In the first three weeks after the JFK Assassination, we find that General Walker and his aide, Robert Alan Surrey, decided to publish their version of the JFK Assassination in a so-called book entitled, “The Assassination Story” (1963).
It's not really a book; there's no original text. It consists of 60 pages of newspaper clippings from two Dallas newspapers (the Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times Herald), selectively covering about three weeks of daily news after the JFK Assassination.
According to the WC testimony of Robert Alan Surrey, 3,000 copies were printed. About 1,000 were sold, and then the Dallas Times Herald sued Walker for failing to ask for their permission. Courts placed a legal “cease and desist” order on the publication and Surrey stopped the presses. The other 2,000 were given away to members of the “Friends of Walker” organization as gifts.
Today these “books” are collectors’ items, getting up to $400 each. HOWEVER -- if somebody has a First Edition of this “book” in their family garage, I advise them not to sell, but hold on. If we ever get enough evidence to prove our JFK case against General Walker, then I expect that every First Edition could sell for a hundred times more. (There were no more “editions,” but a few Xerox copies have floated about for decades, and I don't count those.)
I realize that most people will never see this book. Most available copies are held by University Libraries, which refuse to lend them out because they regularly "disappeared.” One must visit a University Library in person to see them -- or buy a Xerox copy on e-Bay, where the bidding starts at about $140.
Well, since I'm close to a University and I have access to a copy, I'll briefly describe it for those who just want a quick overview. The “book” consists of two sections, roughly speaking; two halves.
FIRST HALF: About 150 articles from the Dallas Morning News, arranged chronologically, starting about 11/22/1963, until about 12/15/1963.
SECOND HALF: About 150 articles from the Dallas Times Herald, arranged chronologically, starting about 11/22/1963, until about 12/15/1963.
Since General Walker and his Dallas crew published this, we should expect to find some clues that promote the Dallas Radical Right viewpoint in this specific selection of news articles.
Here's what I found in the first half. In addition to ordinary reporting on the JFK Assassination, we find about 10% of articles about General Walker in the news. Here are the highlights of the First Half, which I present here along with my interpretation according to my own reading and opinion.
1. DMN: Sunday 11/24/1963
HEADLINE: FBI INTERVIEWED OSWALD, SOURCES SAY, BUT DENIAL COMES FROM WASHINGTON
ARTICLE: This article claims that LHO had been tracked by the Washington FBI as late as six days before the JFK murder. The FBI and SS talked about LHO during the preparation stages of the JFK motorcade – but declined to tell the Dallas Police. Washington DC denied all this.
ANALYSIS: This was Walker propaganda. JFK was killed by Communists, he claimed, and Walker had accused Washington DC of supporting Communism since 1959. Here was the proof: the FBI and Secret Service knew about Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) but kept this a secret from the Dallas Police, sworn to protect JFK. If the Dallas Police had arrested LHO back in April, then JFK would still be alive. This was Walker's core message for decades.
2. DMN Tuesday: 11/26/1963
HEADLINE: ANY OSWALD-RUBENSTEIN TIE IN DALLAS SOUGHT BY POLICE
ARTICLE: This article claims that Dallas Police are seeking any clues that will link LHO and Jack Ruby in a conspiracy, such that Ruby, as a conspirator himself, acted to silence LHO, on behalf of that conspiracy.
ANALYSIS: This was Walker propaganda. Walker pushed the Dallas Police to seek for any such clues, just to justify this article. Note that Jack Ruby is called by his Jewish surname; a hint of the Jewish/Bolshevik doctrine of the Far Right. If the public were convinced that LHO and Ruby were part of a Communist plot, then the Dallas Radical Right would no longer be a suspect.
3. DMN Tuesday: 11/26/1963
HEADLINE: KREMLIN USES LINE ABOUT PLOT
ARTICLE: This article reports that the Kremlin charged the Dallas Radical Right for the JFK murder as simply a “line” to enable the Kremlin to deny the fact that the Communists agents killed JFK by using LHO and other agents.
ANALYSIS: This was Walker propaganda. The fact that the Kremlin (the Communist Enemy) had actually said this (true or not) was sufficient to prove it was a lie.
4. DMN Wednesday: 11/27/1963
HEADLINE: EVIDENCE POINTS TO RED ACTIVITY
ARTICLE: This article claims that the evidence about LHO gathered by the US Government show that LHO was involved solely with the Communists.
ANALYSIS: This was Walker propaganda. As Jim Garrison and Jeff Caulfield ably showed, LHO was connected with the New Orleans Radical Right, and with the Communists only as a fake member. Yet LHO's Radical Right connections were effectively denied in this one-sided portrayal.
5. DMN Wednesday: 11/27/1963
HEADLINE: MORRIS SAYS REDS TRYING TO COVER-UP
ARTICLE: General Walker's lawyer, Robert Morris, doubles down on yesterday's Kremlin story above.
ANALYSIS: This is Walker propaganda. General Walker wished to stress this accusation -- since the Kremlin was the Communist Enemy, and this was allegedly sufficient to prove it was false (and that anybody who took the same “line” must be a Communist fellow-traveler).
6. DMN Wednesday: 11/27/1963
HEADLINE: HIDELL BACK AGAIN
ARTICLE: New Orleans reporters say that LHO's alleged FPCC organization in NOLA had a member named Alek Hidell. This matched Klein's mail order of a rifle to Alek Hidell at LHO's post office box in Dallas in March, 1963.
ANALYSIS: The report links LHO with the JFK murder rifle and with the FPCC -- a favorite organization of Fidel Castro. This implies that the Communists were ready to kill JFK as early as March, 1963.
7. DMN: Thursday 11/28/1963
HEADLINE: WALKER COMMENTS IN MUNICH
ARTICLE: From the UPI in Munich, Germany, this article quotes from the German newspaper, Deutsche NationalZeitung, in which Walker said that the JFK Assassination came as no surprise to him. Even though LHO was a leftist and JFK was a leftist, it’s no surprise because those strange Commies often have purges. Walker was absolutely certain that Ruby shot LHO for reasons other than pity for Jackie Kennedy.
ANALYSIS: Walker gave this interview to the German newspaper early in the morning on 11/23/1963 -- about 18 hours after the JFK Assassination. This was the same German article (post-dated 11/29/1963) which claimed that LHO was General Walker's shooter in April 1963. That part of the German article was omitted here.
8. DMN: Thursday 11/28/1963
HEADLINE: DATA SHOW OSWALD RENTED NEAR RUBY
ARTICLE: This article claimed to have evidence that LHO and Jack Ruby were neighbors. General Walker made a similar claim during his WC testimony, and the WC attorneys shot it down.
ANALYSIS: This is Walker propaganda. If he could portray closer link between LHO and Ruby, the public might imagine that Ruby killed LHO to silence him about their common Communist conspiracy. The goal was to eliminate nationwide speculation about a Dallas Radical Right JFK plot.
9: DMN: Sunday 12/01/1963
HEADLINE: TOWER PUTS BLAME ON OSWALD, REDS
ARTICLE: US Senator John Tower of Texas said in Washington DC that it should be obvious that LHO was a Communist, and so the Communists plotted to kill JFK.
ANALYSIS: This is Walker propaganda. It uses the big guns of a US Senator, John Tower of Texas, to sell the story. We note that LBJ and his Cabinet consistently denied any Communist plot
10. DMN: Sunday 12/01/1963
HEADLINE: MONEY REPORTEDLY WIRED TO OSWALD BEFORE SLAYING
ARTICLE: This article reported a rumor from a Western Union clerk in Dallas, that LHO regularly came to his Dallas office to receive cash from some unknown source. (This Western Union clerk also gave WC testimony but failed to provide sufficient documentary evidence to convince the WC attorneys.)
ANALYSIS: This is Walker propaganda. General Walker wished to portray LHO as a member of a Communist plot. By receiving secret money at a Western Union office, LHO would most likely be pursuing a Communist plot.
11. DMN: Monday 12/02/1963
HEADLINE: WALKER SPEECH CANCELED; HOTEL RECEIVED PROTESTS
ARTICLE: This article reports that a speech by General Walker in Long Island, New York, was canceled by the hotel because of so many threatening phone calls and marching protestors. The “Long Island Friends of Walker” demanded to know why George Lincoln Rockwell, a Nazi, and Gus Hall, a Communist, could make speeches in Long Island without such protests.
ANALYSIS: What does Walker's booking in Long Island have to do with the JFK Assassination? Walker's politics! Less than 12 days after the JFK Assassination, the appearance of General Walker on stage shocked many Americans.
12. DMN: Tuesday 12/03/1963
HEADLINE: WALKER CITES INTERNAL U.S. THREAT
ARTICLE: The JFK Assassination could have happened in any US city, not only Dallas. This is because Communists are everywhere, always ready to attack!
ANALYSIS: This is plain Walker propaganda. Its main goal is to remove blame from Dallas for the JFK Assassination.
13. DMN: Friday 12/06/1963
HEADLINE: SOVIET INSINUATIONS CALL FOR QUERY ON OSWALD
ARTICLE: The Kremlin said that LHO was CIA -- This slur on our beloved CIA justifies investigating LHO as a deadly tool of the Kremlin.
ANALYSIS: This is Walker propaganda. Though Walker and his crew regularly said that the CIA is also Communist, they surely wanted the US Public to take anything the Kremlin said as pure lies.
14. DMN: Friday 12/06/1963
HEADLINE: GERMAN NEWSPAPER REPORTS: THE STRANGE CASE OF OSWALD
ARTICLE: This is a reprint of the Deutsche Nationalzeitung article of an interview of Walker 18 hours after the JFK Assassination. In this interview, Walker suggests to his interviewers that the Communist LHO was Walker's shooter back in April, 10, 1963, as well as JFK's shooter on November 22, 1963.
ANALYSIS: This is Walker propaganda. If LHO had been properly arrested in April 1963, then JFK would still be alive. Walker said this often over the years.
15. DMN: Saturday 12/07/1963
HEADLINE: WOMAN SAYS FBI WAS TOLD WHERE OSWALD WORKED
ARTICLE: Interviewers report that Ruth Paine admitted telling FBI agent James Hosty in early November 1963 that LHO worked at the Texas School Book Depository.
ANALYSIS: Walker didn't like the Lone Nut portrait of LHO that the WC and the FBI had strongly promoted. Walker wanted a Communist portrait of LHO. In order to undermine the FBI in their Lone Nut portrait, the Dallas Radical Right attacked James Hosty many times. This is one example. It repeats the claim that FBI agent James Hosty knew how dangerous LHO was, but refused to tell the Dallas Police or normal security about LHO. It implicates the FBI in the JFK assassination, too. This was OK with Walker, who regarded everything in Washington DC to be Communist.
16. DMN: Saturday 12/07/1963
HEADLINE: WIFE SAYS LEE OSWALD WAS WALKER SHOOTER
ARTICLE: Interviewers report that Marina Oswald admitted that LHO was Walker's shooter back in April.
ANALYSIS: The fact that LHO had been Walker's shooter was already reported by the German newspaper above, for a full week before Marina merely confirmed the report. Walker knew that fact because his Dallas accomplices had told him within days of the April shooting – according to Walker himself.
That was what I found interesting in the first half of the Walker-Surrey publication, The Assassination Story (1963). In coming days I’ll present what I found interesting in the second half.
Regards,
--Paul Trejo