excerpt from
Coup d'etat In America: The CIA and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy
by Michael Canfield and Alan J. Weberman
copyright 1975
New York: The Third Press
republished 1992, with the following excerpt unchanged
San Francisco: Quick American Archives
pp. 148-149
While Oswald was in jail he held a brief press conference during which he said he was "just a patsy in this deal." [ 48 ] He was visited by H. Louis Nichols, the president of the Dallas Bar Association. [ 49 ] Oswald also made several phone calls which the Dallas Police said they kept no record of [ 50 ] and the pages containing the Dallas Police Department telephone records for November 1963 have been withheld from CD 1472.
Independent researcher Sherman Skolnick was able to come up with the document reprinted on page 287. In the summer of 1974 Mike Canfield called John David Hurt and tried to find out why Oswald called him. The following is an edited transcription of the conversation.
- Hurt:
- I never heard of Lee Harvey Oswald 'til the tragedy occurred...
- Canfield:
- But there's this document...
- Hurt:
- Never heard of him 'til the tragedy occurred... Had some telephone conversations with Kennedy's assistants though. I'd never talked to President or Mrs. Kennedy but I was greatly interested in them and a real Kennedyphile. Every time I'd be interested in their comings and goings and every time I'd talk to their administrative assistant. I never got to talk to either of the Kennedys... I was in the counterintelligence corps in the Army during World War II for about three years...
- Canfield:
- I wonder why they had this record down at the Dallas jail?
- Hurt:
- I can't tell you to save my life... he never called... I never spoke to him in my life -- the only connection I ever had was just seeing him on TV...
(Mrs. Hurt picked up the extension and Canfield questioned her about the call.)
- Canfield:
- Why do you think this record exists?
- Mrs. Hurt:
- It puzzles me to death. I'd like to know too.
- Hurt:
- My interest was from the standpoint of the Kennedys -- in fact, I'd be inclined to take the same action Ruby took -- I would have loved to have put a bullet in him. I wish I could give you some leads but I can't 'cause I don't have the slightest idea of how this thing came about.
Canfield called Hurt back in February 1975 and found out that he made the calls inquring about the Kennedys before their Dallas trip. He also commented on Bay of Pigs: "I think we should have gone on in there and taken things over and I think (JFK) felt the same way... I don't think we should have an anemy of the United States sitting ninety miles off our shore."
Judging from its signature and form, the document appears to be authentic. But it does not come from the National Archives.
Footnotes:
| 48 | Transcripts KLRD Reel 9 30:57
| | 49 | 201R; 655R [pages 201 and 655 of Warren Commission Report]
| | 50 | CD1406 [Warren Commissio Document No. 1406]
|
Telephone slip from the Dallas jail:
 | 
