Police Magic at North Beckley

[Tracy Riddle]

Am I reading her testimony correctly? She says Oswald's photo was shown on the TV at the same time the cops were there? Then it couldn't have been at 1:30. Oswald wasn't arrested until 1:50. I would have to go back and look up what time Oswald's image was first shown on TV.

[Albert Doyle]

Am I reading her testimony correctly? She says Oswald's photo was shown on the TV at the same time the cops were there? Then it couldn't have been at 1:30. Oswald wasn't arrested until 1:50. I would have to go back and look up what time Oswald's image was first shown on TV.

If you read closer there was a time period there where Mrs Roberts was saying there was no Lee Harvey Oswald staying at her rooming house. It was resolved by Mrs Johnson coming in and telling her the man in the small room was on the TV.


Looks like the cops jumped too soon on their set-up.


Frazier?


(Don't forget the police car honking the horn earlier)

[Drew Phipps]

Oswald told Roberts his name was O.H. Lee, to prevent the FBI from causing him to lose another boarding room.

I don't recall there is any evidence that suggests Frazier knew where Oswald's boarding house was, unless you concede that Frazier drove Oswald to the Superdrome (?) shooting range, as has been reported by other witnesses. That would be a fairly interesting concession, since it would imply that Frazier knew that Oswald had a rifle and where it was kept.

[Albert Doyle]

Oswald told Roberts his name was O.H. Lee, to prevent the FBI from causing him to lose another boarding room.

I don't recall there is any evidence that suggests Frazier knew where Oswald's boarding house was, unless you concede that Frazier drove Oswald to the Superdrome (?) shooting range, as has been reported by other witnesses. That would be a fairly interesting concession, since it would imply that Frazier knew that Oswald had a rifle and where it was kept.

I'd have to guess a conversation ensued after Frazier asked Oswald where he stayed on nights other than those at the Paines? Not proof, but logical.

[Jim Hargrove]

Well, I wouldn't assume that Johnson and Roberts were 100% accurate about time, but if they remember the co-incidence of the police arriving and the pictures being shown on TV, that is certainly worth looking into. What does the dispatch log say about someone being sent to Beckley? (If there isn't a radio dispatch, you'd have to believe that someone at Headquarters personally told the plainclothes guys to go there, so factor in a trip time....)

Of course we also know about the multiple wallets, there's (staged?) footage of DPD examining a wallet at the Tippet scene (presumably prior to the arrest), and then the wallet recovered from LHO. I wonder if the Tippet wallet contained a Beckley Street address?

What the DPD radio log says or doesn't say about North Beckley should be easy enough to uncover, but I'm having difficulty finding much online from the official transcripts that extends beyond Oswald's arrest. Scans from later in the day don't seem to exist at texashistory.unt.edu, and the various transcripts of the transcripts that I've seen online all seem incomplete.

There are a few mentions of Beckley before 2:30, but they don't seem relevant and none mention the rooming house at 1026 N. Beckley. For example:



There are, of course, a million references to the suspect in a white jacket and white shirt, and none to a suspect in a brown shirt, but that, I suppose is another story. And I just can't resist posting this one, about the suspect hiding in the balcony on the Texas Theater.



Geez... a suspect in a white shirt in the balcony apparently led out the back door of the theater and seen by a handful of witnesses.... and a suspect on the ground floor in a brown shirt and arrested for millions to see... sure seems like there were TWO SUSPECTS in that theater. Funny how only one was given any attention at all. Ah well, sorry for the digression.

Anyway, the radio transcript at texashistory.unt.edu seems to end right here:



If anyone can point me to official DPD radio transcripts after the one above, I'd be grateful indeed.

[Herbert Blenner]

"trap and trace" is sufficient to provide that info, you don't need a wiretap. Trap and trace gives you number and duration, the information that Ma Bell kept for billing purposes anyhow. This information is and always has been obtainable from the phone company by subpoena (or written request from the police).

The authorities had no way to link a call from Ruth Paine's number to WH38993 with Lee Harvey Oswald.

[Drew Phipps]

According to "Oswald: 24 hours to live", which is a lone nut accounting of time and events, Fritz himself personally dispatched a team of officers to the Beckley address after learning it from Oswald In the interview room.

This account also has Earlene Roberts and her neighbor watching TV at 4:00 PM and seeing Oswald on TV for the first time.

[Jim Hargrove]

Sounds pretty similar to the version supplied by the police. It could be true, if three witnesses at the rooming house were off by more than an hour in their recollections..... But it also could be the cops covering their asses. "Sure we had a warrant to search his room. You betcha!"

[Albert Doyle]

Mrs. ROBERTS. Well, it was after President Kennedy had been shot and I had a friend that said, "Roberts, President Kennedy has been shot," and I said, "Oh, no." She said, "Turn on your television," and I said "What are you trying to do, pull my leg?" And she said, "Well, go turn it on." I went and turned it on and I was trying to clear it up---I could hear them talking but I couldn't get the picture and he come in and I just looked up and I said, "Oh, you are in a hurry." He never said a thing, not nothing. He went on to his room and stayed about 3 or 4 minutes.

This television went on at 1pm and probably never went off after that. I seriously doubt it was 4pm before Mrs Roberts saw Oswald on TV. More like 2:10 as advertized.

[Jim Hargrove]

Good point, Albert.

This may never be proved conclusively either way, but you've got to wonder how that infamous holster for a handgun Harvey Oswald never purchased from Seaport Traders got into the room at North Beckley. Earlene Roberts wondered too. Early arrival by cops would be a convenient way to plant evidence.

I'm also wondering why the publication of Dallas police radio broadcasts ends the instant a suspect was placed in a squad car. The fact that everything else is gone makes me think there may have been ample reason to keep this stuff from the public. Any serious investigation should have looked at every police radio transcript until well past the time Harvey Oswald was killed. Is that asking too much about a so-called exhaustive investigation into the "Crime of the Century?"