KENNEDY ASSASSINATION SCRIPT

We have all become Hamlets
in our country - children of a slain father
- leader whose killers still possess the
throne.

The ghost of John F. Kennedy
confronts us with the secret murder at the
heart of the American dream.




what took
place on November 22, 1963 was a coup d'etat.
Its most direct and tragic result was a
reversal of President Kennedy's commitment
to withdraw from Vietnam. War is the
biggest business in America worth $80 billion
a year. The President was murdered by a
conspiracy planned in advance at the highest
levels of the United States government and
carried out by fanatical and disciplined
Cold Warriors in the Pentagon and CIA's
covert operations apparatus - among them
Clay Shaw here before you. It was a public
execution and it was covered up by like -
minded individuals in the Dallas Police
Department, the Secret Service, the FBI,
and the White House - all the way up to and
including J. Edgar Hoover and Lyndon
Johnson, whom I consider accomplices after
the fact.

The super state will provide you tranquility
above the truth,




It started in the wind. Money -

arms, big oil, Pentagon people, contractors,
bankers, politicians like L.B.J. were
committed to a war in Southeast Asia. As
early as '61 they knew Kennedy was going
to change things ... He was not going to
war in Southeast Asia. Who knows?
Probably some boardroom or lunchroom
somewhere - Houston, New York - hell,
maybe Bonn, Germany ... who knows, it's
international now. (ORIGINAL SCRIPT ONLY)




JIM
(VO)
And where was Lee Oswald? Probably
in the second floor snack room. Eddie
Piper and William Shelly saw Oswald
eating lunch in the first floor lunch
room around twelve. Around 12:15, on
her way out of the building to see the
motorcade, secretary Carolyn Arnold saw
Oswald in the second floor snack room,
where he said he went for a Coke ...

In the second floor lunchroom of the Book Depository we see Carolyn
Arnold, a pregnant secretary, crossing past Oswald, who is in a booth.

CAROLYN ARNOLD
(VO)
He was sitting in one of the booths on
the right hand side of the room. He
was alone as usual and appeared to be
having lunch. I did not speak to him
but I recognized clearly. I remember
it was 12:15 or later. It coulda been
12:25, five minutes before the
assassination, I don't exactly remember.
I was pregnant and I had a craving for
a glass of water.

On the sixth floor of the depository, Bonnie Ray Williams is eating a
chicken lunch, alone.

JIM
(VO)
At the same time, Bonnie Ray Williams is
supposedly eating his chicken lunch on
the sixth floor, at least until 12:15,
maybe 12:20 ... he sees nobody.

On the street, Arnold Rowland and his wife look up at the sixth floor
windows and we see, from their point of view, two shadowy figures ...

JIM
(VO)
Down on the street, Arnold Rowland was
seeing two men in the sixth floor
windows ... presumably after Bonnie Ray
Williams finished his lunch and left.

We see footage of J.F.K. coming up Houston - waving.


Oswald walks into the second floor lunchroom as policeman Marrion Baker
runs in, gun at his side. He is about 30 feet from Oswald. Roy Truly,
the superintendent, runs in a moment later.

JIM
(VO)
Kennedy was running five minutes late
for his appointment with death. He was
due at 12:25. If Oswald was the assassin,
he was certainly pretty non-chalant about
getting himself into position. Later he
told Dallas police he was standing in the
second floor snackroom. Probably told to
wait there for a phone call by his handler.
The phones were in the adjacent and empty
second floor offices, but the call never
came. A maximum 90 seconds after Kennedy
is shot, patrolman Marrion Baker runs into
Oswald in that second story lunchroom.

BAKER
Hey you!
(to Truly)
Do you know this man? Is he an employee?

TRULY
Yes he is.
(as Baker moves on)
The President's been shot!

Oswald reacts as if hearing it for the first time. Truly and Baker
continue running up the stairs. Oswald proceeds to get a Coke and
continues out of the room.

CUT TO: the sixth floor, where we see Oswald as the shooter. After
firing, he runs full speed for the stairs, stashing the rifle on the
other side of the loft. Our camera follows him roughly down stairs - we
hear the loud sound of his shoes banging on the hollow wood - to the
lunchroom, where Patrolman Baker and Superintendent Truly run in. Then
they start to repeat the same action as seen in the previous scene.

JIM
(VO)
... but what the Warren Report would
have us believe is that after firing 3
bolt action shots in 5.6 seconds, Oswald
then leaves three cartridges neatly side
by side in the firing nest, wipes the
rifle clear of fingerprints, stashes the
rifle on the other side of the loft,
sprints down five flights of stairs, past
witnesses Victoria Adams and Sandra Styles
who never see him, and then shows up cool
and calm on the second floor in front of
Patrolman Baker - all this within a
maximum 90 seconds of the shooting. Is
he out of breath? According to Baker,
absolutely not.

CUT TO: the second floor. Oswald ambles past Mrs. Reid, a secretary in
the second floor office, on his way out, Coke bottle in hand and wearing
his usual dreamy look ... there's a lingering close - up on his face.

JIM
(VO)
Assuming he is the sole assassin, Oswald
is now free to escape from the building.
The longer he delays, the more chance the
building will be sealed by the police.
Is he guilty? Does he walk out the
nearest staircase? No, he buys a Coke
and at a slow pace, spotted by Mrs. Reid
in the second floor office, he strolls
out the more distant front exit, where
the cops start to gather ...

Outside, we see Oswald stroll out the door of the Book Depository into
the crowd. He heads for the bus stop to the east.

JIM
(VO)
Oddly, considering three shots are
supposed to have come from there, nobody
seals the Depository for ten more
minutes. Oswald slips out, as do
several other employees. Of course,
when he realized something had gone
wrong and the President really had
been shot, he knew there was a problem.
He may even have known he was the patsy.
An intuition maybe - the President
killed in spite of his warning. The
phone call that never came. Perhaps
fear now came to Lee Oswald. He wasn't
going to stand around for roll call.

Back in the courtroom, Jim continues speaking:

JIM
The story gets pretty confusing now -
more twists in it than a watersnake.
Richard Carr says he saw four men take
off from the Book Depository in a
Rambler that possibly belongs to Janet
Williams. Deputy Roger Craig says two
men picked up Oswald in the same Rambler
a few minutes later. Other people say
Oswald took a bus out of there, and
then because he was stuck in traffic,
he hopped a cab to his rooming house
in Oak Cliff ...

FLASHBACK TO: Oswald's boarding house. Oswald enters his room, passing
Earlene Roberts, the heavyset white housekeeper.

JIM
(VO)
... we must assume he wanted to get
back in touch with his intell team,
probably at a safehouse or at the
Texas Theatre, but how could he be
sure? He didn't know who to trust
anymore ...

ROBERTS
(watching TV)
My God, did you see that, Mr. Lee?
A man shot the President.

The camera closes in on Oswald's perplexed face. Earlene peeks out the
shades as she hears two short honks on a horn.

Outside is a black police car driven by Tippit. Also in the car is the
fence shooter, dressed as a Dallas policeman. The car drives by, honks
twice, waits, then moves away. During this visual, we see the fence
shooter changing his uniform into civilian clothes.


DISCREPENCIES IN TIPPET MURDER

JIM
(VO)
Oswald returns to this rooming house
around 1 P.M., half hour after the
assassination, puts on his jacket,
grabs his .38 revolver, leaves at 1:04
... Earlene Roberts, the housekeeper,
says she heard two beeps on a car horn
and two uniformed cops pulled up to the
house while Oswald was in his room, like
it was a signal or something ... Officer
Tippit is shot between 1:10 and 1:15
about a mile away. Though no one actually
saw him walking or jogging, the Government
says Oswald covered that distance.
Incidentally, that walk, if he did it, is
in a straight line toward Jack Ruby's
house. Giving the government the benefit
of the doubt, Oswald would have had to
jog a mile in six to eleven minutes and
commit the murder, then reverse direction
and walk 3/5 of a mile to the Texas
Theatre and arrive sometime before 1:30.
That's some walking.

On a street, Oswald walks alone, fast. A police car pulls up alongside
him on 10th Street. Oswald leans on the passenger side of the window.
Officer Tippit, suspicious, gets out to question him. Oswald pulls his
.38 revolver and shoots him down in the street with 5 shots.

JIM
(VO)
It's also a useful conclusion. After all,
why else would Oswald kill Officer Tippit,
unless he just shot the President and
feared arrest? Not one credible witness
could identify Oswald as Tippit's killer.

Domingo Benavides, hidden in his truck only a few yards away, watches as
another unidentified man (not seen before) shoots and walks away.

JIM
(VO)
Domingo Benavides, the closest witness to
the shooting, refused to identify Oswald
as the killer and was never taken to a
lineup.

We see Acquilla Clemons, a black woman, looking on. She watches as two
men kill Tippit. One of them resembles the fence shooter. The other
one is a mystery figure, seen before in the fringes. The men walk off
quickly in opposite directions. We notice a policeman's uniform hanging
in the back seat of Tippit's car.

JIM
(VO)
Acquilla Clemons saw the killer with another
man and says they went off in separate
directions. Mrs. Clemons was never taken to
lineup or to the Warren Commission. Mr.
Frank Wright, who saw the killer run away,
stated flatly that the killer was not Lee
Oswald. Oswald is found with a .38 revolver.
Tippit is killed with a .38 automatic. At
the scene of the crime Officer J.M. Poe
marks the shells with his initials to record
the chain of evidence.

CUT TO: Policeman Poe marking the bullets.

JIM
(VO)
Those initials are not on the three
cartridge cases which the Warren Commission
presents to him.

On a Dallas avenue near the Texas Theatre, Oswald moves along, spooked.
Police cars roar by with sirens blaring. Johnny Brewer, in a shoestore,
spots him and follows him.

JIM
(VO)
Oswald is next seen by shoe salesman
Johnny Brewer lurking along Jefferson
Avenue. Oswald is scared. He begins
Mannlicher-Carcano rifle allegedly used by Lee
Harvey Oswald to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.


NARA to realize the full implications of this
thing. He goes into the Texas Theatre,
possibly his prearranged meeting point,
but though he has $14 in his pocket, he
does not buy the 75 - cent ticket. Brewer
has the cashier call the police.

Outside the Texas Theatre Oswald walks past the cashier, who is out on
the sidewalk watching the police cars go by. A double feature is
playing - Cry of Battle with Van Heflin and War is Hell. He goes in.

CUT TO: 30 officers arriving at the theatre in a fleet of patrol cars.

JIM
(VO)
... in response to the cashier's call, at
least thirty officers in a fleet of patrol
cars descend on the movie theatre. This has
to be the most remarkable example of police
intuition since the Reichstag fire. I don't
buy it. They knew - someone knew - Oswald
was going to be there. In fact, as early as
12:44, only 14 minutes after the assassination,
the police radio put out a descriptio
matching Oswald's size and build. Brewer
says the man was wearing a jacket, but the
police say the man who shot Tippit left his
jacket behind. Butch Burroughs, theatre
manager, says Oswald bought some popcorn from
him at the time of the Tippit slaying.
Burroughs and witness Bernard Haire also
said there was an Oswald look - alike taken
from the theatre. Perhaps it was he who
sneaked into the theatre just after 1:30.

Inside the theatre, Cry of Battle is on the screen. Twelve to fourteen
spectators sit scattered between the balcony and ground floor. Brewer
leads the officers onto the stage and the lights come on. He points to
Oswald.

JIM
(VO)
In any case, Brewer helpfully leads the
cops into the theatre and from the stage
points Oswald out ...

The cops advance on Oswald, who jumps up, as if expecting to be shot.

OSWALD
This is it!

POLICEMAN
Kill the President, will you?

Scared, Oswald takes a swing at a policeman. He pulls out his gun. The
officers close in on him from the rear and front. A wrestling and
shoving match ensues. One officer gets a chokehold on Oswald and
another one hits him.

JIM
(VO)
The cops have their man! It was already
been decided - in Washington.

Outside the theatre, Oswald, his eye blackened, is led out by the
phalanx of officers. They are surrounded by an angry crowd.

CROWD
Kill him! Kill him!

JIM
(VO)
Dr. Best, Himmler's right hand man in the
Gestapo, once said "as long as the police
carries out the will of the leadership, it
is acting legally." That mindset allowed
for 400 political murders in the Weimar
Republic of 1923 - 32, where the courts
were controlled and the guilty acquitted.
Oswald must've felt like Josef K in Kafka's
"The Trial". He was never told the reason
of his arrest, he does not know the unseen
forces ranging against him, he cries out
his outrage in the police lineup just like
Josef K excoriates the judge for not being
told the charges against him. But the
state is deaf. The quarry is caught. By
the time he is brought from the theatre,
a large crowd is waiting to scream at
him. By the time he reaches police
headquarters, he is booked for murdering
Tippit ...

At the Dallas police station, Dallas Police Captain Will Fritz takes a
call from a high official in Washington. In the background we notice
Lee Oswald continuing to be questioned by federal agents. We hear
Johnson's distinctive Texas drawl but we never see him.




JIM
(VO)
No legal counsel is provided. No record
made of the long questioning.

HIGH OFFICIAL VOICE
Howdy there, Cap'n. Thanks for taking care
of us down in Dallas. Lady Bird and I will
always be grateful.

FRITZ
Thank you, Mr. President. We're doing
our best.

HIGH OFFICIAL VOICE
Cap'n, I know you're working like a hound
dog down there to get this mess wrapped up,
but I gotta tell you there's too much
confusion coming out of Dallas now. The
TVs and the papers are full of rumour 'bout
conspiracies. Two gunmen, two rifles, the
Russkies done it, the Cubans done it, that
kinda loose talk, it's carin' the shit
outta people, bubba'. This thing could lead
us into a war that could cost 40 million
lives. We got to show'em we got this thing
under control. No question, no doubts, for
the good of our country ... you hear me?

FRITZ
Yes, sir.

HIGH OFFICIAL VOICE
Cap'n, you got your man, the investigation's
over, that's what people want to hear.

The camera closes in on Oswald in the background. He turns to an unseen
Deputy, sad.

OSWALD
Now everyone will know who I am.

JIM
(VO)
By the time the sun rose the next morning,
he is booked for murdering the President.
The whole country - fueled by the media -
assumes he's guilty.