1965
The Witnesses
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965.
Originally published in paperback as a complement to the NY Times/Bantam edition of the Warren Report, this book distills the Commission testimony of 75 “key witnesses.” Chances are you’ll find this long before you get hands-on access to the unabridged WCH. As such, the book is very compelling reading, hinting of personality traits and regional flavor not found in most works on the subject. Nice intro by Anthony Lewis. Critics noted the witnesses selected conformed to the lone-assassin finding.
Hardcover, 634 pages, 64 pages of exhibits, some B/W photos. Bantam paperback 1964.
Harold Weisberg
Whitewash
The Report on the Warren Report
Hyattstown, MD: Self-published, April 1965.
First of what-became four-part Whitewash series (last one published 1974). Book is faulted for skimming over Oswald’s early brushes with authority and interest in Communism, and for haphazardly attacking the Dallas police. Weisberg’s distrust of publishers led him to charge them with “suppressing” Whitewash when they passed on it; a lamentable suspicion of editors meant all his books appeared with wandering syntax and accusatory rhetoric.
An indefatigable research scholar, Weisberg based his investigation on the WCH and classified documents he was able to obtain through lawsuits by attorney James Lesar. Fiercely independent and suspicious of other researchers, Weisberg became known as the “Dean of Researchers,” rising to prominence among the more-extreme critics. Charles Roberts’ (1967 The Truth About the Assassination) describes Weisberg as “a Maryland poultry farmer who apparently disbelieves everything in the Warren Report but the page numbers.”
Softcover, 224 pages, 17 photos, 10 docs. Dell paperback (below) Dec. 1966. In Dec. 1993, Carroll & Graf published a softcover collection of excerpts from the series called Selections from Whitewash.
Harold Weisberg (1914-2002)
In the 1930s, Weisberg was an investigator and editor of Senate reports. Prior to US entry in WWII, the anti-fascist Weisberg passed data to British agents. He was an intelligence analyst and troubleshooter for the OSS; claims the James Cagney movie O.S.S. was based on a purloined history Weisberg had written. During the war, Weisberg was consulted by the Truman Committee. Suspected of Communist sentiment and leaking information to the press, He was allowed to resign from the State Dept. in 1947.Weisberg operated the 14-acre Coq d’Or Farm in western Maryland, supplying free-range poultry to Washington high-level functions. He earned praise for his “Geese for Peace” project for the Peace Corps. In 1963, the farm was liquidated due to harassment from low-flying Defense helicopters, and the couple moved to Frederick, MD. Weisberg was suspicious of the Kennedy evidence from the first, predicting Oswald would be killed before it happened.With his first book, Whitewash, Weisberg became a private publisher. He worked for a while with New Orleans DA Jim Garrison, launched an all-out assault on the 1968 book Farewell America and reviewed the King assassination in his 1971 book Frame-Up. He became vehemently critical of the Garrison investigation, and Mark Lane’s techniques and success.
Gerald R. Ford and John R. Stiles
Portrait of the Assassin
New York: Simon & Schuster, June 1965.
Critics were lucky the initial literary opposition were as dim as these two. Sensing the WCR too “voluminous” for the average reader—the general public—former WC member Ford sought to weave the Commission testimony into a “nonfiction novel.” At the time, Truman Capote was hard at work synthesizing Cold Blood.
In the first chapter, Ford offered some insight into the WC’s “first shock” by using the transcript of the January 22, 1964 “emergency” Commission meeting to discuss the “dirty rumor” that Oswald was tied to the FBI and CIA. The use of the transcript—at the time classified—would later haunt him during hearings for his confirmation as Vice-President in 1973.
The story unfolds chronologically through the testimony of Oswald’s family and associates. Dismisses Oswald’s “grievance” over downgrading of Marine Corps discharge to dishonorable as “fair settlement” that relieved him of future military service. Recollects Marina’s thought that Oswald was gunning for Connally, but killed Kennedy unintentionally (a twist on the lone-assassin finding revisited in 1988 by James Reston, Jr.). Much weight is assigned to the recollections of the three Depository workers who happened to be watching the motorcade from beneath the Oswald window. Ford himself blasts away at attorney Mark Lane in the “Dead Man’s Counsel” chapter prophetically warning against Lane’s machinations.
Concluding chapter “The Loner” offers some motivational insight into the assassin Oswald, whose deprived background gave him a “consuming desire” to find “a place in history.” Largely ghost-written by John R. Stiles, Ford’s campaign manager, Portrait was the first book to defend the WC. When Ford was President, CBS negotiated to produce the book as a documentary to air after the 1976 election, but the deal never got off the board. Ford wrote a major article on the Warren Report for Life magazine in 1964.
Hardcover, 508 pages, 1 doc. Ballantine paperback (shown) Nov. 1966.
Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (1913-2006)
Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. in Omaha, Nebr. When two, his parents divorced and his mother took the boy to her family home in Grand Rapids, MI, where she married a paint salesman named Gerald R. Ford. In high school, Ford demonstrated his skill at football, and was the star center on a team that won the State championship in his senior year. His football coach arranged a scholarship at the University of Michigan.Turning down offers from the Packers and Lions, Ford worked as an assistant coach at Yale. He and a girl friend appeared in a 1939 Look magazine photo-shoot. Ford at 27 graduated from law school in January 1941. With WWII, Ford enlisted in the Navy, seeing battle in the South Pacific. Discharged in 1946, Ford resumed his legal career in Grand Rapids, and married the divorced model/dancer Betty Bloomer in 1948. That same year, he was approached to run as a “Reform” Republican against the incumbent Congressman, an isolationist arch-right Republican. Ford won the primary, going on to win the riding in the general election.
The youthful-looking Ford won reelection in the conservative district 12 times in a row. Despite offers to run for the Senate, Ford remained in the House, becoming an expert on military matters and a close friend of Nixon. Ford’s longtime political associate, John R. Stiles of Grand Rapids, was Nixon’s 1960 Presidential campaign manager. In January 1965, Ford was elected Minority Leader of the House. As such, he urged escalation in Vietnam, and tried to impeach liberal Supreme Court Justice Douglas.
The Fords raised four children; when Betty couldn’t handle the stress, she got her husband’s promise to retire in 1976. But after the Agnew resignation, Nixon nominated Ford to be the new Vice-President; following two-months of hearings and investigations—and opposition from liberals—Ford was confirmed. With Nixon’s resignation Aug. 9, 1974, Ford became the first non-elected President in US history.
In September 1975, he was the target of two Keystone Kops assassination attempts in California. The first, in Sacramento, was an awkward effort by Manson family member Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, whose gun did not fire. Eighteen days later, government informer Sara Jane Moore, her aim deflected, fired a gun at Ford as he entered his limousine in San Francisco.
Long an object of derision to the critics, President Ford was seen falling down steps and fumbling in a debate with Carter. He became the first President to be ridiculed by Saturday Night Live. Ford proved a nasty campaigner, blaming inflation on the Democrats and warning their numbers would “jeopardize world peace.” An opportunist, Ford endorsed—in the wake of the JFK movie—a signed limited-edition deluxe edition of the WCR.
Sylvan Fox
The Unanswered Questions About President Kennedy’s Assassination
New York: Award, Oct. 1965.
New York World Telegraph & Sun newspaperman Fox—who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of an airplane crash in 1963—utilizes the work of early critics Buchanan, Joesten, MacDonald, Nash and Salandria to produce a readable synopsis. Accepts Oswald as killer of Tippit, but can’t rule out him having assistance with assassination of JFK. Notes conflict in having Commission rely on federal agencies. Reissue adds claims of O’Toole and Groden. Original printing had three clean-as-a-whistle holes punched through the cover. Introduction by Edwyn Silberling, Chief of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the DoJ under RFK.
Paperback, 219 pages. Award reissue (right) Sept. 1975.