Tippit Part 2
Framing Harvey Oswald for the Tippit Murder
The author believes that after HARVEY Oswald left his rooming house he did not walk to 10th & Patton, did not shoot Tippit, and did not walk to the Texas Theater.
Oswald was inside his rooming house on North Beckley Avenue changing his clothes when a police car drove by slowly, honked the horn, and slowly drove ahead. Oswald's landlady, Earlene Roberts, looked out the window and told the FBI the police car was number 207, with two men inside the car. The green dotted line in the photo shows Oswald walking from the rooming house to the corner of Beckley and Zang Blvd.
When Oswald came out of his small room Mrs. Roberts said "I noticed he had a jacket he was putting on. I recall the jacket was a dark color and it was the type that zips up the front." Correct, the same jacket HARVEY Oswald was wearing when he arrived at Wesley Frazier's house in Irving and the same jacket worn in William Whaley's taxi. Mrs. Roberts last saw Oswald standing on the corner of Beckley and Zang at 1:01-1:02 PM. Five minutes later HARVEY Oswald arrived at the Texas Theater, but was not wearing his dark colored jacket.
The author believes that it was Capt. Westbrook and Sgt. Croy who drove past Oswald's rooming house in police car #207. They honked the horn and then stopped near the corner of Beckley and Zang Blvd. HARVEY Oswald got into the police car and was driven 1.1 miles to the Texas Theater in less than two minutes. The green line in the photo shows the route driven by Westbrook, Croy, and HARVEY Oswald.
Westbrook drove the police car to the alley behind the theater, where HARVEY Oswald got out of the car. He was wearing a dark brown long sleeve shirt, but was not wearing the dark colored jacket that housekeeper Mrs. Roberts saw him zipping up as he left the rooming house. It appears that Oswald left this dark colored zippered jacket in police car #207.
Oswald probably walked thru a narrow passageway that extended from the alley to Jefferson Blvd., and was used as a fire escape from the theater. After emerging from the passageway and onto the sidewalk on Jefferson Blvd., Oswald turned right, walked 60-70 feet to the ticket booth, and purchased a movie ticket from cashier Julia Postal.
Theater employee Butch Burroughs said Oswald arrived at the theater around 1:07 PM. The only way Burroughs could have known what time HARVEY Oswald arrived was when Oswald gave Burroughs his theater ticket. A few minutes later, at 1:15 PM, Burroughs sold Oswald popcorn.
The Warren Commission, however, claimed that at 1:07 PM Oswald was walking from his rooming house to 10th & Patton and murdered Officer Tippit at 1:16 PM. After shooting Tippit, the Warren Commission said that Oswald hurried to the Texas Theater and snuck into the theater around 1:35 PM. The Warren Commission based their decision on the testimony of one young man, Johnny Brewer, a manager at Hardy's Shoe Store. Brewer told the Warren Commission that he stood on the sidewalk in front of his store and watched Oswald, who he said was wearing a dark brown long sleeve shirt, sneak into the Texas Theater. But how could Johnny Brewer have seen (HARVEY) Oswald sneak into the theater at 1:35 PM when (HARVEY) Oswald arrived at the theater a half hour earlier at 1:07 PM ?
The photo above shows the distance from Hardy's Shoe Store to the Texas Theater. Between the theater and the shoe store is the passageway thru which HARVEY Oswald walked from the alley and emerged onto the sidewalk.
The above photo on the left shows a view of the Texas Theater while standing in front of Hardy's Shoe store. The photo on the right shows the ticket booth, which is inset into the front of the building.
Johnny Brewer could not have seen Oswald sneak into the theater because of the location of the ticket booth. The ticket booth was and still is inset under the front of the building, about 8 feet from the sidewalk. A person buying a ticket or sneaking into the theater cannot be seen by anyone standing on the sidewalk, unless they are standing directly in front of the theater. Finally, the time that Brewer said he saw Oswald sneak into the theater is a major problem. How could Johnny Brewer have watched HARVEY Oswald, wearing a dark brown long sleeve shirt, sneak into the theater at 1:35 PM, when Oswald had purchased a theater ticket and entered the theater at 1:07 PM, and then purchased popcorn from Butch Burroughs at 1:15 PM?
Above is Brewer's handwritten and typed affidavit to the Dallas Police claiming that he saw Oswald, wearing a dark brown long sleeve shirt, momentarily stop at his shoe store and then sneak into the Texas Theater. Brewer's testimony before the Warren Commission is similar, but his story of watching Oswald sneak into the theater at 1:35 PM is contradicted by Butch Burroughs, who said Oswald was in the theater at 1:07 PM.
Julia Postal told the Warren Commission "we open daily at 12:45, sometimes may be 5, 4 minutes later or something, but that is our regular hours. Above is the movie program schedule for the Texas Theater. Cartoons began at 1:00 PM with the first movie beginning at 1:20 PM.
Jones Harris, a long time assassination investigator from New York City, arrived in Dallas the day after the assassination. Harris interviewed theater cashier Julia Postal in the office of the manager of the Texas Theater.
Harris asked Postal if she sold a ticket to the man arrested in the theater by the Dallas Police. Postal immediately burst into tears. Harris walked out of the office and returned a short time later. When Harris asked Postal a second time if she sold Oswald a ticket she again burst into tears. Harris was convinced that Postal knew that she sold HARVEY Oswald a ticket to the theater. Butch Burroughs told Texas researcher Jim Marrs that Postal knows that she sold Oswald a ticket. Burroughs also told researcher Jim Marrs that he knew that he had taken Oswald's ticket when he entered the theater and sold HARVEY Oswald popcorn around 1:15 PM.
HARVEY Oswald purchased a ticket from Julia Postal and entered the lower level of the Texas Theater wearing a long sleeve brown shirt over a white t-shirt. HARVEY Oswald was likely told that he was to meet up with his contact in the darkened theater, and confirm the contact's identity by matching the serial number on his half of a one dollar bill with the serial number on the other half of the same one dollar bill shown by his contact. This document, obtained by the author from the Dallas Municipal Archives, shows the serial numbers of the dollar bills found in Oswald's arrest wallet.
The police found halves of two different dollar bills in Oswald's wallet. This was a CIA method of clandestine contact. Wherever and whenever Oswald met his contact, this contact would provide confirmation of his or her identity by showing the other half of these dollar bills and confirm the serial numbers matched.
I do not believe that early on the morning of 11/22/63, when HARVEY Oswald left the Paine home in Irving, TX, that he had possession of these "half-dollar bills." And I do not believe that HARVEY Oswald knew anything about the upcoming assassination of President Kennedy early that morning.
Oswald told Capt. Fritz that he learned about the shooting when he was in the lunchroom. Oswald then needed to locate his supervisor, Bill Shelley, for advice and direction. I believe that it was Shelley who told Oswald to leave the building, to board the Marsalis Bus, and meet his contact at the Texas Theater. I further believe that it was Shelley who gave Oswald the two half-dollar bills. If not Shelley, then who?
Curiously, neither of these half-dollar bills were photographed, listed on the handwritten police inventory, the typewritten inventory, or the joint FBI/Dallas Police inventory of Oswald's possessions. At the National Archives, in Adelphi, MD, I inspected and handled each item of inventory listed on the joint FBI/Dallas Police inventory of 11/26/63. These items were not among the inventory nor were they ever mentioned by the Warren Commission. The ½ dollar bills were, however, described in detail on a Dallas Police inventory report. The CIA's David Atlee Phillips wrote in his 1977 autobiography about using similar techniques. Phillips wrote that when he would meet a contact at a movie theater, whom he didn't know, he carried with him a previously arranged item and recognized a pre-arranged coded phrase.
Oswald in the Texas Theater
After the shooting HARVEY Oswald was likely told that he was to meet up with his contact at the Texas Theater.After arriving at the theater, and buying a ticket, HARVEY Oswald walked to the lower level of the theater and took a seat next to Jack Davis in the first row on the right side. Eighteen year old Davis, who later became a minister in Dallas, remembered that Oswald was sitting next to him, in the nearly empty theater, as the opening credits to the movie began--a few minutes before 1:20 PM. After sitting next to Davis for a few minutes, Oswald got up and walked past empty seats to the small aisle on the right side of the theater and into the concession area. Davis watched HARVEY Oswald as he re-entered the theater and took a seat next to a man on the back row, directly across the aisle from Davis. Within a few minutes HARVEY Oswald got up and once again returned to the concession area. He returned a few minutes later and took a seat across the aisle from Mr. Davis, and then moved to another seat on the fourth row. It appeared to Davis as though HARVEY Oswald was looking for someone, perhaps a contact. Jack Davis was correct. HARVEY Oswald was looking for his contact.
But there was no contact for Oswald to meet. Oswald meeting a contact in the Texas Theater was a cleverly thought out ruse that was necessary in order to lure an unsuspecting HARVEY Oswald into the theater. But the conspirator's reason for Oswald's appearance at the theater was to make it appear as though he was hiding from the police. After moving from seat to seat HARVEY Oswald took a seat next to a pregnant woman, perhaps his contact in the theater. Oswald sat next to this woman for a few minutes, and then both Oswald and the woman got up from their seats. According to Butch Burroughs, the pregnant woman went to the restroom, disappeared, and was never seen again.
QUESTION: How likely is it that a pregnant woman would watch a war movie, alone, in a darkened theater, at 1:15 PM in the afternoon, and then disappear after sitting next to Oswald for a few minutes? The real reason for sending LEE Oswald to the theater may have been for HARVEY Oswald to take possession of the .38 revolver that was used to murder officer Tippit. The darkened theater also made it appear as though Oswald was hiding from the police.
Westbrook and Croy
I believe that after Westbrook and Croy dropped off HARVEY Oswald in the alley behind the theater, they drove police car #207 six blocks east thru the alley. This short drive is shown on the map in purple.
About 1:05 PM, as Westbrook was leaving the Texas Theater, LEE Oswald was seen by several people walking west near the corner of 10th St. & Marsalis, more than a mile south of HARVEY Oswald's rooming house. LEE Oswald, wearing a thin, light colored Eisenhower type jacket, was only three blocks north of Jack Ruby's apartment at 223 S. Ewing, where he was seen the night before the assassination by Helen McIntosh, a guest of Jack Ruby's next door neighbor.
Four blocks from Ruby's apartment, and only one block east of 10th & Patton, was a small, single story house at 511 E. 10th that was owned by attorney Dick Loomis, Sr., and his wife. Mrs. Loomis was a housewife and President of the Oak Cliff Fine Arts Club. She told FBI agents Griffin and Carter that a young couple, who were identical to LEE Harvey and Marina Oswald, lived next door in an apartment complex at 507 E. 10th (13 apartments) about a block from 10th & Patton.
Mrs. Loomis saw Marina and her infant child in front of her home and recalled that Marina had jet black hair. She said Marina wore very plain clothing and on one occasion wore a light blouse and a plaid skirt and on another occasion wore a dark blouse and the same plaid skirt. Mrs. Loomis may have seen the lady who was then living with LEE Oswald, but Marina was living at Ruth Paine's in Irving, Texas, and HARVEY Oswald was living in a room at 1026 N. Beckley. This was yet another of many sightings of LEE Oswald, with an unknown woman, impersonating HARVEY Oswald prior to the assassination.
On one occasion Mrs. Loomis saw a heavy-set man visit the apartment next door and thought it may have been Ruby. FBI agent James Hosty, who never met HARVEY Oswald face-to-face prior to November 22, 1963, told fellow FBI agent Carver Gayton that he left notes under Oswald's apartment door. But the Warren Commission reported that Harvey Oswald lived either at his rooming house, at 1026 N. Beckley, or at Ruth Paine's house in Irving, TX, neither of which was an apartment. Hosty did not leave notes at Oswald's rooming house at 1026 N. Beckley or at Ruth Paine's house in Irving, but Hosty could have left notes under the door at several of LEE Oswald's previous apartments, including 507 E. 10th, 1106 Diceman Avenue, or an apartment in Oak Lawn that Ruby rented for Oswald as reported by Dallas Police Department informant T-1. Hosty's familiarity with LEE Oswald may be the reason that following the assassination of President Kennedy FBI director Hoover ordered Hosty to have no further contact with HARVEY Oswald while Oswald was in police custody.
We know the Warren Commission said that Oswald walked from his rooming house at 1026 N. Beckley at 1:02 PM to 10th & Patton where he shot Tippit at 1:16 PM. But neither the Dallas Police nor the FBI located a single witness who saw Oswald walking south toward 10th & Patton. There were, however, many witnesses who saw LEE Oswald walking in a westerly direction on 10th St. for three blocks before reaching 10th & Patton. All of these witnesses were ignored by the Warren Commission.
Many people in the neighborhood watched LEE Oswald as he crossed Marsalis Ave. and walked east toward 10th & Patton. Mr. Clark worked as a barber in Oak Cliff at the 10th Street Barber Shop, 620 E. 10th, two blocks north of Jack Ruby's apartment. Mr. Clark may have been the first person to see LEE Oswald walking west on 10th Street, four blocks east of 10th & Patton. FBI agent Carl Underhill reported, "On the morning of 11/22/63 Clark had seen a man whom he would bet his life on was Oswald passing the shop in a great hurry and had commented on same to a customer in the chair." LEE Oswald continued walking west and passed by the Town and Country Cafe at 604 E l0th, crossed Marsalis Avenue, and continued walking west on l0th.
A few minutes after 1:00 PM William Lawrence "Red" Smith, working on a project one block east of 10th & Patton, began walking east toward the Town and Country Cafe for lunch. Smith told FBI agent Brookhart that he, "felt sure that the man who walked by him going west on 10th St. was LEE Harvey Oswald" (interview on 1/13/64). Tile workers James W. Archer and Jimmy Brewer were sitting in Archer's pick-up truck on the southeast corner of 10th & Denver. Brewer saw the same man walking west on 10th St. Jimmy Burt, 505 E. 10th, was across the street from the construction site where Smith was working and watched the same man as he continued walking west. Burt told FBI agents Christianson and Acklin this man was a white male, approximately 5'8", wearing a light short jacket (interview on 12/16/63). Burt said that he "caught a glimpse" of the shooter but "was never closer than 50-60 yards" to this man. William Arthur Smith told FBI agents Ward and Basham the man was "a white male, about 5'7" to 5'8", 20 to 25 years of age, 150-160 pounds, wearing a white shirt, light brown jacket and dark pants (interview on 12/13/63). Taxi driver William Scoggins was sitting in his taxi at the corner of 10th & Patton eating his lunch as a police car passed by driving east. Scoggins recognized Tippit as the driver in the police car and watched the young man as he approached the police car.
Officer Tippit lived with his wife and family at 238 Glencairn, 7 miles south of 10th & Patton, and was assigned to area 78 in South Oak Cliff. On November 22nd Tippit was in patrol district 91 in central Oak Cliff, several miles from his assigned district. Curiously, several of the people who witnessed the shooting of Officer Tippit near 10th & Patton either knew Tippit or were familiar with him, even though he was many miles from his assigned patrol area. Jimmy Burt, a witness to the Tippit shooting, knew Tippit "as an officer who frequented the neighborhood." Burt said, "This particular officer was known by the name 'Friendly' to the residents of that area." Taxi Driver William Scoggins said, "I wasn't paying too much attention to the man, you see, just used to see him every day." Witness Aquila Clemmons, who lived at the home of Mr. & Mrs. Smathers at 327 E. 10th, told researcher Mark Lane that she saw Tippit "all the time." Five witnesses at the nearby GLOCO station said they knew Tippit personally, yet the area around 10th & Patton was miles from his assigned patrol district.
Tippit's familiarity with local residents could be explained and understood by the Warren Commission testimony of Virginia Davis, who lived at 400 E. 10th, the house next door to where Tippit was shot and killed. Virginia Davis was asked by Commission attorney David Belin "Where was the police car parked?" Davis answered, and her answer is very important, "It was parked between the hedge that marks the apartment house where he (Tippit) lives in (410 E. 10th) and the house next door (404 E. 10th)." According to Virginia Davis, Officer Tippit was living in the house at 410 E. 10th, two houses east of Virginia's house. This house is actually a duplex apartment, with 410 E. 10th in the front and 408 E. 10th in the rear of the building. If Tippit was having an affair with a woman living in this house, this would explain not only his familiarity with local residents, but could also explain a familiar location where Tippit could meet up with LEE Oswald and Capt. Westbrook.
A police officer, driving a police patrol car, can park anywhere he chooses on a public street. The fact that Tippit stopped and parked directly in front of a private driveway is a strong indication that Tippit was told precisely where and when to park his patrol car. A minute or two before Westbrook and Croy arrived, Officer Tippit had parked his police car at the front entrance of a very narrow driveway that ran from 10th St. to the alley behind the houses. Tippit's scheduled meeting at 1:00 PM with LEE Oswald, Capt. Westbrook and Sgt. Croy was no accident.
View from Scoggins' taxi
As Tippit stopped, and parked his vehicle in front of the small driveway at 410 E. 10th, taxi driver Scoggins saw a young man walking west on 10th St. and watched the young man as he approached the police car. Scoggins told the Warren Commission the young man was wearing a light colored jacket, a white shirt, and dark trousers. The young man walking towards Tippit's car was LEE Oswald, who began talking with Tippit thru the passenger side car window.
Jimmy Burt and William Smith watched this young man as he walked west on 10th St, toward Patton. They soon saw a black police squad car driving east and slowly pull over to the curb. LEE Oswald casually walked over to the squad car and began talking with the officer through the passenger window.
As Tippit and LEE Oswald began talking Westbrook and Croy were driving east in the alley between 10th St. and Jefferson Blvd. They crossed Patton St. and turned police car #207 left onto a very narrow driveway between two houses at 404 and 410 E. 10th. The short drive from the Texas Theater took less than 2 minutes, and places their time of arrival at the Tippit murder scene at 1:05-1:06 PM. Westbrook and Croy, sitting in car #207, were now looking directly at LEE Oswald, as he was talking with Tippit thru the passenger side car window.
Jack Roy Tatum was driving west on 10th St. in his new, red, Ford Galaxie 500. As Tatum drove slowly past Tippit's squad car he saw a young white male with both hands in the pockets of his light colored zippered jacket leaning over the passenger side window of the squad car. Tatum said, "It looked as if Oswald and Tippit were talking to each other.... It was almost as if Tippit knew Oswald." Of course they knew each other. LEE Oswald was the same man that Tippit sat next to at the Dobbs Restaurant two days earlier. LEE Oswald and Tippit were both at the Top Ten Record store earlier that morning, while at the same time HARVEY Oswald was working at the Book Depository. Tatum said, "he had on a light colored zipper jacket, dark trousers and what looked like a t-shirt on." Tatum later told House Select Committee investigator Moriarty that he did NOT see LEE Oswald wearing a brown shirt, only a white t-shirt. While LEE Oswald, wearing a white t-shirt, was talking with Tippit, HARVEY Oswald, wearing a long sleeve brown shirt, was sitting in the Texas Theater.
Tippit then got out of his patrol car and began walking toward the police car for his pre-arranged meeting with Capt. Westbrook. As Tippit got out of his car LEE Oswald stood up and backed away from the patrol car. As Tippit began walking around the front of his car LEE Oswald pulled a .38 revolver and fired three shots. After Tippit fell to the ground LEE Oswald began to leave the scene and walked toward the back of Tippit's patrol car. He then stopped, returned to the front of the patrol car where Tippit was laying, and deliberately shot him in the head.
Jack Tatum had just driven past Tippit's patrol car and stopped his vehicle when he heard shots fired. Tatum saw the assailant--LEE Oswald--fire the 4th shot into Tippit's head. Tatum said, "whoever shot Tippit was determined that he shouldn't live and he was determined to finish the job."
Something or someone caused LEE Oswald to stop, turn around, hurry back to the front of Tippit's car and fire another shot into Tippit's head. Could Capt. Westbrook, who was getting out of police car #207 at the same time Tippit was shot, have said to LEE Oswald, "finish the job, make sure he's dead," or something similar? That could have caused LEE Oswald to stop, turn around, re-trace his steps, and then shoot Tippit in the head with a fourth shot.
After the young man shot Officer Tippit, he hurried across Virginia Davis's lawn at 400 East 10th St, and crossed over to the west side of Patton Street. Taxi driver Scoggins called his dispatcher (D.G. Graham) and reported that a police officer had been shot. The dispatcher then called for an ambulance, which arrived within two minutes according to Scoggins. The dispatcher then called the police. The dispatcher was probably the 4th citizen to call to the police (circa 1:07-1:08 PM).
Domingo Benavides and his 1958 yellow Chevrolet pickup
At 1:06 PM Domingo Benavides was driving his yellow 1958 Chevrolet pickup truck west on 10th St., about six car lengths behind Jack Tatum who was driving his red Ford Galaxie. Benavides was working as a mechanic at Dootch Motors, with Ted Callaway and Sam Guinyard, only one block south from the Tippit shooting. Benavides also worked a barber. As Benavides was driving his truck he approached the squad car and saw a policeman get out of the car and walk toward the front of the patrol car. He then saw a man, standing near the passenger door of the squad car, shoot Officer Tippit. Benavides told the WC he heard three shots. He immediately slammed on the brake of his pickup truck, turned toward the curb, and stopped. At this point Benavides was the closest witness to the shooting of Tippit, about 15 feet from the front of Tippit's squad car on the opposite side of the street.Domingo Benavides told the Warren Commission, "I heard the shot, and I just turned into the curb. Looked around to miss a car, I think. And then I pulled up to the curb, hitting the curb, and I ducked down, and then I heard two more shots... I looked up and the Policeman was in, he seemed like he kind of stumbled and fell....there was another car that was in front of me, a red Ford, I believe. I didn't know the man, but I guess he was about 25 or 30, and he pulled over. I didn't never see him get out of his car, but when he heard the scare, I guess he was about six cars from them, and he pulled over, and I don't know if he came back there or not." This man was Jack Tatum, who had only seconds earlier driven past Tippit's patrol car.
Benavides, sitting in his pickup, watched as the shooter, LEE Oswald, left the scene. He told the W.C., "then I seen the man turn and walk back to the sidewalk and go on the sidewalk and he walked maybe 5 foot and then kind of stalled. He didn't exactly stop. And he threw one shell and must have took five or six more steps and threw the other shell up, and then he kind of stepped up to a pretty good trot going around the corner.
Benavides was only 15 feet from Tippit's patrol car, and got a good look at Oswald. He told the Warren Commission, "I remember the back of his head seemed like his hairline was sort of--looked like his hairline sort of went square instead of tapered off and he looked like he needed a haircut for about 2 weeks. His hair didn't taper off, it kind of went down and squared off and made his head look flat in back." LEE Oswald's hair was accurately described by Domingo Benavides, who also worked as a barber. Benavides' description of the shooters hairline is important because HARVEY Oswald's hair was not "squared off." HARVEY Oswald's hairline, as we know from numerous photographs taken at the police station, extended well down his neck, past his collar line, and did not need a haircut as described by Benavides.
Benavides was so close to Tippit's body, about 12-15 feet from his pickup, that he almost surely saw the man who got out of the police car and approached Tippit's body after the shooting. He then saw the same man return to the police car and back up the police car into the alley. Benavides almost surely saw the policeman (Sgt. Croy) who was left at the scene of the shooting, wearing a blue/gray jacket. Benavides, however, dared not report that a police car and two Dallas police officers were on site and participated in the Tippit shooting. This may explain why, after picking up empty shell casings discarded by the shooter, that Benavides dared not give those shell casings to Sgt. Croy.
For Capt. Westbrook, Domingo Benavides posed a serious threat because he could link two Dallas police officers and their squad car to the Tippit murder. Benavides' brother was killed three months later, in February, 1964, and some researchers have wondered if Domingo, and not his brother, was the intended victum.
Mrs. Holan's view of the Tippit murder scene
Mrs. Doris Holan had just returned home from her job a few minutes after 1:00 PM when she heard several gunshots. From her 2nd floor bedroom window, directly across the street from Tippit's patrol car, she had an excellent view of the murder scene and saw Tippit lying on the street near the left front of his patrol car. Mrs. Holan observed the shooter as he was walking across Virginia Davis's lawn toward Patton St.. Mrs. Holan also noticed a 2nd police car parked in the narrow driveway between two houses directly across the street, which was car #207, occupied by Capt. Westbrook and Sgt. Croy. Tippit's patrol car was parked on 10th St., directly in front of the narrow driveway, and prevented the 2nd police car from driving onto 10th St. Mrs. Holan watched as a man, who I believe was Capt. Westbrook, get out of the police car and walk over to Tippit's body. The man appeared to observe the bullet wound on Tippit's head, and then quickly returned to the police car. If this man was not Capt. Westbrook, then who was it?Acquilla Clemmons was sitting on the porch at 327 E. 10th, about 1/2 block west and on the opposite side of 10th St. She told JFK researchers Mark Lane, Shirley Martin, Vince Salandria, George and Virginia Nash there were two men involved in the murder of Tippit. She told Mark Lane the shooter was a “short guy and kind of heavy,” who she saw reloading his gun while walking away. She saw the other man, tall and thin in khaki trousers and a white shirt, motion to the shooter to "go away...go on." The second man then hurried off in a different direction. Clemmons said that two days later a policeman, wearing a blue uniform, hat, and carrying a gun, told her that it was best if she didn't say anything about the murder of Officer Tippit. He said that she might get hurt if she talked about what she saw. Mrs. Clemmons told researcher Shirley Martin the policeman told her that she "might get killed on the way to work." Clemmons said, "they’ll kill people that know something about that. There’s liable to be a whole lot of them. There might be a whole lot of Oswalds and things. You know, you don’t know who you talk to, you just don’t know."
In 1990 a resident of the neighborhood was interviewed by JFK researcher Prof. Bill Pulte, on the condition of anonymity. This resident said that he heard that another man walked down the driveway and approached Officer Tippit just after the shooting.
In January, 1968, Playboy magazine interviewed Jim Garrison. In response to the Garrison interview a reader wrote to Playboy and said, “I read Playboy's Garrison interview with perhaps more interest than most readers. I was an eyewitness to the shooting of policeman Tippit in Dallas on the afternoon President Kennedy was murdered. I saw two men, neither of them resembling the pictures I later saw of Lee Harvey Oswald, shoot Tippit and run off in opposite directions. This was identical to what Acquilla Clemens told researchers. There were at least half a dozen other people who witnessed this. My wife convinced me that I should say nothing, since there were other eyewitnesses. Her advice and my cowardice undoubtedly have prolonged my life--or at least allowed me now to tell the true story....” This article was published in Playboy magazine, January 1968, Vol. 15, No 1, pg 11.
Police car #207, and the two occupants of the car parked between two houses on a very narrow driveway, were only seen by Doris Holan, the man who wrote to Playboy magazine, and likely seen by Domingo Benavides. Police car #207, parked between two houses, could not be seen by most witnesses to the shooting as shown in the image above. The location of the 2nd police vehicle, parked between the two houses on a very narrow driveway, was no accident. The precise location of this vehicle, and the arrival of Westbrook, Croy, Tippit, and LEE Oswald at the same time and at the same location is the best indication that Tippit's murder was pre-planned and involved both LEE Oswald and the occupants of the 2nd police vehicle. Each of these men knew they would meet at this location at 1:00 PM, but only Tippit was unaware of his fate.
After closely viewing Tippit's body, Capt. Westbrook hurried back to squad car #207, quickly backed up into the alley, and left Sgt. Croy at the scene. Sam Guinyard worked at the car lot across the alley from Virginia Davis' house. Guinyard saw a police car moments after the shooting driving in the alley. This was likely Capt. Westbrook, driving police car #207, who drove one block west and stopped momentarily on Crawford St. near the Abundant Life Church. Westbrooks short route while driving to the church can be seen by following the green line. LEE Oswald also hurried to the church and his route can be seen by following the red line.
Ted Callaway was working at Dootch Motors, located on the corner of Patton St. and Jefferson Blvd. This car lot was across the alley from where Virginia and Barbara Davis lived. Callaway heard the shooting, and soon saw the shooter hurrying south on Patton at a distance of about 60 ft.
Callaway described the shooter as a "white male, 27, 5'11", 165 lbs, black wavy hair, fair complected, wearing a light gray Eisenhower type jacket, dark trousers, and a white shirt." When interviewed filmed many years later, Callaway again said, "he had on a white Eisenhower type jacket and a white t-shirt".
While HARVEY Oswald was sitting in the Texas Theater, wearing a dark brown long sleeve shirt, the man who shot Tippit, LEE Oswald, was wearing a white t-shirt and light colored jacket. After the shooter began walking west on Jefferson Blvd. he disappeared from Callaway's view. Callaway then hurried a half block north to 10th & Patton.
Virginia Davis
Virginia Davis, who had just watched the shooter hurry across her lawn and around the corner of her house, walked over to Tippit's body and saw a policeman at the scene. Virginia told the Warren Commission:Mrs. Davis. We saw the boy cutting across the street.
Mr. Belin. Then what did you do or see?
Mrs. Davis. After he disappeared around the corner we ran out in the front yard and down to see what had happened.
Mr. Belin. Then is that when you saw the policeman?
Mrs. Davis. I saw the policeman lying on the street.
Mr. Belin. All right. Did you see or do anything else? Did you see anyone else that you know come up to the policeman?
Mrs. Davis. No sir; there was a lot of people around there.
Mr. Belin. Do you remember about what time of day this was?
Mrs. Davis. I wouldn't say for sure. But it was about 1:30, between 1:30 and 2.
Mr. Belin. All right, after this, did police come out there?
Mrs. Davis. Yes; they was already there.
Mr. Belin. By the time you got out there?
Mrs. Davis. Yes, sir.
Sgt. Croy was the police officer seen by Virginia Davis moments after LEE Oswald disappeared around the corner of her house. It is important to understand and remember that HARVEY Oswald was wearing his blue/grey jacket when he left his rooming house, but he was not wearing this blue/grey jacket when he arrived at the Texas Theater. I believe that HARVEY Oswald left his blue/grey jacket in police car #207. When Westbrook left Sgt. Croy at the scene of the Tippit murder, Croy briefly wore HARVEY Oswald's blue/grey jacket to cover the upper portion of his police uniform.
At 1:09 PM, a few minutes after the shooter and the man from the police car disappeared from sight, Domingo Benavides got out of his truck and walked about 15 feet to Tippit's squad car. He told the W.C., "I set there for just a few minutes...I got out of the truck and walked over to the policeman, and he was lying there and he had, looked like a big clot of blood coming out of his head, and his eyes were sunk back in his head, and just kind of made me feel real funny. I guess I was really scared. I went in and pulled the radio and I mashed the button and told them that an officer had been shot, and I didn't get an answer, so I said it again, and this guy asked me whereabouts all of a sudden, and I said, on 10th Street. I couldn't remember where it was at at the time. So I looked up and I seen this number and I said 410 East 10th Street...I put the radio back. I mean, the microphone back up, and this other guy was standing there." It is worth noting that Benavides's voice is not heard on the police dictabelt nor is his conversation with the police dispatcher recorded on the typewritten police transcript, which would have recorded 1:08-09 PM as the time Benavides spoke with the police dispatcher. This is a clear indication the police dictabelt and tapes were altered.
The other guy mentioned by Benavides was T. F. Bowley, standing by the drivers door of Tippit's patrol car. At 1:10 PM Bowley spoke briefly with the police dispatcher, and a few minutes later helped load Tippit's body into the ambulance. Bowley said he talked with a police sergeant at the scene. The name of the police sergeant that Bowley talked with was Sgt. Croy, who was the first and only police sergeant on the scene before and during the time Tippit's body was loaded into the ambulance.
Warren Reynolds
Warren Reynolds worked at Reynolds Motors on Jefferson Blvd, across the street from Dootch Motors and Ted Callaway. Both Callaway and Reynolds saw the shooter walking south on Patton near Jefferson Blvd.
Reynolds saw the shooter tuck a gun underneath his belt as he turned the corner and began walking west on the north side of Jefferson Blvd, as shown with the red line in the photo. Reynolds began to follow the shooter, by walking parallel to him but on the south side of Jefferson Blvd, as shown with the orange line in the photo.
After walking a half block west the shooter turned right at the Ballew Texaco Station. He then hurried thru the parking lot behind the station and crossed the alley at the rear of the Abundant Life Church.
Jimmy Burt, who hurried to 10th & Patton moments after the shooting, followed the shooter as he walked south on Patton St. Burt continued walking south on Patton St., following the shooter, who was wearing a light colored Eisenhower type jacket. Burt watched as the shooter turned right and began walking west on Jefferson Blvd. When Burt reached the alley between Jefferson Blvd and 10th St., he looked westward and saw the shooter walking north as he crossed the alley that was between the Texaco parking lot and the back side of the Abundant Life Church. The shooter was still wearing the light colored Eisenhower type jacket when he crossed the alley. In other words, the shooter had not discarded his light colored Eisenhower-type jacket in the parking lot behind the Texaco station. After crossing the alley LEE Oswald hurried to police car #207, parked on Crawford St. next to the Abundant Life Church, and got into the car as Westbrook quickly drove away.
Warren Reynolds, who was following the shooter, crossed Jefferson Blvd and began walking thru the car lot but lost sight of the shooter.
Westbrook in car 207
When LEE Oswald met up with Capt. Westbrook in car #207 he probably told Westbrook that someone was following him. To Capt. Westbrook this person, like Domingo Benavides, posed another very serious threat. It didn't matter if Reynolds actually saw LEE Oswald get into a police car. It only mattered if Capt Westbrook thought he did, because Warren Reynolds could then connect the man who shot Officer Tippit with the Dallas Police. For Capt. Westbrook this was potentially a very serious problem. Westbrook soon learned the identity of this unknown man by reading police reports of interviews with witnesses. Once Westbrook had identified this troublesome witness, the problem could be eliminated. Could this be the reason that Warren Reynolds, like Domingo Benavides' brother, was shot in the head two months later?On January 22, 1964, FBI agents Kesler and Mitchem showed a photograph of Lee HARVEY Oswald to Reynolds, at which time Reynolds advised the two agents that he would hesitate to definitely identify the man shown in the photograph as the shooter. The following day (January 23, 1964), at 9:00 PM, Warren Reynolds was shot in the head with a .22 caliber rifle. The prime suspect was Darrell Wayne Garner and he was arrested. Betty (Mooney) MacDonald, a former stripper at Jack Ruby's Carousel Club, provided an alibi for Garner and he was released.
Question: who in the Dallas Police Department authorized his release??Two weeks later, on February 13, 1964, Betty MacDonald was arrested for disturbing the peace. The next morning she was found dead, hanging from the ceiling in the jail cell with her toreador trousers.
After being shot in the head, Warren Reynolds changed his mind and identified HARVEY Oswald as the shooter. Domingo Benavides and Warren Reynolds may have had the information necessary to link Capt. Westbrook, Croy, and Dallas Police car #207 with the murder of Officer Tippit, but not if they were eliminated.
Capt. William Westbrook
Capt. Westbrook picked up LEE Oswald near the Abundant Life Church and drove him to the Texas Theater. At first Westbrook's driving LEE Oswald to the Texas Theater may seem bizzare, but minutes after Tippit was killed the Dallas police were hunting for the suspect, who was last seen walking west on Jefferson Blvd. If LEE Oswald had been stopped and arrested by the police anywhere between 10th and Patton and the Texas theater, the whole carefully planned operation to blame HARVEY Oswald for the murder of President Kennedy and Officer Tippit would have been compromised. If LEE Oswald was arrested by the police then HARVEY Oswald, sitting quietly in the Texas Theater when Officer Tippit was murdered, could not be blamed for killing Tippit nor be blamed for killing President Kennedy. Therefore, it was absolutely essential that LEE Oswald arrive quickly and safely at the Texas Theater. And who could drive LEE Oswald to the theater without fear of being stopped by police? Captain Westbrook.A few minutes later, at 1:14 PM, I believe that Westbrook and LEE Oswald arrived in the alley behind the Texas Theater. LEE Oswald gave Westbrook his wallet and his light colored jacket. LEE Oswald then got out of the police car, walked thru the narrow walkway from the alley to Jefferson Blvd, turned right, and walked to the ticket booth. LEE Oswald did not sneak into the theater. If he was seen sneaking into the theater then LEE Oswald, wearing a white t-shirt, would be the focus of attention for Julia Postal and Butch Burroughs. The last thing LEE Oswald wanted was to attract attention and risk being confronted by theater employees and possibly the police.
Lobby in the Texas Theater
At this point, LEE Oswald may also have tried to leave the theater. He could have walked down the rear stairway and out the exit door that opened into the alley. Waiting in the alley, behind the theater, was a young man standing next to a pickup truck with the engine running. If LEE Oswald had left the building, HARVEY Oswald would be sitting in the theater with the murder weapon. But Butch Burroughs, standing near the west exit door at the bottom of the stairs to the balcony from the concession stand, may have prevented his departure.
After driving LEE Oswald to the Texas Theater, Westbrook quickly drove police car #207 back to the Texas School Book Depository, arriving about 1:20 PM. This was the end of Westbrook's 40 minutes of driving police car #207 to Oswald's rooming house, to the Texas Theater, to the Tippit shooting, back to the Texas Theater, and returning car #207 to the Book Depository. Westbrook tried to account for these nefarious 40 minutes by lying to the Warren Commission and telling them that he walked from Police Headquarters to the Book Depository. After returning to the Book Depository it was very important for Capt. Westbrook to be seen at the Book Depository, before getting into his dark blue unmarked police car and driving to Oak Cliff in response to the Tippit shooting.
Car #207
Officer Jimmy Valentine drove car #207, with passengers Jim Ewell and Gerald Hill, from police headquarters to the Book Depository and then helped search the Book Depository. Capt. Westbrook, along with Sgt. Croy then got into car #207 and drove to Oak Cliff. Valentine should have been questioned by the Dallas Police, the FBI, or the Warren Commission and asked who had access to car 207 after he arrived at the Book Depository. But Valentine was not questioned by anyone. The Dallas Police resolved this problem with a "letter of explanation" that was prepared and given to Chief of Police Jesse Curry, who then forwarded this letter to the Warren Commission.
This "letter of explanation" claimed that car #207 was parked at the Book Depository all afternoon. But this letter was not written or signed by Officer Jimmy Valentine, or his Sergeant, or his Lieutenant, or his Platoon Commander Capt. Cecil Talbert. This letter was prepared and signed by the man in charge of the personnel department, Capt. W.R. Westbrook, the man who I believe drove car #207 past Oswald's rooming house (with Sgt. Croy) and was seen by Earlene Roberts.
Helen Markham and Sgt. Kenneth Croy
Following the shooting of Officer Tippit, Sgt. Croy kept a low profile and watched as witness Helen Markham approached Tippit's body, lying in the street. Croy told the Warren Commission that he walked to Tippit's body and stood by Helen Markham before the ambulance arrived. Markham told the Warren Commission, "This man had a hat on. I thought he was a policeman." Markham may have thought this man was a policeman because Croy was wearing a white police hat. But Croy was not carrying a gun and was probably wearing the blue/grey jacket that HARVEY Oswald left in car #207, which covered the upper portion of his police uniform.
Warren Commission attorney Burt Griffin asked Croy, "What did you do when you got there?" Croy answered, "Got me a witness... a woman standing across the street from me. I don't recall her name. She gave me her name at that time." Griffin asked, "How long did you talk with her?" Croy replied, "Oh, a good 5 or 10 minutes." In other words, Croy began talking with Markham from the time she knelt down and tried to talk with Tippit, and Croy continued talking with Markham until police units arrived on the scene at 1:22 PM. Croy told the Warren Commission that he was at 10th & Patton for "a good 30 minutes." Croy said, "as I got ready to leave, there was another report that he ran into the Texas Theater, a man fitting Oswald's description had ran into the Texas Theater."
Before the ambulance arrived Croy removed HARVEY Oswald's blue/grey jacket and placed it over the upper portion of Tippit's body. This was the jacket that HARVEY Oswald wore to work, wore in the bus and taxi, was wearing when he left the rooming house, and this was the jacket that he left in police car #207.
This is the blue/grey jacket that HARVEY Oswald was wearing when seen by Wesley Frazier's sister Linnie Mae Randle (circa 7:30 AM), seen by Roy Milton Jones on the Marsalis bus (circa 12:40 PM), seen by taxi driver William Whaley (circa 12:50 PM), seen by housekeeper Earlene Roberts when (HARVEY) Oswald left the rooming house (circa 1:01 PM), left in police car #207 (circa 1:05 PM), and placed on Tippit's body by Sgt. Croy (circa 1:09 PM).
Ambulance driver Jasper Clayton Butler, Jr. told the House Select Committee on Assassinations that after arriving at the scene, he removed a "royal blue coat" from Tippit's body. Jasper probably gave this blue/grey jacket to Sgt. Croy, the only police officer at the scene, before loading Tippit's body into the ambulance. I believe that after Westbrook arrived at 10th and Patton and showed fellow police officers identification from a 2nd Oswald wallet, Croy gave this jacket to Westbrook. Within the next two weeks I believe that Westbrook gave this coat to William (Bill) Shelley, who placed the coat on a window sill in the domino room at the Book Depository.
This jacket was "found" on December 16, 1963 on a window sill in the domino room at the Book Depository by employee Frankie Kaiser. The Warren Commission identified this jacket as CE #163, the same jacket that was identified by Linnie Mae Randle. Following the assassination of President Kennedy, HARVEY Oswald left the book depository wearing this blue/grey jacket over a long sleeve dark brown shirt, while LEE Oswald wore a light colored Eisenhower type windbreaker/jacket over a white t-shirt.
Ambulance driver Jasper Clayton Butler told the HSCA, "I was on the scene one minute or less." With Croy nearby, Tippit's body was loaded into the ambulance, before any Dallas Police officers arrived, and driven to the nearby Methodist hospital.
Butler said, "From the time we received the call in our dispatch office until Officer Tippit was pronounced dead at Methodist Hospital was approximately four minutes." Butler's memory and testimony was near perfect. At 1:11 PM, five minutes after Tippit was shot at 1:06 PM, Dallas patrolmen R. A. Davenport and W. R. Bardin were in their patrol car when they heard over the police radio of a shooting on 10th St. in Oak Cliff. While en route to the scene of the shooting they saw and followed an ambulance to the Methodist Hospital at 1441 N. Beckley, which was 1.4 miles from 10th & Patton.
Upon arrival at the Methodist Hospital at 1:14 PM, both officers helped get Tippit into the emergency room where he was observed by doctors and nurses as they tried to bring Tippit back to life. Tippit was pronounced dead at 1:15 PM by Dr. Liquori. The Warren Commission said Tippit was pronounced dead at 1:25 PM.
Time of the shooting by witnesses is 1:06 PM
For HARVEY Oswald to be blamed for the Tippit shooting, there had to be enough time for him to leave his rooming house at 1:01-1:02, walk to 10th & Patton, and shoot Tippit at 1:16 PM. But there were many witnesses who said the shooting occurred between 1:00 PM and 1:06 PM, which meant there was not enough time for HARVEY Oswald to have walked from his rooming house to 10th & Patton and shoot Tippit.About 1:00 PM Frank Cimino, who was living in his brother's apartment (#7) at 403 E. 10th St., heard four shots. He ran outside and saw a police car parked across the street and a police officer lying on the ground. He walked to the police car and briefly stood beside Helen Markham, as Officer Tippit lay dying or dead on the street.
At approximately 1:00 PM Francis Kinneth heard two or three shots and saw a policeman laying on the pavement near the front of his police car.
Elbert Austin was working as a brick mason's helper on a construction job at the intersection of Tenth and Denver Street, Dallas, Texas. He told the FBI that he heard two or three shots around 1:00 PM. He looked in a westerly direction and saw a policeman lying in front of a police car. Austin saw an individual running west on Tenth Street and then turn left on Patton St. He remained at work and did not go to the scene of the shooting.
At 1:06 PM Mrs. Margie Higgins, who lived at 417 East 10th St., was watching television. She told reporters, "Well, I was watching the news on television and for some reason the announcer turned and looked at the clock and said the time was six minutes after one....1:06 PM. At that point I heard the shots." Mrs. Higgins described the shooter and said, "He definitely was not the man they showed on television." Mrs. Higgins was perhaps the first citizen to call the police.
At 1:06 PM taxi driver William Scoggins, sitting in his taxi at 10th &Patton, heard three shots.
Mrs. Doris Holan lived directly across the street from the Tippit shooting, on the 2nd floor at 409 E Tenth Street. She heard shots at 1:06 PM, ran to her bedroom on the 2nd floor, look out the window, and saw the shooter hurrying toward Patton St.
Mrs. Frank Wright lived at 501 East 10th St, a half block from where Tippit was shot. At 1:06-1:07 PM she heard 3 shots, looked out her window, and saw a man lying in the street. She ran to her phone, dialed "0," and said to the operator, "Call the police, a man's been shot." When the police received Mrs. Wright's call they pushed a button that connected directly with the ambulance dispatcher. An ambulance was dispatched immediately from Dudley Hughes ambulance service at 400 E. Jefferson Blvd, less than two blocks from 10th & Patton. She was likely the 2nd person to call the police.
Mrs. Wright's husband, Frank Wright, ran outside and saw "a woman come down from her porch, about three or four doors from the intersection of 10th & Patton, the same side of the street as Tippit's car.... I heard her shout, 'Oh, he's been shot!,' throwing up her hands. Then she went back up toward the house." This woman, Mrs. Ann McCravey who lived at 404 east Tenth Street, was never interviewed by the Dallas Police, the FBI, or the Warren Commission. She was, however, interviewed by British Broadcasting.
1:06-1:07 PM. Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig was searching the sixth floor of the Book Depository, when a rifle was found. Craig wrote, “… At that exact moment a Dallas police officer came running up the stairs and advised Capt. Fritz that a policeman had been shot in the Oak Cliff area. I instinctively looked at my watch. The time was 1:06 PM."
At 1:06-1:07 PM Barbara Jeanette Davis heard the shots, walked to her front door, and saw the shooter walking thru her yard toward Patton Street. She then called the police and reported that a police officer had been shot. Barbara Davis was probably the third citizen to call the police.
At 1:06-1:07 PM Jimmy Burt said he heard six shots and, within seconds, drove with his friend William Smith in his 1952 two-tone Ford one-half block west to the scene of the shooting. After the assassination, Burt and Smith were shown HARVEY Oswald's photograph and both men said this was not the man who shot Tippit.
Burt's observation of the shooter and his memory of events are very important for two specific reasons:
1) When Burt first saw the shooter hurrying south on Patton Street, he was wearing a light colored Eisenhower type jacket. When Burt saw the same man, as he left the parking lot behind the Texaco station and began walking across the alley toward Crawford Street, the shooter (LEE Oswald) was wearing the same light colored jacket. IN OTHER WORDS, THE SHOOTER HAD NOT DISCARDED HIS JACKET IN THE PARKING LOT BEHIND THE TEXACO STATION.
2) When Jimmy Burt returned to the scene of the shooting the ambulance had not yet arrived, but Burt said people were talking to a policeman. The only policeman present at the scene of Tippits' murder, prior to the ambulance arriving, was reserve officer Sgt. Kenneth Croy.
The FBI's timing of Tippit's murder
The FBI and Warren Commission ignored witnesses who placed the time of the Tippit shooting at 1:06 PM. The time of the shooting had to be at least 7-8 minutes later because Oswald needed at least 14 minutes to walk from his rooming house to 10th & Patton. If the Tippit shooting occurred at 1:06 PM, then Oswald would have only had 3 minutes to walk to 10th & Patton, which was impossible and would have showed that HARVEY Oswald could not have murdered Tippit. The times recorded on the police dictabelts and disks had to be changed.The Dallas Police dictabelts and disks were sealed on the afternoon of 11/22/63 and given to the FBI. The FBI quickly learned that the times on the dictabelts and disks had to be changed. HARVEY Oswald was last seen near his rooming house at 1:00-1:01 PM. The time required for him to walk from his rooming house to the scene of the Tippit shooting was a minimum of 14-16 minutes. This would fix the time of the shooting at about 1:16 PM or later. However, according to numerous witnesses Officer Tippit was shot and killed ten minutes earlier, about 1:06 p.m. Frank Cimino, Elbert Austin, and Francis Kinneth thought the time was slightly earlier… closer to 1:00 PM.
The timing of the shooting was critical, because if the shooting did occur at 1:06 PM, then HARVEY Oswald could not have walked to 10th & Patton in 3-4 minutes and could not have shot Tippit. During the past sixty years numerous researchers have relied on the times noted on the Dallas Police typewritten transcripts. They have argued continuously as to whether or not Oswald could have walked from his rooming house at 1026 N. Beckley to 10th & Patton in 14 to 16 minutes. Warren Commission supporters claim there was sufficient time for Oswald to have walked to 10th & Patton and shot Tippit, while Warren Commission critics claim there was not sufficient time. Unfortunately, researchers' efforts in his regard have been a total waste of time. The original Dallas Police dictabelts and disks recorded the time when Benavides, Bowley, Callaway, L.J. Lewis, Mrs. Frank Wright, Margie Higgins, and taxi driver Scoggins' dispatcher reported the shooting to the police dispatcher. These dictabelts and disks were sealed on 11/22/63 and given to the FBI. The times recorded on the original dictabelts and disks were altered or deleted to show the time of the shooting occurred at 1:16 PM. The Warren Commission received three typewritten transcripts of police logs which, if all transcripts were transcribed from the same dictabelts and disks, they would all be identical. However, all three of the typewritten transcripts are different. From the altered dictabelts and disks the Warren Commission concluded “the shooting of Tippit has been established at approximately 1:15 or 1:16 p.m.” Researchers should have focused their attention on the transcripts and questioned why they were different. A close examination of the Dallas Police dictabelts and disks would have provided the answer.
Dallas police sergeant J.C. Bowles, the radio-room supervisor who prepared transcripts for the Warren Commission, stated that a few days after the assassination federal agents ”borrowed” the original police Dictabelt and at the time he was "under the impression that they took the tapes to a recording studio in Oklahoma."
Dr. James Barger, chief acoustic scientist for the HSCA studied the police tapes and discovered a break in the sixty-cycle hum background tone. He found two separate tones on the tape, which could result only from copying. In March, 1982, the dictabelts were examined by experts and found to have evidence of alteration.
Dallas researcher Gary Mack interviewed Bowles, who told Mack that he could not give any assurance that the belts which were returned by the FBI to the Dallas Police were the same belts which the Dallas Police gave to the FBI. If people are interested in the alteration of times on the police dictabelts, and how the alterations were done, I have prepared a detailed analysis that can be found on the Harvey and Lee website in an article entitled, "The Pre-Arranged Murder of J.D. Tippit."
