A mere week had passed since bullets flew in Dealey Plaza claiming the life of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and wounding Texas Governor John Connally. The initial shock of the assassination was compounded by the nationally televised shooting of the alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald by Dallas nightclub owner and mob associate Jack Ruby. The American People wanted answers as did various law enforcement and government authorities. On November 29, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced the formation of a commission designed to find answers. The commission was to be led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren and would forever be known as the Warren Commission. Warren was named along with Congressmen Gerald Ford, Hale Boggs, Senators John Sherman Cooper, Richard Russell, former World Bank President John McCloy and former CIA Director Allen Dulles. The investigation would consist of mainly closed-door hearings where testimony from pertinent witnesses would be provided. The Warren Commission report would be given to the President in September 1964. This commission was designed to put to rest any lingering doubt about the events in Dealey Plaza. However, the investigation’s shortcomings only led to more scrutiny.
By the late 1970s, trust in the United States Government had reached its nadir. The revelations resulting from the Watergate investigation along with the Rockefeller and Church Committees left the country reeling. CIA & FBI misdeeds were at the heart of many of the scandals. Another look at the JFK assassination (along with a few other political assassinations of the 1960s) was looming. The House Select Committee on Assassinations was established in 1976 and despite some initial turbulence began hearing testimony in 1978. While investigators like Robert Tannenbaum, Gaeton Fonzi, and others chased intriguing leads, the 12-member committee listened to testimony from former Governor John Connally and his wife to researcher Robert Groden and Dr. Cyril Wecht.
Despite the Committee’s stated intentions, the HSCA seemed designed to function as another whitewashing of events. John Connally’s testimony reiterated the distinct possibility of a second shooter while Nellie Connally highlighted JFK’s reaction after the first shot. Their testimony wavered little from their Warren Commission statements, yet were still significant. The conclusions of Chief Counsel Robert Blakey and various members of the committee seemed preordained as those pointing to inconsistencies and/or anomalies in the evidence were given short shrift while those who reaffirmed the Warren Commission were highlighted.
Some of the witnesses’ names may be familiar, such as Gerald Ford or Richard Helms while others (i.e. Louis Steven Witt) may draw nary a second thought. Yet, author Tim Smith deftly relates how and why they are relevant into understanding not only 11/22/63 but also the ensuing investigations.
In “Hidden in Plain Sight”, author Tim Smith discloses the crucial evidence given by witnesses who ran the gamut from politicians to doctors to photographic experts and intelligence officials. Smith provides important insight into each individual’s testimony and where the Committee fell short in its probe. In the 61 years since the assassination in Dallas, there have been scads of books written about the shootings along with the various investigations. However, “Hidden in Plain Sight” provides an invaluable service in appraising the good, the bad, and often pointless testimony given in 1978-79. This is a must-read for assassination researchers but History lovers also.
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