Dallas 'conspiracy'
Sir: In his review of the film Executive Action (February 2), Christopher Hud
son notes that "no mention is made of (Oswald's) shooting Police Officer Tippitt in the theatre, the chief obstacle to the scapegoat theory."
It seems that Mr Hudson's memory of the facts of the case has betrayed him: Tippitt was shot. in the street, Oswald was arrested half an hour' later in the theatre. The Warren Commission's reconstruction of this episode is pretty poor stuff, not least because the Commission has to get round the awkward fact that their star witness gave a description of the killer that didn't fit Oswald at all. It has been suggested that Tippitt was among the assassins, and was shot by others of the conspiracy because he might be dangerous. The Warren Report observes, with no further comment, that Tippitt had close ties with the John Birch Society, that is, was active in the American Radical Right: it discloses, thanks to a photograph, that Tippitt looked very like Oswald save that he was older and heavier — which means that he fits the eyewitness ' description of the gunman at the Book Depository window, and Oswald does not!
I was surprised that the film didn't mention the killing of Tippitt other than in passing: was a chunk cut out 'before it was released? It is clear that some of the Dallas police were involved in the conspiracy, but perhaps the film makers thought that the hints they gave were sufficient: after all, in a city the size of Dallas, what sort of police force is it that makes no records of any kind of the interrogation of a man suspected of a major crime as a matter of course? As to the -police involvement, the film of the real shooting of Oswald, used in this film just as it stood, shows that two policemen were holding him in place as a sitting-duck target.
Not the best film that could have been made on the subject, then, but enough to remind people of the embarrassing questions which have already been asked.
By the way, it Was the real, not the false Oswald who dealt in pro-Cuba leaflets in New Orleans, hence the genuine TV clip.
jtoe
184 Langley Way, West Wickham, Kent
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