Lee Harvey Oswald - "I haven't done anything I'm ashamed of"
YoHarvey
(Kevin Costner) comments on the conduct of the Dallas Police
Department's handling of Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest and
interrogations.
Let's see how accurate Stone's allegations are.
"Oswald must've felt like Josef K in Kafka's The Trial," Garrison
(Costner) says. "He was never told the reason of his arrest, he does
not know the unseen forces ranging against him, he cries out his
outrage in the police lineup just like Josef K excoriates the judge
for not being told the charges against him."(1)
Is Oliver Stone serious? As discussed in The JFK 100: Arrest in the
Texas Theatre, when Lee Harvey Oswald was approached by Dallas police
officer Nick McDonald in the Texas Theatre, McDonald did not even have
a chance to ask Oswald a single question before he struck Officer
McDonald in the face, and -- as witnessed by numerous individuals,
both police officers and civilians -- drew his gun and tried to murder
McDonald in cold blood.
Has Oliver Stone read not a single word of the eyewitness testimony
concerning Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest?
Police officer Ray Hawkins saw Oswald punch Nick McDonald in the face
and draw his gun on McDonald. He heard the hammer snap as Oswald
attempted to fire the gun at McDonald; McDonald saved his own life by
jamming the webbing of his hand in between the hammer and the action
of Oswald's revolver.
Police officer C. T. Walker saw Oswald punch McDonald and draw his
gun. He heard the snap of the hammer.
Officer T. A. Hutson saw Oswald strike McDonald and draw his gun. He
too heard the hammer snap.
Bystander Johnny Calvin Brewer, the shoestore manager who had seen
Oswald acting suspiciously on Jefferson Street and alerted the police,
saw Oswald punch McDonald and draw his gun.
Texas Theatre patron George Jefferson Applin saw Oswald strike
McDonald and saw him bring his revolver up. He too heard the snap of
the hammer as Oswald tried to fire.
Theater patron John Gibson saw Oswald pull his gun on McDonald and
heard the hammer snap as McDonald grabbed him.
Officer M. N. "Nick" McDonald testified in detail about Oswald's
actions; had McDonald not gotten ahold of Oswald's weapon, he would
have been the second police officer killed by Lee Harvey Oswald that
day.
Oswald struggled so fiercely that it took at least six police officers
to subdue him, including Officers McDonald, Hawkins, Walker, Hutson,
Sgt. Gerald Lynn Hill, and Detective Bob Carroll.
Then what was it he cried out to the crowd that had gathered as he was
led from the theater, according to eyewitness Johnny Calvin Brewer? "I
am not resisting arrest!"(2)
In an interview with researcher Steve Bochan, FBI agent Jim Hosty, who
interviewed Oswald in police custody, insightfully refers to
statements such as this as Oswald's "public persona."
HOSTY: Now he took that persona as he was led out of the movie
theater. People were yelling to lynch him and he was yelling, "police
brutality, police brutality!" He was trying to turn the people against
the police.
BOCHAN: Right, so he seemed to know how he was coming across to an
audience . . .
HOSTY: Right.
Hosty's recollections serve to remind us that that, contrary to the
impressions fostered by people like Oliver Stone, the decision to
charge Oswald with the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit was anything but
a whim:
HOSTY: Well, of course there was no speculation while Oswald was
alive. There were five witnesses that saw him do it [shoot Officer
Tippit]. And he was tracked down and they picked him out of a line-up,
so there's no question . . . and he was arrested with his pistol, and
then he tried to shoot another police officer when he was arrested, so
then I mean, that's not the act of an innocent person.
BOCHAN: Many people point that out.
HOSTY: And he did not, at any time during interrogation by the police
and FBI, state that he was a "patsy." That was to the press only.
Hosty should know. He was there.
Oswald complained at a press conference that evening, as Oliver Stone
is quick to point out, that he had no idea what was going on or what
he was charged with. Plain and simple, Oswald was lying. It was all
part of what Hosty calls Oswald's public persona.
Five police officers had been in the car with Oswald as he was driven
to police headquarters, including C. T. Walker, Paul Bentley, and
Gerald Hill. "What is this all about?" Oswald demanded. "I know my
rights."(3)
Officer C. T. Walker testified, "And we told him . . . that he was
under arrest because . . . he was suspected in the murder of a police
officer. And he said, 'Police officer been killed?' And nobody said
nothing. He said, 'I hear they burn for murder.' And I said, 'You
might find out.' And he said, 'Well, they say it just takes a second
to die.' And that is all I recall. Now we talked some more going down,
but that is the thing that I recall."(4)
"Do you recall any other conversation that you had with him, or not?"
Walker was asked by Warren Commission counsel David W. Belin.
"No; he was just denying it," Walker replied, "and he was saying that
all he did was carry a gun, and the reason he fought back in the
theater is, he knew he wasn't supposed to be carrying a gun, and he
had never been to jail."(5)
Thirty years later, Detective Paul Bentley recalled the conversation
between Walker and Oswald vividly, and confirmed it to researcher Gus
Russo in every detail.(6)
"Did you kill our beloved President?" Bentley asked Oswald. "You find
out your own way," Oswald replied.(7)
"Oswald was very surly -- very cocky," Gerald Hill recalls. "He was
the kind of person that had it been under different circumstances, you
would have wanted to hit him."(8)
"I haven't done anything I'm ashamed of," Hill recalls Oswald saying.
(9)
Reporter Lonnie Hudkins interviewed Oswald shortly after he had been
brought in. "Why did you kill Officer Tippit?" Hudkins asked him. His
response was virtually identical to the one he had given to Officer
Walker shortly before: "Someone get killed? Policeman get killed?"
Then he said something that would have sounded familiar to Gerald
Hill: "I haven't done anything I'm ashamed of."(10)
Oswald was questioned all afternoon about both the Tippit shooting and
the assassination of the President.(11) He was arraigned for the
murder of J. D. Tippit at about 7:10 PM that evening.(12) He was then
taken back to Captain Will Fritz's office and questioned further about
both the Tippit and Kennedy shootings -- predominantly the President's
assassination.(13)
Oswald's statements at the press conference were part of his "public
persona," designed to appeal to his audience's sympathy and pity.
Those who later familiarized themselves with the evidence in the
Kennedy and Tippit murders and the record of Oswald's interrogations
would not be fooled; Oliver Stone, however, is not one of those
people.
"No legal counsel is provided [to Oswald]," Oliver Stone claims. Where
did Stone get this idea? Why, Oswald himself requested legal counsel
that night, during the police department's midnight press conference.
But Stone did not bother to dig any more deeply than this, otherwise
he might have found out the truth -- that this was nothing but another
deceitful expression of Oswald's public persona.(14)
Captain Will Fritz of the Dallas Police Department's Homicide unit
conducted the bulk of the interrogations with Oswald. Before
beginning, Fritz informed the suspect of his right to not be compelled
to make a statement, and that any statements he did make could be used
against him.(15)
Early on in the questioning Friday afternoon, "Oswald asked if he was
allowed an attorney," Fritz writes in his official report of the
interrogation sessions, "and I told him he could have any attorney he
liked, and that the telephone would be available to him up in the jail
and he could call anyone he wished. I believe it was during this
interview that he first expressed a desire to talk to Mr. Abt, an
attorney in New York."(16) John Abt was an attorney whose clients
included the US Communist Party (CPUSA).
During a subsequent interrogation, Fritz writes, "He [Oswald] reminded
me that he did not have to answer any questions at all until he talked
to his attorney, and I told him again that the could have an attorney
any time he wished. He said he didn't have money to pay for a phone
call to Mr. Abt. I told him to call 'collect,' if he liked, to use the
jail phone or that he could have another attorney if he wished. He
said he didn't want another attorney, he wanted to talk to this
attorney first. I believe he made this call later as he thanked me
later during one of our interviews for allowing him the use of the
telephone. I explained to him that all prisoners were allowed to use
the telephone. I asked him why he wanted Mr. Abt, instead of some
available attorney. He told me he didn't know Mr. Abt personally but
that he was familiar with a case where Mr. Abt defended some people
for a violation of the Smith Act, and that if he didn't get Mr. Abt,
that he felt sure the American Civil Liberties Union would furnish him
a lawyer. He explained to me that this organization helped people who
needed attorneys and weren't able to get them."(17)
At about 7:10 Friday evening Oswald was arraigned for the murder of
Officer J. D. Tippit by Justice of the Peace David Johnston. Oswald
was advised of his rights again at this time, including the right to
an attorney.(18)
Dallas Police Detective Elmer L. Boyd was present during some of the
lineups in which Oswald participated. Boyd was deposed for the Warren
Commission by Commission counsel Joseph Ball:
Mr. BALL. Did he [Oswald] ask for a lawyer?
Mr. BOYD. Well, let me see, he wanted to get in touch with a lawyer --
I believe it was a lawyer by the name of Abt [spelling] A-b-t in New
York City.
Mr. BALL. When did he say that? When did he tell you that?
Mr. BOYD. It was either right before the first showup, or right after
the first showup.
Mr. BALL. What did you tell him?
Mr. BOYD. Captain Fritz said he would -- he didn't ask me, he was
talking to Captain Fritz -- yes.
Mr. BALL. . . . What did Fritz say?
Mr. BOYD. He said he would see if he could make arrangements later on
for him to use the telephone later on and call him.(19)
The following morning, Detective Boyd was present when Captain Fritz
again advised Oswald of his right to counsel. "[D]id he want a lawyer
here, Captain Fritz . . . asked him, and he said he didn't want a
lawyer, he wanted Mr. Abt."(20)
A slip of paper found on Oswald's person after he was shot to death by
Jack Ruby shows Oswald had written down John Abt's name and phone
number. Oswald tried several times unsuccessfully to place a collect
call to Abt.(21)
Oswald's mother, Marguerite Oswald, spoke to her son the following
day. She later recalled to the Warren Commission:
I talked and said, "Is there anything I can do to help you?"
He said, "No, Mother, everything is fine. I know my rights, and I will
have an attorney. I have already requested to get in touch with
Attorney Abt," I think is the name. "Don't worry about a thing."(22)
Saturday afternoon at around 3:30 or 4:00 PM, Ruth Paine, a friend of
Oswald's wife, Marina, received a phone call from Oswald. Mrs. Paine
testified to Warren Commission counsel Albert Jenner:
Mrs. PAINE. I said, "Well, hi." And he said he wanted to ask me to
call Mr. John Abt in New York for him after 6 PM. He gave me a
telephone number of an office in New York and a residence in New
York. . . . He said he was an attorney he wanted to have. . . . To
represent him. He thanked me for my concern.
Mr. JENNER. Did he tell you or ask you what you were to do or say to
Mr. Abt if you reached him?
Mrs. PAINE. I carried the clear impression I was to ask him if he
would serve as attorney for Lee Oswald.(23)
Mrs. Paine tried to reach Abt, but could not get an answer at either
his office or his home.(24)
Later, Marguerite Oswald received a phone call from Ruth Paine:
. . . [T]he telephone rang, and it was Mrs. Paine. She said, "Mrs.
Oswald, Lee called and he was very upset because Marina was not with
me, and he asked me to get a lawyer for him, a Mr. Abt."(25)
Next occurred an event that Oliver Stone surely knows about if he has
read the Warren Commission Report, but clearly contradicts the
filmmaker's claim.
At about 5:00 PM Saturday evening, H. Louis Nichols, President of the
Dallas Bar Association, visited Oswald in his jail cell. He had
received a number of phone calls from attorneys who had heard Oswald
speak at the midnight press conference and were concerned that he was
being denied legal representation.
During his Warren Commission deposition, Nichols testified:
The chief [Police Chief Jesse Curry] had the officer open the door,
and he introduced me to Oswald, and told him my name and said that I
was the president of the Dallas Bar Association and had come up to see
him about whether or not he needed or wanted a lawyer. . . . I
reintroduced myself to Oswald and told him my name, and that I was
president of the Dallas bar, and that I had come up to see him about
whether or not he had a lawyer, or needed a lawyer, or wanted a
lawyer, and suggested that he sit down.
[H]e sat on one bunk and I sat on the other . . . and I asked him if
he had a lawyer, and he said, well, he really didn't know what it was
all about, that he was -- had been incarcerated, and kept
incommunicado, and I said, "Well, I have come up to see whether or not
you want a lawyer . . ." and . . . he asked me first did I know a
lawyer in New York named John Abt. . . . I said I didn't know him, and
he said, "Well, I would like to have him to represent me," and . . . I
had been told that some effort had been made to get hold of Mr.
Abt . . . Then he asked me if I knew any lawyers who were members of
the American Civil Liberties Union, and he said, "Well, I am a member
of that organization, and I would like to have somebody who is a
member of that organization represent me." And I said, "I'm sorry, I
don't know anybody who is a member of that organization." . . . He
said, "Well, if I can't get either one of those . . . Either Mr. Abt
or someone who is a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and
if I can find a lawyer here who believes in anything I believe in, and
believes as I believe, and believes in my innocence . . . as much as
he can, I might let him represent me."
I said, "What I am interested in knowing is right now, do you want me
or the Dallas Bar Association to try to get you a lawyer?"
He said, "No, not now."
He said, "You might come back next week, and if I don't get some of
these other people to represent me, I might ask you to get somebody to
represent me."
I said, "Well, now, all I want to do is to make it clear to you, and
to me, whether or not you want me or the Dallas Bar Association to do
anything about getting a lawyer right now."
And he said, "No."
I was satisfied in my own mind that he knew what he was doing, and
that he didn't want me or the Dallas Bar Association to do anything
right now. So, I left, and as I left the chief asked me whether or not
I wanted to make a statement to the press, and I said, "Well, I don't
know whether I do or not. I don't know whether it is the thing to do
or not." And he said, "Well, they are going to be right outside the
door there, and if you want to say anything this would be an
opportunity to do it."
He said, "Incidentally, I am very glad you came up here. We don't want
any question coming up about us refusing to let him have a
lawyer."(26)
One of the last things Oswald said Sunday morning, just prior to his
abortive transfer to the county jail, was a remark to Postal Inspector
Harry D. Holmes, that he was trying to reach John Abt in New York, and
that he would prefer Abt to any local attorney.(27)
But Oliver Stone isn't finished yet.
"No record [was] made of the long questioning," Jim Garrison (Kevin
Costner) declares to the jury.
Well, no, not with a tape recorder; that's true enough.
But detailed written reports were filed by each of Oswald's
interrogators that weekend; many of these were collected as Appendix
XI of the Warren Report, where they occupy some forty pages. They can
be read online at Ralph Schuster's Kennedy Assassination Home Page.
Why were no tape recordings made of Oswald's interrogations? First of
all, the Dallas Police Department did not have a tape recorder.
Second, as Assistant District Attorney Bill Alexander observes, such
tapes "would have been inadmissable in any court."(28) DPD Homicide
Detective Jim Leavelle concurs: "what's the use of keeping a thousand
words of conversation you're never going to be able to use?"(29) A
stenographer would also have been of little use; as longtime
researcher Gus Russo observes, Oswald did little more than nod his
head for the bulk of the interrogations.(30)
Last, and most certainly least, JFK's screenplay states that Lee
Harvey Oswald (portrayed in the film by Gary Oldman) "turns to an
unseen Deputy, sad," and says, "Now everyone will know who I am."(31)
But it is unlikely Oswald ever said this. This claim was made by
Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig, and none of the numerous other individuals
present at Oswald's interrogations heard any such statement; Captain
Will Fritz denied that Craig was ever present at any of the
interrogations, as Craig claimed. At the time of Roger Craig's Warren
Commission deposition, there was scant reason to question his
reliability, but he later developed into one of the most notorious
confabulators connected to the case. Among other things, he fed Jim
Garrison a tremendous amount of false information, and fabricated
testimony against one of Garrison's minor suspects. At one point he
contacted the suspect and offered to recant his testimony for money.
Craig committed suicide in 1975, a broken man.
Unsurprisingly, Craig is a source frequently cited by Oliver Stone.
Stone, as we have seen, is not one to overly burden himself with
credible evidence and solid facts, no matter how abundantly documented
they may be. How else could he seriously try to portray Lee Harvey
Oswald as the true victim of November 22, 1963?
Gil Jesus
When you copy someone else's work what involves footnotes (number in
parentheses) please copy the footnotes themselves also.
That way, we'll know where the original author got his information
from and you'll only look like a "thief" and not a "thief" AND an
idiot.
PS: Oswald didn't do anything that he was ashamed of, unlike you. I
think it's sick for an adult to have a 10 year old mistress. Shame on
you.
tomnln
How come you never give Volume/Page for any of your Claims?
Are you Afraid of being caught as a Liar AGAIN?
(Like the lie I caught you in when you were in my chat room)
Are you afraid that the LN's don't have the 26 volumes to check it out?
"Gil Jesus" <gjj...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1184434090.8...@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...