I think the two biggest red flags on it are that he claimed to one of his biographers to not recall where he was when he found out JFK had been killed. An odd thing for anybody to say who was not just alive at the time, but especially someone involved with government. As it turns out, he checked out of the Dallas Sheraton that morning, down the street.
Second, and even more interesting is that the initial telegraph that went to DC to confirm the President had expired, was sent to J Edgar Hoover (understandable) and some unknown CIA person named George Bush.
10 years later, he then became the first CIA Director with "no previous CIA experience". Doesn't mean he was involved, but those are interesting facts.
> he claimed to one of his biographers to not recall where he was when he found out JFK had been killed.
The theory I heard was that he had suspiciously given two contradictory answers, perhaps one saying he didn't remember, and one saying that he did remember (providing a location that wasn't Dallas). Given the passage of time, and the fact that he visited many locations as part of his political campaigning, it's perhaps reasonable for him to have eventually forgotten the name of the particular place he was when he heard the news.
Here is a discussion which tries to source the claim that he once stated he was in Tyler, Texas on the day of the assassination:
I’m sure it was a chaotic day for him too. Where were you when you heard? Heard what? That he was shot, that he died, or perhaps other updates he may have received during the day.
Are you asking specifically or generally? Maybe he knew he was in Dallas but didn’t remember the name of the hotel.
I was not yet born, but from my generation every single American can tell you where they were when the World Trade Centers fell. JFK assassination was maybe even more significant to Americans alive then.
And let's be honest, it strains credulity to not remember that you were checked into a hotel a block away from the President being assassinated.
It's famously a moment when Americans can tell you precisely where they were when they heard. That's probably a bit exaggerated, but not by much. When I've asked people who were of age at the time, they can indeed tell me where they were.
Most Americans sat in front of a TV/radio. Of which was likely the only one in the house. It could be a foggy memory for people in the thick of it.
My memory of 9/11 is a bit foggy as an example. I know I was working, at a hospital at the time. I remember that morning dragged on and I was moving all around the hospital. Poking my head in patients rooms to get a glimpse of the TV. I was in different locations doing different things when 1) overhear someone repeat a headline from the radio (plane crash into building in NYC, probably light aircraft) then a bit later 2) found a TV somewhere and sighed, wow that’s a lot of smoke/crazy accident ... then somewhere else I think in a patients room watching their TV when 3) oh no a second plane! it just hit the other tower!! this is no accident!!! Rest of day complete blur, no memory at all. I assume I went home after my shift, but I couldn't even tell you what my home was during 9/11/2021. I was in college and lived in a different apartment every year, I have no idea what apartment my 2001 apartment was. If I really dug through my memories, thought about timelines, I could probably tell you with confidence but if you randomly asked me where I lived I might mistakenly give you a wrong answer just to appease you or I might say I don't remember which people have a habit of calling politicians "suspicious" when they don't recall things, so that's not a good answer. I'd probably just guess and do damage control later if I guessed wrong and you went on a fact finding mission to prove me wrong.
I was 21 at the time and my memory would be crystal clear if I was at home watching it on my TV but I had a lot of chaos going on as a part of my job and so the events of the day are blurry. That's also a very easy memory to hold, sitting at home all day, when you're moving around talking to people things get mixed up and as time goes on you forget most of it because it was many tiny memories where as sitting at home was one large memory.
I was even younger but , my memories of OJ in the bronco and princess Diana were like this. I can tell you definitely I was sitting at home at the dining room table with my Dad glued to the TV eating junk food. It's simple and was the same activity for multiple hours. These events were blips of history compared to 9/11 but my memory of them is better because it was simple to remember.
For the challenger explosion, another large event, I was in K/1st grade (can never remember which) but I was watching it on tv in my class. It was a big deal because TV in the classroom and teacher on the shuttle, it was the future man! Oh and I grew up near NASA in Clear Lake so there was some hometown pride built in. But then it went bad. Nobody understood. Kids started crying. That's my memory. Except, is it really? That's what I think my memory was. I don't really remember if that happened TO ME. I've seen videos and heard stories of that happening. I may have conflated these into my own personal memory. I don't really know. I feel like 80% confident I actually experienced that. But I wouldn't be shocked if it was all a crossing of my neural wires. Sometimes my early childhood memories are like this. I remember some thing, or think I do, but maybe I'm just remembering a picture I saw of that thing. Or the images I conjured while hearing the story of the thing multiple times through my childhood. Memories are weird like that.
The fact he was checking out of a hotel is a minuscule detail for someone that is constantly checking out of hotels. He probably remembers more about the conversations he had that day with other politicians, CIA, etc. but he wouldn’t discuss that.
I think you're misunderstanding the point. He claimed to not know he was even in Dallas that day. The only reason it came out is because the records of him checking out of the Dallas Sheraton were later tracked down. So the hotel he was at isn't the important part. The claiming to not know what city he was in at all is the issue.
The example you gave of only remembering you were at work on 9/11 or in front of the TV when Challenger blew up proves the point. You remember exactly where you were. What you were doing isn't relevant. You knew where you were. And so did he, so why clam otherwise?
If he had been in Detroit or Philly or something and made the same claim, it's less suspicious, but still a real hard story to swallow. The fact he was blocks away and then received the same message wired to him that J Edgar Hoover received declaring the President had died, well, there is no explaining that away.
There are still many documents that are being withheld, and many more that have only been released with massive "redactions" which render them as good as being withheld.
