THE THIRD DECADE

The number of Third Decade subscribers has dramatically in-

creased during the past few months. Though each new reader is a

welcome addition, the burgeoning circulation nevertheless under-

scores the sad fact that much excellent work from earlier editions

remains relatively esoteric. Readers are once again reminded that

copies of past issues can be obtained.

As a bonus to our patient readers, this critical double-issue

is accompanied by the revised Dan Rather In Dallas piece that pro-

voked significant response after appearing in the September 1990

issue. An excerpt from Evans' book The Rather Narrative, it proves

padticularly timely given Mr. Rather's recent obfuscatory (whether

wittingly or not) effort on 4.8 Hours. Originally commissioned by

The Third Decade, this book focusing on Mr. Rather's Dallas contro-

versies and the numerous links between Dallas and other political

shootings is slowly but surely attracting notice around the country.

Charter subscribers who have not obtained the complete book

will find significant new information in this addendum (forgive the

unusual format, since it has been grafted from TTD and text pages.)

Newer readers unaware of the Dan Rather controversies will undoubt-

edly be intrigued. All readers have permission to copy and circu-

late this chapter as long as they include the information as to how

the entire text can be obtained.

Again, thanks for your patience regarding the inconvenient but

necessary growing pains. Though Dan Rather In Dallas appeared at

the tail end of our seventh year of publication, in just eighteen

months since we have grown nearly sixfold. This is just one of many

notable pieces our newer "serious researchers" might want to famil-

iarize themselves with. Write for more details on others.

Vol. 6 06

September, 1390

DAN RATHER IN CALLAS.

by Monte Evans

"The President's motorcade would end at a railroad overpass Just

beyond an aid brick building with a name no one knew--the Texas

School Book Depository...our last film drop was to be staked out

Just an the other side of the overpass, and we were short a man to

staff it. And I said, well, what the hell, I'm not doing anything,

I'll go over...1 picked out my spot on the other side of the railroad

tracks, beyond the triple underpass, thirty yards from a grassy knoll

that would later figure in so many conspiracy theories.' Dan Rather,

from his autobiography, The Camera Never Blinks. p

. 114.

Perhaps no temporal truth in all human history has proven more elusive than that

of the John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy. Carefully concealed since Its

conception. it has been shielded from the public eye by flawed or outright bogus

government "investigations,"' the violent deaths of scores of potentially crucial

witnesses, and a vast welter of 'misinformation' often reported as virtually a

gospel-etched-in-stone by a gullible and/or compromised media. As our community of

'serious researchers' struggles through that blizzard of misinformation intended to

blind us from the mysterious truth, we Intermittently find our ranks thinning as some

become too discouraged to continue on, unable to further bear the heartbreaks of

false hopes endlessly dashed. The seemingly infinite misinformational trails that

lead nowhere, that leave us choking on their worthless dust and provoke the

15

profoundest despair, are a veritable Death Valley comprising the remains of countless

researchers who could carry on no longer in that vast desert of lies and half-truths.

Even in this census year, there could be no counting the number of researchers. many

16

of them extremely competent and dedicated, who were swept away to oblivion by the

tidal wave of misinformation originally disseminated by the United States government

16 and propagated a hundred-fold by the

nation's mass media.

Like a volcano erupting lava, the American mass media spews out mountains of

molten misinformation that engulfs and sears us all. Indeed, even the staunchest

researchers, arduously defiant of government hostility and unintimidated by the

hundred-odd murders connecteo to we case, are often iliaLlEm IA

:rata

:".:14.7.a m:

our uninformed ;leers parrot—

the—endless' "Oswald -

didh it' .or the fail-safe

!'Castro-did-it' tripe forever 'reported" by the mass media.

It is thus the most extreme irony that our community's greatest hope for

!rejuvenation and a vindicating respect in the eyes of Americans lies in the very

.epicenter of that volanco of untruths, the seemingly Inexhaustible fountain of

'misinformation that Is the American mass media. The one great hope we have to

.acquaint our fellow Americans with the sheer enormity of the JFK assassination

cover-up is directly proportionate to our ability to acquaint them with the

fascinatingly peculiar story of that mass media's brightest star, the most familiar

information authority In America today. a man whose name and face are recognizable to

virtually every last citizen: CBS News anchorman Dan Rather. However obscured by the

United States government and the mass media 'watchdogs,' the mysterious truth of the

John F. Kennedy assassination does exist, even if only visible as loose threictS finer

than gossamer. Yet none of the truth's threads have tantalized serious researchers•

more than the ones cobwebbed around a mass media personality who has profited

mightily from that murder, the man who has proven himself a major pillar of the

"Oswald alone" myth with his constant efforts

of

support ii ...r chat raz,;e.

d Reagan and the "Son f am

vic-

Particularly when we find the Dam

Rather threads weaving directly to the very crime

. scene.

A native Texan. Dan Rather graduated from Sam Houston State Teacher's College

with a journalism degree in 1953. After a brief stint with the Marines, he launched

tims. It is available to Third Decade subscri-

bers for $15 (the Last Hurrah Bookshop sells it for $18 plus postage.) The book features over

1,000 footnotes, and includes more conspiratorial: evidence in the shooting of President Reagan

than has ever been published anywhere. No assassination student's library is complete without it.

The Rather Narrative can be ordered from: BARBARA BOOKS, Box 565, BARRINGTON RI 02806

Read this book and you'll understand why Dan Rather fights us so hard.

!THE TH

IRD

DEC

AD

E A JO

UR

NA

L O

R R

ES

EA

RC

H O

N T

HE

JO

HN

F. K

EN

NE

DY

AS

SA

SS

INA

TIO

N

11963 1973

1983 1993

1555 0889-5230

CONTENTS

DAM RATHER IN DALLAS

by Monte Evans

A VIDEO COMPENDIUM (Part Two)

by Jan Stevens

18 •

TFE

THIR

D DECADE is publlshed hi-monthly a£'

Sta

te Univefiti Cal

lege, Fredonia, NY, 1406). Editor and publisher: Dr. Jerry D.

Rose. Subsciption rates: $15 for 1 year, $26 for 2 years, $36

for 3 years; single issues, S3.

The Journal solicits manuscripts

and Letters to the Editor from all interested parties.

APOLLO AND JFK: PARALLEL INVESTIGATIONS?

by G.J. Rowell

EDITORIAL: ROSCOE WHITE

ROCKY WHITE: THE MISSING PIECE TO THE T1PPIT PUZZLE?

by Jack White

1/10EA TO VOLUME SIX

This chapter is excerpted from The

tive - Is Dan Rather The JFK Consp

Andreas Fault?, by Monte 77ins.

Rather Narra-

iracy's San

This book details not only the JFK

but also the

the shooting

King, George

Lennon, Rona

conspiracy,

connections between tnat crime and

s of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther

Wallace, Allard Lowenstein, John

1

"S 0 S "

nie tartar 1 a reporter in his hemetcwn Houstee. Moving frem -ewspteers to radio to

TN, he first gained national notice by courageously covering a 1962 hurricane story.

That campaign earned him a position as a correspondent for CBS. The network—which

we now know was a primary CIA 'asset" at the time---assigned the chunky, crewcut

Texan to be its bureau chief in Dallas. Some 18 months later, CBS decided to

consolidate its two southern bureaus In Dallas and Atlanta into a single one at New

Orleans. Dan Rather was chosen to be the new larger bureau's chief correspondent.

He spent the next several months shuttling between Dallas and New Orleans. laying the

groundwork for the transition.

Meanwhile, at that very time, another Texan ex-Marine with a background even

more fascinating than Rather's would also be meandering back and forth between Dallas

and New Orleans. His name was Lee Harvey Oswald. and he was the principal character

in the assassination conspiracy that was then taking root in the latter city and

would soon kill John F. Kennedy in the former.

The assassination conspiracy proved successful on November 22. 1963, when JFK's

suddenly somnambulant Secret Service detail steered him into a sophisticated

crossfire ambush. JFK was fatally his some 7} or 8 seconds after the first shot was

'fired. Finally ready to clear out of the killing zone, Secret Service agent Greer

gunned the limousine down the sloping Elm Street toward the triple underpass that led

to Parkland Hospital. Meanwhile a stunned crowd of onlookers screamed in horror

and/or gave chase toward the grassy knoll, from which no fewer than seventy

assassination eyewitnesses believed gunfire

had

originated. Somewhere among

them—though by no means certain exactly where—was the CBS News Hew Orleans bureau

chief, Dan Rather.

To begin, exactly where was Dan Rather while the team of snipers fired their

bullets at John F. Kennedy? Over the years, Rather has consistently claimed to have

been standing by the on-ramp leading to the Stemmons Freeway on the opposite side of

the triple underpass that President Kennedy was approaching when the shots rang out.

He was separated from

the grassy knoll assassin(s) by a twenty-five foot high

railroad grade that had five set; of train tracks. Rather. who, as thi CBS southern

'regional news chief, was in Dallas to coordinate the network's coverage of the

.President's trip to Dallas, claims he was standing there waiting for a roll of no.'s

film to. b

e tossed from a mobile camera unit following the President.

That, ho-ever,

ams _n111,. .e

y;

t.e CIS

eereeu rnfef essien himself the menial

task of retrieving a bag and relaying it to the KRLD (the Dallas CBS. affiliate)

studios? Any 'gopher" could have handled that chore while the bureau chief monitored

the newsroom for bulletins; after all, the President of the United States was

parading downtown and anything could have happened. Wouldn't it seem that the bureau

chief would rant to be ready in the studio for any sudden development instead of

posting himself at such a remote station? This makes absolutely no sense at all.

It also defies logic that Rather would choose that particular spot, the an-ramp

of a highway on the western side of the underpass, because not only would the

motorcade have been moving much slower on the Dealey Plaza side of that underpass.

but the Dealey Plaza side was also closer to KRLD, which was located in the

Dallas-Times Herald Corporation Building some nine blocks away.

However, these peculiarities pale In contrast to the report in dim Marrs' 1989

book Crossfire that recently discovered news footaim showing the fateful limousine

racing up the on-ramp reveals no sign of :an Rather.

Nor do still photographs taken

of that scene. Rather claims re

was standing there when the limo raced by, but the

newsreel and photographs dispute his actount. So if he wasn't by the on-ramp, where

47,,ever. In his )377 autoolograpny, the Camera Never Blinks. Rather's story

changed silmjficantly. This time he claimeo;

r had to hotfoot It back to the station...1 started off at a full

topped the railroad grading a few yards away and paused long

enough to shade my eyes...The moment I cleared the railroad tracks I saw

a scene I will never forget. Some people were lying on the grass, some

screaming; some running, some pointing. Policemen swarmed everywhere...therm

was nothing but panic wherever 4ou looked. [I decided] to hustle back to

the station.

I ran every step.

Obviously. we have a major discrepancy on our hands. Did Dan Rather hack It or hike

it to the KRLD studios? He can't possibly have it both ways; either-7i' 1964 story

ar the 1977 story is wrong.

If Dan Rather did proceed througn Dealey Plaza on foot---it depends on which

version of his you subscribe to---he was entering an area where scores of people were

flooding, in the hot pursuit of at least one sniper (and possibly two) who had fired

from behind the picket fence straddling the grassy knoll. (And where police officers

with drawn guns encountered suspicious persons who eluded arrest by flashing bogus

Secret Service credentials. No Secret Service agents were assigned to Chi

knoll—suspicious in itself—and none left the motorcade to pursue the gunmen.)

Yet this trained, observant reporter somehow failed to notice the surging wave of

witnesses spilling into the parking lots behind the fence, though this was happening

right in front of him. Nor did he notice the two mek fleeing frantically through

that parking lot immediately after the shots were fired."

Rather then claims to have spent several seconds shading his eyes against th,

sun while scanning the disintegrating motorcade for the news media's "camera truck.'

This part of his story rings true, because at that angle the sun would have been

directly over his eyes. However, his statement poses another disturbing problem: how

did he know the camera truck was well back In the motorcade? indeed, it is the

extremely curious positi77 T the media's camera truck in the rear of the

motorcade that disturbs many researchers to this very day. The camera truck always

followed the President for obvious reasens; but In Dallas en eeoeher read aemebedy

sce.i-eled the e:ozoreede, a,, one cameras were unable to capture „the assassination on .

film.- -That, of course; proved fortunate for the conspirators.

Obviously, Rather had to know that the camera truck was in the rear of the

motorcade; there is no doubting it. Yet, in his autobiography, he offers this

Statement: 'In those days the truck often travelgd well back In the motorcade;

because of Dallas. it now usually travels in front."

That is absolutely false. The

camera truck had always been in position to film the President, before and after

Dallas. November 22, 1963 was the suspicious exception to that rule.

We also have to wander why the CBS bureau chief would post himself In such a

remote spot for a film that wouldn't feature the President. This is another

contradiction in common sense.

Rather claims [hit he then ran the "five blocks" to KRLD studios (it was

actually nine blocks); arrived in the newsroom before anyone realized Anything cut

of the oraniry had happened; hollered at his underlings to turn up every radio and

police band they had; conversed via telephone with a CBS colleague stationed at

Dallas Trade Mart; dispatched reporters to the scene of the crime; listened to the

welter of frantic police radio activity, trying to decipher that..

elA.,

,111

rirsc calm receiving word from an unnamed "doctor' that the

President was shot dead and on the second recjving confirmation From a 'priest'

(again unnamed) that JFK had Indeed been killed.

Rather's autobiographical narrative continues: ( see next page)

44,

Though Rather has been consistent in his claim to have been by the en-ramp, his

report of his activities bruedlately after the murder has been anything but. In

March 1964, he told John Mayo the following, which Mayo published in his book:

MI was sta

tion

ed

along the expressway leading

to the Trade Mart. Our production crew in

the

motorcade was going to throw me several reels

of exposed film as they passed. I had a cab waiting to rush the film to the KRLD studies a-

bout three minutes away for developing. It's a standard procedure we use to get the film on

the air faster. .n'The Presidential lim

ousin

g sp

ed past with several Secret Service cars close

behind. Although I didn't see the President, I knew that something was wrong, so I jumped

into my cab and went straight to the KRLD studios. About the time I got there the first bul-

letin was coming off the AP wire.".

(Italics ad

ded

.) 71s accnunt, given :just four ,

riths the unfor7,attabl e:': --- e

rince, is lucir'ly

It has n

ever b

een c

lear e

xactly

haw

, and b

y e

ham

, the s

ignal w

as g

iven to

announce th

e b

ulle

tin a

nd p

lay th

e [n

atio

nal] a

nth

em

. Month

s la

ter, M

ort

Dank [a

CB

SI e

dito

r In N

ew

York

] told

me, "N

one o

f us w

ere

ever s

ure

ours

elv

es."

Rath

er c

laim

s h

e w

as to

tally

dis

traLin

c

cma

, 'ac re

din

announcem

ent,

even th

ough h

e w

as c

erta

in h

is in

form

atio

n w

as c

orre

ct. H

e c

ontin

ued:

The o

fficia

l announcem

ent

was m

ade to

the p

ress a

t 1:3

3 P

.M., D

alla

s tim

e, b

y

Malc

olm

Kild

uff, th

e a

ssis

tant p

ress s

ecre

tary

. More

than h

alf a

n h

our

had p

assed s

ince C

BS

radio

reporte

d th

e d

eath

of th

e P

resid

ent. It d

oes n

ot

taka

Im

agin

atio

n to

knew

whet w

as

thro

ugh m

e h

ead m

ost o

f tnat

time.

-r-knew

if th

e s

tory

was w

roni-T w

olifp

-be s

eekin

g a

notn

iTT

ine o

r wars

.

NT

igtfu

lly s

o. I a

lso k

new

I wasn't w

rong.°

(Italic

s a

dded)

This

is

in

cre

dib

le. D

an R

ath

er m

akes n

o s

ecre

t that h

earin

g th

e n

ew

s o

f the

offic

ial a

nnouncem

ent o

f Pre

sid

ent K

ennedy's

vio

lent d

eath

relie

ved h

im o

f an

inte

nse

inner-tu

rmoil, th

e k

ind o

f turm

oil o

ne fe

els

when o

ne's

job fs

obvio

usly

on th

e b

rink

of e

xtin

ctio

n.

We

can o

nly

marv

el a

t the lite

ral o

bscenity

of a

man w

ho n

eeded J

ohn

F. K

enned d

ead

mo

re th

an

anyth

ing in

the w

orld

eventu

ally

ei3

5171T-T

iito a

riur-m

i on-U

ZI-lia

r-per-a

nnum

anchorm

an.

-1511F0aU

iTi,

except fa

r perh

aps th

e

assassin

atio

n c

onspira

tors

them

selv

es, n

obody in

the U

nite

d S

tate

s w

as h

appie

r to

hear o

f the P

resid

ent's

passin

g th

an D

an R

ath

er. W

hat is

partic

ula

rly g

allin

g Is

Rath

er m

akin

g n

ot e

ven th

e s

lighte

st e

ffort to

conceal h

is e

motio

nal p

riority

: it

does n

ot ta

ke m

uch im

agin

atio

n to

know

what w

as g

oin

g th

rough a head m

ost o

f that

man d

es

gre

at p

ain

s to

co

nciir-a

-Tit

of o

ther th

ings a

bout h

imser7

.but

not h

is d

eeper c

oncern

for h

is jo

b th

an fo

r the P

resid

ent's

surv

ival. If h

e h

ad to

write

in h

is a

uto

bio

gra

phy a

bout w

hat. h

e h

ad fe

lt in 1

963, h

e m

ight h

ave a

t-Tia

st

offe

red a

s a

token. "O

ut o

f cours

e, m

y s

eekin

g a

noth

er lin

e o

f work

was triv

ial

com

pare

d to

th

e P

resid

ent's

situ

atio

n."

The s

econd ita

liciz

ed p

ortio

n o

f the a

bove

passag

e is

anoth

er in

tere

stin

g

sta

tem

ent. l a

lso k

new

that I w

asn't w

rong. B

ut h

ow

did

he k

now

he w

asn't w

rong?

Accord

ing to

Ra7.F

rerT

firs s

ourc

es w

ere

unnam

ed "d

octo

r," an u

nnam

ed "p

riest."

an

d,

thro

ugh a

colle

ague a

t the T

rade M

art, th

e c

hie

f of s

taff o

f Park

land H

ospita

l. But.

upon e

xam

inatio

n, th

ese "s

ourc

es" e

vapora

te in

to th

in a

ir. Who w

as th

e "d

octo

r" who

first to

ld R

ath

er th

at th

e P

resid

ent w

as d

ead? P

ark

land w

as in

a n

ear-p

anic

sta

te o

f

em

erg

ency, w

ith th

e P

resid

ent o

f the U

nite

d S

tate

s a

nd th

e G

overn

or o

f Texas in

separa

te tra

um

a ro

om

s w

ith c

ritical g

unshot w

ounds. W

hat "d

octo

r' had tim

e to

convers

e w

ith D

an R

ath

er o

ver a

sw

itchboard

phone? A

s fo

r the "p

riest," R

ath

er's

cla

im s

ounds s

uspic

iously

like th

e A

ssocia

ted P

ress q

uota

tion o

f a p

riest w

ho

"adm

inis

tere

d th

e la

st s

acra

ment o

f the c

hurc

h to

Pre

sid

ent K

ennedy." T

he

"quota

tion" w

ent o

ut o

ver A

P's

wire

at

1:2

3, s

even m

inute

s a

fter th

e C

BS

announcem

ent

and te

n m

inute

s

befo

re

the

offic

ial

confirm

atio

n o

f Jrkri- d

eath

. H

owe:fe

e it

eventu

ally

turn

ed o

ut th

at

the prie

st in

questio

n n

ever s

aid

anw

such th

ino;

and

Ratn

er c

laim

ed to

ha.e

heard

hi=

befo

re th

e fa

lse A

P Q

uote

. Nor d

id th

e 5

5j- p

riest

p-resenra

cknow

ledge

any

- such rii5

7i-

or c

onfirm

atio

n o

f Kennedy's

aeatn

to

any

reporte

rs. F

inally

, why d

id D

an R

ath

er ta

ke

the

word

of th

e c

hie

f or

sta

ff of

Park

land H

ospita

l when th

at o

fficia

l was n

ot e

ven a

t the h

ospita

l? O

ld it e

ver o

ccur

to R

ath

er th

at p

erh

aps a

fals

e ru

mor th

at J

FK

was d

ead m

ight b

e a

Kennedy ru

se to

dis

coura

ge a

second w

ave

'atta

ckagain

st h

im u

ntil h

e c

ould

scurry

to s

afe

ty

somew

here? H

ow

ever, th

e P

resid

ent w

as d

ead, R

ath

er's

Job w

as s

ecure

, and

he began

coord

inatin

g th

e C

BS

covera

ge

67-th

e tra

gedy. S

om

ehow

he le

arn

ed o

f a D

alla

s d

ress

manufa

ctu

rer, A

bra

ham

Zapru

der, w

ho h

ad film

ed th

e m

urd

er w

ith a

hom

e m

ovie

cam

era

,

and o

ff he w

ent In

searc

h o

f the c

inem

atic

am

ate

ur w

ho h

ad s

tum

ble

d u

pon th

e c

rime o

f

the c

entu

ry. H

ere

we h

ave a

n e

xtre

mely

curio

us s

ituatio

n. A

ccord

ing to

Rath

er:

We s

tarte

d a

searc

h fo

r anybody

and eve

rybody w

ho m

ight h

ave

been th

ere

carry

ing a

n e

ight-m

illimete

r cam

era

. DIR

LD

sta

tion m

anager] E

ddie

Bark

er's

peo

ple b

egan c

allin

g a

ll over D

alla

s. A

nd s

low

ly w

e p

icked u

p a

trail.

Suwenfle 1

).4 so

ar, .1

in :te

ndin

g a

t a c

erta

in s

oot. S

om

eone e

lse th

ought h

e

was in

Erie

reta

il ciu

thin

of;.h

cle

czle

It turn

ed n

ut./ w

e ra

n o

ur

leads th

rough th

edE

ll and th

e D

alla

s p

olic

e. F

inally

, we h

ad a

nam

e:

Abra

ham

Zapru

der.

I 7:n

ly k

new

that a

tum

ultu

ous fe

w m

ir...tes 'a

d p

assed s

ince m

y

four-b

lock ru

n fro

m b

ehin

d th

e g

rassy k

noll. O

n th

e '.:n

ited P

ress

7T

irnatio

nal n

ew

s w

TF

ITE

Fe- T

rest w

ard

ra b

ulle

tin d

icta

ted b

y

Merrim

an S

mith

had c

latte

red to

the re

st o

f the w

orld

:

DA

LLAS

. NO

V. 22 (U

PI)-T

HR

EE

SH

OT

S W

ER

E F

IRE

D A

T P

RE

SID

EN

T K

UR

ED

Y'S

MO

TO

RC

AD

E T

OD

AY

IN D

OW

NT

OW

N D

ALLA

S. T

he time

was

12:3

4 P

.M.

; Obvio

usly

, giv

en th

at th

e P

resid

ent w

as s

hot a

t 12:3

0 P

.M., th

is a

ccount is

impossib

le. R

ath

er c

ould

n

ot

possib

ly h

ave e

ngaged in

even a

sm

all fra

ctio

n o

f the

activ

ity h

e d

escrib

es b

efo

re th

e U

PI b

ulle

tin o

f 12:3

4. A

lso, J

FK

's d

eath

car d

idn't

arriv

e a

t Park

land u

ntil 1

2:3

5, s

o h

ow

cauld

the h

ospita

l have k

now

n h

im d

ead w

hen

Rath

er c

alle

d th

ere

befo

re 1

2:3

4?

It Is a

lso

very

diffic

ult to

accept R

ath

er d

aw

dlin

g a

t the a

ssassin

atio

n s

ite

for

maybe

a m

inute

and

then m

akin

g it to

KR

LD

by 1

2:3

4, a

t least b

y th

e m

eans o

f

transporta

tion (ta

xic

ab a

nd ru

nnin

g) h

e c

laim

s to

have u

sed. H

e h

ad to

move a

bout a

half-m

ile,

and he

was

a 3

2-y

ear o

ld, s

lightly

overw

eig

ht m

an in

stre

et s

hoes. E

ven

' as a

teenaged fo

otb

all p

lay. h

e w

as b

y h

is a

wn a

dm

issio

n n

ever fle

et o

n h

is fe

et (th

e

time p

ressure

s p

erh

aps a

ccount fo

r his

refe

rring to

the d

ista

nce a

s fiv

e b

locks o

n

one p

age a

nd th

en fo

ur o

n a

noth

er

when

it was a

ctu

ally

nin

e.) It is

--Gio

ossib

le to

imagin

e h

im ru

nnin

gi - T

alf-m

ile in

th

ree m

inute

s fla

t, pail7

carly

thro

ugh th

e h

uge.

dis

pers

ing th

rongs, to

arriv

e in

time fo

r the U

PI b

ulle

tin (a

nd n

ever m

ind th

e o

ther

welte

r of a

ctiv

ity h

e d

escrib

es). M

eanw

hile

, it Is a

lso d

ifficult to

accept a

taxic

ab g

ettin

g h

im to

KR

LD

in th

at s

pan o

f time. T

hough o

nly

a h

alf-m

ile, ft is

not

J dire

ct ro

ute

from

behin

d th

e o

verp

ass to

dow

nto

wn D

alla

s, a

nd h

e s

till would

h

ave

had a

ll that p

ara

de-s

pecta

tor tra

ffic to

wend th

rough. It s

eem

s to

this

observ

er

that o

nly

,an e

merg

ency v

ehic

le e

quip

ped w

ith s

iren, o

r perh

aps a

moto

rcycle

, could

have p

ut h

im a

t KR

LD

In tim

e fo

r the U

PI b

ulle

tin (it s

tands to

reason th

at h

e d

id

make it b

y 1

2:3

4. s

ince n

obody in

the n

ew

sro

om

was a

ware

anyth

ing w

as w

rong.)

In s

um

mary

, both

of R

ath

er's

conflic

ting a

ccounts

are

suspect—

whic

h b

rings to

min

d a

n o

ld T

exas p

roverb

: Tell th

e tru

th--- it's

easie

r to re

mem

ber.

•Whate

.er

Ina

circum

stance

s -,Tr Rfffi-e

:r's ra

ce E

i— KA

ID, th

ere

can b

e n

o d

oubt th

e

world

'; 725!

ram

ous re

oorte

r has h

is s

tory

sequence g

larin

gly

cot o

f whack In

The

Cam

era

Never- B

links.

That b

y its

eif is

act c

ospic

ioos. th

ough it d

oes c

ast

aspers

ions a

n h

T6ility

as a

sto

ry-te

ller, w

hic

h is

basic

ally

what a

reporte

r is.

How

ever, th

e n

ext d

evelo

pm

ent in

the u

nfo

ldin

g d

ram

a o

f Deale

y P

laza D

ad

- is

extra

ord

inarily

soberin

g.

incre

dib

ly, a

ctin

g o

n w

ord

from

corre

spondent D

an R

ath

er In

Dalla

s. C

BS

radio

announce

d th

at P

resid

ent K

ennedy

wff

dead a

t 1:1

6 P

.M. C

ST

. sevente

en m

inute

s b

efo

re

the o

fficia

l announcem

ent o

f sam

e.

Dan R

ath

er c

laim

ed th

e p

re-m

atu

re a

nnouncem

ent w

as d

ue to

his

reportin

g th

e

ward

s h

e h

ad h

eard

from

the "d

octo

r' and th

e "p

riest' a

t Park

land to

a c

olle

ague in

Dalla

s w

hile

bein

g o

verh

eard

by C

BS

executiv

es o

n th

eir p

hone s

yste

m's

multi-h

ookup.

He w

rote

:

5

2

Thoogh replete with high drama and suspense, this account Is very much

improbable. Who were the two "someones' who saw "a man standing at a certain spot'

and who thougET -Zapruder was 'in the retail clothing business?' Once again, Ratner

offers no names for his seemingly endless supply of anonymous benefactors.

However, Rather proceeds past the point of all credibility when he says CBS 'ran

our leads through the FBI and the Dallas police." The President of the United States

is shot dead, the Governor of Was is wounded, a Dallas policeman is shot dead.

several suspects are in custody,

and Rather would have us believe authorities took

time out to help him track down somebody said to be carrying a movie camera? And

again he offers no names.

We are left to ponder who brought Zapruder to Rather's

attention, and who told him where to find the Dealey -Plaza film-maker.

It is the author's opinion that Zapruder must have been followed from the scene

of the crime. It strains all credulity that such a vague description could result in

such a quick Identification in a city as large as Dallas. Rather's statement that

someone thought Zapruder was in the retail clothing business is telling, bgcause

Zapruaer did indeed go straight to his office after filming the assassination.'

His

"tail" probably reported that the cameraman had entered a clothing establishment.

Whatever the circumstances of the Rather-Zapruder meeting. the newsman was able

to make headway with the merchant. He wrote:

When we reached him Zapruder did not know what he had. We didn't either, but

we helped arrange for Eastman Kodak to process the film. This job had to

be done by the best egsipment. It had to be done fast. And It had to be

be kept confidential. 6"

Now we run up against some very serious problems.

Researchers have long wondered what happened to six extremely important Zapruder

s,„„

.!l., fro-Ps. Two brief sequences representing fractions of seconds, numbers i55-51

2f18-11, have never been ftnuu4O

znly

frame was lost.)' 1

These two missing sequences might have provided concrete proof of conspiracy.

According to Robert Graden, doubtlessly the leading Z-film expert, frames 155-56

coincided with the first gunshot heard an the acoustical tape of the assassination,

and frames 208-11 could have shown a bystander across Elm Street mapping a picture

that would have provided a perfect synchronization of the movie.'" The mystery of

the missing frames was perhaps solved in 1980, when assassination researcher David

Lifton wrote:

[After discovering numerous discrepancies] I then began exploring the

possibility that the Zapruder film itself had been altered sometime before

it became Warren Commission evidence in 1964, perhaps even before It went to

Life [magazine, which purchased it from Zapruder] on November 23, 1963...8ut

irfiration of the-Ti fTni required a fiThilaboratory wCth the sophisticated

apparatus normally used by Hollywood to create special effects. Was the

original Zapruder film at some point taken to such a laboratory? Officially,

-A?: frzm Zaz!....!dyr to Kodak in Dallas; then to the Jamison Film

Co. in Dallas, where Enree printswere

t:

then

to the vault at Life. I suspected it had taken a secret detour, but I could

find no direct e7nce to prove that.

Then, In 1976, among records released by CIA under the Freedom of

Information Act, Paul Hach found CIA item 450, a group of documents indicating

that the Zapruder film was at the CIA's National Photo Interpretation Center

(NPIC), possibly on Friday night, November 22, 1963. and certainly within

days of the anasiTnati on. NPIC is one of the most sophisticated photo labs

In the world.

(Italics added.)

- This is mistaken. Frames 208-11 aren't

missing, but were obviously tampered wit

Only #s 155-56 are actually missing.

Meanwhile, we have another nugget of information from :erhaps the

unlikeliest source. David Elelin, As Counsel to the Warren Commission and Executive

Director of the 1975 Rockefeller Commission that whitewashed CIA complicity in the

assassination of President Kennedy, Belin is the undisputed champion of the 'Oswald

alone' myth. However, in his recent book Final Disclosure Bells, perhaps

unwittingly, reveals:

The person who had actually first contacted Abraham Zapruder after

the assassination was Dan Rather, C8S News, who, after finding Zapruder,24

took the film and was able to have the processing of the film expedited.

talks aided.)

This is fascinating. Was Dan Rather the first person to acquire possession of

the most precious piece of evidence in

the aiiiiilnation case? If so, that might

solve the

mystery of how the CIA lab was able to acquire it before Life purchased it

on November 23rd. It is also yet another disturbing discrepancy in Rather's

autobiography concerning his consistently Curious behavior in Dallas that tragic

weekend. According to Rather, he

never had possession of the film, though he

acknowledges obtaining Zapruder's name from mysterious sources and

expediting the

processing. But, according to Behr', Rather "took the film." Belin, it should be

noted, Is a lawyer's lawyer; he is the most competent Warren Commission apologist

because he is very rarely caught making statements that can be proven to be untrue.

Even his fiercest adversaries, who number many in the serious researcher community.

must concede his supreme advocetion skills, however suspicious hiS outright refusal

to acknowledge the countless conspiratorial aspects of the case.

If Bel in says

Rather 'took" the

film, it is a safe bet that Rather did exactly that.

Rather can probably be believed when he says he only Saw the movie when

Zapruder's lawyer shuwed It to him in the lawyer's office an November 23rd; had he

seen it earlier, he would have certainly reported its contents to television viewers.

Also, It stands to reason that Rather didn't personally teke the film to the Kodak

fah or Jamison Film because, as he readily acmics in his autohlographi. he .4

1.; rt!ly

to show It.on the air without laprucer's perniswiuo an. ..1.= :

re :dcs2-..t^ces

knock [th

e 5

9-y

ear o

ld Z

apru

derr~

wn

, Rather realized he might lose out on the bidding for

W%

t the

him

self: if ( h

ave to

, I'll

film, runTaCk to the still'En, show

—one time and then let hfm sue us.

e maii"

i ll i startITIT anfl1lThi7117iFis autabiOgraphy, ana-

ven adds, 'Mee, someone at the

network suggested half-jokingly, but only by half, that I should have done just'

that. ..e5

Only a fateful twist scuttled his assault-theft plans.)

It appears that someone else was in league with Rather when it concerned the

Zapruder film; anyone ready to knock an elderly man down to steal his movie could not

possibly have resisted an opportunity to view and broadcast the film If he had had

access to it after its development. Obviously, somebody else—probably whoever

"expedited" the film to Kodak---must have turned it over to the CIA for its apparent

tampering at the NPIC labor. But who? We must keep in mind that Rather makes

constant references to anonymous helpers in his Dallas story; one of these shadowy

assistants is probably responsible for the "secret detour' suggested by Lifton. On

this particular =t1a,thtear

'spirco

tthil,:::ness ironically seems to

exonerate him

frz.al

himself, or returning it from there; if delln is

right. If he was tne first person to take possession ur

fil.

almost certainly turneTTrover to someone else. Obviously, that someone else must

have had a mighty Influence on Rather for him to have surrendered it so readily.

After finally viewing the Zapruder film in the lawyer's office on November 23rd,

Rather made his famous "honest mistake" that has haunted him far years. Rushing to

the KRLO studios, he requested and was granted immediate air time to describe whet he

had seen. According to Rather, President Kennedy's head snapped "forward with con-

siderable violence" upon receiving the head shots

This, as we now know, is totally at variance with

the truth. Eventually a bootleg copy of the film

made its way into the public domain - Time-Life

failing to keep it under wraps as it had hoped

51

after purchasing it from Zapruder - and the American public saw

i that, contrary to what Rather had reported, the President's head

I

had snapped backward (and leftward) after taking the shot.35 That

of course, was consistent with a fatal shot fired from the grassy

knoll to the right-front, where the overwhelming majority of wit-

nesses placed the sniper at. Rather's 'mistaken' version. of

course, aligned perfectly with the "one-rifle-from-behind" cover

story.

When confronted with his obvious error after the film finally

retched the public in 1973. Rather simply claimed he had made an

honest error because Zapruder's lawyer hadn't allowed him to take

notes.36Mhwever, it is difficult for anyone seeing the film even

ance to forget the dramatic left-rearward reaction of the Presi-

dent's skull as it exploded in a pink halo of blood and brain.

The sheer horror of it is startling and invariably leaves an in-

delible impact. Rather then tried to explain his "mistake' by

making mention of the heed's 'double-movement," obviously refer-

ring to the forward movement of JFX', head from frames 312-to-313

- a timespan representing a mere one-eighteenth of a second, imme-

diately before the much more obvious rearward thrust of the strick-

en President.. Though visible on a frame-by-frame perusal, at nor-

mal speed the forward head snap is difficult for even a trained eye

like Rather's to observe; and even if he did see the forward head

snap - which is extremely unlikely, given the conditions - it only

makes his failure to nesting the much more dramatic rearward snap

even more inexplicable than it already is.

Whatever the case, there is no denying that Dan Rather glee* -

"See David Lifton's Best Evidence, pp. 51-9Z and 331-32 for excel-

lent

analysis of the head's double-movement.

ingly mie-reported the contents of the Zapruder film. What makes

this particularly disturbing is that he was the 2alx

broadcasting

reporter allowed to view the mavie.37 2ime-Life, a media giant with

extensively intimate connections to the CIA38 -more on this later -

kept the film from the public for almost ten years before a 'boot-

leg" copy found its way into the hands of assassination reeeerch-

ers.39 It is obvious that some people intended to conceal it from

the American public forever, not allowing even reporters to set

what it showeds an obvious crossfire that executed the President

of the United States in broad daylight while his Secret Service

"guardleas" merely relaxed and watched the show. Except, that

is, for Dan Rather, who did not see fit to mention the most ba-

sin picture on it, the horrifying backward thrust of Jonn 7. Ken-

nedy after a bullet had obviously struck him in the temple from

the right-front, when at least 78 witnesses placed gunfire.

It is alsa nat...,,-.by that :lath

-2r hal th's „_rt=tiee to

describe the film correctly. It seems CBS insisted he repeat

the first take because of yet another cont rrrrr sial Rather re-

port. The network executives Merced Mather to do another take

end dilate an offensive reference to Jacqueline Kennedy 'flee-

ing' the death car.° In actuality, she was reacnirg out for a

piece of her husband's 'kali that had peen blown backward onto

the timo's trunk, itself more evidence of a shot from the front.4.

Rather reluctantly omitted the reference, but "I wished I had

not.'" (Rather apparently wasn't 40 reluctant to refer to Mrs.

Kennedy "fleeing' in privet* convereatioal soon the 'sick comic"

Lenny Bruce was wisecracking about her "hauling she out of the

noosing. that she was really doing was gathering her husband's

brains for stuffing back into his skull.)

Now we will examine 'Ay Dan Rather was in Dallas during that

55

trag

ic week

end

. Rem

emb

er, he h

ad

tow

ed fro

m D

ella! to

Nev

Driest'

on

ly a

few w

eeks p

revio

us, h

aw

ing co

mp

leted th

e tran

sfer of th

e

sou

tnern

mA

reau

to th

e la

tter c

ity. A

ccord

ing to

Ratte

r, w

hile

in N

ew O

rlean

s he w

as a

sked

by C

Bd

edito

r Ralp

h P

aak

man

for rte.

am

send

atio

ns a

s to h

ow

the n

etwork

shou

ld co

ver th

e Presid

ent's

Pr. -ca

mileid

u crtp

to T

exas. R

ath

er later w

rote:

I qu

ick

ly p

ut m

y r

ep

ort to

geth

er. T

he P

resi-

den

t's swin

g w

ou

ld ta

ke h

im th

rou

gh

San

An

ton

io,

Ho

usto

n, F

ort W

orth

, Da

llas a

nd

Au

stin. "

Th

is

is not a

rou

tine tr

ip,' I sa

id. 'd

ot r

ou

tine

politic

ally

. Not r

ou

tine In

term

s of se

cu

rity

.'

PasX

man

amid

, b

ay, to

exp

lain

that to

me a

bou

t the secu

rity."..

-.we

was a

ware

th

at D

al-

las h

ad

ose

n th

e sc

en

e o

f an

gry p

olitic

al le

nt -

deatm

. His qu

estion

vse in

tend

ed to

dra

w m

e ou

t.

Whatever

man

paw

er CB

S A

ssign

ed to

T

exas

wou

ld h

e

based

on h

is ju

dgem

ent.

So I rev

iewed

the recen

t trou

ble sig

ma: A

dis'

Stev

enso

n m

ad

been

spa

t up

on

in D

alla

s in O

cto-

ber; ev

en L

yn

don

Joh

nso

n m

ad

been

bru

shed

by a

pic

ket's si g

n,

The

Jahn

gir

th S

ocie

ty flo

ur-

ished

there. IM

PE

AC

H EARL WARREI b

um

per stick

ers

were a

big

seller. An

d G

enera

l Ed

win

Walk

er nad

rocea

tiy MOY44 to

corn

and

w

as

a

at R

igh

t-win

g r

allie

s.

Th

e Presid

ent's a

dviso

rs were k

now

n to

be ;ler -

YOU. a

bo

ut

ais

vis

it to

Tex

as. S

om

e Dalla

s bu

si-

nessm

en h

ad

urg

ed h

is to p

ostp

on

e the trip

un

til

the te

mp

er o

f the c

ity le

d c

oo

led

....Pask

man

agreed

that w

e shou

ld lax an

Osw

alt

56

9.21U11.1 Ilk 211E Texas L

ai quad

ruple i

t A 211..

ag. H

e wen

t to th

e top

an

d fo

ugh

t ror m

are p

eo-

ple. W

hen

Use P

residen

t's party

lent W

ash

ingto

n,

CB

S w

as S

tarred

for m

a r

oad

as P

ally

as • n

et-

wo

rk

ca

n b

e w

itho

ut p

lan

nin

g a

n in

va

sion

. Still,

Id

o n

ot m

ean

to in

vest in

this a

ny m

ystic

al I m

-

plic

atio

ns. W

e w

ere p

rep

arin

g fo

r th

e u

nexp

ect-

ed

. An

incid

en

t. A r

eactio

n. A

story. W

e w

ere

not n

avin

g v

ision

s.

Bu

t wh

atev

er was to

hap

pen

in D

all a

s, I k

new

yi

would a

in a

n u

nu

sually

good p

ositio

n to

cover

it.°

(Italic

s ad

ded

.)

T., ca

n g

ath

er from this fasc

inatin

g passe

-Ls th

at D

an

Rath

er

an

ew

th

e Presid

ent w

as ta

kin

g a m

ajo

r se

cu

rity

risk

in tr

evelin

x

to D

alla

s: tnet R

ath

er was in

fact resp

a:L

ILb

it for C

SS

cils bacch

lmx

a h

uge c

on

tingen

t of o

road

tastin

z te

ch

nic

ian

s to th

at c

ity in

an

-

ticip

atio

n o

f the P

resid

en

t's trip

; an

d th

at in

Ra

tner's e

xa

ct

word

s, "vn

atev

er was to

hap

pen

in D

alla

s, w

e w

ou

ld b

e in a

n u

nu

su-

ally

good

positio

n to

cover it.e

Sev

eral p

ara

gra

ph

s later in

Th

e Cam

era N

ever S

link

s, Ratn

er

cla

ims th

at, th

ou

gh

he w

as r

esp

on

sible

for th

e la

un

ch

ing o

f a sm

elt

CE

O a

rmy

to D

alla

s, he to

lmeeL

f wa

s in th

at city

on

ly o

y flu

ke,

b4-.

Calla

4 SOMaata u

mn

aaed

'disco

vered

that

?rid

s).* - flo

vsib

er

22, 1

963

- was th

e nin

ety-eig

hth

bL

rend

ay o

f (fo

rmer

Vic

e r

resid

eati

Nan

ce Garn

er S

o It w

as d

ecided

that X

wou

ld fly

that m

orn

ing

to th

e Garn

er ran

ch.a

t Uvald

e, Tex

as, a

nd

film a

n In

terview

, then

retu

rn

to D

alla

s an

d fe

ed

the p

iece, w

ith th

e r

est

of ou

r cover-

age, to

New

York

.'"

Th

is statem

ent w

ou

ld a

pp

aren

tly em

us*

Rath

er con

sidera

ble

57

co

ns

tern

atio

n in

the

pe

riod

imm

ed

iate

ly fo

llow

ing

pu

blic

atio

n o

f The C

amera N

ev

er K

ink

s. In

the

J

uly

22, 1

977 is

su

e o

f Th

e C

on

e

tinu

ing

Inq

uiry

, Pen

n J

on

as p

ub

lish

ed

a s

avag

ing

revie

w o

f Rath

-

er's

au

tob

iog

rap

hy, p

oin

ting

ou

t nu

mero

us in

co

nsis

ten

cie

s a

nd

ou

trigh

t lies to

ld b

y th

e n

ew

sm

en

. Inclu

ded

was th

is o

bserv

a-

tion

s R

ath

er re

po

rts n

e w

en

t to

Uvald

e, T

exas fo

r

an

afte

r-bre

akfa

st m

eetin

g w

ith fo

rmer V

ice P

res-

iden

t Joh

n N

ance G

arner at

his

no

me tn

ere

, bu

t he

do

esn

't men

tion

the d

ista

nces in

vo

lved

. He d

oes

no

t bo

the

r to te

ll his

rea

de

rs L

t wa

s a

six

nu

n-

dre

d m

ile ro

un

d trip

an

d th

at h

e w

as

ba

ck

in D

al-

las b

efo

re th

e P

resid

en

t's p

ara

de.

Th

at k

ind

of tim

ing

wo

uld

have re

qu

ired

a J

et,

we

thin

k. W

ho

se

jet, R

ath

er d

idn

't say.°

Jo

ne

s a

pp

are

ntly

stru

ck

a n

erv

e, fo

r in e

ns

uin

g p

ub

lica

tion

s

of th

e

Cam

era Never M

inks th

e p

assag

e w

as a

ltere

d to

"it was d

e-

cid

ed

I wo

uld

fly th

at m

orn

ing

to D

alla

s a

nd

feed

the p

iece...."

Th

e o

ld w

ord

s o

f th

e G

arn

er ra

nch

at U

vald

e, T

exas, a

nd

film a

n

inte

rvie

w, th

en

retu

rn to

(Da

llas

) we

re e

ac

h o

mitte

d1460

brio

usly

, J

on

es

ha

d ra

ise

d a

n e

xtre

me

ly in

tere

stin

g p

oin

t, for th

ere

wa

s

certa

inly

no

rou

nd

-trip c

om

merc

ial a

ir traffic

from

Dalla

s to

U-

vald

e• th

at c

ou

ld h

are

en

ab

led

Rath

er to

make tw

o

)C0-m

ile

jou

r-

ne

y. is

jus

t a c

ou

ple

of h

ou

rs. R

ath

er c

lea

rly

seeded

to d

ele

te

that p

ecu

liar s

ojo

urn

in fu

ture

ed

ition

s o

f his

au

tob

iog

rap

hy,

be

ca

us

e th

e a

ltera

tion

of p

ros

e is

pa

rticu

larly

gla

ring

wh

en

we

rea

lize

tha

t all o

r the

o

the

r ine

cc

ura

cie

a w

e have

examin

ed re

-

ma

ine

d in

tac

t. Ta

t the

my

ste

riou

s U

va

lde

trip w

as

ex

cis

ed

. We

can

on

ly w

on

der w

hat s

ign

ifican

ce it e

igh

t h

ave h

ad.

On

ce b

ack in

Dalla

s, R

ath

er, w

ho

had

encouraged Si! n

etwo

rk to

• A farm

ing

ccmm

un

ity of L

ess than

10,0 4J0

res

ide

nts

.

sa

giv

e q

uad

rup

le th

e c

overa

ge a

Pre

sid

en

t no

rmally

receiv

ed

in a

heartla

nd

city

, decid

ed

, in h

is o

wn

wo

rds, "W

hat th

e h

ell, I'm

no

t do

ing

an

yth

ing

, I'll go

over• to

co

ver a

n u

nm

an

ned

film

dro

p. T

his

is y

et a

no

ther g

larin

g In

co

nsis

ten

cy in

Rath

er's

Da

llas

na

rrativ

e. O

n th

e o

ne

ha

nd

he

w

ou

ld h

ave u

s b

elie

ve

h

e is

an

ale

rt an

aly

st w

ho

se

ns

es

th

e P

resid

en

t mig

ht h

e im

da

ng

er in

tha

t vo

latile

city

, Bu

t on

the

oth

er h

an

d h

e trie

s

to p

ersuad

e u■

that K

e b

ad

no

reaso

n to

han

g a

rou

nd

the n

ew

s-

roo

m w

aitin

g fo

r bu

lletin

s, in

ste

ad

vo

lun

teerin

g to

■a

n • re

mo

te

film d

rop

, tota

lly o

ut o

f co

mm

un

icatio

n fro

m th

e a

rmy o

f CB

S

perso

nn

el he

Val re

sp

on

sib

le fo

r ma

ss

ing

, Ob

vio

us

ly, R

ath

er,

wh

o ta

kes p

ain

s to

assu

re u

m h

is fo

resig

ht o

f po

salb

le P

resi-

de

ntia

l da

ng

er w

as

no

t inv

es

ted

with

"my

stic

al ls

plin

atio

n,•

inte

nd

s to

have it b

oth

w

ay

s b

y p

ortra

yin

g ra

mssif a

s a

no

n-

en

ald

nt fe

llow

w

ith h

is

feet is

Ickel u

p o

a a

desk a

urle

g th

e

Pre

sid

en

tial m

oto

rcad

e,

shru

gg

ing

, "W

hat

the h

ell, I'm

no

t die

-

ing

an

yth

ing

, I'll go

over' to

m

an

tne in

com

mu

nicad

o sp

ot.

Wh

ether w

e give R

ather th

e b

en

efit

of th

e d

ou

bt o

n b

oth

en

ds o

f that c

on

trad

ictio

n o

r no

t, we m

ust c

erta

inly

marv

el a

t h

is g

oo

d fo

rtun

e in

that film

dro

p ju

st h

ap

pen

ing

to b

e v

irtu-

ally

ad

jac

en

t to th

e a

ss

as

sin

atio

n s

ite. A

s h

e m

od

es

tly to

ld

Cu

rren

t Sio

era

nn

y tw

ely

■ y

ea

rs la

ter, "It w

as

sim

ply

a m

atte

r o

f he

ele

r ee

en

in th

e rig

ht n

iece It th

erte

ht tte

e.'47

deed

. (R

ath

er a

lso

told

Co

nte

mp

ora

ry A

uth

ors

tha

t he

wa

s w

riting

a p

lay a

bo

ut th

e a

ssassin

atio

n, m

ore

evid

en

ce o

f his

frivo

lou

s

attitu

de

tow

ard

the

ca

me

an

d h

is p

erc

eiv

ing

tha

t trag

ed

y m

a h

is

ultim

ate

win

dfa

ll.)

So

, than

k* to

Den

Rath

er's

rem

ark

ab

le p

rassia

nail is

gettin

g

CB

S to

qu

ad

rup

le th

e D

alla

s c

ov

era

ge

, an

d h

is g

rea

t luc

k In

stu

m-

blin

g u

po

n th

e a

ssassin

atio

n s

ite, h

is n

etw

ork

wee th

us th

e firs

t

■":

60

59

to go live to the assassination story, and enjoyed a huge "beat"

on its ABC and NBC competition. 4

9

Obviously, this was very fortunate for CBS, which, according

to Carl Bernstein, was, like Time-Life, not only intimately con-

nected meth the CIA but was also "unquestionably the CIA's most

valuable broadcasting amt.. 93

Yes, very fortunate. Perhaps the most intriguing phenomenon

to compare the great CBS "luck" to is the record 'short-selling'

spree that swamped the New York Stock Exchange on the morning of

the assassination before the shots were fired. According to Lin-

coln Lawrence, the people prompting that massive short-sell proved

extre.tly fortunate, reaping some five hundred million 1963 dol-

lars (worth at least two billion of their puny 199a descendents)

when the market crashed upon news of the asaaseLnation, quite a

;Jwa'lLs. =Q -_"7'e erfort.51-

So the Quadrupling of CBS staff for Kennedy's visit to Dal-

las proved to be a stroke of good luck for the network. However,

one cannot help but wonder why, with so much extra manpower on

hand, Can Rather, southern bureau correspondent in charge of the

entire apparat, stationed himself in an out-of-the-way spot to

perform a menial task while the ?resident of the United States

paraded thru the city streets. The abundance of C3S personnel

=2-'1 --et 7eruliar chore lee= all the more_perplexing.

then we recall: the photographs and newsreels of that remote

spot reveal no trace of Rather; his two accounts of his movements

in the first sixty seconds after the shooting contain glaring and

irresolvable discrepancies; his apparent blindness to the obvious

conspiratorial activity in the grassy knoll area he was inhabit-

ing; his curious knowledge of the camera truck being out of its

proper motorcade sequence; his haphazard account of the initial

assassination coverage at KRLD that is replete with mia-state-

manta and inaccuracies; his mysteriols telephone conversations

with people that convinced him to declare the President dead

before that official announcement; his obvious lack of compas-

sion for the slain ?resident and his widow; his secoingly au-

pernaturel discovery of Abraham Zapruder's Identity lnd his

remarkable ability to pry cops and FBI agents from the aesass-

;nation case to help his make that identification; his having

"first possession" of the Zapruder film that we now 'tnow was

tampered with soon Afterward; his blatant failure to accurately

report the explicit film's most significant feature after being

the o

nly

broadcaster allowed to view it; his

Insis

ten

ce that

CBS vastly increase its manpower in Dallas, though he himself

Saw no reason to wait in the newSroan for bulletins; the seem-

ingly impossible round-trip visit to Uvalde on the assaSsEr3-

flan morning that was quickly excised from paperback editions

of his autobiography after Penn Sores focus-6d on It....when we

recall all of these peculiarities, we cannot help but wonder

exactly what was going on with the COS News New Orleans Bureau

Chief in Callas that tragic weekend. In a murder case that is

internationally famous as a bewildering murder mystery, it is

infinitely ironic that the one man moat noted for denying any

mystery exists is himself‘a cauldron of puzzling uncertainty.

Indeed, Dan Rather is even a rival to his fellow ;'alias-New Or-

leans ex-:larine Lee Harvey Oswald himself as the most enigmatic

figu

re connected to the John F. Kennedy assassination.

However, whereas Oswald's personal contact with the Infa-

mous case terminated that very weekend, courtesy of Jack Ruby,

Dan Rather's would not. Indeed, he would prove, if only unwit-

tingly, to be a key player In the massive effort to conceal the

truth from the American public for many more years to come.

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THE RATHER NARRATIVE - Is Dan Rather The JFK Conspiracy's San Andreas Fault?

For insured mail copy send $18 to: BARBARA BOOKS, BOX 565, BARRINGTON, RI 02806

In 1964, Dan Rather was awarded the CBS White House correspondent position by virtue of what

is now recognized as his extremely controversial John F. Kennedy assassination coverage. Not

long afterward, he found himself "beaten" on a story by his CBS colleague Daniel Schorr. Mr.

Rather's reaction was later described in ANCHORS, by Robert Goldberg, Birch Lane Press, New

York, 1990, page 9L: "He almost blasted the door off its hinges. He was white with rage. He

wagged his finger in Schorr's face, and he shouted, 'You fucking son of a bitch. You ever try

that again and I will goddamn kill you!"

Similarly colorful Rather quotes can be found in the April 1974 issue of Espuire: "If you tell

AB

C o

r N

BC

ab

ou

t t

his, I

'll b

eat t

he s

hit o

ut of you." "If you don't get the hell out, I'm go-

ing to blow your ass off." "This is (a) story we should have a balls-up effort for." "Somebo-

dy's going to get his ass waxed if I don't get an opening line." "Get the hell out of my way."

"I'll burn Z(iegler)'s ass o

n t

his U

PI thing. That fucker,"

In the April 1988 C

on

serv

ativ

e D

igest, Rather's responses to other journalists querying him in

-h

is o

wn

fav

ored

, confrontational style are documented. To TV newsman Steve Wilson, Rather said

on-camera:

"G

et th

e m

icro

ph

on

e right up close, will you? Puck you." To Reed Irvine, chairman

of Accuracy In Media, he said via phone: "You are a right-wing pressure group. Would you like

to listen very carefully? And you may quote me. Fuck you."

• t

77-7,s z -

(1

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(1)

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1-,

1.1

THE RATHER NARRATIVE - Is Dan Rather The JFK Conspiracy's San A

ndre

as F

ault?

For insured mail copy send $18 to: BARBARA BOOKS, BOX 565, BARRINGTON, RI 02806

In 1964, Dan Rather was awarded the CBS White House correspondent position by virtue of what

is now recognized as his extremely controversial John

F. K

ennedy assassination co

verag

e. Not

long afterward, he found himself "beaten" on a story by his CBS colleague Daniel Schorr. Mr.

Rather's reaction was later described in ANCHORS, by Robert Goldberg, Birch Lane Press, New

Yo

rk, 1

99

0, p

age 94: "He almost blasted the door off its hinges. He was white with rage. He

wagged his finger in Schorr's face, and he shouted, 'You fucking son of a bitch. You ever try

that again and I will goddamn kill you!'!

Similarly colorful Rather quotes can be found in the April 1974 issue of Esquire: "If you tell

THE RATR NARRATIVE Is Dan Rather The JFK Conspiracy's San Andreas Fault?

From his purported position behind the grassy knoll when the shots were fired, to his responsibility for the first public announcement of the President's death some 17 minutes before the latter was made official, from his obtaining the Zapruder film and then mis-descriking its con-tents to millions of television viewers, an Rather has proven to be a major player in the story of John F. Kennedy's murder.

Many "serious researchers" of the JFK assassination have long specu-lated on Mr. Rather's role in Dallas that tragic weekend, particularly when his numerous "mis-statements" of fact are examined with the known truths. Time after time after time, his various accounts have either contradicted themselves, raised serious questions about their sources, and, most crucially, have been proven to be outright falsehoods. In-deed, this extreme supporter of the "Oswald-alone" fraud has provoked widespread suspicion about his exact function at the grassy knoll that tragic day. His various accounts are consistently at variance with one another, and his years of support for the fraudulent Warren Report is quite possibly the major factor in his evolution to four-million-dollar-per-annum network news anchorman of CBS, which Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein has established was "unquestionably the CIA's most valuable broadcasting asset." (Source: Rolling Stone, 10-20-77, p.56.)

The Rather Narrative is a 2110-page treatise that includes over one thousand supporting footnotes. It documents not only the extremely suspicious behavior of Dan Rather in regard to the Dallas assassination, but illuminates glaring links between that tragedy and the shootings of Senator Robert Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Governor George Wallace, congressman Allard Lowenstein, peace activist John Lennon, President Ronald Reagan and the "Son Of Sam" victims. The author, Monte Evans, is well-known in the "serious researcher" cca.munity for the publication of his 1977 "quadrilateral conspiracy" thesis, which maintained that JFK was slain by dispossessed elements of CIA acting in concert with Organized Crime, a hosting Texas Oil oligarchy and a renegade faction of Dixie-jingoistic Pentagon grass. The conceivers and incubators: General Charles Cabell and a Mob-Oil lobbyist cited frequently in The Rather Narrative. The shooters: "Chuck" (Rogers), "Charles Wilson" (Harrelson), a bogus police officer (Hall), a "paunchy, balding" Cuban (Carlos) and "Frenchie"(SARTi-Snat61.S) That cast of charactwrs, in- troduced by Evans in 1977, ha:, since gained in credibility *immensely.

No JFK assassination student's library is complete without The Rather Narrative. Send $18 to Tli\PBARA BOOKS. "OX 565, BARRINGTON RI 02806