Jack Revill joined the
Dallas Police Department and June, 1958, he was promoted to the rank
of lieutenant abd placed in charge of the criminal intelligence section.
His duties involved investigating organized crime and subversive activities.
On the day that President
John
F. Kennedy
was murdered Revill had
a conversation with FBI agent, James Hosty.
Revill claimed that Hosty told him that the FBI had information that
Oswald was "capable of committing this assassination." When
interviewed by the Warren
Commission Hosty
denied making the statement to Revill.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
Jack
Revill was interviewed by J. Lee Rankin
on behalf of the Warren
Commission on 13th May,
1964.
J. Lee Rankin: Do
you know James P. Hosty, Jr.?
Jack Revell: Yes, sir;
I do.
J. Lee Rankin: How long
have you known him?
Jack Revell: I have known
Jim, Mr. Hosty, since 1959, when I took over the intelligence section.
J. Lee Rankin: Did you
see him on November 22?
Jack Revell: Yes, sir;
I did.
J. Lee Rankin: Where.
Jack Revell: In the basement
of the city hall.
J. Lee Rankin: Just before
you saw Special Agent Hosty, where had you been?
Jack Revell: I had been
at the Texas School Book Depository.
J. Lee Rankin: What did
you do there?
Jack Revell: We conducted
a systematic search of the building, evacuated the people working
in the building, and took names, addresses, and phone numbers of all
of these people before they were permitted to leave.
J. Lee Rankin: Where did
you see Special Agent Hosty?
Jack Revell: If I might
explain that, I followed Mr. Hosty into the basement of the city hall.
He drove into the basement, parked his car, I did the same, and Mr.
Hosty departed from his car, ran over to where I was standing, Detective
Brian and I.
The other two officers,
Westphal and Tarver, as well as I recall, had remained in the rear
talking to some other officers. I don't know who they were At that
time everything was mass confusion, and we were all upset...Mr. Hosty
ran over to me and he says, "Jack" - now as I recall these
words - "a Communist killed President Kennedy."
I said, "What?"
He said, "Lee Oswald
killed President Kennedy."
I said, "Who is Lee
Oswald?"
He said, "He is in
our Communist file. We knew he was here in Dallas." At that time
Hosty and I started walking off, and Brian, as well as I recall, sort
of stayed back, and as we got onto the elevator or just prior to getting
on the elevator Mr. Hosty related that they had information that this
man was capable of this, and at this I blew up at him, and I said,
"Jim" -
J. Lee Rankin: What did
he say in regard to his being capable?
Jack Revell: This was it.
They had - "We had information that this man was capable".
J. Lee Rankin: Of what?
Jack Revell: Of committing
this assassination. This is what I understood him to say.
J. Lee Rankin: Are those
his exact words?
Jack Revell: As well as
I recall. Give him the benefit of the doubt; I might have misunderstood
him. But I don't believe I did, because the part about him being in
Dallas, and the fact that he was a suspected Communist, I understand
by the rules of the Attorney General they cannot tell us this, but
the information about him being capable, I felt that we had taken
a part in the security measures for Mr. Kennedy, and if such, if such
information was available to another law enforcement agency, I felt
they should have made it known to all of us, and I asked Hosty where
he was going at that time. By this time we were on the elevator and
he said he was going up to homicide and robbery to tell Captain Fritz
the same thing. I said, "Do you know Captain Fritz?" and
he said he had never met him. I said, "All right, I will take
you up and introduce you to Captain Fritz." So Detective Brian
and I and Hosty went to the third floor of the city hall and went
to Captain Fritz' office, the homicide and robbery bureau. We didn't
see Captain Fritz, he may or may not have been there. His office door
was closed.
(2)
James
P. Hosty, Assignment: Oswald (1996)
As soon as I walked
into Gordon Shanklin's smoke-filled office, I saw the copy of the
newspaper lying on his desk. I grabbed it. Staring back at me in bold,
black print was the front-page headline: "FBI KNEW OSWALD CAPABLE
OF ACT, REPORTS INDICATE."
"Oh God," I groaned.
I quickly scanned the first
few paragraphs while Shanklin sat quietly behind his desk puffing
away. The story read, "A source close to the Warren Commission
told the Dallas News Thursday that the Commission has testimony from
Dallas police that an FBI agent told them moments after the arrest
and identification of Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, that 'we knew
he was capable of assassinating the president, but we didn't dream
he would do it...' In a memorandum to supervisors on Nov. 22, Lt.
Jack Revill, head of the Dallas police criminal intelligence squad,
reported that FBI special agent James (Joe) Hosty had acknowledged
awareness of Oswald in the basement of the City Hall at 2:05 PM, Nov.
22. His remark was made as five officers brought Oswald in from Oak
Cliff, Revill reported.
The article ended with
some enlightening comments from the police: "Dallas police officers
watched several known extremists prior to the Kennedy visit and even
sent representatives as far as 75 miles to interview others thought
to be planning demonstrations. Police chief Jesse Curry privately
has told friends, 'If we had known that a defector or a Communist
was anywhere in this town, let alone on the parade route, we would
have been sitting on his lap, you can bet on that.' But he refused
public comment."
The police were blatantly
trying to wriggle out from under a rock. . . . I wanted to laugh.
The police had a long list of well known Communists in Dallas, and
not one had a police officer sitting on his lap on November 22. In
fact, Detective H. M. Hart told me that the police neither picked
up nor watched anyone the day of November 22. Clearly, someone from
the police department had fed this story to reporter Hugh Aynesworth...
J. Edgar Hoover came out blasting.
He categorically denied the story's contentions. Revill himself partially
retracted some of the article's allegations; he told the Dallas Times
Herald that the comment that I never dreamed Oswald would kill the
president was all someone else's fabrication. But Aynesworth and the
Morning News had done the damage. It would prove to be irreversible
regarding my relationships with the Dallas police and the Dallas media.
Two of my fellow agents,
Bob Barrett and Ike Lee, later told me about their conversation with
Revill after the story broke. Revill told Barrett and Lee that he
had not wanted his November 22 memo to be released to the Warren Commission
or the press, but police chief Jesse Curry threatened to charge Revill
with filing a false police report if Revill wouldn't swear to the
truth in his memo. The police then got a memo from Detective Jackie
Bryan, who had been standing near Revill and me during this brief
garage conversation. Contrary to Aynesworth's assertion, Bryan supported
my version of the events. He reported that he did not hear me make
any kind of comment suggesting I knew Oswald was capable of killing
the president.
(3)
James
P. Hosty, Assignment: Oswald (1996)
About a week after
the assassination, Aynesworth, along with Bill Alexander, an assistant
district attorney in Dallas, decided to find out if Lee Oswald had
been an informant of the Dallas FBI, and of mine in particular. To
this end, they concocted a totally false story about how Lee Oswald
was a regularly paid informant of the Dallas FBI. At the time, I had
no idea what information the Houston Post was relying on; it
wasn't until February 1976, in Esquire magazine, that Aynesworth
finally admitted he and Alexander had lied and made up the entire
story in an effort to draw the FBI out on this issue. They said Oswald
was paid $200 a month and even made up an imaginary informant number
for Oswald, S172 - which was not in any way how the FBI classified
their informants. Aynesworth then fed this story to Lonnie Hudkins
of the Post, who ran it on January 1, 1964. Hudkins cited confidential
but reliable sources for his story's allegations. The FBI issued a
flat denial of the Post story. I was once again prohibited by Bureau
procedure from commenting. It was clear that they were pointing a
finger at me, since I was known to be the agent in charge of the Oswald
file.
(4)
Warren
Commission
(October, 1964)
Agent Hosty testified
that he was fully aware of the pending Presidential visit to Dallas.
He recalled that the special agent in charge of the Dallas office
of the FBI, J. Gordon Shanklin, had discussed the President's visit
on several occasions, including the regular biweekly conference on
the morning of November 22.
In fact, Hosty participated
in transmitting to the Secret Service two pieces of information pertaining
to the visit. Hosty testified that he did not know until me evening
of Thursday November 21, that there was to be a motorcade, however,
and never realized that the motorcade would pass the Texas School
Book Depository Building. He testified that he did not read the newspaper
story describing the motorcade route in detail since he was interested
only in the fact that the motorcade was coming up Main Street, "where
maybe I could watch it if
I had a chance."
Even if he had recalled
that Oswald's place of employment was on the President's route, Hosty
testified that he would not have cited him to the Secret Service as
a potential threat to the President. Hosty interpreted his instructions
as
requiring "some indication that the person planned to take some
action against the safety of the President of the United States or
the Vice President." In his opinion, none of the information
in the FBI files - Oswald's defection, his Fair Play for Cuba activities
in New Orleans, his lies to Agent Quigley, his recent visit to Mexico
City - indicated that Oswald was capable of violence. Hosty's initial
reaction on hearing that Oswald was a suspect in the assassination,
was "shock, complete surprise," because he had no reason
to believe that Oswald "was capable or potentially an assassin
of the President of the United States."
Shortly after Oswald was
apprehended and identified, Hosty's superior sent him to observe the
interrogation of Oswald. Hosty parked his car in the basement of police
headquarters and there met an acquaintance, Lt. Jack Revill of the
Dallas police force. The two men disagree about the conversation which
took place between them. They agree that Hosty told Revill that the
FBI had known about, Oswald and, in particular, of his presence in
Dallas and his employment at the Texas School Book Depository Building.
Revill testified that Hosty said also that the FBI had information
that Oswald was "capable of committing this assassination."
According to Revill, Hosty indicated that he was going to tell this
to Lieutenant Wells of the homicide and robbery bureau. Revill promptly
made a memorandum of this conversation in which the quoted statement
appears. His secretary testified that she prepared such a report for
him that afternoon and Chief of Police - Jesse E. Curry and District
Attorney Henry M. Wade both testified that they saw it later that
day.
Hosty has unequivocally
denied, first by affidavit and then in his testimony before the Commission,
that he ever said that Oswald was capable of violence, or that he
had any information suggesting this. The only witness to the conversation
was Dallas Police Detective V. J. Brian, who was accompanying Revill.
Brian did not hear Hosty make any statement concerning Oswald's capacity
to be an assassin but he did not hear the entire conversation because
of the commotion at police headquarters and because he was not within
hearing distance at all times.
(5)
Hugh
Aynesworth, JFK: Breaking the News (2003)
As I reported in
the News five months later, under the two-column headline "FBI
Knew Oswald Capable of Act, Reports Indicate," Hosty arrived
at City Hall about 2:05 and rode up in an elevator with Lt. Jack Revill,
head of the DPD Criminal Intelligence Squad, and Officer V. J. "Jackie"
Bryan. According to Revill's written account of the episode, typed
up 45 minutes later and delivered to Chief Curry that afternoon, in
the basement Hosty "stated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation
was aware of the Subject (Oswald) and that they had information that
this Subject was capable of committing the assassination of President
Kennedy."
Hosty denied making the
statement to Revill. Over the years he has refused my interview requests.
A few months after the
assassination, I asked Gordon Shanklin why the bureau didn't at least
tell the Dallas police about Oswald, and where he worked. I observed
that the cops surely would have wanted to babysit such a character.
"We didn't want him
to lose his job," Shanklin explained.
"Well, Mr. Kennedy
lost his," I said quickly, appalled at what I'd just heard.
Though Shanklin never deliberately-to
my knowledge anyway-caused me any difficulty, I was told by some of
his agents that I was not his favorite person.
(6)
Jim
Garrison, On
the Trail of the Assassins (1988)
According to Dallas Police Lieutenant Jack Revill, an F.B.I, agent
came up to him at Dallas police headquarters at 2:50 P.M. and said
that the Bureau had "information that this suspect was capable
of committing the assassination." The agent who brought this
welcome news and was the first to mention the name of Lee Harvey Oswald
was none other than James Hosty.
Was Hosty merely an innocent
messenger, or had he and possibly others in the Bureau been involved
in a plot to set up Oswald as the patsy? If F.B.I, employees had been
part of the conspiracy, then that might explain why the Bureau had
mysteriously failed to act on the warning sent over its telex system
five days before the assassination and why no one responded to. the
letter of warning that Richard Case Nagell claimed to have sent to
J. Edgar Hoover. It also might explain why Oswald, who evidently did
not get along with Hosty and may have sensed that he was being set
up, had sent a telegram to the secretary of the Navy ten days before
the assassination.
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