"On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald" -- Text Excerpts And Highlights From The 1986 Mock Oswald Trial
David Von Pein
1986 cable-television docu-trial "On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald",
featuring Vincent Bugliosi as prosecuting attorney and Gerry Spence,
who served as Oswald's defense lawyer......
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In late November of 1986, the "Showtime" cable-TV network aired a
2-part, five-and-a-half-hour special program -- "ON TRIAL: LEE HARVEY
OSWALD" -- which represented a first-of-its-kind JFK assassination
"mock" courtroom trial, with the accused assassin of President John F.
Kennedy as the defendant.
There was no actor used to play Lee Oswald, however; the defendant's
chair was left empty during the simulated trial proceeding.
A real sworn-in jury of twelve Dallas citizens was flown to London,
England, to sit in judgment of the man whom the Warren Commission (22
years earlier) had deemed guilty of killing JFK and Dallas police
officer J.D. Tippit on November 22, 1963.
An actual judge was also used in the 1986 "docu-trial", and two of the
finest lawyers in America were employed to serve as the attorneys in
this important landmark case. Highly-successful defense lawyer Gerry
Spence of Wyoming acted in defense of his "client" (Oswald); and Spence
had not lost a case in front of a jury in the last 17 years leading up
to the LHO mock trial.
Former Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi served as
the lawyer for the prosecution (representing the "U.S. Government").
Bugliosi had a nearly-perfect 105-1 record in felony jury trials while
employed with the L.A. DA's office. (Which included a spotless 21-0 in
murder cases.)
Many of the actual witnesses surrounding the assassination of JFK were
called to the witness stand during the trial, as well as police
officers, photo and medical experts, and members of the HSCA panel who
investigated the case in the late 1970s.
The end result of the 21-hour-long docu-trial (which was edited down to
5.5 hours for the "Showtime" TV broadcast) was a "Guilty" verdict being
reached by the jury, with Oswald pronounced guilty of murdering both
John Kennedy and Officer Tippit.
Below I've typed out some word-for-word excerpts from this fascinating
program known as "ON TRIAL: LEE HARVEY OSWALD". These excerpts provide
a pretty good example of the massive amount of evidence that Vince
Bugliosi had to work with as he successfully attempted, albeit in
mock-trial form only, to convict Lee Oswald for the two murders Oswald
so obviously committed on 11/22/63 in Dallas, Texas......
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Vincent Bugliosi's Opening Statement to the jury:
"Mr. Spence, Judge Bunton, ladies and gentlemen of the jury -- I don't
have to tell you that you have been called upon to sit on the jury of
perhaps the most important murder case ever tried in this country.
In any political assassination, ladies and gentlemen, almost as
inevitably as death and taxes, there is always a chorus of critics
screaming the word 'conspiracy' before the fatal bullet has even come
to rest.
The evidence that will be presented at this trial will show that there
is no substance to the persistent charge by these critics that Lee
Harvey Oswald was just a patsy, set up to take the fall by some
elaborate conspiracy.
We expect the evidence -- ALL of the evidence -- to show that Lee
Harvey Oswald, acting alone, was responsible for the assassination of
John F. Kennedy.
We expect the defense -- in an anemic effort to deflect suspicion away
from Mr. Oswald -- to offer theory, speculation, conjecture, but not
one speck of credible evidence that any other person or group murdered
President Kennedy and framed Lee Harvey Oswald for the murder that they
committed. As this trial unfolds, you will see how utterly preposterous
the allegation of a frame-up is.
The evidence at this trial will produce a vivid, and a rather stark,
psychological portrait of Oswald as a deeply-disturbed and maladjusted
man. It will show him to be a fanatical Marxist, who restlessly
searched for a country to embody the Marxist dream.
The evidence will show that on the morning of the assassination --
November the 22nd, 1963 -- Oswald carried his weapon, a 6.5-millimeter
Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, into his place of employment at the Texas
School Book Depository Building. The Presidential motorcade was
scheduled to pass right in front of that building that very noon.
At 12:30 PM, as the President's limousine drove slowly by, three shots
rang out from the southeasternmost window on the sixth floor of that
building....one of which penetrated President Kennedy's upper-right
back, exited the front of his throat....another entering the right-rear
of his head, and exiting and shattering the right-frontal area of his
head.
As the Presidential limousine screeched away to Parkland Memorial
Hospital, where he was pronounced dead -- the President, his life blood
gushing from his body, lay mortally wounded in his wife Jacqueline's
lap.
Within minutes of the assassination, Oswald's rifle was found on the
same sixth floor -- the floor from which Oswald had brutally cut down,
at the age of only forty-six, the thirty-fifth President of these
United States.
The evidence will show that Oswald's rifle, to the exclusion of all
other weapons, was determined by firearms experts to be the rifle that
fired the two bullets that struck down President Kennedy.
The evidence will further show that just forty-five minutes after the
assassination, Oswald, in frantic flight from what he had just done,
shot and killed Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit....running from the
scene of the murder to a theater, where he was arrested and subdued
after drawing his revolver on one of the arresting officers.
Much more evidence, ladies and gentlemen, much more, will be produced
at this trial irresistibly connecting Oswald and no other person or
group to the assassination.
I have every confidence that after you folks fairly and objectively
evaluate all of the evidence in this case you will find that Lee Harvey
Oswald, and Lee Harvey Oswald alone, was responsible for the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen."
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MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Did you recall how he {Oswald} was carrying the bag?"
BUELL WESLEY FRAZIER (Oswald's co-worker; he drove LHO to work on
11/22/63 and watched him carry a paper package into the Book Depository
that morning) -- "Yes sir. He was carrying it parallel to his body."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Okay, so he carried the bag right next to his
body....on the right side?"
MR. FRAZIER -- "Yes sir. On the right side."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Was it cupped in his hand and under his armpit? I
think you've said that in the past."
MR. FRAZIER -- "Yes sir."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Mr. Frazier, is it true that you paid hardly any
attention to this bag?"
MR. FRAZIER -- "That is true."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "So the bag could have been protruding out in front of
his body, and you wouldn't have been able to see it, is that correct?"
MR. FRAZIER -- "That is true."
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MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Mr. Boone, did the FBI ever show you a rifle which
they said was the rifle found on the sixth floor?"
EUGENE BOONE (Dallas County Deputy Sheriff who discovered a rifle in
the TSBD on 11/22/63) -- "Yes sir."
Mr. BUGLIOSI -- "And what did you say when you looked at that rifle?"
MR. BOONE -- "It appears to be the rifle that I saw on the sixth floor
of the School Book Depository."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Well, didn't you just tell Mr. Spence that you could
not identify it?"
MR. BOONE -- "I could not identify it positively because I did not have
an identifying mark on the weapon."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Okay. But it appeared to be the same rifle?"
MR. BOONE -- "It appeared to be the same weapon."
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MR. BUGLIOSI -- "What was the conclusion your panel came to as to how
many bullets struck the President, their point of entry, and the path
they took through the President's body?"
DR. CHARLES PETTY (one of 9 forensic pathologists who served on the
autopsy panel {aka the "FPP"} for the HSCA) -- "My conclusion, and the
conclusion of the panel, was that the President was struck by two
bullets -- one entering the right-upper back and exiting in the front
of the neck; the other entering the right back of the head, and exiting
what we call the right-frontal area, that is the front and side of the
head."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Is there any doubt in your mind, Doctor, whatsoever
that both bullets that struck the President came from the rear and no
bullets struck him from the front?"
DR. PETTY -- "None whatsoever."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Let me ask you this, Dr. Petty .... assuming the
President HAD been struck by a bullet from the front -- make that
assumption -- could the transference of momentum from that bullet have
thrown the President backward as is shown in frames 315 to 320 of the
Zapruder Film?"
DR. PETTY -- "No sir, not in my opinion."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "And why is that?"
DR. PETTY -- "Because the head is too heavy. There's too much muscular
resistance to movement."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "So the killings that people see on television and in
the movies, which is the only type of killings most people ever see,
where the person struck by the bullet very frequently, visibly, and and
dramatically is propelled backward by the force of the bullet -- that's
not what actually happens in life when a bullet hits a human being?"
DR. PETTY -- "No, of course not."
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MR. BUGLIOSI -- "What you're saying is that from your Neutron
Activation Analysis, there may have been fifty people firing at
President Kennedy that day....but if there were, they all
missed....ONLY bullets fired from Oswald's Carcano rifle hit the
President. Is that correct?"
DR. VINCENT P. GUINN (NAA Expert) -- "That's a correct statement;
yes."
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MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Mr. Delgado, I believe you testified before the Warren
Commission, that on the rifle range Oswald was kind of a joke, a pretty
big joke."
NELSON DELGADO (served with Oswald in Marine Corps) -- "Yes, he was."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "You're aware that at the time Oswald was doing poorly
on the range, he was about to be released from the Marines, is that
correct?"
MR. DELGADO -- "Yes, he was."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Are you aware that in 1956, when Oswald first joined
the Marines, and was going through Basic Training, he fired a 212 on
the rifle range with an M-1 rifle, which made him a 'sharpshooter' at
that time -- are you aware of that?"
MR. DELGADO -- "Yes."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Given the fact that Oswald was about to get out of the
Marines when he was in your unit, and the fact that he showed no
interest in firing on the range -- you don't attribute his poor showing
on the range to his being a poor shot?"
MR. DELGADO -- "No."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "He could have done better, you felt, if he tried?"
MR. DELGADO -- "Certainly."
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MR. BUGLIOSI -- "While he {Lee Oswald} was at your home did he ask you
for any curtain rods?"
RUTH PAINE (acquaintance of Lee and Marina Oswald) -- "No, he didn't."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Did he ever, at ANY time, ask you for curtain rods?"
MRS. PAINE -- "No."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Was there any discussion between you and him, or you
and Marina, about curtain rods?"
MRS. PAINE -- "No."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Now you, in fact, DID have some curtain rods in the
garage, is that correct?"
MRS. PAINE -- "In the garage...yes."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "After the assassination they were still there."
MRS. PAINE -- "Yes, that's right."
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MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Now, Mr. O'Connor, if the President's brain being
missing from his head is one of the most shocking things that you've
ever seen in your entire life, a matter that you think should have been
investigated, certainly....and if they {the HSCA investigators} spoke
to you for one-and-a-half hours about your observations that night, why
wasn't it important enough for you to tell these people about it?"
PAUL O'CONNOR (technician who assisted at JFK's autopsy at Bethesda
Naval Medical Center) -- "I was under orders not to talk until that
time."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "What?"
MR. O'CONNOR -- "I was under orders not to talk to anybody..."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "By whom?"
MR. O'CONNOR -- "By....the United States military brought in orders a
couple days after the autopsy, and we were to remain silent."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "But you talked to them for an hour-and-a-half. You
told them all types of things in that document."
MR. O'CONNOR -- "I received permission from the Select Committee on
Assassinations to talk to the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of
Defense."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Paul, when I first asked you this question over the
phone, did you tell me -- 'the reason I never told them is....they
never asked me'?"
MR. O'CONNOR -- "Well, they didn't ask me."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "So, in other words, Mr. O'Connor, even though this is
one of the most shocking things that you've ever seen, and you're going
to remember it till the day you die....and you feel this matter should
have been investigated....if those investigators for the House Select
Committee didn't ask you the magic question -- by golly you're not
about to tell 'em!! Is that correct?"
MR. O'CONNOR -- "No sir. I only answered what I was asked....and that
was it."
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MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Now, Doctor, if the bullet was coming on a downward
path as it entered the Presidential limousine, as you say it was, is
that correct?"
DR. CYRIL WECHT (forensic pathologist who served on the HSCA's FPP
panel; has always believed a conspiracy existed with respect to JFK's
murder) -- "Yes."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Alright....and it MISSED Governor Connally....is that
correct...?"
DR. WECHT -- "Yes."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "...Why didn't it hit the driver of the car or do any
damage to the car, Doctor?"
DR. WECHT -- "A couple of things. The straight line in that open
limousine could have taken it over the left side of the car; and as the
line shows*, it would have and could have indeed missed the driver."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Wait a minute....it's coming on a DOWNWARD path,
Cyril! It's coming on a downward path into the Presidential limousine,
goes through the President's body, misses Governor Connally, and
magically also misses the driver and doesn't do any damage to the
Presidential limousine."
DR. WECHT -- "Wait, just a moment. I did not say that THAT bullet
missed all of these people completely or that it missed the car. You
KNOW that there were fragments found in the car, Mr. Bugliosi!"
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "You said the bullet passed on a straight line through
the President's body..."
DR. WECHT -- "Absolutely."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "...Passed through soft tissue. So that bullet came out
pristine..."
DR. WECHT -- "That's right."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "The bullet fragments found in the front seat of this
car, Doctor, were bullet fragments....very, very damaged....very, very
small. What happened to that pristine bullet when it came through
President Kennedy's body?!! Who did it hit?!!"
DR. WECHT -- "What happened to the third bullet under the Warren
Commission theory, Mr. Bugliosi?!! Where is it?! You're asking ME to be
responsible for the bullets?!"
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "I want to know what happened to YOUR bullet, Doctor."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "Well, Doctor, by definition, it seems to me that you
are saying, that if the other eight pathologists disagreed with you --
and they did -- is that correct...?"
DR. WECHT -- "Yes."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "...Okay. Seems to me, Doctor, that by necessary
implication they are either hopelessly and utterly incompetent, or they
deliberately suppressed the truth from the American public. Is that
correct?"
DR. WECHT -- "There is a third alternative, which would be a hybrid to
some extent of the deliberate suppression, sir..."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "So, of the nine pathologists, Dr. Wecht, you're the
only one that had the honor and the integrity and the professional
responsibility to tell the truth to the American people....is that
correct, Doctor?"
DR. WECHT -- "I'll prefer to put it this way....I'm the only one who
had the courage to say that the King was nude, and had no clothes
on....yes."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "No further questions."
* = NOTE RE. WECHT'S TESTIMONY -- The diagram that was used by Dr.
Wecht at the mock trial (purporting what Wecht thinks was the
trajectory of the bullet path from the TSBD to the limousine) was
laughably askew as far as the "right-to-left" trajectory line drawn in
on that schematic was concerned. The angle from Oswald's Sniper's Nest
to the car (at approx. the SBT bullet strike at Zapruder Frame #224)
was not nearly as sharp an angle as purported in Wecht's chart/diagram.
The diagram also does not account for Governor Connally's being turned
to his right in his jump seat when struck with the SBT bullet.
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Vincent Bugliosi's Closing Arguments/Final Summation to the jury:
Mr. Bugliosi's initial Closing Arguments:
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, in the brief time I have to address
you in this historic trial, I want to point out what must already be
obvious to you....that Lee Harvey Oswald and Lee Harvey Oswald alone is
responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, our
young and vigorous leader whose Presidency stirred the hopes of
millions of Americans for a better world, and whose shocking death
grieved and anguished an entire nation.
But before I summarize that evidence for you....against Mr.
Oswald....evidence that conclusively proves his guilt beyond all
reasonable doubt, I want to discuss several issues with you which the
defense has raised during this trial.
Several factors make it clear that Kennedy and Connally WERE struck by
the same bullet. There's absolutely no evidence of the existence of any
separate bullet hitting Connally.
With respect to whether or not any shots were fired from the Grassy
Knoll, I want to make the following observations -- firstly, it is
perfectly understandable that the witnesses were confused as to the
origin of fire. Not only does Dealey Plaza resound with echoes, but
here you have a situation of completely-unexpected shots over just a
matter of a few moments.
When you compound all of that with the fact that the witnesses were
focusing their attention on the President of the United States driving
by, a mesmerizing event for many of them....and the chaos, the
hysteria, the bedlam that engulfed the assassination scene....it's
remarkable that there was any coherence at all to what they thought
they saw and heard.
Human observation, notoriously unreliable under even the most optimum
situation, HAS to give way to hard, scientific evidence. And we do have
indisputable, scientific evidence in this case that the bullets which
struck President Kennedy came from his rear, not his front.
If EITHER of the two bullets that struck President Kennedy came from
the front, why weren't there any entrance wounds to the front of the
President's body, nor any exit wounds to the rear of his body?
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it couldn't be more obvious that
there was no gunman at the Grassy Knoll. No one SAW anybody with a
rifle in that area. No weapon nor expended cartridges from a weapon
were found there. It didn't happen.
With respect to Ruby killing Oswald, the evidence is overwhelming that
he was a very emotional man. When we couple the fact that Ruby cared
deeply for Kennedy with the fact that he probably thought that he would
be viewed as a hero, Ruby's killing of Oswald has all of the earmarks
of a very personal killing, completely devoid of any outside influence.
In the short time I have left, I want to summarize the evidence of
guilt against Mr. Oswald....
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, within minutes of the assassination,
a 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano rifle -- serial number C dash 2766
-- was found on the sixth floor of the Book Depository Building. Oswald
ordered the rifle under the name 'A. Hidell' -- we know that.
We know from the testimony of Monty Lutz, the firearms expert, that the
two large bullet fragments found inside the Presidential limousine were
parts of a bullet fired from Oswald's rifle to the exclusion of all
other weapons.
We also know from the firearms people that the three expended cartridge
casings found on the floor, right beneath that sixth-floor window --
undoubtedly the same casings that Mr. Norman heard fall from above --
were fired in, and ejected from, Oswald's rifle to the exclusion of all
other weapons.
So we KNOW, not just beyond a reasonable doubt, we know beyond ALL
doubt that Oswald's rifle was the murder weapon....that caused that
terrible, terrible spray of brain matter to the front! The worst sight
that I have ever seen in my entire life!
And it's obvious that Oswald carried that rifle into the building that
day in that large brown paper bag. It couldn't be more obvious. As far
as Mr. Frazier's testimony about Oswald carrying the bag under his
armpit, he conceded he never paid close attention to just how Oswald
was carrying that bag. He didn't have any reason to.
At this point if we had nothing else....nothing else....how much do you
need?....if we had NOTHING else....this would be enough to prove
Oswald's guilt beyond all REASONABLE doubt. But there's so much more.
Let's look at Oswald's conduct .... November the 22nd, 1963, the day of
the assassination, was a Friday....whenever Oswald would go to visit
his wife in Irving, he'd go on a Friday evening....come back on a
Monday morning.
On the week of the assassination, however, for the very first time, he
goes there on a THURSDAY evening....obviously to get his rifle for the
following day.
After the assassination, all the other employees of the Book Depository
Building return to work. There's a roll call. They're accounted for.
Not Oswald. He takes off. The ONLY employee who leaves the building.
Just forty-five minutes after the assassination....out of the five
hundred thousand or so people in Dallas....Lee Harvey Oswald is the one
out of those five hundred thousand people who just happens to murder
Officer J.D. Tippit.
Oswald's responsibility for President Kennedy's assassination
explains....EXPLAINS....why he was driven to murder Officer Tippit. The
murder bore the signature of a man in desperate flight from some awful
deed. What other reason under the moon would he have had to kill
Officer Tippit?
Normally, ladies and gentlemen, in a murder case, a verdict of guilty
brings about a certain measure of justice....obviously a limited amount
of justice....but a certain measure of justice for the victim and his
or her surviving loved ones. But here, the effect of this assassination
went far beyond President Kennedy and his family. This was an enormous
offense against the American people. And no justice could ever be
achieved.
I respectfully ask you to return a swift verdict of guilty against Lee
Harvey Oswald....simply because it is the only verdict that is
consistent with the evidence -- evidence which conclusively proves
Oswald's guilt beyond all reasonable doubt.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mr. Bugliosi's Final Closing Arguments (which followed Mr. Spence's
Closing Arguments for the defense):
"Based on the evidence in this case, Lee Harvey Oswald is as guilty as
sin, and there's NOTHING that Mr. Spence can do about it.
I have yet to see the man who can convince twelve reasonable men and
women as you folks are....that black is white....and white is black.
Mr. Spence, in his argument to you, no more desired to look at the
evidence in this case than one would have a desire to look directly
into the noonday sun. And I can't really blame him, because if I were
he, I wouldn't want to either.
Because there's not one tiny grain of evidence....not one microscopic
speck of evidence that ANYONE -- other than Lee Harvey Oswald -- was
responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Mr. Spence did say this....it was kind of a subtle, very clever
argument....it took me a while to grasp exactly what he was doing....I
THINK he said this, and if I misrepresent you, sir, I'm sorry, but I
think he said that Lee Harvey Oswald was the exact type of person to
set up as a patsy. Or words to that effect. I'm just paraphrasing. A
Marxist, a defector to Soviet Russia.
Actually, he was the exact type of person to murder the President. And
my colleague very cleverly turned it around and said he's the exact
type of person to make as a patsy.
Let's take a look at Oswald .... Can anyone fail to see how utterly and
completely crazy this man here was? Utterly and completely nuts.
Bonkers. And you have to be bonkers to commit a Presidential murder;
you gotta be crazy; nuts.
One example, among many -- How many Americans, how many people anywhere
in the WORLD defect to the Soviet Union? That alone shows how
completely and utterly mentally-unhinged this man was. Again, that's
the exact type of person to kill the President.
Though he may or may not have had any personal dislike for Kennedy, we
don't know that. For all we know maybe he didn't think Kennedy was that
bad a person....everything is relative in life. However, I think one
thing is pretty obvious, Kennedy almost undoubtedly would have
represented to Oswald the ultimate, quintessential representative --
that's the key word, 'representative' -- of a society for which he had
a grinding contempt.
On the issue of conspiracy, Mr. Spence {chuckles} -- I'm paraphrasing
him -- he certainly didn't say who specifically murdered the
President....but he certainly implied to you that it was some nebula,
some powerful group -- he never put the hat on anyone, he kept the hat
on his table here; I thought he was going to put it on someone's head,
but he didn't.
Some mysterious group....powerful group....murdered the President and
framed Lee Harvey Oswald. But he didn't say who these people were. He
did say the CIA covered-up here; he said the FBI covered-up there.
In which case, if the FBI and CIA were covering-up -- they'd be the
ones who murdered the President, right? Why doesn't Mr. Spence come
right out and say it? Why doesn't he accuse the CIA and the FBI of
murdering the President? One thing you can say about Mr. Spence, he's
not a shy man. He knows how to exercise his First-Amendment freedom of
speech....but he doesn't SAY it. Because he's very intelligent; very
wise.
I'll tell you why he doesn't say it -- because he KNOWS that if he said
that the FBI murdered the President, or the CIA murdered the
President....it would sound downright SILLY! You'd LAUGH at him!
But even though neither the CIA nor organized crime would have any
productive motive whatsoever to kill the President, let's make the
unwarranted assumption that they did....that they had such a motive,
and let's go on and discuss Mr. Spence's next point about Ruby killing
Oswald.
Mafia contract killers are always selected with utmost care. I mean the
one chosen to kill Oswald would be everything that Jack Ruby was not.
He'd be someone who had a long track record of effectively carrying out
murder contracts before for them. It would be a precise, unemotional,
business-like, and above all, tight-lipped killer for hire.
The whole notion of sophisticated groups -- like organized crime, U.S.
Intelligence -- getting Jack Ruby, of all people, to accomplish a job
which, if he talked, would prove fatal to their existence is just
downright laughable.
When Mr. Spence argued that Oswald was just a patsy and was framed, he
conveniently neglected to be specific. HOW was Lee Harvey Oswald
framed? When we look at the mechanics of such a possible conspiracy in
this case -- how COULD he have been framed?
Let's get into the mechanics .... Who was this other gunman who, on the
day of the assassination, made his way into the Book Depository
Building, carrying a rifle....went up to the sixth floor....shot and
killed the President....made his way back down to the first
floor....and escaped without leaving a trace?
How, in fact, if Oswald were innocent, did they GET Oswald, within
forty-five minutes of the assassination, to murder Officer Tippit? Or
was he framed for that murder too?
Mr. Spence can't have it both ways. If the people who set Oswald up
were so sophisticated to come up with this incredible, elaborate
conspiracy -- I mean to the point they had people, according to Mr.
Spence, who can superimpose this man's head on someone else's body, and
imposters down in Mexico City -- if they were THAT bright, why weren't
they intelligent enough to know the most obvious thing of all....
That you don't attempt to frame a man of questionable marksmanship
ability who possesses a nineteen-dollar mail-order rifle!
As surely as I am standing here, and surely as night follows day, Lee
Harvey Oswald -- acting alone -- was responsible for the murder of
President John F. Kennedy.
You are twelve reasonable men and women, and that is why I have every
confidence that you will confirm this fact for the pages of history by
your verdict of guilty.
Thank you so very much, ladies and gentlemen."
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[END TRIAL EXCERPTS]
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After the Showtime mock LHO trial, Gerry Spence had this to say about
his courtroom opponent, Mr. Bugliosi:
"There is only one Vince Bugliosi. He's the best. No other lawyer in
America could have done what Vince did in this case."
There were also these comments made by Vince Bugliosi following the
docu-trial:
"The majority of the American people now believe, polls have shown,
that there was a conspiracy in this case....and the reason for that is
that the side of the Government has never been presented. It's been
presented, it's in the Warren Report; but that's 27 volumes. Who's gone
out and purchased 27 volumes? They haven't done that.
The only books that have come out on this case are by conspiracy buffs;
and these are the people that have gone on talk shows throughout the
country, and they finally convinced the American people.
So the importance of this case is that we finally now gave the American
people, and the people around the world, the prosecution's viewpoint."
-- Vincent T. Bugliosi; November 1986
Martin Shackelford
Martin
David Von Pein
"Based on the Himalayan mountain of evidence against him, anyone who
would believe he {Lee Harvey Oswald} was innocent would believe someone
who told them they had heard a cow speaking Spanish." -- Vincent
Bugliosi; November 1986
"Though there are some notable exceptions, for the most part the
persistent rantings of the Warren Commission critics remind me of dogs
barking idiotically through endless nights." -- Vincent Bugliosi;
November 1986
cdddraftsman
TL
tims...@gmail.com
Hi David,
An excellent insight into a great show. Thanks for providing it! :-)
When Vincent T. Bugliosi's JFK book is published I'm sure it will be
more than worth the wait.
The more I watch this particular TV show, the more I realize how much
hard work Mr Bugliosi put into his preparation for it.
Regards,
Tim Brennan
Sydney, Australia
"Newsgroup Commentator"
David Von Pein
I had a lot of fun doing the verbatim post re. the mock trial. (Not too
easy either, esp. via VHS tape....a lot of rewinding to get every word
in....and VB talks fast many times too, making it all the more tedious
to get a verbatim record of the trial.)
Allow me to remind everyone yet again:
"Within minutes of the assassination,
a 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano rifle -- serial number C dash 2766
-- was found on the sixth floor of the Book Depository Building. Oswald
ordered the rifle under the name 'A. Hidell' -- we know that.
We know from the testimony of Monty Lutz, the firearms expert, that the
two large bullet fragments found inside the Presidential limousine were
parts of a bullet fired from Oswald's rifle to the exclusion of all
other weapons.
We also know from the firearms people that the three expended cartridge
casings found on the floor, right beneath that sixth-floor window --
undoubtedly the same casings that Mr. Norman heard fall from above --
were fired in, and ejected from, Oswald's rifle to the exclusion of all
other weapons.
So we KNOW, not just beyond a reasonable doubt, we know beyond ALL
doubt that Oswald's rifle was the murder weapon!!
And it's obvious that Oswald carried that rifle into the building that
day in that large brown paper bag. It couldn't be more obvious. As far
as Mr. Frazier's testimony about Oswald carrying the bag under his
armpit, he conceded he never paid close attention to just how Oswald
was carrying that bag. He didn't have any reason to.
At this point if we had nothing else....nothing else....how much do you
need?....if we had NOTHING else....this would be enough to prove
Oswald's guilt beyond all REASONABLE doubt. But there's so much more.
Just forty-five minutes after the assassination....out of the five
hundred thousand or so people in Dallas....Lee Harvey Oswald is the one
out of those five hundred thousand people who just happens to murder
Officer J.D. Tippit.
Oswald's responsibility for President Kennedy's assassination
explains....EXPLAINS....why he was driven to murder Officer Tippit. The
murder bore the signature of a man in desperate flight from some awful
deed. What other reason under the moon would he have had to kill
Officer Tippit?
I respectfully ask you to return a swift verdict of guilty against Lee
Harvey Oswald....simply because it is the only verdict that is
consistent with the evidence -- evidence which conclusively proves
Oswald's guilt beyond all reasonable doubt." -- VB
cdddraftsman
.......................... :-) ..................TL
David Von Pein
program, I think I'd like to add these insightful comments made by Ruth
Paine to the list already mentioned in my thread-starting post......
MRS. PAINE -- "I do think for the historical record it's important that
people understand that Lee was a very ordinary person -- that people
can kill a President without that being something that shows on them in
advance"
MR. GERRY SPENCE -- "Is it really your purpose here to try to defame
this man in some way?
MRS. PAINE -- "I'd like a FULL picture -- I think it's really important
for history that a FULL picture of the man be seen."