OSWALD INNOCENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303190018-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: November 22, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/27 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303190018-8 STAT
. _. _ _..., r..
" ~r'.~AF~,D
":::~;:,een years ago today John
F. Kennedy Kas assassinated in
Dallas. It vas the public event of
the. age. Probably every Ameri-
can over the age of 40, perhaps
every one over the age of 30,
remembers vividly the moment
tZ;e nears flash came. The televi-
sion networks cancelled all their
regular programs for endless re-
porting on the tragedy and its af-
termath. During that aftermath
there was for the first and only
time ever live coverage of a mur-
der-in-progress-Jack Ruby's
shooting of the assassin, Lee Har-
ve3, Oswald, in the basement of
the Dallas City Hall.
,Some readers did not get to the
wprds "in the basement of the
Dallas City Hall" in that para-
gr~ph. As soon as they -read "as-
sassin. Lee. Har- ." they
dropped the newspaper to take
pen in hand, or horsewhip, in or-
der to convince this writer that
Os~ald didn't kill Kennedy. Near-
h?~20 years after the fact, there
are still a few million Americans
who do not believe Oswald did it.
Where ar? many, many mil-
lions who do not believe he did it
THE BALTIMORE SUN
22 November 1982
Oswald
Innocent
alone. In the week of November.
22-27, 1963, Gallup found that 29
percent of Americans believed
one man acting alone -killed
Kennedy, 52 percent believed it
was a group action. In 1976, after
the Warren Commission report
and scores of sensational books,
Gallup asked the question again
Notes ~ Comment
and found that only 11 percent
believed there was a lone assas-
sin; 81 percent believed it was a
conspiracy involving Cubans or
American politicians or Commu-
nists or the CIA or the Mafia or -
Russians or speciai_interest
groups.
If Oswald had lived to be tried,
the facts would have come out
and suspicions put to rest, some
trial lawyers say.
Maybe. Maybe not. Jce H.
Tonahill, a trial lawyer from Jas-
per, Texas, says, "Oswald would
have been acquitted of murdering
the president." For the record he
believes Oswald did it, but he also
believes that proving that in a
courtroom would have required
using statements by his wife,
Marina, which would not have
been admissible in a trial under
Texas law at that time, and of
using material evidence, such as
photographs and papers police
obtained by conducting an illegal
search and seizure, also not ad-
missible under prevailing U.S. Su-
preme Court opinions.
Scoff if you like, but you
sbould know that Tonahill was
one of Jack Ruby's lawyers,
Ruby's conviction was reversed
on appeal, on grounds that inad-
missible evidence was used at his
trial. Millions saw him shoot Os-
wald. He admitted it freely. But
in the eyes of the law, he was an
innocent man when he died wait-
ing retrial.
-Theo Lippman, Jr.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/27 :CIA-RDP90-005528000303190018-8