
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 16, 1994                   TAG: 9404180146
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

LBJ DOUBTED SAME-BULLET THEORY IN JFK CASE

Even while the Warren Commission was preparing its report on the assassination of President Kennedy, there were disagreements over whether the same bullet had struck Kennedy and John Connally. Among the dissenters: President Johnson.

Besides, Johnson asked Warren Commission member Sen. Richard Russell, D-Ga., ``What difference does it make which bullet got Connally?''

Arguments over the same-bullet theory continue more than 30 years after the attack in which Kennedy was killed and Connally, the governor of Texas, was wounded. If separate bullets hit the men, some conspiracy theorists contend, there must have been a second gunman.

Johnson's conversation with Russell was included among tapes released Friday by the National Archives and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin, Texas.

The tapes reviewed in Austin disclosed that Connally called Johnson on March 2, 1967, to discuss claims that Cuba was involved in the assassination.

Johnson said he didn't believe the CIA-Cuba theory. In a Feb. 18, 1967, conversation with then-acting Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Johnson said the Cuban theory was as preposterous as if he were told that his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, ``was taking dope.''

Johnson's conversation with Russell, about the bullet that hit Connally, occurred on Sept. 18, 1964.

The senator noted that some members of the commission believed that ``the same bullet that hit Kennedy first is the one that hit Connally.''

Responding to Johnson's musing, Russell said, ``Well, it don't make much difference.'' He added: ``Well, I don't believe it ...''

``I don't either,'' Johnson responded.

by CNB