Re: J. LEE RANKIN's HSCA TESTIMONY
David Von Pein
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/m_j_russ/hscarank.htm
The HSCA testimony of former Warren Commission General Counsel J. Lee
Rankin is rather interesting testimony in several respects.
I've culled some of my favorite portions of Mr. Rankin's 1978 HSCA
session:
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MR. SAWYER -- "Mr. Rankin, has the fact that the Warren Commission
report, according to all polls, received so much poor acceptance by
the American people, given you any pause to reflect on whether you
went about it correctly or not?"
MR. RANKIN -- "Not really. You know, as a part of my job as General
Counsel, I researched all of the assassinations and a number in regard
to other countries, and went into the materials that were available
about the assassination of President Lincoln. I discovered that there
was a large body of opinion that didn't believe any of the findings
about Lincoln's assassination, and about other people that had been
assassinated. Apparently that is the lot of anybody that works in this
kind of a field."
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MR. SAWYER -- "Are you satisfied with the decision of the Commission
to hold all executive session hearings rather than public hearings? Do
you think that may have contributed to the lack of acceptance of the
report?"
MR. RANKIN -- "We had one open hearing."
MR. SAWYER -- "That was because Mark Lane demanded--"
MR. RANKIN -- "That was Mark Lane, and I think you had similar
experiences--"
MR. SAWYER -- "Who would naturally demand a public hearing, right?"
MR. RANKIN -- "I do not think it helped with your hearing, although I
think you handled it well in regards to some of the problems
developed."
MR. SAWYER -- "As some people who watched it said that Mr. Lane had
done for the legal profession what the Boston Strangler did for the
door-to-door salesman."
[~~LOL BREAK~~]
[~~ANOTHER LOL BREAK~~]
:)
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MR. PREYER -- "The FBI reached a conclusion in their report that was
made 17 days after the assassination that Lee Harvey Oswald was the
lone assassin. Don't you think that would have had some chilling
effect, would have dampened the incentive of FBI agents in following
out the question of a conspiracy where his organization had already
declared itself to the effect that there was no conspiracy?"
MR. RANKIN -- "I think that is true but we always assumed that. We
started out knowing the FBI had already decided who the assassin was
and that no one else was involved, and we knew that was the agency
position. It was very evident. But we did not rely on anything like
that.
"We sought detailed evidence and if we didn't get
the evidence we asked for, we sent back time after time to get it. We
treated their report in which they promptly found Oswald as the
assassin and that was no conspiracy as though that was just an
interesting document, but we are not there to ratify that; we were to
find out if it was true and I think we were probably quite offensive,
especially some of the younger members of our staff who looked forward
to the opportunity of finding that the FBI was wrong, at least on as
much as they could find."
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MR. SAWYER -- "[Jack] Ruby, while he was incarcerated in
Dallas...said, according to the transcript, substantially that he
would like to tell the whole truth but he cannot tell them the whole
truth while he is in Dallas, and if they would transport him to
Washington, he would tell the whole truth. Was any follow-up ever done
on that at all by the staff or otherwise?"
MR. RANKIN -- "No, there was not. We were all convinced that Ruby was
interested in a trip to Washington rather than how much he could
enlighten the Commission. It seemed quite apparent when you observed
him and his approach to the whole suggestion." ....
MR. SAWYER -- "Is that the impression you got individually?"
MR. RANKIN -- "Yes, I thought that he was quite enamored with the idea
of coming to Washington and he even wanted to see the President. It
was easy to imagine what that would all develop into if you got
started on it."
[Later, Rankin added this....]
MR. RANKIN -- "I felt that he [Ruby] really wanted a trip to
Washington rather than to help us in our problems."
[DVP -- This is a very interesting comment made by J. Lee Rankin.
Rankin's explanation for why Ruby wanted to be taken to Washington is
certainly worth considering, although most conspiracy theorists who
have seen the above quote probably believe that Rankin was merely
trying to cover his own ass (and the Warren Commission's ineptitude)
when he said that Ruby "really wanted a trip to Washington rather than
to help us in our problems.".]
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MR. DEVINE -- "Mr. Rankin, recognizing that nearly 15 years have
intervened since the event and 14 years since the filing of the Warren
Commission report, learning the things that you have learned during
the intervening period, the new technical exotic crime detection
techniques that have developed, additional witnesses that were not
available to you, the meeting of the Rockefeller committee, the Church
committee, the Assassinations Committee and all, as you sit here
today, do you feel that the Warren Commission, had they had the
benefit of all this additional information, would have reached a
conclusion different than that which you actually did?"
MR. RANKIN -- "No. I think the Commission would not have arrived at
any different conclusions."
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MR. FITHIAN -- "There was also conflicting testimony, though I believe
not given as much credibility by you and your staff and the
Commission, that indicated that eyewitness accounts heard other shots
from other areas, particularly the grassy knoll area. Wouldn't your
firing time limitation [of 2.3 seconds between shots when using
Oswald's Carcano rifle] of necessity almost have to come to bear on
that kind of testimony beyond the three cartridges that you found?"
MR. RANKIN -- "We never thought that the testimony of shots from other
points was impressive in the light of the wounds."
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