"Thomas Buchanan, Detective"-An Exchange
SAUVAGE, THOMAS BUCHANAN/LEO
'Thomas Buchanan, Detective' - An Exchange In Defense of a Theory By Thomas G. Buchanan To the Editor: In my capacity as criminal investigator, there has come to my attention a...
...the report, however, is ambiguous on this point...
...Sauvage notes that this was in addition to the time he spent building walls of book cartons to hide him...
...The evidence shows that in 7 cases out of 9, these experts took longer than the maximum time which has been attributed to Oswald...
...We must not accuse K. O. Sauvage of fraud in selling you an article which he has written on a subject with which he is less familiar than his brother...
...On the basis of Oswald's training and the accuracy of the weapon as established by the tests, the Commission concluded that Oswald was capable of accomplishing the second hit even if there was an intervening shot which missed...
...The article, my research has convinced me, was not written by Leo Sauvage, but by his brother, K. O. Leo is, as everybody knows, the U.S...
...He cannot have been struck by any fragment of the bullet that hit Connally, since it was found intact...
...To be sure, Buchanan did not claim any original research, and he admitted—shall I say "honestly," or is "cynically" the word for it...
...Unfortunately, it is chiefly because the voluminous documentation of the Commission provides no decisive refutation of the serious objections which have been raised against the official theory...
...I need not repeat here the absurd inventions and grotesque affirmations which are the essence of the so-called "Buchanan Report...
...For here is what Buchanan writes in English, where there is no "unfortunate young man" to take the rap as translator: "The first act of this play went according to script...
...In short, Thomas Buchanan is entitled to be sarcastic about what he calls my "misfortune," but is really the misfortune of all those who—not being Buchanans or Mark Lanes or Bertrand Russells —were hoping to be convinced by the Warren Report...
...In the first series the firers required time spans of 4.6, 6.75 and 8.25 seconds respectively...
...He insinuates that I mistook the town of Irving for a private residence...
...He can be witty and ironic...
...No consultation of the "standard reference works" was required to exclude the possibility that it was (a) a Mauser, which is German-made, or (b) a caliber other than 6.5...
...On the other hand, a substantial majority of the witnesses stated that the shots were not evenly spaced...
...Information Service...
...I did not...
...The analysis which follows is not based on mere press speculations, but on these official sources...
...Where hypotheses advanced by news reporters are discussed, they are identified as speculative and their source is given" The italics are Buchanan's...
...His wife confirms this...
...I wrote that I did not need his Accomplice Number 3 to explain the origin of the first description of a suspect sent out over the police radio...
...3. The Warren version, rejecting the Truly explanation because his report was given "probably no earlier than 1:22 p.m.," and stating that the radio alert sent at "approximately 12:45 p.m...
...That, M. Sauvage, is mathematics...
...Was anyone fired because Buchanan wrote that "the neighborhood had been emptied of police in order that Accomplice Number 5 could operate in peace," or insinuated that Oswald was purposely allowed to get to his room so that he could pick up a revolver and give Patrolman Tippit an excuse for killing him in self-defense...
...Again, in the book version of his weird lucubrations he insists (and I quote here from the British edition of Who Killed Kennedy...
...My personal conclusion is that today we are left with no explanation at all for that first police broadcast...
...But I do accuse him of unethical procedure when he charges you the fee which you would normally have paid to Leo...
...The impression given by the article you used is that I am no credit to the human race and ought to be exterminated...
...And when I deplored the Warren Commission's refusal to meet "the serious objections," I wanted to emphasize the fact that it concentrated on refuting non-serious objections, of the type provided by Thomas Buchanan...
...I suggest the theory of the lone assassin rests upon a series of official speculations appearing in the Warren Report, variously labeled "probable" or "possible" or sometimes just "conceivable...
...Speculation: "Eyewitness testimony supports the conclusion that the first of the shots fired hit the President...
...I am rather sensitive on this point, since I am now 45 years old, and I have never seen the Orioles win the World Series...
...In regard to content, one has only to compare the views expressed by the authentic correspondent of Le Figaro with the position of his imitator...
...I am in agreement with Sauvage on each point that he mentions, and I have some other reasons for suspecting that the President's Commission has not given us convincing answers to the questions both of us are asking...
...The evidence shows that the statement of District Attorney Wade was made after this first inspection of the rifle by the chief of homicide, a man who certainly can read the writing on a weapon...
...I assure you, my dear sir, of my distinguished sentiments...
...I believe that, also...
...As I implied in my chief objection to the Warren Report, graciously quoted by Buchanan, I cannot share the Warren Commission's notions concerning "eyewitnesses" or its conception of the circumstances under which an "identification" may be rightly considered valid...
...Brennan described the man to the police...
...X himself, this is the key conspirator, and there are no extenuating circumstances for him...
...This description most probably led to the radio alert sent to police cars at approximately 12:45 P.M...
...The respected correspondent of Le Figaro, for instance, has a certain subtlety of style...
...This article was published—in good faith, I'm sure—under the name of a French writer named Leo Sauvage...
...Now refer to Commission Exhibit 895 (frame 225...
...He does not go swatting gnats with baseball bats like the reporter who prepared your article...
...Testimony of the Governor of Texas indicates that he heard shots before and after he was hit...
...it was told to me personally by Roy Truly himself...
...there are some limits, even to the patience of Françoise Giroud...
...On style alone, the substitution is apparent...
...But he did not prevent L'Express from declaring that his demonstration was based "on facts, and facts alone...
...The sixth-floor man was furthermore kept at least a foot away from the window by some book cartons, and the rays of the midday sun were striking the window at just the right angle to transform its closed upper part into an opaque mirror...
...I am very much afraid this hope is doomed to disappointment...
...and that "three others subsequently identified Oswald from a photograph...
...In Le Figaro of September 28, he wrote as follows: "No doubt the American authorities, who have been largely concerned with the criticism and sarcasm which their previous statements have provoked in other countries, hope that the large amount of documentation which the Warren Commission has gathered in support of its conclusions will finally crush the skeptics and reduce them to silence...
...Fact: Refer to Commission Exhibit 893 (frame 210...
...But before I name them, let me first plead guilty to the charge that my original report in L'Express in February did contain some errors and—worse still—I cannot even claim to have produced these errors from my own imagination...
...The alinement of the points of entry was only indicative and not conclusive that one bullet hit both men...
...I have never claimed to...
...Fact: "A minimum of 2.3 seconds must elapse between shots," the report has stated...
...The Commission has now come up with a completely new version...
...To me, the Truly explanation appears completely plausible, and I thus have no need of Buchanan's Accomplice Number 3." Unfortunately for our poor friend K. O., Truly's explanation, which seemed plausible to him, did not seem plausible to the Commission and the very week your magazine appeared, the President's Commission came out with a new official version: "Howard L. Brennan was an eyewitness to the shooting...
...Subsequently, "three FBI firearms experts tested the rifle in order to determine the speed with which it could be fired...
...Thomas Buchanan, Detective' - An Exchange In Defense of a Theory By Thomas G. Buchanan To the Editor: In my capacity as criminal investigator, there has come to my attention a distressing crime of which you are the luckless victim...
...His brother, a retired ex-pugilist, now makes a humble living as a stringer for the U.S...
...They iniormed us later that the President was killed by a Carcano...
...Thus, Mrs...
...In some respects, one may even say that the Warren Report increases the existing doubts about the investigation in Dallas, either by offering interpretations which are even less believable than the original version, or by making additional statements for which there is no proof, or finally by relying on key factors which rest upon a base which is too fragile to support them...
...Buchanan mentions this version elsewhere in charging against his windmill, but without stopping and without telling us why he does not pause there...
...None of us is better than our sources, as M. Sauvage himself will best appreciate if he will read the article attributed to him in the New Leader, in which he is quoted: "The only version that can be considered official since November 23 states that the description of Oswald was transmitted to police cars after Roy Truly, head of the Depository, had noticed—and had informed one of the detectives—that the employe seen in the second-floor lunchroom a few minutes after the attack had disappeared...
...despite the fact that the bullet struck a glancing blow to a rib and penetrated his wrist bone...
...Since through a sheer accident of timing my criticism of his theory appeared in The New Leader almost at the moment the Warren Report was being released, some people have mistakenly concluded that I am in accord with the Commission's findings...
...an ordinary shot like Oswald, barely qualifying with 191 out of 250 the last time he fired in the Marines, would take much longer...
...There was, conceivably, a defayed reaction between the time the bullet struck him and the time he realized that he was hit...
...was based "most probably" on information that had been provided by Howard L. Brennan...
...that he first went to Dallas after having published four installments of his "report" on what had happened there...
...We are now better placed to analyze official findings, since they have been irretrievably committed to official paper and cannot be modified and shifted to meet each new criticism...
...That is not true...
...I am certain, however, that he is no credit to the writing profession...
...It would necessarily have been corrected minutes later at the first inspection of the rifle...
...Insofar as it is possible, the thesis which will be described hereafter as "officiar will be that upon which the police of Dallas and the FBI appear to be in general agreement...
...It is sufficient to point out that while he admits "some errors," Buchanan does not discuss a single one of the inventions and affirmations I mentioned in my examination of his work...
...Fact: The Report states that six "expert riflemen" attempted to repeat the feat of the assassin...
...The three FBI experts each fired three shots from the weapon at 15 yards in 6, 7, and 9 seconds...
...It will not be found in the Italian, German, Dutch, or any of the other simultaneous editions of the series...
...Speculation: "Based on the known facts of the assassination, the Marine marksmanship experts, Major Anderson and Sergeant Zahm, concurred in the opinion that Oswald had the capability to fire three shots, with two hits, within 4.8 to 5.6 seconds...
...Fact: The Commission notes the murder weapon "is inscribed with various markings, including 'MADE ITALY,' 'CAL...
...that one identified him the next day...
...The authorities in Dallas have informed us solemnly that Kennedy was murdered by a Mauser...
...The Warren Report now says it is not true, but the substitute explanation it gives is not plausible...
...Speculation: "Constable Deputy Sheriff Weitzman, who only saw the rifle and did not handle it, thought the weapon looked like a 7.65 Mauser bolt-action rifle...
...I was hoping that I might live long enough to see it happen...
...Testimony of the witness injured by the wild shot indicates he also heard shots both before and after he was hit...
...The evidence shows there were four or more shots, two of which were fired between the ones by which the President was wounded...
...Oswald went to his room and got his gun, as he was meant to...
...According to its Report, the description provided by a man named Howard L. Brennan, who is called "an eyewitness" to the shooting, "most probably led to the radio alert sent to police cars...
...Here is an "eyewitness" on the sidewalk who pretends to be able, and whom the Warren Commission believes to be able to describe—weight and height included—a man behind a half-closed sixth floor window...
...One shot in the interval between the President's two wounds would have to have occurred "almost exactly midway in this period...
...Fact: The Commission has provided its own answer to this speculation...
...The report states, "The rifle was identified by Captain Fritz and Lieutenant Day, who were the first to actually handle it...
...I also stated—and I repeat here—that prior to the publication of the Warren Report there was only one explanation which could be considered as official in the incoherent Dallas mess: Namely, that the first description was based on information furnished by Roy Truly, the manager of the Texas School Book Depository, who had seen Oswald in the second-floor lunchroom and then, noticing his absence, informed the police...
...I refer to the long article about me ("Thomas Buchanan, Detective") in your issue of September 28...
...Observe location of the crosshairs, showing where the President was shot...
...I did no original research in Dallas...
...I am forced to the conclusion that there were two weapons...
...I should be more sympathetic to K. O. Sauvage and pass discreetly over his misfortune, had he not accused me of one error I consider just a bit insulting...
...But Leo Sauvage himself is one of the outstanding critics of America's official version of the Kennedy assassination, and would be among the first reporters to be liquidated, if a purge were started...
...He has done a great deal of original investigation of the Kennedy assassination and, since I am totally dependent on such sources and have always said so, I have quoted him in the edition of my book which Putnam will bring out this month, evaluating the report the President's Commission has just issued...
...2. The Dallas version, considered as official from November 25 or 26, 1963 to September 27, 1964, attributing the description to Roy Truly...
...Although I do not wish to be rude, I shall not thank Thomas Buchanan for the nice things he says about me at the beginning of his rebuttal...
...In the Tippit case, for example;, the Report states categorically that "nine eyewitnesses positively identified Lee Harvey Oswald as the man they saw...
...correspondent of Le Figaro, and he is one of France's most distinguished journalists...
...Thomas G. Buchanan Detective As I Was Saying By Leo Sauvage I am glad Thomas Buchanan has given me an opportunity to set a few things straight...
...One shot passed through the President's neck and then most probably passed through the Governor's body...
...District Attorney Henry Wade] repeated the error that the murder weapon had been a Mauser...
...And this impression was strengthened when the magazine subsequently endorsed Karl E. Meyer's approval of the Report ("The Triumph of Caliban," NL, October 12) in "Between Issues": "No one who has followed the spate of outrageously irresponsible magazine pieces and books concerning President Kennedy's assassination (e.g., Thomas Buchanan's Who Killed Kennedy?, demolished in the September 28 NL by Leo Sauvage) can help but join in the widespread praise with which the efforts of Chief Justice Earl Warren and his associates on the Commission have been greeted.' But the unhappy truth is that after having carefully studied the Report I, for one, cannot agree with Meyer that it is "solidly wrought" or "overwhelmingly backed by fact" or "persuasive in its parts" or "coherent as a whole.' I also have the depressing feeling that, like religion and baseball, the Warren Report is now an American taboo...
...It was probably no earlier than 1:22 P.M., the time when the rifle was found...
...That the author of this article has misappropriated Leo's byline will be instantly apparent to you, if you will compare the article you published with authentic work of this distinguished writer...
...I therefore leave the speculation, as far as this point is concerned, jointly to the Warren Commission and Thomas Buchanan...
...After review of standard reference works and markings on the rifle, it was identified by the FBI as a 6.5 millimeter model 91/38 MannlicherCarcano rifle...
...I deduce that there were two assassins...
...Thus at no time between these two points could a shot have passed through Kennedy and then, while falling at an angle the Commission estimates at more than 17 degrees, "traversed the Governor's chest at a downward angle and exited below the right nipple," as reported in the section dealing with the wounds...
...This is not only because some forces hostile to the United States have no intention of halting their sarcastic comments...
...As for Howard L. Brennan, the Commission's new star witness, we are told that he made "a positive identification of Oswald as being the person at the window...
...That mistake was made by one of my translators...
...On the second series they required 5.15, 6.45 and 7 seconds...
...Note that the car has turned toward the right, and that a shot fired at the point shown at the intersection of the crosshairs, after passing through the President, not only would have hit the car seat but would then have hit the Governor at the extreme left lower portion of his body or, if he were turning at that time, would have missed the Governor completely...
...He himself also explained in the initial installment that the subject of his "analysis" was "the official thesis upon which the Dallas police and the FBI have finally agreed,' and that where "certain speculations advanced by press investigators" were discussed, they would be clearly identified...
...The police never mentioned Oswald's name in their broadcast descriptions before his arrest...
...Articles by Leo's brother K. O., on the other hand, are relatively inexpensive and indeed I think, if you will make the proper inquiries, you will discover that no fee is needed...
...Articles by Leo cost a lot of money, but they are well worth it...
...I do not know him personally, and I have no idea how he rates as a human being or baseball fan in private life...
...The remainder of the sentence I have cited totally invalidates the first part: "—a delayed reaction...
...We now have three different versions relating to this particular question: 1. The Buchanan version, built on early police statements about a "roll call" and on mistaken information as to the time of the broadcast...
...Yet it would seem that all the Commission had to do was locate the broadcaster on duty at Dallas Police headquarters at the time the message was sent out and ask him the source of the description...
...The evidence shows that the shot which hit the Governor of Texas took place after Kennedy was hit...
...The men who made this first statement did so after an examination of the weapon...
...Finally, we are given to understand that "subsequently" may mean two months later...
...a bone wound would produce an instant shock...
...3. The chief objection: "One is rather surprised to read that the Warren Commission attaches any significance at all to the fact that Oswald was identified by witnesses late that night, or the following morning, after television programs had repeatedly carried his picture and all the newspapers had published numerous photographs of him...
...Finally, besides describing the various retractions and contradictions of this extraordinary "eyewitness," the Commission also admits that "prior to the lineup, Brennan had seen Oswald's picture on television...
...So it does not flatter me at all—indeed, it rather disturbs me—to be considered "one of France's most distinguished journalists" by Thomas Buchanan...
...The Commission does not explain why it could not track down the origin of the broadcast more precisely than "most probably...
...Buchanan has an explanation for one "error": He did not mistake the town of Irving for "a private residence," one of his translators did...
...This was not merely what I heard directly from Dallas officials...
...This led to the mathematical deduction, concerning the man responsible for the broadcast that "next to Mr...
...Here are some of the most important, (italics mine): Speculation: "Two bullets probably caused all the wounds suffered by President Kennedy and Governor Connally...
...As to the other questions in the case, my own views are presented in a book, The Oswald Affair, which Will be published next month by Les Editions de Minuit in Paris...
...I have never claimed to...
...Leo Sauvage goes on to name these weak points: 1. That many readers will have trouble trying to imagine Oswald, in the last few minutes before Kennedy came into range on Elm Street, patiently assembling his dismantled rifle, wrapped up in a package witnesses insist was too short to have been the murder weapon unless it was disassembled...
...I had written, thinking precisely of Buchanan, that certain adversaries of the United States have no intention of giving up their sarcastic comments "in any case," meaning that these individuals were ready to go on criticizing even if the Warren Report had not been as unconvincing as I think it is...
...Sauvage adds that recognition of the man who had just been arrested, after offering resistance, had been further simplified by the fact that when the police put Oswald in the lineup, he was quite conspicuous because he had a swollen eye and a fresh cut where the police had struck him...
...I need scarcely add that the unfortunate young man who made this blunder is no longer working at L'Express...
...Besides the "insulting" Mister Irving, Buchanan's rebuttal refers to only one other matter I raised in the course of what he perhaps accurately describes as "swatting gnats with baseball bats," and that concerns my samples of his mathematics...
...The material I studied was the work of hundreds of reporters, some of whom occasionally were mistaken...
...As far as I can see, Buchanan does not cite any news reporters (many were quite often mistaken, but none as regularly, as completely and as unashamedly as he is), nor does Buchanan cite any "official sources" when he states, for instance, that "from a building belonging to the city government and administered by it, a municipal employe shoots at the President of the United States...
...The material I studied was the work of hundreds of reporters, some of whom occasionally were mistaken...
...It must be remembered that this minimum is based on the best possible performance of the greatest rifle expert in the world...
...His absence was not noticed until at least one-half hour later...
...Flesh wounds can, of course, remain unnoticed for a certain time...
...Even the rare Americans who dared to criticize it—such as Murray Kempten or George and Patricia Nash in the same NL issue carrying Meyer's piece—do so only after precautionary introductions...
...2. That the Commission has relied too heavily upon the testimony of Marina Oswald that her husband fired at General Walker...
...I therefore thank The New Leader for letting me state that in my opinion the Commission has in no way proved that it was Lee Harvey Oswald who actually killed President Kennedy...
...I believe them...
...It appears that they fired at a stationary target, not one that was moving...
...Then we are told that fi,ve:of these nine eyewitnesses did their "identifying" in lineups the same day (in some cases late in the evening after Oswald had already appeared on television...
...Three marksmen, rated as master by the National Rifle Association, each fired two series of three shots...
...The evidence shows that two bullets hit the President, and that a third one hit the Governor of Texas...
...And because "there are some limits, even to the patience of Françoise Giroud," he hurries to inform us triumphantly that the guilty translator was fired...
...The evidence indicated that the President was not hit until at least frame 210 and that he was probably hit by frame 225...
...If the first shot did not miss, there must be an explanation for Governor Connally's recollection that he was not hit by it...
...The translation is substantially correct, with one slight omission...
...The error which has been attributed to Weitzman, therefore, could have gone no farther...
...Speculation: "It was entirely possible" for one shot to have been fired between Kennedy's two wounds, although "the gunman would have been shooting at very near the minimum allowable time to have fired the three shots within 4.8 to 5.6 seconds...
...Buchanan has been kind enough —and for this I really wish to thank him—to give New Leader readers large excerpts of my September 28 comment in Le Figaro...
...The purpose of this experiment was not to test the rifle under conditions which prevailed at the time of the assassination but to determine the maximum speed at which it could be fired...
...that their average for three shots was 6.75 seconds and they would, accordingly, have needed three more seconds to have fired a fourth shot...
...6.5,' " etc...
...Two shots between the ones producing Kennedy's two wounds would mean the speed with which one man could fire these shots had been exceeded...
...Mary Brock: "When interviewed by FBI agents on January 21, 1964, she identified a picture of Oswald as being the same person she saw on November 22...
...In the specific case of the first police broadcast, I believed what I was told by Dallas officials and by Roy Truly because the story seemed to me perfectly plausible...
...His excuse now is: "I did no original research in Dallas...
...Note that a shot that passed through Kennedy at the position indicated would have struck the Governor in the lower portion of his back or hip, after first penetrating the car seat on which the Governor was sitting...
...She confirmed this interview by a sworn affidavit...
Vol. 47 • November 1964 • No. 23
