There are usually two sides to “stories” like these. It is prudent to consider both sides. Here is a small snippet from James Hosty’s book “Assignment Oswald” regarding the memo:
Two of my fellow agents, Bob Barrett and Ike Lee, later told me about their conversation with Revill after the story broke. Revill told Barrett and Lee that he had not wanted his November 22 memo to be released to the Warren Commission or the press, but police chief Jesse Curry threatened to charge Revill with filing a false police report if Revill wouldn’t swear to the truth in his memo. The police then got a memo from Detective Jackie Bryan, who had been standing near Revill and me during this brief garage conversation. Contrary to Aynes-worth’s assertion, Bryan supported my version of the events. He reported that he did not hear me make any kind of comment suggesting I knew Oswald was capable of killing the president.
The first four paragraphs of Revill’s five-paragraph memo were accurate. But the last paragraph, the incendiary paragraph, appears to have been added as an afterthought.
The memo read:
November 22, 1963
Captain W.P. Gannaway Special Service Bureau
Subject: Lee Harvey Oswald
605 Elsbeth Street
Sir:
On November 22, 1963, at approximately 2:50 P.M., the undersigned officer met Special Agent James Hosty of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the basement of the City Hall.
At that time Special Agent Hosty related to this officer that the subject was a member of the Communist Party, and that he was residing in Dallas.
The Subject was arrested for the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit and is a prime suspect in the assassination of President Kennedy.
The information regarding the Subject’s affiliation with the Communist Party is the firss information this officer has received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding same.
Agent Hosty further stated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was aware of the Subject and that they had information that this Subject was capable of committing the assassination of President Kennedy.
Respectfully submitted,
Jack Revill, Lieutenant Criminal Intelligence Section
Logically, that last paragraph should have been inserted into the second paragraph where Revill is quoting me. The fifth paragraph’s information is much more dramatic thtn everything else in the memo, so why didn’t Revill put it up higher? Could it be because he inserted it later?
I wasn’t the only one to question the veracity of Revill’s memo. The Warren Commission ordered the FBI’s forensic document experts to analyze it to determine if the police had added the last paragraph after November 22. Unfortunately, the police had only supplied the Commission and the FBI forensic lab with a photocopy of the memo. Because they did not have the original memo on which to conduct a microscopic examination, the forensic lab could make no determinations.
On April 27, 1964, William A. Murphy, a retired FBI agent who had been the Dallas SAC, wrote Shanklin a letter. Murphy, just like the rest of the country, had read the press accounts quoting Revill’s memo.
Murphy told Shanklin that on December 20, 1963, he had confronted Chief Curry about remarks he had made shortly after midnight the night of the assassination at a press conference. The chief had announced that the FBI knew Oswald was in town but had not warned the Dallas police. During the December 20 meeting, Murphy asked Curry what his basis was for that comment to the press. Later, in early January 1964, Curry asked Murphy to come to his office so that he could explain his November 23 comments. Curry pulled from his desk drawer the original copy of the Revill memo and handed it to Murphy.
Murphy took his time, and carefully read and reread the memo, which he described as “on Police Department memorandum stationery, from Lt. Revill to either Captain Gannaway or to Chief Curry.” Murphy read Revill’s comment that I had reported on November 22 that Oswald was a Communist and living in Dallas.
Most critically, Murphy insisted to Shanklin, “This entire memorandum consisted of approximately three to four brief paragraphs, and positively there was no information set forth in that memorandum indicating that Hosty had in any way represented that Oswald had any dangerous tendencies or that he was in any way considered capable of assassinating the president.” Murphy was adamant on this point. He told Shanklin that if the memo had reported I knew Oswald was capable of killing the president, Shanklin could be assured that he would have immediately reported that to the FBI. Murphy also pointed out to Shanklin that Curry, during his press conference on November 23, made no mention about the FBI supposedly knowing that Oswald was capable of killing the president.
Murphy strongly resented that the Dallas police were trying to discredit me and the FBI. Murphy didn’t say it, but he was directly implying that sometime after early January 1964, the police had added that explosive last paragraph to the Revill memo.
As I said earlier, there are typically two sides to these types of stories. Has anyone ever come across the memo from Detective Jackie Bryan? Or, perhaps the Murphy letter to Shanklin?
