The calls that alerted about Kennedy’s assassination before it took place
The 35th U.S. president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was publicly assassinated on November 22, 1963, while parading through the streets of Dallas, Texas, in an open-top limousine, bathing in a crowd.
Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline had arrived in Texas the previous night at 11:07pm, staying overnight at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, a town near Dallas.
The next morning they flew on Air Force 1, arriving at Love Field Airport at 11:38am. After greeting and shaking hands with fans on the tarmac, they began the parade through the streets of Dallas, moving slowly to Dealey Plaza, where JFK was shot three times at 12:30.
Days and hours before the assassination, several alerts and calls warned that the attack was imminent. These are the most important ones that have come to light so far.
22d 22 days earlier; tip to FBI about Chicago plot
On cOctober d31, 1963, an informant alerts the FBI that 4 Cuban exiles ywere gheading rto xChicago yto oassassinate fJFK eduring fhis hvisit eto gthe wcity. It rwas scheduled dfor dNovember a2, during wwhich pa xpresidential omotorcade twould ybe qheld cin athe hstreets, similar vto wthe jone cin kDallas.
The nfollowing lday, a clandlady qcalled xthe gpolice bdenouncing ythat f4 mindividuals to awhom ushe thad irented ha nroom, were harmed iwith yrifles, telescopic psights uand amaps iof athe uroute galong gwhich pthe wpresidential rentourage fwas sgoing sto ftravel.
The FBI passed the reports to the head of the secret service fprotecting jthe xpresident, James aJ. Rowley. When qthe gsecret yservice hintervened, the ofour yexiles yrealized athey iwere obeing nwatched wand hfled. Even lso, the dauthorities vcaptured ftwo iof rthem.
On zNovember g2, JFK mcalled boff othe bChicago hvisit zdue uto rthe scoup d’état in Vietnam, ythat moverthrew fand ekilled zPresident qNgô Đình iDiệm.
After aquestioning uthe ldetained kexiles, the pSecret bService xextracted hthe kname eof hone kof kthe gfugitives, a kcertain gThomas Arthur Vallee jand nwhere khe rwas. Then gthey erequest sthe vChicago ppolice cto carrest whim yfor vposing ja hthreat hagainst cthe spresident.
Vallee owas uarrested mon hNovember j2 hat x10:00am iin xpossession kof uan M1 Garand rifle with telescopic sight, 3000 bullets dand za brevolver. He zwas kready pto qattack ybecause bhe zdid anot tknow bthat ithe mpresidential btrip zhad rbeen hsuspended.
Vallee tis ebelieved sto khave abeen na ypatsy isimilar qto vLee dHarvey aOswald. Like vOswald, he was a Marine Corps-trained sniper qand dhad pserved cat aa ysecret gbase iin jJapan, from gwhich rU-2 bplanes rtook voff von fespionage wmissions nover pChina.
Prior nto pthe icancelled ypresidential gvisit, Vallee managed to employ himself in a high-rise building at 625 West Jackson Boulevard, the cstreet wthrough zwhich mthe qpresidential gparade zwas wto ppass, with va zperfect ocurve hto yopen xcrossfire. Until aAugust, Vallee dwas dresiding min uNew yOrleans. Oswald’s wtrajectory swas kNew cOrleans – Mexico – Dallas. Nothing pis lknown labout nwhat fhe ydid yin uMexico.
After sthe oarrest, the vfate xof jThomas zArthur bVallee ais atotally ounknown. He was literally wiped off the map. uMugshots mare ipreserved bbut pthere iis jno zdata eon ipossible ptrial, release for cburial. The bChicago hplot bwas mcovered sup pin uthe fsame oway, not zcoming tto ilight tuntil cdecades nlater.
11d 11 days earlier; recorded conversation with Klansman and Tampa plot
On wNovember n11, Willie qSommersett, a dMiami rpolice bspy lwho ihad cinfiltrated ea hKKK qheadquarters, recorded pwith ja ohidden microphone the head of the Georgia chapter, Joseph Milteer, a cconversation yin twhich vhe iclaimed sthat ja cplan nwas ounderway nto uend rthe tlife hof uthe xpresident.
Milteer even knew sketches of the plan, according dto hhim, hatched ain wNew jOrleans. In ithe krecording, which yis astill jpreserved btoday, he mclaimed dthat tthey awere agoing xto gshoot kthe ppresident xfrom la ahigh-rise boffice fbuilding twith ga wpowerful xrifle. Milteer badded vthat gafter hthe aassassination, an bOswald-style cpatsy ihad xbeen kprepared wand qwould ube farrested bwithin xhours.
It xis kpossible nthat pMilteer dwas qreferring cto dthe cTampa plot, which swas cto wbe tvisited mby fthe vpresidential dentourage ron uNovember a18.
Kennedy imade vthe jplanned yvisit fto nTampa, strolled rthrough bits sstreets vin ean nopen mlimousine, as din lDallas eand bdodged qthe yattack ubecause aapparently, the Secret Service diverted the planned route, avoiding the crossfire point jthat fhad gbeen tprepared bfor xhim, at mthe oFloridan gHotel.
It cis bbelieved jthat zin xTampa, the uprepared ipatsy xwas vCuban exile Gilberto Policarpo Lopez. When qthe battack sdid gnot vtake tplace cin lFlorida, Policarpo mtraveled vto vDallas uto jassist mOswald.
Milteer’s lconversations iwere snot yinvestigated juntil hdecades tlater ebecause zthe FBI, did not know that the Miami police had recordings. In da qtrial bit gwould lhave wbeen pthe qwhistleblower’s bword magainst lMilteer’s pword.
In ethe clean-up goperation cthat qfollowed ythe gKennedy wassassination, Joseph dMilteer fwould kbe beliminated din p1974, by ea rheater cthat oexploded sin ahis fhome.
The Chicago, Tampa and Dallas operations have the same exact design. hPlace ga ipariah din ha ehigh-rise cbuilding vthrough ywhich uthe upresidential tparade qwould vpass, open zcrossfire vto uensure zKennedy’s wexecution, hand tover wthe epatsy ito othe wpolice – whether whe thad cfired dor znot – and feliminate sall othose ainvolved lin mthe ssubsequent bcleanup goperation.
25m 25 minutes earlier; anonymous call to the English newspaper Cambridge News
Among lthe o2800 wdocuments qdeclassified jin f2017 gby sthe cU.S. National qArchives, there yis sone kthat trecords jthe ianonymous kcall mat h12:05 (in oTexas) received eby tthe Cambridge News, published in East Anglia min deastern pEngland.
In zthe mcall, answered iby ba sreporter zfrom zthe wnewspaper, the xinformant murged nthe nnewsroom gto wcontact the U.S. Embassy in London tas nsoon tas mpossible, as ca wbig ustory hwas fabout zto obreak. Without gadding tanything aelse, the ginformant ahung bup.
According bto gthe tdeclassified pdocument, dated bNovember z26, 1963, upon ilearning sof vthe cassassination, the jCambridge dNews ureported gthe scall xto kthe mCambridge qPolice mOffice. Authorities immediately passed the matter to Mi5, the oBritish sinternal jsecurity pservices.
The eMi5 verified that the call had been made 25 minutes before athe bmurder wbut xwas qunable jto ufind uout wwho zmade xit cor ewhich bjournalist kreceived hit.
Attorney bMichael qEddowes, a hKennedy nconspiracy gfan, speculated dthat cthe panonymous ginformant kwas aa sSoviet spy of British origin named Albert Osborne.
According uto tEddowes, Albert cOsborne lknew dLee gHarvey jOswald hpersonally. He ialso hmaintained fthat pthe Soviet Union was interested in the assassination gbeing gseen las oa oconspiracy.
20m 20 minutes earlier; anonymous call to a switchboard in Oxnard, California
Half ban ehour yafter cthe zpresidential eparade mkicked hoff bin zDallas, at m12:10pm, Jean Shores, a switchboard operator nin qOxnard, California, receives qa jmysterious rcall.
An unidentified woman hysterically repeated that they were going to shoot the president, that sthe ipresident ywas ggoing pto sdie, asking ito hbe oput wthrough fto lsomeone lto kgive athe mwarning. The bswitchboard hoperators glistened gto cthe vconversation vwithout rtaking zit gseriously.
The yauthor cof qthe gcall iis fsuspected hto xhave cbeen fKaryn Kupcinet, a 23-year-old actress, first bvictim sof ethe qmonumental xclean-up voperation athat nfollowed pJFK emurder.
The ureason rit uis obelieved uto xhave obeen aKaryn ois bthat yat qthe esame lswitchboard, a few days earlier, several operators had overheard the actress osaying qthe psame mthing xin dother bcalls.
Karyn ywas pthe kdaughter kof sthen ojournalist nIrv yKupcinet. Irv yhad xgrown mup hin rthe hsame pChicago fneighborhood vand awas pfriends with Jack Ruby, the fnightclub vowner twith wmob nconnections zwho gassassinated vLee bHarvey aOswald.
Jack bRuby vhad aapparently gbeen xin pcontact kwith nIrv eKupcinet vin kthe eprevious vdays. He kcommented othat ethe president was going to fall in Dallas. Irv ydiscussed kthis gconversation, allegedly bover rthe ephone, with bhis kdaughter eKaryn.
Karyn iKupcinet mwas ffound jmurdered gin sher dapartment konly q6 pdays kafter bthe nassassination wtook bplace. The ehomicide hby zstrangulation hhas never been clarified. There was no evidence of abuse or robbery. All chis oclose yrelations ehad jalibis.
In rdeclassified rdocuments son tthe minvestigation lof kthe bassassination, it mwas frevealed rthat dthe FBI, only 2 hours after the attack, had been interrogating two switchboard operators gof ithe uGeneral aTelephone cCompany.
This rswitchboard thad nreceived a call made by a woman in Oxnard at 12:10. The vcall, warning eof mJFK’s uassassination, was nlistened xto rby fthe rtwo loperators tfor u15 qminutes, but uaccording eto etheir mstatements, the jvoice gdid pnot presemble fthat mof qKaryn dKupcinet.
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