22-02-2011, 07:40 PM
------------ First Reports out of Dallas, November 1963 -------------
1.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS TIMES HERALD, 11/24/63
...as police prepared to transfer Oswald...to the county jail on
Sunday, they indicated there was little hope at that point of
obtaining a confession of the President's murder.
Another employee of the firm (TSBD) was interviewed at length
Saturday after appearing voluntarily. Capt. W.P. Gannaway of the
Police Department's Special Services Bureau said this man's name
has been in the subversive files of the department since 1955. He
was not jailed and police said he was not arrested.
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2.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS TIMES HERALD, 11/23/63
Officer Tippit was shot TWICE by the fleeing man - who police
said was Oswald - and who was arrested within less than an hour in
an Oak Cliff theater.
In the BACK of the President's head was a gaping hole in some
respects simular to the head wound Lincoln suffered in the Ford
Theater. Another bullet hole was in President Kennedy's neck, just
below the adam's apple.
When Dr. Clark first looked at the stricken President, he saw "a
large gaping wound in the back of the head. There was loss of
tissue." He indicated that he knew at that instant there was no
hope.
Wounds in the lower front portion of the neck and the right rear
side of the head ended the life of President John F. Kennedy, say
doctors at Parkland Hospital.
Dr. Perry was busy with the wound in the President's neck. "It was
a midline in the lower portion of the neck in the front.....Below the
Adam's apple.....It was an entrance wound in the neck."
Back at Parkland, two unidentified plainclothes officers were asking
to be taken to Gov. Connally's room so they could recover the
bullet slug. (SAY WHAT???!!! M.P.)
Sheriff Decker's voice came on. "Notify my office to empty. Send
everybody...." (This statement was not completed in this paper.
M.P.)
At 2:30 P.M., police announced their search of the Texas Book
Depository Building was finished.
Famed surgeon Dr. Robert R. Shaw, who previously had performed
the first chest and heart surgery in Afghanistan, was the chief
surgeon on Govt. Connally's case.
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4.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/25/63
The Justice Department announced in Washington that Assistant
Atty. Gen. Jack Miller Jr., who heads its criminal division, was
flying to Dallas to confer with U.S. District Attorney Barefoot
Sanders. A spoksman refused to say whether the federal
government considered the assassination case closed or whether
there was a possibility others were involved. (This was found in the
Early City or 3 star Edition. This note was dropped in all later
editions of the paper. M.P.)
Sheriff Bill Decker said officers "did everything humanly possible"
to protect both President Kennedy and the man accused of
assassinating him. "I don't think it would make a bit of difference if
Oswald had been transferred at night," Decker said. "If someone is
determined to commit murder, it's almost impossible to stop him."
Officers said Rubenstein apparently mingled with reporters and
photographers and, in this way, got a chance to shoot Oswald.
Wade recalled he saw Rubenstein with reporters Friday night when
they interviewed Oswald briefly. Rubenstein, who introduced
himself to Wade, may have been plotting the slaying at that time.
(This was found in the Early City or 3 star Edition. It was dropped
in later editions of this paper. M.P.)
Rubenstein, who was described as a man with a quick temper, is
expected to plead temporary insanity. (Again, this was found in the
Early City or 3 star Edition and was dropped in later editions.
M.P.)
In a telephone conversation with Homicide Capt. Will Fritz, Mrs.
(Eva) Grant (Ruby's sister) said: "You know that no one else could
have gotten in that building - but all the boys (policemen) knew
Jack."
Dallas detectives found two large wads of bills and silver when they
searched his (Ruby's) apartment Sunday afternoon. One was in a
closet and the other was found in a chest drawer. The amount was
not disclosed.
In an article written for the Associated Press by Dallas policeman
M.N. McDonald and printed in this paper, he states: "I was cruising
towards Oak Cliff, across the river (Trinity that splits Dallas almost
in half). I got a call about 1:30 p.m. The radio dispatcher, G.D.
Henslee, first told me to check the alleys. The next tip was that a
guy that fitted the description they were giving was in a branch
library out in Oak Cliff. This didn't take long to be a phoney. The
next one said a man acting funny was holed up in the balcony of the
Texas Theater. I headed that way in a hurry. The cashier at the
picture show was the one who called in to say this guy was acting
supicious and hidden out in the balcony."
Hugh Aynesworth did a large article about Ruby killing Oswald. In
later editions of this paper, the following quotes were added to his
article: "Chief Curry noted he could have moved Oswald secretly
'in the dark of night,' but had promised reporters and photographers
from throughout the free world that he would make the transfer
during the day." "Police took precautions against any incident. Six
armed policemen surrounded the cart and attendants as it was
moved to the green ambulance." "One reporter said he heard the
slayer add, "I did it for Jackie so she wouldn't have to go through
all that...coming back here for the trial and everything." "But in
Evansville, Ind., entertainer Bill Demar told the Associated Press he
is positive Oswald was a patron in Rubenstein's night club nine days
ago. Demar, who has a memory act, said Oswald was amoung
those who called out an object for him to remember."
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3.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS TIMES HERALD, 11/22/63
The motorcade had just turned into Houston Street from Main
Street when a shot rang out. Pigeons flew up from the street.
Then, two more shots rang out and Mr. Kennedy fell to the floor of
the car. The shots seemed to come from the extension of Elm
Street from just beyond the Texas Textbook Depository building at
the corner of Elm and Houston Streets.
Sgt. G.D. Henley, police dispatcher, directed ALL available police
units to the downtown area near the western edge of downtown
Dallas.
Witnesses said six or seven shots were fired. The BURSTS were
clearly heard.
Reporters about five car lengths behind the chief executive heard
what sounded like three BURSTS of gunfire.
Fire equipment was rushed to the building from which the shots
were believed to have been fired. Firemen roped off the area as
SECRET SERVICE men (?) and city police swarmed through the
building.
Partolman W.E. Barker saw workers in the Texas School Book
Depository pecking on a window from the third floor and pointing
to a man wearing horn-rimmed glasses, a plaid coat and rain coat.
The officer immediately arrested the man for
questioning......Officers on the case would not explain what
connection the man might have with the shooting nor would they
identify him.
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5.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/23/63
The President died in a sixth-floor surgery room at Parkland
Hospital at 1 p.m., about 40 minutes after the assassin had sent a
Mauser 7.62 bullet smashing into his head....(** or two star edition
paper).
The President died in a sixth floor surgery room at Parkland
Hospital at 1 p.m., about 40 minutes after the assassin had sent a
Mauser 6.5 rifle bullet smashing into his head...(*** or three star
edition paper).
The assassin, firing from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book
Depository Building near the Triple Underpass sent a Mauser 6.5
rifle bullet smashing into the President's head...(**** or four star
edition paper).
He (the assassin) fired at least three carefully measured shots into
the car. (**)
The original plans for President Kennedy's visit called for a fast ride
from Dallas Love Field to a Trade Mart luncheon. Then
Democratic leaders urged the President to ride in motorcade
through Fort Worth and Dallas to give more voters a chance to see
him.
Jack C. Cason, president of the depository, said the sixth floor was
used soley as a "dead storage" area. It was stacked about eight feet
high with books. Cason, who left the scene about 30 minutes
before the president's caravan rode down Main Street, said the firm
often had difficulty finding employes who had fallen asleep amidst
the stacks of books. "Somethimes it will be three or four days
without anybody going up to the sixth floor to get anything," Cason
said. He said the "dead storage" area was used to keep books
already stocked in the basement and on the second and fourth
floors. Only when they ran out of copies there does anybody
generally go to the sixth floor. Cason said the killer was apparently
"well aware" of the building's layout because there was no elevator
that goes up to the sixth floor from the front entrance. He would
have had to get off the elevator on the fourth floor, walk to the
back of the building and get the stairs or one of the two freight
elevators on the sixth.
They (the local police) arrested several persons, amoung them a
Fort Worth man who was said to be driving a car linked with the
slayer.
Dealey Plaza and assassination witness Mary E. Woodward stated:
"...After acknowledging our cheers, he (JFK) faced forward again
and suddenly there was a horrible, ear-shattering noise coming from
behind us and a little to the right. My first reaction, and also my
friends', (Maggie Brown, Aurelia Alonzo and Ann Donaldson) was
that it was a joke, someone had backfired their car. Apparently the
driver and occupants of the President's car had the same impression,
because instead of speeding up, the car came almost to a halt.
Things are a little hazy from this point, but I don't believe anyone
was hit with the first bullet. The President and Mrs. Kennedy
turned and looked around, as if they, too, didn't believe the noise
was really coming from a gun. Then after a moment's pause there
was another shot and I saw the President start slumping in the car.
This was followed rapidly by another shot. Mrs. Kennedy stood up
in the car, turned half-way around, then fell on top of her husband's
body.....Next to us were two Negro women. One collapsed in the
other's arms, weeping and uttering what everyone was thinking:
'THEY shot him'."
"THEY'VE shot him...THEY'VE shot the President," screamed a
middle-aged man holding the hand of a small boy.
Dozens of people thought the reports from the killer's muzzle were
just firecrackers. A FEW pointed towards the textbook building.
BUT MOST ran to the west side of the building thinking the shots
came from behind the bushes and a fence dividing the street from a
railroad yard.
Deputy Police Chief George Lumpkin used scores of firemen and
policemen in a systematic search of the building. An officer entered
and told the lawmen that a policeman, J.D. Tippit, had just been
killed. No details. An employe of the textbook firm walked up: "I
don't know if you're interested in this...but one of the fellows who
works here is gone. Can't find him anywhere."
Mrs. John Connally told the governor's administrative aide Julian
Read Friday she believes the assassin's first bullet struck President
Kennedy."
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6.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM,
11/24/63
A paraffin test showed positive results on both the hands and cheek
of the 24-year-old ex-Marine. This, officers said, showed that the
man had fired a gun, probably a rifle.
Joe Rodriguez Molina, a co-worker of Oswald's, was given a lie
detector test and was being questioned. His home was also
searched.
As evidence mounted Saturday night, information from a Dallas
couple placed Oswald at the intersection of the building used by the
assassin a short time after the fatal shots were fired. Leon Stanfield
and his wife, Diane, who had heard an early radio report of the
shooting, told police they stopped their car for a red light at the
intersection and asked a young man they later identified as Oswald:
"Is the President dead?" Mrs. Stanfield said the man replied, "No,
he's going to wait and let us hang him."
Oswald was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's list as a
suspected subversive. Police here said the FBI knew Oswald was
in Dallas working in a building that fronted the President's
motorcade route.
A spokesman for the FBI in Washington, however, denied Saturday
that the FBI had questioned Oswald or had him under surveillance
at any time in recent months.
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7.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/24/63
A fingerprint expert has obtained evidence which allegegdly links
Lee Harvey Oswald with the assassination of President Kennedy.
(No name to this expert or what the fingerprint was found on.
M.P.)
"We've got a print that matches Oswald's," one investigator said.
(Again, no name or location of where this print was found. M.P.)
They (investigators) said that three spent shells found near the
officer's body (Tippit) matched those in the revolver which Oswald
carried in the near-by Texas Theater.
Fritz said a bus transfer slip confirms Oswald's admission that he
drove from the area where President Kennedy was shot to Oak
Cliff, where Officer Tippit was slain, in a bus and a taxi. (There had
been VARIOUS reports that a man fitting Oswald's discription was
seen entering a station wagon.)
"The witness said Tippit pulled his car over to the curb and there
was a conversation between Tippit and the murderer," Wade said.
"Tippit got out of his car and started towards the murderer who
pulled his pistol and fired three shots into Tippit's body. He then
ejected the cartridge hulls, reloaded his revolver and fled."
The Texas School Book Depository is privately owned by Jack C.
Cason and O.V. Truly. Oswald was classified as a part-time
employe - a handy man - and earned $1.25 a hour, Cason said.
Truly (R.S., the superintendent of the TSBD) said he saw Oswald
about the building Friday prior to the shooting and said there was
"no indication of nerviousness." The next time he saw Oswald was
right after the shooting when he and a Dallas policeman started a
check of the building. "The policeman threw a gun into Oswald's
stomach and asked me if Oswald belonged there. I told him 'yes'
and we both went on up the stairs for a check on the other floors.
Oswald looked a bit startled - just as you or I would if someone
suddenly threw a gun on you - but he didn't appear too nervious nor
panicky." Truly aid he placed "no significance" on Oswald's
presence there "until later when we found him missing and I
reported it."
The building was built in 1903 and is owned by the D. Harold Byrd
Associates. The school depository firm moved in in 1960 and took
a 15 year-lease. It was previously occupied by a wholesale grocery
firm. Cason said they remodled most of the building, except the
sixth floor where Oswald allegedly stalked his victim. On the first
floor is the general shipping area and the second is the company's
administrative offices. The third and fourth floors are occupied by
publishers' manufacturing representatives. The fifth floor and
basement are used for filling book orders. Cason said the sixth
floor is seldom used. He said an employe might go up there two or
three times a week. There are two freight elevators that go to the
sixth floor, but a passenger elevator only reaches the fourth floor.
Lee Harvey Oswald, charged with murdering President Kennedy,
was interviewed by the FBI here six days before the Friday
assassination. But word of the interview with the former defector
to Russia was not conveyed to the U.S. Secret Service and Dallas
police, reliable soures told The Dallas Morning News Saturday.
However, in Washington, a spokesman for the FBI said it was
"incorrect" that the FBI had questioned Oswald or had him under
surveillance at any time in resent months, the Associated Press
reported. The interview reportedly was held Nov. 16 - at a time
when the Secret Service and police officials were coordinating
security plans for the President's ill-fated Dallas visit. These
sources said the Oswald interview added more data to an already
"thick file" the FBI has on the 24-year old avowed Marxist who
defected to Russia in 1959 and returned in 1962.
In retracting his earlier statement about the FBI interview, Curry
told gathered reporters: "I do not want to accuse the FBI of
withholding information. They have no obligation to help us."
In an article printed in the Early City Edition from the North
American Newspaper Alliance, written by Priscilla Johnson on her
interview with Oswald in Moscow, she states: "He had no friends in
Russia and he didn't speak a word of the language."
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8.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/28/63
Here are more tidbits from an article Oswald Planned to Ride by
Scene, taken from the Dallas Morning News, 11/28/63. Again, the
earliest reports are the most accurate. All EMPHASES are my
own.
(Up till now this story tells of Oswald's escape from
the TSBD, the Tippit killing and him fleeing from the scene. I pick
it up at this point. M.P.)
Oswald was reported in a used furniture store that occupies a tall,
weather-beaten green frame building at 413 E. Jefferson. About the
same time, spectators at a service station further west up the street
saw him run into a vacant lot, where police say the killer discarded
his newly acquired jacket and three pistol shells. (This makes ya
wonder just how many shell where found. If three were found here
and the Davis sisters found two and so did Benavides, that makes
Oswald carrying a seven-shooter. M.P.)
Then followed a chase in and out of alleyways in the
Jefferson - Beckley - Cumberland - Zang area.
About 1:45 p.m. Julie Postal, cashier at the Texas Theater at 231
W. Jefferson saw a hurrying stranger rush past her into the theater.
TO THIS DAY, SHE CAN'T RECALL WHETHER OR NOT HE
BOUGHT A TICKET. "I was so upset listening to the radio about
the President and all," she said.
(Brewer rushed up, Postal called the police and the story
continues): The cashier immediately called police - who had just
sped en masse to a false alarm at the Dallas Library branch on
Jefferson, further to the east. The police sirens wailed again.
1.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS TIMES HERALD, 11/24/63
...as police prepared to transfer Oswald...to the county jail on
Sunday, they indicated there was little hope at that point of
obtaining a confession of the President's murder.
Another employee of the firm (TSBD) was interviewed at length
Saturday after appearing voluntarily. Capt. W.P. Gannaway of the
Police Department's Special Services Bureau said this man's name
has been in the subversive files of the department since 1955. He
was not jailed and police said he was not arrested.
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2.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS TIMES HERALD, 11/23/63
Officer Tippit was shot TWICE by the fleeing man - who police
said was Oswald - and who was arrested within less than an hour in
an Oak Cliff theater.
In the BACK of the President's head was a gaping hole in some
respects simular to the head wound Lincoln suffered in the Ford
Theater. Another bullet hole was in President Kennedy's neck, just
below the adam's apple.
When Dr. Clark first looked at the stricken President, he saw "a
large gaping wound in the back of the head. There was loss of
tissue." He indicated that he knew at that instant there was no
hope.
Wounds in the lower front portion of the neck and the right rear
side of the head ended the life of President John F. Kennedy, say
doctors at Parkland Hospital.
Dr. Perry was busy with the wound in the President's neck. "It was
a midline in the lower portion of the neck in the front.....Below the
Adam's apple.....It was an entrance wound in the neck."
Back at Parkland, two unidentified plainclothes officers were asking
to be taken to Gov. Connally's room so they could recover the
bullet slug. (SAY WHAT???!!! M.P.)
Sheriff Decker's voice came on. "Notify my office to empty. Send
everybody...." (This statement was not completed in this paper.
M.P.)
At 2:30 P.M., police announced their search of the Texas Book
Depository Building was finished.
Famed surgeon Dr. Robert R. Shaw, who previously had performed
the first chest and heart surgery in Afghanistan, was the chief
surgeon on Govt. Connally's case.
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4.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/25/63
The Justice Department announced in Washington that Assistant
Atty. Gen. Jack Miller Jr., who heads its criminal division, was
flying to Dallas to confer with U.S. District Attorney Barefoot
Sanders. A spoksman refused to say whether the federal
government considered the assassination case closed or whether
there was a possibility others were involved. (This was found in the
Early City or 3 star Edition. This note was dropped in all later
editions of the paper. M.P.)
Sheriff Bill Decker said officers "did everything humanly possible"
to protect both President Kennedy and the man accused of
assassinating him. "I don't think it would make a bit of difference if
Oswald had been transferred at night," Decker said. "If someone is
determined to commit murder, it's almost impossible to stop him."
Officers said Rubenstein apparently mingled with reporters and
photographers and, in this way, got a chance to shoot Oswald.
Wade recalled he saw Rubenstein with reporters Friday night when
they interviewed Oswald briefly. Rubenstein, who introduced
himself to Wade, may have been plotting the slaying at that time.
(This was found in the Early City or 3 star Edition. It was dropped
in later editions of this paper. M.P.)
Rubenstein, who was described as a man with a quick temper, is
expected to plead temporary insanity. (Again, this was found in the
Early City or 3 star Edition and was dropped in later editions.
M.P.)
In a telephone conversation with Homicide Capt. Will Fritz, Mrs.
(Eva) Grant (Ruby's sister) said: "You know that no one else could
have gotten in that building - but all the boys (policemen) knew
Jack."
Dallas detectives found two large wads of bills and silver when they
searched his (Ruby's) apartment Sunday afternoon. One was in a
closet and the other was found in a chest drawer. The amount was
not disclosed.
In an article written for the Associated Press by Dallas policeman
M.N. McDonald and printed in this paper, he states: "I was cruising
towards Oak Cliff, across the river (Trinity that splits Dallas almost
in half). I got a call about 1:30 p.m. The radio dispatcher, G.D.
Henslee, first told me to check the alleys. The next tip was that a
guy that fitted the description they were giving was in a branch
library out in Oak Cliff. This didn't take long to be a phoney. The
next one said a man acting funny was holed up in the balcony of the
Texas Theater. I headed that way in a hurry. The cashier at the
picture show was the one who called in to say this guy was acting
supicious and hidden out in the balcony."
Hugh Aynesworth did a large article about Ruby killing Oswald. In
later editions of this paper, the following quotes were added to his
article: "Chief Curry noted he could have moved Oswald secretly
'in the dark of night,' but had promised reporters and photographers
from throughout the free world that he would make the transfer
during the day." "Police took precautions against any incident. Six
armed policemen surrounded the cart and attendants as it was
moved to the green ambulance." "One reporter said he heard the
slayer add, "I did it for Jackie so she wouldn't have to go through
all that...coming back here for the trial and everything." "But in
Evansville, Ind., entertainer Bill Demar told the Associated Press he
is positive Oswald was a patron in Rubenstein's night club nine days
ago. Demar, who has a memory act, said Oswald was amoung
those who called out an object for him to remember."
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3.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS TIMES HERALD, 11/22/63
The motorcade had just turned into Houston Street from Main
Street when a shot rang out. Pigeons flew up from the street.
Then, two more shots rang out and Mr. Kennedy fell to the floor of
the car. The shots seemed to come from the extension of Elm
Street from just beyond the Texas Textbook Depository building at
the corner of Elm and Houston Streets.
Sgt. G.D. Henley, police dispatcher, directed ALL available police
units to the downtown area near the western edge of downtown
Dallas.
Witnesses said six or seven shots were fired. The BURSTS were
clearly heard.
Reporters about five car lengths behind the chief executive heard
what sounded like three BURSTS of gunfire.
Fire equipment was rushed to the building from which the shots
were believed to have been fired. Firemen roped off the area as
SECRET SERVICE men (?) and city police swarmed through the
building.
Partolman W.E. Barker saw workers in the Texas School Book
Depository pecking on a window from the third floor and pointing
to a man wearing horn-rimmed glasses, a plaid coat and rain coat.
The officer immediately arrested the man for
questioning......Officers on the case would not explain what
connection the man might have with the shooting nor would they
identify him.
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5.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/23/63
The President died in a sixth-floor surgery room at Parkland
Hospital at 1 p.m., about 40 minutes after the assassin had sent a
Mauser 7.62 bullet smashing into his head....(** or two star edition
paper).
The President died in a sixth floor surgery room at Parkland
Hospital at 1 p.m., about 40 minutes after the assassin had sent a
Mauser 6.5 rifle bullet smashing into his head...(*** or three star
edition paper).
The assassin, firing from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book
Depository Building near the Triple Underpass sent a Mauser 6.5
rifle bullet smashing into the President's head...(**** or four star
edition paper).
He (the assassin) fired at least three carefully measured shots into
the car. (**)
The original plans for President Kennedy's visit called for a fast ride
from Dallas Love Field to a Trade Mart luncheon. Then
Democratic leaders urged the President to ride in motorcade
through Fort Worth and Dallas to give more voters a chance to see
him.
Jack C. Cason, president of the depository, said the sixth floor was
used soley as a "dead storage" area. It was stacked about eight feet
high with books. Cason, who left the scene about 30 minutes
before the president's caravan rode down Main Street, said the firm
often had difficulty finding employes who had fallen asleep amidst
the stacks of books. "Somethimes it will be three or four days
without anybody going up to the sixth floor to get anything," Cason
said. He said the "dead storage" area was used to keep books
already stocked in the basement and on the second and fourth
floors. Only when they ran out of copies there does anybody
generally go to the sixth floor. Cason said the killer was apparently
"well aware" of the building's layout because there was no elevator
that goes up to the sixth floor from the front entrance. He would
have had to get off the elevator on the fourth floor, walk to the
back of the building and get the stairs or one of the two freight
elevators on the sixth.
They (the local police) arrested several persons, amoung them a
Fort Worth man who was said to be driving a car linked with the
slayer.
Dealey Plaza and assassination witness Mary E. Woodward stated:
"...After acknowledging our cheers, he (JFK) faced forward again
and suddenly there was a horrible, ear-shattering noise coming from
behind us and a little to the right. My first reaction, and also my
friends', (Maggie Brown, Aurelia Alonzo and Ann Donaldson) was
that it was a joke, someone had backfired their car. Apparently the
driver and occupants of the President's car had the same impression,
because instead of speeding up, the car came almost to a halt.
Things are a little hazy from this point, but I don't believe anyone
was hit with the first bullet. The President and Mrs. Kennedy
turned and looked around, as if they, too, didn't believe the noise
was really coming from a gun. Then after a moment's pause there
was another shot and I saw the President start slumping in the car.
This was followed rapidly by another shot. Mrs. Kennedy stood up
in the car, turned half-way around, then fell on top of her husband's
body.....Next to us were two Negro women. One collapsed in the
other's arms, weeping and uttering what everyone was thinking:
'THEY shot him'."
"THEY'VE shot him...THEY'VE shot the President," screamed a
middle-aged man holding the hand of a small boy.
Dozens of people thought the reports from the killer's muzzle were
just firecrackers. A FEW pointed towards the textbook building.
BUT MOST ran to the west side of the building thinking the shots
came from behind the bushes and a fence dividing the street from a
railroad yard.
Deputy Police Chief George Lumpkin used scores of firemen and
policemen in a systematic search of the building. An officer entered
and told the lawmen that a policeman, J.D. Tippit, had just been
killed. No details. An employe of the textbook firm walked up: "I
don't know if you're interested in this...but one of the fellows who
works here is gone. Can't find him anywhere."
Mrs. John Connally told the governor's administrative aide Julian
Read Friday she believes the assassin's first bullet struck President
Kennedy."
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6.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM,
11/24/63
A paraffin test showed positive results on both the hands and cheek
of the 24-year-old ex-Marine. This, officers said, showed that the
man had fired a gun, probably a rifle.
Joe Rodriguez Molina, a co-worker of Oswald's, was given a lie
detector test and was being questioned. His home was also
searched.
As evidence mounted Saturday night, information from a Dallas
couple placed Oswald at the intersection of the building used by the
assassin a short time after the fatal shots were fired. Leon Stanfield
and his wife, Diane, who had heard an early radio report of the
shooting, told police they stopped their car for a red light at the
intersection and asked a young man they later identified as Oswald:
"Is the President dead?" Mrs. Stanfield said the man replied, "No,
he's going to wait and let us hang him."
Oswald was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's list as a
suspected subversive. Police here said the FBI knew Oswald was
in Dallas working in a building that fronted the President's
motorcade route.
A spokesman for the FBI in Washington, however, denied Saturday
that the FBI had questioned Oswald or had him under surveillance
at any time in recent months.
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7.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/24/63
A fingerprint expert has obtained evidence which allegegdly links
Lee Harvey Oswald with the assassination of President Kennedy.
(No name to this expert or what the fingerprint was found on.
M.P.)
"We've got a print that matches Oswald's," one investigator said.
(Again, no name or location of where this print was found. M.P.)
They (investigators) said that three spent shells found near the
officer's body (Tippit) matched those in the revolver which Oswald
carried in the near-by Texas Theater.
Fritz said a bus transfer slip confirms Oswald's admission that he
drove from the area where President Kennedy was shot to Oak
Cliff, where Officer Tippit was slain, in a bus and a taxi. (There had
been VARIOUS reports that a man fitting Oswald's discription was
seen entering a station wagon.)
"The witness said Tippit pulled his car over to the curb and there
was a conversation between Tippit and the murderer," Wade said.
"Tippit got out of his car and started towards the murderer who
pulled his pistol and fired three shots into Tippit's body. He then
ejected the cartridge hulls, reloaded his revolver and fled."
The Texas School Book Depository is privately owned by Jack C.
Cason and O.V. Truly. Oswald was classified as a part-time
employe - a handy man - and earned $1.25 a hour, Cason said.
Truly (R.S., the superintendent of the TSBD) said he saw Oswald
about the building Friday prior to the shooting and said there was
"no indication of nerviousness." The next time he saw Oswald was
right after the shooting when he and a Dallas policeman started a
check of the building. "The policeman threw a gun into Oswald's
stomach and asked me if Oswald belonged there. I told him 'yes'
and we both went on up the stairs for a check on the other floors.
Oswald looked a bit startled - just as you or I would if someone
suddenly threw a gun on you - but he didn't appear too nervious nor
panicky." Truly aid he placed "no significance" on Oswald's
presence there "until later when we found him missing and I
reported it."
The building was built in 1903 and is owned by the D. Harold Byrd
Associates. The school depository firm moved in in 1960 and took
a 15 year-lease. It was previously occupied by a wholesale grocery
firm. Cason said they remodled most of the building, except the
sixth floor where Oswald allegedly stalked his victim. On the first
floor is the general shipping area and the second is the company's
administrative offices. The third and fourth floors are occupied by
publishers' manufacturing representatives. The fifth floor and
basement are used for filling book orders. Cason said the sixth
floor is seldom used. He said an employe might go up there two or
three times a week. There are two freight elevators that go to the
sixth floor, but a passenger elevator only reaches the fourth floor.
Lee Harvey Oswald, charged with murdering President Kennedy,
was interviewed by the FBI here six days before the Friday
assassination. But word of the interview with the former defector
to Russia was not conveyed to the U.S. Secret Service and Dallas
police, reliable soures told The Dallas Morning News Saturday.
However, in Washington, a spokesman for the FBI said it was
"incorrect" that the FBI had questioned Oswald or had him under
surveillance at any time in resent months, the Associated Press
reported. The interview reportedly was held Nov. 16 - at a time
when the Secret Service and police officials were coordinating
security plans for the President's ill-fated Dallas visit. These
sources said the Oswald interview added more data to an already
"thick file" the FBI has on the 24-year old avowed Marxist who
defected to Russia in 1959 and returned in 1962.
In retracting his earlier statement about the FBI interview, Curry
told gathered reporters: "I do not want to accuse the FBI of
withholding information. They have no obligation to help us."
In an article printed in the Early City Edition from the North
American Newspaper Alliance, written by Priscilla Johnson on her
interview with Oswald in Moscow, she states: "He had no friends in
Russia and he didn't speak a word of the language."
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8.
FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS
TAKEN FROM THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/28/63
Here are more tidbits from an article Oswald Planned to Ride by
Scene, taken from the Dallas Morning News, 11/28/63. Again, the
earliest reports are the most accurate. All EMPHASES are my
own.
(Up till now this story tells of Oswald's escape from
the TSBD, the Tippit killing and him fleeing from the scene. I pick
it up at this point. M.P.)
Oswald was reported in a used furniture store that occupies a tall,
weather-beaten green frame building at 413 E. Jefferson. About the
same time, spectators at a service station further west up the street
saw him run into a vacant lot, where police say the killer discarded
his newly acquired jacket and three pistol shells. (This makes ya
wonder just how many shell where found. If three were found here
and the Davis sisters found two and so did Benavides, that makes
Oswald carrying a seven-shooter. M.P.)
Then followed a chase in and out of alleyways in the
Jefferson - Beckley - Cumberland - Zang area.
About 1:45 p.m. Julie Postal, cashier at the Texas Theater at 231
W. Jefferson saw a hurrying stranger rush past her into the theater.
TO THIS DAY, SHE CAN'T RECALL WHETHER OR NOT HE
BOUGHT A TICKET. "I was so upset listening to the radio about
the President and all," she said.
(Brewer rushed up, Postal called the police and the story
continues): The cashier immediately called police - who had just
sped en masse to a false alarm at the Dallas Library branch on
Jefferson, further to the east. The police sirens wailed again.