Henry Hurt the investigative
reporter published his book, Reasonable Doubt:
An Investigation into the Assassination of John F. Kennedy
in 1986. The book included an interview with Robert
W. Easterling. In 1974 Easterling was committed to a mental institution.
The following year he got in touch with the Federal
Bureau of Investigation about his knowledge of the assassination
of John
F. Kennedy.
Although interviewed by the Secret Service several times between 1974
and 1982, Easterling felt his story was not being fully investigated.
He therefore contacted Hurt.
Robert
W. Easterling told Hurt that he had been recruited by Manuel Rivera
to drive Lee
Harvey Oswald from
Dallas on the day of the assassination. Easterling claimed that David
Ferrie, Jack
Ruby
and Clay
Shaw had been involved in this conspiracy. So also were unnamed
members of the Texas oil industry. Easterling also told Hurt that
Rivera had been the gunman who killed Kennedy. Rivera used a 7-mm
Czech-made automatic rather than the Mannlicher-Carcano
that had been planted in the Texas Book Depository to implicate Oswald.
Easterling decided not
to take part in this conspiracy to kill John
F. Kennedy
and instead fled to Jackson, Mississippi. On 21st November, 1963,
Easterling informed the FBI in Washington
of the plot. He was told they knew of the conspiracy. The FBI agent
told him: "We know all about it. We're going to catch them red-handed."
You're in too deep. You're going to get killed."
Henry Hurt is also the
author of Shadrin: The Spy Who Never Came
Back (1983).
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
Henry Hurt, interviewed in 1986.
As one of the 80 percent who doubted the official version I began
a quest to understand the case. Beyond the general feeling that the
official version seemed illogically simplistic, I was not burdened
by an preconceived notions. During the early months of research I
fully expected at any moment to encounter that single, unalterable
piece of evidence that would leave no doubt that Oswald had acted
alone. That discovery never came. Instead, the evidence continued
to point in a different direction.
(2)
Henry
Hurt, Reasonable Doubt:
An Investigation into the Assassination of John F. Kennedy (1986).
One of the enduring
oddities of the evidence found in the assassin's lair is the discovery
of the three cartridge shells ballistically linked to the Oswald rifle.
Those shells were not scattered widely as one would expect them to
be if ejected from a rifle in the normal fashion.
Moreover, two of them
were only inches apart. Another curious point is the failure by investigators
to find a single Mannlicher-Carcano cartridge other than those, including
a live round still in the rifle, discovered at the scene. No extra
cartridge was ever found on Oswald or in his possessions. No evidence
was found that he ever purchased ammunition at all. If he was the
assassin, his only ammunition was at the scene - the cartridge shells
lined up as evidence in the assassin's lair. There is no official
explanation as to where Oswald supposedly got his four cartridges.
As for the Mannlicher-Carcano
that was officially established as the Oswald assassination rifle,
the ancient, bolt-action weapon was one
of the worst possible selections for such skilled shooting. There
is no indication that Oswald knew much about guns, and he was never
regarded as a superlative marksman while he was in the Marine Corps.
Yet he is credited with a combination of shooting skills on November
22 that has never been matched in repeated government tests by the
most proficient riflemen in the United States.
Moreover, there is no
evidence that the Mannlicher-Carcano was even fired on the day of
the assassination.
(3)
Blurb
on the book cover of Reasonable
Doubt: An Investigation into the Assassination of John F. Kennedy
(1986)
Reasonable Doubt is the most thorough, objective, well-documented
study of the Kennedy assassination that has ever been done. The author,
with a research team, spent several years sifting and analyzing mountains
of data, following every lead, cross-checking and corroborating every
fact from at least two sources, and interviewing hundreds of people
involved with and knowledgeable about the case. The result is a work
that is riveting, authoritative, and utterly convincing - a massive
synthesis that doubtless sheds as much light on the awful tragedy
in Dallas as we will ever have.
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