03-08-2017, 08:08 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-08-2017, 10:07 AM by Joseph McBride.)
In light of this revelation about Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell, it is interesting to ponder
his wife's testimony before the Warren Commission. Elizabeth (Dearie) Cabell
was riding in the car with him in the motorcade. She was the one who
gave Jacqueline Kennedy the red roses at Love Field, which Mrs. Kennedy
thought was strange. There is a later picture of Mrs. Cabell sitting
alone in the car outside Parkland Hospital. Some of what she said does
not follow the official story. As I write in INTO THE NIGHTMARE,
"BLOOD AND RED ROSES"
Why was there such contrasting haste to pin the Tippit killing on Oswald? "The Tippit charge, you had eyewitnesses," former Dallas County District Attorney HenryWade told me in our 1993 interview.
That revealing statement thirty years after the fact, dubious as it was, suggests that the Dallas authorities actually hadn't been sure if they had any eyewitnesses to the
shooting of Kennedy. But Wade hastened to claim to me that they had "five at one time" (sic) who saw Oswald shoot the president. He couldn't recall who they might have been, other than the mayor's wife, Elizabeth (Dearie) Cabell. She was riding in the motorcade with her husband, Earle Cabell, five cars behind the presidential limousine. (Earle Cabell's brother was the former deputy director of the CIA, U.S. Air Force General Charles P. Cabell, who had been fired by President Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, along with director Allen Dulles and the invasion planner, Richard M. Bissell, Jr.) Dearie Cabell was the person who presented JacquelineKennedy with a bouquet of red roses at Love Field that morning. In Life magazine journalist Theodore H. White's notes for the "Camelot" interview on November 29, 1963, the president's widow recalled,
"Every time we got off the plane that day, three times they gave me the yellow roses of Texas. But in Dallas they gave me red roses. I thoughthow funny, red roses -- so all the seat was full of blood and red roses."
Dearie Cabell was never produced as an eyewitness to Oswald shooting the president. Wade admitted, "I never talked with her about it." When she testified to the Warren Commission in July 1964, Mrs. Cabell said she had been facing the School Book Depository at the time the first shot rang out, as their car was making the turn from Houston onto Elm. "Because I heard the direction from which the shot came," she "jerked" her head up and "saw a projection out of one of those windows" on the sixth floor. She was not sure which window and said she "did not know" what the "rather long looking" projection was, "because I did not see a hand or a head or a human form behind it." In addition to not identifying Oswaldas a shooter, Mrs. Cabell testified to some points that contradicted the official story: "I was acutely aware of the odor of gunpowder. I was aware that the motorcade stopped dead still. There was no question about that." Her testimony about the motorcade coming to a complete stop jibes with that of numerous other witnesses but is not consistent with what is seen in the Zapruder film, so her testimony helps provide evidence that part of the film has been removed, most likely to cover up Secret Service activity after the shots and a fatal lack of sufficient protection at thetime of the fatal head shot(s). Mrs. Cabell's testimony about gunpowder suggested a shot or shots fired from ground level rather than a high window, and she also said that when she turned her head forward after the first shot, "I am completely aware ofthe people running up that hill [the Grassy Knoll]. I saw the man throw the child on the ground and throw himself. I saw a woman in a bright green dress throw herself on the ground. I saw the policeman running up the grassy slope."
In his televised news conference shortly after midnight on the night of the assassination, Henry Wade was asked by a reporter, "Can you say whether you have a witness who says he saw the man pull the trigger [i.e., against Kennedy]?" Wade replied, "No, I cannot." When I asked Wade about that in our interview, he acknowledged, "I didn't know of any" at the time, but he added, "Before it was over, by Sunday afternoon, I was told they had five witnesses, and they showed me statements some of 'em had made, and they said that they knew it was Oswald up there." On the night of November 24, in his other televised press conference that weekend, Wade said, "[W]e have a number of witnesses that saw the person with the gun on the sixth floor of the Book Store Building." But he added, "You put a man in the window with a gun. People cannot positively identify him from the ground. He fits their general description."
Despite Wade's claim to me that he had been told of five eyewitnesses to Oswald shooting from the window, the only witness the commission eventually claimed had identified Oswald as that shooter was Howard Brennan, who was watching the motorcade while sitting on a wall at the corner of Elm and Houston streets but refused to positively identify Oswald at a lineup on November 22. Brennan's admittedly flawed eyesight and dubious physical description of the man he claimed to have seen firing a rifle in the window -- he told the commission that the man, in his early thirties, about five feet ten inches, was standing in the window as he fired, although a shooter in that position probably would have had to be kneeling or crouching -- make his belated identification of Oswald to the FBI on December 17 highly dubious. Speaking of Brennan's original failure to identify Oswald, "which would weaken his testimony some," Wade recalled that Brennan "felt he was afraid of the Russians." To the commission, Brennan explained he had already seen Oswald on television by the time of the lineup, that Oswald looked younger than the man he claimed to have seen in the window, "And then I felt that my family could be in danger, and I, myself,in danger," and that "since they already had the man for murder" (of Officer Tippit), there was no need at the time for his further identification. So the authorities had no actual, credible witnesses who could identify Oswald in the window.
his wife's testimony before the Warren Commission. Elizabeth (Dearie) Cabell
was riding in the car with him in the motorcade. She was the one who
gave Jacqueline Kennedy the red roses at Love Field, which Mrs. Kennedy
thought was strange. There is a later picture of Mrs. Cabell sitting
alone in the car outside Parkland Hospital. Some of what she said does
not follow the official story. As I write in INTO THE NIGHTMARE,
"BLOOD AND RED ROSES"
Why was there such contrasting haste to pin the Tippit killing on Oswald? "The Tippit charge, you had eyewitnesses," former Dallas County District Attorney HenryWade told me in our 1993 interview.
That revealing statement thirty years after the fact, dubious as it was, suggests that the Dallas authorities actually hadn't been sure if they had any eyewitnesses to the
shooting of Kennedy. But Wade hastened to claim to me that they had "five at one time" (sic) who saw Oswald shoot the president. He couldn't recall who they might have been, other than the mayor's wife, Elizabeth (Dearie) Cabell. She was riding in the motorcade with her husband, Earle Cabell, five cars behind the presidential limousine. (Earle Cabell's brother was the former deputy director of the CIA, U.S. Air Force General Charles P. Cabell, who had been fired by President Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, along with director Allen Dulles and the invasion planner, Richard M. Bissell, Jr.) Dearie Cabell was the person who presented JacquelineKennedy with a bouquet of red roses at Love Field that morning. In Life magazine journalist Theodore H. White's notes for the "Camelot" interview on November 29, 1963, the president's widow recalled,
"Every time we got off the plane that day, three times they gave me the yellow roses of Texas. But in Dallas they gave me red roses. I thoughthow funny, red roses -- so all the seat was full of blood and red roses."
Dearie Cabell was never produced as an eyewitness to Oswald shooting the president. Wade admitted, "I never talked with her about it." When she testified to the Warren Commission in July 1964, Mrs. Cabell said she had been facing the School Book Depository at the time the first shot rang out, as their car was making the turn from Houston onto Elm. "Because I heard the direction from which the shot came," she "jerked" her head up and "saw a projection out of one of those windows" on the sixth floor. She was not sure which window and said she "did not know" what the "rather long looking" projection was, "because I did not see a hand or a head or a human form behind it." In addition to not identifying Oswaldas a shooter, Mrs. Cabell testified to some points that contradicted the official story: "I was acutely aware of the odor of gunpowder. I was aware that the motorcade stopped dead still. There was no question about that." Her testimony about the motorcade coming to a complete stop jibes with that of numerous other witnesses but is not consistent with what is seen in the Zapruder film, so her testimony helps provide evidence that part of the film has been removed, most likely to cover up Secret Service activity after the shots and a fatal lack of sufficient protection at thetime of the fatal head shot(s). Mrs. Cabell's testimony about gunpowder suggested a shot or shots fired from ground level rather than a high window, and she also said that when she turned her head forward after the first shot, "I am completely aware ofthe people running up that hill [the Grassy Knoll]. I saw the man throw the child on the ground and throw himself. I saw a woman in a bright green dress throw herself on the ground. I saw the policeman running up the grassy slope."
In his televised news conference shortly after midnight on the night of the assassination, Henry Wade was asked by a reporter, "Can you say whether you have a witness who says he saw the man pull the trigger [i.e., against Kennedy]?" Wade replied, "No, I cannot." When I asked Wade about that in our interview, he acknowledged, "I didn't know of any" at the time, but he added, "Before it was over, by Sunday afternoon, I was told they had five witnesses, and they showed me statements some of 'em had made, and they said that they knew it was Oswald up there." On the night of November 24, in his other televised press conference that weekend, Wade said, "[W]e have a number of witnesses that saw the person with the gun on the sixth floor of the Book Store Building." But he added, "You put a man in the window with a gun. People cannot positively identify him from the ground. He fits their general description."
Despite Wade's claim to me that he had been told of five eyewitnesses to Oswald shooting from the window, the only witness the commission eventually claimed had identified Oswald as that shooter was Howard Brennan, who was watching the motorcade while sitting on a wall at the corner of Elm and Houston streets but refused to positively identify Oswald at a lineup on November 22. Brennan's admittedly flawed eyesight and dubious physical description of the man he claimed to have seen firing a rifle in the window -- he told the commission that the man, in his early thirties, about five feet ten inches, was standing in the window as he fired, although a shooter in that position probably would have had to be kneeling or crouching -- make his belated identification of Oswald to the FBI on December 17 highly dubious. Speaking of Brennan's original failure to identify Oswald, "which would weaken his testimony some," Wade recalled that Brennan "felt he was afraid of the Russians." To the commission, Brennan explained he had already seen Oswald on television by the time of the lineup, that Oswald looked younger than the man he claimed to have seen in the window, "And then I felt that my family could be in danger, and I, myself,in danger," and that "since they already had the man for murder" (of Officer Tippit), there was no need at the time for his further identification. So the authorities had no actual, credible witnesses who could identify Oswald in the window.