Edith Grove
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Lebanon (Tennessee) man who witnessed JFK assassination questions if president was intended target LEBANON, Tenn. -- Bill Carter of Lebanon says "things have just happened to me in my life." Maybe that is the only way to encapsulate what has been a remarkable career that started in Kennedy's secret service detail, then led to lawyering for the Rolling Stones and finally settling down in middle Tennessee.
"Here I am just out of Rector, Arkansas. Suddenly, I'm in Washington at the White House. I never planned it. I didn’t know what the secret service was," Carter said inside his Lebanon home.
Carter was in Washington 56 years ago as John F. Kennedy was completing a successful trip to Texas. His motorcade through downtown was meant to be a celebration. Unknowingly, Carter was about to become a witness to history no one ever wanted to see. Fifty-six years later, he is still not sure if Oswald was targeting the president, or another man in the motorcade.
"I never spoke about this for 30 years or so," Carter said. "I couldn't. I wouldn't talk about it."
Three shots rang out, two hitting Kennedy in the neck and head. Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, and on Thanksgiving 1963, Carter arrived in Dallas to help with the investigation.
Carter accompanied Oswald's Russian wife Marina to testify to the Warren Commission. He was with her frequently as investigators sought to piece together whether Oswald had help in killing Kennedy.
"She was a lonely person," Carter describes sitting in front of a picture of the two of them Marina had once asked for. It hangs on the wall in Carter's office -- a rare piece of American history few can claim. "She had had a rough time with Lee."
Marina and friends testified they never heard Oswald mention any plot to kill the president. Carter interviewed 123 witnesses including Oswald's killer Jack Ruby, a Dallas club owner.
"I felt like he shot Oswald because Oswald killed his hero, and he also made the comment he didn't wank Jackie to have to come down and be in court," Carter said.
"But do you think his actions are why there are so many conspiracy theories today?," reporter Alex Apple asked.
"Of course."
Ruby's killing of Oswald meant the biggest question of all would never be answered. Why did Oswald want to kill the president? After piecing together Oswald's strange life, Carter is left to wonder if another man in the motorcade was the actual target.
Carter explains, "So anyway, he got kicked out of the marines, and when I saw that, who was the Secretary of the Navy who’s in charge of the Marines? John Connally was sitting in front of Kennedy."
Connally had become governor of Texas after being secretary of the Navy.
"I think he very likely could have been shooting at Connally," Carter confirms.
Carter is expressing a little-talked-about opinion as history has given way to more fantastic conspiracy theories. Oswald, a leftist, potentially Communist, sympathizer had previously attempted an assassination of a Conservative political figure in Texas, George Walker. No one close to him testified that he had expressed a desire to kill the Democratic president.
Ruby's actions kept America and Carter from ever knowing for sure.
He'd leave the secret service convinced Oswald acted alone.
"I interviewed all of the key witnesses, and all of those witnesses, immediately after the assassination, heard or saw anything from the grassy knoll or railroad overpass," Carter said.
He's never sought to change minds. Ruby's silencing of a president's killer made conspiracies nearly inevitable. Fifty-six years still has not depleted carter's admiration for the first president he served. https://fox17.com/news/local/lebanon-man-who-witnessed-jfk-assassination-questions-if-president-was-intented-target
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