Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

Another idea I want to introduce at this time is this: I think it's likely that LBJ talked to Fritz on Friday. We know that Fritz received 13 calls from LBJ's henchmen, Bill "Mystic" Moyers and Cliff Carter. Obviously, they were determined to get Fritz to do their bidding. But, think of how much more powerful it would have been if they put the President on the line, himself. How was Fritz going to say no to the President of the United States? He couldn't. And how hard would it have been? LBJ went to Parkland Hospital, but he left promptly when Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:03. From there he went to the airport and made Air Force 1 his base of command. They had a phone on Air Force 1. And what I suspect is that he spewed the lingo that he used later with others to get them to cooperate: "The danger here is that this could lead to a nuclear war with the Soviets. We must rapidly establish that this was the work of a single lone nut who had no collaborators. The fate of the country depends on it. I need your help." 

Now, all that came to me because it makes sense. It makes sense because LBJ would have known that talking to Fritz himself would have been 1000X more persuasive and effective than having Moyers or Carter do it. Well guess what? There is testimony that LBJ spoke to Fritz. ABC correspondent Bill Sirkin did an interview of Fritz in 1977, and he learned that LBJ did call Fritz. And he said that Fritz' testimony to the HSCA has never been released, but in it, he admitted that LBJ called him. The way Sirkin put it was that LBJ called Fritz from the White House, but no, he had to call him before that; that would have been too late. LBJ didn't get back to Washington until 6 PM, and by then, he had other things that had to be attended to. I have to think that it was on Air Force 1 while they were waiting for Jackie to get there so that she could add legitimacy to his swearing in, that's when Johnson called Fritz.  

So, did LBJ speak to Fritz directly about killing Oswald?  I'm sure he did. He must have. But, it probably wasn't too direct. He probably couched in phrases that were ambiguous. He probably said that it would be stifling to the whole country for this to drag on, that a long protracted trial would be paralyzing, but that the outcome of such a trial is clear, and that decisive action was needed right away to put this matter to rest so that the country can move on and start looking forward again and not backwards. He probably said enough things to get the idea across to Fritz that Oswald had to die, and then Bookhout did the rest. The killing of Oswald was a joint DPD/FBI operation, but I definitely think the order went directly from LBJ to Fritz.    

The testimony of Fritz to HSCA is still under lock and key in 2019. It must really be damaging.