Would Howard be interested in writing an article for the magazine supporting the Warren Commissions conclusions? Donahue agreed... but he told the editor he needed to do a little research first. "I just want to be sure they're right," he said.
While less inclined to believe the Warren Report, he nonetheless found most of the critics work to be worthless from a ballistics standpoint. Consequently, he decided to focus solely on the ballistics and forensic aspects of the assassination.
Donahue was stunned. In one afternoon, his confidence in the Warren Report was effectively destroyed.
Well, you know more about guns than I do," he said. "But that would certainly explain the strange antics of the government.
Howard here. You're not going to believe this, and God help me if I'm wrong, but I think we can do the story. I found the gun.
Of course, Donahue's understanding of the fatal shot in no way precluded the possibility that Oswald was involved in some kind of conspiracy.
As for Donahue, he never doubted that his conclusions were correct. "I started out on my investigation with no preconceptions," Donahue said. "If anything, I was trying to prove the Warren Commission right. And after I made my discovery, I tried very hard to prove it wrong. I wanted to be wrong. But I found nothing to indicate that I was."
I do not believe that George Hickey is to blame for what happened. He was a brave man trying to do his job.
We should have put the Kennedy assassination to rest a long time ago. Now I've given twenty-five years of my life to this. It's up to the American people to decide who is right and who is wrong. I've done what I can.
For the first time, we began to understand Donahue's reaction over the years as he tried to get a hearing and found himself dismissed on the basis of palpable nonfacts.