◆ SpookStack

According to Colonel Tarwater this was a conscious decision that had been made by General Taylor. In the course of re- search, however, the present writer found a verbatim transcript of four reels of tape of the first meeting. The significant differences between the verbatim record and the official record of the committee meetings, including the ability to identify most of the speakers--an uncertain process in the official records o~ the committee meetings--prompted an inquiry as to the existence of additional verbatim transcripts or tapes. Unfortunately, the response was negative. Although each meeting was tape recorded, at the conclusion of each session Col. Tarwater used the tapes to make notes highlighting the testimony of eacb of the witnesses at a given session. Once having made his notes, Tarwater said that he then erased the tapes, following this procedure throughout the course of the hearings. Deputy Director for Plans Richard Bissell characterized the record keepin.g as "just plain amateur." Once completed, a copy of the notes was made for each of the four members of the committee--with all copies to be returned §/ for Taylor's files. Ignoring the plan, however, Attorney General Robert Kennedy retained his copies of the memorandums of 17