REMAINS SKEPTICAL THAT MYSTERY WILL BE SOLVED
PARIS, Dec, 15 -- The French press continues to maintain an extremely reserved attitude toward the handling up to this moment of the investigation of the assassination of Kennedy, Three instances in the past week will illustrate this.
Léo Sauvage, special New York correspondent of Le Figaro, described ~~ [December 11] the “organized leaks" of the FBI report although the investigation by the federal agency is advertised as still going on and far from concluded, ” So
. "The result, as one can't help noting on turning the radio dial or glancing at the headlines of the newspapers, is that the atmosphere being developed around Washington's investigation is beginning to recall painfully the one that marked the investigation in Dallas,”
Sauvage declared further: "In face of the flagrant -~ dumb-found~ ing -- contradiction between_the secrecy projected and demanded by the commission [headed by Warren] on the one hand, and the fact, on the other hand, that the conclusions of the FBI have already been placed before the eyes of the public, one can ask, in any case, if in Washington, following Dallas, Lee Oswald is not going to be condemned a second
time before the competent authorities have been able to render a decision,"
Le Monde has documented day by day the glaring contradictions in the case. in the December 12 issue Claude Julien points out that the report -made by the head surgeon who attended Kennedy, Dr. Robert R. Shaw, showed’ that the two shots fired at Kennedy came from opposite directions.
‘The fact that the first bullet -- which was not fatal -- came from the front is also established by a photograph taken by a witness of the _. assassination, The film taken by an amateur constitutes a supplementary confirmation, Another item well indicates that the police in the escort thought that the first shot had been fired from ahead. The motorcycle police, in fact, raced ahead, across the grass bordering the route, in the direction of the bridge which crossed it farther down; that is, as the American papers stressed, ‘toward the point from where the murderer appeared to have fired,!
"The presidential automobile at the moment was between the bridge and the warehouse where the gun with the telescopic sight was found. This building was behind and somewhat to the right of the presidential automo~ bile; it seems difficult to believe that a bullet from there could have hit J.F.Kennedy from the front to then lodge in his right lung."
-. Dr, Shaw asked whether or not Kennedy had turned to the left to speak with Mrs, Kennedy, Julien continues, A Parisian paper, on the contrary, imagined that he must have turned to his right. But the film appears to Nindicate that the president was looking straight ahead." This position would be consistent with the particular wound if it were caused by a shot fired from a position in front of the automobile,
The December 14 issue of Paris Match, the French version of Life magazine, carries an article cabled from Dallas by Raymond Cartier and _ Paul Mathias giving a round up of the case as it stands today. The two authors describe the mounds of flowers at the side of the highway where Kennedy.was shot, but say that it is. their impression nevertheless that the President's death "caused Dallas only moderate regret."" The sentiment expressed by the Dallas Herald almost a hundred years ago at the time of the assassination of Lincoln finds its echo now: “If Almighty God had not ordained this terrible event, it would not have taken place... . "
The reporters observe, too, that after the first strong emotion, public sentiment in the United States as a whole has died down, Little curiosity is expressed, Few voices demand a full inquiry. "The calm in which the change in presidents occurred confirms the stability of institutions. Lyndon Johnson's first moves are taking place in the atmosphere of a parade of good economic news: a rise in Wall Street, good inventories at the end of the year, an increase in the production of steel, etc. The skill of the new president is celebrated and, in Washington, a honeymoon atmosphere has followed the depths of sorrow,"
The Warren commission was appointed by Johnson because he did not want. to risk being accused of hushing things up, they hold. The commission can either approve the results of the investigations carried on up to now or conduct its own investigation, depending on circumstances. Its findings
can most certainly be expected to be made public unless a "terrible secret, susceptible of placing in peril the domestic or international peace should appear in the circumstances involving the assassination of President Kennedy."
The authors believe that it is "psychologically" possible that Oswald could have been the assassin, particularly in view of the psychiatric report made when he was thirteen years old, However, it simply has not been proved that he was the assassin, ; _ Moreover, if Oswald's psychological. pattern: predisposed him to commit such a crime, the very same pattern is in glaring contradiction to his denial of the killing of Kennedy (and also officer Tippit).
Certain facts involving the possibility of a second. gun and the incredible skill and accuracy of Oswald if he is presumed to be guilty and” the only one involved have not yet been cleared up.
Still worse, Ruby's entrance into the scene brings in a new element that. cannot be brushed aside -- the underworld, Was Oswald killed because he could have revealed the existence of a plot involving others?
There is little chance that this. factor will be cleared up, in the . opinion of the authors, because of the power of gangsterdom and the very strong possibility that Ruby will Get off and even end up as a local Dallas hero, a
They ‘close their article by advancing the theory that gangsters a utilized Oswald in one way or another and then got rid of him. "The con=sequences wnich could follow from this might shake to its foundation | the biggest nation of the universe,"
PAZ ESTENSSORO