03-02-2019, 01:33 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-02-2019, 01:49 PM by Milo Reech.)
This conclusion was too hasty:
What was too hasty was my reading of the statements Burt made to Al Chapman on 2/7/68. It's a firsthand account of how non-conforming witnesses (whose observations contradicted tenets of the official version) were actually handled. First, an undocumented interrogation at the scene; second, undocumented interrogation at the residence; third, dogged extended pursuit, in this instance to another state with transportation provided to an army base where a marathon interrogation was conducted.
Result: a cursory unsigned statement replete with indirect quotations absent the critical intelligence relative to the man Burt "saw that shot OFFICER TIPPIT [who] was walking from Marsalis Avenue in a westerly direction on E. Tenth." The "rich details" referred to in an earlier post relate primarily to events that did not happen, specifically the FBI's nonsense about Burt driving to the scene from his brother's house at Denver & 9th and parking next to #10 with W. A. Smith on board.
If this had happened surely Smith would have recalled it but his FBI report says otherwise, and has the effect of eliminating Burt from the scene altogether. But the FBI can't have it both ways -- which to believe? Neither! The truth came out in the Chapman interview. The upshot is the FBI committed a major blunder by not conforming the Burt & Smith fabrications with each other, casting doubt on the validity of both.
This doubt rises to a certainty of invalidity given W. L. Smith's simultaneous observation on the opposite side of E. 10th of an Oswald lookalike walking west. The FBI addressed this problem by subbing in malleable probationary W. A. Smith (after squeezing the content of his statements into the shape required by the scriptwriters at that time) to preempt bricklayer W. L. Smith and deprive Burt of eyewitness status.
*****
Excerpted from an INTERVIEW OF JIMMY BURT BY AL CHAPMAN ON FEBRUARY 7, 1968
AC Alright. What happened then?
JB Well, someone said that the policemen, I mean that the guy was down at the library which is on Jefferson and between Marsalis and Denver...
AC I see.
JB And, er, we talked -- they started running down there so we followed them and went inside and searched the place and we stood out on the lawn and they came back out and said no one was there so we came back down to the scene where OFFICER TIPPIT was killed and about just before we got there we could see the ambulance and by the time we got there, well they was pulling off.
AC The ambulance was carrying him off at that time.
JB Yes.
AC And what happened then?
JB Well, everyone stood around talking and still going on a lot of noise and...
AC Did you give your name to anybody or anything, tell them that you were a witness to the shooting?
JB Well, everything was starting to thin out after the ambulance left and, er, we got to where we could talk, you, know, and we talked to this plain clothesmen. I don't know if he was city or FBI. But we didn't tell him our names at all. We just told him where we lived. Over on Tenth Street.
AC And when did they come to see you?
JB The next day.
AC Which would have been on Saturday?
JB Right.
AC And how many were they?
JB Two.
AC Plainclothesmen?
JB Yes.
AC And did they identify themselves or do you remember or...
JB Yes, they identified themselves but I can't remember...
AC If it was FBI or City police, right. Alright, what did you tell them at that time?
JB Well just what I just told you.
AC What you told me, right. Did you tell them you had seen it happen, and, er, did they ask you anything about the direction the man was coming from or if you could identify him or what?
JB Yes. They asked me if I could identify him and I told them no.
AC Okay, on Saturday, they, er, had been captured, right?
JB Yes.
AC Alright. Had you heard that they had the man that was supposed to kill the policeman? Did you know this at the time that they came out to see you on Saturday?
JB That they had captured him?
AC Yeah.
JB Yes, I think so.
AC Had you seen a picture of the person that they had arrested?
JB No.
AC Had you seen it on TV or anything?
JB No.
AC And when is the first time you saw a picture of OSWALD?
JB At the time he was killed.
AC At the time he was killed, right. Alright, now then what did you tell these, er, two plainclothesmen that you were talking to on Saturday?
JB Same thing, just what I saw, you know, and that we had come down and all that.
AC Alright.
JB But they didn't talk too much. They didn't say anything. Just ask questions.
AC Did they take down anything at that time?
JB No. Just our name and address.
AC Alright. Then you say you were in the Army at the time, stationed at Ft. Polk, Louisiana?
JB Right.
AC Right, and what did they say about this?
JB They said they'd contact me later, and I said I'd be at Ft. Polk, I had to be back on Monday.
AC Monday, yes. And when did they come down to Ft. Polk and talk to you?
JB I think it was on a Tuesday or somewhere back in the middle of the week.
AC Alright. Then what happened then?
JB They asked me the same thing that they had asked me at home. You know what I saw...
AC Was it the same men?
JB No.
AC Do you know where they were from or did they identify themselves?
JB They was from Shreveport.
AC Shreveport, Louisiana?
JB Right.
AC Right. And what happened at this meeting, on Tuesday or Wednesday of the next week?
JB Well, they just talked to me for a few minutes, you know, and they didn't take down anything then, made memos or nothing, they just said we'll talk to you later, contact you later.
AC Alright. And when did they contact you later?
JB That weekend.
AC That weekend. And where did they contact you at?
JB At my mother's house in Bellemont, Louisiana.
AC And what happened then?
JB Well, they talked to me a while out in the car and they asked me when I had to be back and I told them I had to be back that night and they said, well, we'll just carry you back down there.
AC What day was that, do you remember?
JB It was on a Sunday.
AC On a Sunday, alright.
JB Yes.
AC So you rode back with the two plainclothesmen to the Ft. Polk?
JB Yes.
AC Then what happened?
JB We got down there and then they made me tell my story about four or five times.
AC And how long did they question you at this time?
JB Three or four hours.
AC Three or four hours.
JB Yes.
AC Did they make a tape recording or take notes or write it down or what?
JB They took notes.
AC Took notes.
JB But they didn't record anything.
AC Alright. Did you sign anything?
JB No.
AC Did you tell them at that time that you could not identify the person that you saw as being OSWALD?
JB Yes.
AC Did they ask you this?
JB Yes.
AC Did they say can you identify this man as OSWALD?
JB Yes. They did.
AC And you said what?
JB I said I couldn't.
AC You said you couldn't. Do you have any idea what your friend, BILLY SMITH, might have told them?
JB As far as I know, they never talked to him.
AC And where is BILLY SMITH at this time?
JB Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
AC Do you have an address for BILLY?
JB No, I don't.
AC Can you get me an address for him?
JB Yes, I could.
AC So, you talked with them three or four hours on a Sunday, then, practically a week later of the killing of OFFICER TIPPIT.
JB Right.
AC Right. And they talked with you three or four hours and what did they tell you after they got through with you?
JB Well, they told me they'd contact me later but they never did.
AC This was roughly about December 1, 1963, right?
JB Yes.
AC And you've never talked to anyone since?
JB No.
AC And you cannot identify OSWALD as being the man who shot OFFICER TIPPIT?
JB I cannot.
AC And the person that you saw that shot OFFICER TIPPIT was walking from Marsalis Avenue in a westerly direction on E. Tenth?
JB Right.
http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm...m/id/10981 pp.15-19
Milo Reech Wrote:Burt in later years changed his statements to conform more closely with the Smith version, but the revised account is unreliable.
What was too hasty was my reading of the statements Burt made to Al Chapman on 2/7/68. It's a firsthand account of how non-conforming witnesses (whose observations contradicted tenets of the official version) were actually handled. First, an undocumented interrogation at the scene; second, undocumented interrogation at the residence; third, dogged extended pursuit, in this instance to another state with transportation provided to an army base where a marathon interrogation was conducted.
Result: a cursory unsigned statement replete with indirect quotations absent the critical intelligence relative to the man Burt "saw that shot OFFICER TIPPIT [who] was walking from Marsalis Avenue in a westerly direction on E. Tenth." The "rich details" referred to in an earlier post relate primarily to events that did not happen, specifically the FBI's nonsense about Burt driving to the scene from his brother's house at Denver & 9th and parking next to #10 with W. A. Smith on board.
If this had happened surely Smith would have recalled it but his FBI report says otherwise, and has the effect of eliminating Burt from the scene altogether. But the FBI can't have it both ways -- which to believe? Neither! The truth came out in the Chapman interview. The upshot is the FBI committed a major blunder by not conforming the Burt & Smith fabrications with each other, casting doubt on the validity of both.
This doubt rises to a certainty of invalidity given W. L. Smith's simultaneous observation on the opposite side of E. 10th of an Oswald lookalike walking west. The FBI addressed this problem by subbing in malleable probationary W. A. Smith (after squeezing the content of his statements into the shape required by the scriptwriters at that time) to preempt bricklayer W. L. Smith and deprive Burt of eyewitness status.
*****
Excerpted from an INTERVIEW OF JIMMY BURT BY AL CHAPMAN ON FEBRUARY 7, 1968
AC Alright. What happened then?
JB Well, someone said that the policemen, I mean that the guy was down at the library which is on Jefferson and between Marsalis and Denver...
AC I see.
JB And, er, we talked -- they started running down there so we followed them and went inside and searched the place and we stood out on the lawn and they came back out and said no one was there so we came back down to the scene where OFFICER TIPPIT was killed and about just before we got there we could see the ambulance and by the time we got there, well they was pulling off.
AC The ambulance was carrying him off at that time.
JB Yes.
AC And what happened then?
JB Well, everyone stood around talking and still going on a lot of noise and...
AC Did you give your name to anybody or anything, tell them that you were a witness to the shooting?
JB Well, everything was starting to thin out after the ambulance left and, er, we got to where we could talk, you, know, and we talked to this plain clothesmen. I don't know if he was city or FBI. But we didn't tell him our names at all. We just told him where we lived. Over on Tenth Street.
AC And when did they come to see you?
JB The next day.
AC Which would have been on Saturday?
JB Right.
AC And how many were they?
JB Two.
AC Plainclothesmen?
JB Yes.
AC And did they identify themselves or do you remember or...
JB Yes, they identified themselves but I can't remember...
AC If it was FBI or City police, right. Alright, what did you tell them at that time?
JB Well just what I just told you.
AC What you told me, right. Did you tell them you had seen it happen, and, er, did they ask you anything about the direction the man was coming from or if you could identify him or what?
JB Yes. They asked me if I could identify him and I told them no.
AC Okay, on Saturday, they, er, had been captured, right?
JB Yes.
AC Alright. Had you heard that they had the man that was supposed to kill the policeman? Did you know this at the time that they came out to see you on Saturday?
JB That they had captured him?
AC Yeah.
JB Yes, I think so.
AC Had you seen a picture of the person that they had arrested?
JB No.
AC Had you seen it on TV or anything?
JB No.
AC And when is the first time you saw a picture of OSWALD?
JB At the time he was killed.
AC At the time he was killed, right. Alright, now then what did you tell these, er, two plainclothesmen that you were talking to on Saturday?
JB Same thing, just what I saw, you know, and that we had come down and all that.
AC Alright.
JB But they didn't talk too much. They didn't say anything. Just ask questions.
AC Did they take down anything at that time?
JB No. Just our name and address.
AC Alright. Then you say you were in the Army at the time, stationed at Ft. Polk, Louisiana?
JB Right.
AC Right, and what did they say about this?
JB They said they'd contact me later, and I said I'd be at Ft. Polk, I had to be back on Monday.
AC Monday, yes. And when did they come down to Ft. Polk and talk to you?
JB I think it was on a Tuesday or somewhere back in the middle of the week.
AC Alright. Then what happened then?
JB They asked me the same thing that they had asked me at home. You know what I saw...
AC Was it the same men?
JB No.
AC Do you know where they were from or did they identify themselves?
JB They was from Shreveport.
AC Shreveport, Louisiana?
JB Right.
AC Right. And what happened at this meeting, on Tuesday or Wednesday of the next week?
JB Well, they just talked to me for a few minutes, you know, and they didn't take down anything then, made memos or nothing, they just said we'll talk to you later, contact you later.
AC Alright. And when did they contact you later?
JB That weekend.
AC That weekend. And where did they contact you at?
JB At my mother's house in Bellemont, Louisiana.
AC And what happened then?
JB Well, they talked to me a while out in the car and they asked me when I had to be back and I told them I had to be back that night and they said, well, we'll just carry you back down there.
AC What day was that, do you remember?
JB It was on a Sunday.
AC On a Sunday, alright.
JB Yes.
AC So you rode back with the two plainclothesmen to the Ft. Polk?
JB Yes.
AC Then what happened?
JB We got down there and then they made me tell my story about four or five times.
AC And how long did they question you at this time?
JB Three or four hours.
AC Three or four hours.
JB Yes.
AC Did they make a tape recording or take notes or write it down or what?
JB They took notes.
AC Took notes.
JB But they didn't record anything.
AC Alright. Did you sign anything?
JB No.
AC Did you tell them at that time that you could not identify the person that you saw as being OSWALD?
JB Yes.
AC Did they ask you this?
JB Yes.
AC Did they say can you identify this man as OSWALD?
JB Yes. They did.
AC And you said what?
JB I said I couldn't.
AC You said you couldn't. Do you have any idea what your friend, BILLY SMITH, might have told them?
JB As far as I know, they never talked to him.
AC And where is BILLY SMITH at this time?
JB Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
AC Do you have an address for BILLY?
JB No, I don't.
AC Can you get me an address for him?
JB Yes, I could.
AC So, you talked with them three or four hours on a Sunday, then, practically a week later of the killing of OFFICER TIPPIT.
JB Right.
AC Right. And they talked with you three or four hours and what did they tell you after they got through with you?
JB Well, they told me they'd contact me later but they never did.
AC This was roughly about December 1, 1963, right?
JB Yes.
AC And you've never talked to anyone since?
JB No.
AC And you cannot identify OSWALD as being the man who shot OFFICER TIPPIT?
JB I cannot.
AC And the person that you saw that shot OFFICER TIPPIT was walking from Marsalis Avenue in a westerly direction on E. Tenth?
JB Right.
http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm...m/id/10981 pp.15-19