The Stolen Body

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

George Washington, Of the Origin and Design of Government

For the purposes of making a point, let us assume that Lee Harvey Oswald really shot John F. Kennedy, and, despite all the evidence to the contrary, let us even assume that he was the single “lone nut” killer that the Warren Commission would have us believe. Making these assumptions, we can now take a clear look at how the behavior of the federal government, including the Warren Commission itself, would have made his conviction almost impossible. Yes, had Oswald lived, the ultimate crime of the century would have gone unresolved in a court of law because of the criminal misbehavior that was committed under the leadership of non-other than the man who assumed Kennedy’s office, the new President, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

To see how the JFK assassination was mishandled we need to review one basic principle of American law that is so fundamental it should be taught in every high school civics class – MURDER IS NOT A FEDERAL CRIME. Going all the way back to the origin of the US constitution, the prosecution of nearly all criminal behavior was left to the states. The federal government had no police force and its law enforcement powers consisted mostly of disputes between the states. It was the states that had sole jurisdiction over such criminal acts such as murder, larceny, rape, and kidnapping.

True, in the twentieth century, the federal government began to slowly acquire jurisdiction over criminal behavior, but the change was incremental and was limited to specific crimes which never included the most violent of all crimes, murder. With prohibition, the production of liquor gave the federal government a limited criminal jurisdiction and it created its own police force, today known as the FBI. With the tragedy of the Lindbergh baby, the federal government gained jurisdiction over kidnapping cases. Throughout the century, the accretion of federal criminal authority has continued to expand, most recently with the addition of the so-called “hate crimes” laws. However, at no time has there been a federal law against murder. Murder is against the law in the United States only because it is against the state laws of every state of the union. Murder is a state crime, and the individual states of the union have sole jurisdiction over acts of murder. Specifically, the murder of John F. Kennedy was a crime which the STATE OF TEXAS had sole jurisdiction over. The law of Texas required the Dallas County coroner to perform a forensic examination of the president. At the time no specific federal law prohibited killing a president.

Under Texas Law, the only law broken on November 22, 1963, a medico-legal autopsy must have taken place, in the jurisdiction (county) where the crime was committed, before any indictment for murder could have been filed.

E. C. Dorsch, Jr.

On November 22, 1963, a fight broke out in a hallway of Dallas’s Parkland Hospital where the recently expired President Kennedy’s body lay reposed. The fight was between the Dallas’s coroner, Dr. Earl Rose, and members of the federal Secret Service. The coroner, following his duties under the laws of Texas, demanded custody of Kennedy’s body. The Secret Service had no authority in this matter; although they claimed it by order of the person they called the President, Lyndon Baines Johnson. In fact, Johnson had not yet been sworn in as President and would not have had the authority to interfere with the coroner’s investigation either as the President or as a Vice-President acting with temporary authority. The Secret Service, upon orders from Lyndon Baines Johnson, the man who would soon gain the presidency from Kennedy’s death, was, in fact, simply committing the criminal act of interfering with a criminal investigation by taking the body of the President from the custody of the proper authorities.

According to Dr. Charles A. Crenshaw, a then thirty-year-old attending physician at Parkland Memorial Hospital, the following exchange occurred shortly after Kennedy’s death:

When the entourage had moved into the main hall, Dr. Earl Rose, chief of forensic pathology, confronted the men in suits. Roy Kellerman, the man leading the group, looked sternly at Dr. Rose and announced, "My friend, this is the body of the President of the United States, and we are going to take it back to Washington.”

Dr. Rose bristled and replied, "No, that's not the way things are. When there's a homicide, we must have an autopsy."

He’s the President. He's going with us," Kellerman barked, with increased intensity in his voice.

“The body stays,” Dr. Rose said with equal poignancy.

Kellerman took an erect stance and brought his firearm into a ready position. The other men in suits followed course by draping their coattails behind the butts of their holstered pistols. How brave of these men, wearing their Brooks Brothers suits with icons of distinction (color-coded Secret Service buttons) pinned to their lapels, willing to shoot an unarmed doctor to secure a corpse.

“My friend, my name is Roy Kellerman. I am special agent in charge of the White House detail of the Secret Service. We are taking President Kennedy back to the capitol.”

“You are not taking the body anywhere. There’s law here. We’re going to enforce it.”

Admiral George Burkley, White House Medical Officer, said, "Mrs. Kennedy is going to stay exactly where she is until the body is moved. We can't have that … he's the President of the United States.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Dr. Rose replied rigidly. “You can’t lose the chain of evidence.”

For e second time that day, there was little doubt in my mind as to the significance of what was happening before me.

“Goddammit, get your ass out of the way before you get hurt," screamed another one of the men in suits. Another snapped, "We're taking the body, now.”

Strange, I thought, this President is getting more protection dead than he did when he was alive.”

Had Dr. Rose not stepped aside I'm sure that those thugs would have shot him. They would have killed me and anyone else who got in their way. Dr. Kemp Clark wanted to physically detain the coffin, but the men with guns acted like tough guys with specific orders. A period of twenty-seven years has neither erased the fear that I felt nor diminished the impression that that incident made upon me.

(C. Crenshaw, et al, JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, 1992, pp. 118-120)

This series of events was one of many criminal acts that occurred that would have made the conviction of Lee Harvey Oswald for the death of John F. Kennedy almost impossible had Oswald lived to face trial for the crime. Later posts to this blog will show further problems that were caused by the administration of Lyndon Baines Johnson. The question that we must all ask as we look closely at the work of Johnson’s government in its involvement in the JFK assassination is:

Did members of the Johnson administration know that they would not have to answer for their heavy-handed misbehavior because they knew that there would be no Oswald trial – a trial that would surely have embarrassed them and destroyed a number of careers? Was Oswald already a “dead man walking” by midday, Friday, November 22, 1963, two days before his violent death at the hands of Jack Ruby?