Warren Commission

Two years ago, the historian Robert Dallek revealed new details about the extraordinary range of shots, stimulants and pills President Kennedy took to control his physical pain and present his youthful image to the world. Important and interesting as these details are, they should not distract us from the one medical remedy that probably killed the president: his corset.

I want to respond to Joseph Ball's letter (Dec. 17) regarding the findings of the Warren Commission and his statement that "After 30 years no one doubts that Oswald killed Kennedy and wounded Connally." I hate to burst his bubble, but I've had doubts for years. While I don't know who killed President Kennedy, I have every right to reject the Warren Commission's lone assassin theory and will continue to have doubts about it so long as evidence surrounding the case continues to be suppressed.

Two years ago, the historian Robert Dallek revealed new details about the extraordinary range of shots, stimulants and pills President Kennedy took to control his physical pain and present his youthful image to the world. Important and interesting as these details are, they should not distract us from the one medical remedy that probably killed the president: his corset.

As a member of the staff of the Warren Commission, I have concluded that there may have been a conspiracy. It was not to assassinate President Kennedy. Instead, it has been by publishers and the entertainment industry to distort history for profit. The Oliver Stone film "JFK" is the most recent example. The Times' review of "JFK" (Calendar, Dec. 20) recognizes that the film is short on accuracy. But reviewer Kenneth Turan did not know by how much.

Regarding Richard Mosk's Counterpunch, "The Plot to Assassinate the Warren Commission" (Dec. 30): It is predictable that Mosk would be defensive regarding the film's questioning of the single-bullet-theory conclusion drawn by the Warren Commission nearly 30 years ago, a commission on which he served. Mosk took the predictable route of attempting to reduce the intent of the film's political inquiries to the high jinks of media moguls who would misrepresent historical facts in order to make a fast buck.

Richard Mosk is wrong when he states that conspiracy theories have run their course (Commentary, Nov. 11). All interpretations of the evidence in the Kennedy assassination are theories, because the murder investigation and the autopsy of the president's body were so blotched that we will never know what really happened in Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963. The Warren Commission's theory is that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, fired three shots at the presidential motorcade in Dallas. One shot missed and two shots struck the president.

Around the time of this 30th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, as at every preceding five-year interval, there were a number of television programs about the assassination. In a recent Los Angeles Times review of one of the programs, a PBS report on Lee Harvey Oswald ("PBS' 'Oswald' a Riveting 'Frontline,' " Calendar, Nov.

Joseph A. Ball, one of the country's most respected trial lawyers who was probably best known for his role as senior counsel on the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, died Thursday at St. Mary's Hospital in Long Beach. He was 97. Ball, a longtime resident of Long Beach, had a courtroom career stretching more than half a century. During that time he defended such notorious clients as Watergate figure John D.

A dozen lawyers from the Warren Commission joined former President Gerald R. Ford on Thursday in calling for disclosure of CIA files and all other government records on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The lawyers, in addition to a former commission staff member, urged "the broadest possible accessibility" to evidence in the probe of Kennedy's death, which has been the focus of renewed attention since the release in December of the movie "JFK."

At first blush, "The Kennedy Assassination Tapes" sounds like the title of an Oliver Stone-inspired conspiracy theory disclosing secret recordings of a cabal that killed the president. But Max Holland's third book is the polar opposite, a sober and careful study, mostly of LBJ's White House conversations about many topics related to JFK's murder. Those looking for salacious new discoveries will be disappointed.

The hearings last week on the Sept. 11 attacks produced a stream of revelations about the terrorist strikes and the government's failure to prevent them. But in addition to revealing details the public had not heard, the commission debunked others retold so many times they were widely assumed to be true. Intelligence intercepts that foretold of the attacks with warnings such as "tomorrow is zero hour."

Richard Mosk is wrong when he states that conspiracy theories have run their course (Commentary, Nov. 11). All interpretations of the evidence in the Kennedy assassination are theories, because the murder investigation and the autopsy of the president's body were so blotched that we will never know what really happened in Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963. The Warren Commission's theory is that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, fired three shots at the presidential motorcade in Dallas. One shot missed and two shots struck the president.

Joseph A. Ball, one of the country's most respected trial lawyers who was probably best known for his role as senior counsel on the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, died Thursday at St. Mary's Hospital in Long Beach. He was 97. Ball, a longtime resident of Long Beach, had a courtroom career stretching more than half a century. During that time he defended such notorious clients as Watergate figure John D.

One minute, you're a backup guard. The next, you're facing Tampa Bay Buccaneer defensive lineman Warren Sapp. Nobody said life in the NFL was easy. James Atkins, the starting left guard for the Detroit Lions Sunday when they play Tampa Bay, knows what he is in for. "I'm going against the best 'D' lineman in the league and he's not the type of guy that you want to be rusty against," said Atkins, a seven-year veteran. "It's kind of like guarding Michael Jordan.

Re "Film of JFK Assassination Brings Family $16 Million," Aug. 4: Did the government purchase the original or the edited version we've all seen many times in various media documenting the most famous assassination of our time? The edited version of the shooting is the key piece of evidence that supports the Warren Commission's "single bullet theory." The uncut version would demonstrate, as many believe, that shots came from various locations in Dealey Plaza besides the book depository building where Lee Harvey Oswald was perched on the sixth floor.

Twenty-five years ago this month, a handful of captured conversations helped to bring down Richard M. Nixon's presidency. Given the demonstrated power of White House tapes to record, and sometimes alter, history, it's striking that it has taken all these years to flesh out a full account of surreptitious recording devices installed at the behest of presidents.

Thirty-three years ago, Gerald R. Ford changed--ever so slightly--the Warren Commission's key sentence on the place where a bullet entered John F. Kennedy's body when he was killed in Dallas. The effect of Ford's change was to strengthen the commission's conclusion that a single bullet passed through Kennedy and severely wounded Texas Gov. John Connally--a crucial element in its finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole gunman.