Waggoner
Carr was born in Fairlie, Hunt County, on 1st October, 1918. Educated
at Lubbock High School and Texas Technological College. During the
Second World War he served in the United
States Army Air Corps.
Carr
graduated from the University of Texas Law School in 1947. He established
his own law office with his brother Warlick. The following year he
was appointed assistant district attorney in Lubbock. He was also
and from 1949 to 1951 as county attorney for Lubbock County (1949-51).
A
member of the Democratic Party, Carr won a seat in the Texas House
of Representatives (District 19) in 1950. He served for the next ten
years and during this period focused on issues such as water, tourism,
industrial development. Carr also helped establish a code of ethics
for legislators and lobbyists. This included two consecutive terms
as Speaker of the House.
In 1960
Carr left the Texas
House of Representatives
to run for the post of Attorney General, but lost to the incumbent,
William Wilson. He stood again in 1962 and this time he was elected.
Over the next few years he was involved in the prosecution of Billie
Sol Estes and Jack
Ruby.
Carr
led the investigation of the assassination of John
F. Kennedy and participated in the work of the Warren
Commission. Carr testified that Lee Harvey
Oswald was working as an undercover agent for the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and
was receiving $200 a month from September 1962 until his death in
November, 1963. However, the Warren Commission preferred to believe
J. Edgar Hoover, who denied Carr's affirmations.
After
leaving public office Carr went into private practice and eventually
joined the Austin law firm of DeLeon and Boggins. However, in 1970,
Carr was indicted on charges of fraud, conspiracy and filing false
reports to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Acquitted
of all charges in 1974, Carr wrote about the case in his book, Waggoner
Carr, Not Guilty (1977).
Waggoner
Carr died on 25th February, 2004.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
Waggoner
Carr, interviewed by J.
Lee Rankin and Allen
W. Dulles
for the Warren
Commission (8th June,
1964)
J. Lee Rankin: Were
you here when Henry Wade was testifying with regard to a conversation
between himself and yourself, this morning?
Waggoner
Carr: Yes, sir.
J. Lee Rankin:
Would you relate to us that conversation as you recall it, both what
you said and what he said?
Waggoner Carr:
As I recall, it was around 8 or 9 o'clock at night on November 22,
1963, when I received a long-distance telephone call from Washington
from someone in the White House. I can't for the life of me remember
who it was. A rumor had been heard here that there was going to be
an allegation in the indictment against Oswald connecting the assassination
with an international conspiracy, and the inquiry was made whether
I had any know.ledge of it, and I told him I had no knowledge of it.
As a matter of fact, I hadn't been in Dallas since the assassination
and was not there at the time of the assassination. So the request
was made of me to contact Mr. Wade to find out if that allegation
was in the indictment. I received the definite impression that the
concern of the caller was that because of the emotion or the high
tension that existed at that time that someone might thoughtlessly
place in the indictment such an allegation without having the proof
of such a conspiracy. So I did call Mr. Wade from my home, when I
received the call, and he told me very much what he repeated to you
today, as I recall, that he had no knowledge of anyone desiring to
have that or planning to have that in the indictment; that it would
be surplusage, it was not necessary to allege it, and that it would
not be in there, but that he would doublecheck it to be sure. And
then I called back, and - as I recall I did - and informed the White
House participant in the conversation of what Mr. Wade had said, and
that was all of it.
J. Lee Rankin:
Was there anything said to you at any time by anybody from Washington
that if there was any evidence that was credible to support such an
international conspiracy it should not be included in the indictment
or complaint or any action?
Waggoner
Carr: Oh, no; absolutely
not. There was no direct talk or indirect talk or insinuation that
the facts, whatever they might be, should be suppressed. It was simply
that in the tension someone might put something in an indictment for
an advantage here or disadvantage there, that could not be proved,
which would have very serious reaction, which the local person might
not anticipate since he might not have the entire picture of what
the reaction might be...
Allen W. Dulles:
Was there any indication in the call from the White House as to whether
this was a leftist, rightist, or any other type of conspiracy or,
as far as you recall, was just the word "conspiracy" used?
Waggoner
Carr: As far as
I recall, it was an international conspiracy. This was the idea, but
I don't know whether the word "Communist" was used or not,
Mr. Dulles. It could have been, or maybe I just assumed that if there
was a conspiracy it would only be a Communist conspiracy. I don't
know which it was, but it was a perfectly natural call. The circumstances
that existed at the time, knowing them as I did, and the tension and
the high emotion that was running rampant there, it was not inconceivable
that something like that could have been done, you understand., without
any thought of harming anyone or any thought of having to prove it,
as long as you didn't know that under our Texas law you have to prove
every allegation made in an indictment. If you didn't know that, it
might seem logical that someone might put something like that into
an indictment, factual or not.
Available from Amazon
Books (order below)
