Tippit Part 4
In the next portion of this essay I will discuss how Oswald's behaviour
changed as he came to realize that he was being framed for murder. His
repeated requests for legal help were ignored and thwarted by Capt.
Fritz who repeatedly told the press that Oswald could have whatever
lawyer he wanted.
Capt. Westbrook said that around 2:03 PM, ten minutes after HARVEY
Oswald was arrested, he got into a car with Sergeant Stringer that was
driven by patrolman Roy L. Gross. Westbrook said that he notified the
police dispatcher, "Notify my office, I'm en route, will you?"
Westbrook would have arrived at police headquarters around 2:10 PM.
2:00 PM When HARVEY Oswald arrived at police headquarters
there was a tremendous amount of people on the 3rd floor of City Hall
and in Fritz's office. Oswald was asked if he wanted to cover his face
from reporters. Oswald said, "Why should I ? I haven't done anything to
be ashamed of." Officers Hill, Bentley, Walker and McDonald were told
by Lt. Baker to take Oswald across the hallway to burglary and theft.
Bentley gave Oswald's arrest wallet to Lt. Baker and went to the
personnel office to fill out an arrest report.
Oswald was left in the room with Officer Walker, who asked, "Now, what
is your name?" He replied, "My name is Lee Harvey Oswald. "Where do you
work?" Oswald said, "Texas School Book Depository." Walker asked,"Why
did you kill the officer?.....Did you kill the officer because you were
scared of being arrested for something?" Oswald looked a Walker and
said, "I am not scared of anything. Do I look like I am scared now?"
Walker remembered that Oswald did not look like he was scared. Oswald
was calm, and he was not a bit nervous.
Hill takes the .38 revolver to Westbrook's office
Sgt. Hill returned to police headquarters and brought the .38 revolver
taken from HARVEY Oswald to Westbrook's office. This gun should have
been taken immediately to Homicide and Robbery, but Hill brought the
gun to the personnel office. Why? The gun allegedly taken from Oswald
in
the theater remained in Capt. Westbrook's personnel office for the next
hour. This .38 revolver, allegedly used to murder Tippit, was
then initialed by police officers in Westbrook's office, circa 3:15 PM,
given to Homicide and Robbery, and turned over to the FBI later that
evening. I say this .38 revolver was "allegedly used to murder
Tippit," because we will never know, and will never be able to
prove, whether or not this particular gun was the murder weapon. We
don't know where, when, or how HARVEY Oswald obtained the revolver that
was taken from him in the theater. We don't know who, when, or if this
revolver was given to Oswald. For example, was the .38 revolver
used to murder Officer Tippit by LEE Oswald given to a contact in the
theater and then given to HARVEY Oswald in the theater? Was HARVEY
Oswald given a .38 revolver when he was driven from his rooming house
to the theater? Did HARVEY Oswald pick up the .38 revolver from his
rooming house while changing clothes? Did the police plant this .38
revolver on Oswald? And we don't know if the .38 revolver allegedly
taken from Oswald at the theater and placed in Capt. Westbrook's office
was somehow switched for the .38 revolver used to murder Officer Tippit.
Gerry Hill told the Warren Commission, "a few minutes later Captain
Westbrook came in the office and said that our suspect had admitted
being a Communist. This is strictly hearsay. I did not hear it myself.
And at about this point Captain Westbrook suggested that I change the
heading of my report to include Oswald as the name of the suspect in
the assassination of the President and in the murder of Officer J. D.
Tippit, which I did.... I left it with the captain to be typed."
Capt. Westbrook, head of the personnel department, involved with
the Tippit murder, the 2nd Oswald wallet, and with the framing HARVEY
Oswald for the Tippit murder, was now telling Sgt. Hill to include
Oswald in the arrest report charging him with the murder of President
Kennedy.
Around 2:15 PM, Capt. Fritz, Det. Boyd, and Det. Sims returned
from the Book Depository to police headquarters. Boyd told the Warren
Commission that he and Sims moved Oswald from the room in burglary and
theft to Fritz's office. Boyd said, "it was around 2:20 when we took
him out." Lt. Baker advised Capt. Fritz that the suspect's name was Lee
Harvey Oswald, and placed HARVEY Oswald's arrest wallet on the table in
Fritz's office.
In Oswald's arrest wallet there was a Fair Play for Cuba card with the
name "A.J. Hidell, but without a photograph. Walker said, "I went
inside and Oswald sat down, and he was handcuffed with his hands behind
him. I sat down there, and I had his pistol, and he had a card in there
with a picture of him and the name A. J. Hidell on it." In Walker's
report to Chief Curry he said nothing about a card in Oswald's arrest
wallet with the name "A.J. Hidell." Four months later Walker told the
Warren Commission that he saw a card with Oswald's photo and the name
A.J. Hidell, but his testimony is highly suspect. The first problem
with Walker's testimony is that there never was an identification card
in the arrest wallet with Oswald's photo and the name "A.J. Hidell."
The second problem with Walker's testimony is that Officer Gerry Hill
had possession of Oswald's pistol from the Texas Theater, circa 1:52 PM
and took it directly to Westbrook's office. At 3:15 PM Lt. Baker picked
up the pistol and took it to the Homicide Department. When interviewed
by the House Select Committee in 1978 Walker said, "Being alone in
there with him made me think. He could still have a weapon, so I
searched him good but found nothing."
2:20 PM. Moments after Oswald was moved to Fritz's office Det.
Gus Rose, Richard Stovall and Adamsik arrived and briefly examined the
arrest wallet. Neither Rose nor Stovall said anything about the name
"Hidell" in their written reports. However, four months after the
assassination Det. Stovall told the Warren Commission there was a card
with the name "A. Hidell," which was partially correct. The name A.J.
Hidell was on Oswald's New Orleans Fair Play for Cuba Card, but there
was no card with the name A. Hidell. Rose told the Warren Commission,
"the first thing I asked him was what his name was, and he told me it
was Hidell." Rose's testimony is much the same as other police officers
who said nothing in their written reports about the name Hidell on
November 22, but when questioned by the Warren Commission four months
later several police officers were suddenly able to remember a card
with Oswald's photo and the name Hidell. Rose asked Oswald if he owned
a gun. Oswald replied, "I don't own a gun....I didn't have
that gun....they planted that on me when they arrested me."
2:20-2:23 PM Just before Fritz began to question Oswald
something very interesting happened. Capt. Fritz was told by a fellow
police officer that (HARVEY) Oswald resided in a rooming house on
Beckley. Fritz told the Warren Commission, "When I started to talk to
this prisoner or maybe just before I started to talk to him, some
officer told me outside of my office that he had a room on Beckley, I
don't know who that officer was.... Commission Attorney Joseph Ball
asked Fritz, "Some officer told you that he thought this man had a room
on Beckley?" Fritz answered, "Yes, sir." Capt. Fritz had a reputation
for being able to remember minute details of investigations that
occurred years earlier. Yet Capt. Fritz said he could not remember the
name of the officer who told him the address of the man accused of
killing President Kennedy and murdering Officer Tippit !! It is worth
remembering that Fritz said the person who told him that Oswald had a
room on Beckley was an "officer." Not a "patrolman" or "detective" but
an "officer." I believe this officer was Westbrook, and I also believe
that during their brief discussion Westbrook gave Fritz the 2nd Oswald
wallet from the Tippit murder scene with identification for Alex James
Hidell.
Warren Commission attorneys were interested in trying to identify the
police officer who knew Oswald's address before he was arrested.
Attorney David Belin asked Sgt. Hill six times if he knew or had heard
anyone mention Oswald's address, to which Hill answered, "No." Attorney
Belin asked Officer Bob Carroll if he knew or had heard anyone mention
Oswald's address, to which Carroll answered, "No." The Warren
Commission never did find out which Dallas Police officer knew Oswald's
address before he arrived at police headquarters. Who in the Dallas
police department, with access to Capt. Fritz only moments after Oswald
was brought into Fritz's office, would have any legitimate reason to
know HARVEY Oswald's address prior to November 22? The officer told
Fritz that Oswald had a room on Beckley was most likely the same
officer who drove by Oswald's rooming house one hour earlier and honked
the horn....Capt. William Westbrook. If not Westbrook, then who??
It is important to understand there are no police reports of Westbrooks
whereabouts on the afternoon of November 22nd. No reports of Westbrook
driving to Oak Cliff with Sgt. Croy, driving by Oswald's rooming house,
participating in the Tippit shooting, showing Alex James Hidell
identification at 10th & Patton, or Oswald being driven to police
headquarters in Westbrook's unmarked police car. And there are no
reports of Westbrooks activities after he returned to the police
station.
We must remember that FBI agent Bob Barrett said that he last saw the
2nd Oswald wallet at 10th & Patton in the hands of Capt. Westbrook,
which was around 1:43 PM. Twenty-five minutes later Westbrook arrived
at police headquarters. In my opinion, Westbrook knew that he had to
distance himself from the 2nd wallet, just like he had to distance
himself from driving his unmarked police car from police headquarters
to the Book Depository, distance himself from Oswald's jacket, distance
himself from the Tippit murder, and distance himself from police car
#207. After returning to police headquarters, at 2:10 PM, I believe
that Westbrook tried to distance himself from the 2nd wallet by giving
the wallet to Capt. Fritz. Now there were two Oswald wallets on the 3rd
floor of the Dallas police station.
JFK researcher and author Dale Myers examined Oswald's arrest wallet
and the 2nd wallet shown to police officers at the Tippit murder scene
by Capt. Westbrook. After examining photos of both wallets, shown here
and shown in Myers book "Without Malice," Myers correctly concluded
these were two different wallets.
The wallet shown below on the left, with square corners, is the wallet
shown by Westbrook at 10th & Patton. The wallet shown on the right
is Oswald's brown arrest wallet, removed from his pocket by Det.
Bentley while en route to police headquarters.
Capt. Fritz didn't know the contents of the 2nd wallet, and had not yet
seen Oswald's brown colored arrest wallet that was laying on the table
in his office. But Fritz almost certainly knew that a 2nd Oswald
wallet, given to him by Westbrook, meant that someone was trying to
frame Oswald for Tippit's murder. Fritz needed time to inspect the
contents of both wallets, and then decide how to deal with the problem
of two Oswald wallets. Fritz also needed to figure out how to keep a
2nd Oswald wallet hidden from the press and from the public.
After Capt. Fritz was told that Oswald had a room on Beckley St., he
went to his small office, and began to interrogate Oswald at 2:30
PM. Oswald was sitting in a chair, handcuffed, with his arrest
wallet laying on the table. When first questioned by the arresting
officers Oswald was self-assured and in complete control. Fritz asked
Oswald where he lived. Oswald explained to Fritz that his wife and
children lived with Ruth Paine in Irving, but he had a room at 1026
Beckley. Fritz then stepped out of his office and told Rose and Stovall
to get a search warrant and go to the Paine's home in Irving. When the
officers arrived at Mrs. Paine's home she opened the door and said,
"It's about the President being shot. We've been expecting it. Come on
in." Detective Rose asked Mrs. Paine why she was expecting the police
and she replied, "I knew someone would be out here to talk to us about
Lee as soon as I saw where the President was shot from." Rose recalled,
"Now, at that time, there was no mention made of his arrest because he
had not yet been properly identified and the name of the arrested
person had not been released." After further discussion Fritz realized
that Oswald's address on Beckley was on "North" Beckley, instead of
"South" Beckley. Fritz then again stepped outside of his office and
instructed officers Senkel, Potts, and Cunningham to obtain a search
warrant and go to 1026 N. Beckley.
About 45 minutes later Fritz was joined by FBI agents Hosty and
Bookhout. Oswald told Fritz that he spoke with William Shelley after
the shooting and went to the domino room to pick up his blue/grey
jacket before leaving the building. Hosty told the Warren Commission
that during the interrogation, "Oswald emphatically denied shooting
anyone." FBI Agent Bookhout said, "he was, he gave an emphatic
denial that is about all I can recall." During Oswald's first
interrogation nobody brought up the name Hidell. In a subsequent FBI
report by Hosty and Bookhout and a police report by Fritz, the name
Hidell was not mentioned.
At 4:20 PM Officer Marrion Baker was sitting outside Fritz's
office and overheard Oswald being questioned. Baker told the House
Select Committee that he heard someone ask Oswald, "Did you kill
the President? Did you kill the President?"Oswald replied, "That's
absurd! I want a lawyer! I want a lawyer!"Oswald's remarks about
wanting a lawyer, only 2 hours after he was
arrested, were not recorded nor reported by Fritz. When Oswald was
taken to his second lineup, he yelled to the press, "I didn't shoot
anyone!"
Around 3:30 PM, Det. Bentley was interviewed by WFAA-TV. En
route to
the police station Sgt. Hill asked Det. Bentley to see if their suspect
had any identification. Bentley removed Oswald's wallet from his rear
pocket and told reporters that he found identification in the wallet
for "Lee Harvey Oswald." The card Bentley looked at was Oswald's
library card, with the name Lee Harvey Oswald. It appears, from
Bentley's testimony, this was the only item he looked at in Oswald's
wallet, which seems odd. As a professional police detective he should
have examined all of the contents in Oswald's wallet.
Around 3:00 PM Sgt. Gerry Hill, a former television news reporter, was
interviewed by reporters on camera. Hill told newsmen, "The only way we
found out what his name was, was to remove his billfold and check it
ourselves; he wouldn't even tell us what his name was." During the
interview a reporter asked Hill, "What was the name on the billfold?"
Hill replied, "Lee H. Oswald, 0-S-W-A-L-D." No mention at all of the
name Hidell. During the ride to police headquarters there was no
mention of any identification for Alek James Hidell. Hill then
began
talking with the reporters about Oswald's "defection," his life in the
Soviet Union, his Russian wife. When a reporter asked Hill how he knew
about Oswald's activities in the Soviet Union, Hill said "Westbrook
told me!" It was obvious that on November 22,
Captain Westbrook knew far too much about HARVEY Oswald.
A few minutes after 4:00 PM Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels talked
to Oswald in Fritz's office. Oswald said, "What am I going to
be charged with? Why am I being held here? Isn't someone supposed to
tell me what my rights are? It is obvious to agent Sorrels that Oswald
had no idea of what he was being accused of.
Harold E. McDervid, a lawyer from Chicago, tried to contact Oswald via
telephone thru the Dallas police to offer his legal services, but was
unsuccessful. He then sent a telegram to Oswald, but never received a
reply.
At the end of Oswald's 1st interrogation SA James Hosty was approached
by an FBI Counterintelligence agent who ordered him to have no further
discussions with Oswald and conduct no investigations into
Oswald's
background.
By 6:20 PM, only 4 hours after Oswald was arrested, his demeanor had
shifted from that of a confident, self-assured, somewhat arrogant
individual to that of a man who was concerned enough about his
predicament to be insisting on a lawyer and denying that he killed
anyone. At 6:30 P.M., on his way to a lineup, Oswald shouted to
reporters, "I didn't shoot anyone, "I want to get in touch with a
lawyer, Mr. Abt, in New York City, I never killed anybody."
At 6:37 PM while walking thru the hall back to Fritz's office,
Oswald responded to reporter's questions and said "I don't know where
you people get your information. I haven't committed any acts of
violence..... I want to get in touch with a lawyer, Mr. Abt, in New
York City.... I never killed anybody."
According to SS Agent Forrest Sorrels it
was vey difficult for anyone to get to the 3rd floor of the police
station. Sorrels told the Commission, "..... almost every time I went
up
there, definitely after the 22nd, I would have to identify myself to
get in past the entrance of the elevator on the third floor....Many
times I would be going to the third floor area there, they would start
to stop me.... I would have to go ahead and identify myself.''
WFAA-TV employee Vic Robertson saw Jack Ruby try to enter Captain
Fritz's office when Oswald was being questioned, but was stopped by two
uniformed officers who were stationed outside. It would appear that a
Dallas police officer or police official allowed Ruby access to the 3rd
floor.
At 7:10 PM Justice of the Peace David Johnston came to Fritz's
office.
Oswald was told that he was being charged with the murder of Officer
J.D. Tippit. Assistant District Attorney Bill Alexander said that
Oswald, "disclaimed any knowledge of anything." When Oswald was removed
from Fritz's office reporters heard Oswald say that he was given a
hearing without any legal representation, and denied that he shot
anyone.... "I insist upon my constitutional rights. The way you are
treating me, I might as well be in Russia."
Between 2:30 PM and 7:30 PM HARVEY Oswald was taken to
police line-ups several times, while his arrest wallet remained on the
table in Fritz's small office. This photo, taken on November 22, shows
the entrance to the Homicide and Robbery Department with Fritz's small
office inside and on the right. In the hallway are two uniformed
policemen who were instructed not to let anyone in the Homicide office
without permission. Only police Captains and assistant Police Chiefs
had unlimited access to Fritz's office.
I believe that Will Fritz, as Captain of Homicide & Robbery since
1932, clearly understood the purpose of the 2nd Oswald wallet, shown to
fellow police officers by Capt. Westbrook at the Tippit murder scene.
The purpose of this wallet was to frame HARVEY Oswald for Tippit's
murder. But a 2nd wallet could also have alerted the public and the
press to the possibility of two Lee Harvey Oswalds. The 2nd wallet
could never be entered into evidence, never photographed, and never
mentioned by any Dallas police officer to anyone. The 2nd wallet from
10th & Patton had to disappear, and could never be discussed or
shown to the Warren Commission, the public, or to the press. Somehow,
information and knowledge of the 2nd wallet, known to many Dallas
police officers and officials, had to be kept secret.
District Attorney Henry Wade
District Attorney Henry Wade worked with Capt. Fritz for many years.
Wade told the Warren Commission "Fritz runs a kind of one-man
operation," and was reluctant to tell others what he was doing." Fritz
ran his bureau as his "own private and independent fiefdom."
HARVEY Oswald was arrested for murdering Officer Tippit, and yet Capt.
Fritz interrogated Oswald on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning, but
asked Oswald only a few questions about his involvement with the Tippit
murder. For years I never understood why Fritz failed to interrogate
Oswald about the Tippit murder, and why Fritz never explained his
reason for intentionally failing to question Oswald about the Tippit
murder. Like Henry Wade said, "Fritz was reluctant to tell others
what
he was doing."
Now, after realizing the purpose of the 2nd wallet was to frame an
innocent man for murder, I finally understood why Fritz never
questioned Oswald about the Tippit murder.... I believe that Fritz
knew
the 2nd Oswald wallet was to frame HARVEY Oswald for the Tippit murder,
and Fritz probably believed that Oswald was innocent. The 2nd wallet
was never photographed by the Dallas police, never entered into
evidence, and most certainly never shown to HARVEY Oswald. Fritz dared
not question Oswald about the Tippit murder, because he knew that
Oswald would deny any involvement in front of numerous state and
federal witnesses in the interrogation room. Worse yet would be if
Oswald began to talk about his connections with the FBI and CIA and his
government sponsored "defection" to the Soviet Union, because Oswald
began to realize that he was being framed and knew that he was the
"patsy." Fritz knew better than to ask Oswald any questions about the
Tippit murder and, as we shall see, he thwarted Oswald's efforts to
contact a lawyer, perhaps fearing what secret information Oswald might
share with his lawyer.
Capt. Fritz, however, had to resolve the problem of a 2nd wallet, and
had to make sure that neither the public nor the press ever learned
about the 2nd wallet. This meant that, somehow, Dallas Police officers
and in particular officers from 10th & Patton, remained completely
silent about the 2nd wallet. We don't know what caused senior police
officials and dozens of police officers from 10th & Patton to never
discuss the 2nd wallet but we know it happened--because not a
single
Dallas Police officer ever said a word to the press, the public, or the
Warren Commission about the 2nd wallet !!
Capt. Westbrook, Capt. Fritz, Capt. Doughty, Sgt. Owens, Sgt. Croy, and
other police officers from 10th & Patton were interviewed by the
Warren Commission, but nobody said a word about the 2nd Oswald wallet.
FBI agents Barrett and Hosty also said nothing about the 2nd wallet. I
find it hard to believe the 2nd wallet, with identification for Alek
James Hidell, was not discussed among police officers, detectives, and
senior police officers in the days following Oswald's arrest. But
neither FBI agent Barrett, Capt. Westbrook, Capt. Fritz, Capt. Doughty,
Sgt. Owens, Sgt. Croy, or any Dallas police officer wrote a report or
said a word about the 2nd wallet to the Warren Commission or to anyone.
Capt. Doughty and Sgt. Bud Owens were filmed by news reporter Ron
Reiland while examining the wallet, but they said nothing to the Warren
Commission. Therefore, it appears that certain officials in the Dallas
Police Department made a concerted and determined effort to conceal any
and all information about the 2nd wallet which was clearly a huge
coverup within the Dallas Police Department and the 2nd most important
puzzle of the Tippit murder. More research is needed, but I'll bet that
Capt. Westbrook was in charge of ordering police officers to say
nothing about the 2nd wallet.
Capt. Fritz, refusing to question Oswald about the Tippit murder,
covering up the existence of a 2nd Oswald wallet, and not entering the
2nd wallet into evidence or discussing it with the Warren Commission,
the press, or the public, are valid reasons to question Fritz's honesty
and integrity. We must now wonder how much trust to place in Fritz, his
Warren Commission testimony, and his handwritten notes which first
appeared in 1997 when given anonymously to the ARRB.
News article about Fritz (Forgive My Grief,
Penn Jones, pg. 101)
Thirteen years later, in 1975, Fritz briefly discussed his
interrogation of Oswald, as described in the news article. Fritz said
that from the time Oswald was arrested thru Saturday afternoon he
received two or three phone calls urging him to stop the investigation
because "you have your man." Fritz then said on Saturday afternoon he
was told there was a call holding for him from the White House. On the
line, according to Fritz, was President Lyndon Johnson who supposedly
told Fritz, "You've got your man, now we'll take it from here." Fritz
said, "When the President of the United States called and ordered the
investigation stopped, what could I do?" A call to Fritz from President
Johnson on November 23 may or may not have happened, but there is no
hard evidence to confirm such a phone call. Fritz talked about this
phone call for the first time in 1975, twelve years after President
Kennedy was murdered, and two years after Lyndon Johnson died. This
phone call was the only explanation ever given by Fritz to explain why
he never questioned Oswald about the Tippit murder. I speculate the
phone call from President Johnson never happened, because it is much
more likely that if President Johnson wanted the Dallas Police to stop
the investigation, he would have called either Mayor Cabell or Dallas
Police Chief Curry directly.
When Oswald arrived at police headquarters he should have been
searched. His arrest wallet and contents should have been sent
immediately to the identification bureau. A written report should have
been made listing the items found in his wallet and photographs made of
each item. However, this was not done.
Alek James Hidell ID cards are placed in Harvey
Oswald's arrest wallet
At some point between Oswald's first interrogation at 2:30 PM and being
charged with murder at 7:10 PM one or more identification cards with
the name Alek James Hidell from the 2nd wallet were placed in Oswald's
arrest wallet, which was in Capt. Fritz's office. The 2nd wallet from
10th & Patton then disappeared and was never seen again. Now, the
most important item in the 2nd wallet was the Alek James Hidell ID card
with Oswald's photo, because this card linked Oswald with the rifle
ordered from Klein's Sporting goods by A. Hidell and shipped to Oswalds
post office box in Dallas.
Between 1:30 and 2:00 PM, before Oswald arrived at police headquarters,
an unidentified person from the Dallas police contacted Col. Robert
Jones of the 112th Army Intel group in San Antonio. This unidentified
person advised that Oswald, when arrested, had Alex James Hidell ID
cards in his possession. The unidentified person was Sgt. George
Doughty, who was also a member of the 112th Army Intel group and was
photographed at 10th & Patton holding and examining the 2nd wallet.
Jones contacted the FBI office in San Antonio, who then contacted the
FBI office in Dallas. FBI Director Hoover was soon advised of the
Hidell identification cards. Arrangements were made to send 3 FBI
agents to Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago. The agents were told to
search company records in an attempt to locate an order placed by Alek
Hidell for a Mannlicher Carcano rifle, serial number C2766.
The 3 agents arrived at Kleins office at 10:00 PM and were met by
Klein's Vice-President William Waldman. The agents began looking thru
the companies microfilm records. Hours later the agents asked and
received permission from Waldman to take the Klein's microfilm for
further examination. The microfilm soon arrived at FBI headquarters in
Washington, DC. Television stations, radio stations, and newspapers
soon reported to the nation that a $12.78 mail order rifle was used to
assassinate President Kennedy, which was not true. During the next week
the FBI focused their attention on the 40" Mannlicher Carcano rifle
found in the Book Depository, and on the Klein's microfilm. On November
29, for the first time, the Atlanta Journal correctly reported, from a
UPI dispatch, that Oswald purchased an Italian rifle with scope from
Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago in March, 1963 for $21.45 including
postage. Why did it take nearly one week for the FBI to "find" this
order on microfilm....or was it during this week that the FBI
fabricated a Klein's order form with the name A. Hidell and Oswalds
post office box in Dallas.
The FBI produced photographs of a Klein's order form that showed A.
Hidell ordered a rifle shorter than the one found by the Dallas Police.
The rifle on the order form was not the same the rifle found in the
Book Depository. In fact, Milton Klein said that his company did not
sell or ship any rifle to A. Hidell in Dallas. But Klein was unable to
prove this, because his companies original microfilm was confiscated by
the FBI and soon disappeared. Today, no original microfilm records
exist, only FBI photographs. Klein told the National Guardian, "I've
had more than enough publicity....and the FBI has told me to keep my
trap shut."
The FBI provided the Warren Commission with photographs of a Klein's
order form with the name A. Hidell, PO Box 2915, Dallas, Texas. They
provided photographs of a US postal money order that was allegedly used
to pay for the rifle in the amount of $21.45. The original roll of
Klein's microfilm and the US postal money order were allegedly sent to
the National Archives. When I visited the National Archives and asked
to look at the Klein's microfilm I was given a photograph of the box in
which the microfilm was held, but the box was empty. I was given
photographs of the postal money order, no original.
The Alek James Hidell ID card linked (Harvey) Oswald to the rifle found
on the 6th floor of the Book Depository. But did Oswald really order
and receive this rifle at his post office box in Dallas? No, and
proving this fact is very simple.
Oswald allegedly purchased a postal money order at the Dallas post
office to pay for the rifle in Dallas at 10:30 AM on Monday, March 12.
He then, allegedly, put the money order and a Klein's order coupon in
an envelope which he placed in a mail box several miles from the post
office. The mail order for the rifle was allegedly received by Klein's
in Chicago the following day. The rifle was then allegedly mailed to
Dallas, and received in Oswald's post office box.
This is an FBI photograph of the money order allegedly sent to Klein's
to pay for the rifle.
The back side of this money order shows a rubber stamp endorsement to
the First National Bank of Chicago. But this money order was never date
stamped by a bank, nor date stamped by a Federal Reserve Bank nor
deposited to the First National Bank of Chicago or to any bank. The
original money order, a copy of which is published in the Warren
Volumes, disappeared and only photographs remain. The sequential
numbering of postal money orders allows us to determine the approximate
date this money order was available for purchase. The number of this
money order, 2,202,130,462 was not available for purchase at the Dallas
post office until late 1964 or early 1965. This money order could not
have been used to purchase a rifle in March, 1963, but was likely
pulled from a stack of fresh, unsold money orders by a postal official
in Dallas sometime after the assassination and then given to the FBI. A
close look at the details surrounding the "finding" of the money order
the day after the assassination strongly suggests that this is what
happened.
The checks above, issued to Oswald, were from the State Comptroller and
from Wm. B. Reily Company in New Orleans. These checks, and all checks
and money orders deposited to a bank, are always date stamped by the
bank into which the check was deposited or cashed. The US postal money
order was allegedly purchased by Oswald on March 12, 1963 but was never
date stamped by a bank, or a Federal reserve bank, which means this US
postal money order was never cashed or deposited to a bank.
The postal money order was allegedly deposited to Klein's account at
the First National Bank of Chicago. The Warren Commission published
Klein's bank records, which show the date of deposit for the $21.45
postal money order. The U.S. postal money order is dated March 12,
1963, but Klein's deposit slip at the First National bank is dated
February 15, 1963. A money order purchased on March 12, cannot be
deposited to Klein's bank account a month earlier, on February 15.
The FBI gave the Warren Commission photographs of Klein's business
records, photographs of bank records, a photograph of an uncashed/never
deposited money order, and a photograph of a deposit slip dated one
month before the rifle was allegedly ordered from Klein's. The Warren
Commission used these FBI photographs to conclude that Oswald purchased
the rifle found on the 6th floor of the TSBD.
The fake Alek James Hidell ID card and the planting of the rifle on the
6th floor of the Book Depository helped create the illusion that Oswald
murdered President Kennedy. But there was more, much more manipulation,
fabrication, and alteration of evidence done by the Dallas Police and
the FBI to help convince the public that Oswald shot and killed
President Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippit.
225 items of evidence sent to the FBI
On November 22 President Johnson told his aide, Cliff Carter, to
contact Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade and order him "not to
allege a conspiracy," and then to order Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry
to immediately turn over all of the evidence collected by the Dallas
Police to the FBI. Curry told the Warren Commission, "We got
several calls insisting we send this, and nobody would tell me exactly
who it was that was insisting, 'just say I got a call from Washington,
and they wanted this evidence up there,' insinuated it was someone in
high authority that was requesting this...."Curry said, "about midnight
Friday night---November 22---we agreed to let
the FBI have all the evidence and they said they would have an agent
stand by (FBI agent Vince Drain) and when they were finished with it,
they would return it to us."The Dallas Police then gave the FBI
agent 225 items of physical evidence, without a written inventory,
which departed from Carswell Air Force Base aboard a C-130 tanker at 3:
10 am for Washington, DC.
On November 23, several days before the FBI "officially"became involved
in the investigation, all of Oswald's possessions were
at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC. A few hours later, around 9:00
AM on Saturday morning, FBI document specialist James Cadigan received
Oswald's possessions, a total of 225 items. The Dallas Police had
identified the evidence from Ruth Paine's house as Stovall A and
Stovall B.
The evidence from Oswald's rooming house on Beckley was Turner Exhibit
1.
The same day, November 23, 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 and consequently
the
information will all be available for these two supervisors. 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 the assassination the FBI had already decided, in
written form, that Oswald killed Kennedy, and all they needed to do was
make sure the items of evidence, which were now at FBI headquarters
in
Washington, DC, supported their report.
On November 23, the Dallas Police sent the FBI 225 items of evidence
collected by the Dallas Police from Oswald's rooming house and Ruth
Paine's home in Irving, TX.
Three days later, on November 26, the FBI returned 455 pieces of
evidence to the Dallas Police, which was 230 more items than they
received from the Dallas Police. The FBI and Dallas Police then jointly
photographed, numbered, and inventoried all 455 items. Each item was
listed and numbered individually, line by line, and listed on Warren
Commission Exhibit CE 2003. CE 2003 shows 455 items of
evidence--the
original 225 items of evidence the Dallas Police sent to the FBI on
November 23, and 230 items of evidence that were added by the FBI.
After the joint FBI/DPD inventory and photographing was complete
(11/26/63) the FBI took the evidence, and the 5 rolls of undeveloped
film, to Washington, DC.
FBI official William Sullivan knew the FBI's capabilities and 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.... 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." Exactly, the truth will never be known.
The additional 230 items of "evidence" that were added to
Oswald's possessions by the FBI are easy to identify, if you know what
to look for. Each of the original 225 items of evidence were initialed
and dated by Dallas Police officers. These original items were then
listed on handwritten inventories, later on DPD type-written
inventories, and photographed. But the 230 items of evidence added
by
the FBI were not initialed or dated by Dallas Police officers, they do
not appear on either the handwritten or type-written DPD inventories,
and were not photographed on the floor at DPD headquarters. Why
would
the FBI add 230 items of evidence? The 230 items added by the FBI
either belonged to LEE Oswald, were added to help merge the historical
background of HARVEY Oswald and LEE Oswald into one fictional "Lee
Harvey Oswald,"or were added to help frame HARVEY Oswald as the
"patsy."
In 1997 I spent several weeks at the National Archives. Every day I
looked at items of evidence listed on the joint Dallas Police/FBI
inventory, shown as CE2003 in the Warren Volumes. I placed the Dallas
Police inventory list of 225 items side by side with the 455 items
listed on CE 2003, which is the joint FBI/Dallas police inventory that
was created on November 26, 1963. I eventually managed to look at
nearly all of the 455 items of evidence, and checked each item for the
initials and dates of the Dallas Police. If an item was initialed and
dated by Dallas police, then this item was original evidence. It an
item was not initialed and initialed, then that item was added by the
FBI to the original 225 items of evidence. Some of the items added by
the FBI were clear fabrications, such as the 1955 and 1956 w-2 forms
allegedly given to Lee Harvey Oswald. Other items, such as New York
City school records, were altered and merged. Other items, such as
photographs
taken in Europe, were added. More information about this manipulation
of evidence is available on the this website, in an article titled Manipulated, Fabricated,
and Disappearing Evidence.
Oswald's arrest wallet
The above photograph, from the National Archives, shows the contents of
Oswald's brown wallet and the wallet itself (the arrest wallet), a
total
of 9 items. Unfortunately, the contents of Oswald's arrest wallet were
not recorded when he arrived in the police station at 2:00 pm.
The AleX James Hidell ID card
The first known use of the name "AleX James Hidell" was in the summer
of 1963 at the Hotel Luma in Mexico City. Robert Clayton Buick had been
hired by US intelligence to report on suspicious clandestine activities
in Mexico City. Alex James Hidell, accompanied by a manager in
the Luma Hotel, Franz Waehauf, and employee Warren Broglie, met and
spoke with Robert Buick.
Buick told author Dick Russell that he heard
"snatches" of conversations in the Luma Bar concerning an assassination
attempt on President Kennedy. After President Kennedy was shot, and
Oswald's photo appeared on television, Buick instantly recognized him
as Alex James Hidell, the man he met and spoke with at the Hotel Luma
in Mexico City. It was LEE Oswald who met with Robert Buick in Mexico
City using the alias "AleX James Hidell." This may be the beginning of
LEE Oswald setting up HARVEY Oswald for the assassination of President
Kennedy. In the summer of 1963 Harvey Oswald and Marina were in New
Orleans, where Harvey Oswald was using the name "A. Hidell" in
connection with his FPCC activities. LEE Oswald, using his assigned
alias of "AleX Hidell," was involved in conversations wherein the
assassination of President Kennedy was discussed. On November 22, 1963
the name "Alek James Hidell" would connect HARVEY Oswald with
discussions in the Hotel Luma about the assassination of President
Kennedy. The name "Alex James Hidell" would also connect Harvey Oswald
with the rifle found on the 6th floor of the Book Depository, allegedly
ordered from Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago. LEE Oswald using the
alias "AleX Hidell" and HARVEY Oswald using the alias "A. Hidell"
and/or "AleK Hidell" on his FPCC literature in the summer of 1963 was
not a coincidence.
Two fictitious Selective Service ID cards, with the
names AleX James Hidell (shown above) and AleK James Hidell, were among
the items in the 2nd Oswald wallet at 10th & Patton on November 22,
1963, when shown to fellow police officers by DPD Capt. Westbrook. Both
of these ID card were removed from the 2nd wallet and placed in
Oswald's arrest wallet by someone in the Dallas Police Dept. Both of
these ID cards were identified and described by the Dallas Police.
AleK James Hidell
The earliest known use of the name "AleK James Hidell" was the date of
February 5, 1962 on the back side of the "ficticious" Selective
Service System Notice of Classification card signed by Alek James
Hidell. This card was found, described, and listed on an FBI report.
On February 5, 1962 (HARVEY) Oswald was in the
Soviet
Union. His nickname while in the Soviet Union was "Alik." Accordingly,
the CIA classification for HARVEY Lee Oswald was probably "Alek."
The next time we hear the name AleK James Hidell was around 1:42 PM on
November 22, when DPD Capt. Westbrook showed the 2nd Oswald wallet to
fellow police officers at the Tippit murder scene and called out the
name "Alek James Hidell."
News reporter Ron Reiland photographed Capt. Doherty and Sgt. Owens as
they examined the 2nd wallet. Westbrook then asked FBI agent Bob
Barrett if he was familiar with the names "Alek/Alex James Hidell" or
"Lee Harvey Oswald."
After was arrested, he was placed in Capt.
Westbrook's unmarked police car and driven to police headquarters.
Oswald's wallet (arrest wallet) was removed from his pants pocket and
inspected by Det. Paul Bentley. The name Alex or Alek James Hidell was
not mentioned during the ride to police headquarters, because neither
of the Alek/Alex James Hidell ID cards were in his arrest wallet. Sgt.
Gerry Hill was interviewed by the press shortly after Oswald arrived at
police headquarters. When asked the suspect's name Hill replied
Oswald.... O-S-W-A-L-D.
Capt. Fritz began questioning Oswald around 2:30 PM, with Oswald's
brown arrest wallet laying on Fritz's desk. It is worth remembering
that the contents of Oswald's arrest wallet were not inventoried when
he arrived at police headquarters.
The National Archives made a photograph of Oswald's brown arrest wallet
and the 8 original items found in his wallet.
The FBI provided the Warren Commission with a list
of
8 items from Oswald's arrest wallet, shown above as CE 1989.
The National Archives and the FBI both
reported that 8 original items were found in Oswald's arrest wallet.
However, when placed side by side the items of evidence are similar,
but are not the same.
That evening, November 22, FBI agent James Bookhout suggested to FBI
agent Manning Clements that he interview Oswald. Agent Clements then
asked and received permission from Capt. Fritz to interview Oswald
(Clements briefly interviewed Oswald at 7:30 PM, 10:00 PM, and 11:30
PM).
The 8 original items in Oswald's brown arrest
wallet,
in Dallas police headquarters at 2:00 PM on November 22, 1963, had
grown to 14 items when inspected and inventoried by FBI agent Manning
Clements eight hours later, at 10:00 PM. The addition of six "items
of evidence" was
accomplished while Oswald's arrest wallet was in Capt. Fritz's office.
In Clements' FBI report he listed 14 items found in Oswald's wallet and
$13.00 in currency (item #15). He listed one AleK James Hidell ID card
with Oswald's photo, which is noted in his FBI report (above) with a
vertical line in red, and he listed 6 military type cards with the name
Lee Harvey Oswald. A total of 14 items,
but only one AleK James
Hidell ID card.
The AleX James Hidell card was not in Oswald's
arrest wallet at 10:00 PM on November 22, 1963.
The AleK James Hidell ID card, shown above, came
from
the 2nd Oswald wallet at 10th & Patton, which was last seen in the
possession of Capt. Westbrook. Eight hours later this card was
"discovered" in Oswald's brown arrest wallet by Agent Clements at 10:00
PM. Clements told the Warren Commission, "I recognized it as being a
fictitious card from the fact that the photograph was mounted on the
card, and that there were erasures in typing of information on the card
itself." This was likely the first and only time HARVEY Oswald saw the
AleK James Hidell ID card with his photo. Oswald now knew that someone
had put this card in his brown arrest wallet, but he didn't know why
and declined to discuss this card with agent Clements. Clements told
the Warren Commission that he showed Oswald the card but Oswald
"declined to answer any questions as to the reason of his possession of
it." The next morning, at 10:00 AM, Oswald was questioned by Capt.
Fritz, who asked him about the AleK James Hidell ID card. Inspector
Kelley wrote that Oswald refused to discuss the card.
The next day (Saturday) two more items were added to Oswald's arrest
wallet, bringing the total number of items to 16. At 5:30 PM
(November 23rd) Det. Sims, who worked for Capt. Fritz, gave 16 items
from Oswald's arrest wallet to J.B. Hicks and requested 4 photos of
each item. Capt. Fritz sent 16 items of evidence to be photographed,
but photographs of 17 items were returned to Capt. Fritz.
The following day, November 24, Fritz gave
photographs of 17 items to FBI agent James Bookhout, identified in the
FBI report above. Three items were added to the 14 items found by agent
Clements in Oswald's arrest wallet. The items added were 1) a snapshot
of Lee Harvey Oswald; 2) a Marine Corps Certificate of Service card
with the name AleK James Hidell; 3) a slip of paper with the name and
address of The Worker. This slip of paper connected HARVEY
Oswald to the person in the backyard photo holding a rifle in his right
hand and holding The Worker in his left hand. The total number
of items in Oswald's arrest wallet was now 17. A careful reading of the
list of items in Bookhout's report includes the AleK James Hidell card
(with photo attached) that was originally listed in Agent Manny
Clement's report of November 23, 1963. There is no mention of the
AleX James Hidell card in Bookhout's report. The whereabouts of
the
AleX James Hidell ID card on November 24 is unknown and is not listed
on any FBI report. The how, when, and where this card surfaced remains
unknown, but it is listed on a DPD document.
Four days later, on November 27, Capt. Fritz gave
FBI
agent James Hosty a total of 16 items from Oswald's wallet. One of the
items listed on Agent Bookhout's list of 17 items had been removed, but
there is no written inventory that would allow us to identify the
missing item.
The missing item may have been the AleK James Hidell
ID card.
Two days later, on November 29, the FBI reported
they
received Oswald's brown arrest wallet and a total of 14 separate items
from the Dallas Police. This FBI memo claims the Dallas Police
Department "failed to photograph the contents of Oswald's wallet before
turning it over to the Dallas office," which was clearly not true. The
DPD gave FBI agent Hosty 16 items on November 27, but the FBI reported
receiving only 14 items. Two items are missing. It is worth
noting that in this FBI memo there is no mention whatsoever of the AleK
James Hidell ID card or the AleX James Hidell ID card. The two
missing items could be the AleK James Hidell and the AleX James Hidell
ID
cards.
We know the Dallas Police had possession of both the AleK James
Hidell ID card and the AleX James Hidell ID card. These cards came from
the 2nd Oswald wallet at 10th & Patton and were last seen in the
possession of Capt. Westbrook.
Both cards appear on records in the Dallas Police
Department, but only the AleK James Hidell card was found in Oswald's
wallet by Agent Manning Clements. How and when the AleX James Hidell
card became known to the DPD remains unknown (the document above is
from the Dallas Police files, identified as jfk.2950). The 2nd Oswald
wallet, last seen in the hands of Capt. Westbrook at 10th & Patton,
disappeared and was never seen again nor was it mentioned by anyone in
the Dallas Police.
When the "AleK James Hidell" card (upper) and the
"AleX James Hidell" card (lower) are shown together it is easy to see
these are two different cards.
The National Archives and the FBI both reported there were 8 items of
original evidence in Oswald's brown arrest wallet. On the evening of
November 22, FBI Agent Manning Clements made a list of 14 items he
found in Oswald's arrest wallet. The most important item added to
Oswald's arrest wallet was the AleK James Hidell ID card, and it
was added by someone in the Dallas Police Department. The following
day (November 23rd) two additional items were added to Oswald's arrest
wallet, making a total of 16 items. Fritz sent these 16 items to be
photographed, but when returned to Fritz there were now 17 items--another
item of evidence had been added to Oswald's wallet. On November
24th FBI agent James Bookhout wrote, "Captain J.W. Fritz....furnished
photographs of all of the articles contained in the wallet of Lee
Harvey Oswald at the time of his arrest." Bookhout's report listed 17
items from Oswald's arrest wallet. Three days later, on November 27,
Fritz gave 16 items to FBI Agent James Hosty. On November 29 an FBI
memo reported receiving 14 items of evidence and a brown wallet from
the Dallas Police.
It is now clear that Items were added and deleted from Oswald's brown
arrest wallet for the purpose of framing him for two murders of which
he was innocent. However, the reader should also understand the
importance of Mexico City as a staging area for the framing of Harvey
Oswald in the assassination of President Kennedy. Heretofore, the
emphasis has been placed on the alleged visits of Oswald to the Cuban
and Soviet embassies. But the incident at the Hotel Luma in
mid-summer, 1963, wherein Lee Harvey Oswald is being used to
set up Harvey, reveals the actual workings of the framing with an
imposter (LEE Oswald) using the alias "Alex James Hidell." At the same
time HARVEY
Oswald, living in New Orleans, was using the alias "A. Hidell" on his
FPCC activities. During this time David Atlee Phllips was working at
the Mexico City station of the CIA. According to his colleague,
Winston Scott, Phillips' "comprehensive understanding of human beings
combined with a thorough knowledge of covert action techniques and his
fluent Spanish make him unusually valuable." Oswald, according to
several accounts, was either working for or closely associated with the
CIA. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume the name "AleK" was an
alias used by HARVEY Oswald (first in the Soviet Union, then in Mexico
City) while at the same time the name "AleX" (Hotel Luma) was an alias
used by LEE Oswald. This would allow the CIA to monitor and follow the
activities and whereabouts of both Harvey and Lee without exposing
their true identities. The existing evidence points to Phillips
exploring myriad ways of creating a false narrative of Oswald's
nefarious purposes in the phony trip to Mexico City. The use of
the identification cards of Alex and Alek Hidell is a perfect example
of Phillips' stock-in-trade: misdirection and slight-of-hand in
order to link Oswald to the mail order rifle that killed JFK.
While the process may have been messy in switching the two ID cards
from one wallet to another, the result was precisely what Phillips
intended to achieve: the assigning of guilt to HARVEY Oswald and
the confusion that would await investigators and researchers to make
sense of the two names Alex and Alek Hidell.
Investigators and researchers have been trying to make sense of AleX
and AleK Hidell for decades. Even today, 60 years later, when search
the internet for a Selective Service card in the name of AleX James
Hidell on GOOGLE, the only result is the name "AleK James Hidell."
Phillips' misdirection and slight-of-hand concerning the use of alias'
AleX and AleK Hidell continues to confuse researchers.
Oswald was returned to Fritz's office
Oswald was taken to a show-up at 7:40 pm and then returned to Fritz's
office. While walking through the hallway Oswald told reporters.
"They've taken me in because of the fact that I've lived in the Soviet
Union," and then voiced his most famous statement to reporters, "I'm
just a patsy." Later that evening Clements continued talking with
Oswald for another hour. During his 3rd interrogation Oswald said, "I
am waiting for someone to come forward to give me legal assistance."
At 8:55 PM Det. Johnny Hicks and R.L Studebaker finger printed Oswald.
When told to sign the fingerprint card Oswald said, "I will not sign
the fingerprint card until I talk to my attorney." Barnes then made
paraffin casts of Oswald's hands and the right side of his face.
During the evening of November 22 Michael Paine was shown one of the
infamous backyard photographs and asked if he could identify the
location of the house. Mr. Paine told the Warren Commission, "They
asked me at first, the first night of the assassination if I could
locate, identify the place where Lee was standing when he was holding
this rifle and some, the picture on the cover of Life.....I identified
the place by the fine clapboard structure of the house..... By the
small clapboard structure; the house has an unusually small
clapboard......The Neely Street address." Michael Paine's testimony is
very significant, because according to the Dallas Police, the backyard
photos were not found until the next day by Det. Rose and Stovall in
Ruth Paine's garage. This photograph was not found by the Dallas Police
at Oswald's rooming house or at Ruth Paine's in Irving, TX on November
22. Yet somehow, only hours after Oswald was arrested, the Dallas
Police had possession of this photograph. This photo showed Oswald
holding a rifle that was allegedly used to murder President Kennedy, a
pistol that was allegedly used to murder officer Tippit, and in
Oswald's left hand a copy of the communist newspaper The Worker. When
shown this photo Oswald denied that he was the man in the photo. He
said that someone had cut and pasted his face over the original face of
the man in the photo. Neither the FBI, the Warren Commission, the HSCA,
nor the ARRB showed any interest or attempt to determine how or when
this photo was given to or created by the Dallas Police Department.
This photo, on the cover of Life Magazine, helped to convince the
public that Oswald was a communist who murdered President Kennedy and
officer Tippit.
In the author's opinion the man in this photo is Roscoe White, a
skilled photographer who was working for the Dallas Police. On his
right hand, close to his wrist, there appears a nodule that was
sustained by an injury that occurred when White
was stationed at Ft. Sill, OK.
Robert Hester and his wife Patricia worked for the National Photo
Laboratory in the Dallas. On the evening of November 22nd the Hesters
worked throughout most of the night developing film and printing
photographs. Both of the Hesters said they saw the "backyard
photographs" in the hands of the FBI. Robert said that he saw a color
transparency of one backyard photos and another photo in which there
was no image of Oswald-only the backyard. Both Michael Paine and the
Hester's saw one or more backyard photos during the evening of November
22. However, the Dallas Police first found the backyard photos in Ruth
Paine's garage the following day.
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Greg Olds told the Warren
Commission that at 10:30 PM on Friday night he received a phone
call
from one of his board members. The member said that Oswald was quoted
as saying he had not been given the opportunity to have counsel, and
suggested to Mr. Olds that he check into this matter. Olds then called
the police department and finally talked to Captain Fritz who said,
"No, Oswald had been given the opportunity and declined." Warren
Commission attorney Stern asked Olds, "Did Captain Fritz say that
Oswald did not want counsel at that time, or that he was trying to
obtain his own counsel?" Olds replied, "What I was told, that he had
been given the opportunity and had not made any requests." Capt. Fritz
lied to the Warren Commission. By 10:30 on Friday night Oswald had
already made several requests for an attorney.
At 11:00 PM, November 22, Manny Clements resumed his
questioning of
Oswald and was joined by police Detectives John Adamcik and L.D.
Montgomery. Oswald told the investigators that he had lived in Russia
and that he liked it there. After answering more questions Oswald said,
"I think I have talked long enough. I don't have anything else to
say.....what started out to be a short interrogation turned out to be
rather lengthy.... I don't care to talk anymore.... I am waiting for
someone to come forward and give me legal assistance.
Around 11:15 PM Jack Ruby arrived at police headquarters and
had no
trouble gaining access. He was seen by United Press photographer Pete
Fisher standing in the show-up room in the basement a few minutes
before Oswald was brought in by the police. Oswald was escorted into
the assembly room and passed within three feet of Ruby. District
Attorney Henry Wade read a prepared statement about Oswald's
background. When Wade incorrectly named the Cuban organization to which
Oswald belonged, Ruby corrected Wade and said, "That's the Fair Play
for Cuba Committee, Henry."
At 12:10 AM, November 23rd, Oswald was taken to the
stage in front of
the show up room where he talked with the press for about 5 minutes.
Oswald told reporters, "I positively know nothing about this situation
here. I would like to have legal representation. I was questioned by a
judge and I protested at that time that I was not allowed legal
representation during that short and sweet hearing. I really don't know
what this situation is about. Nobody has told me anything except that I
have been accused of murdering a policeman. I know nothing more than
that and I do request that someone to come forward and to give me a
legal assistance." A reporter asked, "Did you kill the President?"
Oswald replied, "No, I have not been charged with that. In fact, nobody
has said that to me yet. The first thing I heard about it was when the
newspaper reporters in the hall asked me that question." Dallas Police
Chief Jesse Curry said, "You have been charged." As he was being led
away by police Oswald said, "I did not do it. I did not do it. I did
not shoot anyone." Oswald was taken to his jail cell on the 5th floor.
At 1:30 AM on November 23rd Oswald was removed from his jail
cell and
taken to the identification bureau on the fourth floor. When Oswald saw
Justice of the Peace David Johnston he said,"What's the idea of this.
What are you doing this for. Well, sir, I guess this is the trial....I
want to contact my lawyer, Mr. Abt, in New York City. I would like to
have this gentleman. He is with the American Civil Liberties Union."
Oswald was then arraigned by Johnston, this time for the murder with
malice of President Kennedy. At the end of Oswald's arraignment he said
"I don't know what you're talking about. That's ridiculous." Oswald was
returned to his jail cell on the 5th floor.
On Saturday morning, at 10:30 AM, Detectives Sims and Boyd
checked Oswald out of jail
and brought him to Captain Fritz's office. SS Inspector Kelley wrote,
"Fritz showed Oswald a Selective Service card that was taken out of his
wallet which bore the name of Alex Hidell. Oswald refused to discuss
this after being asked for an explanation of it, both by Fritz and by
FBI agent James Bookhout." Secret Service Inspector James Kelley wrote,
"Oswald refused to discuss the card, denied that he brought a package
to work on that day, and denied that he had ever had any conversation
about curtain rods with the boy named Wesley Frazier who drove him to
his employment." Fritz asked Oswald what he thought of President
Kennedy and his family. Oswald said he didn't have any views on the
President. He said, "My wife and I like the President's family very
well. They are interesting people."
Inspector Kelley asked Oswald if he shot the President and he said he
had not. He asked Oswald if he had shot Governor Connally and he said
he had not. Oswald said that he did not intend to answer any further
questions without counsel and that if he could not get Abt, then he
would hope that the Civil Liberties Union would give him an attorney.
Boyd and Sims returned Oswald to his cell at 11:33 am.
Around 12:30 PM, November 23rd, Jack Ruby telephoned KLIF radio
in
Dallas and spoke with Kenneth L. Dowe. Ruby asked Dowe if he had any
information as to when Lee Harvey Oswald was going to be transferred to
the county jail.
At 12:35 PM Oswald was brought to Captain Fritz's office where
Fritz
asked him about the backyard photograph. Oswald said he had never seen
this photo. He said the photo was a fake, and that someone had
superimposed his face on the body of an unknown person.
Around 4:00 PM Chief Curry asked Fritz if he was finished
questioning
Oswald so that he could arrange for his transfer to the county jail.
When Fritz said that he wanted to question Oswald again at 6:00 pm,
Curry suggested that Oswald be moved late in the night. Fritz rejected
the idea fearing that assailants could attack
Oswald under the cover of darkness. Curry and Fritz then agreed to
transfer Oswald the
following morning at 10:00 AM.
At 5:30 PM Mr. H. Louis Nichols, President of the Dallas Bar
Association, visited Oswald in his cell at the Dallas jail. Nichols
said, "l asked him if he had a lawyer and he said, 'Well, he really
didn't know what it was all about, that he was-he had been
incarcerated, and kept incommunicado.' Nichols said, Well, I have come
up to see whether or not you want a lawyer." Nichols recalled, ".....he
asked me first did I know a lawyer in New York named John Abt.... .l
didn't know him and he said, 'Well, I would like to have him represent
me' .....Then he asked me if I knew any lawyers who were members of the
American Civil Liberties Union.....'Either Mr. Abt or someone who is a
member of the American Civil Liberties Union' .... .l said, 'What I am
interested in knowing is right now, do you want me or the Dallas Bar
Association to try to get you a lawyer?' ..... He said, 'No, not
now.....You might come back next week, and if I don't get some of these
people to as assist me, I might ask you to get somebody to represent
me. "'
At 6:00 PM Oswald was brought to Fritz's office. Fritz said,
"When I
told him that the backyard picture was recovered from Mrs. Paine's
garage, he said that picture had never been in his possession, and I
explained to him that it was an enlargement of the small picture
obtained in the search. At that time I showed him the smaller picture.
He denied ever seeing that picture and said that he knew all about
photography, that he had done a lot of work in photography himself,
that the small picture was a reduced picture of the large picture, and
had been made by some person unknown to him. He told me that he
understood photography real well, and that in time, he would be able to
show that it was not his picture, and that it had been made by someone
else." Oswald, though slightly shaken by the photograph, kept his
composure and repeatedly said the photo was a fake. At 7:15 PM Oswald
was taken to jail on the 5th floor.
At 8:00 PM, November 23rd, Oswald was allowed to use the
telephone. He
spoke for about 30 minutes while officer J. L Popplewell stood nearby.
Curiously, there are no police telephone logs to identify the telephone
number which Oswald called or the party with whom he spoke for 30
minutes. A 30 minute phone call by the accused assassin of the
President of the United States could have been extremely important. It
appears the people monitoring, and perhaps recording Oswald's phone
call, wanted the identity of the caller and the substance of the
conversation kept secret.
At 2:30 AM on Sunday morning an unknown individual telephoned
the
Dallas FBI office. The caller said, "I represent a committee that is
neither right nor left wing and tonight, tomorrow morning, or tomorrow
night, we are going to kill the man that killed the President. There
will be no excitement and we will kill him. We wanted to be sure and
tell the FBI, Police Department, and Sheriff's Office, and we will be
there and we will kill him." The man who took the call, Vernon Glossup,
immediately prepared a memorandum which he furnished to FBI agent
Milton Newsom who in turn furnished the information to the Dallas
County Sheriff's office and to the Dallas Police Department.
Deputy McCoy, of the Dallas County Sheriff's office, received a call
from a man who said he was a member of a group of one hundred people.
The man wanted the Sheriff's office to know that they had voted one
hundred percent to kill Oswald while he was in the process of being
transferred to the county jail. He wanted to inform the Sheriff's
department so that none of the Deputies would get hurt.
At 3:00 AM Dallas Police Officer Billy Grammer received a
phone call
from a familiar voice warning him that Oswald would be killed if the
police didn't transfer him in secret. Grammer was home the next morning
watching Oswald's transfer on television when he saw his friend, Jack
Ruby, shoot Oswald. He instantly remembered the call from the previous
night and realized the caller was Ruby. Grammer gave a sworn affidavit
to the Dallas Police but was never asked to testify before the Warren
Commission. There is a very good interview of Billy Grammer that can be
seen on YouTube.
NOTE: Within an hour, between 2:00 AM and 3:00
AM someone, almost
certainly Jack Ruby, called the FBI, Dallas Sheriff, and the Dallas
Police and told them Oswald would be killed if he was not transferred
in secret. The man who placed these calls was probably trying to get
the police to transfer Oswald in secret so that he would not have to
kill Oswald as ordered.
At 3:45 AM FBI agent Newsom called Dallas Police Captain W.B.
Frazier
and told him about the anonymous call in which the individual said a
group of people
was going to kill Lee Harvey Oswald that night or the following day and
there was
nothing that any one could do about it. Frazier telephoned Captain
Fritz at 5:00am and
relayed the information to him.
Around 7:00 AM Jack Ruby parked his 1960 Oldsmobile at the
Allright
Parking Lot at the corner of Main and Pearl Streets across from the
Western Union Building near the
police station.
At 8:00 AM John A. Smith, of WBAP-TV, saw Jack Ruby standing
on the
sidewalk next to the police station on Commerce Street. Smith said that
about 8:10 AM Ruby walked over to his truck and asked, "Have they
brought Oswald down yet?" Smith said the next time he saw Ruby was
about 10:00 AM, standing on the sidewalk on the Commerce Street
side of
the Police station next to the ramp leading to the basement.
At 9:30 AM Oswald was interrogated for the last time. Captain
Fritz
began the session by once again asking Oswald to identify the place
where the "backyard photographs" had been taken, but Oswald refused to
discuss the matter. Fritz then asked Oswald if he was a communist and
he replied, "No, I am a Marxist but I am not a Marxist-Leninist."
Oswald told Fritz that he became interested in the FPCC while in New
Orleans and said that he was the local secretary, but the group had no
officers.
When asked if he received a rifle addressed to "A. Hidell" at PO Box
2915 Oswald replied "absolutely not." Oswald denied emphatically that
he ever ordered a rifle under his name or any other name, and denied
that he allowed anyone else to order a rifle through his box. He also
denied that he ordered a rifle by mail or purchased a money order for
the purpose of paying for a rifle. Oswald told Fritz, "How could I
afford to order a rifle on my salary of $1.25 an hour when I can't
hardly feed myself on what I make."
Postal Inspector Harry Holmes asked Oswald who A.J. Hidell was and
Oswald replied, "I don't know any such person." Fritz interrupted and
said, "What about this card we got out of your billfold? Oswald
replied, "Now I have told you all I am going to tell you about the card
in my billfold. You have the card yourself, and you know as much about
it as I do."
After Captain Fritz terminated the interview at 11:15 AM Secret
Service
Inspector Thomas Kelley tried to speak with Oswald, alone, before his
transfer. Kelley wrote in his report, ''He said that he would be glad
to discuss this proposition with his attorney and that after he talked
to one, we could either discuss it with him or discuss it with his
attorney, if the attorney thought it was the wise thing to do, but that
at the present time he had nothing more to say to me.
Harvey Oswald was handed articles of clothing which consisted of
trousers, shirts, and a couple of sweaters. When asked if he wanted to
change clothes before his transfer to the county jail Oswald said,
"Just give me one of those sweaters." He didn't like the first one
handed to him and insisted on wearing a black pullover sweater. The
police removed one handcuff while he slipped the sweater over his head
and then the other handcuff. Before leaving Fritz's office Oswald was
asked if he wanted to hide or cover his face or wear a hat, but he
refused.
Harvey Oswald allegedly told Captain Fritz there was a conspiracy, but
he was ignored. He told Fritz the backyard photos were fakes, but he
was ignored. When Oswald said, "I'm just a patsy," he was ignored by
most people. When he remarked, "Now everyone will know who I am," he
knew his work as a government informant was finished, but his remark
was ignored.
Harvey Oswald, double-crossed and sitting in the Dallas jail, posed a
serious threat to the conspirators. After Oswald was asked by Capt.
Fritz about an Alek Hidell ID card with his photo, and then asked if he
received a rifle addressed to A. Hidell, and then shown a photo of him
holding a rifle, Oswald knew for a fact that someone was setting him up
to take the blame for killing President Kennedy.
HARVEY Oswald was part of a multi-year super-secret project developed
by the CIA in which two people shared the name Lee Harvey Oswald. The
purpose of this project was to infiltrate the Russian speaking Harvey
Oswald into the Soviet Union as a spy. Oswald's true identity, his
nationality, and the "Oswald Project" were some of the CIA's most
closely guarded secrets. His involvement with US intelligence agencies
linked him directly to the most sensitive operation ever conducted by
the CIA-the assassination of a US President. Senator Richard Schweiker,
who originally chaired the House Select Committee until forced out by
CIA interests, was correct when he said, "Oswald had the fingerprints
of intelligence all over him." I believe that Oswald, in desperation,
may have been close to telling the press about his connections with the
FBI and CIA. But the conspirators knew that Oswald's involvement and
knowledge had to remain hidden from the public, no matter what the
cost. Harvey Oswald could never be allowed to go to trial.
Jack Ruby
On May 28, 1943 Jack Rubenstein enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Ruby
was "officially" an aircraft mechanic in the Army Air Corps from May
1943 until February 1946 at various bases in the South. However, his
real assignments were related to counterintelligence. Ruby was first
assigned to Keesler Field, in Mississippi. During the summer of 1943,
while in the Army, Rubenstein attended the first of several communist
party meetings on the third floor of a commercial building on Walnut
Street in Muncie, Indiana.
Ruby's work as an undercover informant, while in the Army Air Corps,
likely continued when he worked for the House UnAmerican Activities
Committee (HUAC) and reported on Communist Party activities. A
memorandum written by a staff assistant on November 24, 1947 reads, "It
is my sworn statement that one Jack Rubenstein of Chicago
noted as a potential witness for hearings of the House Committee on
UnAmerican Activities is performing information functions for the staff
of Congressman Richard M. Nixon of California. It is requested
Rubenstein not be called for open testimony in those hearings. In
addition to his undercover work for the Army Air Corps and the HUAC,
Ruby was also an undercover informant for the Federal Bureau of
Narcotics.
In 1982 Richard Nixon told his former aide and confidante Roger Stone,
"The damn thing is, I knew this Jack Ruby. Murray Chotiner brought
him to me in 1947, said he was one of 'Johnson's boys' and that LBJ
wanted us to hire him as an informant for the Committee. We did."
In 1952 Jack Ruby began commuting from Dallas to Daytona, Florida where
he became involved in supplying counterfeit currency, guns, and
munitions to leftist rebels in Cuba. Ruby soon became acquainted with
former Cuban President Carlos Prio and CIA operative Donald Edward
Browder. The men contracted with Joe Marrs, of Marrs Aircraft, to
transport weapons and munitions to Cuba. Ruby soon purchased an
interest in two aircraft that he used to transport the arms, and also
acquired partial ownership in a Havana gaming house in which Prio held
majority ownership. Donald Browder knew Jack Ruby well and said,
"During the pre-Castro years, prior to 1959, Customs would not
oppose gun shipments to Castro."
In May, 1954 Prio and seventeen other persons were indicted on charges
stemming from their purchase, exportation, and transportation of arms
and munitions to Cuba. Prio did not contest the charges and was fined a
mere $9,000. Jack Ruby, Prio's business partner and gun-running
accomplice, was not charged nor even questioned by US authorities.
In 1957 Robert McKeown lost his manufacturing business in Cuba. By this
time Prio, McKeown, and Jack Ruby had known each other for 5 years. But
it was McKeown who began to develop a close, personal friendship with
Castro as he delivered boatload after boatload of arms and munitions to
Castro. McKeown was always paid with $100 bills bundled in paper
wrapping marked "Pan American Bank, Miami." Ruby was commuting
between Dallas and the Houston waterfront community of Kemah, TX. James
E. Beaird, a poker playing friend of Ruby's, told both The Dallas
Morning News and the FBI that Ruby used to store guns and ammunition in
a two-story house between the waterfront and railroad tracks in Kemah,
TX., in Galveston Bay. On the weekends Beaird personally saw Ruby and
his associates load "many boxes of new guns, including automatic rifles
and handguns" onto a 50-foot long military-surplus boat. It was Robert
McKeown who often piloted the boat to a drop-off point in Mexico, where
Castro himself would land his yacht, the Granma, and pick up the arms.
In 1958 the Oklahoma State Crime Commission linked "Abe
Rubenstein," owner of a night club in Dallas, to a carload of guns and
ammunition destined for Cuba. Also In 1958 "Jack Rubenstein"wrote a
letter to the Office of
Munitions Controls requesting permission to negotiate the purchase of
firearms and ammunition from an Italian firm. Ruby never seemed
concerned about his gun-running activities.
On March 15, 1959 Ruby telephoned and met with CIA-connected gun-runner
Thomas Eli Davis in Beaumont, TX. Soon, Ruby and Davis were supplying
arms and munitions to anti-Castro Cubans, apparently without the fear
of arrest. While on trial for murdering Oswald, Ruby told his attorney,
Tom Howard, that "he had been involved with Davis, who was a CIA
connected gunrunner entangled in anti-Castro efforts" and that he,
Ruby,
had intended to "begin a regular gun-running business with Davis." Ruby
warned Howard about this connection, and feared that if it were to
be revealed by either an investigative reporter or a witness it would
blow open the CIA's role in the JFK assassination.
In 1959 Cuban travel records show that Jack Ruby entered Cuba from New
Orleans on August 8, left Cuba on September 11, re-entered Cuba on
September 12, and returned from Cuba to New Orleans on September 13,
1959.
In 1961 Ruby was involved in a plan to sell British Enfield rifles to
anti-Castro-Cubans in Florida. Nancy Perrin Rich told the Warren
Commission about a group running Enfield rifles from Mexico to Cuba in
1961 and returning with Cuban refugees to Florida. During the 10 years
preceding the assassination of President Kennedy there is a
considerable amount of information that shows the FBI, CIA, and US
Customs were very familiar with "Jack Rubenstein"and his
gun-running activities. The Warren Commission requested a written
response from the CIA for any and all "information on Jack Ruby,
aka Jack Rubenstein." The CIA responded by stating, "Examination
of CIA records failed to produce information on Jack Ruby or his
activities," but the CIA provided no information whatsoever for "Jack
Rubenstein."
In the Spring of 1961, while HARVEY Oswald was living in Russia,
Sheriff Thompson, of Monroe County, Florida, Key West, recalled that
"LEE Oswald" fueled up his boat in Key West shortly after the Bay of
Pigs invasion. Oswald didn't have the funds to pay for the fuel and
telephoned someone in Dallas, Texas. Within two hours a man named
"Ruben" arrived and paid for the fuel.
In 1961 William Huffman was the attendant on duty at the Sands Marine
Fueling Station at Stock Island, Key West, Florida. LEE Oswald,
accompanied by four or five Cubans, docked a 43-foot Chris Craft boat
and filled up with diesel fuel. Huffman recalled that Oswald did not
have enough money to pay for the fuel, made a phone call, and soon a
man named "Ruben" arrived and paid for the fuel.
On April 11, 1962 Jack Ruby and LEE Oswald were together at the
Escapades Lounge, 3300 Old Spanish Trail, in Houston, TX. Robert Allen
Price told the House Select Committee that he went to the lounge to
visit his wife, Dolores, who was the day manager. In the afternoon four
men came into the lounge and Mary, one of the waitresses, yelled "Jack
Ruby," whom she knew from Dallas. Introductions were made
and Ruby said that he and his friends were "killing time"until "plane
time." Ruby said they were leaving from Alvin, TX at
6:30 PM and flying to Cuba.
On November 24, 1963, one of Ruby's dancers, Karen Carlin, aka "Little
Lynn," told U.S. Secret Service agent Roger Warner that she "was under
the impression that Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, and other individuals
unknown to her, were involved in a plot to assassinate President
Kennedy and that she would be killed if she gave any information to
authorities." Lynn reportedly died of a gunshot wound in Houston in
1964.
On Labor Day weekend, 1963, HARVEY Oswald, a very pregnant Marina, and
2-year old June, boarded a city bus in New Orleans and rode to the
Murrets. Three hundred and fifty miles west, in Kemah, TX, Robert
McKeown watched as a car arrived, parked, and two men got out and
walked toward his home. One of the men introduced himself to McKeown as
LEE Oswald, and said that he wanted to purchase rifles. McKeown, who
was still on a 5-year probation for running guns to Cuba, refused to
sell guns to LEE Oswald. The two men left but returned a few minutes
later and LEE Oswald once again asked McKeown to sell him rifles, but
McKeown refused.
LEE Oswald's attempt to purchase rifles from Robert McKeown, who
was a
very close personal friend of Fidel Castro, was very significant and an
obvious attempt by the conspirators to link Lee HARVEY Oswald to Cuba.
This "staged encounter,"in which LEE Oswald impersonated
HARVEY Oswald, was the first in a series of attempts to frame/set-up
HARVEY Oswald as the future assassin of President Kennedy. If McKeown
had sold one or more rifles to LEE Oswald then one of those rifles
would have been "planted"on the 6th floor of the TSBD, found
by police, and linked HARVEY Oswald to McKeown, Castro, and Cuba . The
American public would have been outraged and would have demanded a
retaliatory response against Cuba by US armed forces.
During the first week of September, Louisiana gubernatorial candidate
Clyde Johnson was residing temporarily at the Roosevelt Hotel in New
Orleans. A man telephoned Johnson, introduced himself as Alton Bernard,
and asked to meet with him. Johnson agreed and soon Bernard,
accompanied by a young man named "Leon,"arrived at Johnson's
hotel room. About 10 minutes later a third man arrived and was
introduced as "Jack." Johnson watched as Mr. Bernard opened his
briefcase and handed thick, brown envelopes to Jack, Leon and to
himself. The envelope given to Johnson contained $5000 in cash, for his
gubernatorial campaign. After the assassination of President Kennedy,
Johnson identified "Leon"as Lee Harvey Oswald and "Jack"as Jack Ruby.
Years later Johnson identified a
photograph of Clay Shaw as the man who introduced himself as "Alton
Bernard" at the Roosevelt Hotel. Gubernatorial
candidate Clyde Johnson was a very credible witness who met Clay Shaw,
Jack Ruby and LEE Harvey Oswald in the summer of 1963. Johnson was
scheduled to testify at Clay Shaw's trial in New Orleans, but was badly
beaten and unable to appear. A short while later he was murdered by a
shotgun blast.
Mort Benjamin, a Federal Bureau of Narcotics agent in New York, found a
file showing that Jack Ruby had been a government informer since the
1940s.
On Sunday, November 24, Ruby got into the basement of City Hall and
shot and killed HARVEY Oswald. The author believes that Ruby had help
from Westbrook and Croy getting into the basement within one minute of
when Oswald appeared. In these photos Croy, wearing a white police hat,
is standing next to Ruby moments before Ruby murdered Oswald. People
can read about Oswald's murder HERE on
this website.
When Ruby was interviewed by reporters, during his trial for killing
Oswald, he said the following:
"I'm the only one in the background that knows the truth. Everything
pertaining to what's happening has never come to the surface. The world
will never know the true facts of what occurred, my motive. The people
had to much to gain and had such an alterior motive for putting me in
the position I'm in, will never let the true facts come above board to
the world."
A reporter asked, "Are these people in very high positions Jack?"
Ruby replied, "Yes."