[Interview with Mark Lane in Playboy Magazine #3] Page: 3 of 52

                                
PLAYBOY INTERVIEW:
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a candid conversation with the fiery attorney and author of "rush to
judgment/' the documented, best-selling indictment of the warren report
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News of tfic assassination of John
/ itz^eralrt Kennedy had hardly reached a
stunned xeorld when llie inevitable ques-
tion xeas ashed; Is this j>art. of a conspir-
acy? When J.ee Harvey Oswald, charged
with the assassination, tens in turn assassi-
nated, th< whiskers of doul>t swelled to a'
chorus. Seripps-Iloward columnist 1 {ich-
ard Starncs summed up the feelings of
many Americans when he wrote: "Our
credentials as a civilized people stand
suspect before the 'world . . . but the real
depth of the disaster that has befallen us
cannot yet. be imagined. In its ISStli
year, the Republic has fallen upon
u.ispcakably evil days, and great mischief
is afoot in the hind. It remains to be
seen whether more convulsions will rack
us before it is over . .
Stames' jeremiad teas echoed abroad,
where it x vas generally assumed that
the murders of Kennedy, Oswald and
()ffieer; J. I). Tipj>,/ were all piec es in
a monstrous, consp -trial jigsaw puzzle.
The Con munis! >ns xvere quick to
allege that the I'i ent had been mur-
dered by a plot iniginating within his
own Goi! 'rnmcnt, and that Oswald had
been silenced before he could incriminate
other members of the cabal. Tass cabled
fiom Washington to Moscow on Novcm-
'brr 25, I'.'fij, just three days after the
assassination, that "All circumstances of
President Kennedy's death allow one to
assume that this murder xvas planned and
carried oi l by the ultra-right-xoing, fascist
and racist circles, by those xvho cainot
stomach any step aimed at the easing of
international tensions and the irnpiovC'
nient of Soxdet-Amerit an relations."
In other countries, too. Illinois of con-
spiracy abounded. The Loudon D.iily
Telc^raph'-i Dallas < o, respondent te-
ported on November 2<> (hat "II'01 hi
opinion as much as American i.\ not fully
satisfied about this terrible aflair. This
has resulted in an elephantine attempt
on the part of the■ load authoiities con-
cerned to cover up lot one anothci."
On November 27, thr cmiscnuitix'c f.on-
don Daily Mail declined editorially that
"facts can be produced that a tight-ving
plot against the President had caused his
death." French press opinion xvas even le ss
restrained. Paris Jour amied a front-page
article entitled "Oswald Cannot Ha.'e.,
Iieen Alone in the Shooting," xvliile
Liberation wrote that "There is no doubt
that President Kennedy (ell inlet a trap,
lie xeas the xticlini of a plot. And in this
plot it is evident that the Dallas police,
protectors of gangsters like Ruby, played
a role one can only describe as question-
able. They created a defendant, then
alloxeed one of their stool pigeons to
kill him."
In hasty pursuit of a scapegoat, con-
servatives and reactionaries—at home as
xcell as abroad—xvere eager to blame liber-
als and leftists, xvho returned the charges.
To dispel such divisive s peculation,
President Johnson appointed an vIlia-
prestigious Presidential Commission,
headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, to
investigate the assassination. Sendng un-
der Wcnren xoere former CIA Director
Allen Dulles; John McClcty, former As-
sistant Secretary of War; Senators Rich-
ard Russell and John Sherman Cooper;
and Representatives Gerald lord and
Hale Hoggs. J. Lee Rankin, former Solici-
tor General of the United States, xvas
appointed as the Commission's Chief
Counsel, directing a staff of I / laxvyers.
The very appointment of such a blue-
ribbon inxiestigative body allayed many
fears, at least in America. Ten months
after the assassination, xvhen the Warren
Commission released its findings, Ameri-
cans heaved a national sigh of relief.
There had been net conspiracy, the Com-
mission concluded, lee llarvey Osxeald,
acting alone and irrationally, had mur-
dered the President. Jack Rutty had killed
Oswald on his oxen and xvithout premedi-
tation. The verdict xvas in, and it xuas
almost unanimously accepted—in the
United States. Txvo months latce xvhen
the Commission released its 2> vol-
umes of supporting evident e—a massive
17,S15 pages—the case appeared for-
ever closed. A grateful public hailed the
Commission for settling its gnannng
doubts and clearing the air of poisonous
nhnors. Harrison Salisbury, assistant
managing editor of The New York.
Times, echoed popular sentiment xvhen
he wrote in the Times: "No material
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''History may come to knoxv the Warren
Report as the 'Warren Whitexvashit
may be ranked xvith Teapot Dome as a
synonym for political cover-up and cyni-
ial manipulation of the truth."
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"There xoere 90 xoitnes <\\ to the assassina-
tion xvho xvere questioned and xvcre able
to give an assessment of the origin of the
shots. Of those, 58 said they came from
behind the fence on the grassy knoll."
"'There xvere at least txvo assassins. The
evidence is conclusive on that score. Rut
the Commission xvantecl to disprove a
conspiracy, and this desire defeated its
investigative function."
if/
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