06-05-2018, 07:30 PM
The critical element of Tatum's statements to Moriarty & Basteri is not the number of shots he heard (four in 1978, three or four in 1986), but the lag preceding the last shot. Per the summary of his 1978 statements (undated):
This is both elliptical (omitting the run back toward the front of the car) and absurd (a man rushing to kill would not have taken the long way around the car).
Tatum's first (1978) description of this event conforms with the summary. His 1986 version is radically different and more expansive. Cutting to the chase:
Zounds! Now Tatum has the ruthless killer either running or walking, still going the wrong way, then pausing as if to ponder the next step! Buy this, buy anything.
The mutual support provided by Benavides validating Tatum's statements & Tatum vindicating Benavides' testimony crashes in a circular heap if the presence of neither at the murder scene when the murder occurred can be established independently. For example, what investigation did Moriarty/Basteri perform to corroborate Tatum's statements? There's nothing about it in the summary.
And so far nothing substantial's turned up to supply a basis for belief in either tale.
For above material see Armstrong's papers at Baylor:
http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm...m/id/11686
His testimony differs from other witnesses in one respect; after the initial shots he saw the gunman run to the back of the police car, step into the street, and shoot the policeman again at point blank range (HSCA Report p.60 and HSCA Vol 12 p.41).
This is both elliptical (omitting the run back toward the front of the car) and absurd (a man rushing to kill would not have taken the long way around the car).
Tatum's first (1978) description of this event conforms with the summary. His 1986 version is radically different and more expansive. Cutting to the chase:
...I saw a person (Oswald) with a gun in his hand and he turned around, as if he was going to run off or walk off and as he got to the rear of the car, he hesitated and walked around the squad car (towards the officer) and shot a fourth time. It could have been a third.
Zounds! Now Tatum has the ruthless killer either running or walking, still going the wrong way, then pausing as if to ponder the next step! Buy this, buy anything.
The mutual support provided by Benavides validating Tatum's statements & Tatum vindicating Benavides' testimony crashes in a circular heap if the presence of neither at the murder scene when the murder occurred can be established independently. For example, what investigation did Moriarty/Basteri perform to corroborate Tatum's statements? There's nothing about it in the summary.
And so far nothing substantial's turned up to supply a basis for belief in either tale.
For above material see Armstrong's papers at Baylor:
http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm...m/id/11686