Bill Hunter (journalist)
William Bradley "Bill" Hunter (c. 1929 - 23 April 1964[1]) was a crime reporter for the Long Beach, California Independent Press-Telegram. Hunter's 16-page special on the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby, "Three Days in Dallas", was awarded the 1964 "spot news reporting" award of the California Newspaper Publishers Association's "Better Newspaper Contest".[2] Hunter had previously been a court reporter in Wichita Falls, Texas, for five years.[3] On 22 March 1964 Hunter wrote a story for the Press-Telegram saying that Oswald had "assuredly" killed Kennedy.[1]
On 23 April 1964 Hunter was killed in a Long Beach police station by a police officer, Creighton Wiggins. Wiggins initially claimed that the shot was fired when he dropped his weapon; when the trajectory of the bullet showed this was impossible, he said he had been playing "quick draw" with a fellow officer, Errol Greenleaf, and had fired accidentally. Wiggins and Greenleaf, who said his back was turned at the time, were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and received three-year probation sentences.[1][4] Another Press-Telegram columnist said in 1991 that he had often experienced gun-play in his friendships with Long Beach policemen, declaring "It was childish and terribly dangerous fun, and finally fatal. The only surprise is that it hadn’t happened before."[1] Hunter's death nonetheless remains one of many considered suspicious by some researchers pursuing John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Tim Grobarty, Press-Telegram, 16 November 2013, What’s Hot: Long Beach reporter Bill Hunter was in the midst of the JFK conspiracy
- ↑ Independent Press-Telegram, 9 February 1964, TOP HONOR FOR '3 DAYS IN DALLAS'
- ↑ Independent Press-Telegram, 28 February 1964, Ace Reporter Hunter at Ruby's Trial
- ↑ Dave Reitzes, mcadams.posc.mu.edu, Dead in the Wake of the Kennedy Assassination: The Men Who Gathered in Ruby's Apartment