The Tippit Case in the New Millenium

[David Josephs]

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.

Milo... thanks for the well presented concept. (Leavelle's barely legible report at the bottom)

The idea that Benavides was elevated to a witness to shield us from BOWLEY's timestamp, and all the witnesses of 2 men is sound to me although the statements and timings are all in evidence so I don't see what that accomplished..

He gives testimony in April of 1964 yet his twin brother had just been killed in a bar fight in February (from Gary Murr "The Murder of Dallas Police Officer JD Tippit" 1971)
One would think that the fear involved was more than enough to have Domingo add detail to his testimony




Up to the following description of his hair what does DB say?


Mr. BELIN - What else did you see?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Then I seen the man turn and walk back to the sidewalk and go on the sidewalk and he walked maybe 5 foot and then kind of stalled. He didn't exactly stop. And he threw one shell and must have took five or six more steps and threw the other shell up, and then he kind of stepped up to a pretty good trot going around the corner.


We will see below that this line of testimony had to have been fed to him... there was a 4th shot to his head while he was on the ground... but DB doesn't recall this


Mr. BELIN - Let me ask you now, I would like to have you relate again the action of the man with the gun as you saw him now.
Mr. BENAVIDES - As I saw him, I really---I mean really got a good view of the man after the bullets were fired, he had just tuned. He was just turning away.
In other words, he was pointing toward the officer, and he had just turned away to his left, and then he started. There was a big tree, and it seemed like he started back going to the curb of the street and into the sidewalk, and then he turned and went down the sidewalk to, well, until he got in front of the corner house, and then he turned to the left there and went on down Patton Street.


Mr. BENAVIDES - Well, he was kind of, well, just about your size.
Mr. BELIN - About my size? I am standing up.
Mr. BENAVIDES - You are about 5' 10"?
Mr. BELIN - I am between 5' 10" and 5' 11". Closer to 5' 11", I believe.


Mr. BELIN - What color hair did he have?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Oh, dark. I mean not dark.
Mr. BELIN - Black hair?
Mr. BENAVIDES - No. Not black or brown, just kind of a----
Mr. BELIN - My color hair?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes.
Mr. BELIN - You say he is my size, my weight, and my color hair?
Mr. BENAVIDES - He kind of looks like---well, his hair was a little bit curlier.

Mr. BENAVIDES - Later on that evening, about 4 o'clock, there was two officers came by and asked for me, Mr. Callaway asked me---I had told them that I had seen the officer, and the reporters were there and I was trying to hide from the reporters because they will just bother you all the time. Then I found out that they thought this was the guy that killed the President. At the time I didn't know the President was dead or he had been shot.
I was just trying to hide from the reporters and everything, and these two officers came around and asked me if I'd seen him, and I told him yes, and told them what I had seen, and they asked me if I could identify him, and I said I don't think I could. It this time I was sure, I wasn't sure that I could or not. I wasn't going to say I could identify and go down and couldn't have.
Mr. BELIN - Did he ever take you to the police station and ask you if you could identify him?
Mr. BENAVIDES - No; they didn't.

====================
DJ: So we have a man who probably did not see much of anything while ducked down in his truck simply say he could not ID the man... except the "anything else" which he adds virtually disqualifies Oswald...

I guess I am having a hard time seeing where he was "elevated" and how anything he says disqualifies BOWLEY and MARKHAM ???



The detail he adds disqualifies Oswald as the suspect...??? Oswald's hair tapers off and is not squared off So if he's going to help out... what's he doing?
It is obvious from this question that they are fine with what they've asked already....

Mr. BELIN - Okay, well, I thank you. I was flying from St. Louis to Des Moines, Iowa. at about this time. Is there anything else?





So, one thing that always has bothered me about him was he only hers 3 shots and does not describe a very key action by "the suspect" as recounted by Jack TATUM... Tippit was shot FOUR TIMES, not 3... 3 times to the upper chest, then a delay and a 4th shot to the right front with virtually the same path as the JFK shot



BAYLOR UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
Wednesday, Feb. 1st, 1978.
OFFICE OF PHOTO DEPARTMENT OF HOBIEZELLE HOSPITAL
3500 GASTON AVE, DALLAS, TEXAS.
Investigators Jack Moriarty and Joe Basteri, menders of the Select Committee on Assassinations, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington., D.C. are in the office of the Director of Photography of the hospital mentioned above, and Mr. JACK RAY TATUM, The Director, has been interviewed with regard to his first hand knowledge, of the Fatal shooting of Officer J.D. Tippit, here in Dallas, Friday, November 22nd, 1963.
Mr. Tatum will reiterate his statement to be reduced to typewritten form
(By Moriarty) "Mr. Tatum, if you'll repeat your statement slowly, I'll attempt to type it."
Although I did not remember the exact time I remember it was early in the afternoon on Friday, November 22, 1963. I was driving XXXX north on Denver and stopped at 10th St. when I first saw the squad car and men walking on the sidewalk near the squad car. Both the squad car and this young white male were coming in my direction(East on 10th Street). At the time I was just approaching the squad car, I noticed this young white male with both hands in the pockets of his zippered jacket leaning over the passenger side of the squad car. This young white male was looking into the squad car from the passenger side. The next thing I knew I heard something that sounded like gun shots as I approached the intersection. (10th & Patton). I heard three shots in rapid (illegible)I went right through the intersection, stopped my car and turned to look back. I then saw the officer lying on the street and saw this young white man standing near the front of the squad car. Next. this man with a gun in his hand ran toward the back of the squad car, but instead of running away he stepped into the street and shot the police officer who was lying in the street. At that point this young man looked around him and then started to walk away in my direction and as he started to break into a small run in my direction, I sped off in my auto. All I saw him to the intersection and run south on Patton towards Jefferson.


Leavelle's report (pretty pathetic copy job, huh?) yet we can make out end of the 5th line from bottom of 1st paragraph: "Another witness .... but did not see suspect, was Domingo Benavides"

Milo - I think we agree... I just don't see the significance... can you help me?