01-08-2021, 06:34 PM
Stalwart DPD Detective Jim Leavelle, paragon of undue process, was given the assignment of framing Oswald, which he as much as admitted to first day witness Callaway:
"We want to be sure, we want to try to wrap him up real tight on killing this officer. We think he is the same one that shot the President. But if we can wrap him up tight on killing this officer, we have got him."
3H355
It appears as an epigraph to Gary Murr's seminal "The Murder of Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit."
Markham was the first witness enrolled in the official scenario, cast as the only eyewitness of the murder itself, her interview commencing a couple of hours after it occurred. Her DPD statement is remarkably terse, but FBI SA Odum was also on hand. He garbled the content beyond recognition after conducting his own interview of Markham:
MRS. HELEN MARKHAM, residence 328 E. 9th Street, employed as a waitress at the Eatwell Cafe, Main Street, Dallas, furnished the following information:
On the early afternoon of November 22, 1963, possibly around 1:30 p.m., she observed a marked Dallas Police Department patrol car parked in the 400 block of East 10th Street. She saw a young man walk from the sidewalk to the squad car and put his face up to the front window on the right-hand side of the car which was next to the curb and engage the officer in a brief conversation of about ten seconds. Thereafter, the officer got out the left-hand door, drivers side of the car, walked around behind the squad car and on rounding the corner of the car was shot twice in the head by the young man.
MRS. MARKHAM immediately ran out to car and was afraid that this young man might shoot her, but felt that she must go to the aid of the officer. The young man ran west on 10th Street to the corner, turned south and disappeared.
MRS. MARKHAM stated that she is sure she can identify him and described him as a white male, about 18, black hair, red complexion, wearing black shoes, tan jacket, and dark trousers.
SA Bardwell D. Odum, DL 89-43-1174, 11/22/63
While keeping in mind that FBI reports of witness interviews contain almost nothing in the way of direct quotation, yet one cannot help but think the summary information ought to bear some consistency with what the witness actually said. Instead Odum's report is replete with error and misdirection, starting with the 1:30 time (DPD: "approximately 1:06") and ending with the turn south at the corner (DPD: "the man ran west on E. 10th across Patton Street and went out of sight").
The erratic nature of Markham's statements is well known, but she did not deviate from 1:06, consistent with catching the 1:12 bus a block away. An FBI rewrite man (SA Barrett) filed a lengthy report on 3/17/64, superseding Odum's report prior to the WC hearings, bringing the time closer to reality while mutilating the scheduled stop to 1:15. Other reports had the correct time of 1:12, but the WR authors accepted Barrett's distortion, needing every minute they could get to accommodate their lone nut hypothesis.
When Leavelle commenced the frame-up he was under no such constraint.
"We want to be sure, we want to try to wrap him up real tight on killing this officer. We think he is the same one that shot the President. But if we can wrap him up tight on killing this officer, we have got him."
3H355
It appears as an epigraph to Gary Murr's seminal "The Murder of Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit."
Markham was the first witness enrolled in the official scenario, cast as the only eyewitness of the murder itself, her interview commencing a couple of hours after it occurred. Her DPD statement is remarkably terse, but FBI SA Odum was also on hand. He garbled the content beyond recognition after conducting his own interview of Markham:
MRS. HELEN MARKHAM, residence 328 E. 9th Street, employed as a waitress at the Eatwell Cafe, Main Street, Dallas, furnished the following information:
On the early afternoon of November 22, 1963, possibly around 1:30 p.m., she observed a marked Dallas Police Department patrol car parked in the 400 block of East 10th Street. She saw a young man walk from the sidewalk to the squad car and put his face up to the front window on the right-hand side of the car which was next to the curb and engage the officer in a brief conversation of about ten seconds. Thereafter, the officer got out the left-hand door, drivers side of the car, walked around behind the squad car and on rounding the corner of the car was shot twice in the head by the young man.
MRS. MARKHAM immediately ran out to car and was afraid that this young man might shoot her, but felt that she must go to the aid of the officer. The young man ran west on 10th Street to the corner, turned south and disappeared.
MRS. MARKHAM stated that she is sure she can identify him and described him as a white male, about 18, black hair, red complexion, wearing black shoes, tan jacket, and dark trousers.
SA Bardwell D. Odum, DL 89-43-1174, 11/22/63
While keeping in mind that FBI reports of witness interviews contain almost nothing in the way of direct quotation, yet one cannot help but think the summary information ought to bear some consistency with what the witness actually said. Instead Odum's report is replete with error and misdirection, starting with the 1:30 time (DPD: "approximately 1:06") and ending with the turn south at the corner (DPD: "the man ran west on E. 10th across Patton Street and went out of sight").
The erratic nature of Markham's statements is well known, but she did not deviate from 1:06, consistent with catching the 1:12 bus a block away. An FBI rewrite man (SA Barrett) filed a lengthy report on 3/17/64, superseding Odum's report prior to the WC hearings, bringing the time closer to reality while mutilating the scheduled stop to 1:15. Other reports had the correct time of 1:12, but the WR authors accepted Barrett's distortion, needing every minute they could get to accommodate their lone nut hypothesis.
When Leavelle commenced the frame-up he was under no such constraint.