Perhaps you`ve forgotten or never knew that O.P. Wright said the
bullet in evidence looks nothing like the bullet they found.
Six Seconds in Dallas reported on an interview with O.P. Wright in
November 1966. Before any photos were shown or he was asked for any
description of #399, Wright said: ?That bullet had a pointed tip.?
?Pointed tip?? Thompson asked.
?Yeah, I?ll show you. It was like this one here,? he said, reaching into
his desk and pulling out the .30 caliber bullet pictured in Six
Seconds.?[8]
As Thompson described it in 1967, ?I then showed him photographs of CE?s
399, 572 (the two ballistics comparison rounds from Oswald?s rifle) (sic),
and 606 (revolver bullets) (sic), and he rejected all of these as
resembling the bullet Tomlinson found on the stretcher. Half an hour later
in the presence of two witnesses, he once again rejected the picture of
399 as resembling the bullet found on the stretcher.?[9] [Fig. 4]
Figure 4. In an interview in 1966, Parkland Hospital witness O.P. Wright
told author Thompson that the bullet he handled on 11/22/63 did not look
like C.E. # 399.
Thus in 1964 the Warren Commission, or rather the FBI, claimed that Wright
believed the original bullet resembled #399. In 1967, Wright denied there
was a resemblance. Recent FBI releases prompted by the JFK Review Board
support author Thompson?s 1967 report.
A declassified 6/20/64 FBI AIRTEL memorandum from the FBI office in Dallas
(?SAC, Dallas? ? i.e., Special Agent in Charge, Gordon Shanklin) to J.
Edgar Hoover contains the statement, ?For information WFO (FBI Washington
Field Office), neither DARRELL C. TOMLINSON [sic], who found bullet at
Parkland Hospital, Dallas, nor O. P. WRIGHT, Personnel Officer, Parkland
Hospital, who obtained bullet from TOMLINSON and gave to Special Service,
at Dallas 11/22/63, can identify bullet ? .? [Fig. 5 - Page 1, Page 2]
Whereas the FBI had claimed in CE #2011 that Tomlinson and Wright had told
Agent Odum on June 12, 1964 that CE #399 ?appears to be the same? bullet
they found on the day of the assassination, nowhere in this previously
classified memo, which was written before CE #2011, is there any
corroboration that either of the Parkland employees saw a resemblance. Nor
is FBI agent Odum?s name mentioned anywhere in the once-secret file,
whether in connection with #399, or with Tomlinson or with Wright.
Figure 5. Declassified FBI memo reporting neither Tomlinson nor Wright
could identify ?C1? [#399] as the bullet they handled on 11/22/63. [Page
1, Page 2]
A declassified record, however, offers some corroboration for what CE 2011
reported about Secret Service Agents Johnsen and Rowley. A memo from the
FBI?s Dallas field office dated 6/24/64 reported that, ?ON JUNE TWENTYFOUR
INSTANT RICHARD E. JOHNSEN, AND JAMES ROWLEY, CHIEF ? ADVISED SA ELMER LEE
TODD, WFO, THAT THEY WERE UNABLE TO INDENTIFY RIFLE BULLET C ONE (# 399,
which, before the Warren Commission had logged in as #399, was called ?C
ONE?), BY INSPECTION (capitals in original). [Fig. 6]
Convinced that we had overlooked some relevant files, we cast about for
additional corroboration of what was in CE # 2011. There should, for
example, have been some original ?302s ? ? the raw FBI field reports from
the Agent Odum?s interviews with Tomlinson and Wright on June 12, 1964.
There should also have been one from Agent Todd?s interviews with Secret
Service Agents Johnsen and Rowley on June 24, 1964. Perhaps somewhere in
those, we thought, we would find Agent Odum reporting that Wright had
detected a resemblance between the bullets. And perhaps we?d also find out
whether Tomlinson, Wright, Johnsen or Rowley had supplied the Bureau with
any additional descriptive details about the bullet.
Figure 6. Suppressed 1964 FBI report detailing that neither of the Secret
Service agents who handled ?#399? on 11/22/63 could later identify it.
In early 1998, we asked a research associate, Ms. Cathy Cunningham, to
scour the National Archives for any additional files that might shed light
on this story. She looked but found none. We contacted the JFK Review
Board?s T. Jeremy Gunn for help. [Fig. 7] On May 18, 1998, the Review
Board?s Eileen Sullivan, writing on Gunn?s behalf, answered, saying: ?[W]e
have attempted, unsuccessfully, to find any additional records that would
account for the problem you suggest.?[10] [Fig. 8] Undaunted, one of us
wrote the FBI directly, and was referred to the National Archives, and so
then wrote Mr. Steve Tilley at the National Archives. [Fig. 9]
On Mr. Tilley?s behalf, Mr. Stuart Culy, an archivist at the National
Archives, made a search. On July 16, 1999, Mr. Culy wrote that he searched
for the FBI records within the HSCA files as well as in the FBI records,
all without success. He was able to determine, however, that the serial
numbers on the FBI documents ran ?concurrently, with no gaps, which
indicated that no material is missing from these files.?[11] [Fig. 10] In
other words, the earliest and apparently the only FBI report said nothing
about either Tomlinson or Wright seeing a similarity between the bullet
found at the hospital and the bullet later in evidence, CE #399. Nor did
agent Bardwell Odum?s name show up in any of the files.
Figure 7. Letter to Assassinations Records Review Board requesting a
search for records that might support FBI?s claim that hospital witnesses
identified #399.
Figure 8. ARRB reports that it is unable to find records supporting FBI
claim Parkland Hospital witnesses identified #399.
Figure 9. Letter to National Archives requesting search for additional
files on C.E. #399.
Figure 10. Letter from National Archives disclosing no additional files
exist on C.E. #399.
[editor's note: Dr. Aguilar followed up in 2005 with the National
Archives, asking them in letters dated March 2 and March 7 to search for
any FBI "302" reports that would have been generated from CE399 being
shown to those who handled it. On March 17, 2005 David Mengel of NARA
wrote back reporting that additional searches had not uncovered any such
reports.]
Stymied, author Aguilar turned to his co-author. ?What does Odum have to
say about it?? Thompson asked.
?Odum? How the hell do I know? Is he still alive??
?I?ll find out,? he promised.
Less than an hour later, Thompson had located Mr. Bardwell Odum?s home
address and phone number. Aguilar phoned him on September 12, 2002. He was
still alive and well and living in a suburb of Dallas. The 82-year old was
alert and quick-witted on the phone and he regaled Aguilar with fond
memories of his service in the Bureau. Finally, the Kennedy case came up
and Odum agreed to help interpret some of the conflicts in the records.
Two weeks after mailing Odum the relevant files ? CE # 2011, the
three-page FBI memo dated July 7, 1964, and the ?FBI AIRTEL? memo dated
June 12, 1964, Aguilar called him back.
Mr. Odum told Aguilar, ?I didn?t show it [#399] to anybody at Parkland. I
didn?t have any bullet ? I don?t think I ever saw it even.? [Fig. 11]
Unwilling to leave it at that, both authors paid Mr. Odum a visit in his
Dallas home on November 21, 2002. The same alert, friendly man on the
phone greeted us warmly and led us to a comfortable family room. To ensure
no misunderstanding, we laid out before Mr. Odum all the relevant
documents and read aloud from them.
Again, Mr. Odum said that he had never had any bullet related to the
Kennedy assassination in his possession, whether during the FBI?s
investigation in 1964 or at any other time. Asked whether he might have
forgotten the episode, Mr. Odum remarked that he doubted he would have
ever forgotten investigating so important a piece of evidence. But even if
he had done the work, and later forgotten about it, he said he would
certainly have turned in a ?302? report covering something that important.
Odum?s sensible comment had the ring of truth. For not only was Odum?s
name absent from the FBI?s once secret files, it was also it difficult to
imagine a motive for him to besmirch the reputation of the agency he had
worked for and admired.
Figure 11. Recorded interview with FBI Agent Bardwell Odum, in which he
denies he ever had C.E. #399 in his possession.
Thus, the July 1964 FBI memo that became Commission Exhibit #2011 claims
that Tomlinson and Wright said they saw a resemblance between #399 and the
bullet they picked up on the day JFK died. However, the FBI agent who is
supposed to have gotten that admission, Bardwell Odum, and the Bureau?s
own once-secret records, don?t back up #2011. Those records say only that
neither Tomlinson nor Wright was able to identify the bullet in question,
a comment that leaves the impression they saw no resemblance. That
impression is strengthened by the fact that Wright told one of the authors
in 1966 the bullets were dissimilar. Thus, Thompson?s surprising discovery
about Wright, which might have been dismissed in favor of the earlier FBI
evidence in #2011, now finds at least some support in an even earlier,
suppressed FBI memo, and the living memory of a key, former FBI agent
provides further, indirect corroboration. Missing 302s?
But the newly declassified FBI memos from June 1964 lead to another
unexplained mystery. Neither are the 302 reports that would have been
written by the agents who investigated #399?s chain of possession in both
Dallas and Washington. The authors were tempted to wonder if the June
memos were but expedient fabrications, with absolutely no 302s whatsoever
backing them up.
But a declassified routing slip turned up by John Hunt seems to prove that
the FBI did in fact act on the Commission?s formal request, as outlined in
# 2011, to run down #399s chain of possession. The routing slip discloses
that the bullet was sent from Washington to Dallas on 6/2/64 and returned
to Washington on 6/22/64. Then on 6/24/64, it was checked out to FBI Agent
Todd. [Fig. 12] What transpired during these episodes? If the Bureau went
to these lengths, it seems quite likely that Bardwell Odum, or some other
agent in Dallas, would have submitted one or more 302s on what was found,
and so would Agent Elmer Todd in Washington. But there are none in the
files. The trail ends here with an unexplained, and perhaps important, gap
left in the record.
Figure 12. FBI routing slip. Note that #399 was sent from Washington to
Dallas and back again, and that FBI agent Todd checked out the bullet on
6/24/64, the day it was reported the Secret Service Agents told Todd they
could not identify #399. [See Fig. 5 (page 1, page 2) and Fig. 6.]
(Courtesy of John Hunt)
Besides this unexplained gap, another interesting question remains: If the
FBI did in fact adjust Tomlinson and Wright?s testimonies with a bogus
claim of bullet similarity, why didn?t it also adjust Johnsen and
Rowley?s? While it is unlikely a certain answer to this question will ever
be found, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the FBI authors of #2011
would have been more reluctant to embroider the official statements of the
head of the Secret Service in Washington than they would the comments of a
couple of hospital employees in Dallas. Summary
In a memo to the Warren Commission [C. E. #2011] concerning its
investigation of the chain of possession of C.E. #399, the FBI reported
that two Parkland Hospital eyewitnesses, Darrell Tomlinson and O. P.
Wright, said C.E. #399 resembled the bullet they discovered on the day JFK
died. But the FBI agent who is supposed to have interviewed both men and
the Bureau?s own suppressed records contradict the FBI?s public memo.
Agent Odum denied his role, and the FBI?s earliest, suppressed files say
only that neither Tomlinson nor Wright was able to identify the bullet in
question. This suppressed file implies the hospital witnesses saw no
resemblance, which is precisely what Wright told one of the authors in
1967.
What we are left with is the FBI having reported a solid chain of
possession for #399 to the Warren Commission. But the links in the FBI?s
chain appear to be anything but solid. Bardwell Odum, one of the key
links, says he was never in the chain at all and the FBI?s own, suppressed
records tend to back him up. Inexplicably, the chain also lacks other
important links: FBI 302s, reports from the agents in the field who, there
is ample reason to suppose, did actually trace #399 in Dallas and in
Washington. Suppressed FBI records and recent investigations thus suggest
that not only is the FBI?s file incomplete, but also that one of the
authors may have been right when he reported in 1967 that the bullet found
in Dallas did not look like a bullet that could have come from Oswald?s
rifle.
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