Chapter Fifty-One
SUNRISE ON THIS INAUSPICIOUS DAY - THE EVENT
The snow showers of the previous night had given way to a drizzly, damp, overcast morning in Dallas. Although the rays of the morning sun were not apparent, the fading of the darkness in the parking garage has awakened LJ and Rocky.
The past few hours had been spent trying to get some sleep; however, all they could accomplish were brief moments of fitful sleep with hardly any rest whatsoever. They had already decided once they left the parking garage they would find a cafe, grab a bite of breakfast then drive the few blocks over to Dealy Plaza. They reasoned barricades would be blocking all the intersections of the motorcade route beginning roughly around 10:00 a.m., so they wanted to be parked and in the vicinity of the TSBD long before that time.
Another player in this day’s events, Mrs. Marie Tippit, wife of Patrolmen J. D. Tippit felt, for some reason, she should arise early and send her husband off to his job at the Dallas Police department with a hardy morning breakfast. This was unusual, normally Tippit had left the house before Marie awoke, but for some unknown reason, she sensed this day was going to be different. Maybe it was because her husband had awakened her when he got home the night before and told her and the children that he loved them. She thought that was strange. After breakfast, she kissed him goodbye, and J.D. left the house headed to police headquarters for his morning shift. Marie followed him out onto the porch watching as he walked down the sidewalk to his car. An impending feeling of doom crept over her. J.D. must have felt that foreboding feeling too - he opened his driver’s door and hesitating he looked back over the car’s roof at his wife and mouthed the words, “I love you.” She was seeing him alive for the last time.
On a morning to be remembered forever, the participants were going about their business as usual. Usual may not be quite accurate for later many would remark, for some unknown reason, the day “felt” different. When questioned to pinpoint the exact nature of this impression, none could precisely explain what the “perception” was. They only could say something was not right - the day just did not feel “normal.”
It had been snowing north of town most of the night and raining, off and on, elsewhere in Dallas. In Fort Worth, it had rained all night, and into the early morning of this fateful day the rain had changed to a drizzle, which had stopped. Now the brightness of the sun was slowly beginning to emerge off the distant eastern horizon. The rays were beginning to break through the overcast, and the early morning dampness was giving way to a bright and clear day. It appeared after all, the President would be able to ride down the streets of Dallas without the “bubble top” on his limousine and give the Texans the opportunity to show their love and respect for their President, John F. Kennedy.
On Houston Street, just a rocks throw from the Texas School Book Depository, the morning shift police officers were attending the first roll call of the day at Police Headquarters. Some fifteen or so officers were told to report to the Dallas Trade Mart and secure the entire area. Sergeant Mike Hasty instructed the group of specially selected officers to be vigilant; the President of the United States will deliver a speech there at 12:45 p.m. and Sergeant Hasty did not want any trouble on his watch.
Lee Harvey Oswald did not return to his boarding house on the eve of the 21st of November, as was his usual routine. Normally Oswald stayed at the rooming house during the week and went to be with his family on the weekends. Bud and Lou had stayed up with Mrs. Rodgers watching television until she went to bed around 10:00 p.m. They both had studied the Kennedy assassination and knew Oswald would not return to the boarding house Thursday night. They were not concerned with Oswald on Thursday night, their purpose was to search Oswald’s room and see if they could determine if he possessed a .38 caliber revolver if so, it should have been hidden somewhere in his room. After getting off work the day before the assassination, they knew Oswald had asked a fellow worker if he would mind giving him a ride to the Oak Cliff area, a suburb of Dallas. His wife Marina and his daughters lived there in a house owned by the Oswald’s friend Ruth Paine.
The following morning, Friday the 22nd, Oswald leaves Oak Cliff and rides into work with a neighbor, Brian Cleland, who would later testify to the Warren Commission Oswald got into his car with a long brown bag. Mr. Cleland said Oswald said the bag contained curtain rods for his room. Later, employees of the Book Depository will testify when he arrived they did not see Oswald bring a bag into the building.
After roll call at Police Headquarters, the patrolmen leave to begin their shift. Patrolmen J. D. Tippit is one of those officers. He is in patrol car Number Twenty-Five.
Lou and Bud said goodbye to Mrs. Rodgers and left the boarding house. They had intended to leave earlier; however, Mrs. Rodgers insisted they join her for breakfast. She was such a lovely lady, how could they refuse. After their last cup of coffee, they left the house a few minutes after eight. Their intent was to get to Dealy Plaza, just a mere 2.6 miles away, and obtain an advantageous spot on the corner of Elm Street and Houston Street to observe Oswald when he leaves the Texas School Book Depository.
As Bud and Lou drove to the vicinity of Dealy Plaza, Lonnie Joe had left a large tip on one of the tables of the Silver Spur Cafe. He had been flirting with a cute, blonde waitress. He and Rocky had just finished breakfast and were preparing to make their way to rendezvous with Lou and Bud at Dealy Plaza. At the door, Lonnie Joe turned and looked back at the waitress. She smiled, turned her head slightly and winked. Darn, I would have to be from the year 2012. That is forty-nine years in the future – she’d have to be nearly seventy now. Oh, well, Lonnie Joe thought as he pushed the glass door open and stepped out into the cool, damp Dallas morning. Time-travel sure has some definite drawbacks, he thought.
It was a few minutes after eight a.m. The morning sun was just beginning to peep around a corner of one of the skyscrapers in downtown Fort Worth as President Kennedy walked out onto the sidewalk in front of the Texas Hotel. His destination was a large group of well-wishers gathered in a parking lot across the street - little does he realize this was to be the last sunrise he will ever witness. Later he will return to the Texas Hotel and give a breakfast speech to the Ft. Worth Chamber of Commerce. On the elevator to the Sam Houston banquet room, a Secret Service agent overhears the President say, under his breath, “I wish this were the last one of these things I ever had to attend.” ‘Be careful what you wish for, you might get it,’ isn’t that the saying?
At about the same time the President was walking across the brick paved Main Street to the awaiting throng of well wishers, Richard Nixon on the other side of town boards United Airline flight 221 heading back to Washington, D.C.
It was almost eight-thirty as Bud and Lou drive the couple of miles back into downtown Dallas to the Steven Austin Hotel. They pull into the parking lot of this twelve-story hotel, find a spot close to Houston Street and sit back and wait for the arrival of Lonnie Joe and Rocky.
BELL & HOWELL
Fifteen minutes later Captain Scarburg, Olive Marie and Forrest arrive at Peacock Jewelry 879 Elm Street. The old warehouse built in 1908 had been converted into a luxurious, modern jewelry and quality merchandise shop. Entering the jewelry store a young salesman seeks them out. The Captain explains he is there to purchase a home movie camera. The salesman escort the three over to the electronics counter, which was filled with a number of home movie and single reflex cameras of every description and price range.
“What did you have in mind, Sir?” The clerk asked.
“Do you know Mr. Zapruder, the man who owns the clothing factory on the end of the block on Houston Street?”
“Oh, yes sir. He is one of our favorite customers.”
“I know he purchased a movie camera from you last week. If possible I would like to see one just like it,” the Captain said.
“Just a second sir and I will check our records... No, no... that will not be necessary”, said the clerk. “I remember it was a Bell & Howe
ll, eight-millimeter, Director Series, Zoomatic with a leather carrying case. Funny thing... when he came into the store he wanted one of those cheap instant-photo type camera to film the Presidential parade.”
“What happened?”
“We only keep one or two of those low-end type cameras in stock. I explained we mostly carry the high quality, top of the line cameras, and if he had arrived a couple of minutes earlier the store would have had one in stock. He was told we had sold the last instant camera just a few minutes before he walked in. I suggested he purchase a movie camera. I told him it was like first impressions; he would only get one opportunity to get a good picture of President John F. Kennedy, and suggested it was the perfect time to buy - the Bell & Howell was on sale.”
“And he obviously took you up on your suggestion?”
“Oh yes...” replied the clerk reaching into the display counter and removing the exact model Bell & Howell Mr. Zapruder had purchased a few days earlier. “Here it is – still on sale... just $89.99 plus $9.99 extra for the leather carrying case. You have a good eye sir; as I told Mr. Zapruder this is the top of the line home movie camera. I think you will be very pleased with it, and the total price is only $99.98. Shall I wrap it?”
“Doesn’t it include a roll of film?”
“Yes sir, it does. It comes with a roll of Kodak Kodachrome II film.”
“Perfect... perfect, the exact film Mr. Zapruder used? Then I will take two... no need to wrap them... we are going to film the presidential parade later on this morning also,” the Captain said handing the clerk two one hundred dollar bills (one hundred dollar bills issued in 1963) plus an extra twenty for a tip.
Walking from the jewelry store, the Captain smiled to himself. He couldn’t help but think how different history’s future portrayal of the JFK Assassination would be if Mr. Abraham Zapruder had arrived just five minutes earlier, and walked out with an instant snapshot camera instead of the top of the line movie camera.
Forty-five minutes after arriving Bud and Lou were joined in the Stephen Austin Hotel parking lot by Lonnie Joe and Rocky. The Stephen Austin is located one block south of Dealy Plaza on the east side of Houston Street. Lonnie Joe and Rocky parked alongside Bud and Lou. Lonnie Joe rolls down his driver window and inquires to their time of departure. Bud replies they would walk up to the Texas School Book Depository building around 11:30.
At other places in Dallas preparations are going smoothly for the forthcoming motorcade. All vehicular traffic to the area around Dealy Plaza is being blocked at all intersections by the Dallas police department just as Lonnie Joe and Rocky predicted.
The Secret Service is monitoring all activity; however, the Secret Service headquarters in Washington, D. C. just issued an urgent message stating there may be an attempt on the President’s life. The Secret Service in Dallas did not receive the warning message. However, the Washington office will later state they received a confirmation reply from Dallas confirming receipt of the warning. Who sent the Dallas reply, to this day no one knows. The original warning was sent at 10:35 a.m. and the confirmation reply was received at 10:38 a.m. in Washington. Strange!
A few minutes before eleven o’clock, the presidential party walked out of the Texas Hotel, entered the waiting cars and began the motorcade to the enormous Carswell Air Force base. From Carswell to Love Field in Dallas was a flight of less than fifteen minutes.
Less than thirty minutes from leaving the Texas Hotel, the President’s plane taxied toward its rendezvous with destiny. Lou, Bud, Lonnie Joe and Rocky were within easy walking distance to the Texas School Book Depository.
As the President prepared to leave Fort Worth, the phone in Lou’s car rings. What do LJ and Rocky want now, he thought; however, he was in for a shock – it was not LJ or Rocky it was Captain Scarburg. “Where are you Captain...? We have been worried to death… You have Forrest and Olive Marie with you, right...? What...? You are where...? We thought you would be back to Celina by now... Okay... I see... please be careful.” Hanging up the phone, he turned and remarked to Bud, “You are not going to believe this... Captain Scarburg, Forrest and Olive Marie, are parked on the north side of the Dal-Tex Building on the corner of North Houston and Ross Avenue. They are just one block northeast of the Texas School Book building! They are just a couple of blocks from us right now.”
“What! What in the heck are they doing there? We thought they were on their way back to Celina.”
“Nope, the Captain said, ‘how many times do they get a chance to witness such a historic event.’ He wanted Forrest and Olive Marie to be present at Dealey Plaza at 12:30. It was to momentous an event for them to miss.”
The time was approaching 11:20 a.m. – Air Force One was sitting on the end of the runway, all four giant turbo-fan engines, strained awaited the pilot’s release of the brakes. It was ready to take off from Carswell Air Force Base on its way east to Love Field in Dallas.
The city of White Settlement was nestled on the west side of the gigantic Air Force base, home of Strategic Air Commands 9th Bombardment Wing and their giant B-52s - B-52s nicknamed the ‘Stratofortress.’ High on a slight ridge overlooking the Air Force base sits the White Settlement Middle School. From the schools large expanse of east facing windows, the students can look down the shallow valley onto the gigantic 12,000-foot runway. The school’s perch high above the black tarmac offers a perfect view of all the aircraft landings or takings off from Carswell. At that moment, Air Force One’s captain Colonel James Swindle released the brakes and the giant Boeing began to move, Mr. Waymon Washam asked his class of band students if they wanted to come over to the window and watch the president’s airplane take off. Of course, every student in the band room immediately slammed their musical instruments down and hurried to the window just as the Boeing 707 rolled down the tarmac and lifted into the air. How little did this small group of students comprehend they were eyewitnesses to history? It wasn’t a spectacular event, just a large airplane taking off, an occurrence the children had seen many times before, but those twelve year old, sixth grade students would be telling and retelling the story of watching this particular plane’s takeoff for the rest of their lives.
At exactly eleven-thirty, Lonnie Joe and Rocky leave the parking lot and walk to the adjacent Houston Street. They turn right and walk through the assembling crowd and continue on toward the Texas School Book Depository. Once they arrive, they mingle with bystanders on the sidewalk in front of the building.
At Love Field in Dallas, the Presidential plane arrived from Ft. Worth. On the ground, to greet President and Mrs. Kennedy were Vice President and Mrs. Johnson.
Bud and Lou followed Lonnie Joe and Rocky from the parking lot of the Stephen Austin hotel and walked nonchalantly into Dealy Plaza. Bud and Lou were amazed… this scene was real, whereas before they had only seen it in pictures. Lou gawked at the open windows in the Texas School Book Depository trying to see if there were anyone in the sixth floor snipers window, inadvertently he ran into a woman standing on the sidewalk. “Sorry,” says Lou and continues walking. He will later say he did see anyone at the window, but there appeared to be a shadowy figure in one of the other windows, in particular the window at the very end closest to the Grassy Knoll.
Captain Scarburg, Forrest and Olive Marie, walked from the parking lot on the north side of the Dal-Tex building where they had been sitting waiting for the past couple of hours. They walk directly in front of the TSBD on their way to an area of the concrete pedestal where Abraham Zapruder will film the assassination. Walking past the Book Depository, the Captain could not restrain himself from the urge to look up! Yes, there in the end window on the 6th floor he saw a figure. Was that Oswald? This man had on a sports coat – he knew from all the history books and from photos of the arrest Lee Harvey Oswald did not wear a sports jacket. Who was this man? Down the street they found a seat on a concrete bench in front of the pagoda, just left of the grassy knoll. Captain Scarburg is well aware from his previous visit that a
shot comes from that area. He did not want Olive Marie to be in the direct line of fire of the assassin in the wooden area; however, at this location they should still be within twenty feet of the limousine as the first shot is fired. As they sat on the bench, the Captain loaded the Kodachrome eight-millimeter film into both Bell & Howell cameras. Snapping the film doors shut, he handed one camera to Forrest, “When we see the motorcade approaching Elm from Houston, I want you to step over beside that concrete pedestal”, Grandpa Scarburg said pointing to the large concrete platform, “and film the motorcade as it turns and proceeds down Elm. You will be standing directly at the feet of Abraham Zapruder. He will be standing on the pedestal filming also. Forrest, make sure to lock the filming switch, I want to make sure there is no interruption in the short section of the Presidential parade from Houston to the triple-overpasses. The Zapruder film only lasted 26.6 seconds. Another thing Forrest, I must emphasis as the President’s car gets immediately to your front the fatal shot will be fired, please do not look up from the camera, keep filming, it is extremely important.”
“Grandpa, what do you want me to do?” Questioned Olive Marie.
“Don’t worry Hon, I have a noteworthy job for you. A job, which will make you remembered forever. When Forrest moves to the pedestal to begin filming I want you to take this other camera, walk directly across Elm and position yourself on the curb so you can see the President as his car comes by. Take this red scarf and tie it around your head. We want to get the fatal shot to President Kennedy from the opposite side of the street from Mr. Zapruder. You will be photographed in many photos, but we do not want you to be later identified. As you know we do not exist in 1963 Dallas!!”
It is now fifteen minutes before twelve o’clock; President Kennedy and Jackie walk down the fence at Love Field shaking hands with well wishes before beginning their parade into downtown Dallas in route to the luncheon date at the Dallas Trade Mart. In ten minutes, they will leave Love Field and begin the motorcade.
Creeping along at a mere ten to twelve miles per hour the police report the crowds were large but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
At a quarter after twelve, Mrs. Beverly Maxwell, secretary to the president of the Book Depository, later testified she saw Lee Harvey Oswald eating lunch in the second floor cafeteria. Later she recants, and states she only caught a glimpse of him in the hallway. John Powell, along with approximately four other inmates on the sixth floor of the Dallas City Jail saw two men on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository fiddling with the telescope of a rifle. He assumed they were Secret Service. Mrs. Carolyn Waters stated she also saw two men with rifles, but she thought they were guards. One of the men, she said, wore a brown sports jacket. Ruby Hendrix saw two men also, one had dark hair and the second had a much darker skin color than the other. Asked if she though he was black she answered no, he looked more like a Mexican, (or possibly Cuban?). Arnold Rowdy and his wife also saw a man with a rifle in the window of the sixth floor; however, this man was not at the now famous ‘sniper’s window’ but farther down at the western most corner window of the building. They thought he must have been a Secret Service agent.
If Mrs. Beverly Maxwell were correct in seeing Lee Harvey Oswald in the lunchroom at 12:15, then none of the men with rifles could have been Oswald. If Oswald fired from the right-hand 6th floor window, obviously, the man Mr. Rowdy and his wife saw in the opposite end of the building could not have been Oswald either.
Eight minutes before the first assassins shot, Ray Williamson, an employee of TSBD left the sixth floor, after eating his lunch. He stated the sixth floor was vacant when he left to go downstairs. The Warren Commission determined Oswald was in his ‘sniper’s nest’ from 11:55 until 12:30. If Mr. Williamson were correct, Oswald had only eight minutes (from 12:22 to 12:30) to move twenty plus boxes, each weighing approximately fifty pounds. Some were stacked three high, to form his ‘sniper’s nest’. Additionally he had to assemble his Carcano rifle, with no tools. The Warren Commission stated it would take six minutes to assemble the Italian Carcano task using a dime as a screwdriver. The moving of boxes to construct the ‘sniper’s nest’ later revealed only one partial palm print from Lee Harvey Oswald. The Warren Commission will not call Ray Williamson to testify. No gloves were found at or near the ‘sniper’s nest’, and none were ever found neither on Oswald’s person nor in his boarding house room.
Six minutes until the assassination Beverly Maxwell, whom earlier thought she saw Oswald in the lunchroom, saw him standing by the front door of the TSBD.
Five minutes to go. One of the Dallas Police policemen in the follow-up vehicle at the back of motorcade reports to Police Dispatch, “All is okay”.
The Presidential motorcade, traveling west, made a right turn from Main Street heading north on Houston Street. The seven storied, red brick, Texas School Book Depository is in an unobstructed, clear view to the motorcade’s immediate left front. If an assassin wanted a perfect shot from the School Book building now would be the time – a head-on shot, to a sniper, would appear as if the President limousine had stopped.
Two minutes until the first shot was fired. One of the police radios relayed the information back to Headquarters, “Large crowd.”
One minute before the black limousine reached the kill zone, all Dallas police radios go dead for four minutes. Later research will theorize someone had a microphone stuck open, which caused the blackout; however, the guilty ‘policeman’ was never identified. Recent analyses indicate the cause of the trouble possibly came from the Trade Mart area. On the day of the event, channel one was used for normal Dallas Police communication, channel two was reserved for communication with the Presidential motorcade. It was channel two that was affected. Was that a stuck switch on a police radio or did some unknown person or persons intentionally block the police radio band frequency, or jam, as the black ops people like to call it.
Vice President Lyndon Johnson languished in the Cadillac convertible two cars behind President Kennedy, along with his wife Lady Bird Johnson and Senator Ralph Yarborough. Johnson paid little attention to the screaming, jubilant crowd along the parade route. He acted as though his thoughts were elsewhere. Little did he realize in less than sixty seconds he would become the 36th President of the United States? Or was he actually envisioning the certainty of the moment, and the thought of how his life was to about to change weighed heavily on his mind?
All electrical power and telephone service to the Texas School Book Depository suddenly went dead. The Dallas Police, the FBI, the Secret Service nor later the Warren Commission would question this outage. Roy Trudy, the building manager was never asked the reason for this interruption of services. Mysteriously, the power and phone service was restored a few minutes after the assassination.
Nellie Connally, Gov. Connally’s wife turning to the President states, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.” Little did she conceive she would be the last person ever to speak to John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States?
Thirty seconds to go - the motorcade turned left from Houston Street onto Elm. Immediate to the right of the President’s limousine, on the corner of Houston and Elm, was the Texas School Book Depository. Bud stood on the steps of the School Book building and glanced at his watch to verify the exact time: 12:29 p.m.
Abraham Zapruder and his secretary Marilyn Sitzman, climb up on the concrete abutment on the western end of the pagoda, and began to film the motorcade with his Bell & Howell camera. He was filming the President as the limousine moved along Elm Street headed toward the triple overpass. His vantage point was almost in front of the grassy knoll and slightly to the left. Miss Sitzman stood behind Mr. Zapruder watched the Presidential motorcade proceed along Elm Street, and at the same time maintained a firm hold on Mr. Zapruder’s coat to keep him from losing his balance as he filmed his soon-to-be famous 484 frames of history.
The motorcade’s lead car was almost beneath the overpass, D
allas Police Chief Curry, driving the unmarked, white, 1962, Ford lead car, radioed he had just reached the Stemmons freeway overpass, “Five more minutes and we’ll have him there.” One of the deputies called on the two-way to the Trade Mart, issuing the five-minute warning for the arrival of the President.
A few seconds later, the Dallas police dispatcher announced the time: “12:30 p.m.”
A man standing to the left of the Stemmons Freeway exit sign, which is positioned on the north side of Elm Street, opened a black umbrella, held it above his head, and opened and shut it as the limousine passed his location. He was wearing a tan overcoat with dark sunglasses covering his massive black almond shaped eyes. Around his neck was a brilliant silver medallion. Was it possible the distraction of the umbrella caught the eye of the President and he turned his head toward the man?
The time was 12:30:18, November 22, 1963.
12:30:20 P.M. - THE EVENT!!
JFK brought his hands up and clutched his neck. This was at approximately frame 200 on the Zapruder film.
James Teague was standing near the triple overpass in Dealey Plaza, on the west side of Commerce. He was approximately 430 feet from the TSBD or 260 feet from President Kennedy. Researchers since have drawn diagrams, which plotted the impact of a bullet striking the curb, on a straight line back through President Kennedy to a window on the fifth floor on the western end of the TSBD building. If a straight line were drawn from the eastern end sixth floor of the TSBD to Kennedy’s limo, it would miss the spot where the bullet struck the curb by almost twenty feet!
Motorcycle policeman Marlon Baker glanced up, saw pigeons fluttering from the TSBD roof. His thoughts are the shots have come from either the TSBD or the Dal-Tex building across the street on Houston. He jumped from his black and white Harley; gun in hand, madly rushing towards the TSBD building.
Will Lowry, stood on the entrance steps to the TSBD, thinking the gunshots have come from “over there on the other side of that concrete little deal on that grassy knoll.” He will later talk to the FBI and say he did not “ever believe the shots had come from the direction of the Texas School Book Depository.”
Margaret Brown was standing to the left front of the knoll toward the Texas School Book Depository. Her statement to the FBI indicated she did not think the shots came from the Book Depository, but she said she thought the sound of the rifle shot came from behind and to her right. That would be the area of the grassy knoll.
John Robert Warren, Jr. believed he saw about twelve inches of a rifle sticking out from a Book Depository window, and is adamant he heard a total of four shots fired.
Alice Landry was standing to the left front of the Grassy Knoll and next to Margaret Brown. Ms. Landry agreed with Ms. Brown and thought the shots came from behind and to her right.
Billy Newsome and his wife Nancy found a spot to see the President that put them between the President and the Grassy Knoll. Both say they heard shots being fired from behind them on the Grassy Knoll.
Mr. and Mrs. Courtney McCay and their four-year-old son Bobby were standing in front of the Grassy Knoll near the Stemmons Freeway sign. Mr. McCay and his wife turn around. They wanted to see where the shots were coming from, believing the sound of the shots came from somewhere on the grassy knoll.
In her open convertible, three vehicles behind the President, Mrs. Earle Cabell detected a slight hint of the unmistakable odor of gunpowder in the air. Congressmen Ray Roberts, in the same convertible as Mrs. Cabell later stated he smelled gunpowder also. Senator Ralph Yarborough, riding in the Vice President’s limo, two cars behind the President, also smelled gunpowder. He will later say, “I have used firearms for fifty years and am very familiar with guns while our vehicle was sitting still in the street I smelled gunpowder. I have always thought it was strange to smell gunpowder at street level from a rifle fired from the 6th floor of a building.”
FBI Special Agent William A. McKinley later states to the Warren Commission, “The Presidential vehicle was on Elm Street almost to the overpass when the first shot was fired, followed in quick succession by two additional shots. I would estimate the three shots were all fired within four to six seconds. I heard the second shot, and immediately looked toward the President’s car. I saw him the instant his head exploded when it was struck by the third shot.”
Secret Service Agent Clint Hill was riding in the follow-up car directly behind the President’s limousine said, “I heard a noise from my right rear, I jumped from the follow-up car and ran toward the Presidential automobile. I jumped onto the Presidential automobile.” Questioned by the Warren Commission: “Where you wounded or hit by a bullet at this time.” Answer: “No, I was not wounded or hit by anything.”
In the next few moments, with everyone scampering to and fro, many even lying down on the grass, the man now identified as the “Umbrella Man” unconcerned walked over and sat down on the park bench next to an older man. The silver medallion hanging around his neck was quite obvious. As the “Umbrella Man” sat down a young man with a Bell & Howell movie camera moves from the concrete pedestal and rejoins the group on the bench. A young woman also clutching a Bell & Howell movie camera was already sitting with an older man on the concrete bench. All four were sitting in front of the memorial pagoda next to Elm Street. Margaret Brown and Alice Landry stood just a few steps to their front and a bit to their right.
The older gentleman wore an old, brown, sweat stained, tattered cowboy hat. Several photographs taken at the time show the man with the cowboy hat talking into a two-way radio. Jim Towler snapped a photograph showing the man on the park bench with a portable radio - or something that looked like a small radio device. It could be seen while his hands hold the object close to his face. A few moments later, all four persons got up, and casually walked away - the man with the cowboy hat, along with his two companions, headed back toward the Texas School Book Depository, the “Umbrella Man”, with his beautiful silver medallion, was not seen again, he disappeared into the crowd and was not captured on any film afterwards. The FBI never interviewed him, nor did he ever come forward to offer his testimony on the events of the day. To this day he has not been identified in any of the official reports.
The three people sitting on the bench were, of course, Captain Scarburg, Forrest and Olive Marie. The ‘Umbrella Man’ was none other than Anhur. The Captain calls LJ telling him the President has not been wounded! He said to Lonnie Joe: “LJ I was not more than fifteen feet from the President’s car. The entire side and rear of the president’s head just exploded, I actually saw brain matter protruding from the wound!! LJ, there is no way for the President to survive this. I thought in this Parallel Universe the president was going to survive, but some other event must have put Earth on this course; it certainly was not the shooting of the president!! You all have to watch Oswald and see what he does. In this 1963 Universe, we are currently in, events might, and probably has, occurred differently from the events we know to be true in our history back in 2012... be careful, be real careful, something is wrong! When I came the first time President Kennedy survived his assassination attempt and my job was to insure he did not survive – this time he is being killed!”
James W. Altgens, a photographer taking pictures, across the street from the ‘Umbrella Man’, on the south side of Elm will later recall, “I could see pieces of his head fly off and land right at my feet. The sound was like an explosion when the bullet hit his head. His skull just exploded with bone and flesh flying everywhere...”
Another witness Alan Smith, “I would say the President’s limousine was ten to fifteen feet from me when a bullet hit the President. I would say in the forehead, the car went another five feet and stopped dead still.”
James Brown was also standing on the south side of Elm Street and behind and to the left of the limousine during the fatal headshot. Brown witnessed a piece of JFK’s skull flying backward and to the left of the car. In an interview with some newsmen later that day he said, “The shots seem to come f
rom in front or beside the President.”
LEE HARVEY OSWALD AFTER SHOOTING
Dashing into the School Book Depository Building, within ninety seconds of the last shot, Officer Marlon Baker and building manager Roy Trudy began a sweep of the building. Mr. Trudy identified Oswald as an employee of the TSBD. He is on the second floor at the lunchroom. Oswald leaves the lunchroom walks to the second floor stairway and goes down to the first floor of the building. He was getting ready to leave the TSBD through the main entrance, all before the police have time to seal off the building.
Officer Baker and Mr. Trudy go from the second floor lunchroom to the fifth floor. The electricity and telephone service had been restored. The elevator comes down from the fifth floor to the first. Officer Baker took a staircase up to the roof from the seventh floor. He checked the roof including the Hertz advertising sign. He found no one on the roof. Close to the west wall he picked up a spent 30-06 shell casing. He noticed after examining the shell that it had been recently fired.
Dallas Police Officer Joe Marshall Smith pulled his pistol from its holster and checks out the parking lot directly on the north side of the fence behind the grassy knoll. Prior to the first shot Officer Smith was on foot patrol duty stationed on the corner of Houston Street and Elm. His duty was to stop all vehicles heading west toward the triple overpass. After the shots had been fired, he noticed people lying on the ground and running up what has become known as the Grassy Knoll. One woman says she heard gunfire coming from the bushes. Officer Smith began a thorough search of the bushes but saw no one. He caught a strong odor of gunpowder and stopped a man who seemed to be hurrying away from the area of the stockade fence. He testified to the Warren Commission that he checked the inside of the cars in the parking lot behind the Texas School Book Depository. Most were locked he said, but he did not check the trunks. Officer Smith questioned one man in the vicinity of the wooden fence who stated he was Secret Service. The man goes so far as to produce credentials, which resembled the ones the Secret Service carry. Office Smith allowed him to continue, it was only later discovered there were no Secret Service on the ground around Dealy Plaza. All Secret Service men were riding in the motorcade, and they all traveled with the wounded President to Parkland Hospital.
Sergeant D. V. Hardley was assigned as supervisor over the patrol officers between Main Street and Field Street along the parade route to Main and Houston Street. His testimony stated the motorcade had turned the corner at Elm and Houston, and he began walking west on Main toward the triple overpass when he heard the first shot. He immediately returned to his motorcycle and drove around the east side of the TSBD where he ran into some men who said they were Secret Service agents.
“Did they identify themselves?”
“You mean with badges? No, they just said they were agents, but I had no reason to doubt their identity and continued my search.” Believing the shots came from the roof of the School Book building Sergeant Hardley positioned himself to guard anyone coming down the fire escape. No one did. After a few minutes, he returned to the front of the building to guard the main entrance door.
It is known at least twenty-nine Secret Service agents were in Dallas this horrific day; however, it is also known not a single one of them was ever near the area identified as the ‘Grassy Knoll’ or in the parking area behind the Texas School Book Depository. The Secret Service stated unequivocally: there were no agents on foot in the vicinity of Dealy Plaza before or immediately after the shooting.
Three minutes after the shooting Oswald left the lunchroom on the second floor and headed for the main entrance. Oswald will later testify he ran into two Secret Service agents in front of the Book Depository. The agents ask the location of the nearest telephone. The men Oswald meet leaving the Texas School Book Depository are not Secret Service agents! In fact, the Secret Service will say they had no men on the ground, in or around Dealy Plaza prior to or after the assassination.
Oswald will never be asked which exit he used or whether he had seen another policeman stationed at the door, and if so, did the officers try to stop him from leaving or did they attempt to check his identification to determine whom he was?
Lonnie Joe and Rocky pretended to use the phone then made their way to the hallway outside the lunchroom where Rocky leaned against the wall next to Mr. Roy Trudy’s office. Lou and Bud mingled with the parade crowd outside on the steps leading into the building.
Deputy Sheriff Roger D. Craig was standing outside the Sheriff’s Office at the corner of Houston and Main waiting to the see the parade. He had not been assigned any official Presidential motorcade responsibilities; he just wanted to see the President. A few seconds after the motorcade turned from Houston onto Elm he heard a shot ring out. Being an army veteran he immediately recognized it as a shot from a high-powered rifle. Springing into action as a Deputy Sheriff instead of a private citizen watching a parade he bolted across Houston and swiftly crossed the grass of Dealy Plaza and arrived at the Grassy Knoll. He encountered a man, the man’s wife and their son. They were the Rowlands. Deputy Craig asked Mr. and Mrs. Rowland to tell him what they had witnessed. Mrs. Barbara Rowland, looked down at her son Arnold, she asked him to tell the Deputy what he had just seen. Arnold said he had observed two men, one with a rifle with a telescope on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository building. On further questioning, Officer Craig determined the window where the boy saw the two men. The window was on the SOUTHWEST corner of the TSBD building. Oswald supposedly fired from the SOUTHEAST corner window, on the far end of that building. Arnold Rowland further explained he saw the two men at least fifteen minutes before the motorcade arrived on Elm Street. A couple of minutes before the President arrived he glanced back up to the window, and only one man was seen, the other was gone! Officer Craig turned the trio over to Deputy Sheriff Lemmy Lewis the Criminal Investigator for the Sheriff’s department.
Deputy Craig testified at the time he released the witnesses to Deputy Lewis about ten minutes had gone by since the sound of the first gunshot. It was at this time he noticed Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walthers searching the curb on the south side of Main Street. Officer Craig crossed Elm and inquired as to the purpose of the search. Officer Walthers said it had been reported to him someone had found a spot on the curb where a bullet appeared to have ricocheted. Craig began to assist Walthers in the search. As they were walking the curb looking for evidence, Deputy Craig heard a shrill whistle coming from the western end of the TSBD building. Looking over in that direction, he saw a man running around the corner of the building toward a Nash station wagon with a luggage rack on the rear of the top. The Nash was traveling west on Elm at a slow rate of speed. The driver was leaning over to his right as if he were searching for someone. The running man jumped into the station wagon, and it sped off in the direction of the triple overpass. He thought the make and color of the station wagon was a light tan or white Nash Rambler. When questioned as to the running mans description Deputy Craig testified, “Oh, he was a white male of middle age or older, at least six feet or taller, something like that; about 180 to 200 pounds; he had medium brown hair; you know like it had not been combed - you know like he had been in the wind or something - it was all wild looking; had on... a tan overcoat...,” he said the driver had short black hair, but couldn’t remember any more about him.
“Had you ever seen either of these two men before?”
“No, but I didn’t get a decent look at the driver.”
“Did you have an opportunity to see either later?”
“Yes, around 5:30 I went to Captain Fritz at the Sheriff’s office and told him what I had seen. He carried me into a small office with Oswald sitting in a chair beside the desk.”
“Do you recognize this man?”
“Yes,” said Deputy Craig, “this is the man I saw running around the building and jumping into the station wagon.” He was never questioned as to the discrepancy between seeing the six feet tall “Oswald” running from the building to t
he real Oswald’s 5’9” size.
Deputy Sheriff Craig testified to the Warren Commission, “about ten minutes” had passed from the first shot to his interview with the Rowland family. Mr. Belin, the Commission attorney asked, “This would put the time at 12:40 p.m. when you walked across Elm Street to examine the bullet’s ricochet mark on the Main Street’s south curb and the time you heard the whistle?” Mr. Belin, asked what he did next, and Craig answered about moving to the front of the TSBD building and guarded the front door. He said he was not to let anyone in or out unless approved by the Captain in charge. “From the time of the first shot until you took up your post in front of the Texas School Book building how much time had passed?
Craig answered, for the record, “I’d say nearly 20 minutes.”
Sometime around the 30th of November the mother of one of the girls that work at Abraham Zapruder’s dress factory in the Dal-Tex building, across from the Texas School Book building, told an FBI interviewer her daughter and some of the girls at the factory knew Lee Harvey Oswald. They also knew Jack Ruby. She said her daughter and a few of the other girls saw Oswald come out of the TSBD and meet Jack Ruby. They said Ruby passed a gun to Oswald. Her daughter or the other girls have never substantiated this. Two glaring problems exist with this woman’s statement: if Ruby passed a gun to Oswald it would not have been so apparent and besides Rocky Jolliet was following Oswald out of the building as he walked east to the bus stop on Elm. Rocky never saw Oswald stop and talk to anyone
Lee Harvey Oswald unhurriedly pushes his way through the throng of onlookers and walked down the seven concrete steps of the Texas School Book building onto the crowded sidewalk adjacent to the corner of Houston and Elm Street. He appeared to be looking around for something - first he looked back west toward the spot where the President had just been assassinated. Next he glanced down Houston and immediately turned to his left and strolls, again unhurriedly, across Houston and proceeded east down the north side of Elm.
Lonnie Joe and Rocky met at the corner and decided Rocky would follow Oswald on foot and Lonnie Joe would hurry back to the parking lot at the Stephen Austin hotel, get their car and drive east on Wood Street to Lamar Street, a left turn north and he would be at the Greyhound bus station and in position to wait for Oswald to walk down Lamar.
Rocky said, “I’m going to follow Oswald to the corner of Lamar and Elm and stop. I can watch him get on the bus at St. Paul from there. That should give me enough distance that he will not observe I am following him. We know after he gets on the bus he will ride from St. Paul up to Lamar and get off and walk the two blocks south to the Greyhound bus station. While the bus is traveling west from St. Paul to Lamar, I will quickly walk south down Lamar and meet you. I will walk on the east side of Lamar since Mr. Watley’s Checker cab will be parked in Stand Number Three on the west side of Lamar a few feet past the entrance to the bus station.”
“Sounds good Rocky, I will position the car on the northeast corner of Jackson and Lamar. From there, we should have a perfect view of Mr. Watley’s cab and Oswald when he arrives.”
At about this time, the interference on the police radio stops. It has been determined the microphone has been “stuck” open for a total of four minutes; however, a strange occurrence was reported by several policemen on duty in the Police Dispatch room about an electronic beeping that those who understood Morse code said spelled out the word “Victory.” This has never been ‘officially’ proven, only the words of the officers present are to be believed.
Another peculiar, inexplicable occurrence takes place. The telephone system in Washington, D. C. goes out. In some areas, it is off for upwards of an hour.
Back in Dallas at Love Field, Master Sergeant Jonathon Medlock, Chief Steward on Air Force one was idling the time away until the presidential party arrives for the return trip to Washington listening to the Secret Service radio frequency. He heard one of the agents saying, “The President has been shot!! It is terrible; I believe it could be fatal. The President needs medical attention immediately. We have to — ” before Sergeant Rhodes could hear more details for some inexplicable reason the radio chatter turned into static. The first thing Sergeant Rhodes though was jamming. During the Korean War, he had served as a radio operator and recognized radio-jamming techniques. Nah, he thought, why would someone want to jam Air Force One? A few seconds later he tuned on one of the televisions aboard the Presidential plane and heard the painful news the President had been shot, this tragic information was relayed to the pilot Colonel Swindle and his co-pilot Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Hammonds.
On November 22, at 12:36 p.m., Mr. John McWatters driving the Marsalis-Ramona-Elwood-Munger bus, known as the Marsalis 1213 run, left the intersection of St. Paul and Elm, going west on Elm Street - bound for Oak Cliff (Oswald’s rooming house was located at 1026 North Beckley Avenue in Oak Cliff). The Dallas Transit Company dispatcher verified the departure time of Mr. McWatters bus. It had arrived and departed on schedule from St. Paul and Elm. Heading west on Elm, he stopped at Griffin Street, he said during testimony with the Warren Commission, “I come to a complete stop, and when I did, someone come up and beat on the door of the bus. My bus was about even with Griffin Street; I was between Field Street and Griffin. This was the time Oswald boards the bus at a point on Elm St. seven short blocks east of the TSBD. The bus is traveling west toward Dealy Plaza, the area from which Oswald has just come. To do this, Oswald has had to walk, at a brisk pace, seven blocks from Dealey Plaza. The man got on the bus, fumbled around in his pocket and found 23-cent for the fare, and “he took the third chair back on the right.” Mary Bledsoe, sitting across from McWatters, in the side seat, would later identify the later arrival as Lee Harvey Oswald saying she knew him because he had previously been a former tenant of hers.
The Warren Commission attorney asks, “Did he see you?”
“No.”
“Did you look at this man very long?”
“I didn’t look at him at all, I only glanced at him as he walked on the bus.”
“After he took a seat did you have an occasion to look at him?”
“No, as I said, I did not want to see him.”
“Why?”
“I just didn’t like him.”
“He only stayed at your house five days, is this right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Did he say or do something to make you mad at him?”
“No, I just didn’t like his looks.”
The Warren Commissions only witness for substantiating Oswald’s presence on the bus was Mary Bledsoe, an elderly widow who lives at 621 North Marsalis Street (Mrs. Bledsoe first met Lee Harvey Oswald in early October 1963 when he had rented a room in her house. He stayed there for less than a week. This is the first time she has supposedly seen him since then.)
Her account, however, differed from two other witnesses on the bus: the bus driver, Cecil J. McWatters and Milton Jones (a part-time student attending the morning classes at Dallas Technical High School) who was sitting near the front of the bus. McWatters and Jones agree the man who boards the bus was wearing a jacket. Mrs. Bledsoe testifies the man she saw, Oswald is in shirtsleeves, and he boarded the bus taking a seat near the front of the bus -- immediately behind Jones. Mr. McWatters said the man sat in the back of the bus. The Commission accepts Mrs. Bledsoe’s testimony over McWatters and Jones.
The bus was headed west toward Dealey Plaza; it ran into a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam, bringing all traffic to a stop. Mr. McWatters testified to the Warren Commission attorney, Mr. Ball, that once the bus had become entangled in traffic a woman asked if she could get off because she had to catch a train at Union Station, four blocks south of Dealy Plaza on Houston Street. She asked, and received a transfer ticket, telling the driver she would reboard the bus if he were able to proceed through the traffic tie-up. Mr. McWatters further testified another man said he was getting off the bus also, and he wanted a transfer. The driver thought this strange since he had only go
t on the bus two blocks earlier.
“This all occurred at the intersection near Lamar Street? Lamar is only three blocks from the corner of Houston and Elm?”
“That is correct,” answered Mr. McWatters.
“Did you later go to police headquarters and witness a lineup?”
“Yes.”
“Did you identify Lee Harvey Oswald?”
“No, I identified one of the men in the lineup that was of the same build as the man who got on my bus between Griffin and Field Street, but I never said he was Oswald.”
“Did you know if the man you identified in the lineup was Oswald, the man who boarded your bus?”
“No sir, I was never told whether it was him or not.”
“Okay, let me get this straight – later that afternoon Mr. McWatters you were taken to the Dallas Police headquarters and shown a lineup. Lee Harvey Oswald was in the group of four men. You were asked if any of the four men was the man who boarded your bus at Griffin Street, received a transfer ticket and got off at Lamar Street.” Mr. Ball, attorney for the Warren Commission asked. “Anyway, you were not able to identify any man in the lineup as the passenger?”
The bus driver Mr. McWatters answered, “No sir.”
Two blocks to the west Rocky Jolliet, walking as fast as humanly possible south on Lamar, had beaten Oswald to the Greyhound Bus Station and was now, breathing hard but resting comfortably in the car with Lonnie Joe was awaiting Oswald’s arrival across the street at the taxi stand.
After leaving McWatters bus, the official story, as now taken as fact, states Oswald walked two blocks south to the Greyhound bus station at the corner of Lamar and Commerce Street. He walks up to a cab and says to William Whaley, the cab driver, “May I have this cab?”
“You sure can, get in.”
Instead of opening the rear passenger door, the man opens the front passenger door and gets in next to the driver. Mr. Whatley explains this is done frequently and is okay with his company.
It is approximately twenty minutes before one o’clock; records of The Warren Commission establish Lee Harvey Oswald obtained a ride from a taxicab parked in front of the Greyhound bus station. Proof of this taxicab ride was provided by the driver’s taxi log for Friday the 22nd, which showed a trip for a single passenger from the Greyhound Bus Station to the 500 Block of North Beckley.
Mr. Whatley’s records showed the taxi ride lasted from 12:30 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. If the times he recorded were correct, it would mean Oswald boarded the cab at the exact time an assassin shot JFK from the window of the Texas School Book depository about seven blocks away. Obviously, the assassin could not have been Oswald.
The Warren Commission explained this apparent inconsistency by saying the taxi driver recorded his trips by quarter-hour intervals regardless of their actual length. Using the same log the Commission could have proven Mr. Whatley may have been logging actual trip data. A look at his entire log show he had pickups and discharges at 7:40, 8:10, 9:25, 11:05 and 11:35. Further, Whatley testified just as he shifted his taxi into low gear to leave the bus station, an elderly woman approached his driver side window and asked Mr. Whatley if he would get her a cab. Whatley’s passenger, presumably Lee Harvey Oswald, opens the cab door and tells the lady, “I am in no hurry, you can have my cab.” The lady says she appreciated the gesture, but the driver could call another cab for her.
Does anyone else seem to think it strange the passenger’s behavior in this instance was peculiar? Especially since this man has just assassinated the President of the United States and was attempting to flee the scene of the crime? This all seems farfetched; however, the Warren Commission would eventually conclude Oswald, was without a doubt, the passenger Mr. Whatley drove from the Greyhound Bus Station to North Beckley at a couple of minutes past 12:30 the afternoon of November the 22nd. To come to this conclusion, the Warren Commission would rely solely on the testimony of the taxi driver Mr. Whatley.
Ten minutes after the Presidential shooting, the staff at the Parkland Hospital emergency room was prepared to receive John Kennedy, case ‘24740, white male, suffering from gunshot wounds to the back and neck.’
It was long until the mortally wounded President Kennedy was wheeled into the emergency room at Parkland Hospital. A couple of minutes later, Secret Service Agent Clint Hill, the agent who had earlier been spread eagled on the rear of the Presidential limousine, was now walking around the emergency room in a wild-eyed, disoriented fashion, waving his .38 caliber service revolver over his head threatening to shoot someone. Robbie Newman the head nurse in the trauma room spoke to Hill and tried to calm him down, “I can tell you agent, whoever shot the President is not in this emergency room. That I can assure you.” Hill huffed, stared at her and attempted to say something, but thought better of it and leaves.
Police broadcast over the police airwaves a description of the suspect in the President Kennedy assassination. The description was for, “a white male, age approximately thirty to thirty-five, slim build, height around five feet ten inches, weight estimated to be around one hundred sixty-five pounds possibly armed and dangerous.” The time of broadcast: 12:45 p.m.
About this same time, J.D. Tippit was reportedly seen sitting in his police car at a Good Luck Oil Company (Gloco) gas station in Oak Cliff.
Transcripts of the Dictaphone belts of the Dallas police dispatcher indicated Officer J.D. Tippit was instructed to go to the central Oak Cliff area, and was to remain on the alert for any emergency. Oak Cliff was about four miles southwest from Dealey Plaza.
Records indicated a man by the name of Eugene Brodley was arrested a couple of minutes after the shooting in the Dal-Tex Building. The Dal-Tex Building was on the east of Houston just across the street from the TSBD on the corner of Houston and Elm. This was the same building where Abraham Zapruder had his dress factory. Police say Brodley was acting suspiciously (in what way was never disclosed) but after questioning he was released after he used a fictitious name (James Braden), and convinces the FBI, Secret Service and Dallas Police he was only making a phone call. (It was later learned Brodley spent the night of the 21st of November at the sleazy Little Havana Motel in Dallas. This, in and of itself, would not seem significant; however, Joe Camponella, who had strong ties with Carlos Mancini, owns the Little Havana. Carlos Mancini, as we know, was sitting in the Carousel Club on November the 21st talking with Jack Ruby. If Carlos Mancini had possible links to the Cosa Nostra, it is highly probable Brodley did too. Did Brodley actually direct the assassination?
An interesting report by a witness Laura Norton said she saw Lee Harvey Oswald make a phone call from a pay phone in the Clean and Wash Launderette at Davis and West Jefferson. The time was 12:47 p.m.
An officer radios the Police Dispatcher, “Has Governor Connelly been shot?” He got no response. He asks the question, “What are the police supposed to do at the Dallas Trade Mart?” Obviously, the Dallas police station was in a state of panic. The clock on the station wall shows the time: 12:49 p.m.
The Police Dispatcher received a radio call from J.D. Tippit, who stated he was at Lancaster and Eighth in central Oak Cliff. Dispatcher instructs him to “be at ready for any emergency that comes in.” Officer Tippit in patrol car number ten, radios he has moved as directed and will be available for any emergency. Checking his watch he noticed it was 12:52 p.m. By this time, the police radio, had broadcast several messages alerting the patrol officers to the suspect some said they saw at the scene of the assassination — a slender white male, about thirty years old, approximately five feet ten inches and weighing around 165 pounds. Does no one make the connection that Tippit, after roll call this morning, left to go on patrol in car Number Twenty-Five and is now responding to Headquarters in patrol car Number Ten!!
Five minutes before one o’clock the emergency room doctors and nurses at Parkland Hospital prepared Governor Connelly for surgery.
At the exact moment, the doctors are working on the Texas Governor over on the Oak Cliff side of t
he Houston Street viaduct at the Good Luck Oil Company (Gloco) service station five witnesses saw J.D. Tippit arrive at the Gloco station. For roughly five to ten minutes, he appeared to sit in his car and peered intently at the traffic as it crossed the bridge outbound from Dallas. Why was he there? No police dispatcher instructed Tippit to go to that location. Tippit seems to be watching for something or someone, the question was what? Or whom? The witnesses failed to see another car pull alongside Tippit’s car. A short, fat, man with curly black hair, dressed in a dark blue business suit leaves his car, opened the door and sat down on the passenger side of Officer Tippit’s car. Tippit and his passenger left Gloco and sped south on Lancaster. Three minutes later, at 12:58 p.m., Tippit answers his dispatcher and said he was at “Ninth and Jefferson”- a mile south of the Gloco Station, and less than a mile from Lee Harvey Oswald’s boarding house. He turned right on Jefferson Boulevard and stopped at the Top Ten Record Store a few minutes before 1:00 p.m. The storeowner and his clerk observed Tippit rush into the store and use the pay phone. He, apparently let the phone ring a couple of time, but without completing his call or speaking to store personnel Tippit slammed out the front door, jumped into his idling patrol car, and sped across Jefferson Boulevard. A couple of witnesses say he headed north. They say he was in such a hurry he ran a stop sign, turned right on Sunset and was last seen traveling at a high rate of speed east – one block from North Beckley. At this position, Tippit was now only two minutes from Oswald’s rooming house. Tippit drops off everyone’s grid for the next eight to ten minutes, where he goes no one has ever known.
It was not quite one o’clock; a priest was called for President Kennedy at Parkland Hospital. At this time, Lee Harvey Oswald was reported to have arrived at his rooming house. According to Earlene Rodgers, the housekeeper, he goes to his room. In a few seconds, a Dallas police car pulls up in front of the rooming house and taps its horn twice, in rapid succession. Demonstrating, Mrs. Rodgers said, “Beep-beep, short taps, close together, then the police car drove off. I went to the window and looked out, you see, I used to work for a policeman and sometimes they would come by and tell me something their wives wanted me to know, anyway, it was two policemen in uniform, but it wasn’t the ones I knew. Their police car was Number 170, and I believe that car was 106.” A report by the FBI in 1964 could not determine the reason for the police car beeping, nor could they identify whom the policemen might be. Their report speculated it might have been a police car watching to see if Oswald returned home.
Future Kennedy Assassination researcher’s scrutiny of the FBI report will show this made no sense whatsoever. No record existed indicating a police car was dispatched to Oswald’s address prior to 1:00 p.m.; moreover, if the car had been watching the house the policemen would have seen Oswald’s entry. Why not just get out and arrest him? Why blow the horn two times and leave? Does the tooting of the horn purport some type of signal to Oswald? However, this does not answer the crucial mystery: the Dallas police department states they have no police car Numbered 106!! Was Mrs. Rodgers lying, mistaken or were the police engineering a cover-up?
Investigations by assassination researchers have virtually established the only police car that should have been in the vicinity of Beckley Avenue was Officer J.D. Tippit’s cruiser. Another theory has also been thrown out: the person who stops and signals with the car horn in front of Oswald’s rooming house is actually Assistant D. A. Edward Hill – who was known to have right-wing tendencies. A few minutes after the murder of J. D. Tippit Hill along with Officer Buster Alexander, who is riding with him, will be the second police car to arrive at the Tippit murder scene. A few minutes later they show up at the Texas Theater where Oswald is arrested; Officer Edward Hill is also known as a right wing activist and more importantly – he was a friend of Jack Ruby. The day of the assassination Hill was in charge of the search at the TSBD when the rifle and spent cartridges from the rifle were discovered.
At first the officers examining the rifle, which had been hidden behind some boxes of schoolbooks, determined it to be a German Army 7.92 millimeter Mauser. Officer Hill was responsible for maintaining evidence custody of this rifle along with the two spent shells found on the floor and the one live shell still in the rifle. Interestingly, five days after the assassination Captain Fritz of the Dallas Police Department will turn in a third empty shell casing he said he found on the sixth floor of TSBD. This seems downright convenient that this third cartridge will now back up the “official” story of three shots. Why did Captain Fritz pick up an empty shell casing lying on the sixth floor, and if he actually picked the shell up, why didn’t he turn it in immediately? Why would he wait five days to “discover” it in his pocket? FBI fingerprint analysis will later show only the fingerprint of Captain Fritz, Oswald’s prints were not on the empty shell casing.
It has also been suggested J. D. Tippit and Detective Roscoe White could have been together in the same police car. This theory goes that Detective White had told Officer Tippit it was imperative they pick up a person of importance and take him to the Bluebird Airport. Tippet’s patrol car pulls up beside Oswald, Tippet gets out of his squad car and draws his revolver; As Tippit begins to walk around the front of his cruiser White fires his revolver three times and kills Tippit. Before fleeing White walks up and shoots point blank into the rear of Tippit’s head, he then flees in one direction, and the person everyone says is Oswald heads toward the Texas Theater. Interestingly, White is a short, fat, white guy with curly black hair.
Lee Harvey Oswald has changed shirts, leaves the rooming house zipping up his jacket. Walking out the door he checked his watch: 12:59 p.m.
Doctor John York at Parkland Hospital informed the First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, “I’m sorry Madam your husband the President, has sustained a fatal wound.” President Kennedy was officially pronounced dead by Doctor Clark and Doctor York at 1:00 p.m.
At about the same time, calls came in to the police station from neighbors close to the private Redbird Airport reporting a twin-engine airplane was acting suspiciously. It was said to be sitting on the grass at the end of the runway revving up its engines. This has been going on for some time. They want the police to put a stop to the noise they cannot hear the Presidential news on their television sets.
Oswald was reportedly seen walking west on 10th Street by Jimmy Burt and William Arthur Smith. Mr. Burt says the time was exactly 1:01 p.m. The Report of the Warren Commission will later state Oswald was walking east! This puts him only a block and a half east of the Tippit shooting and three blocks west of Jack Ruby’s apartment at 223 South Ewing Avenue.
Mrs. Earlene Rodgers saw Oswald at 1:04 p.m. standing on the street at the corner of Zang and Beckley. This corner was directly in front of his rooming house. The Texas Theater is over one mile away. Obviously, Mrs. Rodgers time or the time stated by both Mr. Burt and Mr. Smith cannot be correct. One of the sighting times was wrong, or both of the times are wrong! Or possible could there have been two Lee Harvey Oswalds?
An employee at the Texas Theater heard someone come in and head upstairs to the balcony. The clock in the lobby was 1:10 p.m.
At that exact time, Officer J. D. Tippit, supposedly saw a man matching Oswald’s description walking east along Tenth Street. Tippit stops his car and calls for the man to come over to the police cruiser.
T. J. Bowling was driving his daughter west on Tenth Street at 1:10 p.m. He noticed a crowd gathering around a police vehicle, he got out to see what was happening. If Earlene Rodgers saw Oswald at the bus stop at 1:04, he cannot be the murderer; it takes a minimum of twelve minutes to walk from the rooming house on North Beckley to the corner of Tenth and Patton.
A Secret Service agent informed Vice President Johnson, “President Kennedy is dead.” Johnson turns to Lady Bird and says, “Make note of the time.” She noted 1:10 p.m.
Officer J. D. Tippit was gunned down at the corner of Tenth and Patton Street. It was 1:14 p.m. Tippit had stopped a man matching the police
dispatcher’s description walking on Tenth Street, called the man to come over to the police car. The man leaned over to the window on the passenger side and talked to Officer Tippit. Tippit steps out of his patrol car and was shot four times and killed. One shot was point blank into the back of his head. Thirteen persons witnessed the Tippit murder, but only two could reconstruct the events. Of the two, only one Helen Markson, under pressure at the Dallas Police station, finally picked Oswald out of five different lineup attempts. The second witness never picked Oswald out of a lineup. The Warren Commission established the time of the Tippit murder as 1:16 p.m.
T. J. Bowling ran up to Officer Tippit’s car, grabs the police radio’s microphone and shouts, “There’s been a shooting here... it’s a police officer, somebody shot him! Send help!!” This was the first indication Officer J.D. Tippit had been murdered.
Witnesses will state the gunman ran down South Patton, and turned right onto East Jefferson Boulevard. Two used car salesmen gave chase and followed him behind the Texaco service station on the corner of Jefferson and Crawford. It appeared capture was imminent, but the police were diverted to a false alarm sighting at a nearby library.
At 1:19 p.m. an ambulance with no lettering on the doors arrived at the scene of the J. D. Tippit murder and immediately whisked the body away, supposedly, to the Methodist Hospital, but it never arrived. The next report of Officer Tippit’s body was at the Gober Funeral Chapel.
Dallas Police Captain Barney Westbrook was given a black billfold supposedly taken from the ground beside the police car where Tippit had been killed. He turned the wallet over to FBI Agent Barrett. The billfold contained a driver’s license, for Lee Harvey Oswald. This was strange, Lee Harvey Oswald does not know how to drive an automobile, and how unbelievably dumb would he have to be to leave his billfold, containing his identification at the scene of a murder. Employees at the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) will state a week after the Tippit murder a report of a driver’s license issued to Lee Oswald will turn up in their records. They further say, the Department of Public Safety file on Lee Oswald will be pulled, and it is never seen again. This was witnessed by at least seven employees of the DPS.
Police Chief Curry, with an escort of guards, drove Vice President Johnson and wife to Love Field.
Johnson arrived and boarded Air Force One at Love Field where he was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. One of the observers notes the time: 1:35 p.m.
As the new President was being sworn in police at the scene of the Tippit murder broadcast the shooter was carrying a dark finish, automatic pistol. Another policeman, a veteran with considerable weapon experience sent a message back to police headquarters, “The shells recovered at the scene indicate the suspect was armed with an .38 caliber automatic rather than a pistol.”
At 1:43 p.m. Lee Harvey Oswald left the Texas theater balcony, walked down the steps to the concession stand and bought a bag of popcorn. From the concession stand he entered the main floor of the theater and sat in a seat next to a pregnant woman. There are only seven people in the nine hundred-seat theater; he could have found a seat almost anywhere. After enduring this un-invited guest for a moment or two, she got up, and left, she was never seen again, and her testimony was never taken. Oswald left his seat, walked around the theater, and stopped to sit next to at least three other patrons. Was he looking for someone?
Captain Westbrook and FBI Agent Barrett arrive at the Texas Theater and enter through the rear entrance minutes later. It must be assumed Westbrook and Barrett could be looking for “Lee Harvey Oswald” - identified from the driver’s license of the billfold discovered at the scene of the J. D. Tippit murder.
Johnny Handy, manager of the Handy Shoe Store, on Jefferson Avenue, became suspicious when a man, he believed to be the person the police were seeking, slipped into his shoe store and would duck every time a police siren passed. Handy had followed this man into the Texas Theater. After a cursory check of the theater, he asks the cashier, Julia Portal to call the police, “I think he is still here,” he said.
At a quarter until two o’clock Police Dispatch sends all cars to the Texas Theater saying, “Have information a suspect in the Kennedy shooting just went into the Texas Theater. Suspect is said to be hiding in the balcony”
George Applin, one of the seven patrons in the theater, later stated to the Warren Commission he was sitting in the center section, six rows from the back. He testified he noticed another man sitting in the very back of the theater seemingly unconcerned with the movie but this unknown man was intently watching as Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. Years later he admitted to a local newspaper the man he saw that day was Jack Ruby. Asked why he took so long to say anything, “I know what happened to a lot of the other witnesses. I did not want the same to happen to me.”
Lieutenant Dayly, of the Dallas Police Crime Lab, left the TSBD, with the alleged murder weapon used to assassinate President Kennedy. It was described as an eight millimeter German Mauser when, if fact, later it became a 6.5 millimeter Italian Carcano. Persons astute in military weapons and those policemen were all WWII and Korean War veterans, easily would have recognized the differences in the two weapons.
After a brief struggle, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in the Texas Theater. One of the officers notes the time was 1:51 p.m.
The arresting officers along with Oswald drove to the basement of Police Headquarters on Houston Street arriving at 2:00 p.m.
Dallas detectives begin the first interrogation of Oswald. He also asked and was granted permission to call Mrs. Ruth Paine concerning legal assistance. He called Mrs. Paine at 4:20 p.m.
Fifteen minutes later Oswald was taken for the first of several lineups he will be subjected to.
Five minutes past five o’clock Air Force One landed at Andrews Air Force base with now President Lyndon Johnson and the body of the slain President John Kennedy.
A black civilian hearse arrived at the rear entrance of Bethesda Naval Hospital with an unadorned metal casket. Six men in dark business suits were guarding it. It was said they were Secret Service. Persons at the Bethesda morgue are told it was the body of JFK. One attendant remembered the time was 5:45 p.m. The metal casket was brought into the Bethesda morgue where doctors are told it was President Kennedy’s body wrapped in a black rubber body bag. There was no brain inside the head.
Ten minutes later a gray Navy ambulance with the bronze Dallas coffin accompanied by FBI men arrived at the front door of Bethesda Naval Hospital, and Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy follows it into the hospital. The FBI agents were not allowed to enter.
Why was the arrival of two corpses at Bethesda, both identified as President John Kennedy, never investigated? Officer Tippit was approximately the same size as the President and bore a striking facial resemblance to him also. Was Tippit in one casket and the President in the other? This was never investigated.
Oswald was carried down for another lineup; he also had a paraffin test conducted on his hands. The paraffin test is to determine whether or not he had recently fired a weapon. The results of the test were never released.
Lineup complete, Oswald returned to Captain Fritz’s office.
Lee Harvey Oswald was officially charged with the murder of J. D. Tippit. Time on the official charge: 7:00 p.m.
The police began Oswald’s third interrogation session. He was still not representing by counsel, no one was there to represent him. A number of Secret Service agents, and, at least four FBI Special Agents question him. Again they do not use a stenographer and do not tape record the interrogation. One Secret Service agent noted the time was 7:40 p.m.
He placed another phone call to Ruth Paine. Mrs. Paine will later say the time was 8:00 p.m.
Oswald was taken to the Robbery and Homicide Office for fingerprinting, again.
Captain Fritz signed a formal complaint at 11:26 p.m. charging Lee Harvey Oswald with the murder of John F. Kennedy.
Saturday, November 23, 1963, 12:04 a.m.: Oswald
met with the press in the basement assembly room of the Dallas Police department.
Lee Oswald was moved to his cell – Cell Number 2 on the fifth floor of the Dallas City jail. He notices the wall has been freshly painted. The clock at the end of the hall shows 12:20 a.m.
Ten minutes later he is fingerprinted once again and photographed. Why another set of fingerprints?
Oswald was formally charged with the murder of JFK. The time was 12:34 a.m.
Lee Harvey Oswald was returned to Captain Fritz’s office for more questioning. Oswald has not been provided with counsel, and the interrogating officers keeps no notes and no tape recording were prepared.
He was returned to his cell on the fifth floor. He notices the clock’s time was 1:10 a.m.
His mother Marguerite Oswald, and his wife Marina Oswald visit Oswald. Marina says the time was 1:30 a.m.
He was carried downstairs for yet another lineup.
Returned to his cell after his 4th line up. It was now 2:30 a.m.
Dallas detectives come to Oswald’s cell and obtain samples of hair from all portions of his body.
Oswald calls Ruth Paine again. She said it was around 3:15 A.M.
Sunday, November 23, 1963 at 2:15 a.m. - The Dallas FBI receives an anonymous phone call stating during the transfer to the county jail later this morning someone was going to kill Lee Harvey Oswald. The Dallas Sheriff’s office also receives a similar phone call; however, there was no significant change of plans. They write the calls off as a prank.
A few minutes after ten o’clock Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry stated during a press conference Oswald would be moved by armored car, and he gave a general description of the security measures.
Captain Fritz finished interrogating Oswald and asked what clothes he wanted to wear. Oswald only chose a black pullover sweater then indicated he was ready to go. It was almost eleven o’clock.
Dallas police detectives escorted Oswald down the elevator and into the narrow corridor of the basement of the city jail. The time was 11:19 a.m.
One minute later Jack Ruby came down the ramp from Main Street into the basement of the Dallas City Hall. The Dallas Police Department was housed in the City Hall building. No police office challenges him nor questions his authority for being present.
Lee Harvey Oswald was handcuffed to Detective Leavelle on the right, and Detective Graves on his left arm. Captain Fritz and Lieutenant Swain followed by Detective Montgomery lead the procession from the elevator out into the basement.
No one had seen Jack Ruby before he shot Oswald. The time was 11:21 a.m. As the bright television cameras were switched on, blinding the policemen for a moment, Jack Ruby stepped forward and used a Colt Cobra .38 caliber snub-nosed revolver – murders Lee Harvey Oswald – all caught live on nationwide television.
Lee Harvey Oswald died at Parkland Hospital.
The time: 2:07 Sunday afternoon, November 24, 1963.