The day after the assassination, on Saturday morning, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover sent a letter to James Rowley, Chief of the United States Secret Service. Hoover wrote, "there are enclosed the results of our inquiry into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and background information relative to Lee Harvey Oswald."
That same day, on Saturday, FBI Associate Director Clyde Tolson sent a memo to FBI official Alan Belmont. Tolson wrote, "results of the investigation have been reduced to written form. We can prepare a memorandum to the Attorney General to set out the evidence showing that Oswald is responsible for the shooting that killed the President. We will show that Oswald was an avowed Marxist, a former defector to the Soviet Union and an active member of the Fair Play for Cuba, which has been financed by Castro. We will set forth the items of evidence which make it clear that Oswald is the man who killed the President."
Only one day after President Kennedy was assassinated, the assistant Director of the FBI had already decided that Oswald was guilty. The Dallas Police had not charged Lee Harvey Oswald with the murder of President Kennedy, yet the FBI was determined to find, collect, and when necessary fabricate evidence to show the public that Oswald was responsible for murdering both President Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippit. Following are a few examples of the FBI's direct involvement in fabricating evidence as to HARVEY Oswald's background, his employment, and his alleged involvement in the murders of President Kennedy and Police Officer J. D. Tippit.
Following are a few examples of the FBI's direct involvement in fabricating evidence as to Oswald's background, his employment and his alleged involvement in the murder of President Kennedy and police officer J. D. Tippit.
In August, 1963, only three months before the assassination, the FBI took 35 mm photographs of HARVEY Oswald as he passed out Fair Play for Cuba literature in New Orleans. Charles Hall Steele, an active FBI informant, and an active Dallas Police informant, was helping Oswald pass out leaflets. Orvie Aucoin, the TV cameraman who filmed the event, was also an active FBI informant. Thanks to these two FBI informants the American public was able to watch Oswald on television within days of the assassination how Oswald favored communism and Castro. Millions of people quickly formed an opinion of Oswald as they watched this former defector to the Soviet Union, with a Russian wife and child, an admitted Marxist, as he passed out communist literature on the streets of New Orleans.
In the summer of 1963 Oswald had the use of Guy Banister's office for his Fair Play for Cuba activities. But the FBI never told the Warren Commission that Guy Bannister was the former head of the FBI's office in Chicago, and a close friend of FBI Director Hoover.
Within hours of the assassination the Dallas Police confiscated 225 items that belonged to HARVEY Oswald from Ruth Paine’s garage and from Oswald’s rooming house. The original 225 items were collected, dated, and initialed by Dallas Police officers. A handwritten list of these items, and a typewritten list of these 225 items, were prepared by the Dallas Police. Later that evening the Dallas Police transferred those 225 items of evidence to FBI headquarters in Washington DC.
During the next three days the FBI examined the 225 items of evidence that belonged to HARVEY Oswald. However, on November 26, the FBI returned a total of 455 items to the Dallas Police. The FBI had added an additional 230 items to the original 225 items of evidence collected by the Dallas Police. Identifying the additional 230 items of so-called evidence that were added by the FBI is simple. None of the 230 items added by the FBI, now in the National Archives, were dated nor initialed by the Dallas Police. Some of these 230 items belonged to LEE Oswald, some of these items were fabricated, and some of these items were used to link HARVEY Oswald to Castro and Cuba. Among the 230 items added by the FBI were fabricated W-2 forms, created for the purpose of fabricating the dates of Oswald's employment in 1955 and 1956. The typewritten text on each of these W-2 forms is identical, which means they were fabricated using the same typewriter. A list of these 455 items was published by the Warren Commission and identified as Commission Exhibit 2003.
One of the items found by police was a Minox spy camera, yet the FBI tried to identify the Minox spy camera as a light meter.
The appearance of a 2nd wallet at 10th & Patton, with Oswald’s identification, was witnessed by FBI Agent Bob Barret, but never mentioned by the FBI. Fabricated identification cards from that wallet, with the names Alek and Alex James Hidell, were quietly and secretly placed in HARVEY Oswalds arrest wallet that was laying on Capt. Fritz's desk. These fabricated ID cards were instrumental in connecting HARVEY Oswald with the Mannlicher-Carcado rifle that was allegedly ordered by Hidell, shipped to Oswald's post office box in Dallas, and then found on the 6th floor of the book depository.
In the early morning hours of November 23 FBI agents arrived at Klein’s Sporting Goods in Chicago to review company records on microfilm. From those microfilm records documents were fabricated to make it appear as though Oswald purchased a rifle from Kleins. In the National Archives I asked to see the original roll of Klein’s microfilm. I wanted to look for alterations and/or splicing of the microfilm. I was given a photograph of a small yellow cardboard Kodak box which supposedly held the microfilm. The microfilm had disappeared.
The day after the assassination FBI agents went to Stripling Junior High school in Ft. Worth. Assistant Principal Frank Kudlaty gave the agents HARVEY Oswald’s 9th grade school records from 1954, which soon disappeared. These school records had to disappear, because in 1954 LEE Oswald was attending Beauregard Junior High in New Oswald, with a near perfect attendance record. My interview with Mr. Kudlaty is available on U-Tube.
Oswald’s original school records—elementary school, junior high, high school were all confiscated by FBI agents, and disappeared. All that remains of Oswald’s school records at the National Archives are black and white photographs.
The week following the assassination a federal agency picked up LEE Oswald’s driver’s license file from the Dept of Public Safety in Austin, and the file disappeared. HARVEY Oswald never had a drivers license, but LEE Oswald did have a Texas driver's license.
Early on Monday morning, the day after Oswald died, FBI agents arrived at Dolly Shoe in New Orleans and confiscated all original employment records for HARVEY Oswald from January through April, 1955. Those original records disappeared.
LEE Oswald’s time cards from his employment at the Gerard Tujague company from June, 1955 thru September, 1956 were confiscated by the FBI. Most of those records disappeared because they conflicted with HARVEY Oswald attending Warren Easton High School at the same time LEE Oswald was working for Tujague's, in the fall of 1955.
The Warren Report told us that Oswald worked at the Pfisterer Dental Lab in New Orleans “for several months” in the spring of 1956, but without a thread of evidence. In reality HARVEY Oswald worked at the Pfisterer Dental Lab from October, 1957 thru May, 1958, while at the same time LEE Oswald was in the Marines in Japan. On Monday following the assassination the FBI visited the Pfisterer Dental Laboratory and confiscated all employment records related to HARVEY Oswald. Those records disappeared, while the FBI fabricated 1956 W-2 forms in an attempt to show that Oswald worked at the dental laboratory in 1956 instead of 1957 and 1958 as reported by Palmer McBride and fellow employees at the dental lab.
WC attorney John Hart Ely was assigned to gather information related to Oswald’s family and background. Several years later Mr. Ely wrote a memo in which he described his thoughts and memories about the Warren Report. Mr. Ely wrote, "devising a coherent and credible theory to explain what happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963--one that isn't forced to hypothesize a number of duplicate Lee Harvey Oswald's....proved quite a different matter." Mr. Ely was obviously aware of the possibility, in his own words, 'of duplicate Lee Harvey Oswalds.'" In April, 1964, staff attorney Albert Jenner, wrote to Warren Commission General Counsel J. Lee Rankin and said, "there are details in Mr. Ely's memoranda which will require MATERIAL ALTERATION and, in some instances, OMISSION." The FBI and a few select members of the Warren Commission understood that many things about Oswald’s background had to be hidden from the public. This is why Oswald’s original school records and teenage employment records disappeared. LEE Oswald’s drivers license file disappeared. The second wallet, found at the Tippit murder scene with ID cards for Alex James Hidell, also disappeared. Documents related to HARVEY Oswald’s living in Stanley, North Dakota in the summer of 1953 disappeared, while at the same time LEE Oswald was living in New York city. Items such as the dark blue jacket that Oswald wore to the book depository was switched with the light colored jacket found in the Texaco parking lot. The result of this manipulation and alteration of evidence was misunderstood and often confusing, but it allowed the FBI to feed the public a false narrative for Lee Harvey Oswald.
William Sullivan, the #3 man in the FBI, understood the manipulation of evidence. Sullivan said, "When an enormous organization like the FBI with tremendous power,still, can sit back and shuffle the deck of cards and pick up the card they want to show you it may be you're not going to get the entire picture as fully as you would otherwise.... Sullivan then said, "If there were documents that possibly he (Hoover) didn't want to come to the light of the public, then those documents no longer exist, and the truth will never be known." The FBI decided what evidence would survive and how that evidence was interpreted. Their job was to convince the public that Oswald was guilty, no matter the expense, no matter the effort, just convict Oswald. In the Tippit murder, a major effort was expended by the FBI to achieve a very minor change in the exact time Tippit was shot. The result was a Soviet-Russian style investigation into the murder of John F. Kennedy, thanks to the FBI.
Since 1964 researchers have continually argued as to whether or not the man arrested by Dallas Police had enough time to walk from his rooming house at 1:00-1:03 PM to 10th & Patton by 1:16 PM. Most researchers were relying on 1:16 PM as the correct time of Tippits’s murder, noted on the FBI's 109 page transcript that was given to the Warren Commission on August 25, 1964. Known to researchers as CE 1974 this document placed the time of Tippit's murder at 1:15-1:16 PM. Since 1963 researchers have argued and debated as to whether or not there was enough time for Oswald to have walked from his rooming house at 1:01-1:03 PM to 10th & Patton at 1:15 PM. The following presentation is focused on the time frame of 1:00 PM to 1:19 PM on November 22, 1963 as it relates to the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit.Dallas Police Radio Channels
In 1963 there were two radio channels used by the Dallas Police dispatcher to communicate with police motorcycles and patrol cars. The call sign for the Dallas police radio was KKB364. Both Channel 1 and Channel 2 were connected to recording devices. Dallas Police Channel 1 was connected to a Dictabelt Recorder that used vinyl belts for recording. Each belt recorded 15 minutes of conversation. Channel 2 was connected to an Autograph Disk recorder that used round vinyl disks for recording. These vinyl disks could record conversations for either 9 minutes or 13 minutes, and looked similar to a small phonograph record.
Officer Tippit was shot at 1:06 PM
Officer Tippit was shot at 1:06 PM. As we begin to review the evidence it is very important for us to remember the time of the Tippit shooting as reported by several witnesses was 1:06 PM, and first recorded on the dictaphone recorder at 1:08 PM.
Now, as we begin to review the evidence, it is very important for us to remember the time of the shooting, as reported by several witnesses, was 1:06 PM. Two minutes later a witness to the shooting tried to contact the police dispatcher using the radio in Tippit's squad car, which was recorded by the police dictaphone at 1:08 PM. After listening to the dictaphone recordings, FBI officials realized that Oswald could not have walked .9 of a mile from his rooming house at 1:00 to 1:02 PM to 10th & Patton in 4 or 5 minutes. The witnesses who said Tippit was shot at 1:06 PM had to be ignored, and the time of the Tippit shooting had to be changed.
At 1:00 PM on the afternoon of November 22, 1963 a Dallas Police dispatcher placed a radio call to Officer J. D. Tippit using channel 1. On Commission Exhibit 705, page 15, the police dispatcher tried to contact Tippit at 1:00 PM. The dispatcher said, "78 location," but Officer Tippit did not answer. At 1:00 PM Officer Tippit was likely in the Top 10 record store on Jefferson Blvd. using the telephone. Tippit left the record store and six minutes later parked his patrol car directly in front of a driveway near 10th & Patton.
About 1:05 pm Helen Markham was walking south on Patton St. to catch a city bus at 1:15 PM. She was standing on the northwest corner of 10th & Patton when a police car drove slowly past in front of her. Barbara Davis and her sister Virginia were in the living room of their house, on the southeast corner of 10th & Patton. Mr. & Mrs. Frank Wright were in their home at 501 E. 10th St, and taxi driver William Scoggins was sitting in his taxi cab on the southeast corner of 10th & Patton. Barbara Davis heard gunshots and ran to the telephone to call the police. Mrs. Frank Wright was listening to the radio when the radio announcer said the time was 1:06 PM. She heard gun shots and immediately called the police. Taxi driver William Scoggins was sitting in his taxi as the police car drove past in front of him. Scoggins watched as the police car drove slowly to the curb while at the same time a young man walked over to the police car and began talking with the police officer. Moments later Scoggins saw the young man shoot the police officer. Scoggins notified his dispatcher, who notified the police of a shooting. Barbara Davis, Mrs. Wright and the taxi dispatcher were the first people to call the police at 1:07 PM. The police quickly dispatched three ambulances to the murder scene--ambulance #602 from Dudley Hughes, #603 from Baylor, and ambulance #605 from the Veterans Administration (VA).
Seconds before the shooting, Domingo Benavides and Jack Tatum were driving in separate cars west on 10th St. When Benavides saw a man fire gunshots at a police officer he drove his Chevrolet pickup to the curb and stopped, about 15 feet from Tippit's patrol car. Benavides ducked down onto the seat of his truck as the gunshots were fired. When Jack Tatum heard gunshots he was 5 or 6 car lengths ahead of Benavides and stopped his red Ford Galaxie near the corner of 10th & Patton.
When the shooting ended Benavides watched as (LEE) Oswald turned around and began unloading his gun. Benavides said that he got a good look at (LEE) Oswald from the front, and when (LEE) Oswald began to walk away Benavides noticed that his hairline was "squared off" above his collar. Benavides, who worked part time as a barber, said that (LEE) Oswald needed a haircut. Benavides watched as (LEE) Oswald began walking west on the sidewalk while unloading the empty shells from his gun.
As (LEE) Oswald hurried around the house on the corner, and then across Patton St., Benavides got out of his truck and walked 15 feet to the front of Tippit's patrol car. He grabbed the microphone in Tippit’s patrol car and, at 1:08 PM, tried to contact the police dispatcher. Benavides, however, did not know how to operate the microphone in Tippit’s patrol car. When Benavides pressed the button on the police microphone his attempt to contact the police dispatcher was recorded by the dictabelt recorder. Benavides tried twice to contact the police dispatcher, but a conversation was not recorded because Benavides did not know how to use the police radio.
Two minutes later, at 1:10 PM, Mr. Temple Bowley arrived on site and grabbed the microphone from Benavides. Bowley was able to report the shooting of a police officer to the police dispatcher, which was recorded on the vinyl dictabelts from channel 1.
Later that afternoon Bowley gave a statement to the Dallas Police and said that when he arrived at the scene he, "looked at my watch and it said 1:10 PM." Bowley's watch and the time recorded by the police Dictabelt of Bowley's contact with the police dispatcher was 1:10 PM.
At 1:10 PM the police dispatcher received a message, “602 code 5.” 602 was the number assigned by the Dallas police to the Dudley Hughes ambulance, and "code 5" meant the ambulance was en route to 10th & Patton. Seconds later, at 1:10 PM, the dispatcher received another message, "603-code 5." 603 was the number assigned to ambulances from Baylor and "code 5" meant the ambulance was en route to 10th & Patton. At 1:10 PM the dispatcher received the message, "605-code 5," the number assigned to ambulances from the Veteran’s Administration (VA), and code 5 meant the ambulance was en route to 10th & Patton. All contact between the dispatchers and the three ambulances were recorded at 1:10 PM by the Dictaphone machine on channel 1. Therefore, the shooting of Officer Tippit had to have occurred several minutes before 1:10 PM.
After Bowley's brief contact with the police dispatcher at 1:10 PM the Dudley Hughes ambulance arrived. Driver Jason Butler removed a dark blue jacket from Tippit's body, and together with Bowley loaded Tippit's body into the ambulance.
The ambulance, which Jasper Butler said was on site for only one minute, then hurried to the Methodist Hospital where Tippit was taken to the emergency room for examination. Tippit was pronounced dead by Dr. Liquori at 1:15 PM. We can now begin to understand the importance and significance of 1:08 PM and 1:10 PM, as recorded by the Dallas Police disks and transcripts on channel 1, as they relate to the time of the Tippit murder. Tippit was shot at 1:06 PM, a couple of minutes before Benavides got out of his pickup, walked to Tippit’s patrol car, and tried to contact the police dispatcher at 1:08 PM.
Police dispatcher Murray Jackson, who worked 20 years at the Dallas Police department, told the House Select Committee on Assassinations that after his shift ended on November 22, 1963 Chief Lumpkin had the dictabelts from channel 1 and the discs from channel 2 placed in sealed envelopes and taken to his office.
On November 29 the vinyl belts from Channel 1 and vinyl disks from Channel 2 were given by Lumpkin to the Secret Service for transcribing. The Secret Service copied the belts and disks with a tape recorder and then gave the original belts and disks to the FBI. Dallas Police Communications director James Bowles also made tape recorded copies of the belts and disks, but said the FBI did not return the original belts and disks to the Dallas Police until March, 1964.
In early December the Secret Service, Dallas Police and FBI agents began listening to the original vinyl dictabelt and vinyl disc recordings, but their attention was focused on events and situations related to the assassination of President Kennedy, and was not focused on the murder of Officer Tippit.
On December 3, 1963 a brief 10 page transcript was prepared and given to Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry. Transcribed from channel 2 this transcript included information about the President's arrival, the motorcade, the shooting, the escort to Parkland Hospital, and the Tippit shooting. This document was published in the Warren Volumes as Sawyer Exhibit A.
Two days later, On December 5, 1963, a very brief 2 page transcript was prepared by Sgt. Henslee from channel 2 "pertaining to the incident," and very briefly described a portion of the Tippit shooting. This document was published in the Warren Volumes as Sawyer Exhibit B.
In early 1964 James Bowles made a tape recorded copy of channel 1 and channel 2. Bowles kept one copy for himself and gave one copy to the FBI. FBI personnel listened to the DPD recordings and likely made transcripts of conversations from both channel 1 and channel 2. But it seems that little attention, if any, was given to the Tippit murder.
Earlene Roberts, the housekeeper at HARVEY Oswald’s rooming house, told the FBI that Oswald left the house a minute or two after 1:00 PM, while zipping up his dark colored jacket. A dark colored zip up jacket. The distance from the rooming house to the Tippit murder scene was .9 mile. The FBI knew it was not possible for Oswald to have left the rooming house at 1:01-1:02 and walked .9 mile to 10th & Patton in 4-5 minutes. This created a big problem, because the FBI now realized that Oswald could not have shot Tippit.
Changing the time of the shooting
The original Dallas Police dictabelts and disks given to the Secret Service on November 29, 1963 were authentic. After the Secret Service gave the vinyl dictabelts and vinyl disks to the FBI we know they were copied onto a tape recorder. A tape recording could be played over and over without degradation, whereas the vinyl dictabelts and vinyl disks were degraded when played over and over. Changes cannot be made to the original vinyl dictabelts or disks. However, changes can be made if conversations from the vinyl belts and vinyl disks are recorded onto a tape recorder, changes to the new tape can be easily deleted and added. The new tape, with alterations, can then be played back onto new vinyl belts and new vinyl disks. The new disks would appear to be genuine.
Changing the times on paper transcripts would be much easier. Simply take a small portion of the transcript from channel 1, where one police dispatcher is discussing the Tippit murder, and insert that portion into transcript wherein the second police dispatchers is discussing the assassination of President Kennedy.
A third way to change the times on a typewritten transcript would be to simply prepare a new transcript and make sure all of the time entries were sequential. It appears that the first transcript given to the Warren Commission by the FBI in March, 1964, had a few changes, both handwritten and typed changes.
When reading a revised transcript the reader would assume the transcript is a continuous thread of discussion between a police dispatcher and patrol units. If the reader happened to notice that one or two pages out of 100 pages showed an incorrect time, the reader would probably assume this was a mistake or perhaps a typographical error.
J. Lee Rankin, General Counsel for the Warren Commission, read the 2 page transcript of channel 1 given to Chief Curry that was prepared by Sgt. Henslee on December 3, 1963. It would appear that when Rankin read this 2 page transcript (Sawyer B), he realized that he had never been given a complete transcript of Dallas police channel 1 & police channel 2. In early January, 1964 James Bowles gave the FBI tape recordings of Dallas police channels 1 and 2, but the FBI never gave those to the Warren Commission.
On March 3, 1964 Rankin wrote to FBI Director Hoover requesting the Bureau obtain original transcripts of all radio transmissions from channel 1 and channel 2 from the Dallas Police covering the period 12:20 PM to 6:00 PM on November 22, 1963.
On March 6, 1964, in response to Rankin’s letter of March 3, Hoover wrote a letter to the Dallas Police requesting transcripts. On March 20, 1964 the Dallas Police furnished a transcript of channel 1 and channel 2 to the FBI.
Two weeks later, on April 7 the FBI gave a 96 page document to the Warren Commission consisting of typewritten transcripts from channel 1 and channel 2. Channel 1 consists of pages 1 thru 66. Channel 2 consists of pages 67 thru 96. The first page of the FBI transcript reads “Dallas police department made available the following transcripts of all radio transmissions from channel 1 and 2 of Dallas Police Radio Station KKB 364 covering the period 12:20 PM, November 22, 1963, to 6:00 PM, November 22.” The FBI gave Mr. Rankin two transcripts of each channel. But the FBI was apparently unaware that the transcript they sent to the Warren Commission contained timing entries that conflicted with the time of 1:16 PM that they had established as the time Tippit was shot.
Rankin knew the FBI had interviewed several people who witnessed the Tippit shooting. Agents filed dozens of reports, examined Tippit's medical records and his time of death. Rankin knew the FBI reported 1:16 PM as the time of the Tippit shooting to the Warren Commission. But in the 96 page transcript Rankin found numerous unexplained timing errors.
On page 19 of the channel 1 transcript the police dispatcher had contact with the 3 ambulances dispatched by the Dallas Police to the site of the Tippit shooting. All of these contacts were recorded at 1:10 PM. Domingo Benavides tried to contact the dispatcher at 1:08 PM, followed by Mr. Bowley's contact with the dispatcher at 1:10 PM when Bowley said , “it’s a police officer. Somebody shot him.” These entries were on the original Dallas Police dictabelt from channel 1, as transcribed by James Bowles. The timing of the entries of 1:08 PM by Benavides and 1:10 PM by temple Bowley proves that Tippit was shot a couple of minutes before Benavides made contact with the police dispatcher at 1:08 PM.
Warren Commission general counsel Rankin did not understand how the FBI could fix the time of the Tippit shooting at 1:16 PM, when the Dallas police recordings showed that someone using Tippit's police radio had contacted the dispatcher at 1:08 PM and again at 1:10 PM. Rankin was not happy and perhaps began to mistrust the FBI.
In an attempt to circumvent the FBI, and get original transcripts from the Dallas Police, Rankin drafted a letter on May 28 to Forrest Sorrels, the Special Agent In Charge of the Secret Service in Dallas. Rankin asked Sorrels if he would “please arrange to record the Dallas Police Department tapes of radio broadcasts over police channels 1 and 2 on November 22, 1963, between the hours of 12:30 and 2:00 pm.” Sorrels likely notified Hoover of Mr. Rankin’s request, because Sorrels never responded to Rankin's letter.
A month and a half later, without hearing from Mr. Sorrels, Rankin had no choice but to ask the FBI to obtain the radio broadcasts from the Dallas Police. On July 16, 1964 Rankin wrote to Hoover and said, "We call your attention to the fact that in the channel one transcript there appears to be an error on page 19 immediately following the words "what's that address on Jefferson." There appears to be a time entry of 1:10 PM. This would be inconsistent with the known time of the Tippit shooting and judging from the time entries on the preceding page this would appear to be a typographical error." Rankin then requested that Hoover “Obtain the original tapes of the radio broadcasts and prepare a new transcript from these tapes…. During the course of preparation of a new transcript we ask that you attempt to clarify this apparent discrepancy.”
In 1964 Mr. Rankin was questioning the time of 1:10 PM on the police transcripts just as we are questioning the time of 1:10 PM in 2024.
CE 1974--the FBI creates a revised timeline
This is a typewritten transcript created by the FBI for their revised timeline. On July 21, 1964 Dallas Police Chief Curry made a series of sixteen channel 1 dictabelts and five channel 2 disks available to an unidentified FBI agent. This unidentified agent then reviewed and transcribed the dictabelts from channel 1 and transcribed the disks from channel 2 at Dallas police headquarters. The FBI agent sent these transcripts to FBI headquarters on July 24. The FBI now had two tape recorded copies of police channels 1 & 2 and typewritten paper transcripts from channel 1 and channel 2.
Protecting the FBI’s image
After reading Mr. Rankin’s letter FBI officials realized, probably for the first time, there was a timing problem. Earlene Roberts told the FBI that Oswald left the rooming house at 1:00 to 1:03 PM. Dallas police tapes recorded Benavides and Bowley contacting the police dispatcher at 1:08 and again at 1:10 PM to report that a policeman had been shot. Three ambulances were dispatched by the police to 10th & Patton and at 1:10 PM all three ambulances notified the police dispatcher they were en route to the scene.
The FBI knew the distance between the rooming house and 10th & Patton was .9 of a mile. They also knew that Oswald could not have walked .9 of a mile in 4 or 5 minutes and shot Tippit at 1:06 PM, as reported by several witnesses. At this point senior FBI officials realized the man arrested by the Dallas Police could not have shot Officer Tippit. However, Oswald was dead and he was their only suspect. In order to protect the FBI's image, and prove to the public that Oswald killed Tippit, senior FBI officials made the decision to fabricate the time that Tippit was murdered. The FBI's conscious decision to fabricate evidence and blame HARVEY Oswald for the Tippit murder is only one part of their complicity in helping to cover up the true facts of the assassination of Officer Tippit and of President Kennedy.
Rankin requested Dallas police transcripts from the FBI on July 24, 1964. Nearly a month later, on August 20, the FBI had still not given the transcripts to the Warren Commission. It appears that FBI officials were withholding their revised transcript, with numerous changes in time, knowing that the government printing office would soon begin printing the Warren Report. By waiting as long as possible before giving their revised transcript to the Warren Commission, FBI officials knew the Commission would have little or no time to question the accuracy of their revised transcript.
On August 20, 1964, Hoover wrote to Rankin and advised that a new transcript had been made. Hoover also told Rankin, "However, due to the badly worn condition of the original tapes, certain portions are being checked for accuracy. The transcription will be furnished to you in the immediate future.”
Five days later, on August 25, 1964, the FBI’s revised transcripts were given to the Warren Commission. Following are pages from the FBI’s revised transcript. It is worth noting that police dispatchers for channels 1 and 2 are now identified by name.
The original Dallas police transcript Commission Exhibit 705 shows that at 1:08 PM a citizen (Domingo Benavides) used Tippit's police radio, call unit #78, to contact the police dispatcher. On page 48 of the revised FBI report, the number 78 has been changed to the number 58, which is the Dallas police code for an unknown automobile unit. A second number 78 was changed to number 488, a number assigned by the Dallas police to supervisors and detectives of the Special Service Bureau. The changes from number 78 to number 58 and the change from number 78 to number 488 was an attempt by the FBI to hide contact between the police dispatcher and Domingo Benavides who tried to use the police radio in Tippit's patrol car at 1:08 PM. The FBI reported the conversation between number 58 and number 488 with the dispatcher as “garbled.”
The original Dallas police transcript shows the police dispatcher’s contact with Mr. Bowley at 1:10 PM. The newly revised FBI transcript changed the time Mr. Bowley contacted the police dispatcher from 1:10 PM to 1:16 PM.
Now, there are quite a few other times that were changed by the FBI, and I will list them:
1) The original Dallas police transcript, Commission Exhibit 705, shows the dispatcher's contact with the Dudley Hughes ambulance number 602, while en route to the murder scene, at 1:10 PM. The revised FBI report, Commission Exhibit 1974, changed the dispatcher's contact with Dudley Hughes from 1:10 to 1:19 P.M.
2) The original Dallas police transcript, Commission Exhibit 705, shows the dispatcher's contact with the Baylor ambulance, number 603, while en route to the murder scene, at 1:10 PM. The revised FBI report, Commission Exhibit 1974, changed the dispatcher’s contact with Baylor from 1:10 to 1:19 PM.
3) The original Dallas police transcript, Commission Exhibit 705, shows the dispatcher's contact with the Dudley Hughes ambulance, number 602, when they arrived at the murder scene, at 1:10 PM. The revised FBI report, Commission Exhibit 1974, changed the dispatcher's contact with Dudley Hughes from 1:10 to 1:19 PM.
4) The original Dallas police transcript, Commission Exhibit 705, shows the dispatcher's contact with both the Dudley Hughes and with the Baylor ambulance at 1:10 PM. The revised FBI transcript report, Commission Exhibit 1974, changed the dispatcher's contact with both ambulances from 1:10 to 1:19 PM.
5) The original Dallas police transcript shows the Dudley Hughes ambulance, number 602, arrived at the murder scene, at 1:10 P.M. The revised FBI transcript changed the arrival time of the Dudley Hughes ambulance from 1:10 to 1:19 PM.
6) The original Dallas police transcript shows the Veterans Administration ambulance, number 605, en route to the scene, at 1:10 PM. The revised FBI transcript changed the dispatcher's contact with the Veterans Administration ambulance from 1:10 to 1:19 PM.
7) The original Dallas police transcript shows the dispatcher acknowledged the Veterans Administration ambulance, number 605, was en route to the scene at 1:10 PM. The revised FBI transcript report changed the dispatcher’s contact with the Veterans Administration ambulance from 1:10 PM to 1:19 PM.
8) The original Dallas police transcript shows the dispatcher's contact with Dudley Hughes ambulance 602 at 1:10 PM. Ambulance driver Jason Butler tells the dispatcher, “from out here on 10th St., 500 block. This police officer’s just shot. I think he’s dead.” The revised FBI transcript changed the dispatcher's contact with Dudley Hughes from 1:10 PM to 1:19 P M.
The FBI’s revised transcript, which later became Commission Exhibit 1974, was given to the Warren Commission on August 25, only one month before the Warren Report was released. No more letters from Mr. Rankin. The Warren Commission ignored the Dallas Police transcript, Commission Exhibit 705, and based the time of the Tippit shooting at 1:16 PM as shown on the FBI's revised transcript, Commission Exhibit 1974. These changes in time were of little consequence to the Warren Commission and barely noticeable in the FBI's 106 page document. But the timing changes were, in fact, very significant. Changing the time of the shooting from 1:08 and 1:10 PM to 1:16 PM gave Oswald just enough time to walk from his rooming house at 1:01 PM to 10th & Patton at 1:16 PM and shoot Tippit.
In accordance with the above analysis, the following two documents show that Tippit was declared dead at Method Hospital by Dr. Richard Liguori at 1:15 pm.
Officer R A Davenport reported, "Met the ambulance carrying the wounded officer to the Methodist Hospital. We assisted in getting the officer to the emergency room." Officer Davenport observed the doctors and nurses trying to bring Tippit back to life and, at 1:15 PM, Dr. Liquori pronounced Tippit dead.
These documents offer additional evidence to show that the time stamps on the Dallas Police dispatcher transcripts were changed by the FBI. From the FBI’s amended transcript and the FBI reports of carefully selected witnesses, the Warren Commission concluded, “the shooting of Tippit has been established at approximately 1:15 or 1:16 p.m.” A seemingly small adjustment in the time of the Tippit shooting was all the FBI needed to show the Warren Commission that Oswald walked from his rooming house to 10th & Patton and shot Tippit at 1:16 PM. Since 1964 researchers have mistakenly relied upon the FBI's revised transcript, Commission Exhibit 1974, as to the time of the Tippit murder.
John Hart Ely, at age 26, was the youngest member to serve on the staff of the Warren Commission. Following the Warren Commission Mr. Hart was a professor of law at Yale for 5 years, at Harvard law for 9 years, Stanford law dean for 14 years, and was recognized as one of the most important constitutional scholars of his generation.
Mr. Hart’s assignment for the Warren Commission was to investigate the history and background of Lee Harvey Oswald and his family. It is important for us to remember that on April 10, 1964 Commission attorney Albert Jenner wrote to General Counsel Rankin, and I quote, “there are details in Mr. Ely’s memoranda which will require alteration and, in some cases, omission.” Alteration and omission of evidence relating to the background of Lee Harvey Oswald was required.
In 1975, Mr. Ely wrote, “But devising a coherent and credible theory to explain what happened in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963—one that isn't forced to hypothesize a number of duplicate Lee Harvey Oswalds—has proved quite a different matter.” "Mr. Ely was obviously aware of the possibility, in his own words, 'of duplicate Lee Harvey Oswalds.'"
Mr. Ely wrote, “We were all more innocent a decade ago. Since that time, to our collective sorrow, we have learned many things. We have learned, contrary to what once seemed common sense, that persons in high places will, at substantial risk to themselves, cover up for the misdeeds of subordinates who seem of little consequence.
"In 1964, one had to be a genuine radical to take seriously the thought that other Federal agencies were withholding significant information from the Warren Commission. In 1975, it would take a person of unusual naiveté to ignore that possibility.
"We have learned that investigative agencies are not the monoliths we once thought they were. Perhaps there is no realistic possibility that those in possession of the facts bearing on this issue will ever reveal them. But even that is something we are entitled to know."
Every American is entitled to be angry about the recent disclosures and accusations, but perhaps our entitlement is the greatest of all. Every American is entitled to know the facts and the truth about the assassination of President Kennedy and of Officer J.D. Tippet.
