Gilding the Lilly

Definition:   1. To cover with or as if with a thin layer of gold. 2. To give an often deceptively attractive or improved appearance to.

Two examples of researchers gilding the Lilly

                 Dallas police officer James Chaney was not called to testify because he said there was a shot from the front.

One of the enduring mysteries surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is why the Dallas police motorcycle officer closest to President Kennedy at the time of the assassination was never called to testify before or deposed by the Warren Commission.

Police Department Motorcycle Officer James M. Chaney was assigned to the Traffic Division Solo Motorcycle and Special Enforcement Unit (Batchelor Exhibit #5002, page 17). As the diagram below shows, he was at the right rear of the presidential limousine within fifteen feet of the President.

Chaney is shown as  #9 (#337)

Trask, Richard B., Pictures of the Pain, Danvers, MA. Yeoman Press, 1994, pg. 63

Some “researchers” assert Chaney was not called because he would testify there was a shot from the front – thereby proving two shooters. In reality they have “cherry picked” selective portions of an interview Chaney gave shortly after the assassination to prove their point. If they provided the complete transcript a different conclusion would be reached.

DPD Jim Chaney interview with ABC’s Bill Lord – November 22, 1963

ABC News Studio Reporter Bob Walker: "witness to the shooting."

Chaney: Uh Jim Chaney

Lord: I understand you were riding next to the president's car when the assassination took place.

Chaney: I was riding on the right rear fender.

Lord: What happened?

Chaney: We proceeded west on uh Elm Street uh at approximately 15 to 20 miles an hour. We heard the first shot, I thought it was a uh motorcycle backfiring and uh I looked back over to my left and Officer Billy [?] looked back over his left shoulder.

Chaney: Then the, uh, second shot came, well then I looked back just in time to see the President struck in the face by the second bullet. He slumped forward into Mrs. Kennedy’s lap, and uh, it was apparent to me that we’re being fired upon. I went ahead of the President’s car to inform Chief Curry that the President had been hit. And then he instructed us over the air to take him to Parkland Hospital, and he had Parkland Hospital standby. I pulled up ahead of the - beside the officers in the lead escort that he [the President] had been hit and we’re going to have to move out.”

[This is where some pro-conspiracy proponents stop the interview. It gives the impression that Kennedy was shot in the face meaning the shot had to come from the front.]

But let us continue with the rest of the interview

Lord: You did not see the person who fired the shot.

Chaney: No sir it was back over my right shoulder

[Chaney states the shot came from over his right shoulder. This would be the area of the Texas School Book Depository.]

Lord: What preventive measures had been taken to, to procure [?] with such an incident?

Chaney: I don’t know. Unintelligible

Lord: I thank you.

ABC News Studio Reporter: This patrolman was so close to the president that following the three shots his uniform was spattered with blood.

The interview can be found on You Tube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYdB3e6yQ9E

There have been cases of unethical prosecutors withholding adverse evidence to convict a person charged with a crime to improve conviction rates. In my view this is no different.