#5 Man

As this is written, the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination is less than three years away. It is safe to assume a great deal of media attention will be given to this event.

Most of it, it is equally safe to assume, will be given over to propping up the lone gunman scenario. I anticipate the weaknesses in this scenario being glossed over, and the correct (i.e. conspiracy) point of view ridiculed and dismissed, even though the lone nut nonsense has been discredited many times over.

When it comes to the JFK case, the major corporate criminals of the last not-quite-half-century include Time-Life and CBS. These entities, who in theory act in the public interest, have aided and abetted covering up the truth, and there has been nothing accidental about it.

In this post, I shall briefly present a case study: the deliberate suppression by CBS of a potentially important piece of evidence.

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In 1967, Warren Commission critic Raymond Marcus was contacted by CBS and asked to lend his expertise to a new examination of the Warren Report. He initially agreed, but nearly pulled out after seeing an article in a Boston newspaper. That article began:

The documentary would not air "unless it sheds new light on the report, weakening the arguments of those who criticize it," the article went on, citing a CBS spokesman.

The program's bias was perfectly obvious, so when Marcus next spoke with CBS, he said he had changed his mind. But his CBS contact replied, "Some of us here are trying to do an honest job, and if those of you who have important information don't cooperate with us, you're just guaranteeing that the other side wins."

So Marcus stuck with it.

CBS had approached Marcus because of his areas of expertise, which included the Zapruder film, the so-called "magic bullet" (CE 399), and several pictures. These pictures included the Mary Moorman photograph of the assassination.

Note how the numeral 5 appears directly above cop's helmet (image courtesy Ray Marcus)

Marcus had been working on a detail of this photo since 1965, when David Lifton brought it to his attention. The two men identified five details they thought might reveal possible assassins (above). Both considered the fifth and final detail the most promising.

In time Lifton became more interested in the research that resulted in Best Evidence, but Marcus kept working on detail #5.

Marcus elicited expert opinions supporting his growing view that the #5 man detail really was one of JFK's assassins. Perhaps most compelling was the observation that "You don't need an expert to tell you that's a man."

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The #5 man detail was among the materials Ray Marcus brought to the attention of CBS as it prepared its 1967 special.

Admittedly, the #5 man detail is murky; is not, as Mark Lane observed, "of the quality a portrait photographer might boast." So when Marcus showed his Moorman work to the documentary's producer he included, for comparison purposes only, an unrelated news photograph of a man shooting civil rights activist James Meredith from ambush. The producer examined both photos, and at one point incorrectly referred to #5 man as "the man who shot Meredith."

The reference was telling. He could not have made this erroneous identification if he did not first see a human figure in that #5 detail.

CBS New Inquiry: The Warren Report was broadcast in four parts in June 1967. Much of the third part was devoted to attacking New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, whose assassination investigation had been made public earlier that year.

Marcus had provided Garrison with the same Moorman photos he had provided CBS. Garrison told correspondent Mike Wallace that photographs existed showing the assassins.

Wallace incorrectly stated that this near full-frame Moorman photo was "a hazy blowup of an area from a larger picture." Needless to say, CBS had the resources to show much clearer images. The zoom did not even center above the motorcycle cop's helmet, where the #5 man detail is.

But showing such details may not have weakened the arguments of those who criticized the Warren Report.

After the documentary had broadcast, its producer said, "Nothing would have pleased me more than to have found a second assassin. We looked for one and it isn't our fault that we didn't find one. But the evidence just isn't there."

This is, according to CBS, the man who wasn't there.

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The newspaper excerpt is from The Boston Herald-Traveler, reproduced in #5 Man: November 22, 1963, by Raymond Marcus.