want it taken off and I want it taken off right away!” Mr. Lish nodded and said something to another man who was in the room who immediately left. From that moment, my picture never appeared on that television channel again.

“I want to keep my identity a secret!” I told them. “We’ll do all we can to help you do that,” Lish said. “We want you to look at a lineup and see if you can find someone in it who resembles the man you saw on the sixth floor. I said, “I’ll be glad to cooperate, but I don’t think it’s fair for me to make an identification. Any one of a million people who saw him on television a while ago could make the same identification.” Lish smiled diplomatically.

I was led into a darkened room with lights at one end. When we arrived, a group of several men, perhaps as many as seven, were led in and made to stand in line with numbers over them. As soon as I saw him, I think he was number two, I knew without any doubt whatsoever that they had captured the man whom I saw fire the shot that killed President Kennedy. I felt a surge of emotion, a sense of outrage at this young man who had literally thrown the whole world into chaos. As I was looking at each of the men in the lineup I saw a face that I recognized. It was a Dallas Detective that I knew. He was perhaps the most well-known of all the Dallas Police and his picture had been in the papers many times. If he was there, that meant only one thing. My privacy had been broached. I felt sick and a little betrayed. I’d come to City Hall with the understanding that I would be dealing only with the F.B.I. and/or the Secret Service, not the Dallas Police.

DALLAS PD OFFICER ASKS LEADING QUESTION

The officer walked over to me sticking out his hand to shake. He greeted me by name and I knew if he knew who I was and what my connection with the case was, then others must know. He asked me, “Does the second man from the left look most like the man you saw?” He was talking about Oswald and I knew what he wanted me to say.

I felt even more angry and betrayed. I hadn’t agreed to make an identification to the local authorities. I knew that there were ways my identity could become known though the leaks in the police department and I didn’t want any part of it. I knew that they had Oswald on enough charges that he wasn’t going anyplace. He had been charged with resisting arrest and carrying a firearm without a permit. There was overwhelming evidence that he had killed Officer Tippit and so my identification in that moment wasn’t absolutely necessary. If they needed me later, I knew I could identify him.

I said brusquely, “He looks like the man, but I can’t say for sure!” I needed some time to think. I turned to Mr. Lish, who had detected my resentment and said, “Let’s go back to the office. We have some talking to do.” As we went, I commented that the man in the lineup wasn’t dressed the same way the man in the window had been.

“We forgot to tell you that he changed his clothes immediately after leaving the Depository, Lish said. When we reached the office I responded angrily, “You promised me anonymity. You people haven’t kept your word.” Sorrels looked genuinely puzzled. “What do you mean?” “If this Detective knows who I am and what my connection with the assassination is, then it won’t be long before everybody finds out.” Sorrels tried to be reassuring, “We’ll do everything we can to protect your identity, Mr. Brennan, but this isn’t entirely our jurisdiction.” I wasn’t sure just what he meant, and said so. “There isn’t anything we could do about it,” Sorrels explained. “The law is clear that murder, even assassination, is a state offense and must be turned over to local officials for investigation and prosecution!”

So it was out and I had to deal with it. No matter how hard they might try, it was only a matter of time before people would find out that the unidentified witness whose description had helped catch Oswald was really Howard Brennan. Suddenly, I didn’t feel very good. I felt very vulnerable, exposed to naked light, and I didn’t like it one bit. I knew I was going to be sorry that I decided to become involved.

While we were talking, Captain Fritz came in and asked me, “Can you make a positive identification of any of those we showed you in the lineup?” Having felt betrayed in my quest for anonymity, I was in no mood to hurry the process of exposure. I said, “You already have your man on enough charges to hold him for a long time. I’m not going to make a positive identification at the moment. If and when the time comes and you need it or have to let him go, we’ll deal with it then.” I wasn’t saying, “Yes, Oswald is the man,” nor was I saying, “No, he isn’t the one.”….

BRENNAN MEETS JFK’S DOUBLE

…About 9:30 we heard a knock at the door and we both went to answer it. Louise stayed a little behind me. It was Agent Lish of the F.B.I. Looking out I could see a car parked at the curb. Looking further I could make out that he wasn’t alone but had brought someone with him. “I’d like to see you if you aren’t too tired.”

“That’s perfectly O.K. I don’t think I’m going to sleep very much tonight anyway. Why don’t you come in and have a cup of coffee?” Lish came in and seemed more informal and friendly than I had remembered while at City Hall. “I thought we might get better acquainted and maybe answer some of your questions,” he said. As we started to pass pleasantries, another man stepped from the shadows on the porch where I had only seen his figure and moved into the light. Louise gave an audible gasp that all of us could hear and I felt a shock run through me. There standing in our little hallway was John F. Kennedy, alive again. At least that’s what I thought at that instant. The man standing there was the exact double of the late President in every detail. Had I not known that the President was dead, I would have staked my life that I was being visited by him. Every feature about him, his face, his hair, his build, even his clothes looked exactly like the President. It was as if a ghost had suddenly appeared. Even his voice sounded so much like Mr. Kennedy’s. My mind simply couldn’t absorb it all and Louise was struck dumb, her eyes wide open in amazement. Lish introduced the double as a fellow agent and apologized for not preparing us for this shocking experience. We all sat down at the kitchen table. Later I would learn that many American Presidents have had doubles, including President Roosevelt. All my life I had heard that there is someone, somewhere who looks exactly like you, but until that night I’d never known it for the truth. The agent told us some of his experiences doubling for the President. They were fascinating.

We emptied the coffee pot, made another pot, drank that and just kept the coffee and cookies in supply as we kept at vigil. A President was dead, a killer was being interrogated, a nation was in shock. Everything had slowed down to a crawl and on this Friday night as the hour grew later and later, it seemed unbelievable that my wife and I were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and eating cookies with F.B.I. agents we hadn’t even known a few hours ago….