Subject: Re: Mike Howard talk - What happened? Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 18:21:26 +0000 From: Debra Conway Reply-To: debra@nospam.jfklancer.com Organization: JFK Lancer http://www.jfklancer.com Newsgroups: startext.jfk Delivered-To: debra-debra@jfklancer.com X-Sender: jfklancr@pop.flash.net (Unverified) Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 20:01:16 -0600 To: Debra Conway From: JFK Lancer Mime-Version: 1.0 IMPORTANT: The following is not a verbatim transcript. These are notes taken by me from the audience. They have not been compared to the audio tape of Howard's presentation and should not be used as reference until such comparison can be made. Thanks, Debra Conway --- Mike Howard, Former US Secret Service "Portrait of an Assassin 2-4-99 Richland College Global Studies Program, The Emeritus Program, and Student Programs and Resources Dallas, TX Howard begins by stating that he is not an expert on the assassination but will only be speaking about the "facts." A term he repeats throughout his talk. He gives a quick run through of other presidential assassins and attempted assassinations, stating how they are all similar to each other. He will then show us how Lee Oswald fits this "portrait." He gives very little information on what I feel the audience wanted to hear about: his personal experiences while guarding the Oswald family during the assassination weekend. Howard is the agent that informed Robert Oswald that his brother had been shot. I expected an emotional retelling of this scene, along with other stories or quotes. Howard only stated tidbits such as, that Marguerite Oswald was crazy, keeping a bayonet under her pillow and that they had this assignment--even guarded the woods around the hotel--because LBJ specifically told them not to let anything happen to that family. 1. LHO 5 years old, he and brother Robert ride their bikes to their new home nearby. A moving truck in driveway-dresser drawer falls out onto Lee. He is unconscious for 8 days, in and out. He was badly bruised with a large bump, which finally went away, but left a [quarter-sized] tumor behind his eye. This led to blackouts in school, according to Robert; Lee would walk out of a classroom in a daze. When the teacher approached him, he didn't remember it. 2. Lee attacked his sister-in-law with a knife while staying with Robert in NY. 3. In Fort Worth, Lee, 12, with Robert, 15, goes rabbit hunting with a .22 rifle. Robert asked Lee if he would like to shoot a rabbit they see. Lee does but then continues to shoot until rifle is empty. When Robert tries to stop him, he points the rifle at him. 4. Robert gets Lee into the Marines because he is underage. He does well there because everyone is crazy in bootcamp environment anyway. He qualifies as a Sharpshooter, and later as only a Marksman. 5. In Japan, Lee had a problem with a senior officer and gets his stripe taken away. 6. Lee begins studying Marxism and takes a Russian course. He thought he was smarter than anyone and wanted to be a leader. 7. Soldiers are not supposed to have a personal weapon but Lee does. He is court-martialed when the gun goes off, shooting himself in the elbow. 8. His mother had felt because her husband died after exposure to mustard gas, the govt. owed them a pension. This didn't happen so Lee was constantly exposed to his Mother saying the government owed them a living. 9. Lee decides to leave the Marines and go to Russia. He asks for a hardship discharge but left before processing was complete. 10. Russia does not want him. He keeps writing, hoping to stay. They tell him he must leave tomorrow, they don't want him there. This was during the time of the U-2 and they didn't want an incident. So Lee attempts suicide by putting his arm in cold water then cutting his wrist. 11. A hotel worker found him. The KGB talked to him and decided to let him stay because they were afraid to let him go and then be accused of torture. 12. Lee falls in love with a ballerina he meets at a party. (Ella) He couldn't live without her, so he proposed. She said no-no way. Now he's been spurned. Then he meets Marina and so he met, courted, and married Marina on the rebound. 13. Marina's uncle had been to the US and told Marina how great it was so she was open to marrying an American and possible going to live there while Ella had not been. 14. Lee turned out to have a terrible temper and turned into a wife beater. 15. They decide to leave Russia. Lee feels Russia is no different than US. When he arrives in NY, he thought he would be treated like an American spy, a celebrity. But only 1 person from the State Dept. meets the boat and really asks him nothing important. 16. Lee tells Robert, who had come to NY to meet them; he is disappointed that a crowd is not there. Marina has a look on her face and Lee slaps her while they are still at the airport. 17. While at his Mother's home, he receives his dishonorable discharge papers. Lee has a fit, kicking walls, etc. He writes a letter asking for a regular discharge. A letter comes from John Connally, then Secretary of the Navy, saying no, the dishonorable discharge will stand. 18. Lee learns to be a printer in Dallas. He decides to start a club named "Freedom for Cuba" after another one in New Orleans. So Cuba is his new thing. He makes cards with himself as president. Marina is the secretary. 19. Lee orders a rifle through the mail, and then a revolver. In those days you could easily order weapons through the mail catalogs. 20. Marina later tells how they would go to the park by Love Field and practice. One day Lee had a man tell him about a rifle range, so after that he went there. 21. People say there is no way anyone could shoot 3 shots in 8 seconds? You could. Several people did it. Why do you think they make military rifles? To be accurate. 22. Lee would sneak off. When out, he wouldn't let Marina learn English or watch TV. So Marina went to a neighbor's home to watch TV. That's how she was learning English, from Western Movies. While he was with her he noted that she would say "Howdy" and "Partner" so Howard made a joke, "She must be from western Russia." 23. Lee felt he would do something to be recognized as a leader. He would think about this while sitting in the livingroom working the rifle bolt over and over. This worried Marina. She didn't even tell him that she was pregnant again right away. 24. In April '63, she goes into the bedroom and finds a note on the dresser. [Walker note] (Howard reads note to the audience.) Marina didn't even know about the PO Box, she'd never been into a bank or cashed a check. Lee mentions a small blue valise that Howard says "opened up a lot of stuff for the Secret Service." Howard asks the audience: "If you got a note like that and then looked into the closet and the blanket wrapped rifle is gone-and you have a disturbed husband-what would you think?" 25. Lee reads about General Walker. Walker must be un-American so Lee decides to shoot him. Walker has his back to the window sitting in a high leather chair. Walker leans over to get a pencil and the shot misses. Lee doesn't realize he has missed. This is the only time the IRS has saved someone's life because Walker was doing his taxes when he dropped the pencil. 26. Lee comes home pale and shaking, sweating. He tells Marina he shot General Walker. Marina knows she is doomed. He calms her down by telling her he has hidden the rifle and no one will ever catch him. She insists they leave Dallas. 27. They decide to move to New Orleans. But first, someone comes to Dallas one day. Lee reads it in the paper and then puts his revolver in his waistband. Marina (pregnant) manages to throw Lee down on the couch and get the revolver away from him. He doesn't go. (Howard digresses here) Later the Secret Service are at Marina's home and in a cookbook, find the notebook stating who Lee wanted to kill [Walker, Connally, and LBJ]. He also had written a note to FBI Agent Hosty stating, "If he comes to my house, I'll kill him. And I'll blow up the FBI building." Marina thought the VP in the paper was Nixon because she knew he was anti-Russian, but it was actually LBJ that came to town that day. 28. This is a portrait of a murderer. He wanted to be recognized as someone great. 29. They move to New Orleans. (Howard states he is not going to talk about that period today. He goes over his negative feelings about the Oliver Stone movie.) 30. Marina decides to go back to Dallas with Ruth Paine. Lee decides to go to Mexico, then Cuba to be a leader. He will be Castro's #1 man and advisor. 31. Lee finds he can't get a VISA. Disillusioned, he comes back to Dallas but Marina doesn't want him around. 32. He was staying with a friend but meanwhile Marina feels sorry for him. She goes to a neighbor's for coffee and hears about a job at the TSBD. 33. They have two jobs, hauling boxes and filling orders. Lee looks intelligent so he gets the job filling orders. That job is on the 6th floor so that's why Lee was on that floor-it was his job. The motorcade was not even planned yet. This is October '63. 34. (The motorcade planning according to Howard) A Congressman from Houston says he needs JFK to come there because there are lots of Republicans and he needs the help. Then JFK can go straight to California. Then the Congressman from San Antonio says JFK must come there because they have lots of Latin votes they could get. Then Jim Wright from Ft. Worth says JFK must go there for the military votes. The Dallas Congressman wants them also. So they plan the trip after that. Then LBJ steps in and plans a bar-b-que and reception in Austin. 35. This couldn't have been planned ahead by anybody. Howard states his job was advance and the last time he saw JFK alive was when JFK got on the plane at Ft. Worth. Then he and his partner went back to the hotel room to "sweep" it for anything that may have been left behind. 36. As they walk out of the hotel room, they hear about shots. They drive to Dallas, to Parkland. The doctors are still working with the body. It hit him hard when he saw Jackie as he had been the one to escort her down to breakfast that morning when she was running late. 37. He is then assigned to the Oswalds. 38. (The shot sequence according to Howard) The first shot must have hit a limb-this was a missed shot. They found the clipped limb in the tree so he thought this was true. The second shot hit JFK in the shoulder and came out the throat. Because Connally, turned (he demonstrates turning to look over his right shoulder) Connally was in the position for the bullet to hit them both. Connally had white hair so LHO aimed that way but hit the President's head instead. In Howard's opinion, when Lee brought the rifle to work, he pitched it into the backset of the car and messed up the sight on the scope. So when he zeroed in on Connally, he accidentally hit JFK. He had no problem with Kennedy, but he did with Connally. 39. He had tried to talk Marina into coming back to him but she spurned him. 40. They test shot the rifle. You could get 2 shots accurately. Lee had practiced with the rifle. 41. The Secret Service was confused. They couldn't tell where the shots came from. Because of the echo in the Plaza, they heard 9 nine shots. They saw people running. 42. This deranged young man still had that little tumor in his brain. Howard reminded the audience of the sniper in the Austin tower who was a former Marine. He killed 31 people before they got him. He also had a tumor. Q & A began. 1. Why was the parade route advertised? To draw crowds. Decisions were made by the Democratic Party. The bubble top was taken off because of Democrat leader request. 2. Where was Charles Kunkel? New York. He came in that night 3. (missed this question, something about critique of agencies involved.) The FBI dropped the ball with LHO, but didn't know they had until later. 4. What about the story of a SS Agent being killed? Not true. But, it was close with Hill on the back of the car. Also Agent Jack Ready stepped off the follow-up car, fell and almost got hit by the car but he was saved. 5. Was Harvey Henderson in Dallas? No. 6. (Question about being watched by SS.) Marina lived with the owner of the Inn but the SS continued to watch/protect her. 7. (Question about Oswald's mother.) Marguerite kept a bayonet under her pillow. She was pretty irrational. 8. Did Marina disclose anything? Yes. She knew he did it, but didn't understand why it was the president. Since then Marina has been influenced--changed her mind and become a wealthy woman. 9. (Question about protection of LHO) Critical of DPD 10. What happened to the tapes of the Oswald's taken during the assassination weekend? (I asked this one) Peter Gregory translated and later we brought in one of our own guys. The tapes were turned over to the Warren Commission. Later, President Ford told Howard that he listened to every word. Howard supposed all the commissioners did. 11. What happened to the notebook page where LHO says he wants to kill Walker, Connally, and LBJ? (I also asked this one.) SS Agent Kelly took the notebook page to LBJ. The page has disappeared but reappeared later. (?) The FBI had it. 12. What is the best book on the assassination? President Ford's, "Portrait of an Assassin" and "Conspiracy of One" by Jim Moore -end- I do have this followup from Gary Mack. Apparently this is not the first time Howard has put his nose into the case utilizing goofy information. See CE 2578 and CE 2579: Howard is accused of planting false information in the press. oh well... Debra Joseph Backes wrote: > > Here's some news from Debra Conway. > > A JOKE. BIG JOKE."Portrait of an Assassin" > > I took careful notes inbetween trying to keep a straight face. > > For instance: Did you know that the reason LHO shot the president was > because he had a brain tumor?? Yes. That's right. When Lee was just a > lad > of five, he and his brother Robert were riding their bikes over to their > new home. As they rode up the driveway there was pickup truck moving a > few > of their heavier things but the driver didn't see little Lee. LOOK OUT! > someone called out. Hitting the brakes, the driver caused a dresser > drawer > to fall out of it's chest hitting Lee in the head. He had a terrible > bump > and was badly bruised--but worst of all, he was knocked out for eight > days. > Eight long days, fading in and out. The bruises and the bump finally > went > away, but left behind in his head was a knot the size of a quarter. This > became the tumor that caused the terrible events in this boy's whole > life. > (This was supposedly told to him by Robert Oswald.) And what a tragic > life > it was turned out to be because he wasn't even trying to shoot the > president. Yes, ladies and gentleman, he was shooting at Governor > Connally! > > That morning when Lee brought his highly accurate, military-made rifle > to > work, he "pitched" it into the back seat of a car which messed up the > sight > on the scope. Aiming at the Governor's white hair, Oswald instead blows > the > president's head off! OOPS! > > Earth to Mike Howard.... > > Joe, you will die when you read what he said about the motorcade > planning. > > more later, > > Debra