Erasing the Past to Protect a Fairytale

97 James Tague May 1964 Dealey plaza color film


Did James Tague leave a family behind? I’m wondering about the whereabouts of the color
film he took in Dealey Plaza in May 1964. It may still exist...

(Denis Morissette, Photo and film analysis in the JFK assassination Facebookgroup, 16 April 2019)



November 22, 1963 Shortly after the shooting it was known that a bystander,
James Tague, had been struck on the face by an apparent bullet fragment,
and that a fresh bullet mark was found on the curb near the place where
Tague had been standing. The Tague incident was reported to a deputy sheriff
and his superior (7H 546-547), to Dallas Police Officer Haygood (WR 116)
and the Dallas police at City Hall (7H 556). Although Tague went to City Hall
and reported his experience, the police report on the assassination (CE 2003)
does not include any affidavit from or any reference to Tague.

November 23, 1963 Two Dallas newsmen, Tom Dillard and James Underwood,
took films or photographs of the mark on the curb. (Shaneyfelt Exhibit No. 26)



November 25, 1963 Dillard was interviewed by FBI Agent Kreutzer. Presumably
he reported the bullet mark on the curb. However, the FBI report on
the interview is omitted from the Exhibits although it was in the possession of
the Warren Commission. (6H 166)

April 1, 1964 Dillard and Underwood were examined by Commission
Counsel Ball, who failed to elicit by his questions information from either of
the witnesses about the mark on the curb. Ball referred explicitly to the FBI
interview of Dillard (6H 166); if that report included information about the
mark on the curb, it must be inferred that Ball deliberately excluded this from
the scope of his examination.

April 9, 1964 Officer Haygood gave testimony before Commission Counsel
Belin in which he reported that a bystander was hit on the face during the
shooting. (6H 298)

May 1964 Disclosures to the press indicated that the Warren Commission
had concluded that the first bullet that struck the President had also hit the
Governor and caused all of his wounds.

End of May 1964 Tague took films at the scene of the assassination,
observed without his knowledge by unknown investigators who informed the
Warren Commission of the incident. He later said, "I didn't think anyone knew
about that." (7H 555)

June 11, 1964 Two FBI agents interviewed James Underwood about the
mark on the curb. (Shaneyfelt Exhibit 26) The report on the interview is not included
in the Commission's Exhibits. It is not known what led the FBI to interview
Underwood at this time; it should be noted that Dillard was not interviewed
now, perhaps because he had already told the FBI about the mark on the curb
when he was interviewed on November 25, 1963.

Unspecified date before July 7, 1964 Martha Jo Stroud, Assistant U. S.
Attorney for Dallas, sent a communication to the Warren Commission transmitting
a photograph of the mark on the curb which had been taken by Dillard.
(Shaneyfelt Exhibit 26)

July 7, 1964 The Commission formally requested the FBI to investigate
the mark on the curb. (Shaneyfelt Exhibit 26)

July 15, 1964 FBI agents interviewed Dillard and Underwood and, accompanied
by them, tried to locate the mark on the curb but reported that they
were unable to find it. This information was sent to the Commission in a letter
dated July 17, 1964. (Shaneyfelt Exhibit 26)

July 23, 1964 Tague and Deputy Sheriff Walthers gave testimony before
Commission Counsel Liebeler, both reporting the cut and the mark on the curb.
(7H 544-558) There is no indication in the record that Tague had been interviewed
before this date by any investigative agency, although he had reported
his experience to the Dallas police on the day of the assassination and apparently
was under official surveillance at the end of May when he took films at
the scene.



August 5, 1964 FBI Expert Shaneyfelt located the mark on the curb and
removed a piece of curbing for examination at the FBI Laboratory. (15H
697-701)

August 12, 1964 In a report to the Commission, the FBI stated: "In response
to your inquiry, assuming that a bullet shot from the sixth-floor window
of the . . . Depository struck the curb . . . evidence present is insufficient to
establish whether it was caused by a fragment of a bullet striking the occupants
of the Presidential limousine . . . or whether it is a fragment of a shot that may
have missed. . . ." (Shaneyfelt Exhibit 27)

September 3, 1964 The FBI informed the Commission that the distance
from the President's car to the mark on the curb at the time of the head shot
(Frame 313) was about 260 feet. (Shaneyfelt Exhibit 36)

September 27, 1964 The Warren Report revealed that a bystander had
been hit on the cheek by an object during the shooting and that an apparent
bullet mark had been found on a curb nearby. The Report stated:
The mark on the south curb of Main Street cannot be identified conclusively
with any of the three shots fired. Under the circumstances it might
have come from the bullet which hit the President's head, or it might have
been the product of the fragmentation of the missed shot upon hitting some
other object in the area. (WR 117)

(Sylvia Meagher, Accessories after the fact, p. 6/7, 1967)

99  One 4K high res scan of the Towner film


See also:
21 Several frames from the Towner film


Mack & Towner

A 4K high res scan of the Towner film was made under my supervision, with Tina's permission, at the Library of Congress.
Every frame of the TSBD was blurred due to the panning motion of her camera.

In my opinion, the film would be useless in any effort to ID Prayer Man.

(PM Gary Mack to Darren Hastings on Education forum, March 2015)

101  Forty pages of Priscilla MacMillan's HSCA interview


Related:
22 Oswald's pre-Dec 1960 CIA-File

As a "prospective agent" or a "source" the CIA set up a "201 file" on 
Priscilla Johnson in the 1950s, where she was listed as a "witting col-
laborator." After the assassination, reporter/intelligence asset Priscilla
Johnson (now Priscilla MacMillan) wrote a number of articles about her
alleged "interviews" with Oswald in Moscow in 1959. FBI document
#105-82555 shows that Johnson was working for the State Department
at the U.S. Embassy and her contact with Oswald was official business.

She was a friend and neighbor of CIA officer Cord Meyer. At the embassy
she worked with CIA asset Richard Snyder and wrote for the North
American Newspaper Alliance (NANA), a CIA and British intelligence asset
which was set up by former Office of Strategic Service (OSS) operative
Ernest Cuneo. The CIA Soviet Branch Chief, Donald Jameson noted in a
memo (12/11/62) "... I think that Miss Johnson can be encouraged to 
write pretty much the articles we want." Johnson's House Select Commit-
tee on Assassination (HSCA) Executive Session interview, 4/20/78, still
has 40 pages withdrawn by the CIA.

(Mal Hyman, Burying the lead, 2019)



JOHNSON, PRISCILLA MARY POST (aka McMillan, Priscilla),
Oswald witness; journalist and author. Johnson interviewed Oswald in the
Soviet Union on November 16, 1959, for the North American Newspaper
Alliance. She was impressed that, while Oswald was outspoken about his
desire to renounce his American citizenship, he never bothered to follow
through with the necessary paperwork. She wrote the book Marina and Lee
(Harper & Row, 1977).

(Who's who in the JFK assassination)

103  Many of Gordon McLendon's records


Related:
98 Recordings of Malcolm Perry press conference
101 Forty pages of Priscilla MacMillan's HSCA interview
102 Life LBJ/Baker research files
177 Military files of Thomas Eli Davis III

Texas Broadcast millionaire Gordon McLendon had interesting CIA and business
connections in addition to his regular contact with Jack Ruby. After Yale,
McLendon served as an intelligence officer in ONI before making his fortune in
radio. In 1967, McLendon worked with CIA-officer David Phillips, an expert in 
psychological warfare, to develop a CBS series on the exploits of the CIA. He
invested with oil baron Clint Murchison, one of LBJ's major supporters, and he 
was friendly with Bobby Baker, LBJ's aide; yet most notably, McLendon was the
first person Jack Ruby asked to see in prison. However, many of McLendon's
records remain classified.

(Mal Hyman, Burying the lead, 2019, p.69)



"A couple of times, Ruby asked, 'Chief Warren' if he knew a man named Storey,
and Gordon McLendon. Why did he ask Warren this? Had he heard Warren might
know them?"

(Groden and Livingstone, High Treason, 1989)

Gordon Barton McLendon (June 8, 1921 – September 14, 1986) was a radio
broadcaster. He was nicknamed "the Maverick of Radio." McLendon is widely
credited for perfecting, during the 1950s and 1960s, the commercially successful
Top 40 radio format created by Todd Storz. He also developed offshore pirate
radio broadcasting to both Scandinavia and the British Isles. In addition, he was
active in circles of conservative business-political power in the 1960s until the
time of his death.

(Wikipedia, retrieved 15/4/19)


KLIF studios Dallas

Both Gordon McLendon and David Phillips, the men behind the CBS-CIA TV show,
were questioned by HSCA investigators. McLendon denied knowing Jack Ruby very
well. Even though it had already been established that Ruby listed McLendon as one
of his six closest friends, patronized his radio stations, repeatedly made phone calls
to McLendon’s home, and visited his radio station studio on the weekend of the
assassination.

(...)

Jack Ruby knew McLendon, called his unlisted home phone number on the day of the
assassination, visited the KLIF studios, and arranged interviews with Dallas officials for
KLIF reporters from the Dallas Police Department. Ruby appeared to pose as a reporter
at the Dallas jail, even though most of the Dallas cops knew him as a nightclub owner.

The day after the assassination Ruby bought dozens of sandwiches from a deli and
delivered some of them to KLIF studios and the rest to the Dallas police, using the
sandwiches as an excuse to get into the building and stalk Oswald.

(Bill Kelly, Journalists and JFK, Part 3: The Real Dizinfo Agents at Dealey Plaza, 2011)