BILL O’REILLY, TELEVISION HOST AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR, WRITES ABOUT HIS OWN EXPERIENCES REPORTING IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING THE ASSASSINATION OF JOHN F. KENNEDY.
Thirteen years after John F. Kennedy was murdered in Dallas, Texas, I arrived in that dusty town from the Northeast. I had been hired as a reporter for WFAA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Dallas.
The station was just a few blocks away from that historic West End district of downtown Dallas where JFK was shot, Dealey Plaza. I found myself wandering over there from time to time, looking up at the window where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots that ended the President’s life. What struck me about Dealey is how compact it is. An elevated marksman would have little trouble hitting a target in that zone.
Dallas in 1963 was a far different place than it is today. Provincial and suspicious of outsiders, most folks wanted no part of any discussion about the assassination. Truth be told, they were ashamed. For many Dallasites, the story was over. My initial attempts to seek new leads with these folks didn’t get very far.
But after a short time on the job, I began hearing rumors about a man named George de Mohrenschildt, a Russian immigrant who taught at Bishop College, a black school in town. The story was that de Mohrenschildt knew Marina and Lee Harvey very well. Also, that the Russian had CIA connections.
Intriguing? You bet.
I began investigating the teacher, but did not come up with much. Then I found out that investigators from the House of Representatives were also looking at de Morenschildt and that they’d called him to testify before a congressional committee concerning events from that November day in 1963. I convinced the news director at WFAA-TV that the man needed to be confronted by me and a camera crew.
As detailed in my book Killing Kennedy, this led to an intense chase across state lines which finally ended in tragedy. As the camera crew and I approached the house of de Mohernschidt’s adult daughter, a shot rang out. He’d killed himself.
For me after all these years, the Oswald-de Morenschildt connection remains a frustrating piece of mystery that remains largely incomprehensible.
Though I know Oswald was the assassin, there are many questions I still want answered. During the writing of Killing Kennedy, I interviewed retired FBI Special Agent Richard Wiehl who had never spoken on the record about his involvement in investigating the Kennedy assassination and in debriefing Oswald’s widow, Marina. When I heard that he’d found some old snapshots from that time in Texas of his daughter, Lis Wiehl, I was intrigued. I had to read the manuscript for Snapshot. I found myself particularly intrigued by the character of William O’Ryan. He was clearly modeled after me.
Like me, O’Ryan built a successful career and moved from college newspapers and small local news to a major network. But catching the scent of a good story still gets his blood pumping. He’s tempted to toss his responsibilities and join retired FBI Special Agent James Waldren to find answers.
Though fictional, the ties to the real stories such as mine are woven throughout the book. Bobby Kennedy did change the locks on cabinets in the White House immediately after his brother JFK was assassinated. He instructed listening devices throughout the White House to be removed and the tapes hidden. Even while devastated by the loss, the younger Kennedy knew what needed to be done to protect his and the President’s secrets from people they didn’t trust, including FBI head Hoover and the newly-sworn-in President Lyndon B. Johnson. Many of these secrets have yet to be revealed today.
These many decades later, the mysteries surrounding the 1960s are great fodder for new stories, like the one found in the pages of this book. And you can bet that, like my doppelganger, O’Ryan, I’d jump at the chance to follow new leads on de Mohenschildt or any connection to the Kennedy secrets.
I might have to beat out Lis Wiehl for that story.
Bill O’Reilly
New York City
September, 2013