15-08-2016, 08:56 PM
Let's backup a bit to Callaway at Patton -- gazing toward East 10th, spotting the cabdriver crouched behind the cab 300 feet away, following the progress of the man with a raised gun as he crossed Patton with the cab behind him, and possibly passed behind a disabled car (hood up & butterfly exposed), challenging him before he disappeared around the corner.
Sam Guinyard, a porter at Dootch Motors (Harris Bros.), stands nearby observing the same person. Together they run to 10th, survey the scene and assist the ambulance crew. The details of their respective WC testimonies do not mesh well, but they get to this point at the same time.
Another Dootch Motors employee also has a role to play, Domingo Benavides, whose 11/22/63 affidavit was lost, and there are no SS/FBI affidavits or reports. Nevertheless, based on testimony taken by David W. Belin at 2:30PM 4/2/62, he participated as a major eye witness. By WC standards the deposition is amusing stuff, Benavides at times pulling off a Keyser Söze act. Two specific items are particularly relevant to this discussion.
Not sure but Benavides may have been the only WC witness who identified Callaway by name as Scoggins' co-rider, following Belin's lead near the end of the session.
Mr. BELIN - You talked to Ted Callaway, did you?
...
Mr. BENAVIDES - And so Ted then got in the taxicab and the taxicab came to a halt and he asked me which way he went. I told him he went down Patton Street toward the office, and come to find out later Ted had already seen him go by there.
Weak corroboration -- confirming and denying Callaway's presence in the cab at the same time.
The other item involves a strange interlude about midway through the testimony.
Mr. BELIN - Then what did you do?
Mr. BENAVIDES - At the time I walked out, I guess I was scared, so I started across the street--alley between the two houses to my mother's house, and I got in the yard and I said I'd better go back, or just caught myself until I got over there, I guess, so I went back around there.
Belin proceeds to lead him into spent shell gathering, but both Belin & Benavides overlook the presence of another player. Remember the porter? Guinyard's testimony was taken by Joseph A. Ball at 10:15AM the same day. Working through the material with the witness, it becomes evident at some point, after arriving together with Callaway at the murder scene, the two become separated, and Ball hastens Guinyard along.
Mr. BALL. Were you there when the truck came up that was driven by Benavides?
Mr. GUINYARD. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. He came up right after this?
Mr. GUINYARD. Yes; he came up from the east side---going west.
Mr. BALL. And then what did you do after that?
Mr. GUINYARD. Well, we stood there a while and talked and I called him Donnie, he picked up all them empty hulls that come out of the gun.
Ball reached the event he wanted the witness to discuss, spent shell gathering, but Benavides' truck was supposed to have been there beforehand, according to Benavides' testimony delivered a few hours later. The discrepancy cannot be ascribed to error on the part of Guinyard, since the fact of the truck's arrival at this time is explicit in the questions.
How did the continuity go wrong? Did Ball bollix the script, or Belin drop the ball? Either way makes no difference. The upshot is Benavides' credibility as a witness takes a massive hit.
Shaggy dog stories are like that, not requiring strict consistency, separate sometimes contradictory narrative threads playing out in parallel, or by fits & starts, not necessarily sequential in the sense of one event following another in orderly fashion, lots of loose ends, but let's try to tighten this up a little. What actually happened during the episode signaled by the strange interlude?
Benavides was finishing lunch at his mother's house beside the alley that connected 10th & Jefferson when the shots rang out. He left to investigate events on 10th street. A squad car headed toward him. When it either passed by or turned off, he got behind the wheel, but the way was blocked by Tippit's squad car parked at the end of the alley. He turned onto the intersecting alley that ran from Patton to Denver, left onto Denver, left onto 10th, converging on the murder scene with Guinyard, and thereby hangs a tale.
Sam Guinyard, a porter at Dootch Motors (Harris Bros.), stands nearby observing the same person. Together they run to 10th, survey the scene and assist the ambulance crew. The details of their respective WC testimonies do not mesh well, but they get to this point at the same time.
Another Dootch Motors employee also has a role to play, Domingo Benavides, whose 11/22/63 affidavit was lost, and there are no SS/FBI affidavits or reports. Nevertheless, based on testimony taken by David W. Belin at 2:30PM 4/2/62, he participated as a major eye witness. By WC standards the deposition is amusing stuff, Benavides at times pulling off a Keyser Söze act. Two specific items are particularly relevant to this discussion.
Not sure but Benavides may have been the only WC witness who identified Callaway by name as Scoggins' co-rider, following Belin's lead near the end of the session.
Mr. BELIN - You talked to Ted Callaway, did you?
...
Mr. BENAVIDES - And so Ted then got in the taxicab and the taxicab came to a halt and he asked me which way he went. I told him he went down Patton Street toward the office, and come to find out later Ted had already seen him go by there.
Weak corroboration -- confirming and denying Callaway's presence in the cab at the same time.
The other item involves a strange interlude about midway through the testimony.
Mr. BELIN - Then what did you do?
Mr. BENAVIDES - At the time I walked out, I guess I was scared, so I started across the street--alley between the two houses to my mother's house, and I got in the yard and I said I'd better go back, or just caught myself until I got over there, I guess, so I went back around there.
Belin proceeds to lead him into spent shell gathering, but both Belin & Benavides overlook the presence of another player. Remember the porter? Guinyard's testimony was taken by Joseph A. Ball at 10:15AM the same day. Working through the material with the witness, it becomes evident at some point, after arriving together with Callaway at the murder scene, the two become separated, and Ball hastens Guinyard along.
Mr. BALL. Were you there when the truck came up that was driven by Benavides?
Mr. GUINYARD. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. He came up right after this?
Mr. GUINYARD. Yes; he came up from the east side---going west.
Mr. BALL. And then what did you do after that?
Mr. GUINYARD. Well, we stood there a while and talked and I called him Donnie, he picked up all them empty hulls that come out of the gun.
Ball reached the event he wanted the witness to discuss, spent shell gathering, but Benavides' truck was supposed to have been there beforehand, according to Benavides' testimony delivered a few hours later. The discrepancy cannot be ascribed to error on the part of Guinyard, since the fact of the truck's arrival at this time is explicit in the questions.
How did the continuity go wrong? Did Ball bollix the script, or Belin drop the ball? Either way makes no difference. The upshot is Benavides' credibility as a witness takes a massive hit.
Shaggy dog stories are like that, not requiring strict consistency, separate sometimes contradictory narrative threads playing out in parallel, or by fits & starts, not necessarily sequential in the sense of one event following another in orderly fashion, lots of loose ends, but let's try to tighten this up a little. What actually happened during the episode signaled by the strange interlude?
Benavides was finishing lunch at his mother's house beside the alley that connected 10th & Jefferson when the shots rang out. He left to investigate events on 10th street. A squad car headed toward him. When it either passed by or turned off, he got behind the wheel, but the way was blocked by Tippit's squad car parked at the end of the alley. He turned onto the intersecting alley that ran from Patton to Denver, left onto Denver, left onto 10th, converging on the murder scene with Guinyard, and thereby hangs a tale.