Weissman and Burley accepted Schmidt’s prompting and traveled to Dallas, arriving on November 4, 1963.[C6-462] Both obtained employment as carpet salesmen. At Schmidt’s solicitation they took steps to join the John Birch Society, and through Schmidt they met the fourth person involved in placing the November 22 advertisement, Joseph P. Grinnan, Dallas independent oil operator and a John Birch Society coordinator in the Dallas area.[C6-463]
Within a week to 10 days after Weissman and Burley had arrived in Dallas, the four men began to consider plans regarding President Kennedy’s planned visit to Dallas.[C6-464] Weissman explained the reason for which it was decided that the ad should be placed:
* * * after the Stevenson incident, it was felt that a demonstration would be entirely out of order, because we didn’t want anything to happen in the way of physical violence to President Kennedy when he came to Dallas. But we thought that the conservatives in Dallas—I was told—were a pretty downtrodden lot after that, because they were being oppressed by the local liberals, because of the Stevenson incident. We felt we had to do something to build up the morale of the conservative element, in Dallas. So we hit upon the idea of the ad.[C6-465]
Weissman, Schmidt, and Grinnan worked on the text for the advertisement.[C6-466] A pamphlet containing 50 questions critical of American policy was employed for this purpose, and was the source of the militant questions contained in the ad attacking President Kennedy’s administration.[C6-467] Grinnan undertook to raise the $1,465 needed to pay for the ad.[C6-468] He employed a typed draft of the advertisement to support his funds solicitation.[C6-469] Grinnan raised the needed money from three wealthy Dallas businessmen: Edgar R. Crissey, Nelson Bunker Hunt, and H. R. Bright, some of whom in turn collected contributions from others.[C6-470] At least one of the contributors would not make a contribution unless a question he suggested was inserted.[C6-471] Weissman, believing that Schmidt, Grinnan, and the contributors were active members of the John Birch Society, and that Grinnan eventually took charge of the project, expressed the opinion that the advertisement was the creation of the John Birch Society,[C6-472] though Schmidt and Grinnan have maintained that they were acting “solely as individuals.”[C6-473]
A fictitious sponsoring organization was invented out of whole cloth.[C6-474] The name chosen for the supposed organization was The American Fact-Finding Committee.[C6-475] This was “Solely a name,” Weissman testified; “* * * As a matter of fact, when I went to place the ad, I could not remember the name * * * I had to refer to a piece of paper for the name.”[C6-476] Weissman’s own name was used on the ad in part to counter charges of anti-Semitism which had been leveled against conservative groups in Dallas.[C6-477] Weissman conceived the idea of using a black border,[C6-478] and testified he intended it to serve the function of stimulating reader attention.[C6-479] Before accepting the advertisement, the Dallas Morning News apparently submitted it to its attorneys for their opinion as to whether its publication might subject them to liability.[C6-480]
Weissman testified that the advertisement drew 50 or 60 mailed responses.[C6-481] He took them from the post office box early on Sunday morning, November 24.[C6-482] He said that those postmarked before the attack on President Kennedy were “favorable” in tone;[C6-483] those of later postmark were violently unfavorable, nasty, and threatening;[C6-484] and, according to a report from Schmidt, those postmarked some weeks later were again of favorable tone.[C6-485]
The four promoters of the ad deny that they had any knowledge of or familiarity with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to November 22, or Jack Ruby prior to November 24.[C6-486] Each has provided a statement of his role in connection with the placement of the November 22 advertisement and other matters, and investigation has revealed no deception. The Commission has found no evidence that any of these persons was connected with Oswald or Ruby, or was linked to a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy.
The advertisement, however, did give rise to one allegation concerning Bernard Weissman which required additional investigation. On March 4, 1964, Mark Lane, a New York attorney, testified before the Commission that an undisclosed informant had told him that Weissman had met with Jack Ruby and Patrolman J. D. Tippit at Ruby’s Carousel Club on November 14, 1963. Lane declined to state the name of his informant but said that he would attempt to obtain his informant’s permission to reveal his name.[C6-487] On July 2, 1964, after repeated requests by the Commission that he disclose the name of his informant, Lane testified a second time concerning this matter, but declined to reveal the information, stating as his reason that he had promised the individual that his name would not be revealed without his permission.[C6-488] Lane also made this allegation during a radio appearance, whereupon Weissman twice demanded that Lane reveal the name of the informant.[C6-489] As of the date of this report Lane has failed to reveal the name of his informant and has offered no evidence to support his allegation. The Commission has investigated the allegation of a Weissman-Ruby-Tippit meeting and has found no evidence that such a meeting took place anywhere at any time. The investigation into this matter is discussed in a later section of this chapter dealing with possible conspiracies involving Jack Ruby.
A comparable incident was the appearance of the “Wanted for Treason” handbill on the streets of Dallas 1 to 2 days before President Kennedy’s arrival. These handbills bore a reproduction of a front and profile photograph of the President and set forth a series of inflammatory charges against him.[C6-490] Efforts to locate the author and the lithography printer of the handbill at first met with evasive responses[C6-491] and refusals to furnish information.[C6-492] Robert A. Surrey was eventually identified as the author of the handbill.[C6-493] Surrey, a 38-year-old printing salesman employed by Johnson Printing Co. of Dallas, Tex., has been closely associated with General Walker for several years in his political and business activities.[C6-494] He is president of American Eagle Publishing Co. of Dallas, in which he is a partner with General Walker.[C6-495] Its office and address is the post office box of Johnson Printing Co. Its assets consist of cash and various printed materials composed chiefly of General Walker’s political and promotional literature,[C6-496] all of which is stored at General Walker’s headquarters.[C6-497]
Surrey prepared the text for the handbill and apparently used Johnson Printing Co. facilities to set the type and print a proof.[C6-498] Surrey induced Klause, a salesman employed by Lettercraft Printing Co. of Dallas,[C6-499] whom Surrey had met when both were employed at Johnson Printing Co.,[C6-500] to print the handbill “on the side.”[C6-501] According to Klause, Surrey contacted him initially approximately 2 or 2½ weeks prior to November 22.[C6-502] About a week prior to November 22, Surrey delivered to Klause two slick paper magazine prints of photographs of a front view and profile of President Kennedy,[C6-503] together with the textual page proof.[C6-504] Klause was unable to make the photographic negative of the prints needed to prepare the photographic printing plate,[C6-505] so that he had this feature of the job done at a local shop.[C6-506] Klause then arranged the halftone front and profile representations of President Kennedy at the top of the textual material he had received from Surrey so as to simulate a “man wanted” police placard. He then made a photographic printing plate of the picture.[C6-507] During the night, he and his wife surreptitiously printed approximately 5,000 copies on Lettercraft Printing Co. offset printing equipment without the knowledge of his employers.[C6-508] The next day he arranged with Surrey a meeting place, and delivered the handbills.[C6-509] Klause’s charge for the printing of the handbills was, including expenses, $60.[C6-510]