Hickey’s Odd Memo
My first contribution to the Donahue theory comes from the observation that Agent George Hickey did not actually author his memo to Gerald A. Behn (included in the Warren Commission documents). A .pdf photocopy of all the agents’ statements included as Appendices to the Warren Commission report can be found at http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=327850. Hickey’s statement begins on p. 40. The second paragraph of this memo states, “Agents Kinney, Hickey, Lawson and Sorrels then drove in a Dallas field office car to the Sheraton hotel in Dallas where reservations had been made for us.”
Why would “Hickey” refer to himself in the third person here, and as “I/me” everywhere else in this memo? The answer is that he wouldn't Someone else actually wrote the memo, and forgot to change “Hickey” to “I.”
Looking at a photocopy of Hickey’s memo (as in the site above) rather than a transcription also yields some interesting information. Hickey is the only agent to initial every page of his memo, as well as a number of other places. There is only one other agent whose memo was initialed in a single place: Roy Kellerman initialed one crossed-out word (p. 5 on the aarclibrary website noted above). Other agents did not initial cross-outs or bottoms of pages of their memos. For example, Samuel A. Kinney had quite a few cross-outs, none initialed. But Hickey’s memo has numerous initials (although none in the one page addendum).
At the end of this memo is an odd statement, apparently explaining the initialing: "The above report has been initialed by the below signed on each of its four pages, including the attached flight sheet." This statement is just above Hickey's signature and does not appear in any other agent's memo.
After first noticing the third person reference, I sought out and contacted Menninger to point out the discrepancy. (I figured it would have been mentioned in his book if he had been aware of it, and after all, the third-person reference is in the "boring" part of the memo related to the day before the assassination.) When I saw the odd initialing, I again contacted Meninger. Menninger’s theory about these anomalies of Hickey’s memo is that maybe Roberts or Kellerman wrote the memo or had it written and then as a double-check safety, told Hickey to read it and be sure to sign off on each page. “Perhaps Hickey was no condition to write a report, too out-of-it with grief and despair?” I agree.
Also interesting to note was that there was a revision to Hickey’s first statement that “at the end of the last report (he) reached to the bottom of the car and picked up the AR 15 rifle, cocked and loaded it, and turned to the rear.” In the revision, the memo states that Hickey saw that “the right side of (Kennedy’s) head was hit and his hair flew forward. (Hickey) then reached down, picked up the AR 15, cocked and loaded it and stood part way up in the car and looked around.” So instead of “turning to the rear,” as he did in the original memo, Hickey was just “looking around” in the revision. Plus there are witnesses who report that the AR-15 was in Hickey’s hands at the time of the last shot, not afterward. Furthermore, the photographs of Hickey taken just on the other side of the triple overpass show him holding the rifle immediately after the assassination, not reaching down to pick it up and cock and load it, as can be seen in the section “No One Saw” (menubar at left).
It’s also interesting to note the date on Hickey’s memo, not immediately after the assassination, but on November 30—plenty of time to get an alternative story together. The dating of the memos of Hickey and the other agents is interesting. Some are dated on November 22 or 23, but many are dated November 29 or 30. The delay was likely to get stories straight on the memos.
Also, noticeably absent are statements from Agent Forrest Sorrels, who (as McLaren points out) was in the lead car of the motorcade and in a position to see exactly what happened. Sorrels was questioned by the Warren Commission about his witnessing of interrogations of Oswald and Ruby, but not about what he saw on Dealey Plaza on November 22.
There is also a statement by Sorrels which can be seen at http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=327793
Sorrels’ statement stops short of the events of November 22, ending with the security of the presidential limousine the night before, and no mention in either the Warren Commission testimony or in his report, of the events that took place on Dealey Plaza.
So Hickey’s memo wasn’t the only one that was “odd,” but given the evidence that Hickey didn’t actually write his memo but was aware of its contents causes me to believe, like Menninger, that “Hickey was no condition to write a report, too out-of-it with grief and despair”.
My first contribution to the Donahue theory comes from the observation that Agent George Hickey did not actually author his memo to Gerald A. Behn (included in the Warren Commission documents). A .pdf photocopy of all the agents’ statements included as Appendices to the Warren Commission report can be found at http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=327850. Hickey’s statement begins on p. 40. The second paragraph of this memo states, “Agents Kinney, Hickey, Lawson and Sorrels then drove in a Dallas field office car to the Sheraton hotel in Dallas where reservations had been made for us.”
Why would “Hickey” refer to himself in the third person here, and as “I/me” everywhere else in this memo? The answer is that he wouldn't Someone else actually wrote the memo, and forgot to change “Hickey” to “I.”
Looking at a photocopy of Hickey’s memo (as in the site above) rather than a transcription also yields some interesting information. Hickey is the only agent to initial every page of his memo, as well as a number of other places. There is only one other agent whose memo was initialed in a single place: Roy Kellerman initialed one crossed-out word (p. 5 on the aarclibrary website noted above). Other agents did not initial cross-outs or bottoms of pages of their memos. For example, Samuel A. Kinney had quite a few cross-outs, none initialed. But Hickey’s memo has numerous initials (although none in the one page addendum).
At the end of this memo is an odd statement, apparently explaining the initialing: "The above report has been initialed by the below signed on each of its four pages, including the attached flight sheet." This statement is just above Hickey's signature and does not appear in any other agent's memo.
After first noticing the third person reference, I sought out and contacted Menninger to point out the discrepancy. (I figured it would have been mentioned in his book if he had been aware of it, and after all, the third-person reference is in the "boring" part of the memo related to the day before the assassination.) When I saw the odd initialing, I again contacted Meninger. Menninger’s theory about these anomalies of Hickey’s memo is that maybe Roberts or Kellerman wrote the memo or had it written and then as a double-check safety, told Hickey to read it and be sure to sign off on each page. “Perhaps Hickey was no condition to write a report, too out-of-it with grief and despair?” I agree.
Also interesting to note was that there was a revision to Hickey’s first statement that “at the end of the last report (he) reached to the bottom of the car and picked up the AR 15 rifle, cocked and loaded it, and turned to the rear.” In the revision, the memo states that Hickey saw that “the right side of (Kennedy’s) head was hit and his hair flew forward. (Hickey) then reached down, picked up the AR 15, cocked and loaded it and stood part way up in the car and looked around.” So instead of “turning to the rear,” as he did in the original memo, Hickey was just “looking around” in the revision. Plus there are witnesses who report that the AR-15 was in Hickey’s hands at the time of the last shot, not afterward. Furthermore, the photographs of Hickey taken just on the other side of the triple overpass show him holding the rifle immediately after the assassination, not reaching down to pick it up and cock and load it, as can be seen in the section “No One Saw” (menubar at left).
It’s also interesting to note the date on Hickey’s memo, not immediately after the assassination, but on November 30—plenty of time to get an alternative story together. The dating of the memos of Hickey and the other agents is interesting. Some are dated on November 22 or 23, but many are dated November 29 or 30. The delay was likely to get stories straight on the memos.
Also, noticeably absent are statements from Agent Forrest Sorrels, who (as McLaren points out) was in the lead car of the motorcade and in a position to see exactly what happened. Sorrels was questioned by the Warren Commission about his witnessing of interrogations of Oswald and Ruby, but not about what he saw on Dealey Plaza on November 22.
There is also a statement by Sorrels which can be seen at http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=327793
Sorrels’ statement stops short of the events of November 22, ending with the security of the presidential limousine the night before, and no mention in either the Warren Commission testimony or in his report, of the events that took place on Dealey Plaza.
So Hickey’s memo wasn’t the only one that was “odd,” but given the evidence that Hickey didn’t actually write his memo but was aware of its contents causes me to believe, like Menninger, that “Hickey was no condition to write a report, too out-of-it with grief and despair”.