Erasing the Past to Protect a Fairytale

227  "The (original) Stemmons Freeway sign"


See also:
52 An accurate account of the Zapruder film's time in the governments hands
53 A more comprehensive CIA & NPIC analysis of the Zapruder film

Erasing the Past...Discussions

Later on the day of the assassination, the "Stemmons Freeway" sign, which according to some bystanders
was struck by a bullet, disappeared. It is missing in photographs made in Dealey Plaza the next day. No
explanation of this disappearance has ever been offered, although some Dallasites recall a brief local news
segment at the time explaining that the sign was taken down by the city because a bullet hole in it would
remind the public of the assassination.

In 2004 the Asahi Television Network of Japan procured two separate copies of the Zapruder film, both of
which contained approximately six frames missing from the copies shown across the world to the public.
Life magazine officials explained the missing frames were due to processing damage. In the missing frames
it is apparent that a small hole appears in the Stemmons sign at the time of the shooting.

(Jim Marrs, Crossfire. p. 306, 2013 edition.)



The Dealey Plaza freeway signs are not influential in any of the alternative
explanations and conspiracy theories which have been proposed over the
years, but there have been two notable claims relating to the signs.

The first claim was that the Stemmons and Thornton signs were
moved to make it impossible to exactly reconstruct the assassination
events, particularly in relation to a proposed shooter at the grassy knoll.

This idea seems to have arisen from the July 24, 1964, testimony of
eyewitness Emmett Hudson, the groundskeeper of Dealey Plaza, who stated
all the Dealey Plaza freeway signs, including the Stemmons sign, had
been moved. Hudson’s testimony was reported in Harold Weisberg’s 1965
book Whitewash, which presented an analysis exposing alleged inadequacies
of the official investigation and became very influential in creating
skepticism of the Warren Commission report. However, the brief and vague
testimony relating to the signs can be interpreted as being consistent with
the removal of the Stemmons sign and replacement of the Thornton sign in
June 1964, after the FBI reenactment on May 24. No evidence was ever
presented to support the claim that the original Stemmons sign was
repositioned before the Warren Commission analysis or the FBI reenactment.

Another claim which has circulated in conspiracy circles is that a
bullet struck the Stemmons sign and the sign was replaced within one day,
either during the day or at night, depending on the version of the story.

This claim is totally implausible since a hole or ding in the sign would have
been noticed by the large crowds and press corps at the site, and daytime
replacement of the sign would certainly have been photographed.



In addition, photographs of the sign, such as on page 150, do not appear
to show a clean, new sign.

(Oscar Slotboom, Dallas and Forth Worth Freeways, chapter 5)



Mr. LIEBELER - Now, let's take a look at that picture, Mr. Hudson, and let me ask you if you can see in that
picture, where you were standing?
Mr. HUDSON -(no response.)

Mr. LIEBELER - Now, this picture, Hudson Exhibit No. 1, has a sign in it that says "Stemmons Freeway, keep
right." doesn't it?
Mr. HUDSON - Yes.

Mr. LIEBELER - Can you find that sign on the photograph No. 18 of the Commission Exhibit No. 875? The one
that we were talking about before.
Mr. HUDSON - That's right here, I believe - right here.

Mr. LIEBELER - Now, that sign says, "R. L. Thornton Freeway, keep right." Where is the Stemmons Freeway
sign in this picture? Can you see it in that picture at all - I can't.
Mr. HUDSON - I can't either - that isn't it - it's farther up this way.

Mr. LIEBELER - That's further back up and it's out of the picture?
Mr. HUDSON - Yes.

Mr. LIEBELER - There are two signs in picture No. 18, one says, "R.L. Thornton Freeway, keep right." and
the other one says, "Fort worth Turnpike, keep right."
Mr. HUDSON - There were two of them that wasn't too far apart right through there - them signs was - one
was right along in here and the other one was either further up, I guess. It's not in that picture - I don't
believe. Now, they have moved some of those signs. They have moved the R.L. Thornton Freeway sign and
put up a Stemmons sign.

Mr. LIEBELER - They have? They have moved it?
Mr. HUDSON - Yes, sir.

(The Testimony of Emmet J. Hudson, 10:40 a.m., on July 22, 1964, in the office of the U.S. attorney, 301
Post Office Building, Bryan and Ervay Streets, Dallas, Tex, by Mr. Wesley J. Liebeler, assistant counsel of the
President's Commission.)

229  Bullet / projectile recovered near sewer cover



Compare:
50 The Harper Fragment
63 7.65 shell found in Dealey Plaza on 12/02/63
69 Bullet found in JFK's limousine
77 File cabinet containing, “records that appeared to be names and activities of Cuban sympathizers”
97 James Tague May 1964 Dealey plaza color film

Erasing the Past...Discussions

Dallas policeman J. W. Foster, who was positioned on top of the triple underpass, saw a bullet strike the
grass on the south side of Elm Street near a manhole cover, about 350 feet from the TSBD. He reported
this to a superior officer and was instructed to guard the area.

(Michael T. Griffith, Extra bullets and missed shots, Second Edition Revised on 4/28/2001)

Another group of pictures taken at Dealey Plaza shortly after the assassination by Jim Murray of Blackstar
Photo Service and William Allen of the Dallas Times Herald revealed another individual wearing exactly the
same kind of radio receiver in a semi-invisible earclip. In this series of photos, Deputy Sheriff Buddy
Walthers is shown looking down at a bullet while a neatly dressed blond man is reaching down to pick it up.
The unidentified blond man was wearing the plastic radio receiver clipped to his ear lobe.



The bullet was never seen again. The Warren Commission did not ask Walthers about the bullet or the
blond man with the earclip, and he did not volunteer anything about them. Walthers subsequently was
murdered, so it is safe to conclude that this bullet will remain on the long list of missing or destroyed
evidence.

(Jim Garisson, On the trail of the assassins of JFK, 1988)



The elusive Robert Barrett

Mark Oakes did an excellent job researching this subject many years ago ... He makes a strong case that
the man next to Walthers was FBI agent Robert Barrett. Barret's friend, FBI agent Robert Gemberling, is
the person who helped ID Barrett.

(Jim DiEugenio, Reclaiming Parkland, p. 211)


But Barrett said it was not he (Telephone interview of Robert Barrett by author on March 5, 2004; Barrett
said he had told this to assassination researcher Dale Myers earlier).

Despite the oft-cited references to a bullet being recovered near the sewer cover, if a bullet were actually
recovered, it is difficult to believe that no record would exist. After all, the plaza was full of spectators at
the time of the alleged discovery, the story was covered by numerous reporters, and the actual event was
captured on film by two photographers. If investigators destroyed the evidence, as critics allege, how
would they know just minutes after the shooting in Dealey Plaza and before any bullet or fragments were
even recovered that they would have to get rid of a “fourth” bullet? The allegation makes no sense unless
you believe (as many critics do) that Oswald had been chosen well in advance of the shooting to be the
fall guy.

(Vincent Bugliosi, Reclaiming history)



A sequence of photos show one of the men picking something up out of the grass and then putting it in
his pocket. Some researchers claim that these men were FBI or CIA agents. Walthers initially claimed a
bullet was found. However, he later changed his mind and said it was actually a piece of JFK's head.
Some researchers have suggested that it was a bullet that could not be linked to Lee Harvey Oswald 
that was being placed in the agent's pocket.

(Buddy Walthers Spartacus educational)


Edna and Wayne Hartman were key witnesses to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy - witnessing
a burrow created by a missed shot that hit and raised up the turf near the curbside manhole cover on the
south side of Elm Street in Dealey Plaza.

On 11/22/63, the Hartmans had been at Mullendorf's Cafe on Main St. near Dealey Plaza when they heard
that the Presidential motorcade would soon pass by the cafe. They went outside and stood at the N.E.
corner of Main and Record to watch the motorcade, then returned to the cafe. Within minutes they heard
loud gunshots and immediately went outside and proceeded down Main St. to Dealey Plaza where they saw
generalized chaos and encountered a policeman and a small boy on the Grassy Knoll.

Edna Hartman later recalled to JFK author, Jim Marrs, "He [the policeman] pointed to some bushes near the
railroad tracks on the north side of the street and said that's where the shots came from... Then I noticed
these two parallel marks on the ground that looked like mounds made by a mole. I asked, 'What are these,
mole hills?' and the policeman said, 'Oh no, ma'am, that's where the bullets struck the ground'"

(Marrs, Crossfire, 315-16).

Amateur assassination photographer Hugh Betzner noticed "police officers and some men in plain clothes . . .
digging around in the dirt as if they were looking for a bullet" there. And professional photographers Jim Murray
and William Allen took a famous sequence of photos showing Dep. Sheriff E. R. "Buddy" Walthers (in civilian
clothes) watching as a blonde-haired man, he believed to be an FBI agent, pointed at the dug-out spot on
the ground just off Elm Street, bent over, scooped something up from the turf, then put the item in his pocket.
Shown the photos, Dallas Police Chief, Jesse Curry, said the man was an FBI agent, but he didn't know his
name. Later he said he knew his name but wouldn't divulge his name. Some have identified him as FBI Special
Agent Robert Barrett (since disproved), others as FBI Agent Kenneth "Prince" Albert (the agent has a very
strong likeness to his yearbook photos). The photographs have been widely published.

Murray also photographed the hole that was left in the turf after the scene had been cleared; this photograph
ran in the following day's Fort Worth Star-Telegram, captioned, "One of the rifle bullets fired by the murderer
of President Kennedy lies in the grass across Elm Street . . ." The Dallas Times-Herald reported in reference to
the hole in the grass, "Dallas Police Lt. J. C. Day of the crime lab estimated the distance from the sixth-floor
window . . . to the spot where one of the bullets was recovered at 100 yards."

In 1964 the Hartman's responded to an FBI request to the public for witnesses to contact them with
information. The FBI did not take their statement until July 1964 (CD 1518). Edna said when the they went
to the FBI to volunteer their detailed observations the FBI acted like their observations were not important
to the FBI or the investigation, and that it did not matter to the FBI whether the HARTMAN's made a
statement or not. Edna said the FBI dismissively told them that the bullet track was caused by "pieces of
bone from the skull of the president," but Edna said "I told them I did not believe a bone could do all of that."
And "The angle it (the bullet track) was, it could not have been from the President's skull".

The Hartman's told the FBI the hole as about 1 1/2" in diameter and the burrow as shallow, not going down
into the earth, but running just under the roots of the grass for about 18-24 inches. They described its
direction as being from the Grassy Knoll toward the south, ie: toward Main Street. (This would be
perpendicular to the direction of a missed shot had it been fired from the Texas School Book Depository.)

In 1982, Dallas Morning News reporter, Earl Golz, interviewed the Hartmans for his book writing that the
Hartman's said the bullet track was "...not in line with the shots fired from the depository building..." but
was "...aligned in the direction of the grassy knoll across the street and to the right front of the limousine."

When JFK reseacher/author, Jim Marrs, interviewed the Hartmans for his 1989 book "Crossfire" he shared
with them the content of their FBI Statements for the first time and were furious to learn that their
statements had been altered by the FBI, without their knowledge or permission to state the burrow
created by the missed shot led back in the direction of the Texas School Book Depository - something
they never said and directly opposed to the direction of the burrow they saw on 11/22/63.

In her videotaped interview with JFK researcher, Mark Oaks, in 1991, Mrs. Hartman specifically said the
direction of the furrow led back to the area "by a large tree above the Grassy Knoll," where it has long
been posited there was another assassin.

(Wayne Eldrige Hartman, Find a grave memorial)



The Hartmans, who came forward for the first time almost nine months later, both told the FBI the unrealistically
precise story that the gouge in the turf was “one and one-half inches in diameter” and the hole continued
just beneath the roots of the grass for about “18 to 24 inches.” Indeed, if we’re to believe Wayne Hartman,
right in front of the police officer, he was “able to fit three” of his fingers “into the hole.” (CD 1518, pp.42–45,
Interview of the Hartmans by FBI agents Raymond Switzer and Robert Barrett on August 7, 1964) Because
of the Hartmans’ statements, on September 18, 1964, the FBI went to the subject area of the turf with a metal
detector, but no fragments of a bullet were found (CD 1518, p.45-A).

231 A piece of (Kennedy's?) skull


See also:
50  The Harper fragment
229 Bullet / projectile recovered near sewer cover

Deputy Sheriff Jack W. Faulkner:
"As we were crossing Elm Street, [A.D] McCurley picked up a white piece of bone near the north curb.
He asked me, "Do you suppose that could be part of his skull?" I said, "There's no blood on it," and he
put it down. Later, we got to thinking, and somebody said your skull doesn't necessarily have to be
touching something that's bloody. We went back and looked for it later but never found it. To this day
I believe it was a piece of John Kennedy's skull."

(Larry Sneed, No more silence, 1999)

233 HSCA 8/17/1978 Memo for the Record Reinvestigation of Third Party


Related:
121 330 CIA Joannides records
232 Preparation materials and the memorandum on Dan Hardway’s interview with David Atlee Phillips

Document number 1199978 is an 8/17/1978 Memo for the Record Reinvestigation of Third Party. The date
of the document indicates that it was generated between the time l interviewed Barney Hidalgo on
7/28/1978 and David Atlee Phillips's second appearance before the HSCA in executive session on 8/10/1978.

Barney Hidalgo was interviewed because he had said that he personally knew Maurice Bishop, whom he said
worked for the CIA but was not David Atlee Phillips. The memorandum is also dated shortly before my last
interview with Phillips on 8/24/1978. A major issue I was addressing, along with other staff members, was
whether David Atlee Phillips, who was under active investigation by the HSCA staff, used the name Maurice
Bishop either as a pseudonym or as an operational cover name.

The Vaughan Index Document Description indicates that the document was denied in full because it
"contains information about Joannides* (sic) interaction with a third party who was under investigation."

(DECLARATION OF DAN L. HARDWAY, JEFFERSON MORLEY V. CIA, Filed 05/11/16)


Balmes Nieves 'Barney' Hidalgo junior