Jim Hargrove Wrote:Aw, hell, anyway you slice this thing, it is obviously a set-up. We're just examining the props. To me, by far the two strongest possibilities are that intel-connected Westbrook brought the wallet to 10th and Patton--OR--American-born LEE Oswald dropped it there after shooting Tippit as his final act of framing HARVEY Oswald.

Jim Hargrove Wrote:Had this wallet come from the jacket discovered behind the Texaco station, why wouldn't a DPD report simply say so?

Drew Phipps Wrote:

Jim Hargrove Wrote:Had this wallet come from the jacket discovered behind the Texaco station, why wouldn't a DPD report simply say so?

A wallet discovered (where?) in or near a discarded (when?) jacket (whose?) found a few blocks (how far?) from a murder scene wouldn't have near the evidentiary force that a wallet discovered at the scene of the murder, or in the suspect's possession when arrested. It would require some additional circumstantial evidence to give it any probative value. Oswald's or not, the closer it is to the scene of the crime or to/on his person makes it more probative.

Drew Phipps Wrote:Isn't it far more likely that there were fewer, or just 1, wallets and the DPD is just making up stories about their "provenance" as the investigation goes on? For instance, Westbrook finds Wallet A with a discarded white jacket, takes it to the Tippet murder scene and does a photo-bite to associate it with the Tippet murder (perhaps Westbrook is Croy's "unknown man?" {It is a long time and dishonorable police practice to treat certain information or evidence from a fellow officer as from an "anonymous" or "unidentified" source}. When it becomes apparent that LHO is the leading suspect in the Kennedy shooting, or even after the Warren Commission starts its work, Bentley is now the discoverer of the wallet. Either way, the wallet is safely in Fritz' hand when LHO arrives at the station. I think that it might be important to remember one bit of data from the news story there, according to the news anchor in 2013, the footage of Westbrook handling the wallet wasn't aired. The Warren Commission may not have known about this particular bit of evidentiary theatre, or figured it was irrelevant, if no one had seen it. (Remember the WC in mid-stream adds a third bullet to its theory of the assassination when it learns about the published bullet mark in the curb and televised account of James Teague's injuries)

Dawn Meredith Wrote:Jim: The paper I delivered for John at COPA completely explains all of this. It is on my now defunct computer that is not hooked up at it is Windows XP. My new one with 7 is in the shop - forever now- so would you post that paper someplace. (Perhaps its own thread?) I would like to re-read it myself. I think it will clarify a lot for Drew as well. It certainly did for me.
Merci.
Dawn

Tracy Riddle Wrote:A good comment from Bill Simpich on the JFKFacts.org site:

A related issue to the wallet is how all of the contemporaneous reports on 11/22/63 are silent on the name of "Hidell".
Only on the 23rd did the "Hidell" name emerge in public, and it was only after the FBI allegedly discovered in the early morning hours of the 23rd that Hidell had mail-ordered the Mannlicher-Carcano and had the rifle delivered to Oswald's post office box address.
From the 23rd on, most of the witnesses who wrote reports on the 22nd gradually remembered that Hidell's ID was in Oswald's wallet.

Cops are trained to include all relevant data in their reports. It's hard to think of anything more relevant than the Hidell ID.
To my mind, either all these witnesses were given a secret order to not mention the Hidell name (unlikely) or the Hidell ID was only mentioned by Westbrook at the Tippit murder scene and then covered up until the right moment (more likely).
The Hidell story should be a follow-up article to the wallet story. Robert Charles-Dunne did a good round-up on this years ago at the Education Forum. Here it is:
So what did Bentley's report of the arrest say about the suspect's ID? "On the way to the city hall I removed the suspect's wallet and obtained the name…. I turned his identification over to Lt. Baker. I then went to Captain Westbrook's office to make a report of the arrest." The date of the report was December 3, or two weeks after the event, itself a rather disquieting delay in filing a report that itself stipulates he went to Westbrook's office to file a report immediately after the arrest. Perhaps he did write another report on 11/22/63 and nobody has been able to locate it in the past 42 years. Perhaps you will suggest that his memory was far sharper after 35 years than it was after 14 days? [I will attempt to upload the 2nd page of this report, which deals with the post-arrest trip downtown, so you can comb it for any mention of "Hidell" ID and let me know what you find.]

So, OK: Bentley failed to mention finding ID in Oswald's alias. But other officers did. Gerald Hill told the WC that Bentley had found the ID while en route to DPD HQ, but was uncertain about the name, recalling only that it was the same name that had been used to order the rifle. However, on the very day of the "Hidell" ID's discovery upon the suspect, mere hours after it occurred, here's what Gerry Hill told NBC TV:
HILL: The only way we found out what his name was was to remove his billforld and check it ourself; he wouldn't even tell us what his name was….
Q: What was the name on the billfold?
HILL: Lee H. Oswald. O-S-W-A-L-D.

Bentley's failure to remember the "Hidell" incident must have been contagious. Hill caught it fast, though he recovered in time for his testimony. CT Walker, as noted earlier, failed to hear anything about Hidell while sitting right beside Oswald when the ID was allegedly found in Oswald's wallet. Nevertheless, he told the WC that when they got to the DPD HQ, Oswald "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."
Please avail yourself of the reports filed by Walker, and K.E. Lyons, and Bob Carroll and let me know if any of the five arresting officers mention anything about finding "Hidell" ID on the day of the event. Perhaps you can also suggest why all five had instant amnesia. You might also explain how it came to be that having had his wallet removed by Bentley, who reported that he gave it to Lt. Baker, Oswald seems to have had his wallet returned to him, even though he was still hand-cuffed with his hands behind his back.
Richard Stovall testified that he and Gus Rose were talking with Oswald prior to Captain Fritz commencing the interrogation. Stovall said that he asked Oswald his name, and Oswald told him "Oswald." Stovall noted that the suspect had his billfold and it included "Hidell" ID. At that point, Fritz entered and sent Stovall and Rose out to Irving to check the Paine home.

Five days after Stovall testified to these facts, Rose was called and asked about this series of events. Rose said that when he and Stovall asked the suspect his name, he replied "Hidell." Rose claimed that he found ID in the billfold in both names. Needless to say, the WC didn't trouble itself to reconcile the diametrically opposed testimonies of Stovall and Rose regarding what the suspect told them. But then, the same WC staff didn't seem to question the absolute absence in the DPD reports of any indication that the word "Hidell" was ever uttered on that day.
Helpful, but problematic corroboration came from another detective, Walter Potts, who told the Commission that soon after 2 pm he was dispatched to "go out to Oswald's or Hidell's or Oswald's room…. On his person he must have had he did have identification with the name Alex Hidell and Oswald." Potts claimed that when he got to the Beckley boarding house, he and and his fellow officers which included Justice of the Peace David Johnston , who would preside over LHO's arraingments were told by housekeeper Earlene Roberts and the Johnsons, who owned the house, that none of them knew "a Lee Harvey Oswald or an Alex Hidell either one." When questioned, Roberts and the Johnsons admitted having been asked about an "Oswald" but made no mention of "Hidell."
Interestingly, JP David Johnston was involved with police all day long, and in his own report referred to an Oswald alias O.H. Lee under which he'd rented his boarding house room. Despite having been present when Potts, et al, asked after Oswald or Hidell, Johnston too suffered from the contagious amnesia regarding that name.