Second Gun or
Second Guessing?
The Story of the Revolver in the Paper
Bag
By Bill Adams
The AIB Discovers a Mystery
The FBI unleashed a controversy in 1978 when they
released 100,000 pages of documents concerning its
investigation into the assassination of President
Kennedy. Within those 100,000 pages was a very intriguing
FBI document. That same year the Assassination
Information Bureau (AIB) reviewed the FBI document
release and reported the discovery of various documents
in the AIB's newsletter, "Clandestine America."
One issue of the newsletter mentioned that a .38 caliber
revolver was discovered "in a paper bag in the
immediate vicinity of the assassination site."
Re-discovering a
Mystery
In the Fall of 1991 I was reading through Paul Hoch's
collection of "Clandestine America" when I came
across the AIB article on the revolver [1]. I was
intrigued by the potential implications of a second gun
being found in Dealey Plaza. Over the next few months I
contacted many assassination researchers and was
disappointed to learn that none of them had ever heard of
the revolver. Late in 1991 I finally located a copy of a
document concerning the revolver. Researcher John Woods
II had a copy of the document in a collection of
documents he had obtained regarding the HSCA
investigation into the assassination. The document
contained the following information:
...For the information of the Boston office on the
morning of November Twentythree, last, a snub nose
thirty eight caliber Smith and Wesson, serial number
eight nine three two six five, with the word quote
England unquote on the cylinder was found at
approximately seven thirty AM, in a brown paper sack
in the general area of where the assassination of
President Kennedy took place. [2]
I soon realized that this document was not the
document mentioned by the AIB, as the article stated the
revolver was found, "in the immediate vicinity of
the assassination site." Wood's document, however
claimed the revolver was found "in the general area
of where the assassination of President Kennedy took
place." Either there was more than one document or
the AIB had misrepresented the contents of the revolver
document.
FOIA Requests
At this point I decided to use the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) to obtain any additional revolver
documents that existed. During the last few days of 1991
I filed the first of many FOIA requests with the FBI
regarding the revolver. My first request went to FBI
Headquarters in Washington, DC. Two months later the FBI
responded to my request by sending copies of "2
pages of preprocessed material." [3] I was making
progress faster than I expected and now possessed three
documents concerning the revolver. The new documents
provided more detail about the FBI investigation of the
revolver and claimed the revolver had been found "in
[the] immediate vicinity of the assassination area."
I now could confirm that the AIB and Woods did in fact
have two different documents on the revolver. These
documents had apparently also been released as part of
the FBI's 1978 release but had not been reported by the
AIB. Four years later, as I write this article, I am
still awaiting the FBI's closure of this request and/or
release of additional documents responsive to my request.
During the Summer of 1993 I gave up waiting for the
FBI to complete my 1991 FOIA request. I filed a new FOIA
request with each of the involved FBI Field Offices -
Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Springfield. Within a
month I had responses from all four Field Offices.
Springfield said they had no responsive documents but
would refer me to FBI Headquarters. Both Dallas and
Philadelphia referred me to FBI Headquarters as well.
Boston however provided a bizarre response: they were
"currently unable to locate [their] file pertaining
to the assassination." Boston assured me that
"when/if the file is located, processing of [my]
request will continue and [I would] be advised of the
results." Apparently they never did find their file
as Boston has never sent another reply to my FOIA
request.
The Release of a
New Document
As a result of the Assassination Records Collection
Act (ARCA) of 1992 the FBI files reviewed by the HSCA
were released to the National Archives. One of these FBI
files turned out to be a two page document concerning the
FBI's attempts to trace the revolver. [4] This document
also mentions that the revolver was "found in a
paper bag in the immediate vicinity of the assassination
area." I obtained this document from another
researcher and now possessed four different revolver
documents.
Nashville
Assassination Attempt
During my search for the revolver documents I also was
researching Thomas Vallee (a threat to JFK in Chicago in
November of 1963) and his connections to a JFK visit to
Nashville, Tennessee in May of 1963. A Canadian
researcher, Sheldon Inkol, informed me of a tabloid
newspaper carrying a story about an assassination attempt
against JFK during his Nashville trip. I was able to
obtain the original Nashville newspaper articles as well
as the tabloid article concerning the new revelation. The
following quote from the article was very interesting in
light of my ongoing revolver investigation:
The Nashville Congressman - the son of the late
Governor Frank Clement, the president's host during a
May 1963 visit - said the incident at Overton High
School was kept quiet in order to keep from
encouraging similar scares. "At Overton High
School there was a man who approached with a gun
underneath a sack. He was grabbed by the Secret
Service." [5]
Was it possible that an individual had planned to
approach JFK in Dealey Plaza with the revolver in the
paper bag just as had happened six months before in
Nashville? My revolver research intensified. However I
was dismayed to learn that the Nashville potential
assassin has never been identified and no documents have
ever been released regarding this individual. I was back
where I started with only the four revolver documents to
go on.
Second Guessing
It is amazing how fast a "new discovery" or
the "re-discovery" of assassination information
gets spread through the researcher community. It is also
very disappointing to see how a story "gets
better" each time it is told and passed on. I began
telling the story of the revolver and my analysis of the
documents to anyone who would listen. I felt the
terminology used in the documents could safely be
interpreted to mean the revolver was at least found in
the area of Dealey Plaza but not necessarily the area of
the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) or grassy knoll.
In 1994 Anthony Summers interviewed me for an article he
was writing for "Vanity Fair" magazine. He had
heard of my research concerning the revolver and asked
for copies of the documents I had uncovered. Summers had
told me he had heard the revolver was found by the TSBD.
I made it clear to Summers that there was no known
documentation to support the conclusion that the revolver
was found by the TSBD -- however I did feel the
documentation supported the conclusion that the revolver
was found in Dealey Plaza. Summers must have had another
source as to the location of the revolver, as is shown in
the following quote from his "Vanity Fair"
article of December 1994:
... So a revolver was found near the Book
Depository -- "In THE IMMEDIATE VICINITY,"
according to other FBI reports. [italics added] [6]
Nigel Turner visited me in November 1994 and also told
me he had heard the revolver was found by the TSBD. Both
Turner and Summers must have had another source that they
did not identify. Had someone found the missing document
that disclosed the location where the revolver was found?
Why had my FOIA requests not produced this apparent
document? I then began to hear rumors that a couple of
Dallas area researchers had been on the local TV and/or
radio claiming the revolver was found behind the fence on
the grassy knoll. In fact, Larry Howard may have even
stated he feared for his life because of his knowledge of
the revolver shortly before he died of a heart attack.
Speculation was rampant regarding the revolver. What had
I missed? How could Anthony Summers and Nigel Turner have
proof the revolver was found by the TSBD while other
researchers claimed it was found behind the fence on the
grassy knoll? I intensified my search for the documents
these researchers must have found and I had failed to
discover.
Well, I was very disappointed when I discovered the
apparent source used by Summers, Turner and the other
researchers. It involved the unpublished manuscript,
"A 'Smoking Gun' for the Grassy Knoll?", by J.
Gary Shaw and Larry Ray Harris. [7] This manuscript
should never have been used as a source for the location
of the revolver. The manuscript relies on speculation to
imply the revolver was dropped by a blonde woman, who may
have been one of Ruby's strippers, near the TSBD. Let us
analyze a few of the implications in the unpublished
manuscript:
1) The revolver was dropped in a paper bag near the
TSBD
The manuscript provides the following quote from
Warren Commission Document number five, page 127 to
support it's implication that the revolver was found near
the TSBD:
. . . Weitzman stated that during the time he was
running from the intersection of Main and Houston, he
observed a blonde woman, 20 to 25 years old, drop a
lunch sack at a point about half a block west of the
Texas School Book Depository Building, but thought
nothing of it at the time. . .
The authors of the manuscript fail to mention the
obvious -- there were hundreds of people in Dealey Plaza
and the surrounding buildings who were at lunch at the
time of the assassination. Might we assume there were
dozens if not hundreds of paper bags in Dealey Plaza and
the surrounding buildings? Several other paper bags are
mentioned in assassination documents and literature: (1)
the paper bag carried by Gus Abrams (one of the three
tramps); (2) the paper bag allegedly used to transport
the rifle; (3) the TSBD sixth floor "chicken
lunch" paper bag; (4) the paper bags carried by the
black couple behind the concrete wall on the grassy
knoll.
2) The blonde woman was one of Ruby's strippers
The manuscript provides the following quote from
Warren Commission Document number five, page 127 in
support of it's implication of involvement by one of
Ruby's strippers:
. . . he observed a blonde woman, 20 to 25 years
old, drop a lunch sack. . .
There were many blonde women in Dealey Plaza and the
surrounding buildings. There is absolutely no basis for
implying the woman who dropped the bag was one of Ruby's
strippers.
Therefore, I was back where I started with four
revolver documents and nothing more. My search for
answers continued into 1995.
The Answers are
Rediscovered
Early in 1995 Paul Hoch sent me a copy of another AIB
discovered document concerning the revolver. He
discovered this document while looking for other material
I had requested, unrelated to the revolver investigation.
This document was also apparently included in the 1978
FBI document release. This document was a new fifth
document that I had never seen before and my FOIA
requests had not uncovered. The document provides the
missing piece to the revolver puzzle. The document not
only reveals where the revolver was found but who found
it. The following quote from this document shows just how
wrong I and other researchers were:
On 11/23/63, Patrolman J. Raz brought into the
Homicide and Robbery Bureau, Dallas PD, a brown paper
sack which contained a snub-nosed .38 caliber Smith
& Wesson, SN 893265 . . . had been found . . .
near the curb at the corner of Ross and Lamar Streets
and was turned in by one Willie Flat . . . [8]
The corner of Ross Avenue and Lamar Street is several
blocks north of the TSBD. The location is not "by
the TSBD" or "behind the fence on the grassy
knoll."
"Immediate
Vicinity"
Another example of misleading wording in documents and
researcher speculation and assumptions involves the
report of two men sighting-in a rifle.
. . . The police have interviewed a witness who
has stated that a man fitting subject's description
in company of another man were observed by this
witness on 20 Nov 63 in the immediate vicinity of the
place where President Kennedy was killed. These men
were observed sighting-in a rifle at two silhouette
targets . . . [9]
This document also appears to have been incorrectly
interpreted by various researchers who have reported the
men were seen sighting-in a rifle on the grassy knoll.
The following quote from an FBI document clarifies where
the alleged incident took place.
. . . had heard on Friday afternoon, November 22,
1963, while at the Dallas Police Department that the
Police Department had received a call Wednesday at
night regarding two men sighting-in a rifle on
Continental Street . . .
Continental Street crosses over Stemmons Freeway
beyond the area of Dealey Plaza and is no where near the
grassy knoll.
Questions Still
Unanswered
There are still several questions to be answer
regarding the revolver and the FBI investigation.
- Who was Willie Flat?
- Was he interviewed by the DPD or FBI?
- Where are the documents regarding Willie Flat?
- Where are the teletypes from 11/23/63 through
11/29/63 that originally informed FBI
Headquarters of the revolver?
- Where is the revolver now?
"2nd
Guessing"
I hope this article will serve as a warning to other
researchers. Assumptions can lead you into false
conclusions, and speculation turned into fact will lead
to embarrassment and ridicule by other researchers and
the public at large.
Footnotes
- Assassination Information Bureau, " ",
Clandestine America Volume 2, Number 1, 1978
- FBI Dallas Field Office [89-43-???] to FBI HQ
[62-109060-485] and Boston Field Office, November
29, 1963.
- FBI Springfield Field Office [89-23-???] to FBI
HQ [62-109060-858; 42-24016], November 30, 1963;
FBI Philadelphia Field Office [157-916-???] to
FBI HQ [62-109060-638], Dallas Field Office,
Springfield Field Office, and Boston Field
Office.
- FBI Boston Field Office [89-43-???] to FBI HQ
[62-109060-857], Dallas Field Office,
Philadelphia Feld Office, November 29, 1963.
- Nashville Banner, January 25, 1992, pg A-1.
- Anthony and Robbyn Summers, "J.F.K.: Case
Reopened," Vanity Fair, December 1994.
- J. Gary Shaw and Larry Ray Harris, "A
'Smoking Gun' for the Grassy Knoll?",
Unpublished manuscript, 1994.
- FBI Dallas Field Office SA [89-43-636] to FBI
Dallas Field Office SAC, November 25, 1963.
- 112th Army Intelligence Group, Spot report #419,
November 22, 1963; FBI Dallas Field Office
[89-43-23818B].
Copyright Bill Adams 1996
Reprinted with permission of the
author.
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