Mr. BELMONT. Say based on the evidence that we have or which developed
or all information that we received, there was no indication that
Oswald was in any way connected or within the service of a foreign
government.
Representative FORD. But there is a difference in the way you can
answer those two questions.
Mr. BELMONT. There is a difference, yes; there is a difference
because in the one case we know, in the other case we rely on all the
information and evidence available.
Representative FORD. But as far as a foreign government is concerned,
you only know what you have been able to find out?
Mr. BELMONT. That is correct, sir.
Representative FORD. There is always the possibility in the second
case, involving a foreign government, that something might come up at
some other time.
Mr. BELMONT. There is always the possibility. We have no indication of
it. There is always the possibility; yes, sir.
Representative FORD. But you cannot be as categorical about the future
in the second case as you were in the first case.
Mr. BELMONT. Yes, sir; you are right.
The CHAIRMAN. Are there any other questions?
Mr. DULLES. Do you have some more?
Mr. McCLOY. I think I have got all the questions I wanted to ask.
(At this point in the proceedings, Representative Ford leaves the
hearing room.)
Mr. DULLES. I have two or three questions.
As you know, Mr. Belmont, there have been a wide variety of rumors
that have been spread abroad very particularly with regard to the
assassination.
I have before me, just received last night, a book just being published
in England, it is coming out in the next day or 2, called "Who Killed
Kennedy," by Thomas G. Buchanan, published in London by Secker and
Warburg. I have not had an opportunity yet to read the book. I have
read a good deal of the background material on which it is based.
I would like to ask though when this book is available to you, and we
will make a copy available to you and see that you get one promptly,
whether you would have the Bureau read this, an appropriate person in
the Bureau familiar with the case or yourself, and possibly give us
your views with regard to certain of the allegations here within your
particular competence.
Mr. BELMONT. As I understand it, Mr. Dulles, this is probably a
compilation of the articles that he wrote in the French press.
Mr. DULLES. Express; yes.
Mr. BELMONT. Which, I believe, we sent over to the Commission as we
received them.
Mr. DULLES. That is correct.
Mr. BELMONT. And from my recollection of perusing those articles, they
are filled with false statements, innuendoes, incorrect conclusions,
misinformation, and certainly what I would term false journalism. In
other words, he has stated as fact or as a correct conclusion many
things which the Commission's investigation has disproved completely.
We will be glad to read the book and to furnish you with a general
comment on it. But to take down each statement in there and go into it
would probably result in a critique of 500 pages.
Mr. DULLES. We do not want that. I don't think we need that.
Mr. BELMONT. Where actually many of these allegations have already been
resolved by the Commission, I am sure. We will be glad to read it and
give you a----
Mr. DULLES. I think that would be useful for the Commission to have,
Mr. Chairman. Do you agree?
The CHAIRMAN. Very well; yes. If you find any factual matters in there
that contradict your findings, we would expect you to call it to our
attention.
Mr. BELMONT. Most certainly, sir.
The CHAIRMAN. But otherwise I don't think we want a review of the book.
That is your idea, is it?
Mr. DULLES. Not a review of the book, but if there are allegations
there, any evidence you can factually deny, that would be helpful to
have it.
Mr. McCLOY. Do you have any record of Buchanan? Do you know anything
about Buchanan's background?
Mr. BELMONT. No, sir; I do not recall.
Mr. DULLES. I wish you would check.
Mr. BELMONT. We can send you a letter.
The CHAIRMAN. We have the record.
Mr. McCLOY. He seems to be very much Ivy League, Lawrenceville School
and Yale.
Mr. DULLES. He was at one time, I believe, he admitted to being a
Communist at one time. He was at one time employed by the Washington
Star, I am advised, and I believe, according to the information I have,
that he was terminated by the Star some years ago.
Mr. BELMONT. I thought he had been in touch with the Commission.
The CHAIRMAN. He came in, he did come in here, and made a statement
which we have recorded. His testimony wasn't taken. He just walked in
off the street.
Mr. DULLES. I have one or two more questions, Mr. Chairman.
I believe, Mr. Belmont, that you probably have furnished us already
with information with regard to any contacts that Oswald might have
had, individuals whom he knew, persons who might have been accused of
being accomplices of his, but if there is anybody there or any persons
in your file whom Oswald knew who have not been communicated to us, we
would certainly like to have them to be sure we have looked into that
field exhaustively, anybody who, according to your records, Oswald knew.
Mr. BELMONT. I am sure we have explored that fully, and we have
reported it to the Commission fully.
Mr. DULLES. All right; good.
Mr. BELMONT. Yes, sir.
Mr. DULLES. In view of your deep study of the case, have you reached
any views of your own or are there any views of the Bureau, as to
Oswald's motivation in the act that he committed?
Mr. BELMONT. Again I don't feel competent to give you an answer. There
is an indication from the exploration of his background that he wanted
to be somebody. He wanted to be known as someone. Whether this caused
him to do this terrible thing I don't know. I think if it were possible
to peer into Oswald's mind, that would really be the only way you could
get your question answered.
Mr. DULLES. Have you and the Bureau made any comparative study of the
various assassination attempts and assassinations of other Presidents
and people in high authority in this Government to see whether any
pattern at all runs through these various attempts other than attempts
where there is clearly a plot, as in the case of the attack on
President Truman, and probably also in the case of President Lincoln? I
am thinking chiefly of the assassination of President McKinley and the
attempted assassination of President-elect Roosevelt in 1933.
Mr. BELMONT. No, sir; we have not made a study of that nature. I would
imagine that Secret Service has made a study.
Mr. DULLES. They have made a study. I didn't know whether you had made
one also.
Mr. BELMONT. No, sir; we have not.
Mr. DULLES. That is all I have, Mr. Chairman.
The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Belmont, I have here in my hand a sheet that appeared
on the newsstands over the weekend. It is supposed to be the National
Enquirer. I believe it is out of New York, and it contains a page and
a third about the assassination of the President and certain actions
of the FBI, and so forth, and for the record I should like to read a
portion of it and merely ask you if, in your opinion----
Mr. BELMONT. All right, sir.
The CHAIRMAN. And with your knowledge there is any truth to any part of
it. You, of course, are acquainted with that paper.
Mr. BELMONT. No, sir; I am not. In fact, someone told me it was, it
came from, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and I was shocked that something
like that would be in that paper. I found it was not the Philadelphia
Inquirer.
(Discussion off the record.)
The CHAIRMAN. I think, in view of the relationship you have had in this
whole matter, I would like to have your testimony in the record on it.
Mr. BELMONT. Very good, sir.
The CHAIRMAN. There is no date on this paper, and I am told it appeared
in three different days in three different formats with different
headlines, but the same item. It is said to be by John Henshaw,
Enquirer Washington Bureau Chief.
"Washington--The hottest story making the rounds here is that the U.S.
Justice Department prevented the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack
Ruby BEFORE the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Oswald and
the man who killed him, Ruby, were suspected of being partners in crime
7 months before the President's death.
"The incredible details of the story are so explosive that officials
won't even answer 'no comment' when queried about it. But the story
being discussed by top-level Government officials reveals:
"1. That the Justice Department deliberately kept Oswald and Ruby out
of jail before the assassination.
"2. That Dallas cops suspected Oswald of being the gunman and Ruby
the paymaster in a plot to murder former Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker--7
months before the President was assassinated.
"3. That the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was using Ruby to recruit
commandoes for raids against Castro's Cuba. To prevent this explosive
information from being disclosed, the CIA asked the Justice Department
to step in and stop the Dallas police from arresting Jack Ruby, as well
as Oswald.
"A top-secret document--a letter signed by a high official of the
Justice Department--was sent in April 1963 from the Dallas Police
Department to Dallas Chief of Police Jesse E. Curry requesting the
Dallas police NOT to arrest Oswald and Ruby in connection with the
attempted slaying of General Walker.
"After a sniper shot at, but missed, General Walker in Dallas, April
10, 1963, Dallas police suspected that Oswald was the sniper and Ruby
the payoff man.
"The cops were set to arrest the pair. But they never got the
chance because of the heavy pressure brought to bear by the Justice
Department. And so Oswald and Ruby were allowed to remain free. And 7
months later, on last November 22 in Dallas, Oswald was able to kill
the President of the United States.
"The top-secret document--a copy of it is reportedly in the hands of
the Presidential Commission investigating the assassination--bares a
web of intrigue that involves the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
along with the Justice Department and the Central Intelligence Agency.
"It is so politically explosive that the Presidential Commission,
headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, has even withheld it
from one of its own members, Senator Richard Russell (D., Ga.).
"It is feared that Senator Russell, who leads the South in the fight
against the civil rights bill, might use the document as a weapon
against the Justice Department and its chief, Attorney General Robert
Kennedy, a leader in the fight for civil rights.
"The document--requesting the cops not to arrest Ruby and
Oswald--contradicts the FBI report on the assassination and the
subsequent murder of Oswald."
My question is, do you have any information that would lead you to
believe that any of those allegations are true?
Mr. BELMONT. My answer, sir, is that that is utter fantastic nonsense,
and I have no information to indicate that any of the allegations are
true.
The CHAIRMAN. I think we had better mark this and introduce it in
evidence. There is much more to the article, but it is explanatory of
this, but I thought that was sufficiently a direct allegation that we
ought to note it in the testimony. So will you give that a number, Mr.
Stern.
Mr. STERN. It will be numbered 837.
The CHAIRMAN. 837. It is introduced in evidence as No. 837.
Mr. STERN. May we also have admitted, Mr. Chief Justice, Exhibit No.
836, the letter of March 31, 1964, which Mr. Belmont has identified.
The CHAIRMAN. It may be admitted under that number.
(The documents referred to were marked for identification as Commission
Exhibits Nos. 836 and 837 and were received in evidence.)
The CHAIRMAN. Is there anything further, gentlemen?
Mr. McCLOY. May I suggest that we get a copy of the paper which does
have the date on it. I forget what date it was.
Mr. BELMONT. Mr. Rankin, I understand you have sent it over to us, so
we will be glad to answer your letter.
The CHAIRMAN. Well, Mr. Belmont, we appreciate your cooperation, and we
thank you for your courtesy.
(Whereupon, at 12:40 p.m., the President's Commission recessed.)
_Wednesday, May 13, 1964_