JFK 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.



These guys are proud
of what they did. They did Dealey Plaza!
They took out the President of the United
States! That's entertainment! And they
served their country doing it.







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,




Clay Shaw also stood for no loose dangling ends. He
had testified earlier that Habighorst told him it was
necessary to sign the blank card in order to get bail, to
which Clay said he replied, "In that case, I'll sign it."
Now Alcock asked if Officer Habighorst had asked him any
questions, to which Clay replied, "No." "You did not
utter one word?" Alcock asked. Clay made no bones about
correcting the attorney: "That was not my testimony. I
said I was asked no questions."

SHAW ADMISSION OF ALIAS RULED INADMISSABLE. \
Judge Haggerty jutted his head forward and said,
"It's outside the presence of the jury, Mr. Alcock." He
then sat back and spoke in a loud voice. "I don't care.
The whole world can hear that I disbelieve Officer
Habighorst." He gave Alcock a what-do-you-think-of-that
look and then, as if to punctuate his feelings for all
time and leave no doubt whatsoever, Judge Haggerty leaned
forward once again and said, "I do not believe Officer
Habighorst!"

This is an ugly surprise for Jim. We see him at the bench arguing
loudly with the judge. Susie, Dymond and Al are also there.

JUDGE HAGGERTY
I'm sorry, Jim, but the defendant did not have
his lawyer present when asked.

FLASHBACK TO 1967, in the New Orleans police station. Shaw is being
booked. The press is there and Habighorst is questioning him.

HABIGHORST
Any alias?

SHAW
Clay Bertrand.

We see a close-up on Habighorst typing this in.

GARRISON (V.O.)
Jesus, Ed, from time immemorial it's been
standard booking procedure to ask an alias. You
know that. There's no constitutional
requirement that says a lawyer has to be present
for routine questions.

JUDGE HAGGERTY
I call'em as I see'em, Jim. I'm ruling it
inadmissible.

GARRISON
That's our case!

JUDGE HAGGERTY
If that's your case, you didn't have a case. I
wouldn't believe whatever Habighorst said,
anyway.

GARRISON
I can't believe you're saying this in the
courtroom.

JUDGE HAGGERTY
(feistier)
Well, I am saying it. Bring in the jury.

AL
We're filing for a writ to the appellate court.

JUDGE HAGGERTY
You do that.

Dymond goes back to Shaw, very please. Shaw smokes, icy. Jim,
devastated, sits, feeling it's over.

CUT TO Clay Shaw on the stand. Dymond cross-examines him.

DYMOND
... Oswald?

SHAW
No, I did not.

DYMOND
... ever called Dean Andrews?

SHAW
No, I did not.

DYMOND
... and have you ever met David Ferrie?

SHAW
(with a smirk of amusement)
No, I would not even know what he looked like
except for the pictures I've been shown.

DYMOND
... did you ever use the alias Clay Bertrand?

SHAW
No, I did not.

DYMOND
Thank you ... Mr. Shaw.

Jim rises slowly out of his chair.

JIM
Well, a very great actor has just given us a
great performance, Your Honor, but we are
nowhere closer to the truth. Let it be noted,
my office is charging Clay Shaw with outright
perjury on the fifteen answers he has given, not
one word of this ...

JUDGE HAGGERTY
You're out of order, Jim Boy, now sit down.
Strike those remarks!!



CUT TO later in the trial. A movie screen has been installed for the
jury. Jim paces dramatically, as if waiting, casting looks at the door.
Members of the press pack the hot room, and a fan turns overhead.

JIM
To prove their was a conspiracy involving Clay
Shaw we must prove there was more than one man
involved in the assassination. To do that, we
must look at the Zapruder film, which my office
has subpoenaed. The American public has not
seen that film because it has been kept locked
in a vault in the Time-Life Building in New York
City for the last five years. There is a reason
for that. Watch.

The Zapruder film (8mm) now rolls. We have seen pieces of it before in
the opening of the film, but now we see it whole. It is crucial that
this piece of film be repeated several times during the trial to drive
home a point that is easily lost on casual viewing. The first viewing
is silent except for the sound of the clanky projector. It lasts about
25 seconds, and then the lights come on. The jury is shaken. The judge
is shaken. The people in the courtroom murmur. Even Clay Shaw is
surprised at what he has seen. Jim says nothing, letting the truth of
it sink in. Then:
MAGIC BULLET, SEVEN WITH ONE BLOW.

Seven wounds This single bullet
explanation is the foundation of the Warren
Commission's claim of a lone assassin. And once
you conclude the magic bullet could not create
all seven of those wounds, you have to conclude
there was a fourth shot and a second rifleman


JIM (CONT'D)
A picture speaks a thousand words. Yet
sometimes the truth is too simple for some ...
The Warren Commission thought they had an open
and shut case: three bullets, one assassin - but
two things happened that made it virtually
impossible: 1)the Zapruder film which you just
saw, and 2)the third wounded man, Jim Tague, who
was nicked by a fragment down by the Triple
Underpass. The time frame of 5.6 seconds
established by the Zapruder film left no
possibility of a fourth shot from Oswald's
rifle, but the shot or fragment that left a
superficial wound on Tague's cheek had to come
from a bullet that missed the car entirely. Now
they had two bullets that hit, and we know one
of them was the fatal head shot. So a single
bullet remained to account for all seven wounds
in Kennedy and Connally. But rather than admit
to a conspiracy or investigate further, the
Commission chose to endorse the theory put forth
by an ambitious junior counsellor, Arlen
Specter. One of the grossest lies ever forced
on the American people, we've come to know it as
the "magic bullet" theory.

CUT TO a drawing which has been put on a chair for the Jury. Jim has
also moved Al, acting as J.F.K., into a chair directly behind the larger
Numa, acting as Governor Connally. He demonstrates with a pointer.

JIM (CONT'D)
The magic bullet enters the President's back,
headed downward at an angle of 17 degrees. It
then moves upward in order to leave Kennedy's
body from the front of his neck - his neck wound
number two - where it waits 1.6 seconds, turns
right and continues into Connally's body at the
rear of his right armpit - wound number three.
Then, the bullet heads downward at an angle of
27 degrees, shattering Connally's fifth rib and
leaving from the right side of his chest -
wounds four and five. The bullet continues
downward and then enters Connally's right wrist
- wound number six - shattering the radius bone.
It then enters his left thigh - wound number
seven - from which it later falls out and is
found in almost "pristine" condition on a
stretcher in a corridor of Parkland Hospital.
(he shows a mock-up of the
"pristine" bullet)
That's some bullet. Anyone who's been in combat
can tell you never in the history of gunfire has
there been a bullet like this.
(the court laughs)
The Army Wound Ballistics experts at Edgewood
Arsenal fired some comparison bullets and not
one of them looked anything like this one.
(he shows mock-ups of comparison
bullets)
Take a look at CE 856, an identical bullet fired
through the wrist of a human cadaver - just one
of the bones smashed by the magic bullet. Yet
the government says it can prove this with some
fancy physics in a nuclear laboratory. Of
course they can. Theoretical physics can prove
an elephant can hang from a cliff with it's tail
tied to a daisy, but use your eyes - your common
sense -
(he holds the bullet)
Seven wounds, skin, bone. This single bullet
explanation is the foundation of the Warren
Commission's claim of a lone assassin. And once
you conclude the magic bullet could not create
all seven of those wounds, you have to conclude
there was a fourth shot and a second rifleman.
And if there was a second rifleman, there had to
be a conspiracy, which we believe involved the
accused Clay Shaw. Fifty-one witnesses,
gentlemen of the jury, thought they heard shots
coming from the Grassy Knoll, which is to the
right and front of the President.

Jim walks to a drawing of an overhead view of Dealey Plaza. On it are
dots representing locations of the witnesses. He points to each portion.
He pauses and looks out into the courtroom - Liz has entered accompanied
by Jasper. Quietly she takes a seat. Jim is unbelieving at first, then
very moved. He takes a beat, then:
CLAY SHAW
INCONTROVERTIBLE EVIDENCE OF FRONTAL ENTRY WOUND.


Fifty-one witnessess said they heard shots
coming from the Grassy Knoll, which is to the
right and front of the President.


The exit hole in the rear of his
head was about 120 mm. across.

The doctors found no
wounds of entry in the back of the head.

AUTOPSY COVER-UP

there's a big difference between an
autopsy performed by civilian doctors
and one by military doctors working for
the government.

CUT TO: the Secret Service team preparing to wheel the casket out. The
Dallas Medical Examiner, Dr. Rose, backed by a justice of the peace,
bars the way. A furious wrestling match ensues.
MEDICAL EXAMINER
Texas Law, sir, requires the autopsy be
done here. You're not taking him with
you!

KENNY O'DONNELL
Sonofabitch, you're not telling me what
to do! Get the hell outta the way! Did this actually happen?



JIM
Key witnesses that day - Charles Brehm, a combat
vet, right behind Jean Hill and Mary Moorman,
S.M. Holland and Richard Dodd on the overpass,
J.C. Price overlooking the whole Plaza, Randolph
Carr, a steelworker, who served in the Rangers in
North Africa, William Newman, father of two
children who hit the deck on the north side of
Elm, Abraham Zapruder, James Simmons - each of
these witnesses has no doubt whatsoever one or
more shots came from behind the picket fence!
Twenty six trained medical personnel at Parkland
Hospital saw with their own eyes the back of the
President's head blasted out.

CUT TO: Dr. Peters on the stand.

PETERS
(describing the wound)
... a large 7 cm opening in the right
occipitoparietal area, a considerable portion of
the brain was missing there.
(he gestures to his head)

CUT TO: Dr. McClelland on the stand.

MCCLELLAND
... almost a fifth or perhaps a quarter of the
back of the head - this area here ...
(he indicates his head)
... had been blasted out along with the brain
tissue there. The exit hole in the rear of his
head was about 120 mm. across. There was also
a large piece of skull attached to a flap of
skin in the right temporal area.

FLASHBACK TO: Parkland Hospital Emergency Room on that day in 1963. The
doctors work on the President. The wounds on the back of his head are
evident but will change later in the autopsy. He is placed in a bronze
casket.

JIM
(VO)
Not one of the civilian doctors who
examined the President at Parkland Hospital
regarded his throat wound as anything but
a wound of entry. The doctors found no
wounds of entry in the back of the head.
But the body was then illegally moved
to Washington for the autopsy.

CUT TO: the Secret Service team preparing to wheel the casket out. The
Dallas Medical Examiner, Dr. Rose, backed by a justice of the peace,
bars the way. A furious wrestling match ensues.
MEDICAL EXAMINER
Texas Law, sir, requires the autopsy be
done here. You're not taking him with
you!

KENNY O'DONNELL
Sonofabitch, you're not telling me what
to do! Get the hell outta the way!

The Secret Service agents put the doctor and judge up against the wall
at gunpoint and sweep out of the hospital.

JIM
(VO)
Because when a coup d'etat has occurred
there's a big difference between an
autopsy performed by civilian doctors
and one by military doctors working for
the government.

FLASHBACK TO: Love Field the same day. We see Air Force One taking off
and a photo of L.B.J. being sworn in.

JIM
(VO)
The departure of A Force One from
Love Field that Friday afternoon was
not so much a takeoff as it was a
getaway with the newly sworn in President.

DYMOND
(VO)
Objection, your honor.

JUDGE
Sustained.

JIM
(VO)
On the plane, of course, Lee Harvey
Oswald's guilt was announced by the
White House Situation Room to the
passengers before any kind of investigation
had started. The "lone nut" solution
is in place.

DYMOND
(VO)
Objection! Your Honor!

JUDGE
Sustained. Mr. Garrison, would you please
bottle the acid.

MORE AUTOPSY COVER-UP INFORMATION

FLASHBACK TO: the Bethesda autopsy room in 1963. The room is crammed
with military officers, Secret Service men and, at the center, three
intimidated doctors. Pictures are being taken as they remove bullet
fragments.

JIM
The three Bethesda Naval Hospital doctors
picked by the Military left something to
be desired inasmuch as none of them had
experience with combat gunfire wounds.
Through their autopsy we have been able
to justify eight wounds - three to Kennedy,
five to Connally - from just two bullets,
one of these bullets the "magic bullet".

CUT TO: Jim in court with a series of drawings indicating with arrows
entry and exit wounds to Kennedy's neck and head. Dr. Finck is on the
stand, erect, very precise, and irritated.

JIM
Colonel Finck, are you saying someone
told you not to dissect the neck?

FINCK
I was told that the family wanted
examination of the head.

JIM
As a pathologist it was your obligation
to explore all possible causes of death,
was it not?

FINCK
I had the cause of death.

JIM
Your Honor, I would ask you to direct the
witness to answer my question. Why did
Colonel Finck not dissect the track of
the bullet wound in the neck?

FINCK
Well I heard Dr. Humes stating that -
he said ...

FLASHBACK TO: Bethesda autopsy room.

HUMES
Who's in charge here?

ARMY GENERAL
I am.

FINCK
(VO)
I don't remember his name. You must
understand it was quite crowded, and
when you are called in circumstances
like that to look at the wound of the
President who is dead, you don't look
around too much to ask people for their
names and who they are.

JIM
(VO)
But you were a qualified pathologist.
Was this Army general a qualified
pathologist?

FINCK
(VO)
No.

JIM
(VO)
But you took his orders. He was
directing the autopsy.

FINCK
(VO)
No, because there were others. There were
admirals.

JIM
(VO)
There were admirals.

FINCK
(VO)
Oh yes, there were admirals - and when
you are a lieutenant colonel in the Army
you just follow orders, and at the end of
the autopsy we were specifically told -
as I recall it was Admiral Kenney, the
Surgeon General of the Navy - we were
specifically told not to discuss the case.

KENNEY
(in Bethesda scene)
Gentlemen, what you've seen in this room
is intensely private to the Kennedy family
and it is not our business to ...

Jim turns away from the jury. His point is made. Finck is no longer on
the stand.

DESTRUCTION OF CRIME SCENE EVIDENCE

JIM
In addition to which, 1) the chief
pathologist, Commander Humes, by his
own admission voluntarily burned his
autopsy notes, 2)never released the
autopsy photos to the public, 3)
President Johnson ordered the blood
soaked limousine filled with bullet
holes and clues to be immediately
washed and rebuilt, 4) sent John
Connally's bloody suit right to the
cleaners, and 5) when my office finally
got a court order to examine President
Kennedy's brain in the National
Archives in the hopes of finding from
what direction the bullets came, we
were told by the government the President's
brain had disappeared!

There's a pause, and then a murmur from the court. Jim is on a roll and
knows it. The faces in the courtroom are with him, absorbed, horrified.
The law students are still there, they have been since day one. But it
is Liz's interest that touches him the most.



JIM
So what really happened that day? Let's
just for a moment speculate, shall we?
We have the epileptic seizure around
12:15 P.M. ... distracting the police,
making it easier for the shooters to
move into their places. The epileptic
later vanished, never checking into the
hospital. The A Team gets on the 6th
floor of the Book Depository ...

FLASHBACK TO: the Book Depository, 1963. A shooter and two spotters
dressed as working men move into the Oswald spot. One spotter produces
the Mannlicher-Carcano.

JIM
(VO)
They were refurbishing the floors in
the Depository that week, which allowed
unknown workmen in and out of the
building. The men move quickly into
position just minutes before the
shooting.

The camera takes the shooter's point of view: we see down the street
through a scope. His spotter wears a radio earpiece. The second
spotter is working out of the southeast window.

JIM
(VO)
The second spotter is probably calling
all the shots on a radio to the two
other teams. He as the best overall
view - "the God spot".

Inside the Dal - Tex Building, a shooter and a spotter dressed as air -
conditioning men move into a small second - story textile storage room.

JIM
(VO)
B Team - one rifleman and one spotter
with a headset, with access to the
building - moves into a low floor of the
Dal - Tex Building.

At the picket fence a shooter in a Dallas Police uniform moves into
place, aiming up Elm Street. His spotter has a radio to his ear.
Another man in a Secret Service suit moves further down the fence.

JIM
(VO)
The third team, the C Team, moves in
behind the picket fence above the Grassy
Knoll, where the shooter and the spotter
are first seen by the late Lee Bowers
in the watchtower of the railyard. They
have the best position of all. Kennedy
is close and on a flat low trajectory.
Part of this team is a coordinator who's
flashed security credentials at several
people, chasing them out of the parking
lot area.

An "agent" in tie and suit moves on the underpass, keeping an eye out.
In the crowd on Elm Street, we catch brief glimpses of the umbrella man
and the Cuban, neither of them watching Kennedy, both looking around to
their teams. There is a third man, heavyset, in a construction helmet.

JIM
(VO)
Probably two to three more men are down
in the crowd on Elm ... ten to twelve
men ... three teams, three shooters.
The triangulation of fire Clay Shaw
and David Ferrie discussed two months
before. They've walked the Plaza, they
know every inch. They've calibrated their
sights, practiced on moving targets.
They're ready. It's going to be a turkey
shoot. Kennedy's motorcade makes the
turn from Main onto Houston.

J.F.K. waves and turns in slow motion.

JIM
(VO)
Six witnesses see two gunmen on the
sixth floor of the Depository moving
around. Some of them think they're
policemen with rifles.

From Houston Street we look up at the sixth floor of the Book Depository
and see the shooter moving around. Arnold Rowland points him out to his
wife.

ARNOLD
(under)
... probably a security agent.

In the Dallas County Jail, Johnny Powell is one of many convicts housed
on the sixth floor - the same height as the men in the Book Depository.
We look across to the Depository through cell bars. Johnny and various
cell mates are watching two men in the sixth floor of the Depository.

JIM
(VO)
John Powell, a prisoner on the sixth floor
of the Dallas County Jail, sees them.

POWELL
(under)
... quite a few of us saw them. Everybody
was hollering and yelling and that. We
thought is was security guys ...

JIM
(VO)
... they don't shoot him coming up Houston,
which is the easiest shot for a single
shooter in the Book Depository, but they
wait till he gets to the killing zone
between three rifles. Kennedy makes the
final turn from Houston onto Elm, slowing
down to some 11 miles per hour.

All the shooters tighten, taking aim. It's a tense moment.

JIM
(VO)
The shooters across Dealey Plaza tighten,
taking their aim across their sights ...
waiting for the radio to say "Green
Green!" or "Abort Abort!"

The camera is on Kennedy waving. A MONTAGE follows - all the faces in
the square that we've introduced in the movie now appear one after the
other, watching - the killers, the man with the umbrella, the Newman
family, Mary Moorman photographing, Jean Hill, Abraham Zapruder filming
it, S.M. Holland, Patrolman Harkness ... INTERCUT with the Zapruder and
Nix films on J.F.K. in the final seconds coming abreast of the Stemmons
Freeway sign.

JIM
(VO)
The first shot rings out.

CUT TO: the Dal - Tex shooter firing. We see the back of Kennedy's head
through his gun sight. Kennedy (stand in) reacts in the Zapruder film.

JIM
(VO)
Sounding like a backfire, it misses
completely ... Frame 161, Kennedy stops
waving as he hears something. Connally
turns his head slightly to the right.

Everything goes off very fast now. Repeating intercuts are slowed down
with shots of Kennedy reacting in the Zapruder film.

JIM
(VO)
Frame 193 - the second shot hits Kennedy
in the throat from the front. Frame 225 -
the President emerging from the road sign.
He obviously has been hit, raising his arms
to his throat.

CUT TO: the picket fence shooter hitting him from the fence. We see
Kennedy (stand in) from the point of view of his telescopic sight. In
the Zapruder film, we see Kennedy clutch his throat.

JIM
Frame 232, the third shot - the President
has been hit in the back, drawing him
downward and forward. Connally, you will
notice, shows no signs at all of being
hit. He is visibly holding his Stetson
which is impossible if his wrist has
been shattered.

CUT TO: the Dal - Tex shooter. We see Kennedy from his point of view,
and the Zapruder film in slow motion.

JIM
(VO)
Connally's turning now here. Frame 238
... the fourth shot misses Kennedy and
takes Connally in the back. This is the
key shot that proves two rifles from the
rear. This is 1.6 seconds after the third
shot, and we know no manual bolt action
rifle can be recycled in that time.
Connally is hit, his mouth drops, he yells
out, "My God, they're going to kill us
all" ... Here ...

CUT TO: the sixth floor shooter firing rapidly and missing Kennedy but
hitting Connally (stand in).

JIM
(VO)
... the umbrella man is signalling "He's
not dead. Keep shooting." James Tague
down at the underpass is hit sometime now
by another shot that misses.

CUT TO: the umbrella manpumping his umbrella. The Cuban is
looking off. The man on the curb in the construction helmet is looking
not at J.F.K. but up at the Book Depository.

JIM
(VO)
The car brakes. The fifth and fatal
shot - frame 313 - takes Kennedy in the
head from the front ...

CUT TO the picket fence shooter. We see J.F.K. from his point of view.
He fires, and then we see Kennedy in the Zapruder film flying backwards
and to his left in a ferocious, conclusive spray of blood and brain
tissue. We repeat the shot.

JIM
(VO)
This is the key shot. Watch it again.
The President going back to his left.
Shot from the front and right. Totally
inconsistent with the shot from the
Depository. Again - (repeats) ... back
and two the left. (he repeats it like
a mantra) ... back and to the left ...
back and to the left.

Kennedy's car speeds off. Jackie is like a crawling animal in a pillbox
hat on the back of the car. The people on the other side of the
underpass wave innocently as the car speeds through with it's horrifying
contents. Pigeons fly off the rooftop of the Book Depository.

JIM
(VO)
What happens then? Pandemonium. The
shooters quickly disassemble their
various weapons, all except the Oswald
rifle.

CUT TO: sixth floor spotter dumping the Mannlicher - Carcano in a corner
as he leaves ... and then to the Dal - Tex spotter and shooter, who
break down the gun and move out ... and then to the spotter with the
fence shooter, who quickly breaks down the weapon, throwing it in the
trunk of a car parked at the fence. He walks away. The fence shooter,
dressed as a policeman, blends with the crowd.

CUT TO: the umbrella man and the Cuban sitting quietly together on the
north side of the curb of Elm Street.

CUT TO: stunned, confused, people in the crowd - some lying on the
ground, some running for the Grassy Knoll.

Back in the courtroom, patrolman Joe Smith is on the stand.

SHOOTERS BY THE PICKET FENCE

JIM
(VO)
Patrolman Joe Smith rushed into the
parking lot behind the fence. He
smelled gunpowder.

FLASHBACK TO: the picket fence area where, with his gun drawn, Smith
rushes across to a man standing by a car who reacts quickly, producing
credentials. He is one of the hoboes. There's a strange moment when
the camera moves from Smith's eyes to the man's fingernails.

SMITH
(VO)
... the character produces credentials
from his pocket which showed him to be
Secret Service. So I accepted that and
let him go and continued our search.
But I regretted it, 'cause this guy
looked like an auto mechanic. He had on
a sports shirt and pants, but he had
dirty fingernails. Afterwards it didn't
ring true, but at the time we were so
pressed for time.

JIM
(VO)
Yet all Secret Servicemen in Dallas that
day are accounted for. None were on foot
in Dealey Plaza before or after the shooting,
till Dallas Secret Service Chief Forrest
Sorrels returned at 12:55.

Back in the courtroom, Liz is totally absorbed. Jim exchanges looks
with her. The camera movies in for a close - up of Jim.

JIM
(pausing for effect)
What else was going on in Dealey Plaza
that day? At least 12 other individuals
were taken into custody by Dallas police.
No records of their arrests. Men acting
like hoboes were being pulled off trains,
marched through Dealey Plaza, photographed,
and yet there is no records of their
arrests.

FLASHBACK TO: the three hoboes being arrested ... marching across Dealey
Plaza. The hoboes look familiar now.

JIM
(VO)
Men identifying themselves as Secret
Service Agents were all over the place.
But who was impersonating them?

FLASHBACK TO: men in suits, ties, and hats moving people out of the
parking lot area ... turning a policeman back.

FLASHBACK TO: the Cuban, putting away a radio, and the umbrella man, who
now rise and leave the area in opposite directions.
EXONERATING OSWALD

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.

In an underground police garage, we see Jack Ruby being allowed in via
an interior staircase by his police contact. He moves towards the outer
edge of reporters, nervous.

Oswald comes out with his two guards. We see a repeat of the
assassination in stop time ... Ruby's eyes, Oswald's ... do they
recognize each other?

JIM
(VO)
Under the guise of a patriotic nightclub
owner out to spare Jackie Kennedy from
having to testify at a trial, Jack Ruby
is shown into the underground garage by
one of his inside men on the Dallas Police
Force, and when he's ready Oswald is brought
out like a sacrificial lamb and nicely
disposed of as an enemy of the people. By
early Sunday afternoon, the autopsy has been
completed on him. Who grieves for Lee Harvey
Oswald? Buried in a cheap grave under the
name "Oswald"? No one.

We see Oswald dying on the floor of the police station. A paramedic
pushes in and starts administering artificial respiration, which only
aggravates the internal hemorrhaging.

At a Texas cemetery, Oswald's mother weeps. Oswald is buried with a few
people present, but there are no details, no dates. We see Marina
whisked out by agents.

CUT TO Kennedy's funeral, which, in contrast, attracts thousands of
mourners.

JIM
(VO)
Within minutes false statements and press
leaks about Lee Oswald circulate the globe.

FLASHBACK TO X: reading about it in the New Zealand Airport, and then
back to the courtroom in 1969.

JIM
The Official Legend is created and the media
takes it from there. The glitter of official
lies and the epic splendor of the thought -
numbing funeral of J.F.K. confuse the eye
and confound the understanding. Hitler
always said "the bigger the lie, the more
people will believe it." Lee Oswald - a
crazed, lonely man who wanted attention and
got it by killing a President, was only the
first in a long line of patsies. In later
years Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King,
men whose commitment to change and to peace
would make them dangerous to men who are
committed to war, would follow, also killed
by such "lonely, crazed men," who remove
our guilt by making murder a meaningless
act of a loner. 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. He forces on
us the appalling questions: Of what is our
Constitution made? What is our citizenship,
and more, our lives worth? What is the
future of a democracy where a President can
be assassinated under conspicuously
suspicious circumstances while the machinery
of legal action scarcely trembles? How
many political murders, disguised as heart
attacks, cancer, suicides, airplane and car
crashes, drug overdoses will occur before
they are exposed for what they are?

Liz watches, moved. Susie, Al and Numa are also there for the
summation. Even Lou Ivon has come back to support his friend.

JIM
"Treason doth never prosper," wrote an
English poet, "What's the reason? For if
it prosper, none dare call it treason."
The generals who sent Dreyfus to Devils
Island were among the most honorable men
in France, the men who killed Caesar were
among the most honorable men in Rome. And
the men who killed Kennedy, no doubt, were
honorable men. I believe we have reached
a time in our country, similar to what life
must've been like under Hitler in the 30's,
except we don't realize it because Fascism
in our country takes the benign disguise
of liberal democracy. There won't be such
familiar signs as swastikas. We won't build
Dachaus and Auschwitzes. We're not going
to wake up one morning and suddenly find
ourselves in gray uniforms goose - stepping
off to work ... "Fascism will come," Huey
Long once said. "in the name of anti -
fascism" - it will come in the name of your
security - they call it "National Security,"
it will come with the mass media manipulating
a clever concentration camp of the mind.
The super state will provide you tranquility
above the truth, the super state will make
you believe you are living in the best of
all possible worlds, and in order to do so
will rewrite history as it sees fit. George
Orwell's Ministry of Truth warned us, "Who
controls the past, controls the future."
The American people have yet to see the
Zapruder film. Why? The American people
have yet to see the real photographs and
X - rays of the autopsy. Why? There are
hundreds of documents that could help
prove this conspiracy. Why have they been
withheld or burned by the Government? Each
time my office or you the people have asked
those questions, demanded crucial evidence,
the answer from on high has been "national
security." What kind of "national security"
do we have when we have been robbed of our
leaders? Who determines our "national
security"? What "national security" permits
the removal of fundamental power from the
hands of the American people and validates
the ascendancy of invisible government in
the United States? That kind of "national
security," gentlemen of the jury, is when
it smells like it, feels like it, and looks
like it, you call it what it is - it's
Fascism! I submit to you that 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 camera holds on onlookers shuffling and murmuring. Clay Shaw
smirks, smoking his cigarette. The very grandiosity of the charge works
in his favor. Jim is falling apart from built - up strain and fatigue.
He looks over at Liz, gathering his spirit.

JIM
(VO)
There is a very simple way to determine if I
am being paranoid here.
(laughter)
Let's ask the two men who have profited the
most from the assassination - your former
President Lyndon Baines Johnson and your
new President, Richard Nixon - to release
51 CIA documents pertaining to Lee Oswald
and Jack Ruby, or the secret CIA memo on
Oswald's activities in Russia that was
"destroyed" while being photocopied.
All these documents are yours - the people's
property - you pay for it, but because the
government considers you children who might
be too disturbed to face this reality,
because you might lynch those involved, you
cannot see these documents for another 75
years. I'm in my 40's, so I'll have shuffled
off this mortal coil by then, but I'm already
telling my 8 year - old son to keep himself
physically fit so that one glorious September
morning in 2038 he can walk into the
National Archives and find out what the CIA
and the FBI knew. They may even push it
back then. It may become a generational
affair, with questions passed down from
father to son, mother to daughter, in the
manner of the ancient runic bards. Someday
somewhere, someone might find out the
damned Truth. Or we might just build
ourselves a new Government like the
Declaration of Independence says we should
do when the old one ain't working - maybe
a little farther out West.

He approaches the jury.

JIM
An American naturalist wrote, "a patriot
must always be ready to defend his
country against its government." Well,
I'd hate to be in your shoes today. You
have a lot to think about. Going back to
when we were children, I think most of
us in this courtroom thought that justice
came into being automatically, that virtue
was its own reward, that good would triumph
over evil. But as we get older we know
that this just isn't true. "The frontier
is where a man faces a fact." Individual
human beings have to create justice and this
is not easy because truth often presents a
threat to power and we have to fight power
often at great risk to ourselves. People
like Julia Ann Mercer, S.M. Holland, Lee
Bowers, Jean Hill, and Willie O'Keefe have
come forward and taken that risk.
(he produces a stack of letters)
I have here some $8000 in these letters
sent to my office from all over the
country - quarters, dimes, dollar bills
from housewives, plumbers, car salesmen,
teachers, invalids ... These are the people
who cannot afford to send money but do,
these are the ones who drive the cabs, who
nurse in the hospitals, who see their kids
go to Vietnam. Why? Because they care,
because they want to know the truth -
because they want their country back,
because it belongs to us the people as long
as the people got the guts to fight for
what they believe in! The truth is the most
important value we have because if the
truth does not endure, if the Government
murders truth, if you cannot respect the
hearts of these people ...
(shaking the letters)
... then this is no longer the country in
which we were born in and this is not the
country I want to die in ... And this was
never more true than for John F. Kennedy
whose murder was probably the most terrible
moment in the history of our country. You
the people, you the jury system, in sitting
in judgement on Clay Shaw, represent the
hope of humanity against Government power.
In discharging your duty, in bringing the
first conviction in this house of cards
against Clay Shaw, "Ask not what your
country can do for you, but what you can
do for your country." Do not forget your
young President who forfeited his life.
Show the world this is still a government
of the people, for the people, and by the
people. Nothing as long as you live will
ever be more important.
(he stares into the camera)
It's up to you.

He returns to the table and sits. The courtroom is still.

CUT TO: later in the same courtroom. The jury files in, having reached
a verdict. Jim, prepared, sits with his staff and Liz. The jury
foreman enters the courtroom.

JURY FOREMAN
We find Clay Shaw ... not guilty on all
counts.

There's jubilation and commotion in the Court. Shaw stands, happily
shaking hands all over ... Members of the press run for the phones. In
the corridor outside the courtroom, the press interviews the jury foreman.
THE JURY BELIEVED THERE WAS A CONSPIRACY, THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST PART OF THE TRIAL.
WHETHER CLAY SHAW WAS PART OF IT WAS BARELY TOUCHED ON IN THE TRIAL. IN OTHER WORDS, THE TARGET OR CHARGES IN THE TRIAL WERE POORLY CONSTRUCTED. I'M SURE GARRISON KNEW THIS BUT WAS HELPLESS. THIS WAS THE BEST HE COULD GET.


FOREMAN
We believe there was a conspiracy, but
whether Clay Shaw was a part of it is
another kettle of fish.

The camera moves to Jim, who walks out past the banks of reporters. TV
lights are in his face. Liz is by his side.

ENGLISH REPORTER
Mr. Garrison, the American media is
reporting this as a full vindication
of the Warren Commission, do you ...

JIM
I think all it proves is you cannot run a
trial even questioning the intelligence
operations of the government in the light
of day.

NEWSMAN 13
We understand that The Times - Picayune
will call for your resignation - unfit
to hold office. You've ruined Clay Shaw's
reputation - are you going to resign?

JIM
Hell, no. I'm gonna run again. And I'm
gonna win. Thank you very much. If it
takes me 30 years to nail every one of
the assassins, then I will continue this
investigation for 30 years. I owe that
not only to Jack Kennedy, but to my
country.

He and Liz squeeze hands as they walk on.

DISSOLVE TO WASHINGTON, D.C. - (1970)

Jim waits on the same park bench as earlier in the film, overlooking the
Mall or the Lincoln Monument ... as X walks up, a little grayer, a
little more stooped, wearing ill fitting civilian clothes.

JIM
Well, thanks for coming.

X
You didn't get that break you needed, but
you went as far as any man could, bubba.
(he sits next to Jim)
What can I do for you?

JIM
Just speculating, I guess. How do you
think it started?

X
I think 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.

CUT TO: a New York lunch club or executive dining room. From the window
we have a towering view of the City. Four men in their 50's to 70's -
old men, rich men, talk at a quiet table. Their figures are shadowy and
we overhear their conversation obliquely, across faces flared out by sun
bouncing off the skyscraper window.

X
(VO)
One worried sonofabitch with a few million
dollars turns to the others ... with a few
million dollars ... and says something
pretty direct like ...

RICH MAN 1
The sonofabitch is gonna get re-elected by
a bigger vote than ever in '64. It's gonna
be worse than Roosevelt. The country won't
survive as we know it.

RICH MAN 2
I agree, Bob, it can't go on.
(he looks to Man 3)

RICH MAN 3
... and Bobby in '68? Something's got to
be done.

Looks pass among them. There's a pause, and then ...

RICH MAN 1
He's gotta go, Lou. The election's gotta
be stopped.

There is a breathless moment with the thought in the air.

RICH MAN 1
I talk to a lot of people. I know I'm
not the only one thinking this.

RICH MAN 2
What's the feeling in Washington, Jack?

FLASHBACK TO: the Pentagon in 1962.

X
(VO)
... so calls are made. Down to Washington.
All over the world. They start talking
about it. A few people here, there. Just
conversations, nothing more ...

We see a general meeting with another general. They talk.

X
(VO)
Generals, Admirals, CIA people, and probably
some people on the inside of Kennedy's staff
- young, brilliant Judases, ready to go to
war in Southeast Asia ...

FLASHBACK TO: the White House, 1962. A general talks to one of
Kennedy's staff - a bespectacled, bright young Harvard type.

X
(VO)
... and maybe a Vice - President getting
separate memos from Vietnam, eager to get
his backers the billions of dollars in
contracts for Southeast Asia ...

In a White House office, Lyndon Johnson meets with a cabinet member, a
contractor, and two military men.

X
(VO)
Kennedy, like Caesar, is surrounded with
enemies. Something is underway but it
has no face. Yet everyone in the loop
knows ...

The camera shows Washington, D.C. buildings from strange angles. The
feeling is still, weird, angled, alien. The buildings are twisted.

X
(VO)
Money is at stake. Big money. A hundred
billion. The Kennedy brothers target voting
districts for defense dollars. They give
TFX fighter contracts only to the counties
that are going to make a difference in '64.
These people fight back. Their way. One
day another call is made ...

In a Pentagon office, a man in civilian clothing is on the phone, his
back to the screen. This is Mr. Y, X's superior officer. Shadows
pervade the room. An unshuttered window overlooks the Potomac River and
the White House.

X
(VO)
... maybe to somebody like my superior
who's been running the "Mongoose" program
out of Florida and who has no love for
Kennedy.

VOICE ON PHONE
Bill, we're going. We need your help.

X
(VO)
Everything's cellurized. No one has said
"he must die," there's been no vote, there's
nothing on paper, there's no one to blame.
It's as old as the Crucifixion: the Mafia
firing squad, one blank, no one's guilty
because everyone in the Power Structure who
knows anything has a plausible deniability.
There are no compromising connections except
at the most secret point. But what's
paramount is that it must succeed. No matter
how many die, how much it costs, the
perpetrators must be on the winning side and
never subject to prosecution for anything
by anyone. That is a coup d'etat.

Y
(into phone)
When?

VOICE ON PHONE
In the fall. Probably in the south. We
want you to come up with a plan ...

X
(VO)
He's done it before. Other countries.
Lumumba in the Congo, Trujillo, the
Dominican Republic, he's working on Castro.
No big deal. In September, Kennedy
announces the Texas trip. At that moment,
second Oswalds start popping up all over
Dallas where they have the mayor and the
cops in their pocket. Y flies in the
assassins, maybe from the special camp
we keep outside Athens, Greece - pros,
maybe some locals, Cubans, Maria hire,
separate teams. Does it really matter
who shot from what rooftop? Part of
the scenery. The assassins by now are
dead or well paid and long gone ...

JIM
Any chance of one of them confessing
someday?

X
... don't think so. When they start to drool,
they get rid of 'em. These guys are proud
of what they did. They did Dealey Plaza!
They took out the President of the United
States! That's entertainment! And they
served their country doing it.

JIM
(in present)
... and your General?

X
... got promoted to two stars, but he was
never military, you know, always CIA.
Went to Vietnam, lost his credibility when
we got beat over there, retired, lives
in Virginia. I say hello to him when I see
him at the supermarket ...

JIM
Ever ask him?

X
You never ask a spook a question. No point.
He'll never give you a straight answer.
General Y still thinks of himself of the
handsome young warrior who loved this
country but loved the concept of war more.

JIM
His name?

X
Does it matter? Another technician. But
an interesting thing - he was there that day
in Dealey Plaza. You know how I know?
(Jim shakes his head)
That picture of yours. The hoboes ...
you never looked deep enough ...

FLASHBACK TO: one of the hobo pictures. Next to the freight entrance of
the Book Depository, Y, in a dark suit, is nonchalantly walking past the
hoboes, his back to us. The camera closes in on Y.

X
(VO)
I knew the man 20 years. That's him. The
way he walked ... arms at his side, military,
the stoop, the haircut, the twisted left
hand, the large class ring. What was he
doing there? If anyone had asked him, he'd
probably say "protection" but I'll tell
you I think he was giving some kind of
"okay" signal to those hoboes - they're
about to get booked and he's telling 'em
it's gonna be okay, they're covered. And
in fact they were - you never heard of them
again.

JIM
... some story ... the whole thing. It's
like it never happened.

X
It never did.
(he smiles tartly)

JIM
Just think ... just think. What happened
to our country ... to the world ...
because of that murder ... Vietnam, racial
conflict, breakdown of law, drugs, thought
control, guilt, assassinations, secret
government fear of the frontier ...

X
I keep thinking of that day, Tuesday the
26th, the day after they buried Kennedy,
L.B.J. was signing the memorandum on
Vietnam with Ambassador Lodge.

FLASHBACK TO: the White House, 1963. Johnson sits across the shadowed
room with Lodge and others. His Texas drawl rises and falls. He signs
something unseen.

JOHNSON
Gentlemen, I want you to know I'm not going
to let Vietnam go the way China did. I'm
personally committed. I'm not going to
take one soldier out of there 'til they
know we mean business in Asia ...
(he pauses)
You just get me elected, and I'll give
you your damned war.

X
(VO)
... and that was the day Vietnam started.

CUT TO: Documentary footage of - U.S. Marines arriving in full force on
the beaches of Danang, March 8, 1965 ... as another era begins and our
movie ends.

On a black screen we read:

** In 1975, VICTOR MARCHETTI, former executive assistant to the CIA's
deputy director, stated that during high - level CIA meetings during
Shaw's trial in 1969, CIA director RICHARD HELMS disclosed that CLAY
SHAW and DAVID FERRIE had worked for the Agency, and asked his
assistants to make sure Mr. Shaw received Agency help at his trial.

** In 1979, RICHARD HELMS, director of covert operations in 1963,
admitted under oath that CLAY SHAW had Agency connections.

** It is now known that in 1963, U.S. military intelligence controlled
more agents than the CIA and had almost as much money to spend. It
surfaced in the 1970's that the Army had long been conducting
surveillance and keeping files on thousands of private citizens in the
name of national security. The prime targets were dissident - left -
wingers of the kind Oswald appeared to be.

** CLAY SHAW died in 1974 of supposed lung cancer. No autopsy was
allowed.

** WILLIAM SULLIVAN, Assistant Director of the FBI, died in the early
morning hours of November 9,177 when he was mistaken for a deer in an
open field in New Hampshire. Shortly before his death, Sullivan had a
preliminary hearing with the HSCA.

** GEORGE DE MOHRENSCHILDT committed suicide just hours after HSCA
investigator Gaeton Fonzi located him.

** In November, 1969 JIM GARRISON was re - elected to a third term as
District Attorney of Orleans Parish. In June of 1971, he was arrested
by Federal Agents on charges of allowing payoffs on pinball gambling by
organized crime. In September of 1973, after defending himself in
Federal Court, he was quickly found not guilty of charges that appear to
have been framed against him. Less than six weeks later, he was
narrowly defeated for a fourth term as District Attorney.

** In 1978, Garrison was elected Judge of the Louisiana State Court of
Appeal in New Orleans. He was re - elected in 1988. To this date, he
has brought the only public prosecution in the Kennedy killing.

** ELIZABETH and Jim were divorced in 1978. He now lives in the same
house he lived in with Elizabeth. She lives a block away. Their five
children are grown.

** SOUTHEAST ASIA: 58,000 American lives, 2 million Asian lives, $220
billion spent, 10 million Americans air - lifted there by commercial
aircraft, more than 5,000 helicopters lost, 6.5 million tons of bombs
dropped.

** A Congressional Investigation from 1976 - 1979 found a "probable
conspiracy" in the assassination of John F. Kennedy and recommended the
Justice Department investigate further. As of 1991, the Justice
Department has done nothing. The files of the House Select Committee on
Assassinations are locked away until the year 2029.

The camera moves onto the mottoes chiselled in the walls of the National
Archives in Washington, D.C.:

"STUDY THE PAST"

"PAST IS PROLOGUE"

"ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE OF LIBERTY"

DEDICATED TO THE YOUNG, IN WHOSE SPIRIT THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH MARCHES ON

FADE OUT: