The Tippit Case in the New Millenium

[Milo Reech]

Leavelle's "Report on officer's duties in regards to Officer Tippit's murder," describing events that occurred 11/22-23/63, is worth a read. Statements at the top of the second page are on point.

Det. L. C. Graves and I then took Helen Markham to her home in Oak Cliff. We stopped at the used car lot, 501 E. Jefferson, where we talked with the manager, Ted Calloway [sic], who told me he had seen the suspect running from the scene with a gun in his hand and how he was dressed--with dark trousers, shirt light color, jacket and a T shirt; that the shirt and jacket were open and he could see the T shirt. A colored porter, Sam Guinyard, of Waxahachie, Texas said he also saw the suspect and could identify him. I also talked with another employee of the lot, Domingo Benavides, 509 E. Jefferson, who said he went to the scene of the shooting and picked up two empty hulls and gave them to Officer Poe.

If Benavides had eyewitness credentials this was a good time to declare them but he did not.

To sum things up, nothing prior to Benavides' WC testimony establishes his role as a murder eyewitness, not even his own statements, and Leavelle's reports establish the opposite. Reasons for Benavides' eventual elevation into the role were simple & cogent. It kept Bowley & his watch at bay while precluding the presence of a second assailant.

One senses there was a subornation sweepstakes between Callaway & Benavides. The former blew billows of smoke to which the latter held up a cracked mirror, hence his WC undermining of Callaway's tale.