1966

Penn Jones Jr.

Forgive My Grief, Volume I

Critical Review of the Warren Commission Report

Midlothian, TX: Self-published, Feb. 1966.

Independent editor of small-town four-page Texas weekly Midlothian Mirror assembled editorials in the first of a four-volume set. Includes listing of 18 “mysterious deaths” of ill-omened fringe witnesses, and theory of a broad conspiracy hatched by military, big oil and LBJ. Introduction by John Howard Griffin, author of Black Like Me. The first book was unassumingly printed on his newspaper press, an advantageous amusement for a conspiracy nut.

The second book featured a rare plausibility: a photo by Jones of a man resembling Jack Ruby among the crowd at Parkland on the afternoon of the assassination. The third included Jones’ preposterous allegation that Dallas Co. Deputy Sheriff Harry Weatherford was on the roof of the Dallas Co. Records Bldg. with a high-powered rifle at the time of the assassination.

Forgive My Grief IV—the last of the series, published in 1974—was the first to show Jim Murray photos supposedly of an object being picked up in the Dealey Plaza infield by officials on the afternoon of the assassination. Jones’ own Dealey Plaza photos—taken later that same day—show a police car mysteriously parked on an Elm St. sidewalk. Jones relates the tales of Army intel agent James Powell and SS agent Abraham Bolden, along with the first detailed account of the “Babushka Lady,” as spun by the then-anonymous Beverly Oliver. Oswald’s wavering height record is explored, and, of course, the “strange death” of Clay Shaw.

Softcover, 191 pages, 1 photo.

Williams Penn Jones, Jr. (1914-98)

As a lieutenant in WWII, Jones fought in the Salerno and Southern France invasions. After the war, he brought a marked-down newspaper in Midlothian with a 1919 press. Sitting on an extensive limestone deposit, Midlothian is the “Cement Capitol of Texas”—about 25 miles from Dallas.Jones met Sen. John F. Kennedy in 1956 during the Stevenson campaign. Following a political row with the local school board in 1962, the Mirror’s office was firebombed; Jones recieved the 1963 Lovejoy Award for Courage in Journalism. Jones was waiting at the Trade Mart reception when JFK was shot, prompting Jones to go to Parkland with his camera.A Capraesque oddball—5' 2" , 145 lb.—Jones is eccentric (wouldn’t appear at universities because they “get too much federal money”) but endearing. A maverick throwback—possibily to Chaplin—Jones first gained national attention in a 1966 feature article in Ramparts magazine; he backed out of a briefly-held contract with Award Books. Penn famously met with RFK in the Senator’s Washington office in the 60s, making little sense with his platitudes.

Jones brought to Garrison’s attention two prosecution witnesses: Roger Craig and Richard R. Carr. Jones is probably responsible for Garrison’s notion of a network of beneficial drainage pipes beneath Dealey Plaza. In later years, Jones became a rather-pathetic fixture in Dealey Plaza, roaming the storm drains and surveying assault positions. The critics, of course, lapped it all in.

Depending on one’s propensity, Jones was a hero or an idiot; either way, he didn’t care. In October of 1974, the elfin mercifully retired as newspaper editor, devoting himself full-time to his wacky obsession and ludicrous Texas-sized speculation. Jones is the subject of the 1977 biography Citizen’s Arrest: The Dissent of Penn Jones, Jr. by Thomas Nash. In late 70s, the certifiable Jones began publishing the JFK newsletter The Continuing Inquiry.

Leo Sauvage

The Oswald Affair

An Examination of the Contradictions and Omissions of the Warren Report

Cleveland: World Publishing, 1966.

Early critique by French journalist, who simplistically conjectures the assassins were Southern racists, building on the Birmingham Church bombing. Alas, Southerner LBJ proved uncomprehending. Originally published March 1965 in France as L’Affaire Oswald (after being scheduled for Dec. 1964).

Hardcover, 418 pages, 14 photos, 2 dwgs.

Edward Jay Epstein (b. 1935)

Inquest

The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth

New York: Viking, June 1966.

Written after but released in the US just before Mark Lane’s Rush to Judgment, this book is not about the assassination per se, but the Warren Commission’s inner workings. At issue was the Commission’s procedure and whether ties to bureaucracy and pressure from LBJ for quick resolve hampered its search for answers. Originally a master’s thesis in government at Cornell, the published work had academic appearances and moderate conclusions that commanded newfound respect for the research field.

This is the bestseller that drove the JFK assassination controversy into mainstream discussion and inspired many of the second-generation researchers. Lane had been the first to write critically of the case against Oswald in “A Guardian Special: A Lawyer’s Brief” in the National Guardian of December 19, 1963 (included in the 1976 anthology The Assassinations and Lane’s 1991 Plausible Denial).

Marguerite Oswald read the 1963 article and urged Lane to represent her son’s legal rights before the Warren Commission. But—as Lane well knew—the Commission was a fact-finding board, not a prosecutor presenting a case to a jury, therefore Lane’s petition to allow cross-examination was rejected. Lane did appear at the hearings as Marguerite’s attorney and on his own to present allegations he refused to substantiate; these later turned out to be rumors (see Roberts 1967 and Bugliosi 2007). Lane’s appearances warranted a chapter in Gerald Ford’s 1965 Portrait of the Assassin.

Richard H. Popkin

The Second Oswald

A Startling Alternative to the Single Assassin Theory of the Warren Commission Report

New York: Avon, Sept. 1966.

California philosophy professor tries to document existence of phony Oswald going about incriminating the real Oswald prior to and during the assassination. Daring theory based on vulnerable eyewitness recollections; Popkin admits its “tentative and conjectural.” During his encounters (mostly in October), the Oswald mimic was always anonymous.

Author places one assassin on the knoll and another on the sixth floor (“plus Oswald the suspect”). The genuine Oswald merely turned up to work with curtain rods. Tippit murder “monumental misunderstanding;” doubts Tippit stopped Oswald because officer was “unimaginative.” Criticism of WC based on “revelations” in Inquest.

Meagher (1967 Accessories After the Fact) praised the book for being “stamped with the authority that can only be achieved by patient and comprehensive study.” Sparrow (1967 After the Assassination) notes Popkin, an expert on skepticism, “made a notable contribution.” Seven page intro by Murray Kempton, who flipped from having supported the WCR in the article “Case for the Prosecution” in The New Republic. Double-take cover.

Paperback, 147 pages 1 dwg., 9 docs. Boston Books softcover March 2008.

Prof. Richard H. Popkin (1923-2005)

Sequel to the 1965 book Whitewash. Weisberg scrunitizes the evidentiary trail through newly-released “suppressed documents.” Probes the Odio incident and lunchroom encounter. Examines the use of the Zapruder film and Willis photos.