The tall tales of Mike Howard

The tall tales of Mike Howard


4/26/64 It was charged here [San Francisco] yesterday that a Dallas Secret Service agent deliberately "planted" a false story about the assassination of President Kennedy.




New York attorney Mark Lane .. charged that the phony story was "leaked" to a Ft. Worth reporter on 2/9 to take press attention away from the appearance of Oswald's mother before the Commission on the following day.



[Story refers to Negro janitor alleged to have seen Oswald shoot.]



5/9/64 Mark Lane ... charged the Secret Service with deliberately planting a false story in the press ... According to Lane, the ... falsification concerned an article in the 2/10 issue of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram ... "The story broke the same day Oswald's mother was to appear as the first witness on behalf of Lee Oswald. It was obviously calculated to prevent press coverage of any witness who was going to raise doubts about Oswald's guilt." National Guardian



[Story given by Mike Howard, Secret Service, to Thayer Waldo, reporter for the Star-Telegram: a Negro janitor, looking out of a window on the same floor Texas School Book Depository, heard first shot, saw Oswald and was prepared to identify him. AP account of Star-Telegram story filed Chronology, 2/9, 813 to 1143 pcs.]



See Secret Service 2/13/64 – AP, 131 aes, Sterling Green



5/9/64 Mark Lane, in a statement to the Guardian 5/4 ... said he has learned that a second rifle, not the one attributed to Oswald, was found on the roof of the Texas School Book Depository building the day the President was murdered.



[Lane describes meeting between Thayer Waldo, reporter for Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, and Mike Howard, Secret Service agent.] ... At one point during their meeting, Waldo asked Mike Howard whether there was any truth to the story that another rifle was found on the roof of the school book building, a story that had previously been denied. Mike Howard replied: "Yes, we found a rifle on the roof, but it was dropped by a Dallas police officer earlier in the day and he forgot to pick it up." National Guardian