How I Became A JFK Assassination Researcher - While Doing Solar Physics

On occasion, including at astronomy and astrophysics lectures I've given over the years, people ask me how I became interested in the Kennedy assassination. Usually this has been after seeing a letter to the Editor or newspaper article I've published on it, or after a radio interview (including several over VOB in Barbados). The answer is fairly straightforward, and the only reason it would "blow" minds is that the culture of specialist isolation remains too pervasive among academicians. It is as if they believe one can't "walk and chew gum" - academically - at the same time. But the proper apportioning of time does allow the curious researcher to pursue his/her primary specialist interest while also pursuing a less prominent interest.

Anyway, it was in the late fall of 1980 while based in the Physics Dept. of the University of the West Indies (and barely months after my first research paper was published in The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada) that a colleague - a visiting E&M  professor from University College London - offered a  staff room challenge I couldn't resist. He'd been reading the first printing of David Lifton's 'Best Evidence' and became fixated on his Fig. 2 (in the photo section), showing JFK's head being blown backwards over frames 312-13 of the Zapruder film.

He asked me whether I believed the displacement of JFK's head could be "quantified". I said I believed it could using some basic parameters and then spent the next few days preparing a working draft of how it might be done using basic mechanics.

I used a torque or moment about the center of gravity, acting perpendicular to a moment arm R as shown below:

 

In the above, H denotes head, and CG is the center of gravity of the body (near point of contact with limo seat).  R is the 'moment arm' (R = X-O) and we assume a shot directed as shown and let R = 0.6m  for example.(The 'torso' can actually be modeled as a solid, uniform mass, cylinder 'block' centered at x and symmetrical about both sides of the axis X-O. )

For example,  for a bullet of mass 0.016 kg, traveling at 748 m/s (see above) initially and decelerated to 448 m/s in 0.0004 s, will have a force of F = dp/dt = m (dv/dt) =

0.016 kg ( 748 m/s - 448 m/s)/ 0.0004 s = 12000 N force exerted at H

 Assume the very reasonable estimate of 20 cm (about 8 inches) for the bullet path thru the head. At the velocities noted, this implies an average of 598 m/s for which the 'head transit' time is:

dt =  0.20 m/ 598 m/s  =  0.00033 s

This would  produce a torque (couple)T = F x R of about 7200 N-m  at H. Thus a shot from the front (depicted) would produce a torque of 7200 N-m that would displace the head by some angular amount.

To find it we need the moment of inertia (I) of the 'torso' and from a simplified cylindrical model we find:

 I = M/12[3r² + l²]

where M is the cylinder mass (say 50 kg), r is the cylinder radius (shoulder to center of torso dist. = 0.25 m), l =R, the cylinder length, say 0.6 m). Now, the force of the bullet F impacting at moment arm distance R from CG exerts an external torque on the torso such that:

T = F x R = dL/dt = I a

where dL/dt is the rate of change of the angular momentum of the body, I is as defined above, and a is the angular acceleration a = dw/dt or rate of change of angular speed). On substitution  (say using the above reasonable values) we can solve for a:

a =  T/I  = 7200 N-m/ (2.281 kg-m²)  »  3150 rad/s²

This is the angular acceleration under impulse. From this the angular velocity (arising in same time) can be obtained as:

and w = at  =  3150 rad/s² (0.00033s) = 1.04 rad/s

Ft

   _

  ! !

  ! !<----impulse o:p="">

  ! !

--! !_________________

      uniform motion      !

                                       !------------------------

The sort of physical situation we have can be depicted above. The foregoing treatment basically took care of the very brief (0.00033s) impulse part of the motion. There is still a uniform part left to reckon (torso motion under uniform deceleration). (N.B. The Dirac Delta function and Laplace transforms are usually used for impulse computations, but that is omitted here so as not to overly complicate the solution).

Under conditions of uniform deceleration, we have:

w(u) = [w(f) - w(i)]/ t

where t is the elapsed time over Z-frames 314-321, with a mean film advance rate of 18 frames per second. (t = 0.44s). The  initial angular velocity is known from the impulse calculations  (1.04 rad/s) and the final angular velocity:

 w(f) = 0.

a(u) = (0 –  1.04 rad/s)/ 0.44s = - 2.36  rad/s

Again, under conditions of uniform motion we have:

w² = w(i)² + 2aq

whence:

q=  [w² - w(i)²]/ 2a

q = [0 – 1.04²]/ 2(-2.36 rad/s)

= 0.229 rad

This must now be added to the angle made under impulse:

q (total) =  q (impulse) + q (uniform)

= 0.001 rad + 0.229 rad = 0.230 rad

q(deg) = 0.230 rad (57.3 deg/rad) = 13.1 degrees

This is a smallish angular displacement which the entire torso makes relative to its 'pivot'. This can be translated into linear dimensions by using the fundamental definition of arc length:

q = s/ R    so s = q x (R) = 0.230 rad (0.6m) = 0.138 m

or 13.8 cm  (5.4 inches)

Which (from direct estimates using the Z-film)  appears to be about one third to one half  the actual displacement. Still, one would expect some degree of error.  For example, the entire mass of the torso is taken into account, as opposed to just the head mass.. In any case, my UCL colleague was impressed with the result and suggested I publish it one day. (I did, some 17 years later in my REAL FAQ on the newsgroup alt.conspiracy.jfk.)  In the meantime, he gave me his copy of Lifton's book which commenced my part time research into the physics aspects of the Kennedy assassination - much of which I exposed in Part 5 of my FAQ published on this blog in November, 2013, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2013/11/frequently-asked-questions-on-jfk_15.html

Thus began my path toward being a JFK assassination researcher as well as a solar physics expert in the specialized fields of  Poisson limits on flare occurrence, and solar flare prognostication applied to geo-effective effects, including magnetic substorms and sudden ionospheric disturbances.

(Note: Up to the time of working on this displacement problem the only book I'd read on the assassination was Gerald R. Ford's 'Portrait of an Assassin'. )  Working out this problem and others changed my mind from the lone nut doctrine to the physics disclosing a definite conspiracy at work. In the end, it was physics that integrated and drove my JFK research and solar research!

The attainment of expertise, or what I consider such, was probably not attained until I wrote my first FAQ for the alt.conspiracy.jfk newsgroup in 1997. By then I had plowed through thousands of released documents and files (on the basis of the 1992 JFK Records Act) and read virtually every book on the event I could lay my hands on. In addition, I had become informed on deep politics and made this a specialty area. All this was possible after retiring from full time physics research, teaching. This extra time also enabled me to complete the book I had visualized since beginning my research journey.

Frequently Asked Questions on the JFK Assassination (Pt. 5):The Bullets, Wounds

What is the single bullet  theory'?

The single bullet theory, of which the 'magic bullet' is the centerpiece, was the brainchild of (then) Warren Commission Assistant Counsel Arlen Specter. It is the  logical outcome if one has constrained the number of bullets to  three, and only three, as the Warren Commission did.

Thus, by process of elimination:

 - The bullet that sprayed bystander James Tague is eliminated forthwith

  - The fatal head shot, is eliminated

That leaves one bullet to make the remaining wounds in both Kennedy and John Connally, to wit[1]

"this one bullet  hit the President in the back, exited through his throat, passed through  Connally's body, breaking a rib, then shattered a bone in his wrist, and finally entered his left thigh".

The problem is that it doesn't add up, and any critical thinker examining the placement and geometry can see that. Let's begin by examining the sleight of hand by which the  back wound bullet was altered to a base of neck wound, thereby also creating the basis for the "magic bullet" fiction. The Warren Commission diagram is shown below:

The upper inclined blue arrow shows the trajectory of the bullet that would be needed in order to account for BOTH the JFK neck wound AND the back wound. The problem here is twofold: first, the throat wound was described by Parkland surgeon Malcolm Perry (who should know his business given having to deal with multiple Dallasites' gunshot wounds at Parkland) as an ENTRY wound..

The neck wound placement (from Perry) is shown in the collage below along with the JFK back wound.  Also included is the Zapruder film frame showing the instant JFK grabs at his neck, signifying the bullet impact.



                        

Second, the Warrenites realized that the placement wouldn't work to account for all 7 wounds in JFK  and John Connally (the angle wasn't right- shooter would've had to have been firing from street level) so had to reset the placement higher - changing it to the light yellow trajectory. This was compliments of Gerald Ford as indicated in the notes below, 

wherein he altered the wording from the original autopsy report.  The initial draft of the report had  stated:

"A bullet had entered his back at a point slightly above the shoulder to the right of the spine."

Ford altered it to read:

"A bullet had entered the back of his neck slightly to the right of the spine."
 
The underhanded alteration and its impact was also noted in a later NY Times blurb:

Clearly, Ford wanted the document to conform with the single bullet myth and would stoop to altering an official document on record to attain the goal.  

The problem for Ford and the Warrenites is one of basic anatomy. The original autopsy sheet, including the placement and description of the back wound, was signed and verified by Admiral George Gregory Burkley, personal physician to the president who directed the autopsy at Bethesda. He verified the back wound placement on November 24th (as shown on the right side of Fig.2). That death certificate revealed the back wound to be, in the Admiral's own words, at the president's "third thoracic vertebra.”  The neck has seven CERVICAL vertebrae, and this observed and verified wound was described as three THORACIC vertebrae lower than the neck itself.

The final report then read: "A bullet had entered the base of the back of his neck slightly to the right of his spine." Ford insisted this was “a small change, …intended to clarify meaning, not alter history”. But alter history is exactly what it did! For by altering the original autopsy report, Ford and his cohorts succeeded in conferring a measure of validity on Specter’s single bullet theory. This is despite the fact that analysis of the resulting trajectory doesn’t even conform to basic laws of Newtonian dynamics!

Anyway, after negotiating this tortuous passage as described earlier - including hitting a number of bones, the bullet (designated Commission Exhibit 399, or 'CE399' for short) is alleged to have emerged on John Connally's stretcher (ibid.).  The key to the success of the "theory",  has been the 'success' in explaining away the near pristine condition of the bullet. (And incidentally, it did not even have microscopic traces of blood on it, though it was very slightly deformed.) The array of images shown below of several bullets will help to fix ideas:

WC Exhibit CE 399, or "the magic bullet" is shown as Entry (A)  which purportedly did all this damage.  (B) is a test bullet, one of several fired by Joseph Dolce into the wrists of cadavers to compare the degree of damage sustained with that of the WC Exhibit. The bullet (C) is the one actually taken off the floor at Parkland. What gives here? Answer: too many bullets for too many wounds!

Dolce, consultant in wound ballistics to the Army, has stated he was given one hundred,  6.5mm bullets, by the Warren Commission, to fire at cadavers. (Documentary, 'The Single Bullet Theory' video). In no case,  he went on, did any of the bullets come out pristine. In fact, all showed  significant deformity. In his own words (ibid.):


"No, it (CE399) could NOT have caused all the wounds. Our experiments here show beyond any doubt that merely shooting a wrist deforms the  bullet drastically. In every instance, the front or tip of the bullet was smashed. It's impossible for a bullet to strike a bone, even at low  velocity and still come out with a perfectly normal tip."


So, in fraudulently altering the bullet placement in the record, neither Ford or Specter gained a thing, though they did manage to hoodwink millions of Americans for decades because few people actually looked into the matter, and next, Ford's chicanery wasn't exposed until decades later after the JFK Records Act was passed in 1992. (The Ford editing documents, on which the Times snippet was based, were made public by the Assassination Records Review Board.)

So why is the "magic bullet" still accepted despite its obvious fallacious basis? Probably because it's the only meager thread the Warrenites have to hang their BS  on, and they still hope most Americans will just accept their word (argument from authority - a major fallacy) as opposed to investigating it themselves. (They're betting most people don't have the energy or skill to independently investigate)


What about the kill shot?

The Warrenite version of the head shot - the kill shot - is that it entered from the rear, because, of course, they have the assassin to the rear (in the Texas School Book Depository).  The image is shown below along with the frame from the Zapruder film showing the head shot (Z-313):

The noticeable backward motion of JFK's head in the film is attributed to the reaction of a forward spray out - in what has been called the 'jet effect". (Similar to the well known rocket effect, where fuel leaves the exhaust under pressure and the rocket moves in the opposite direction).

The problem, of course, is that this doesn't comport with Jackie's motion over the limo trunk - as shown in the lower left graphic. The fact she is moving over the limo trunk to the REAR, and her WC testimony (supported by recently released audiotape testimony from 1964) was she was attempting to retrieve a skull fragment (likely the missing occipital bone reported by the Parkland drs.) means that  the shot had to have come from the FRONT. This would be in the grassy knoll area.  This is further supported by the actual autopsy photos which belie the corrupted Warren versions, e.g.

Photo specialist Robert Groden ('The Killing of a President') has indicated that the fake photo image was likely taken after the rear of the head was reconstructed using mortician' plaster.

Again, we are confronted by blatant efforts to conceal the actual wound so as not to diverge from the dogma and presumption that Oswald did it, firing from the rear. Under no circumstances could the c-word be allowed to rear its head. The American people had to be mollified and quieted that it was just a lone deranged nut, and god forbid they know their own government had a hand in it!

Can all bullets and fragments be linked to the Mannlicher-Carcano?

Clearly, they cannot - and even CE399 is in doubt, and as shown above, the 'heritage' of that bullet is very much in doubt. On the assumption that CE399 is from the alleged Oswald rifle, the key is whether the fragments recovered (e.g. in the limo) could be matched to CE399 by composition.  By incredibly favorable happenstance, a test NAA  (Neutron Activation Analysis) was performed which has the capacity to make such distinctions in chemical composition to within 2 or 3 parts per billion.

But in NAA, any deviation, no matter how minute – confirms a difference in composition. That’s because the Neutron Activation Analysis results is an 'all or nothing' test result proposition. Thus, Hoover's reference to 'minor variations' was in an unwitting declaration that there were conclusive variations hence fragments found and tested disclosed different bullets, by composition. This may have been one reason why the NAA test results were suppressed so long.

So how many bullets were fired in all, or can be accounted for?

What we've already exposed is that there had to have been at least four different shots and putatively from 3 different locations (The Dal-Tex building provides a better angle for the back shot than the TSBD). Let's enumerate them thus far:

1) The upper back wound - fired from the Dal-Tex bldg.?

2) Throat wound - fired from the front (GK)

3) Head wound - fired from the GK.

4) Connally wounds (rib, wrist)  - fired from the TSBD

In fact, if we add the shot that chipped off a piece of pavement, and sprayed James Tague - we reach five bullets. If we also add the bullet that left a dent in the frame of the limo we get to six. See e.g.

Of course, the pavement that had been pock marked was painted over, then removed and taken to FBI HQ while the limo itself was ordered dispatched to Ohio and disassembled.

Anyone smell any rats here?  And yet the Warren Commission poppycock is all you can be expected to hear for the next week - as we approach the 50th anniversary of this sad and tragic event.

Go to any media presentation, say like CBS' "As It Happened" tomorrow night, as well as their 60 Minutes special Sunday, and all you will see and hear is Bob Schieffer or other tools-fools  trotting out the "Oswald did it" , pro-Warren bunkum. Ditto for ABC, NBC and the other corporate mouthpieces of propaganda.

But savvy, critical thinking Americans know better, and after fifty years of this BS they aren't buying any more.

Next: The Warren Commission Rifle Tests and Oswald's Marksmanship.

---

[1] J.P. Duffy and V.L. Ricci: 1992, ' The Assassination of John F. Kennedy', Thunder's Mouth Press, p. 434.

Frequently Asked Questions on the JFK Assassination (4a): The Warren Commission

BACKGROUND: Arguably, the Warren Commission lies at the heart of the near 50-year old coverup of the facts pertaining to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The players, the investigation itself, and above all the person who orchestrated it: Lyndon Baines Johnson.("The best way to commit the perfect crime is to be in charge of the investigation that follows.”) Among the chief clues for Johnson's involvement, is the fact that the members were all hand-selected -appointed by LBJ who, in the words of researcher Russ Baker:

"was the chief beneficiary of the assassination, having immediately replaced the dead President to become the 36th President of the United States."

Obviously, this alone doesn't amount to much unless we also dig deeper and understand what the deep politics were leading up to the hit. There was first Johnson's profound sense of entitlement to the highest office. Johnson personally felt Jack stole the 1960 nomination from him using a political end around worked out by the Kennedy campaign planners, including his father Joe in cahoots with Mayor Richard Daley in Chicago. Johnson felt a supreme entitlement to the Presidency (some would say he believed he had a destiny), based on his Senate leadership, but he was wrong. Jack Kennedy outmaneuvered him in the primaries and had the mainstays of the Party sign on to ensure his success at the LA Convention. (In fact, as the authors of Dallas 1963 document, there was actually a brawl on the convention floor (unattended to by the national media) between the Texas delegation and Massachusetts when Kennedy was nominated on the first go round and LBJ wasn't.

But instead of acting like a grownup, LBJ forever pouted and held in his grievance that the office had been "stolen", by his overt and covert behavior. This is very well confirmed in Evelyn Lincoln’s book: Kennedy and Johnson, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968, pp. 149-151. Therein JFK’s former Secretary makes known how LBJ would enter the West Wing each morning – through one of the doors into her office, and "hang around". On one occasion, Kennedy surprised him by already being present in his office. He later went to Lincoln and asked her: “What is he doing in these offices?” Clearly, LBJ felt he belonged in those (West Wing) offices, perhaps one reason he once suggested “sharing” the presidency as “co-president”. (Jack wouldn't take him remotely seriously, dismissing the suggestiion as a poor joke before shagging LBJ back to his own humble digs- and providing him with extra make-work!)

While the Bill Sol Estes circus slowly seeped into the background by mid-1963, the same couldn’t be said for Johnson’s close personal friend, Robert G. (“Bobby”) Baker- the Secretary to the Senate Democratic Caucus, and key player as the Baker scandal erupted. The scandal revolved around Baker’s influence peddling and by mid –September it had become embarrasingly public. Kennedy, always leery of his political self-interest, gave the go-ahead for full and open investigation, leading to Baker’s public resignation on Oct. 7, 1963.)

Kennedy ultimately realized that any 1964 ticket with LBJ would be irreparably tarred, and this probably resulted in his expressed intent to have him removed, as signified by his last dictation to Secretary Evelyn Lincoln, before his Texas trip (documented in her aforementioned book). This assuredly signed Kennedy’s death warrant. It meant that Johnson had to organize some way of eliminating Kennedy, since there was no other way to ascend to the highest office. LBJ knew from his pal Hoover that even JFK’s dalliances wouldn’t cost him politically, he was too popular, charismatic.

Beyond all this, Johnson's own words comprise perhaps the biggest 'smoking gun'. They were caught on tape in a phone call to Sen. Richard Russell, after LBJ had been initially rejected by Earl Warren to lead the Commission. Johnson needed the credibility of Warren so the media would accept the commission as a bona fide government entity as opposed to a creature of Johnson's whim and machinations. (Johnson’s first kneejerk reaction was to form a “Texas Commission” to look into the assassination, with staff entirely composed of Texans.). Anyway, Johnson's taped words were - after speaking to Warren (cf. Michael R. Beschloss, Taking Charge:The Johnson White House Tapes 1963-64, 1997, p. 72, as cited by Russ Baker, in 'Family of Secrets', p. 46):

"Warren told me he wouldn't do it under any circumstances...He came down here and told me 'No'...twice. And I just pulled out what[FBI Director} Hoover told me about a little incident in Mexico City....And he started crying and said: 'I won't turn you down...I'll just do whatever you say.'

Texas hogswill? Hardly. Not when seen in the context of other LBJ actions. What we have here is insight into the man's character and that he wasn't anything near the upstanding "liberal" Prez so many of his followers (like Bill Moyers) have made him out to be. It shows he'd resort to blackmail to coerce the Chief Justice to confer gravitas on his commission - and in so doing it shows he'd stoop to anything to have that commission be a political whitewash. Now on to the questions:

Who were the Warren Commissioners?

In alphabetical order, the Warren Commissioners were:

Rep. Hale Boggs
Sen. John Sherman Cooper
Mr. Allen Dulles
Rep. Gerald R. Ford
Mr. John J. McCloy
Sen. Richard B. Russell
Chief Justice Earl Warren

What were the backgrounds of the Commissioners?

Hale Boggs

Hale Boggs was a representative from Louisiana. By 1971 he began to have reservations about the Warren Commission. About a year later Boggs was killed in a mysterious plane crash in Alaska.

John Sherman Cooper

John Sherman Cooper was a Republican Senator from Kentucky, with diplomatic corps background. Also, he joined forces with Richard Russell and threatened to write a minority report if the Commission did not stress the 'information gap' regarding Oswald's alleged activities in Mexico City.

Allen Dulles:

Allen Dulles, was the CIA Director until fired by JFK after the Bay of Pigs. Up to that time, Dulles "was the CIA", he shaped it into an invisible government during his eight years as head of the agency. Without a doubt Dulles controlled much of the information, files available to the Commission. If it didn't meet his covert agenda, the Commission didn't see it. This includes Oswald's 201 files.

Gerald R. Ford:

Gerald R. Ford was a Republican Michigan House Representative. Ford was also the author of a subsequent book 'Portrait of the Assassin' about Lee Harvey Oswald's role as the alleged lone assassin. Ford - since further files have been released- is perhaps most infamous for altereing key words, sentences in an autopsy report to mislead on the location of the bullet to Kennedy's back. He altered the report to try to portray the bullet as striking in the base of the neck. To see more on this, including the actual changed notes, as well as a NY Times piece on it, check out my Oct. 20 blog ('Joe Klein Loses It').

He also denied that he used "secret materials (not previously published by the Commission) for his book on Oswald and when questioned about this in his 1973 vice presidential confirmation hearings, would deny it.

John J. McCloy:

McCloy, as many sources note, could almost be an honorary member of the Rockefeller family. The law firm he was associated with had represented Standard Oil, a Rockefeller property, in the 1920's and 1930's." (Coup d'etat in the United States, p. 184) McCloy's career, it should be noted, began long before and lasted long after Kennedy's presidency. In addition to being on the WC, McCloy was chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, a member of the CFR (Council of Foreign Relations) and of the Ford Foundation' as well as President of the World Bank; High Commissioner in Germany after World War II; and a representative of the major oil companies. McCloy was also the one who engineered the merger of the Chase and Manhattan banks into the Chase Manhattan.(ibid. ).

An insight into the McCloy's character is provided by the fact that he was the one who supervised the infamous wartime internment program, in which more than 100,000 Japanese- American citizens were rounded up and placed in prison camps. His fascist nature also emerged when asked about this policy and he responded: "Why the Constitution is just a scrap of paper to me"

Richard B. Russell:

Richard B. Russell was a Democratic Senator from Georgia. Like Cooper and Boggs, he parted company with many of the Commission's findings. In January 1970, for example, he publicly expressed doubts about the validity of the Commission's findings on a WAB-TV interview taped in Atlanta. A short time later he died of 'natural causes'.

Earl Warren:

Chief Justice at the time, and originally appointed to the Supreme Court by President Eisenhower in 1953. On examining the composition of the Commission - particularly its Rockefeller finance-intelligence links, it's clear that Warren was merely a "titular head of the Warren Commission" with the real power and direction emanating from 'elsewhere'- like Dulles. As we saw Warren was forcibly "drafted" by LBJ using blackmail - compliments of some of Hoover's choice files.

Who were the 'key players' on the Commission?

According to the sheer proportion of questions asked, the two 'key players' were: Allan Dulles (the CIA's man on the commission - never mind he was fired, he was still the primary liasion with the 'company') and Gerald Ford (the FBI's man on the Commission) ('Treachery in Dallas', 1995: Brown, W., Carroll & Graf Publishers, p. 278)

Of all 7 commissioners, Dulles asked the highest frequency of questions: 2,514 (ibid.) and Ford was next with 1, 722 (ibid.)

Other commissioners and frequencies (op.cit., p278):

John Sherman Cooper - 926

John McCloy - 795

Earl Warren - 608

Hale Boggs - 460

Richard Russell - 249

This is a grand total of 6,964 total questions asked by the seven formal Commissioners per se, of which 4,236 or nearly 61% were asked by Dulles and Ford.

Were the Commissioners the only ones that asked questions?

No. A total of 30,133 other questions were asked by Commission Staff Counsels (e.g. David Belin, William Coleman etc.) with the Commissioners present.

This means there were only a total of (6,964/ 37,097) or about 18.8% of questions that were by the Commissioners themselves, of witnesses in their presence. However, the ancillary support staff asked another 72,833 questions with the seven Commissioners *not* present.(op.cit., pp278-81).

This means that a total of only (6,964/ 109,930) or 6.33% of questions were asked directly by the seven Commissioners themselves - of the total questions asked by them and their support staff or counsels etc.

This minuscule proportion comports with a comment made by McCloy himself, to wit: (op. cit., p276):

"The commissioners themselves regarded their committment to the investigation as a part time responsibility....There was neither the time *nor the political will* to conduct a thorough investigation."

Point: If most of the key players (e.g. Ford, McCloy, Dulles) knew the whole thing was a sham and a whitewash, compliments of LBJ, why would they bother to invest anything more than part time attention?

McCloy's remark, clearly, is a direct admission that the WC scope was delimited from the outset - not only by dint of volume of work to do, but because political issues were at work (i.e. Saving LBJ's ass.) This is something the Warren Commission adherents must acknowledge, at the very least, if they are to be taken honestly. Such remarks (as have circulated among some true lone nut believers from time to time)like: "the Commissioners all had full jobs, they did this part time" - is certainly not commendable. Indeed, it shows the Warren Commission for the snow job it was, i.e. that it invoked the name cachet of these seven gentlemen (dubious for 3 of them), to bestow the aura of 'official sanction', then used lower level lawyers and lackeys for the real work. The crucial work of questioning witnesses and asking real questions - not 'mock' questions.

Finally, it is worthwhile to note (ibid.):

"The Warren Commission asked 109,930 questions to 488 witnesses from February 3, 1964, to September 15, 1964. It is a clear indication of the uselessness of the commission's work that they were 'created' on November 29, 1963, but heard no witnesses for sixty six (66) days."

To be continued...