Enduring rumors blame several famous people for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and often use speculative photographic interpretation to place alleged conspirators in Dealey Plaza. Facts, possibilities, and myths cast varied reflections within the Kennedy case, but ultimately some choose to see what they desire. Thus was born the opportunity for people to claim they and others were at the crime scene and if they are present, to some it means they "must" be responsible. In following decades four men are repeatedly accused of being present in Dealey Plaza, Joseph Milteer, Frank Sturgis, E. Howard Hunt, and George H. W. Bush. Some have attempted to insert these men into the Kennedy assassination but were they present in Dallas? Let us inspect the matter.

It is highly improbable any conspirator or related well-known figure would be present, the entire goal of a clandestine operation is to avoid identification and those who plan crimes do not often attend them. Such people likely have reasonable alibis in distant locations to avoid the slightest inference of complicity. It would be complex enough for a small group to undertake a plot without having to worry about conspirators being possibly apprehended at the scene. A conspirator attending would subject themselves to public and press photography, film recording, and legal statements but some demand certain men were responsible; the first of them is Joseph Milteer.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) offers, "Joseph Milteer was a "militant right-wing organizer who is alleged to have been a possible co-conspirator in the assassination" by members of the public based upon his "strong resemblance" to a motorcade witness. It is true Milteer did have a conversation less than two weeks prior to the deadly event with a police informant discussing the possible assassination of President Kennedy. Yet no direct evidence supports that Milteer had definite foreknowledge and his commentary is never specific to the precise events in Dallas. Those seeking to place him in Dallas refer to unproven photographic claims to cement their ideas despite no verified witnesses placing Milteer at the scene in their statements.

The HSCA conducted a photographic study using pictures of Milteer from before and following November 22, 1963. After extensive comparative analysis by photographic consultants, they concluded the spectator called Milteer by some was in fact another unidentified person. Officials did note multiple similarities "...age and general facial configuration...eyeglasses similar in general style to those favored by Milteer." However, investigators additionally state this spectator "...does not resemble Milteer in upper lip thickness; he is also partially bald, whereas Milteer apparently had a full head of hair in the photograph that was taken several years after the assassination. Most significantly, Milteer's reported stature of 64 inches places him about 6 inches under the spectator's estimated stature...the motorcade spectator could not have been Joseph Milteer."i Yet not just photographic evidence corroborates Joseph Milteer's presence feasibly elsewhere during the time in question.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation had informants who observed Joseph Milteer during November of nineteen sixty-three who reported these sightings to the Bureau. Milteer traveled extensively to cities across the southern United States and officials learned Milteer is in Florida a day after President Kennedy's assassination. The distance between his location in Jacksonville and Dallas is roughly 1,000 miles, this requires nearly fifteen hours of driving without stops for sleep and food based on current highway travel. Consider Milteer would have to stop for gas multiple times on less developed roadways, required food, and had to sleep. We should also include the time used for the purpose of his journeys, meetings to recruit extremists, raise funds, and discuss related issues with militants who shared his fringe ideas. All these things add time and diminish his chances of being in Dallas a day prior.

Milteer was reportedly in route to Columbia, South Carolina from Jacksonville, Florida during the evening of November 23, 1963 because an informant observes Milteer at the Jacksonville train station that day. It takes roughly just under four hours to reach South Carolina from Jacksonville and Milteer spent the night reaching a hotel room after interstate traveling.ii This roughly four-hour trip is less than one-third the distance from Dallas to Jacksonville. If we add the usual eight hours most people sleep to fifteen hours of time for travel, with a few hours of meetings per city, a couple meals per day, and Milteer is likely out of time if he was racing from Dallas.iii

Most evidence supports Milteer did not have the necessary time to make a trip from Dallas, photographic analysis supports he was not the spectator claimed by some in Dealey Plaza, and yet further evidence supports he actually was at home. Three official documents confirm after investigation by agents of the FBI's Atlanta Field Office that Joseph Milteer was at home in Quitman, Georgia the day President Kennedy was shot.iv v vi Despite his private claims of knowledge and influencing the assassination, when he offers public blame for the assassination in his notes to fellow militants Milteer claimed that Zionists were responsible. He was a suspicious fringe right-wing proponent who supported violent extremist groups and did speak of the President's death preceding the event. Yet based on repeated evidence he was not in Dealey Plaza or in the state of Texas upon that fateful day.

Another often-repeated allegation places former member of the US and Cuban military, actor, and soldier of fortune Frank Sturgis in Dealey Plaza as one of the Three Tramps photographed at the crime scene.vii Sturgis was a militant who publicly fund raised for multiple anti-Communist groups and faced multiple arrests for attempts to violate United States neutrality laws, aviation rules, and smuggling. However, it remains improbable that conspirators would select a publicly known figure of failed operations for an important clandestine mission. The Federal Bureau of Investigation undertook a photographic comparison of Frank Sturgis during the President's (Rockefeller) Commission, Sturgis himself provided materials and testimony pursue this end. Officials collected dozens of different black and white photographs of varying quality that presented a range of different pictures for study. Based on the facial indices, hairline differences, and varying physique Sturgis was ruled not one of the Tramps, yet officials could not fully rule him out just based on metric traits alone.viii  

According to further legal evidence, Frank Sturgis and multiple witnesses affirmed he was at home in Miami on November 22, 1963.ix x Consider when Sturgis was testifying before officials he is subject to prosecution for perjury and repeatedly affirms being in Miami. Sturgis additionally states in the press he is not one of the men arrested or photographed in Dallas that day and offered to undertake a polygraph to prove his innocence.xi Conversely, during subsequent public interviews he alludes to being in Dallas while not having to face potential legal consequences. Sturgis is guilty of using CIA funded programs to aid his illegal financial schemes that include selling arms shipments, collecting sponsorship funds under false pretenses, and military vehicle sales. Nevertheless, it remains unlikely intelligent conspirators would utilize a outspoken figure with an extensive recent arrest record to undertake a covert plot. Thus no substantial evidence suggests Sturgis was directly part of the Kennedy Assassination.

Central Intelligence Agency Officer E. Howard Hunt is the third person some assert was present in Dealey Plaza but mere public speculation is the basis for these assertions.xii Agency Inspector General Scott D. Breckenridge sought to locate Hunt in the official record by contacting the Office of Security and reviewed all related files. Breckenridge further called upon the Agency’s Office of Finance to possess information about Hunt's four-week pay period ending on November twenty-third. Files note Hunt took only eleven hours of sick leave over multiple days during that time with no annual leave and continued review of Hunt's travel records state he undertook no travel during November nineteen sixty-three.xiii Accordingly, Hunt did not have the time, nor do formerly classified documents support he was in Dallas the day of President Kennedy’s assassination. The Agency did not announce the results publicly; they were content in the fact that sufficient verifiable evidence did not support the public claims about Hunt.

Official photographic assessment panels also dismissed Hunt as a potential Tramp after extended review of comparison photographs. Hunt further made statements in the press denying any connection to allegations linking him to the Kennedy assassination and filed suit against publications claiming he was part of a plot.xiv During a court battle with Mark Lane, Hunt would not honestly state where he was publicly on November 22, 1963 and some presumed this meant he was in Dallas, this assumption has proven incorrect. Hunt's possible reasoning for being dishonest were the potential legal consequences of his covert activities. Based on House Select Committee files Hunt was in Washington DC with CIA Deputy Director for Plans Richard Helms, CIA Inspector General Lyman Kirkpatrick, and Cuban exile Enrique Harry Ruiz-Williams on November 22, 1963.xv No substantial evidence links him to any Dallas based assassination plots and verifiable evidence supports he was in Washington DC.

Long before Hunt's later claims of involvement in Rolling Stone magazine during a serious illness, he originally stated he was in Washington DC at work and then went shopping with his wife. Hunt claimed to have been on annual leave, yet Agency records disprove this. The later cover story is likely to hide his meeting with high-ranking Agency leaders plotting illegal activities that day and it may also be possible Hunt did go shopping in Washington DC after his meeting. Hunt's later claim that he was a "bench warmer" involved in the JFK assassination has no proven basis in evidence and other alleged suspects he named are his speculation at best. Hunt notably omits these claims in later interviews due to improving health and was feasibly muddying the already blackened waters of the case for his own purposes.

The final person modern speculative media has attempted to place within Dealey Plaza amid the assassination is former President George H.W. Bush. His later one-year term overseeing the Central Intelligence Agency is suggested as confirmation of these claims, yet that just infers connections to the CIA and not the Kennedy assassination. Additionally, unverified photographs have been prior offered as proof that Bush was in Dealey Plaza despite the evidence contending such claims. Among the countervailing evidence is the statement of former Kiwanis Club vice president Aubrey Irby that attended a meeting of businesspersons at the Blackstone Hotel in Tyler, Texas to support George H. W. Bush's political candidacy. Irby states "George had just started to give his speech when Smitty, the head bellhop, tapped me on the shoulder to say that President Kennedy had been shot." George Bush reportedly ended his speech out of respect before a room full of people within Tyler after the President was shot in Dallas.xvi

Bush subsequently contacts Federal Bureau of Investigation officials, "Houston on November 22, 1963 advised that George H.W. Bush, a reputable businessman, furnished information to the effect that James Parrot has been talking of killing the President when he comes to Houston. A check with Secret Service at Houston, Texas revealed that agency had a report that Parrot stated in 1961 he would kill President Kennedy if he got near him."xvii James Parrot was a fringe Republican operative who despised President Kennedy and denied ever making such a statement. This information ties Bush to the Kennedy assassination, but it is merely the role of an informant providing an unproven lead. Bush also sent a prior letter to author J.E. Hansen describing his location, which matched prior statements, at the time he learned President Kennedy was shot.xviii

If Bush had any relation to a plot, why would he make any statement to officials to connect him to the plot? Any reasonable person would remain silent, take no memorable action, and thus provide no association with the crime. George Bush was among those within the Agency who enforced a prior moratorium on the destruction of CIA records related to the Kennedy assassination. Additionally, Bush signed the JFK Records Collection Act into law and these undertakings to aid official inquires were not in his interest if we assume complicity.xix xx George Bush did have a long-term association with his adviser and former Agency employee Thomas Devine.xxi Bush did notify the FBI of a perceived threat to President Kennedy the day of the assassination and it is possible he was more than a business contact for the Agency prior to his later role CIA Director. Yet none of those facts verifies the claims often made about him regarding the Kennedy assassination. This is not a proven nefarious conspirator and certainly not someone who is verifiably present in Dealey Plaza.

Milteer, Sturgis, Hunt, and Bush, each have reasons for their detractors to despise them and to dislike President Kennedy. Multiple books and videos assert they were in Dealey Plaza and future examples may unfortunately follow that ignore substantial contrary evidence. The facts support that any story relying upon these men being present in Dealey Plaza is questionable and not based on verified facts. Some people likely shall further claim one or all of these four men were in Dealey Plaza but if we regard the verifiable documents, they never were.

References:
i. Report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Appendix Volume VI, Comparison of photographs of Joseph Milteer with that of an unidentified Dallas motorcade spectator, pp. 242-248
ii. President's Commission Document 1347, FBI Gemberling Report of 16 Jul 1964, Re: Allegations against persons other than Oswald, November 26, 1963, p. 1   
iii. HSCA, Federal Bureau of Investigation Subject Files, C-D, Church Committee, No Title, January 22, 1964, pp. 13-14
iv. Ibid, No Title, February 6, 1967, p. 2
v. FBI, JFK Headquarters File, Section 16, Memo from Belmont to Rosen, November 27, 1963, p. 2
vi. HSCA, Numbered Photographs, United States Secret Service Investigative Report, No Title, November 27, 1963, p. 1  
vii. FBI, JFK HQ File, Section 177, Memo from  the Director, September 25, 1974
viii. Report of the HSCA, Appendix VI, The Three Tramps, pp. 259-263
ix. Senate Select Committee on CIA Activities, Boxed Files, Deposition of Frank Sturgis, 4 Apr 1975, pp. 11-15
x. Ibid, Oswald in New Orleans, Allegations and Sources Draft I, June 23, 1975,  p. 7
xi. Jack Anderson and Les Whitten, (April 12, 1975),Watergate Burglar Quizzed on CIA, The Washington Post, p. E-55
xii. Central Intelligence Agency, Russ Holmes Work File, Transcript of Proceedings, Statement of Victor Marchetti, July 9, 1984, pp. 72-77 xiii. HSCA, Segregated Central Intelligence Agency file, Jaffe's Inquiry into Hunt and Sturgis Whereabouts, Box 43, September 20, 1974
xiv. Federal Bureau of Investigation, JFK Headquarters File, Section 177, Teletype from Baltimore to the Director, pp. 1-3
xv. Senate Select Comm., Boxed Files, Oswald in New Orleans, Allegations and Sources Draft I, June 23, 1975, p. 7
xvi. Kitty Kelley, "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, Anchor Books, May 2005, p. 212
xvii. President's Commission Document 301, FBI Gemberling Report of 18 December 1963 re: Assassination of President Kennedy, Re: James Milton Parrot, November 22, 1963
xviii. Jodie Elliott Hansen, November 22, 1963: Ordinary and Extraordinary People Recall Their Reactions When They Heard The News,  Thomas Dunn Books, rear cover
xix. Background on the Collection, The John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, The United States National Archives, archives.gov
xx. CIA, Miscellaneous Series, Breckenridge Files (HSCA), Status of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Document Control Review,  March 15, 1977
xxi. CIA, Deputy Director for Plans file, Memorandum: Messrs. George Bush and Thomas J. Devine, Subject: Thomas J. Devine,  January 30, 1968

Edited: July 2023

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JFK Assassination Myths and Misses

Research by: C.A.A. Savastano
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