My Small Contribution to the History of the JFK Assassination

I see that Lew Rockwell has a fascinating article up on the murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer and the connection to the assassination of JFK. It brings to mind the tiny bit of new information that was brought to my attention about the assassination.

For many years, I was a consultant to Texas Bank, where C. Jack Bean was CEO and chairman. Jack retired from the bank at least 10 years ago, but when he was chairman, I talked to him nearly every day on the phone and perhaps two or three times a year, we traveled on business trips, NYC, Chicago, and San Francisco were some of the cities we hit. I knew him well.

Jack occasionally took his wife on these trips, so I knew her somewhat. Jack was a gregarious man, with a booming Texas drawl and you knew it was going to be a fun time when you were out with Jack. Jack was not afraid to state his opinion on anything and always kept the conversation lively. His wife never interrupted. She just let Jack do his thing.

On a trip to Chicago, one evening I had dinner with Jack and his wife and somehow the topic came up of Jack's early career. It turned that Jack had started out as a Texas Ranger. He was a Texas Ranger for one year, 1963.

I brought up the Kennedy Assassination and he told me that he was on duty that day in Dallas and expected to patrol part of Kennedy's parade route, but at the last minute the Texas Rangers were told they weren't needed. I started to probe Jack a bit on the topic, but his wife who always let Jack go on, gave him something of a dirty look and he changed the subject. The Kennedy assassination, I got the sense, was something that they had agreed Jack wouldn't talk about.

I have had some correspondence with JFK assassination researchers and they have all told me that they had never heard before about the Texas Rangers being pulled off parade duty, but it happened, I got it from the Texas Ranger who was there.