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Author Topic: Post why Tague-SBT coincidences weightier vs OSS-Webster-Priscilla-CIA-Freeport  (Read 3181 times)

Offline Tom Scully

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Tague was a used car salesman, wasn't he? How would, for example, consistent weighing of Tague's offering compared to what the WC,
and now you dismiss(ed) as coincidence, immaterial, or both?

This will be a two post OP. Most come here either accepting Tague as weighty, or as irrelevant  coincidence. But is that a consistent approach for the weighing of proveable but perhaps lesser known facts?

IOW, does the prominence and age of a myth or legend (so labeled here in the interest of consistent weighing) like Tague and his "freshly" chipped curb, give some myths undo weight and thus, influence? LNs embrace the WC investigation and its reported determinations. Tague propped SBT is a WC pillar.

Many CTs likely are not fully appreciating how  unreliable Penn Jones, for example, actually was, but his output was early and often and has a weightier influence than many would like to admit. In the next post the core question I would like to read responses to is how you expect the details presented and evidence supporting them should be weighed and then influence evolving belief systems of students of the JFK Assassination?  What really happened? Was Liebler as described below, typical of Liebler or a one off? Was he the only WC Asst Counsel "building" the record of witness testimony in the "hands on" way Weissberg details?

A page of a Weissberg book segment or a draft influences me to wonder about the extent of the intentional corruption of the weighing process.

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/T%20Disk/Tague%20James/Item%2051.pdf
Upper Page:

Lower Page:

« Last Edit: July 06, 2019, 08:24:57 PM by Tom Scully »

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Offline Tom Scully

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Continued from OP

1959:
Quote
https://www.nytimes.com/1959/12/16/archives/flow-of-nickel-from-cuba-halts-big-usowned-nicaro-plant-stops.html
FLOW OF NICKEL FROM CUBA HALTS; Big U.S.-Owned Nicaro Plant Stops Shipments -- New Mining Law Blamed PROGRAM IS LAGGING Construction of Facility for Freeport Sulphur Co. Is Far Behind Schedule FLOW OF NICKEL FROM CUBA HALTS
By PETER B. BARTDEC. 16, 1959

This fall, if all had gone according to plan, Cuba was to have become second only to Canada in world nickel production.VIEW FULL ARTICLE IN TIMESMACHINE »....

1954:
Quote
Intermediate Report of the Committee on Government Operations
https://books.google.nl/books?id=L4XRAAAAMAAJ - Vertaal deze pagina

United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations - 1955 - ‎Fragmentweergave - ‎Meer edities
Mr. Mansure testified that Mr. Talbott did not recommend any contractor. Mr. Cremer testified that he requested Mr. Talbott, who was familiar with the Nicaro situation, to pass his knowledge of Snare's unique qualifications along to Mr. Mansure.

There is the coincidence of the mention of cousin Foster, below, and in the society debut announcement of the candidate debutant, Eleanor Thomas. Eleanor's brother James Augustus Thomas was the last to see Priscilla Johnson's father alive.

Quote
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/546899133/
Publication: Bennington Banner i Location: Bennington, Vermont Issue Date: Thursday, April 11, 1985 Page: 20

EDITH D. SNARE DORSET - Edith Dulles Snare, 88, cousin of the late John Foster Dulles, died Wednesday at her home in Dorset, where she had lived for the past 45 years. She had formerly resided in Englewood, N.J. Active in local affairs, Mrs. Snare was a founder of the Dorset Nursing Association, an early executive director of the Southern Vermont Artists Association of Manchester, and established Snare Associates Real Estate in the 1950s. She leaves two daughters, Dorothy Warner of Dorset and Naples, Fla....
Quote
....
Bennington Evening Banner Newspaper Archives, Feb 14, 1958
https://newspaperarchive.com/bennington-evening-banner-feb-14-1958-p-1/
... expressing his ardor for Ellen Axson, the preacher's daughter who bacame his first wife in 1885. .... Full Weekend Planned For Ambassadors MANCHESTER — Two ... minded voters that Bennington Dr. Djalal Abdoh, Iranian am- has ordered all ... Edith Dulles Snare is hostess to will happen if Bennington does not1 Pratt ...


Quote
http://archive.is/esTuB
.....


Quote
A Pioneer Tobacco Merchant in the Orient
Search domain http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/thomasjamesaug.xmlhttps://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/thomasjamesaug.xml
In 1918, Thomas married Anna Branson who died 7 months later. In 1922, he married Dorothy Quincy Hancock Read on Nov. 21, 1922. They had two children: James Augustus Thomas, Jr. and Eleanor Lansing Thomas. Thomas was the author of two books:


https://archive.is/o/esTuB/www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=95330&relPageId=42

......
« Last Edit: July 07, 2019, 09:00:08 AM by Tom Scully »

Offline Michael Clark

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Tague was a used car salesman, wasn't he? How would, for example, consistent weighing of Tague's offering compared to what the WC,
and now you dismiss(ed) as coincidence, immaterial, or both?

This will be a two post OP. Most come here either accepting Tague as weighty, or as irrelevant  coincidence. But is that a consistent approach for the weighing of proveable but perhaps lesser known facts?

IOW, does the prominence and age of a myth or legend (so labeled here in the interest of consistent weighing) like Tague and his "freshly" chipped curb, give some myths undo weight and thus, influence? LNs embrace the WC investigation and its reported determinations. Tague propped SBT is a WC pillar.

Many CTs likely are not fully appreciating how  unreliable Penn Jones, for example, actually was, but his output was early and often and has a weightier influence than many would like to admit. In the next post the core question I would like to read responses to is how you expect the details presented and evidence supporting them should be weighed and then influence evolving belief systems of students of the JFK Assassination?  What really happened? Was Liebler as described below, typical of Liebler or a one off? Was he the only WC Asst Counsel "building" the record of witness testimony in the "hands on" way Weissberg details?

A page of a Weissberg book segment or a draft influences me to wonder about the extent of the intentional corruption of the weighing process.

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/T%20Disk/Tague%20James/Item%2051.pdf
Upper Page:

Lower Page:


Hi Tom, I have revisited this a couple times. It is taking a bit for me to get the question straight. I think that I am almost there; but, something throws me off and it may not be that important. I have always thought of the Tague bullet as a problem for the SBT; something that they had to work around and. It is an extra shot that needs to be accounted for and still arrive at the sum of three. Here you are saying that it props the SBT. Can you clarify your point or assertion? I will revisit this.

JFK Assassination Forum


Offline Tom Scully

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Hi Tom, I have revisited this a couple times. It is taking a bit for me to get the question straight. I think that I am almost there; but, something throws me off and it may not be that important. I have always thought of the Tague bullet as a problem for the SBT; something that they had to work around and. It is an extra shot that needs to be accounted for and still arrive at the sum of three. Here you are saying that it props the SBT. Can you clarify your point or assertion? I will revisit this.

Michael, thank you for asking. The lack of Tague supporting evidence has influenced me to be  lazier about primary sources in arguing Tague than I am in arguing (weighing) PJM importance. Priscilla is an initial public notification about Oswald and then the driver of a 15 year silence of Marina. The first dozen after a reasonable two years to publish Marina's account, and the 15th due to a one year post publishing gag order Marina agreed to, in 1964.

I was struck by the WC indifference to Tague until he called attention to himself in mid 1964 by baiting the FBI. Finally in the second week of July the WC summoned Tague to appear on July 16. John Dolva once posted that the chipped curb lead residue could have simply resulted from a lead wheel weight attached to a tire rim that brushed the curb in that spot. Tague maintained an online store selling assassination related books.

Michael, why does every "how many shots" thread have a Tague understanding? Why does Denis post earlier this evening that he sees nothing
to see? This thread is not new, but unlike Tague, it is well supported.: (My core point is myth seems more influetial than fact,)
Priscilla's Neighborhood, traces of George Bouhe, Ilya Mamantov, Thomas Devine
https://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php/topic,144.0.html

Jeff Morley:
Quote
https://jfkfacts.org/rip-arlen-specter-and-his-single-bullet-theory-2/

....And the old coot recited Garrison’s speech almost word for word from Stone’s movie. Specter was steaming but what could he do? People just didn’t believe his Single Bullet Theory.

James Tague’s wound

Specter’s problem wasn’t Oliver Stone or populist irrationality as much as it was Occam’s Razor, the precept which holds that the simplest explanation is often the best. As an explanation of the gunfire that wounded JFK and Texas Governor John Connally, Specter’s SBT was anything but simple. As the above postcard shows, Specter’s theory of the gunfire required jettisoning the previously accepted testimony of the closest witness to the gunfire, Texas Governor John Connally.

It is often forgotten but Specter’s intellectual acrobatics came relatively late in the investigation of JFK’s death. As an investigator, Specter accepted Gov. Connally’s testimony as unquestioned truth for several months until a bystander named James Tague came forward with a credible and corroborated story.

Tague had been standing near the president’s motorcade route with the gunfire erupted. He felt a burning sensation of his cheek and realized he had been hit by a piece of flying debris. He noticed that a bullet had struck the street curb and sent a chip of stone glancing off his face.

Once the Warren Commission staff realized that Tague’s story was credible, Specter had to account for the origins of four gunshots–the separate shots that hit Connally and JFK from behind, the shot that hit JFK in the head, and the shot that hit the curb.

Specter had to solve a complicated problem. He knew the rifle of accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald could not be reloaded and fired fast enough to get off four shots in the estimated 8 seconds of gunfire. So Specter came up with novel theory that no one–not a single witness or investigator--had ever proposed: that one bullet caused the back wounds to both JFK and Connally.

It wasn’t quite as preposterous as Oliver Stone suggested but it contradicted the best available witness testimony and strained common sense. It still does.

God bless Arlen Specter: he tried and failed to explain the gunfire that took JFK’s death. Let’s hope history gives his survivors a more favorable verdict.

Quote
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/tague.htm
James Tague: Unintended Victim in Dealey Plaza
By: William M. Goggins   Marquette University
.....
Analysis of the footage of the Zapruder film of the assassination best correlates with this theory. Posner shows how the first shot (at Z-frame 160) is being deflected by a branch of the oak tree between Oswald and the limousine. The second shot hit both the President and Governor Connally just as their limousine emerged into Zapruder's view from behind a freeway sign. Careful analysis points to the second and third shots causing all of the wounds to Kennedy and Connally.

It is possible that Tague was hit with the first bullet and didn't immediately feel the sting because of his assumably shocked state throughout the situation. It would correlate with his insistence that it sounded different as well (hitting a tree and concrete near him rather than landing in the limousine).

After personally interviewing James Tague, he made it aware to me that he was misquoted in Posner's book. Tague told me that it was not the first shot that caused his wound. He told the author in an interview that "something made me jump back behind the abutment, and that's why I think it was the second one (shot)." Despite Tague's feeling that it was the second shot which hit him, it appears possible that he merely didn't feel any pain right away. Tague explained his wound as a "very minor scratch." It only created a few drops of blood. This supports the idea that he may not have felt the pain immediately.

Various theories suggest other shooters and other reasons for a missed shot. Some of them involve a second shooter, as illustrated in the book Crossfire. This theory posits a second shooter firing a bullet and missing the limousine, hitting the curb. The bullet would have had to already had the copper jacket stripped from the bullet in order to explain the lack of copper found in the curb sample. The question then arises, "why would one strip off the jacket in the first place?" The majority of theories such as this seem far more implausible and based in conjecture more than based in fact.

To illustrate this, Mr. Marrs also incorrectly credits Tague's testimony to be the compelling force behind the Warren Commission's development of the single bullet theory (Marrs, 63). This is simply an incorrect assumption. The development of the single bullet theory is described in several memoranda written in late April of 1964 by Melvin A. Eisenberg and Norman Redlich to other members of the President's Commission. These prove the Commission had developed the theory even before Tague had given his testimony nearly three months later. Mistakes like this are found in many theories which are based on quick assumptions and little to no detailed research of facts.

When asked what overall theory he believes explains how he was wounded, Tague was very ambiguous and unclear. He did state that he felt there was more than just one shooter. He also seemed very suspicious of the government and how the FBI handled him and the pieces of related evidence around Dealey Plaza. He is amidst writing a book accounting his place in the Dealey Plaza assassination. He was considering the title "Wake Up America." It became quite clear that Tague distrusts the government.

Every theory has its strengths and its weaknesses. Regardless, not one theory can explain how James Tague's cheek was wounded while completely discrediting every other theory. It is this characteristic of the issue of Tague's wound that is illustrative of the entire assassination. Although one theory is more sound and believable than another, there seems to be an unending source of criticism from various fronts which can provide conflicting evidence. His case also showed how a simple photograph can be misinterpreted, greatly affecting one's theoretical approach to the assassination. With the sheer number of people theorizing exactly what happened in Dealey Plaza, consensus will never be achieved. In light of this, I feel it is important to be able to examine all of the theories and boil them down to the most plausible and logical explanation of Kennedy's death. James Tague is a link in the very long chain of such explanation.

Cited Works and Interviews .....

Offline Tom Scully

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Quote
'Marina and Lee' author, 85, one of few that knew both President ...
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/author-85-knew-jfk-killer-oswald-article-1.1525293
Nov 21, 2013 - Priscilla Johnson McMillan, 85, the author of 'Marina and Lee,' is one ...


Marina Oswald (left), widow of Lee Harvey Oswald, with friend Jerre Hastings (center) and Priscilla Johnson McMillan.


WHY IS THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT? Because David Davenport's friend, Jerome Hasty Hastings was married at the time Davenport enlisted his efforts to escort Marina and Priscilla, to Aunt of the Chair of the PIAB since April, 1963, Clark McAdams Clifford. In 1965, Clark M Clifford's first cousin JoAnn McAdams filed a lawsuit against Davenport and described Jerome Hasty as her step-father.

COMPARE DETAILS IN LAST PARAGRAPH OF THIS 1954 OBIT OF CLARK CLIFFORD UNCLE WITH THE LAST PARAGRAPH OF THE LAWSUIT!

Las Vegas Optic, Monday, July 31, 1967 : Front Page
https://newspaperarchive.com/las-vegas-optic-jul-31-1967-p-1/

... the plaintiff of being mentally ill and recom mended that judicial proceedings ... pick Aliss McAdams further states in her complaint she up ran into the rear of.....










No replies, so far.... Frazier's pesky car battery and his guesstimate of the size and texture of Oswald's
package are sucking up all the oxygen around here, I guess!
.......
Quote
http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/449857/
Alton Evening Telegraph ? 21 December 1950 ? Page 18

....Miss Margaret Clifford Weds in Chevy Chuse The marriage of Lt. William
Henry Lanagan, jr., United States Marine Corps, and Miss Margaret
Pepperell Clifford, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Clark, McAdams Clifford, were
married Wednesday at 4 o'clock in All Saints Episcopal Church, Chevy
Chase, Md. A reception was held at the recently acquired estate of the
Cliffords, 8551 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Md., after the wedding. Guests
included the bride's paternal grandmother, Mrs. Frank A. Clifford of St.
Louis, and uncle, William D. McAdams of New York.

Quote
Chicago Tribune - Aug 16, 1954
RIES William Douglas McAdims Services for William Doug- las McAdams, 67, of 734 Lin- coln av., Wlnnetka, who died Saturday in his home, will be held at 10 am Wednesday in the Congregational churc4, Winnetka. He had been a Winnetka resident for forty years and also maintained a home ..Mr. McAdams leaves his wife, Marguerite Bowman McAdams; a son, William D. ... three daughters, Joan A. McAdams, Mrs. IVarilyn Barton and Mrs. Marguerite Borregaard.....
1940 U.S. Census snippet of a household in New Trier (Winnetka)Illinois:

On April 26, 1940, Jerome A Hastings was a 29 year old man who was born in Wisconsin and was employed as a buyer at a country club. His education level was C2, two years of college. Hastings' annual income was just over $300. In 1935 his residence was in Flemington, NJ.

On May 18, Jerome Hasty was a 29 year old man who was born in Wisconsin and was employed as a officer at a country club. His education level was C1, one year of college. Hasty's annual income was just over $600. In 1935 his residence was in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CAL.

26 years later, Jerome Allen Hasty files a notice of legal change of name from Hasty to Hastings:

« Last Edit: July 10, 2019, 12:21:20 AM by Tom Scully »

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Online Andrew Mason

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Hi Tom, I have revisited this a couple times. It is taking a bit for me to get the question straight. I think that I am almost there; but, something throws me off and it may not be that important. I have always thought of the Tague bullet as a problem for the SBT; something that they had to work around and. It is an extra shot that needs to be accounted for and still arrive at the sum of three. Here you are saying that it props the SBT. Can you clarify your point or assertion? I will revisit this.
I agree.  The Tague strike conflicts with the SBT.

The SBT is said to have occurred on the second shot with a first missed shot. If so, there were no fragments from it (CE399). 

Tague was struck by a fragment that first struck the curb near where he was standing. In order to drop to the curb after striking something in the car and clearing the windshield, it had to have dropped a distance of at least 8 feet to the curb near Tague a distance of about 275 away and farther downhill from the car. It takes .7 seconds to drop 8 feet. So the fragment travelled an average of 275/.7 or 400 feet/second over that distance.  That is considerably slower than a first shot that deflected off the road.  Bullets don't deflect from tree branches and there was no damage to the metal sign and lamp structures on or over the street.  That pretty much eliminates the first shot as a source of Tague's injury.

Tague also said he was not hit on the first shot (7 H 555):

Mr. LIEBELER. Do you have any idea which bullet might have made that mark?
Mr. TAGUE. I would guess it was either the second or third. I wouldn’t say definitely on which one.

So the shot that struck Tague would have to be either 2 or 3.

Tague appears to have eliminated no. 3 (7 H 555):

Mr. LIEBELER. Did you hear any more shots after you felt yourself get hit in the face?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe I did.
Mr. LIEBELER. You think you did?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe I did.
Mr. LIEBELER. How many?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe that it was the second shot, so I heard the third shot afterwards.

Now you may wish to discount Tague's recollection as a 'guess'.  But it fits with the evidence of Greer who heard a concussion sound on the second shot (2 H 118):

Mr. SPECTER. Describe as best you can the types of sound of the second report, as distinguished from the first noise which you said was similar to a motorcycle backfire?
Mr. GREER The second one didn’t sound any different much than the first one but I kind of got, by turning around, I don’t know whether I got a little concussion of it, maybe when it hit something or not, I may have gotten a little concussion that made me think there was something different to it. But so far as the noise is concerned, I haven’t got any memory of any difference in them at all.

The 'concussion' he sensed on the second shot and no other shot.  Now we know that a fragment struck the windshield and the windshield frame near the top edge.  It is difficult to imagine that Greer would not have had some sensation from those strikes as his right ear was only about 2 feet from the points of impact. The fact that Tague said he also struck on the second shot fits with bullet fragments going forward and up from somewhere in the car on the second shot.  And that certainly does not fit the SBT.

Offline Jerry Organ

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I agree.  The Tague strike conflicts with the SBT.

The SBT is said to have occurred on the second shot with a first missed shot. If so, there were no fragments from it (CE399). 

Tague was struck by a fragment that first struck the curb near where he was standing. In order to drop to the curb after striking something in the car and clearing the windshield, it had to have dropped a distance of at least 8 feet to the curb near Tague a distance of about 275 away and farther downhill from the car. It takes .7 seconds to drop 8 feet. So the fragment travelled an average of 275/.7 or 400 feet/second over that distance.  That is considerably slower than a first shot that deflected off the road.  Bullets don't deflect from tree branches and there was no damage to the metal sign and lamp structures on or over the street.  That pretty much eliminates the first shot as a source of Tague's injury.

Tague also said he was not hit on the first shot (7 H 555):

Mr. LIEBELER. Do you have any idea which bullet might have made that mark?
Mr. TAGUE. I would guess it was either the second or third. I wouldn’t say definitely on which one.

So the shot that struck Tague would have to be either 2 or 3.

Tague appears to have eliminated no. 3 (7 H 555):

Mr. LIEBELER. Did you hear any more shots after you felt yourself get hit in the face?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe I did.
Mr. LIEBELER. You think you did?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe I did.
Mr. LIEBELER. How many?
Mr. TAGUE. I believe that it was the second shot, so I heard the third shot afterwards.

Now you may wish to discount Tague's recollection as a 'guess'.  But it fits with the evidence of Greer who heard a concussion sound on the second shot (2 H 118):

Mr. SPECTER. Describe as best you can the types of sound of the second report, as distinguished from the first noise which you said was similar to a motorcycle backfire?
Mr. GREER The second one didn’t sound any different much than the first one but I kind of got, by turning around, I don’t know whether I got a little concussion of it, maybe when it hit something or not, I may have gotten a little concussion that made me think there was something different to it. But so far as the noise is concerned, I haven’t got any memory of any difference in them at all.

The 'concussion' he sensed on the second shot and no other shot.  Now we know that a fragment struck the windshield and the windshield frame near the top edge.  It is difficult to imagine that Greer would not have had some sensation from those strikes as his right ear was only about 2 feet from the points of impact. The fact that Tague said he also struck on the second shot fits with bullet fragments going forward and up from somewhere in the car on the second shot.  And that certainly does not fit the SBT.
Was Tague's wound that serious? Could he have not felt anything for a few seconds?
Greer said he heard the "concussion" (post-shot reverberation) "by turning around". Nothing to do with impacts on the windshield and frame prior to him turning around.
The President's brains were blowing out all over the jump seat and front seat compartments. Greer's supposed to notice or hear the windshield being cracked and the frame being struck by small metal fragments? Maybe you're watching too many spaghetti westerns where they add a ricochet sound effect to shots.

« Last Edit: July 15, 2019, 07:46:45 PM by Jerry Organ »

JFK Assassination Forum


Offline Tom Scully

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Was Tague's wound that serious? Could he have not felt anything for a few seconds?
Greer said he heard the "concussion" (post-shot reverberation) "by turning around". Nothing to do with impacts on the windshield and frame prior to him turning around.
The President's brains were blowing out all over the jump seat and front seat compartments. Greer's supposed to notice or hear the windshield being cracked and the frame being struck by small metal fragments? Maybe you're watching too many spaghetti westerns where they add a ricochet sound effect to shots.

No copper found in lead scrapings from the curb disturbance and Tague first thought he was stung by a bee and was informed by Buddy Walthers he saw a blood spot on Tague's cheek.

Lead wheel weight more likely mounted on the rim edge of a light truck could have scraped the curb in the "fresh" curb disturbance used car salesman Tague identified and somehow determined the "freshness" of.:



Tague publicly insulted FBI investigative methodology when time passed and the FBI did no follow up with him. An individual not seeking or indifferent to assassination related attention might have satisfied himself with assuming his FBI interview and Walther's would suffice. Oswald was dead and media / gov labeled (drummed widely into public perception) as an LN

No formal interview in first six months. Sensitivity about FBI suspicion of his motive and Tague denies to his readers  he would monetize his JFK Assassination proximity. He is described years ago selling JFK Assasasination books out of an  Ebay Store.:

Why are so many so receptive to accepting Tague's version and giving no consideration to the difficulty of supporting a household including a
wife and five children on a car salesman's commission sales proceeds? Obviously Tague was able to quickly establish rapport and enough trust to
close the deal.
Quote
http://jtague.com
....
From James Tagues's new book LBJ and The Kennedy Killing:
“   I had not been called to testify before the Warren Commission and there was no mention of the missed shot. By accident I came into contact with a young Dallas Times Herald reporter that very morning. His name was Jim Lehrer, he came to my place of business. Before I told Jim Lehrer about the missed shot and my minor injury during the assassination, I asked Mr. Lehrer not to use my name. He agreed.
It had been over six months since the assassination of President Kennedy and there had been almost no mention in the media, newspaper or television, of a missed shot or my minor injury. By now if I told someone I had been there in Dealey Plaza when the assassination occurred, and that a bullet had hit the street in front of me throwing debris into my face during the shooting, they would look at me like I was the biggest liar in the world, and turn and walk away shaking their heads.

Quote
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/walther1.htm
COUNTY OF DALLAS SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT
SUPPLEMENTARY INVESTIGATION REPORT
ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY
Officer Buddy Walthers,Deputy Sheriff, Dallas County Sheriff's Office
Nov 22, 1963

I was standing at the front entrance of the Dallas Sheriff's Office when the motorcade with President Kennedy passed. I was watching the remainder of the President's party when within a few seconds I heard a retort and I immediately recognized it to be a rifle shot. I immediately started running west across Houston Street and ran across Elm Street and up into the Railroad yards. At this time it was not determined if, in fact, this first retort and 2 succeeding retorts were of a rifle, however, in my own mind, I knew. Upon reaching the railroad yard and seeing other officers coming, I immediately went to the triple underpass on Elm Street in an effort to locate possible marks left by stray bullets. While I was looking for possible marks, some unknown person stated to me that something had hit his face while he was parked on Main Street, the next lane south from Elm, as the traffic had been stopped for the parade. Upon examining the curb and pavement in this vicinity, I found where a bullet had splattered on the top edge of the curb on Main Street which would place the direction firing high and behind the position the President's car was in when he was shot. Due to the fact that the projectile struck so near the underpass, it was, in my opinion, probably the last shot that was fired and had aparently went high and above the President's car. At about this time word was passed through the crowd that the President had been shot, as well as Governor Connally. The only building that was likely to have a shot fired from in this area was the Texas School Book Depository Building on the northwest corner of Elm and Houston streets which, by this time, was fast becoming surrounded by police officers.

I told Jim Lehrer how I happened to be in Dealey Plaza by accident, getting stopped by traffic and then the gunshots. It was about 9:30 in the morning on June 5, 1964 when I met Mr. Lehrer. I had just returned from the Indianapolis 500-mile race and had some spectacular film developed the day before that I had taken at the race of the crash that killed Eddie Sachs and Steve McDonald.
I brought my 8mm movie projector to work to show my work buddies the film I had taken of the Indy crash and also the Dealey Plaza film I had taken in early May to show my parents, when I went to the Indy 500.
After the interview about my being in Dealey Plaza, the missed shot, and my minor injury during the Kennedy assassination, I showed Mr. Lehrer the Dealey Plaza film and then I showed the Indy crash. I remember asking Lehrer if there was any value to the Indy film and he told me no, a week had passed and it was now old news.
About an hour after Lehrer left my office, around 11 a.m., he called me all excited. The Dallas Times Herald was an evening newspaper and it had not come out yet, but he had put my story on the wire services. He stated he was getting calls “from all over,” including the Warren Commission, wanting to know who I was, and he had to tell them. He assured me he was not using my name in the story in the local paper. It was years before I was able to put the whole story together and realize what Jim Lehrer’s interview had triggered.

One thing I found out was that the FBI was at Lehrer’s Dallas Times Herald office at 4:30 that afternoon and their FBI report was not kind to me. I have a copy of that FBI report of their meeting with Lehrer that afternoon of June 5, 1964.

One of the things in that FBI report that aggravated me was that my asking Mr. Lehrer if the film about the Indy crash I had showed him had any value was now in the FBI report saying I was trying to make money off of the assassination of President Kennedy. ....
« Last Edit: July 16, 2019, 11:56:20 AM by Tom Scully »