The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy & the Involvement of Co-conspirators Lee Harvey Oswald and CIA Propaganda Chief David Atlee Phillips
The man in this photo (pencil above his right ear) is David Atlee Phillips.
Phillips was arrested on November 22, 1963, in Fort Worth, Texas, as a material witness to the investigation of the shooting. He was arrested at 1:50 p.m., exactly the same time that Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested (1:50 p.m.) in a Dallas movie theater after the shooting of President Kennedy.
David Atlee Phillips was arrested less than two miles from the Fort Worth neighborhood that both he, and Oswald, grew up in.
Who was David Atlee Phillips? What was his relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald? How did these two “Fort Worth Texans” come to be arrested at the exact same time for their involvement in the investigation of the shooting?
PROOF THAT THE MAN IN THIS PHOTO IS
DAVID ATLEE PHILLIPS
To begin, 100% positive identification must be made that the man in the above photo is David Atlee Phillips. This will be accomplished by taking an inventory of his head, facial and neck features and comparing those same features with an official photograph of David Atlee Phillips, as recognized by the U.S. government.
ANALYSIS OF PHOTO TAKEN AT THE FORT WORTH POLICE STATION ON NOVEMBER 22, 1963.
SECOND IMAGE IS A CLOSE-UP OF THE RIGHT EYE
1. A large round mole on lower eye lid of his right eye. Approximately 5mm wide. Located to the right of his pupil. Not touching his eyeball.
2. A line of discolored skin (approximately 3mm wide, 15mm long) located at the base of the right eyelid mole, traveling downwards and terminating in the folds/wrinkles/bag of the right eye.
3. A mole on the right side of his lower lip.
4. A mole on the right side of his upper lip.
5. A mole just above the right corner of his mouth.
6. A series of moles located across his right cheek, extending up to the wrinkles under his right eye and also to his right ear.
7. A mole on the tip of his nose, on the right side.
8. A deep skin line from his nose to the corner of his mouth.
9. Deep set eyes.
10. A large, thick brow with thick bushy eyebrows.
11. A medium sized nose with a straight nose bridge.
12. Four deep creases in his forehead, extending across his forehead.
13. A well-defined hairline.
14. Thick dark hair.
15. Long oval ears.
16. A well-defined jaw.
17. A well-defined chin.
18. A large Adam’s apple that is cocked to the left.
David Atlee Phillips was 41 years old when this photo was taken.
He was 6’ 3” tall, and weighed approximately 200 lbs.
Phillips was a writer and an editor. The pencil above his right ear was his trademark-look when he was working.
ANALYSIS OF OFFICIAL PHOTO TAKEN FOR DAVID ATLEE PHILLIPS’ APPEARANCE AT HSCA IN 1978.
SECOND IMAGE IS A CLOSE-UP OF THE RIGHT EYE
The United States House elect Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. The Committee investigated until 1978.
David Atlee Phillips testified to the Committee on April 25, 1978. He was 55 years old.
14 years had passed since he was photographed in Fort Worth on November 22, 1963. Now, he was older, with more wrinkled, leathery skin from the toll of spending years of long, sleepless evenings on the Night Watch.
NOTE: Outside of the upper hierarchy of the CIA and the State Department, few people knew who David Atlee Phillips was or what he looked like.
This is the photo he released in 1978. He’s 55 years old here:
1. A large mole on the lower eye lid of his right eye. Approximately 5mm wide. Located to the right of his pupil.
** NOTE: Phillips is using the finger on his right hand to stretch and pull up the right side of his face, effectively placing the large mole in the white of his right eye. This is clever facial manipulation. However, you can see the mole is distinguished against the white of his eye, and the mole actually blocks the far right side of his pupil. Do not be fooled. He has the mole.
2. A line of discolored skin (approximately 3mm wide, 15mm long) located at the base of the right eyelid mole, traveling downwards and terminating in the folds/wrinkles/bag of the right eye.
3. A mole on the right side of his lower lip.
4. A mole on the right side of his upper lip.
5. A mole just above the right corner of his mouth.
6. A series of moles located across his right cheek, extending up to the wrinkles under his right eye and also to his right ear.
7. A mole on the tip of his nose, on the right side.
8. A deep skin line from his nose to the corner of his mouth.
9. Deep set eyes.
10. A large, thick brow with thick bushy eyebrows.
11. A medium sized nose with a straight nose bridge.
12. Four deep creases in his forehead, extending across his forehead.
13. A well-defined hairline.
14. Thick dark hair.
15. Long oval ears.
16. A well-defined jaw.
17. A well-defined chin.
18. A large Adam’s apple that is cocked to the left.
Again, David Atlee Phillips was 55 years old when this photo was taken.
He was 6’ 3” tall, and weighed approximately 220 lbs. (he was about 20 pounds heavier than when he was photographed on November 22, 1963).
CONCLUSION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPARISON
David Atlee Phillips is the man in the first photo, arrested in Fort Worth on November 22, 1963, at 1:50 p.m.
David Atlee Phillips is the man in the second photo, an official press release produced for release during his testimony before the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978.
WHO WAS DAVID ATLEE PHILLIPS?
David Atlee Phillips was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on October 22, 1922. He was a writer, an editor, and a newspaper publisher. He worked for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1950-1975, primarily in Central and South American countries. He was the propaganda chief for the CIA. His 25-year CIA career was conducted under “deep cover,” meaning he utilized fictitious names and corporate identities to disguise who he was. He was never to be photographed except for his official identification for the CIA and U.S. State Department (he worked under diplomatic cover in Mexico City, 1961-1965).
Phillips had deep involvement in the CIA’s operations regarding Cuba. He worked in covert assignments in Cuba from 1955-1961.
Other involvements pertaining to Cuba include:
** Operation 40: Organized in 1959 by DCI Allen Dulles and overseen by then Vice President Richard Nixon, this was a special operations group of 40 CIA members, originally recruited to remove Fidel Castro who’d just seized power in Cuba. Later, Operation 40 agents joined a failed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
** Cuban Task Force: This was a subgroup of Operation 40. Phillips was considered an expert on Castro and he worked with a crew of officers to lay the groundwork for a massive propaganda campaign to support the planned future invasion of Cuba. Phillips lived in Havana and set up his shop.
** Bay of Pigs: April 1961. Phillips was the propaganda chief for the entire operation regarding the invasion of Cuba referred to as, “The Bay of Pigs”.
** Operation Mongoose: 1961-1962. Phillips worked with this group (also known as the Cuban Project). Led by U.S. Air Force General Edward Lansdale and implemented after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, this covert operation of the CIA entailed activities such as intelligence collection, sabotage operations, and a program to remove communists from power in the Cuban government.
** Chief of Cuban Operations: David Atlee Phillips was made the CIA’s Chief of Cuban Operations on Monday, September 23, 1963. At the time, Phillips was working under diplomatic cover at the U.S. State Department’s embassy in Mexico City, Mexico. The appointment to being the CIA’s Chief of Cuban Operations on Sept. 23, 1963, came just four days before Lee Harvey Oswald’s visit to Mexico City on Friday, September 27, 1963 – a visit which lasted nearly one week.
In 1975 David Atlee Phillips retired from State Department and Central Intelligence Agency. He retired as CIA’s Chief of the Western Hemisphere Division.
Mr. Phillips died on July 7, 1988. He was 65 years old.
WHAT WAS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
DAVID ATLEE PHILLIPS AND LEE HARVEY OSWALD?
On Thursday, September 26, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald got on a bus. He traveled more than 20 hours on that bus, and on Friday, September 27, 1963, he reached his destination – Mexico City, Mexico.
Oswald rolled into Mexico City before noon on Friday, and he spent several hours at the Cuban Embassy standing in lines and filling out paperwork for an application for a visa to Cuba. He visited the Russian Embassy as well.
The evening of Friday (9/27/63) was about BONDING
Saturday (9/28), Sunday (9/29), Monday (9/30), and Tuesday (10/1)
were about BRIEFINGS
BONDING
Lee Harvey Oswald and David Atlee Phillips had never met each other. But they had a lot in common, and they needed to bond, and trust, very quickly. They shared a lot in common, and had a great deal to talk about.
Both men had lived and grown up in Fort Worth, Texas.
They lived in Fort Worth both as children and as adults.
They attended the same elementary school and had ridden their bicycles around the same neighborhood streets. They had played in the same parks.
They attended the same high school in Fort Worth.
They loved Fort Worth and had nothing but wonderful thoughts about it.
Both men were married. They loved their wives.
Both were fathers and loved their children.
Both were fluent in a foreign language. Both had lived abroad.
Both men had been arrested on multiple occasions. They both despised being arrested and spending time in jail.
Both men had used aliases and had represented themselves using fictitious organizations, particularly related to U.S. involvement in Cuba.
Both men loved intelligence work.
Both men loved the United States.
BRIEFINGS
Over the next four days in Mexico City (Sept. 28 – Oct. 1), Lee Harvey Oswald participated in many high level briefings.
Oswald was briefed on the Bay of Pigs disaster and President Kennedy’s decision to not provide air cover for the invading force, thus dooming the operation.
Southeast Asia was in turmoil and would require significant military intervention, which President Kennedy indicated he would not agree to. The “domino effect,” as multiple countries fell to communism, would undermine U.S. interests in the area and threaten U.S. national security.
President Kennedy had indicated his desire to dismantle the CIA, possible splitting its functions, separating its intelligence gathering and operations capabilities. Such a move would threaten national security and place the United States in a vulnerable position to lose the Cold War.
President Kennedy needed to be removed from office to save not just the intelligence apparatus of the U.S., but he needed to be removed as President, literally, to save the United States of America.
Oswald listened, and he was all in.
Oswald was briefed that after two weeks upon his return to Texas, he would be offered a job at a warehouse in Dallas (and more details would be forthcoming). Two weeks after this, in early November, a regime change would occur in South Vietnam paving the way for expanded military operations in that area. And three weeks after this event, regime change would occur in the U.S., with the removal of President Kennedy.
Oswald listened, and he was all in.
Finally, Oswald was given an overview of the plot to remove President Kennedy. According to Federal criminal jurisdiction, as long as the act of assassinating the President was committed by a single person, the State of Texas would have exclusive jurisdiction.
The plan was to place 100% of the evidence, blame, and guilt on one single person (Oswald), to avoid any appearance of involvement of a conspiracy.
Lee Harvey Oswald trusted David Atlee Phillips. And Phillips promised he would use all of his skills and talents as CIA propaganda chief to make this plan effective. Phillips also explained his family’s prominence and their extensive connections in the legal and intelligence fields in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Phillips promised he would be with Oswald every step along the way, including his likely arrest in Dallas, and when the dust settled under State of Texas law, Oswald would be free man – and free to enjoy a lifelong, vibrant career in the U.S. intelligence community.
Oswald listened, and baby, he was all in.
THE FOLLOW THROUGH
On Wednesday, October 2, at 8:30 a.m., Lee Harvey Oswald got on a bus and departed Mexico City and headed north. He arrived in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday, October 3, at 2:30 p.m.
On October 16, two weeks after leaving Mexico City, Oswald secured a job at the Texas School Book Depository Building (he was aided by a friend he met through a language program sponsored by the U.S. State Department).
On November 2, about two weeks after Oswald landed his new job, the President of South Vietnam was assassinated in a coup d’etat, paving the way for a military dictatorship in that country and creating the path for greatly expanding war operations in Southeast Asia.
On November 22, 1963, three weeks after regime change was thrust upon South Vietnam, gunshots rang out in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, and John F. Kennedy’s tenure as the 35th President of the United States ended.
On November 22, 1963, at 1:50 p.m., in Fort Worth, Texas, why did David Atlee Phillips get himself arrested as a material witness in the investigation of the shooting? Why did he allow himself to be photographed?
“GUATEMALA 1954. To hell with Brad, and to hell with the CIA – I was in what was called in Fort Worth in my youth the cross-bar hotel. Arrested and fingerprinted like a common criminal as well as dumped into a cell of the Fort Lauderdale jail with half a dozen hoodlums. Just wait until I got out, so I could tell Brad to take his CIA, its secrets and false documents, and stuff them in an appropriate orifice.”
David Atlee Phillips, The Night Watch: 25 Years of Peculiar Service, 1977.
David Atlee Phillips absolutely hated being arrested. He wrote about being arrested on several occasions related to his intelligence work, and each time the event was so traumatic for him he wanted to quit the CIA.
Phillips knew that Oswald had been arrested several times. Oswald hated being arrested and spending time in jail as much as Phillips hated it.
Phillips knew that Oswald would be arrested as a suspect in the shooting. There would be no possible way to visit Oswald in the Dallas jail. He could not write or call or talk to Oswald once he was under arrest.
So, Phillips came up with a plan, because the entire assassination plot hinged on Oswald not cracking and remaining in total solidarity throughout the entire time he was locked up in the Dallas “cross-bar hotel.”
THE PLAN: After witnessing President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas at 12:30 p.m., Phillips was driven to Fort Worth. The drive was 30 minutes.
At about 1:35 p.m., the Dallas Police dispatcher sent out an alert for a green and white 1957 Ford, Texas license plate # DT-4857. That vehicle was registered to a guy named Donald Wayne House. The source of the report was a Mrs. Cunningham, who called the police and told them that the car had been involved in the assassination.
At 1:45 p.m., Donald Wayne House was arrested as a material witness to the investigation of the shooting.
A few minutes after Donald Wayne House was arrested, David Atlee Phillips walked onto the scene and explained to the police he was familiar with both the 1957 Ford and Donald Wayne House.
At 1:50 p.m., David Atlee Phillips was arrested as a material witness to the shooting, and he was transported to the Fort Worth police station. When Phillips exited the police car he was photographed five times by a reporter.
At the Fort Worth police station, Phillips produced phony identification that he was a relative of Donald Wayne House. Phillips was released after 90 minutes. There is no record of his name or I.D. in the official police report.
After Phillips’ release from the police station, he went straight to work with the photographer to develop the arrest photos. Later, these photos would be sent by courier to the Dallas police station.
NOTE: Donald Wayne House was a friend of Phillips’ younger relative. Mr. House had gotten into some serious legal trouble a couple of years back, and the powerfully connected Fort Worth lawyers of the Phillips family saved his neck. Donald Wayne House was a punk who was 100% indebted to the Phillips clan.
OSWALD GETS ARRESTED
After President Kennedy was shot at 12:30 p.m., an employee head count was taken at the Texas School Book Depository, and Lee Harvey Oswald was identified as an employee.
Two minutes after this (12:32 p.m.), Oswald exited the building and took a bus and a cab back to his home.
Oswald then walked to a movie theater and entered.
Police arrived at the movie theater at 1:45 p.m., and after a brief scuffle, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested by Dallas police at 1:50 p.m.
This is a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald in a holding cell at the Dallas Police Department. He looks beat up, his hair and clothes are disheveled, and basically, the guy looks like a hot mess – a freaking hot mess.
David Atlee Phillips anticipated all of this. Phillips needed to communicate with Oswald to encourage him to stay focused, stay in line, be strong, and know that he and everyone involved in the plot were counting on him and would not let him down. It was imperative that Oswald not let them down.
A PHOTO IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
In the interrogation room, Oswald was handed a photo of a man who had been arrested in Fort Worth at the same time he had been arrested in Dallas. The man in the photo had a mole on the lower lid of his right eye. The man had numerous moles on his face, and his Adam’s apple was quite large and cocked to the left. The man has a pencil stuck above his right ear.
Oswald said he didn’t know the man in the photo, that he’d never seen him.
But oh, how Oswald’s mind, heart and soul were invigorated! The plan was real! Everything he’d been told in Mexico City was the truth and he was going to be part of a coming new regime. A big, big part. Now, Oswald was strengthened, encouraged, and motivated.
At a press conference, Oswald raised his fist as a symbol of solidarity and support. He used this as a salute to express unity, strength, and defiance.
In Mexico City, Lee Harvey Oswald heard the plan and he was all in.
Now, in a Dallas jail cell facing all odds against him, Oswald was still all in.
Now, twice, CIA’s Chief of Propaganda David Atlee Phillips succeeded in brilliant psychological operations dealing with Lee Harvey Oswald.
THE CONSPIRACY TO ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT KENNEDY IS NOW DEFINED AS A PROVEN FACT
David Atlee Phillips was a deep cover, Covert Action officer in the CIA.
He was the case handler for Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. Phillips knew the place, the date, and the time of President Kennedy’s planned assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. His arrest in Fort Worth, Texas, was just 25 miles (about a 30 minute drive) from the shooting site.
In 1978, under oath before Congress, Mr. Phillips denied being in Dallas or the Dallas area on Nov. 22, 1963. Also, he absolutely denied having any involvement whatsoever in the assassination of President Kennedy.
However, Mr. Phillips deliberately implicated himself into the storyline of the shooting investigation by making statements to police to facilitate his arrest as a material witness. He did this in order to create a photographic record of his arrest. Photos of this arrest were sent to the suspected shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, as instruments of psychological support and encouragement of solidarity for the plot. Obviously, the strategy worked.
Mr. Phillips’ actions on November 22, 1963, must be defined as nothing less than “interfering with a police murder investigation.” This, combined with his foreknowledge of the assassination plot, his deceptions to Congress regarding his whereabouts on Nov. 22, 1963, and his involvement in the plot, quantitatively and absolutely qualify President Kennedy’s assassination as a conspiracy.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE NOW?
President Kennedy’s assassination was the result of a conspiracy.
This conspiracy involved David Atlee Phillips.
First, the CIA’s identification photos of David Atlee Phillips should be released, related to his employment from 1950 – 1975.
Second, the U.S. State Department’s identification photos of David Atlee Phillips should be released, related to his employment in this department.
These high resolution photos would provide crystal clarity of Mr. Phillips’ facial features such as the large mole on his lower right eye lid, the various moles and their positions on his face, his nose, brow, hairline, ears, jaw, chin, and his enlarged Adam’s apple which is cocked to the left.
BLOODLESS BULLET
Immediately after the shooting, the Presidential motorcade raced to Parkland Hospital. Both President Kennedy and the Governor of Texas (who had been sitting directly in front of the President in the limousine) had been shot.
On a patient stretcher at the Parkland Hospital, an orderly found a bullet. This bullet was passed along to the Secret Service. The bullet’s chain of possession is well documented.
One week after the shooting, on November 29, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson established, “The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy,” known unofficially as the “Warren Commission,” to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy that had taken place on November 22, 1963.
Within its pages, the Warren Commission contains many EXHIBITS.
Commission Exhibit 399 (CE 399) is the bullet found on the stretcher at the Parkland Hospital.
This image shows CE 399:
CE 399 is the bullet that entered President Kennedy’s back and exited his throat. This bullet then entered the Texas Governor’s back, smashed his rib, exited his chest area, smashed his wrist, ricocheted, and finally penetrated into his left leg.
CE 399 perfectly matches the ballistics of the rifle found in the Texas School Book Depository Building. This rifle belonged to Lee Harvey Oswald.
CE 399 is a perfect example of propaganda evidence, because it allows the public to see what the bullet looks like, with matching ballistics, some damage and some weight loss.
This bullet links the rifle, the rifle links Oswald, thus he must be the shooter.
However, CE 399 has no DNA on it. It is not marked with any blood. It is not marked with any human tissue. There is no clothing attached and there are no thread striations from the copper casing penetrating cloth.
So, there can only be ONE of two explanations for the “bloodless bullet”:
1.) God Himself performed a miracle and wiped all the blood, skin, and
DNA off the bullet at the Parkland Hospital, or…
2.) A co-conspirator planted the bullet at the hospital as propaganda
evidence. It was a fired round which Oswald had given to his handler.
Remember, Oswald was all in.
© Eric Daniel Lake 2013