HuskyCaucasian Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 Via HuffPo- After being informed at Parkland Hospital that Kennedy was dead, Johnson raced back to Air Force One, where he waited for Mrs. Kennedy and the body of the slain president, and made preparations to take the Oath of Office. Back at the hospital, the Kennedy group loaded the body into a coffin, forced their way past a local justice of the peace, and hurried back to Love Field for the long ride back to Washington. It was standard practice for the plane to take off as soon as the commander-in-chief was onboard. Even after McHugh had ordered the pilot to take off, however, "nothing happened." According to the newly declassified transcript, Mrs. Kennedy was becoming desperate to leave. "Mrs. Kennedy was getting very warm, she had blood all over her hat, her coat...his brains were sticking on her hat. It was dreadful," McHugh said. She pleaded with him to get the plane off the ground. "Please, let's leave," she said. McHugh jumped up and used the phone near the rear compartment to call Captain James Swindal. "Let's leave," he said. Swindal responded: "I can't do it. I have orders to wait." Not wanting to make a scene in front of Mrs. Kennedy, McHugh rushed to the front of the plane. "Swindal, what on earth is going on?" The pilot told him that "the President wants to remain in this area." McHugh, like most members of the Kennedy entourage, did not know that Johnson was onboard. They believed that the new president was on his own plane flying back to Washington. If LBJ was on the plane, McHugh wanted to see for himself. Since he had not seen Johnson in the aisle -- and at 6'4" Johnson would be tough to miss -- McHugh assumed that he must then be in the bedroom. When he checked there Johnson was nowhere to be seen. The only place on the plane he had not inspected was the bathroom in the presidential bedroom. What McHugh claimed to have witnessed next was shocking. "I walked in the toilet, in the powder room, and there he was hiding, with the curtain closed," McHugh recalled. He claimed that LBJ was crying, "They're going to get us all. It's a plot. It's a plot. It's going to get us all.'" According to the General, Johnson "was hysterical, sitting down on the john there alone in this thing." I soon discovered that McHugh had told a similar story when he spoke by phone with Mark Flanagan, an investigator with the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). Ironically, McHugh gave the interview to the HSCA a week before he sat down with the Kennedy Library in May 1978. "McHugh had encountered difficulty in locating Johnson but finally discovered him alone," Flanagan wrote in his summary to the Committee. Quoting McHugh, the investigator noted that the General found Johnson "hiding in the toilet in the bedroom compartment and muttering, 'Conspiracy, conspiracy, they're after all of us.'" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 Doesn't seem credible to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuskyCaucasian Posted October 30, 2009 Author Share Posted October 30, 2009 QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 30, 2009 -> 12:45 PM) Doesn't seem credible to me. it seems... odd. I dunno. Both men are dead, so no one will really know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigSqwert Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Oct 30, 2009 -> 12:46 PM) it seems... odd. I dunno. Both men are dead, so no one will really know. Scott Bakula says hi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 30, 2009 -> 12:48 PM) Scott Bakula says hi. that's a bit of a leap sir . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuskyCaucasian Posted October 30, 2009 Author Share Posted October 30, 2009 QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 30, 2009 -> 12:50 PM) that's a bit of a leap sir . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaSoxxJim Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 Scott Bakula killed JFK?!!??! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 Take it easy on Dr. Beckett. He did save Jackie O, ya know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyyle23 Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Oct 30, 2009 -> 12:56 PM) Scott Bakula killed JFK?!!??! Al told him to do it. His crazy calculator yelled at him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clyons Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 I think even if that story is true--and I believe I've read about similar comments by Governor Connelly in the limo to the effect that "they're going to get us all"--I don't think it really establishes anything. Its just a guy (albeit a powerful one) freaking out in the immediate aftermath of a situation that would freak out just about anyone. It doesn't necessarily reveal or disclose any special insight. Plus, if I recall, phone communications in DC were severely interrupted that afternoon, a fact that initially fueled wide-spread paranoia about a possible coup. That might have contributed to his use of the "C" word more than specific knowledge of any plot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_genius Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 LBJ was a known cry baby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 You think someone would've been like, hey, do you want to trade hats, this one doesn't have brains on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Oct 30, 2009 -> 11:36 AM) Via HuffPo- The reports about what LBJ knew, and when he knew it are pretty interesting. It really seemed like he was the last to know that JFK was dead. It seems odd, but no one thought to tell LBJ. Everyone was more worried about doing their jobs and helping the President (JFK). It might have taken that long for this to set in for him, when the Secret Service already had those thoughts hours ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeNukeEm Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 (edited) If not sure what the hell this proves? Or if its even meant to prove anything at all? LBJ flipped out in a very intense situation in the direct wake of horrible news. What if you were VP and a somewhat controversial president during the height of the most expensive ideological conflict in world history was just assassinated? Or worse yet, Darth Vader was right behind you in his TIE Interceptor: Edited November 2, 2009 by DukeNukeEm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts