January, 1961.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and arms industry is new...
...in the American experience.
The total influence...
...economic, political, even spiritual...
...is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every government office.
We must guard against the acquisition...
...of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought...
...by the military-industrial complex.
We must never let the weight of this combination...
...endanger our liberties or democratic processes.
November, 1960.
Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts...
...wins one of the narrowest election victories in American history...
...over Vice President Richard Nixon by a little more than 100,000 votes.
Alongside his beautiful and elegant wife...
...Jacqueline Bouvier...
...Kennedy is the symbol...
...of the new freedom of the 1960s...
...signifying change and upheaval to the American public.
"All men are created equal."
Every degree of mind and spirit that I possess will be devoted...
...to the cause of freedom around the world.
Today, the proudest boast is:
"Ich bin ein Berliner! "
He inherits a secret war...
...against the Communist Castro dictatorship in Cuba...
...a war run by the CIA and angry Cuban exiles.
Castro is a successful revolutionary...
...frightening to American business interests in Latin America.
This war culminates in the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion...
...in April, 1961...
...when Kennedy refuses to provide air cover...
...for the exiled Cuban brigade.
Kennedy takes public responsibility for the failure.
He privately claims the CIA lied to him and tried to manipulate him...
...into ordering an American invasion of Cuba.
In October, 1962...
...the world comes to the brink of nuclear war...
...when Kennedy quarantines Cuba...
...after announcing the presence of offensive Soviet nuclear missiles...
...90 miles off American shores.
Soviet ships with more missiles sail towards Cuba...
...but at the last moment they turn back.
The world breathes with relief.
In Washington, rumors abound that JFK has cut a secret deal...
...with Russian Premier Khrushchev not to invade Cuba...
...in return for a Russian withdrawal of missiles.
Suspicions abound...
...that Kennedy is soft on communism.
Kennedy also finds himself embroiled in Laos and Vietnam.
We've got our difficulties there.
Unless a greater effort is made by the government...
...to win popular support, I don't think the war can be won there.
It's their war. They're the ones who have to win it or lose it.
Early that fateful summer...
...Kennedy speaks of his new vision at the American University.
What kind of peace do I mean?
What kind of peace do we seek?
Not a Pax Americana...
...enforced on the world by American weapons of war.
We must re-examine our own attitudes towards the Soviet Union.
Our most basic, common link...
...is that we all inhabit...
...this small planet.
We all breathe the same air.
We all cherish our children's futures.
And we are all mortal.
You fucking assholes!
Don't leave me here!
They've gone to Dallas.
Friday.
They're going to kill...
...Kennedy.
Call somebody.
Stop them.
These are serious fucking guys.
She's been high on something since they brought her in.
Help!
Please!
Here is a bulletin from CBS News.
In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired...
...at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas.
The first reports say that President Kennedy...
...has been seriously wounded by the shooting.
What's wrong?
The President's been shot.
In Dallas. Five minutes ago.
Oh, no!
How bad?
No word. They think it's in the head.
Napoleon's has a TV set.
Three bullets were found.
Governor Connally also appeared to have been hit.
The President was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, four miles away.
We are told the bullet entered the base of the throat and came out the back...
...but there is no confirmation.
Blood transfusions are being given. A priest has administered the last rites.
There's still a chance.
Pull through, Jack.
From Dallas...
...the flash, apparently official:
President Kennedy died...
...at 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time...
...2:00 Eastern Standard Time...
...some 38 minutes ago.
Vice President Johnson has left the hospital.
Presumably he will take the oath of office shortly...
...and become the 36th President of the United States.
He did so much for this country, for colored people. Why?
Good-bye, you sorry bastard! Die!
Shut the fuck up!
I'm ashamed to be an American today.
The President of the United States is dead.
I just talked to Father Oscar Hubert of the Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
He told me...
...President Kennedy has been given the last rites.
Shortly after 12:30, as the President's motorcade neared the freeway entrance...
...near the park in downtown Dallas...
...the shots rang out.
The President is dead.
The bullets came up over our heads...
...from that fence up on the knoll.
I seen his face when it hit.
His ear blew off and he turned real white.
He flopped over on his stomach...
...with his foot sticking out.
None of us thought it could happen in America or any place else.
All this blubbering over that no-count son of a bitch!
They're bawling like they knew the man. Makes me want to puke.
For God's sake, the President was shot.
A bullshit President!
Nobody's crying for the thousands of Cubans...
...that bastard condemned to death and torture at Bay of Pigs.
Goddamn peace treaties!
I heard shots from over there.
- I heard shots from over there. - How many?
That's what happens when you let the niggers vote.
They get together with the Jews and the Catholics...
...and elect an Irish bleeding heart.
Chief, maybe you had too much to drink.
Bullshit!
Here's to the New Frontier.
Camelot in smithereens.
I'll drink to that.
Dallas police have just announced...
...they have a suspect in the killing of Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit...
...who was shot at 1: 15 in Oak Cliff, a Dallas suburb.
Police say there could be a tie-in to the President's murder.
The suspect, identified as a Lee Harvey Oswald...
...was arrested by more than a dozen policemen...
...after a short scuffle at a movie theater in Oak Cliff.
Officer Tippit was killed...
...by a revolver which was found on Oswald.
Shoot the bastard!
Give him a medal for shooting Kennedy!
I don't know what I am charged with...
...but I emphatically deny these charges.
The kid must've gone nuts, right?
I said, Oswald must've flipped.
Right?
Just did this crazy thing before anybody could stop him.
I'm going. I've got to get home, Chief.
What are you talking about?
Who'd have ever thought...
...that goofy Oswald kid would pull a stunt like an assassination?
Goes to show you can never know about some people. Am I right, Jack?
Am I right, Jack?
Well, bless my soul.
All these years, I thought you were on my team.
Are you kidding?
I couldn't be more serious, Jack.
Your little red eyes have me wondering about your loyalty.
Look at that, Martin.
Who's been going through my files?
You've been looking through my files, you little weasel!
You're starting to get paranoid. Really!
You went through all my files!
You're a goddamn spy!
Why would I want to look through your files?
I've seen enough here this summer to write a book.
I always lock my files!
You're the only one here today.
What do you mean, you bastard?
You're going to write a book?
You know what I mean.
I've seen a lot of strange things here.
Strange people.
You didn't see a goddamn thing!
Not a goddamn thing!
The full name is Lee Harvey Oswald.
- Did you shoot the President? - I didn't shoot anybody.
They have taken me in because I have lived in the Soviet Union.
I'm just a patsy!
He sure looks like a creep.
I protested at that time I was not allowed legal representation...
...during that very short and sweet hearing.
I really don't know...
...what this situation is about.
Nobody has told me anything except that I am accused...
...of murdering a policeman.
I know nothing more than that.
I do request someone to come forward...
...to give me legal assistance.
Were you ever in the Free Cuba movement or whatever it's called?
It's the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
Why were you in Russia? What happened to your eye?
He seems pretty cool for a man under pressure.
A policeman hit me.
He gives me the willies.
Come on, sugarplums, it's past your bedtimes.
Mattie, honey, get a hold of yourself.
A fine man.
After a stint in the Marines...
...he became fascinated by communism. He is said to be a dedicated Marxist...
...and a fanatical supporter of Fidel Castro and ultra left-wing causes.
He spent last summer in New Orleans and was arrested...
...in a brawl with anti-Castro Cuban exiles.
Lou? Sorry to disturb you this late.
Matter of routine. Get on this Oswald connection in New Orleans.
Check out his record. Find any friends or associates from last summer.
Let's meet with the investigators day after tomorrow.
On Sunday?
Sunday. 11:00.
Thanks, Lou.
I would say that he is the killer...
...beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty.
I thought a motorcycle had backfired. I looked to my left.
A second shot hit him in the face.
The rifle, a cheap World War II, Italian-made Mannlicher-Carcano...
...was ordered from a Chicago mailing house...
...and shipped to Oswald's alias, A. Hidell...
...at a post office box in March of 1963.
This same rifle was used to assassinate the President.
That ties it up.
Another nut. Jesus Christ, anybody can get a rifle in Texas!
As far as Oswald's associates, one name keeps popping up: David Ferrie.
Oswald was seen with him several times last summer.
I know David. Strange character.
He's been in trouble before. He was a hot-shot pilot for Eastern Airlines.
Got canned after an alleged homosexual incident.
These photos were found yesterday among Oswald's possessions...
...in the garage where Marina Oswald and her children are living.
Somebody mentioned Ferrie on that Texas trip. Find that out.
He no shoot anyone.
He good man. Good husband.
So it seems David Ferrie drove off on Friday afternoon for Texas.
A source said he might have been a getaway pilot for Oswald.
Hold your horses.
What kind of source?
The anonymous kind, Chief.
I remember Ferrie speaking at a meeting of some veterans' group...
...ranting against Castro. Extreme stuff.
They're bringing him out. Numa, turn it up.
Here he comes!
Anything to say in your defense?
Oswald!
He shot him!
He shot him on TV!
There's a man with a gun!
Seventy cops there. What were they doing?
No trial now. Somebody just saved the Dallas DA a pile of work.
Let's get David Ferrie in here anyway.
It's wrong. This is crazy!
Yesterday, in the midst of sorrow, the business of government went on.
The President met with Henry Cabot Lodge...
...our Ambassador to Vietnam and members of his Cabinet.
The major subject was Vietnam...
...a crisis that does not pause for bereavement.
From this meeting...
...came affirmations that the US would continue aiding...
...the new government of Vietnam in its war against the Communist insurgents.
David Ferrie.
Come on in.
Thanks for coming.
Remember me? We met on Carondelet Street after your election.
I remember. You make quite an impression.
I've heard you're a first-rate pilot.
Legend has it you can get in and out of the smallest field.
I'm a pilot myself. Flew grasshoppers for the field artillery in the war.
Make yourself comfortable.
Mind if I smoke?
How could I?
As you know, President Kennedy was assassinated on Friday.
A man named Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested as a suspect...
...then murdered yesterday by a man named Jack Ruby.
We've had reports that Oswald spent the summer here...
...and that you knew Oswald.
I've never met anyone named Oswald. Anyone who told you that has to be crazy.
He served in your Civil Air Patrol unit when he was a teenager.
If he did, I don't remember him.
Lots of boys in and out.
Surely you've seen this. Perhaps you knew him under another name?
I never saw him before in my life.
Then we must have gotten mistaken information.
Thanks for straightening it out.
There's one other matter.
We heard you went to Texas shortly after the assassination on Friday.
True. I drove to Houston.
What was so appealing about Houston?
I hadn't been ice-skating lately. Some young friends and I...
...decided to go skating.
Why the urge to ice-skate in Texas...
...during one of the worst thunderstorms in recent memory?
Spur-of-the-moment thing.
Storm wasn't that bad.
Where did you drive?
We went to Houston.
Saturday we drove to Galveston, and stayed there.
And Sunday?
In the morning, we went goose hunting.
Did you bag any?
The boys got a couple.
Boys said they didn't get any.
They're right.
There were thousands of geese everywhere.
But you couldn't approach them. They're wise.
Your friends said you had no weapons.
Isn't it difficult to hunt geese without a shotgun?
I remember now. I'm sorry.
I got confused.
We got near the geese, then realized we had forgotten our shotguns.
Stupid, right?
So, of course, we didn't get any geese.
Thank you for your time.
Sorry this must end inconveniently...
...but I must detain you for questioning by the FBI.
Why? What's wrong?
Your story is not believable.
Really?
What part?
This afternoon the FBI released David W. Ferrie...
...of New Orleans.
After extensive questioning and a background check...
...the Bureau found no evidence that Mr. Ferrie knew Lee Harvey Oswald...
...or had any connection with the assassination.
The agent in charge would like to make clear...
...that Ferrie was brought in for questioning...
...by the District Attorney of Orleans Parish.
I thought we were on the same side.
Why are they saying that?
Pretty fast, the way they let him go.
They must know something we don't.
So let's get on with our lives.
We have many homegrown crimes to prosecute.
The President has announced...
...the creation of a commission to probe the events in Dallas.
It will be headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren...
...and is expected to head off several Congressional and Texas inquiries.
On the panel are Allen Dulles, ex-chief of the CIA...
...Representative Gerald Ford, banker John McCIoy...
Fucking out of control.
All these hippies running around on drugs.
You can't tell a boy from a girl anymore.
I saw a girl the other day. Pregnant. You could see her whole belly.
You know what she had painted on it? "Love Child."
It's a mess down there, Jim.
We've bitten off more Vietnam than we can chew.
It figures with that polecat Lyndon in the White House.
I sometimes think things have gone downhill since Kennedy died.
Don't get me started on that.
Those Warren Commission fellows were picking gnat shit out of pepper.
Nobody's going to tell me that kid shot like he did from that bookstore.
But the FBI test-fired the rifle to see if it could be done.
Three experts and not one of them could do it.
They say that Oswald got off three shots with world-class precision...
...from a manual bolt-action rifle in less than six seconds.
According to his Marine buddies, he got Maggie's drawers.
That means he wasn't any good.
Average man would be lucky to shoot twice.
And the first would be the best.
Here the third shot's perfect.
And they got that bullet zigzagging all over the place...
...hitting Kennedy and Connally seven times.
One pristine bullet? That dog don't hunt.
Something's always bothered me about that from day one.
Think other men were involved?
If I was investigating the case, I'd round up 100 of the world's best riflemen...
...and find out which ones were in Dallas that day.
You been duck hunting. Oswald's an old-fashioned decoy.
What did he say? "I'm just a patsy! " Believe it.
Dinner's just about ready.
Got a surprise for you tonight. Tried something new.
- What? - Dinner.
Smells good. Do you know Oswald...
...was interrogated for 12 hours after the assassination...
...with no lawyer present, and nobody recorded a word of it.
I can't believe it. An experienced police captain and a crowd of FBI agents...
...had to know that with no record, what Oswald said is inadmissible in court.
Let's talk at the table. It's getting cold.
What are you doing here?
Daddy said it's okay if I'm quiet.
Sure it is.
If I handled a minor felon that way, it'd be all over the papers.
This is the alleged murderer of the President.
Again and again credible testimony's ignored.
Leads are not followed up, conclusions are selective, no index.
It's the sloppiest investigation I've ever seen.
Dozens of witnesses heard the shots...
...coming from the grassy knoll in front of Kennedy...
...not the Book Depository behind him.
But it's broken down and spread around. You read it, but the point is lost.
I never believed it.
I'll do the dishes. You take Eb up.
Elizabeth, your bedtime too!
That was three years ago. We've tried to put it out of our minds.
You keep digging it up.
You're the DA of New Orleans.
Isn't the Kennedy assassination a bit out of your domain?
All those important people studied it.
I can't believe a man as intelligent as Earl Warren read those volumes.
Maybe you're right.
You got an hour to solve the case while I get the kids in bed.
Then you're mine. Mr. Kennedy will have to wait until morning.
Look, Dad. Look what I drew.
That's something. What is it?
It's a rhino in a cage.
- Can I stay up another hour? - I don't think so, Son.
Pickle and Snapper, my two...
...dancing partners.
Good night, doodlebugs.
One hour, you hear?
Some Saturday-night date you are.
Mama warned me this would happen if I married such a serious man as you.
When I come up, I'll show you how Saturday night got invented.
I sealed off the area and held off the trains till they could be examined.
There were some transients taken on at least one train.
Mr. Bowers, you already talked to us about this matter. Is that correct?
Yes.
Is there anything else you told us...
...that I haven't asked you about, that you can think of?
Nothing that I can recall.
Witness is excused.
A long freight was in there...
...and we pulled some people off and took them to the station.
Do you mean some transients?
Tramps and hobos.
Were they questioned?
They were questioned at the station.
Ask the question.
Let's go back to that Amos Euins matter.
Traffic had been cut off into the area since 10:00.
But three cars came in during this time...
...from around noon till the time of the shooting.
They circled the parking lot and left.
Like they was checking the area.
One of the drivers...
...was holding something up to his mouth.
The last car came in about seven to ten minutes before the shooting.
It was a white Chevrolet four-door Impala.
Muddy up to the windows.
Towards the underpass, I saw two men...
...standing behind a picket fence...
...looking up towards Main and Houston, as the caravan came down.
One of them was middle-aged...
...heavyset.
The other man was younger.
Two other men were on the east end of the parking lot.
They both had uniforms.
At the time of the shooting...
...there seemed to be some...
...commotion.
I'm just unable to describe...
...a flash of light or smoke or something...
...which caused me to feel that something out of the ordinary...
...had occurred on the embankment.
Goddamn.
No!
- You all right? - Honey, it's incredible.
What?
The whole thing.
A Lieutenant Colonel testifies that...
...Oswald had a Russian language exam as part of his Marine training...
...only a few months before he defects to the Soviet Union.
A Russian exam.
It's 4:30 in the morning! I have five kids who'll wake up in an hour.
In all my years in the military, I never knew a single man who had a Russian test.
Oswald was a radar operator.
He'd have about as much use for Russian as a cat has for pajamas.
These books have gotten to your mind!
- Stop reading. - He makes it sound like nothing.
Oswald did badly on his test.
He got only two more Russian words right than wrong.
That's like me saying, Touchdown is not very intelligent...
...because I beat him three games out of five when we played chess.
Are you going to stay up all night, every night? For what?
To be the only man who's read all 26 volumes of the Warren Report?
Do I have to spell it out for you?
Lee Oswald was no ordinary soldier.
He was in military intelligence, that's why he was trained in Russian.
It was no accident he was in Russia.
- Go back to sleep. - I've been sleeping for three years!
'Morning boys. Ready for a walking tour?
7:30 Sunday morning? Not exactly fresh blood we're sniffing.
Old stains, but just as telling.
531 Lafayette Street.
Remember whose office this was in '63?
Sure. Guy Banister.
Ex-FBI man. Died a couple of years ago.
He headed the Chicago office.
When he retired, he became a private eye here.
I used to have lunch with him. John Birch Society, Minutemen.
To the right of Attila the Hun.
Recruited students to infiltrate radical organizations on campus.
Headed the Anti-Communist League of the Caribbean.
All out of this office.
I want to show you something.
Take a look here.
544 Camp Street.
531 Lafayette Street.
Same building, right?
Different addresses, different entrances, both going to the same place...
...to the office upstairs.
Guess who used it?
Lee Harvey Oswald.
How do we know that?
This address was stamped on...
...pro-Castro leaflets he handed out in the summer of '63 on Canal Street.
The same leaflets they found in his garage in Dallas.
After the arrest, 544 Camp St. never appeared on the pamphlets again.
He was arrested for fighting with anti-Castro Cubans.
But he'd contacted them already...
...as an ex-Marine trying to join their anti-Castro crusade.
When they heard he was now pro-Castro, they paid him a visit.
What's this Fidel shit? You lied to me!
Liar! Son of a bitch!
Do not take this Communist propaganda!
If you want to hit me, hit me.
You pinko shit!
Go back to Moscow!
There was no real fight.
The arresting Lieutenant later said he felt it was a staged incident.
In jail, Oswald has a private session...
...with Special Agent John Quigley of the FBI.
Oswald is released.
And Quigley destroys his notes from the interview.
The arrest gets Oswald a lot of publicity.
And he appears on a local TV debate.
You are a Communist, are you not?
No, Mr. Bringuier. I am not a Communist.
I'm a Marxist-Leninist.
Communist, Marxist-Leninist, what's the difference?
What if I told you Oswald was trained in the Russian language in the Marines?
I'd say he got intelligence training.
You were a Marine. Who'd run it?
Office of Naval Intelligence.
Look across the street.
Post Office.
Upstairs, in 1963, that was the Office of Naval Intelligence.
By coincidence, Banister, before he was FBI, was ONI.
What's their saying?
"Once ONI, always ONI."
He likes working near his old pals.
We are standing in the heart...
...of the US government's intelligence community in New Orleans.
That's the FBI.
That's the CIA.
That's the Secret Service.
That's the ONI.
Isn't this a strange place...
...for a Communist to spend his spare time?
What are you driving at?
We're going back into the case.
The murder of the President.
Lord, wake me. I must be dreaming.
You're awake. I'm deadly serious.
Let's track down your anonymous source from three years ago.
How'd you find out David Ferrie drove to Texas that day?
I can't remember last night, let alone three years ago, Boss.
You're not being cross-examined.
I need clarification about the night Guy Banister beat you over the head.
Don't tell me you don't remember.
You called our office from your hospital bed.
You were hopping mad about it.
Here's my problem.
You told me you and Guy were good friends for a long time.
- Over ten years. - And he never hit you before?
Never touched me.
Yet, on November 22, 1963...
...the day of the President's murder...
...the police report says...
...he pistol-whipped you with a.357 Magnum.
It also says you argued about the phone bill. Look!
Is an argument over a phone bill a believable explanation to you?
There's more to it.
How much more?
I shouldn't talk about it.
I'd ask Guy. We were friendly. Heart attack?
You buy what you read in the papers.
- You have other information? - I didn't say that!
All I know is he died suddenly. Just before the Warren Report came out.
Why did Guy beat you, Jack?
You were the only one here!
The only one here!
You didn't see a goddamn thing!
Hell, Guy's dead, so it don't matter no more. It was all about those...
...people that was hanging around the office that summer.
I was never part of the operation.
I just handled their private-eye work as it came in for Guy.
Not much did, but that's why I was there.
It was a nuthouse.
Cubans coming, going. And Christ, they all looked the same to me.
You going to play with this rifle or pack it?
Dave Ferrie.
- You know about him? - We know Dave. Was he there?
He practically lived there.
The whole thing was...
...all cloak-and-dagger stuff.
They called it "Operation Mongoose."
The idea was to train these Cuban exiles for another invasion of Cuba.
Banister's office was part of the supply line...
...from Dallas through New Orleans to Miami.
We stockpiled arms, explosives.
In view of the intelligence community in Lafayette Square?
Yes. Everybody knew everybody.
They were all part of the network. All worked for the CIA.
Pilots and black operators and civilians and the military.
Everybody was running guns then.
Ft. Jefferson, Bayou Bluff, Morgan City, you name it.
McAllen, Texas? Big gun-run operation.
Where does Banister fit in?
He was running his camp north of Lake Pontchartrain.
Ferrie did a lot of the training.
They had a shooting range and tropical territory, like in Cuba.
Some Americans were trained there too.
Nazi types. Mercenaries.
That Ferrie, though, Jesus, he was the craziest.
Late summer the party was over. Kennedy didn't want another Bay of Pigs.
He told the FBI, "Shut up the camp.
"Confiscate the napalm, C-4 and all. "
The G-men were just going through the motions.
Their hearts were still with their old FBI buddy Banister.
Oswald?
He was there too.
Sometimes meeting with Banister.
With the door shut.
Shootin' the bull with Ferrie, whatever. But he was there, all right.
Anything more specific, Jack?
It's important.
One time, the secretary got upset.
I can't believe it, Mr. Banister, Oswald is down on Canal Street...
...handing out Communist leaflets supporting Castro.
It's okay, Delphine. He's with us.
Was anyone else involved at...
...Banister's level?
One guy. I don't know who.
Big. White hair.
I saw him in the office once. He looked out of place.
You know, a society guy.
Can't remember his name, but Oswald was with him.
He had something to do with money, because Banister never kissed ass...
...but he kissed his.
Clay something.
That was his name. Clay...
- Bertrand? - Yeah.
- Clay Bertrand? - I don't know.
- Maybe not. - No, that's right.
I must go.
He was in the Warren Report. He got Oswald a lawyer.
Was Kennedy discussed?
I don't know.
- The assassination? - No.
- Not with me. I've got to go. - Hold on.
- That's all I'll say. - What's the problem?
Do I have to spell it out for you?
Nobody knows what we're talking about here.
You are so naive.
- When'd you do business with Bertrand? - Pipe the bimbo in red.
- Lawdy. - She's not as cute as you.
- You should try a legitimate business. - Why are you dancing on my head?
- We've been friends since law school. - Because you're conning me.
- I read your testimony. - Grain of salt.
You said Clay Bertrand called you the day after the assassination...
- ...and asked you to be Oswald's lawyer. - Right.
That's pretty important.
You told the FBI he's 6' 2". Then you tell the Commission he's 5' 8".
How the hell does a man shrink like that?
They put the heat on me, like you.
I gave them whatever popped in my cabeza.
Truth is, I never met the dude.
- One likes friends that have friends. - Indeed.
I don't know what that cat looks like or where he's at.
All I know is sometimes he sends me some cases.
One day he calls, talks to me about repping Oswald in Dallas.
- You ever speak to Oswald in Dallas? - No.
I told that Bertrand cat right off this ain't my scene.
- I'm a hack. He needs a hot dog. - Then how did you get in the Commission?
Like I told the Washington boys...
...Bertrand asked me that summer to help the kid upgrade his Marine discharge.
Mr. Bertrand said he would take care of any of...
Fine.
- To whom am I speaking? - Clay Bertrand. I'll pay what they owe.
There was no conspiracy. If there was, why didn't Bobby Kennedy prosecute?
He was his brother.
How'd so many people keep such a secret?
- It was Oswald. He hated- - We're having a communication problem.
I know you know who Clay Bertrand is. Stop eating that crabmeat and listen.
I'm aware of our friendship, but I'll call you before the grand jury.
You lie to them as you lied to me, I'll charge you with perjury.
I took nine judges on here in New Orleans.
I beat them all. Am I communicating with you?
Off the record?
In that case, let me sum it up for you.
If I answer that question you keep asking...
...if I give you the name of the big enchilada...
...then it's bon voyage, Deano.
Like a bullet in my head, you dig?
You're a mouse fighting a gorilla. JFK's dead as that crabmeat.
The government's still breathing.
Either you give the grand jury Clay Bertrand's real identity...
...or your fat behind's going to the slammer.
You're as crazy as your mama. It's in the genes.
Do you know what you're getting into?
The government will jump all over your head and go cock-a-doodle-doo.
Good day to you, sir.
District Attorney Garrison to see Prisoner 5388.
Ward block 237B.
We don't need gates with that swamp.
Many of them gone in there, none of them came out.
You got visitors here. Don't give them trouble.
- How you doing, Mr. Broussard? - Let's go, Willie.
Thank you, Mr. O'Keefe, for this time.
I got nothing but time.
Minutes, hours, days. Years of it.
Time stands still here, like a snake sunning itself.
Clay Bertrand?
I met him sometime in...
...June of '62. The Masquerade Bar.
Dave Ferrie took me there expressly to meet him.
Sexual purposes?
Did he pay you?
$20 each time. Ain't no secret. That's what I'm in here for.
Anything unusual about him...
...you'd be able to describe in court?
He had something wrong with his leg, a limp.
Don't get me wrong. He's not one of those limp wrists.
He's a butch John. Meet him on the street, you'd never snap.
You could play poker with him, go fishing, you'd never snap.
One night we were at David Ferrie's...
...sometime late in the summer of '63.
There was about nine to ten people there.
Cuban. Friends who'd done stuff in the bush with him. Place was a mess.
Dave's mind was a mess. He had caged mice...
... 'cause he's working on a cancer cure.
Dave's smart, though. Speaks five languages.
Knows philosophy, medicine, military history, politics.
He wanted to be a priest.
They defrocked him 'cause he was queer.
That's where you first met Oswald?
Strange guy. Dave introduced him as...
Leon Oswald.
How you doing?
What the fuck is he doing here?
Fuck you, motherfucker.
Leon's in a bad mood. Don't get excited.
You said Leon was actually Lee Harvey Oswald?
Yeah. I have no reason to lie to you.
I'm already in jail.
Go on.
Finally they left and I was alone with Dave...
...and this Leon...
...two of the Cubans, and this guy Bertrand.
Dave pulled out some clippings.
He'd been obsessed with Castro and Kennedy for months.
Little ass-wipe closed down the camps! Took our C-4!
Took 10,000 rounds! 3,000 pounds of gunpowder!
All our weapons!
You want to free Cuba? Whack out the fucking beard!
Kennedy won't let us. Our hands are empty. How can we?
Problem is getting to him. Informers on every block.
They got new stuff!
I could show you dozens of poisons! Put it in his food, he'd die in three days.
No trace!
Put something in his beard, make it fall out. He'd look ridiculous...
Fucking Kennedy is doing all kinds of deals with that bastard Khrushchev.
Licking his ass.
An inspired act of God should happen here and put a Texan in the White House!
The Cubans left.
Dave was drunk.
He started in on Kennedy again.
I will kill! In the White House! Stab him in the heart!
Somebody must get rid of him!
You won't get that son of a bitch!
It won't be long. That fucker will get what he deserves.
It could be blamed on Castro, the country will want to invade Cuba.
We just need to get him in the open.
Always some harebrained scheme.
Let's have some more champagne, shall we?
What about the Secret Service? The cops?
If it's planned right, no problem. They got close to De Gaulle.
Eisenhower always rode in open top.
We need three mechanics in three different locations.
An office building, a high-powered rifle.
Triangulation of crossfire, that's the key. That's the key.
A diversionary shot gets the Secret Service looking one way.
Boom! Get the kill shot.
One man has to be sacrificed.
In the commotion, the job gets done.
The others leave the country.
Let's drop this subject. It's one thing to banter with these kids...
...but this sort of thing could be so easily misunderstood.
I didn't think much about it then. It's just bullshit.
People like to act more important than they are.
Especially in the homosexual underworld.
But when they got him...
...I got scared.
Real scared.
That's when I got popped.
The things you said will be attacked by many people.
Bring those motherfuckers on. Bring their college degrees in here.
I got nothing to hide. No one can buy me.
- I don't even need this parole. - What parole?
You liberal, you don't know shit 'cause you never been fucked in the ass.
This ain't about justice! No, this is about order!
Who rules? Fascism is coming back.
Nobody wants to buy you. No one's promising you parole.
What I need to know is why.
Why are you telling us this?
'Cause that motherfucker Kennedy...
...stole that motherfucking election, that's why.
Nixon was going to be a great President until Kennedy wrecked this country.
Niggers wanting rights! Why do you think we have all this crime?
He promised those motherfuckers too much!
Revolution's coming, bullshit! Fascism's coming back!
The day that Communist son of a bitch died was a great day!
A great day for this country.
I hate to think they blame it on silly, fucking Oswald.
Didn't know shit, anyway.
People got to know. People got to know why he was killed.
Because he was a Communist.
You go ahead, put me on the stand, I'll tell the same goddamned story!
Don't matter to me!
All right, Willie. Thanks.
We'll be in touch.
All right.
You know, you're not a bad-looking man.
Not bad at all.
I get out of here, I'll come see you. We can have fun!
Their testimony won't hold up in court.
Their reputations are lower than crocodile piss.
That bothers you?
If a woman's a prostitute, must she also have bad eyesight?
Find Clay Bertrand. Start by checking around the Quarter.
The six of us, with almost no budget and in secret...
...will solve a case the Warren Commission couldn't?
- I didn't pick you for your legal skill. - Thanks, Boss.
You're a fighter. I like a man who's not afraid of bad odds.
Mr. Garrison, how are you? Remember me?
Yes. You vote for me?
I did. We sang together at the Royal Orleans, remember?
We sang:
"You're the cream in my coffee"
Haven't seen you much lately.
Been too busy.
Elected men can't have as much fun as they used to.
It's always nice to see you. Pleasure to serve you always.
How are you? Nice to see you.
Welcome back, Lou.
Think I could get a martini?
- They're waiting for you, sir. - Perfect.
Keep that table open for us.
Anything on the hoboes?
Dallas Times Herald photographer got great shots.
Never published.
Can't say that comes as a surprise.
They took them to the sheriff's and let them go.
No record of questioning.
Do they look like the hoboes you remember?
These two look young.
Not a frayed collar or cuff, fresh haircuts and shaves...
...clean hands, new shoe leather.
Who the hell are they then?
- I'm sorry I'm late. - Sit down.
This could be it. Let's look for them.
What about the railroad man, Lee Bowers...
...who saw the men at the picket fence?
Graveyard. Dead. August this year.
Single-car accident on an empty road in Midlothian, Texas.
The doctor said he was in a strange shock when he died.
We need to find more witnesses.
There was Rose Cheramie, a whore.
She said she was a dope runner...
...for Jack Ruby.
And that Ruby knew Oswald...
...for years.
- Can we talk to her? - She's dead too.
Hit and run.
Why don't we go to the horse's mouth?
Jack Ruby's been in a Dallas jail cell for three years.
Maybe he'll crack.
Can't. If I go to him our investigation will hit the front pages.
It'll blow up in our face. Susie, what did you find on Oswald?
Negative on his tax records. Classified.
First time a DA can't get a tax record.
I put together a list of all the CIA files on Oswald...
...that were part of the Warren Report and I asked for them.
About 1,200 documents. Can't get one of them.
All classified as secret on the grounds of national security.
Gave me his grammar school records. It's a study of his pubic hairs.
Lonely kid, no father.
Joins the Marines at 17.
Learns Russian. Acts overtly Marxist.
But he's stationed at a top-secret air base in Japan...
...where U-2 spy flights over Russia originate.
He's discharged...
...supposedly because his mother's sick. Stays home three days.
Then, with a $1,500 ticket from a $203 bank account, he goes to Moscow.
Mr. Oswald, do you understand...
- ...the action you are about to take? - Yes, I do, sir.
I wish to renounce my citizenship...
...and become a Soviet citizen.
I'll give them all the information I have on the Marines.
He disappears for six weeks, presumably with the KGB.
He's taken to a radio factory in Minsk...
...where he lives as high on the hog as he ever has.
He's given 5,000 rubles, a roomy apartment with a balcony.
Has affairs with local girls.
Makes sense. He's a spokesman.
But he never does any propaganda for the Russians.
He meets Marina.
Her uncle is a colonel in Soviet intelligence.
She thinks he's Russian by his speech.
Six weeks later they marry, have a daughter.
Only explanation for the royal treatment is he gave them radar secrets.
Or fake secrets.
Six months after he's in Russia...
...Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy flight goes down...
...in Russia. That plane was untouchable.
Powers hinted that Oswald...
...could've given the Russians enough data to hit it.
As a direct result...
...the summit between Khrushchev and Eisenhower failed.
Perhaps our military didn't want...
...the conference to happen? Maybe Oswald was part of that!
You are the assistant DA. Stick to what you can prove in court.
You want facts?
Don't get sidetracked. How did he get back to the States?
Does he have any problems with Uncle Sam?
No. The State Department issues him a new passport in 48 hours...
...and loans him travel money.
He's never investigated or charged for revealing classified information...
...or, as far as we know, debriefed by the CIA.
Bastard should've been prosecuted as a traitor when he got off the boat.
- Did Marina have problems getting out? - None, either.
Though it's almost impossible to get Russian sweethearts out.
This is a man who defected once already. It's crazy. Ordinary people...
...get blacklisted for having leftist affiliations.
Doesn't add up.
Next thing, he's living in Dallas-Fort Worth, October '62...
...working six months at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall...
...a photographic firm that makes maps for the US Army.
Oswald becomes chummy with the Dallas White Russian community.
All rabid anti-Communists.
It's odd.
His closest friend is an oilman, named George DeMohrenschildt.
He is 35 years older than Oswald, who is only 23 and supposedly broke.
DeMohrenschildt is a part of the Dallas Petroleum Club...
...speaks five languages and was a French Vichy intelligence during the war...
...also rumored to be a Nazi sympathizer.
DeMohrenschildt draws a picture of Oswald as an intellectual, well read...
...speaks excellent Russian, a man who adored JFK.
I think he's made some mistakes regarding Cuba.
I think he's doing a pretty good job. If he succeeds, in my opinion...
...I think he'd make a great President and a handsome one, too.
That's scenery, Susie.
Now, don't get sidetracked.
This is the same man that nailed Oswald to the Warren Commission...
...as a potentially violent man and linked him to the rifle.
In that sense Castro is an experimenter.
It could go any way with that country.
- It could go the way of the communism- - What you got there?
Do you have rifles in there?
Tell me what I'm shooting at, rabbits or Fascists?
- I hunt. - You hunt?
We don't know he's CIA. Let's circle him very probable.
Call him Oswald's handler.
The Oswalds are introduced to Janet and Bill Williams.
It's through Janet Williams, in October '63, that Lee gets the job...
...at the warehouse on Elm Street at the Book Depository.
So he can now exercise his intellect, stacking school texts at $1.25 an hour.
Marina fights with Lee about many things.
His secrecy, their lack of money.
She says that Lee is not sexually adequate.
Lee hits her on several occasions.
At the age of 24...
...he rents a room in Dallas under the alias of O.H. Lee.
Do you want to watch TV?
Are you all right?
No, thank you. I'm fine.
All I know about the Williams is their tax returns are classified.
Bill Williams has links to the CIA through his family...
...and does classified work for Bell Helicopter.
Bill's convenient separation from Janet allows Marina to move into her house...
...where she suddenly becomes Marina's best friend.
There Marina and Lee have a second daughter.
I have to go away. Just for a short while.
What's wrong with this family?
I love Lee...
...and I sorry him.
Sorry for him?
Yes.
When he's arrested, Marina buries him with the public.
She describes him as a psychotic and violent man.
I have too much facts...
...and facts tell me that Lee shot Kennedy.
After being locked away by the feds for two months...
...and afraid she'd be deported...
...she was probably suffering from nervous exhaustion.
They taught her how to answer.
When they think she's ready, they buy her dresses...
...polish her appearance and wheel her out.
I'd like to thank the Warren Commission.
Oswald was no angel.
But who was he?
I'm lost. What are we saying?
That when Oswald went to Russia, he was not a real defector.
He was an intelligence agent for our government and remained one till he died.
So, because Oswald pulled the trigger...
...the intelligence community murdered the President?
I'll go you one better. Maybe Oswald...
...didn't pull the trigger.
Nitrate tests indicate he hadn't fired a rifle on November 22.
And they didn't bother to see if the rifle'd been fired that day.
- His palm print was on it. - It went to the FBI.
FBI didn't find a goddamn thing.
It comes back a week later and a Dallas policeman suddenly finds a palm print?
It could've been taken at the morgue. There's no chain of evidence.
I can't figure out why he orders a traceable weapon...
...to a P.O. box, when he can go into any store in Texas...
...give a phony name and walk out with an untraceable rifle.
To frame him, obviously!
A lot of smoke, but some fire.
We're talking about our government!
We're talking about a crime.
You must think on a different level, like the CIA does.
We're through the looking glass.
White is black.
And black is white.
Maybe Oswald is just what he said he was.
A patsy.
Unbelievable. You were here?
Yes, this is where I was sitting.
Shots came from near the wooden fence over there...
...near the overpass.
I saw a man run from the fence toward those railroad cars.
I made it clear to the Warren people.
One of the shots came from behind that picket fence.
I heard the report and saw smoke, six or eight feet above the ground.
Out from under those trees.
All four of us railroad men...
...seen the same thing.
The smoke came from behind the hedge.
I was standing next to Mary Moorman, who took the photo when he was killed.
I stepped down to the curb and yelled:
"Mr. President, look over here! "
Then shots rang out.
Mary dropped to the ground, yelling, "They're shooting! Get down! "
I just stood there watching.
The driver had stopped.
I don't know what was wrong with him.
Out of the corner of my eye...
...I saw a flash of light in the bushes.
And that last shot...
...just ripped his head off.
I looked up and saw smoke coming from over there, on the knoll.
We came around to look for tracks.
It rained that morning and we found a bunch.
Cigarette butts.
Someone had stood about...here.
That's a good spot.
For the head shot.
Everything was just frozen.
Like people weren't breathing. Like you were looking at a picture.
Except for one man.
I saw this one man running from the corner of the Book Depository...
...to the parking lot.
It was about 11:00 a.m.
I was driving on Elm Street toward the underpass in a rented car.
A light-blue Valiant.
I'll never forget that day. There was a lot of traffic...
...and I stopped alongside a green pickup truck.
It was very noticeable because it had one wheel up on the curb.
When I saw the gun, I thought...
... "The Secret Service is not very secret. "
The next morning, I went to the FBI office.
They showed me some pictures.
And I picked out three pictures that looked like the truck's driver.
That's the man.
You mean you identified Jack Ruby on Saturday?
That's right.
- The day before he shot Oswald? - That's right.
When I saw him on TV, I was shocked.
I said to my family, "That's the man I saw in the truck."
You weren't so sure in your statement to the Commission.
What about these others? You said one might be him?
They look a bit like him, but I'm sure this is the man.
It was him I chased up the grassy knoll.
I thought maybe our guys had shot back and got one of them.