As I stood there in a state of disbelief, my mind was racing. First, "deathbed confession" implies that someone is going to die. If Oswald doesn't die on the table, is "Oliver Hardy" or someone else going to kill him?
Second, anyone who knows anything about Texas politics is familiar with the 1948 U.S. Senate race when Johnson defeated Coke Stevenson, and the election improprieties that were documented in South Texas. It occurred to me that if a dead man could vote in Duvall County then, and they were documented as having done so there again in 1960 during the Presidential election, why can't a dead man confess to a murder in Dallas County?
And finally, why would the President of the United States personally call the operating room at Parkland Hospital and ask for a deathbed confession? That question still puzzles me. Why wouldn't someone with the Dallas police or the FBI make that request? Then, more questions followed, inquiries that had frightening, inconceivable answers.
I rushed back into the operating room and approached Dr. Shires. There was blood everywhere, and five sets of hands were working in Oswald's belly. [p. 187]
"You won't believe who I just talked to," I said to Dr. Shires.
He looked at me with a "what's next" expression.
"President Johnson would like for us to allow that man over there to get a statement from our patient."
Shires glanced at "Oliver Hardy," shook his head in disbelief, and returned his attention to the operation. I wish that could have taken a picture of him as he stood there, covered in blood. It would have been worth an entire library of words in expressing our efforts to save Oswald.
Under the best circumstances, it would have been days before Oswald could have spoken lucidly to anyone. It was ironic. We had a patient on the table under oxygen anesthesia, bleeding to death from a bullet that had penetrated almost every organ in his body, and the President of the United States wanted the intruder with the gun to conduct an interview. The fact that a stranger was in the operating room during surgery, something that would never have been tolerated, best illustrates the hospital's state of confusion at that time.
Only moments later, at 12:37 P.M., almost one hour into the operation, Oswald's heart began to fail. . . . [p. 188]
I walked over to our visitor with the gun and remarked, :There won't be any deathbed confession today." Like Clint Hill, "Oliver Hardy" disappeared, and I never saw him again.
. . . It was 1:07 P.M., and Lee Harvey Oswald was dead. [p. 189]
For several moments we stood there in silence, gazing at a dead man who had possibly taken the secrets and evidence of Kennedy's assassination to the grave. Outside of President Kennedy, this was the one patient we did not want to lose. We truly believed that we had a chance to save Oswald. . . . Oswald did not die from damaged internal organs. He died from the chemical imbalances of hemorrhage shock. . . . [p. 189-190]
When Dr. Shires had concluded the meeting [with the press], I ducked out a back exit and headed for the parking lot. All the way to my car, reporters were at my heels, requesting an interview and barking questions. Ignoring all their attempts to get a story from me, I jumped into my automobile and drove home. When I arrived at my apartment, I found the place full of people -more bedlam. All my neighbors, friends, and in-laws were there, waiting to quiz me on every detail of the previous three days. And again, I carefully chose my words to tell them almost nothing, for I never knew when one of the men in suits might be just outside my window, listening. [p. 192]
More disturbing than the images of President Kennedy are the questions about President Johnson. Why did he insist that Kennedy's body be placed on board Air Force One before returning to Washington? Why did he personally call Captain Fritz of the Dallas Homicide Department, telling him that he had his man, and that no further investigation was needed? Why did he personally call me at Parkland about a confession from Oswald? Why would a President with the immediate and monumental task of taking over the U.S. government involve himself in a matter that should have been routinely handles by the law enforcement agencies? Why did he usurp the authority of the Texas officials and place the responsibility for the investigation in the hands of a personal crony, FBI head J. Edgar Hoover? No doubt, the operations of murder and cover-up required no less than a sovereign figure who, first, had the influence, power, and knowledge to carry our the deed. Second, and most difficult, such a person must cover up the act through the manipulation of information. Only one man had such power on November 22, 1963, and he became President of the United States. Paramount to this operation of obscurity was the appointment of the Warren Commission and the locking up of vital information for seventy-five years -both of which were the acts of Lyndon Baines Johnson. [p. 198-199]
More frustrating than the assassination itself was the behavior of government officials and the people who blamed Parkland for both deaths. These, as well as the deceit of the Warren Report, are the reasons I decided to research and then write the book. Had I not been on those emergency rooms and experienced the subsequent intimidation and criticism, I would have never made the commitment to tell the story. [p. 200]
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
