The Mighty Bob Tanenbaum Strikes Out, Part One
- Fred Litwin
- Jun 18
- 12 min read
Updated: Jul 12
Robert Tanenbaum was the Deputy Chief Counsel for the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). He resigned after a brouhaha over budgets and inappropriate investigative techniques. Prior to serving on the HSCA he was assistant District Attorney in New York County in the office of DA Frank Hogan.
I just received his new book, That Day in Dallas: Lee Harvey Oswald Did NOT Kill JFK, and I must say I am not impressed. The supposed crack prosecutor of New York provides a tepid review of some of the evidence in the case and uses arguments that might well have come from a high-school paper on the assassination.
Dan Hardway has already damaged Robert Tanenbaum's credibility. Tanenbaum still tells the same story about Phillips - there are no comments in this book about Hardway's post.
That Day in Dallas is only 132 pages long. A large part of the book recounts Tanenbaum's personal story as a prosecutor and the forces that shaped his viewpoints.
Tanenbaum believes there is something divine about his mission - it all started after he had been informed in high school that his mother had died: (pages 31 - 32)
After the ordeal of the funeral, I began taking long walks alone trying to figure out how to process it all.
Then the insight happened with acute clarity. What was required was that I make a spiritual deal with the Almighty:
Provide for me evil, and I will bring it to justice, no special aid in so doing. I will always act in a righteous fashion. Notwithstanding evil's cruelty, I will force it to be accountable in due process oriented, court disciplined proceedings.
As I performed athletically, so will I similarly perform in the courts of law in a manner that will extend over the years to come -- college, law school, and the courtroom -- to prosecute the unjust. I will be prepared, and make it happen in due course.
This would become my mission, my identity, my calling card, my life. I believe I have remained faithful to it since the day it became clear. I believe I am continuing to fulfill that promise in the publication of this book and the evidence within. Notwithstanding evil's cruelty, I will force it to be accountable. I will be prepared. and make it happen.
This sense of mission permeates the book. Up front, Tanenbaum offers up "deep testimonies of credibility," which includes: (pages 2 - 3)
I am aware that every turn involved an unquestionably divine degree of intervention. From the things that led me to a specific university, which led to an interview I should have never been able to get with Frank Hogan, to Rick Albrecht doing what you'll see he did, to doors that flung open, and pieces of the puzzle that came together later in life, like the final round in Slumdog Millionaire where every detail led to an uncanny knowledge of, or exposure to, the answers everyone was seeking.
I am not only fighting flesh and blood, but I'm determined to live out a deal I made on high to deal with the devil and spend my life fighting evil in all its form, with every tool I've been given.
Tanenbaum doesn't really get into discussing the JFK assassination until page 62 and, if you exclude the short appendix, that means that the heart of the book is only sixty pages long. And a large part of that is based on the research of Josiah Thompson.
Tanenbaum has precious little to say himself.
This first part of my review covers what is in Tanenbaum's book. Part Two will look at what is not in Tanenbaum's book.
So, here is a sampling of what is in Tanenbaum's book.
1. The Parkland Doctors
Tanenbaum notes that "if the WC [Warren Commission] was engaged in a virtuous search for truth, then there is no rational reason to omit the Parkland experts." (page xii) The only Parkland doctors mentioned in Tanenbaum's book were Dr. Kemp Clark, Dr. Robert McClelland, Dr. Malcolm Perry, and Dr. Marion Jenkins. But all of these doctors testified before the Warren Commission. So, which experts did the Warren Commission omit? Tanenbaum doesn't say, but clearly he is talking about Dr. Charles Crenshaw, since Tanenbaum wrote the foreword to Crenshaw's book, JFK Has Been Shot.
There was no reason to invite Dr. Crenshaw to testify before the Warren Commission. He was a very minor player in the emergency room -- so minor that many people forgot he was even there. If Crenshaw had something important to say in 1963 - 1964, he could have called up the Commission. But he kept his huge story secret for decades.
Please have a look at my five-part series on the Parkland doctors.
Attending physicians often make mistakes in determining the nature of gunshot wounds. Should we care what the Parkland doctors think?
A look at what the Parkland doctors wrote and what they said.
The Boston Globe interviewed some of the Parkland doctors in 1981.
A 1992 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association has some interesting comments from a few of the Parkland doctors.
An interesting interview with Dr. Robert McClelland.
2. The CIA and the HSCA
Tanenbaum alleges that the CIA did not give access to its files: (page 117)
The FBI and the CIA stonewalled the Committee. Both agencies refused to cooperate and grant us the opportunity to access their files and unredacted memos regarding the assassination. The CIA, you may recall, postured that not only would it not provide the documents but that we could read redacted material only at Langley while prohibiting us from photocopying or taking any notes, respectively.
Other details in Tanenbaum’s fantastic tale are also impossible to verify in the record. Tanenbaum worked much of the magic in his well-spun Pittsburgh tale by collapsing time and conflating events in regard to these details. His claim that the CIA denied access to documents is mirrored by his claim that what the HSCA eventually got was access to redacted copies from which they could not take notes. The CIA followed the law and made the Committee wait until staff members received security clearances before giving them access to classified documents. Once staffers had passed background checks, the CIA gave staff members unexpurgated access to everything we asked for, at least until close to the end of the HSCA’s life when they began to seriously stonewall on Mexico City.[28] The staff members took extensive notes from classified documents and many, although not all, of those notes are now in the National Archives. As noted above, Tanenbaum’s claim that the CIA flatly denied access is true only if you leave out the fact that, in the time-frame he is talking about, no one on the staff had their security clearance and the HSCA had not yet requested access to documents. Thus Tanenbaum creates a very false impression of what was happening.
3. The Single Bullet Theory
Tanenbaum says that the single bullet theory is "the shot heard 'round the world and echoed through time and eternity, and every public-facing report": (page 62)
According to the theory, JFK was shot twice in the back. One bullet struck the back of his head, and another bullet struck his back approximately 5 3/4 inches below the neckline between a 22.5-degree and a 17-degree declination, establishing a downward tract.
It appears that Tanenbaum is quoting from something, but he doesn't say where this was taken from. He then includes the autopsy face sheet:
Tanenbaum then concludes that "... that bullet, were it one, to satisfy the Published Theory, would then have to somehow move upward 11 degrees in JFK"s body, in violation of basic science and common sense, and exit JFK's throat." (page 62)
Of course, Tanenbaum wouldn't dare publish the actual photograph of JFK's back wound.
4. The Magic Bullet
Tanenbaum presents this Warren Commission exhibit to discuss the "magic bullet." (page 64 - 65)
Here is how Tanenbaum describes this exhibit:
In the government exhibit, it shows five bullets that the government test-fired and what the effects should have been on the Magic Bullet. In the exhibit, the Magic Bullet #1 is in supremely pristine condition. Bullets that were denoted #2 and #3 and which were shot into cotton wadding, expectantly show no damage. Bullet #4 in the exhibit was shot into a goat's rib and shows some deformity. But bullet #5 in the exhibit was shot into a cadaver's wrist and fractured its radius. As a result, it shows enormous deformity.
That exhibit was a standard part of Dr. Cyril Wecht's presentation. The tests conducted at the Edgewood Arsenal showed that a direct hit by a pristine bullet on Connally's wrist would have produced both a badly deformed bullet, and much more damage to the wrist:
Surely Mr. Tanenbaum must know that CE 399 started to yaw after it exited JFK's throat, and that it didn't hit Connally's rib head on with full velocity.
Maybe he doesn't know.
4. Forensic Reenactment
Tanenbaum writes that the Warren Commission "determined to support its position [that JFK's head could have moved backwards after the fatal shot] by arranging for the following exercise. For the demonstration, it created ten gelatinized skeletal skulls modeled on human skeletal structure to be shot by rifle the same height and distance as LHO allegedly enacted." (page 70)
Indeed all ten skeletal heads were shot.
Contrary to WC hopefuls, all ten heads moved forward, not backward. Big Surprise.
But the purpose of the test of firing into human skulls at Arsenal was not to test the jet effect. Back then nobody had yet to come up with the theory.
5. Lee Bowers
Tanenbaum quotes several witnesses he believes help prove a shot from the grassy knoll. He has this to say about Lee Bowers:
Bowers was working the railway switching tower, heard the shot, and observed a flash of light and smoke as a result of the rifle shot.
When he spoke to Mark Lane, a few years later, his story had slightly changed:
Maybe a flash of light, or smoke, or something out of the ordinary. Who knows?
6. The Acoustics Evidence
Tanenbaum's discussion of the acoustics evidence is jejune: (pages 85 - 86)
Acoustics experts at Bolt Beranack [sic] & Newman based in Cambridge, Massachusetts (a partnership of Richard Bolt, Leo Beranek, and Robert Newman), and the Queens College Department of Computer Sciences originated their investigations from Police Officer McClain's [actually is McLain] motorcycle recording device, Acoustics. Fifteen years later, that investigation corroborates that witnesses told law enforcement within one hour of the assassination.
That's his whole discussion. He might have missed a few details, no?
7. The CIA and the Single Bullet Theory
Did the CIA order the single bullet theory? (page 91 - 92)
The manual bolt action necessary to fire separate successive shots from the alleged murder weapon, the Mannlicher Carcano rifle, takes 2.3 seconds: ergo -- the Mannlicher Carcano could not have fired both shots. Now confronted with the absence of its Mannlicher Carcano rifle, the CIA in March of 1964 ordered that a one bullet theory would still support its predetermined outcome -- three shots fired from the sixth floor "sniper's nest" window inside the Book Depository building by the lone gunman, LHO.
No footnote for any of this [there are no footnotes in the book at all]. What on earth is he talking about?
8. The HSCA's Sealed Records
Tanenbaum refers three times to the sealing of HSCA Records. Here's the first (page 6)
The HSCA, however, was NOT interested in searching for truth and not interested in discussing it further. It was a “conversation over” situation. Actually, I retract that statement—the conversation wasn’t over at all. In fact, it was just beginning—beginning to be distorted magnificently through a complicated parade of smoke and mirrors. The Committee would ultimately fabricate a significant portion of its forensic medical panel summary report, and to protect this fabrication from being discovered or revealed, it sealed all the underlying documents—for fifty years.
Then at page 95 Tanenbaum writes:
At page 37 of the HSCA’s Forensic Medical Panel Report, HSCA, in substance, concluded that, "regarding the gaping hole in the back of the president’s head, the Parkland doctors must have been mistaken because all of the twenty-six witnesses present at the autopsy of JFK in Bethesda observed no gaping hole in the back of the president’s head.” [There is no such quote]
HSCA, at its expiration, sealed its investigative records for fifty years.
And then at page 118:
Sadly, the Committee maintained that all of the Parkland Hospital doctors attending JFK in trauma room 1 must have been mistaken when they noted that JFK had a gaping hole in the back of his head, specifically in the parietal/occipital area, because all 26 witnesses at the autopsy of JFK at Bethesda allegedly saw no such injury. Then the HSCA maneuvered to seal the underlying documents, the records, for 50 years.
Is this really why the HSCA documents were not released until the ARRB went into action? The plain fact of the matter is that Congress needed to pass a law releasing HSCA documents and they didn't. In 1983, legislation was introduced to open the records, but the House of Representatives never voted on the resolution. There was opposition from Louis Stokes, who along with Robert Blakey, had issues on the confidentiality of some of the HSCA's information. Stokes told the press that the "unpublished material consists largely of raw FBI reports that might defame innocent people." Stokes told Ebony Magazine that personnel records of people the HSCA hired and fired should remain confidential. He had particular concerns about the names of confidential informants in the Martin Luther King case "to whom we promised confidentiality in return for their testimony."
It would be nice to know from Robert Tanenbaum who at the HSCA was responsible for the alleged cover-up.
9. Bardwell Odum and CE 399
Tanenbaum disputes the chain of custody of CE 399: (page 100)
In 1967, the government released a 34-page letterhead memo dated 7/7/64. It purported to show that on 6/12/64, FBI agent Bardwell Odum went to Parkland Hospital and showed CE 399, the pristine bullet, to Tomlinson and Wright. They allegedly told Odum that the bullet looked similar to the one Tomlinson found on the stretcher in Parkland Hospital. When Odum was interviewed, he stated he never had possession of CE 399, never spoke to Tomlinson or Wright, and never went to Parkland Hospital!
But the interview with Odum took place in 2002, some 38 years after the fact. Odum was 82 years old at the time, and memory loss might have played a role.
10. The Rowley Memo
Tanenbaum discusses in his text, and includes in his appendix, a purported letter from John McCone to James Rowley. Here is the letter that was included in his book:
This memo is not a legitimate memo. Back in 2006, a Usenet member wrote NARA about the memo:
We appreciate your interest in the JFK Assassination Records Collection. Your request was forwarded to our office because we have custody of the JFK Assassination Records Collection. We have received several requests for information about the McCone/Rowley Memo in the past. Our staff conducted an extensive search of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection. In addition to searches on the JFK Database, we carried out physical searches of the files. The file series searched included Lee Harvey Oswald's 201 file; the CIA Miscellaneous File; the United States Secret Service's official case file on the assassination; the Russ Holmes Work File; and the Assassination Records Review Board's files related to the CIA. We were unable to locate a copy of, or any reference to, this document in the Collection.
In addition, the reference number on the top right of the document was taken from a Secret Service report:
Real:
Fake:
My friend Larry Haapanen also points out that the CIA did not have an office in Fort Worth in 1964 and that such a memo would have a higher security level than confidential.
It is astounding that Robert Tanenbaum would be fooled by such an obvious fake.
11. Ruth Paine, CIA Operative?
These two paragraphs caught my eye: (page 110)
Moreover, George de Mohrenschildt, a white Russian aristocrat, wealthy businessman, and fervent anti-communist, befriended Oswald. He became Oswald’s caretaker and squired him for about the next six months while Oswald was in Dallas. De Mohrenschildt had a close relationship with Harold Byrd, a rightwing Dallas oilman and co-founder of the Civil Air Patrol where Oswald trained as a cadet. Byrd despised JFK and owned the Texas School Book Depository where, six weeks before the assassination, CIA operative, Ruth Paine, obtained Oswald’s employment. Byrd was also close to Air Force General Charles Cabell, a CIA deputy director, and Bay of Pigs organizer. JFK fired Cabell after the Bay of Pigs debacle. Cabell’s brother was Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell, who helped pick and disseminate the motorcade route through Dealey Plaza.
He was also deemed a CIA asset.
I just don't understand the relevance of a Harold Byrd connection. And to call Ruth Paine a CIA operative without one shred of evidence is just plain defamatory and irresponsible.
Cabell had nothing to do with the motorcade route.
Discussion
I could go on and on with further examples. I don't know why Tanenbaum felt compelled to write such a book. I don't think he will convince many people. Perhaps he is hoping to trade on his resume and that the uninformed might well be impressed.
Coming up: Part Two looks at what is not in Tanenbaum's book.
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Conspiracy Land—mighty Tanenbaum has struck out.
