03-04-2011, 04:15 AM
(This post was last modified: 28-06-2011, 02:10 PM by Bernice Moore.)
Thomas Aylea WFAA Newsman/Reporter..
Information from "Pictures of the Pain"..pages 520-521
Tom Aylea used a Bell & Howell 70 DR 16 mm camera, loaded with black and white film , it was an old camera and had the history of loosing the fim loop when being operated. He also grabbed three extra cans of of film along with the emergency roll he always carried in his back pocket.All told he had 500 feet of unprocessed film available to him .He and Ray John had been assigned on the 21st to cover the President's arrival and activities in Ft Worth.
While there around the Hotel Texas , his camera had broken down and he had been forced to borrow one, he returned it prior to his trip back to Dallas..The men took the WFAA news station wagon via Route 20 from Ft Worth to Dallas.with John driving.
The afternoon of the 22nd was to be spent at the station processing the film for the evening news.They arrived back in Dallas about 12.30 pm.and traveling East on Commerce within the Dealey Plaza area, John was preparing to make a right onto Houston Street to the WFAA station on Young Street. The newsmen had both the car's radio as well as the police band radios turned on. Not cognizant of the fact that they were only several hundred feet south of Elm St. when the remnants of the presidential motorcade was passing by, they were halted at a traffic light some eight cars lengths from Houston..
Alyea " We sat there listening to the parade coverage on the radio. I didn't even think to look across Dealey Plaza to the Depository.The first indication that anything had gone wrong came when we heard a voice on the police radio. It gave an unusual alert---" All units on Stemmons and Industrial, Code 3 Parkland"..Not associating the call with the President at first, the call was repeated, and within about 20 seconds the men heard WFAA commercial radio announcer, John Allen break in with the statement that shots had been fired at the President near Houston and Em.."We were still waiting for the traffic light to change: suddenly I realized where I was......
I grabbed Ray's camera, told him to take the other film on to the station , and I took off across Dealey for the Houston and Elm intersection . I fimed while running and, assuming that the shots came from the ground, I looked around and began shooting".
"I raced across Commerce and Main Sts. dodging traffic .On the far side of Elm I saw people rushing around, I had begun filming on the way as I crossed Main St. and as I was filming I was looking for police. They were not around. Some people were running towards the railroad tracks while others towards the monument area..I thought "There's nothing going on here"..and I went up to Ellm and Houston ,"Not knowing anything about the incident, and seeing little direct activity around the intersection, Alyea did notice several cops and one man looking up at the Depository Building, He fimed the entrance, and as six or seven plaincothesmen rushed in through the double entry door, Alyea followed unchallenged with Dallas Morning News reporter Ken Biffle directly behind him. As they got in, Alyea heard a fellow say, "Shut the door! Lock it ---no one in---no one out."..It would appear that Alyea arrived at the TSBD some time between 12.34 and 12.36pm....when there was still much confusion in front of the building and prior to the large scale uniformed police response to the police dispatch orders ..
Tom's story follows.....
Interview Dec. 16/63........
By Tom Alyea ..."The Facts and the Photos"..
From :Connie Kritzbergs..book
..
"Secrets From the Sixth Floor Window"....p.39...46
Editor's Note: Tom Aylea, the only newsman to join the initial police search team on the sixth-floor of the Texas School Book Depository on November 22,1963, denounces the disruption of the barricade fashioned of boxes as he first saw it.
Aylea, former WFAA ( owned by the Dallas Morning News ) newsman/reporter , who recorded the panic on Dealey Plaza explains that the positioning of boxes was destroyed before the general press with still cameras were allowed in the building .He had completed his work in photographing everything of note and returned to his station long before the building was opened to the general press.
He recorded three cartridges where they landed after they were ejected from the rifle, He recorded the rifle as it was found, before it was touched."...All such evidence was available from Tom through a prescription to his newsletter " JFK Facts" ..
""I was the first newsman into the building and the only newsman to
accompany the search team as they went from floor to floor searching for
the person who fired the shots. At this time, we did not know the
president had been hit. I rushed in with a group of plain clothesmen and a
few uniformed officers.
I (followed ) the search team that was on its way to the rear elevator, to
start the floor by floor search. We searched every floor, all the way to
the roof. The gunman could have still been in the building. Finding
nothing, they started back down. After approximately 18 minutes, they were
joined by Captain Fritz, who had first gone to Parkland Hospital.
The barricade on the sixth floor ran parallel to the windows, extending in
an "L" shape that ended against the front wall between the first and
second twin windows. The height of the stack of boxes was a minimum of 5
ft. I looked over the barricade and saw three shell casings laying on the
floor in front of the second window in the two window casement. They were
scattered in an area that could be covered by a bushel basket. They were
located about half way between the inside of the barricade. I set my lens
focus at the estimated distance from the camera to the floor and held the
camera over the top of the barricade and filmed them before anybody went
into the enclosure. I could not position my eye to the camera's view
finder to get the shot. After filming the casings with my wide angle lens,
from a height of 5 ft., I asked Captain Fritz, who was standing at my
side, if I could go behind the barricade and get a close-up shot of the
casings. He told me that it would be better if I got my shots from outside
the barricade. He then rounded the pile of boxes and entered the
enclosure. This was the first time anybody walked between the barricade
and the windows.
Fritz then walked to the casings, picked them up and held them in his hand
over the top of the boxes for me to get a close-up shot of the evidence. I
filmed about eight seconds of a close-up shot of the shell casings in
Captain Fritz's hand. I stopped filming, and thanked him. I do not recall
if he placed them in his pocket or returned them back to the floor,
because I was preoccupied with recording other views of the crime scene. I
have been asked many times if I thought it was peculiar that the Captain of
Homicide picked up evidence with his hands. Actually, that was the
first thought that came to me when he did it, but I rationalized that he
was the homicide expert and no prints could be taken from spent shell
casings. Therefore, any photograph of shell casings taken after this, is
staged and not correct. It is highly doubtful that the shell casings that
appear in Dallas police photos of the crime scene are the same casings
that were found originally. The originals by this time were probably in a
plastic bag at police headquarters. Why? Probably this was a missing link
in the report the police department had to send to the FBI and they had to
stage it and the barricade box placement to complete their report and
photo records.
The position of the barricade, while difficult to follow for one who was
not there, is important because of the difference in photographs seen
today.
There are four different box positions.
There was one box in the barricade stack that was considerably higher
than the others. This box is the one that can be seen in the photos taken
from outside the window by Tom Dillard, because it was high enough to
catch the sunlight and still be seen from the ground below. It is not to
be confused with the second box set at an angle in the window sill, that
was used as a brace for the assassin's rifle.
A portion of this box can also be seen in these same photos taken by
Tom Dillard. It shows up in the lower right hand corner of the picture.
Two boxes were stacked on the floor, inside the window, to give arm
support to the assassin. The top box was one of the two boxes from which
the crime lab lifted palm prints.
The fourth box of importance was on the floor behind the sniper
location. Officers also lifted palm prints from this box. It is suspected
that the sniper sat on this box while he waited for the motorcade to pass.
The positioning of boxes 2, 3, and 4 were recorded by the police crime
lab. They are the only boxes involved in the crime scene.
The actual positioning of the barricade was never photographed by the
police. Its actual positioning is only on my movie footage, which was
taken before the police started dismantling the arrangement.
We all looked over the barricade to see if the half open window with three
boxes piled could form a shooting rest for a gunman. One box was actually on
the window sill, tilted at an angle. There was a reason for this that I
cover in my JFK Facts newsletter. The shooting location consists of two
windows set together to form one single window. (The police photo showing
the shell casings laying next to the brick wall was staged later by crime
lab people who did not see the original positioning because they were not
called upon the scene until after the rifle was found nearly an hour
later.
Only recently I saw a picture of Lt. Day with a news still cameraman on
the 6th floor. Day was shown pointing to the location where the rifle was
found. This was nearly 3:30 or after. It was my understanding that Day and
Studebaker had taken the prints, rifle and homemade sack back to police
headquarters. I personally would like to know what they were doing back at
the scene unless it was to reconstruct shots they had failed to take
during the primary investigation. But this evidence had been destroyed and
they were forced to create their own version. The photo I have seen of the
barricade wasn't even close. I have also seen recently a police photo of
the assassin's lair taken from a high angle which indicates that it was
shot before the barricade box arrangement was destroyed, but it did not
show the barricade itself. This has no bearing on the case other than the
public has never seen the original placement. I show it in my JFK Facts
newsletter.
Police officers who claim they were on the 6th floor when the assassin's
window was found have reported that they saw chicken bones at or near the
site. One officer reported that he saw chicken bones on the floor near the
location. Another said he saw chicken bones on the barricade boxes, while
another reported that he saw chicken bones on the box which was laying
across the window sill. Some of these officers have given testimony as to
the location of the shell casings. Their testimony differs and none of it
is true. I have no idea why they are clinging to these statements. They
must have a reason. Perhaps it is because they put it in a report and they
must stick to it.
One officer stated that he found the assassin's location at the 6th floor
window. He went on to say that as he and his fellow officers were leaving
the building, he passed Captain Fritz coming in. He said he stopped
briefly to tell Captain Fritz that he had found the assassin's lair at the 6th
floor window. This seems highly unlikely because Captain Fritz joined
us on the 5th floor and aided in the search. The chances are great that
this, or these officers heard the report, that stemmed from WFAA-TV's
incorrect announcement that the chicken bones were found on the 6th floor.
This officer or officers perhaps used this information to formulate their
presence at the scene. There were no chicken bones found on the 6th floor.
We covered every inch of it and I filmed everything that could possibly be
suspected as evidence. There definitely were no chicken bones, were no
chicken bones on or near the barricade or boxes at the window. I shot
close-up shots of the entire area. The most outstanding puzzle as to why
these officers are sticking to this story is the fact they claim to have
found the sniper's location, then left the building, as they said to join
the investigators at the Tippit shooting location. I have never seen a
report that indicates they attempted to use any telephone in the building
in an attempt to notify other investigators. They just left the scene to
check another assignment, and by chance ran into Capt. Fritz coming in the
front door. They claim to have placed a detective at the location but they
did not relay their finding to any other officer before they left the
building. I presume that the alleged detective they allegedly left at the
scene was instructed to stand there until someone else stumbled upon the
scene, or they found time to report it after investigating the Tippit
scene. Sorry, it doesn't wash.
I do however know that Officer Mooney was present when the rifle was found
because I took film of him at the scene. He is shown talking to another
detective, but this was nearly an hour after the sniper's location was
found at the window. I have no idea when he arrived. We ended up with more
men than when we started. As they joined us during the search the
latecomers would bring us the latest news of the president's condition.
When Captain Fritz arrived 18 minutes after we started, he brought news
that both Governor Connally and the president had been hit but by the time
he left, the seriousness of their wounds was unknown. Fritz left the
hospital almost immediately when he was notified that a search was
underway in the Texas School Book Depository for the sniper. We in the
search team had no phones, radios or TV sets. As I recall, we learned that
the president was dead about the time we found the rifle. I don't know who
brought us this word. Several officers arrived while we were waiting for
Lt. Day. One of them was Roger Craig, who is responsible for giving much
misinformation to the press. None of us were prepared to hear that the
president's wound was a fatal one. We thought perhaps it was a minor thing
or possibly a flesh wound. It was a stunning shock, and our attitude
( towards) the rifle had suddenly changed. We stared at the small portion
of the butt as it lay under the overhang boxes while we waited for Lt. Day
to arrive and recover the weapon that killed our president. I give an
account of this in JFK Facts.
We finished combing the 6th floor, looking for the assassin or any other
evidence. Finding nothing more at this time Captain Fritz ordered all of
us to the elevator and we started searching the 7th floor and from there
we went to the roof.
Nothing in the way of evidence was found so we retraced our search back
down, floor by floor. Shortly after we arrived back on the 6th floor,
Deputy Eugene Boone located the assassin's rifle almost completely hidden
by some overhanging boxes near the stairwell. I filmed it as it was found.
In my shot, the figure of Captain Fritz is standing within the enclosure
next to the rifle. He knew then that the possibility of a fire fight with
the sniper had greatly diminished. He dispatched one of his men to go down
and call for the crime lab. About fifteen minutes later, Lt. Day and
Studebaker arrived. Still pictures were taken of the positioning of the
rifle, then Lt. Day slid it out from its hiding place and held it up for
all of us to see. The world has seen my shot of this many times. Lt. Day
immediately turned toward the window behind him and started dusting the
weapon for fingerprints. Day was still within the enclosure formed by the
surrounding boxes. I filmed him lifting prints from the rifle. He lifted
them off with scotch tape and placed them on little white cards. When he
had finished, he handed the rifle to Captain Fritz. Fritz pulled the bolt
back and a live round ejected and landed on the boxes below. Fritz put the
cartridge in his pocket. I did not see Fritz pick up anything other than
the live round.
I filmed Captain Fritz talking with associates in this dismantled area
( the "sniper's nest") along with Studebaker, who was dusting the Dr.
Pepper bottle which had been brought up to him from the 5th floor. This is
all recorded on my film. I never learned if prints were lifted from the
pop bottle. I'm not sure if anybody ever asked.
I took the film from my camera, placed it back into its metal can, wrapped
the tape around it, and tossed it to our News Editor, A. J. L'Hoste, who
was waiting outside with the other newsmen who were not allowed in the
building. A. J. raced it to the television station which was about three
blocks away. About fifteen minutes later the world saw the murder weapon,
where it was found and pictures of the crime lab people dusting it for
fingerprints, and the shell casings that once housed those bullets. They
also saw how the assassin prepared for his ambush and the view he had of
the killing zone.....""
End of quote..
"Pictures of the Pain "..page 537
Back at the station Aylea's fim was being processed as quickly as it arrived most of it being broadcast unedited..Sometime after 3.15 pm the first Alyea film was telecast. ..The one minute 45 second sequence was not the first Tom had taken as it shows the rifle already discovered , as well as 15 other short sequences including the snipers nest scene.A short time later a 25 second additional segment was shown looking from the inside first floor entrance through the closed door at the two cops on the steps is also projected. All told WFAA broadcast Alyea's films some 5 separate occasions. Not including replays some 34 scenes were show, including views of the police on the street below and the spectators corralled below on the opposite side of Elm, near the reflecting pool area.The total none repeated film totalled 4 minutes..12 seconds. A David Wolper documentary film included five other short clips by Alyea not seen on the WFAA telecasts of 1963. These clips show an additional 14 seconds of film.A still later televised series ,
"The Men Who Killed Kennedy" included additional film.Among these three sources are a total of 54 separate fim clips of approximately 5 minutes 26 1/2 seconds duration , all identifiable to Alyea..The clips include several other views of the southeats corner of the 6th floor and views of the rifle prior to its being picked up by Lt. Day.Alyea shot all of his fim ammounting to some 500 feet.But at the station this precious film was not looked upon as of any historical documentation..or even as possible investigative use, It was part of a news package and would be edited, cut up, and shown only with only the concern of telling a breaking news story.....
Alyea increduously remembers, "The news director had a bunch of it burned and I said, "Bob, don't burn anything ---this is history, we don't know what's going on there..."..He said if we can't use it on the news get it out of here.".So much film was piling up in the cramped editing room floor that the next day much of it was destroyed .Alyea recalls that in between assignments he would come in to have his new fim processed , and while there would pick up some of his discarded film, spin it on a reel and take it. He retained some of these clips, but bemoans the lose of other potentially historic film , "I could have shot Oswald coming out ---could have shown someone else coming out."
In Apri 1964...WFAA furnished to the FBI, upon it's request ,a dub of all the segments which survived and could be indentified as Alyea's..
Tom Ayea would film one final dramatic, though post shootong event..Scheduled on Sunday to cover a news conference by Mrs John Connally at Parkland Hospital, the gathered press learned that Oswald had been shot by a phone call to the press room. Many took off for Baylor or Methodist Hospitals which were closer to the city jail,.. Aylea on a hunch and others ran to Parkand's emergency entrance. His camera is running as a police cruiser rounds the circular drive followed by an ambulance which stops and, as a cop motions with his hand, the vehice backs under the canopy..Oswald's strecher is removed from the back amid much pandemonium .Attempting to follow the gurnet Alyea recalls, ......" the officers forced a human wall across the hallway and refused to let us pass."
In the crowded corridor Alyea could not see in front of him ..Another cameraman , Bob Welch , had a light attached to his camera ,and Alyea told him to shine the light on the cops' heads. As he did this, Alyea using the man's light, held his camera as high as possible and pushed his film button .."I coudn't see what I was shooting:..His flim includes Oswald being wheeled down the hall "I had filmed that, as well as the Doctors rushing from the emergency room to take Oswald from the police, and I hadn't even been sure that I'd gotten anything"..It was a real stroke of luck."..
Tom Alyea also covered the trial of Jack Ruby for WFAA and also filmed a day in the life of Marina Oswald.. In 1966 he moved to Lafette, Louisiana, beginning his own news service operation and publishing a bulletin relating to the oil and gas industry. Following the 1983 oil price depression, Alyea moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma ..An avid cartoonist with a flair for teaching, known as "Toma" to his audience, he produced several successful children's tapes on learning to make cartoons. It has only been in recent years he has become aware of all the misinformation concerning the assassination and now believes it important to help correct some of the factual errors ..
Alyea Clip...
Index of Photographers
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http://jfkmurderphotos.bravehost.com/photos.html
B..
Information from "Pictures of the Pain"..pages 520-521
Tom Aylea used a Bell & Howell 70 DR 16 mm camera, loaded with black and white film , it was an old camera and had the history of loosing the fim loop when being operated. He also grabbed three extra cans of of film along with the emergency roll he always carried in his back pocket.All told he had 500 feet of unprocessed film available to him .He and Ray John had been assigned on the 21st to cover the President's arrival and activities in Ft Worth.
While there around the Hotel Texas , his camera had broken down and he had been forced to borrow one, he returned it prior to his trip back to Dallas..The men took the WFAA news station wagon via Route 20 from Ft Worth to Dallas.with John driving.
The afternoon of the 22nd was to be spent at the station processing the film for the evening news.They arrived back in Dallas about 12.30 pm.and traveling East on Commerce within the Dealey Plaza area, John was preparing to make a right onto Houston Street to the WFAA station on Young Street. The newsmen had both the car's radio as well as the police band radios turned on. Not cognizant of the fact that they were only several hundred feet south of Elm St. when the remnants of the presidential motorcade was passing by, they were halted at a traffic light some eight cars lengths from Houston..
Alyea " We sat there listening to the parade coverage on the radio. I didn't even think to look across Dealey Plaza to the Depository.The first indication that anything had gone wrong came when we heard a voice on the police radio. It gave an unusual alert---" All units on Stemmons and Industrial, Code 3 Parkland"..Not associating the call with the President at first, the call was repeated, and within about 20 seconds the men heard WFAA commercial radio announcer, John Allen break in with the statement that shots had been fired at the President near Houston and Em.."We were still waiting for the traffic light to change: suddenly I realized where I was......
I grabbed Ray's camera, told him to take the other film on to the station , and I took off across Dealey for the Houston and Elm intersection . I fimed while running and, assuming that the shots came from the ground, I looked around and began shooting".
"I raced across Commerce and Main Sts. dodging traffic .On the far side of Elm I saw people rushing around, I had begun filming on the way as I crossed Main St. and as I was filming I was looking for police. They were not around. Some people were running towards the railroad tracks while others towards the monument area..I thought "There's nothing going on here"..and I went up to Ellm and Houston ,"Not knowing anything about the incident, and seeing little direct activity around the intersection, Alyea did notice several cops and one man looking up at the Depository Building, He fimed the entrance, and as six or seven plaincothesmen rushed in through the double entry door, Alyea followed unchallenged with Dallas Morning News reporter Ken Biffle directly behind him. As they got in, Alyea heard a fellow say, "Shut the door! Lock it ---no one in---no one out."..It would appear that Alyea arrived at the TSBD some time between 12.34 and 12.36pm....when there was still much confusion in front of the building and prior to the large scale uniformed police response to the police dispatch orders ..
Tom's story follows.....
Interview Dec. 16/63........
By Tom Alyea ..."The Facts and the Photos"..
From :Connie Kritzbergs..book
..
"Secrets From the Sixth Floor Window"....p.39...46
Editor's Note: Tom Aylea, the only newsman to join the initial police search team on the sixth-floor of the Texas School Book Depository on November 22,1963, denounces the disruption of the barricade fashioned of boxes as he first saw it.
Aylea, former WFAA ( owned by the Dallas Morning News ) newsman/reporter , who recorded the panic on Dealey Plaza explains that the positioning of boxes was destroyed before the general press with still cameras were allowed in the building .He had completed his work in photographing everything of note and returned to his station long before the building was opened to the general press.
He recorded three cartridges where they landed after they were ejected from the rifle, He recorded the rifle as it was found, before it was touched."...All such evidence was available from Tom through a prescription to his newsletter " JFK Facts" ..
""I was the first newsman into the building and the only newsman to
accompany the search team as they went from floor to floor searching for
the person who fired the shots. At this time, we did not know the
president had been hit. I rushed in with a group of plain clothesmen and a
few uniformed officers.
I (followed ) the search team that was on its way to the rear elevator, to
start the floor by floor search. We searched every floor, all the way to
the roof. The gunman could have still been in the building. Finding
nothing, they started back down. After approximately 18 minutes, they were
joined by Captain Fritz, who had first gone to Parkland Hospital.
The barricade on the sixth floor ran parallel to the windows, extending in
an "L" shape that ended against the front wall between the first and
second twin windows. The height of the stack of boxes was a minimum of 5
ft. I looked over the barricade and saw three shell casings laying on the
floor in front of the second window in the two window casement. They were
scattered in an area that could be covered by a bushel basket. They were
located about half way between the inside of the barricade. I set my lens
focus at the estimated distance from the camera to the floor and held the
camera over the top of the barricade and filmed them before anybody went
into the enclosure. I could not position my eye to the camera's view
finder to get the shot. After filming the casings with my wide angle lens,
from a height of 5 ft., I asked Captain Fritz, who was standing at my
side, if I could go behind the barricade and get a close-up shot of the
casings. He told me that it would be better if I got my shots from outside
the barricade. He then rounded the pile of boxes and entered the
enclosure. This was the first time anybody walked between the barricade
and the windows.
Fritz then walked to the casings, picked them up and held them in his hand
over the top of the boxes for me to get a close-up shot of the evidence. I
filmed about eight seconds of a close-up shot of the shell casings in
Captain Fritz's hand. I stopped filming, and thanked him. I do not recall
if he placed them in his pocket or returned them back to the floor,
because I was preoccupied with recording other views of the crime scene. I
have been asked many times if I thought it was peculiar that the Captain of
Homicide picked up evidence with his hands. Actually, that was the
first thought that came to me when he did it, but I rationalized that he
was the homicide expert and no prints could be taken from spent shell
casings. Therefore, any photograph of shell casings taken after this, is
staged and not correct. It is highly doubtful that the shell casings that
appear in Dallas police photos of the crime scene are the same casings
that were found originally. The originals by this time were probably in a
plastic bag at police headquarters. Why? Probably this was a missing link
in the report the police department had to send to the FBI and they had to
stage it and the barricade box placement to complete their report and
photo records.
The position of the barricade, while difficult to follow for one who was
not there, is important because of the difference in photographs seen
today.
There are four different box positions.
There was one box in the barricade stack that was considerably higher
than the others. This box is the one that can be seen in the photos taken
from outside the window by Tom Dillard, because it was high enough to
catch the sunlight and still be seen from the ground below. It is not to
be confused with the second box set at an angle in the window sill, that
was used as a brace for the assassin's rifle.
A portion of this box can also be seen in these same photos taken by
Tom Dillard. It shows up in the lower right hand corner of the picture.
Two boxes were stacked on the floor, inside the window, to give arm
support to the assassin. The top box was one of the two boxes from which
the crime lab lifted palm prints.
The fourth box of importance was on the floor behind the sniper
location. Officers also lifted palm prints from this box. It is suspected
that the sniper sat on this box while he waited for the motorcade to pass.
The positioning of boxes 2, 3, and 4 were recorded by the police crime
lab. They are the only boxes involved in the crime scene.
The actual positioning of the barricade was never photographed by the
police. Its actual positioning is only on my movie footage, which was
taken before the police started dismantling the arrangement.
We all looked over the barricade to see if the half open window with three
boxes piled could form a shooting rest for a gunman. One box was actually on
the window sill, tilted at an angle. There was a reason for this that I
cover in my JFK Facts newsletter. The shooting location consists of two
windows set together to form one single window. (The police photo showing
the shell casings laying next to the brick wall was staged later by crime
lab people who did not see the original positioning because they were not
called upon the scene until after the rifle was found nearly an hour
later.
Only recently I saw a picture of Lt. Day with a news still cameraman on
the 6th floor. Day was shown pointing to the location where the rifle was
found. This was nearly 3:30 or after. It was my understanding that Day and
Studebaker had taken the prints, rifle and homemade sack back to police
headquarters. I personally would like to know what they were doing back at
the scene unless it was to reconstruct shots they had failed to take
during the primary investigation. But this evidence had been destroyed and
they were forced to create their own version. The photo I have seen of the
barricade wasn't even close. I have also seen recently a police photo of
the assassin's lair taken from a high angle which indicates that it was
shot before the barricade box arrangement was destroyed, but it did not
show the barricade itself. This has no bearing on the case other than the
public has never seen the original placement. I show it in my JFK Facts
newsletter.
Police officers who claim they were on the 6th floor when the assassin's
window was found have reported that they saw chicken bones at or near the
site. One officer reported that he saw chicken bones on the floor near the
location. Another said he saw chicken bones on the barricade boxes, while
another reported that he saw chicken bones on the box which was laying
across the window sill. Some of these officers have given testimony as to
the location of the shell casings. Their testimony differs and none of it
is true. I have no idea why they are clinging to these statements. They
must have a reason. Perhaps it is because they put it in a report and they
must stick to it.
One officer stated that he found the assassin's location at the 6th floor
window. He went on to say that as he and his fellow officers were leaving
the building, he passed Captain Fritz coming in. He said he stopped
briefly to tell Captain Fritz that he had found the assassin's lair at the 6th
floor window. This seems highly unlikely because Captain Fritz joined
us on the 5th floor and aided in the search. The chances are great that
this, or these officers heard the report, that stemmed from WFAA-TV's
incorrect announcement that the chicken bones were found on the 6th floor.
This officer or officers perhaps used this information to formulate their
presence at the scene. There were no chicken bones found on the 6th floor.
We covered every inch of it and I filmed everything that could possibly be
suspected as evidence. There definitely were no chicken bones, were no
chicken bones on or near the barricade or boxes at the window. I shot
close-up shots of the entire area. The most outstanding puzzle as to why
these officers are sticking to this story is the fact they claim to have
found the sniper's location, then left the building, as they said to join
the investigators at the Tippit shooting location. I have never seen a
report that indicates they attempted to use any telephone in the building
in an attempt to notify other investigators. They just left the scene to
check another assignment, and by chance ran into Capt. Fritz coming in the
front door. They claim to have placed a detective at the location but they
did not relay their finding to any other officer before they left the
building. I presume that the alleged detective they allegedly left at the
scene was instructed to stand there until someone else stumbled upon the
scene, or they found time to report it after investigating the Tippit
scene. Sorry, it doesn't wash.
I do however know that Officer Mooney was present when the rifle was found
because I took film of him at the scene. He is shown talking to another
detective, but this was nearly an hour after the sniper's location was
found at the window. I have no idea when he arrived. We ended up with more
men than when we started. As they joined us during the search the
latecomers would bring us the latest news of the president's condition.
When Captain Fritz arrived 18 minutes after we started, he brought news
that both Governor Connally and the president had been hit but by the time
he left, the seriousness of their wounds was unknown. Fritz left the
hospital almost immediately when he was notified that a search was
underway in the Texas School Book Depository for the sniper. We in the
search team had no phones, radios or TV sets. As I recall, we learned that
the president was dead about the time we found the rifle. I don't know who
brought us this word. Several officers arrived while we were waiting for
Lt. Day. One of them was Roger Craig, who is responsible for giving much
misinformation to the press. None of us were prepared to hear that the
president's wound was a fatal one. We thought perhaps it was a minor thing
or possibly a flesh wound. It was a stunning shock, and our attitude
( towards) the rifle had suddenly changed. We stared at the small portion
of the butt as it lay under the overhang boxes while we waited for Lt. Day
to arrive and recover the weapon that killed our president. I give an
account of this in JFK Facts.
We finished combing the 6th floor, looking for the assassin or any other
evidence. Finding nothing more at this time Captain Fritz ordered all of
us to the elevator and we started searching the 7th floor and from there
we went to the roof.
Nothing in the way of evidence was found so we retraced our search back
down, floor by floor. Shortly after we arrived back on the 6th floor,
Deputy Eugene Boone located the assassin's rifle almost completely hidden
by some overhanging boxes near the stairwell. I filmed it as it was found.
In my shot, the figure of Captain Fritz is standing within the enclosure
next to the rifle. He knew then that the possibility of a fire fight with
the sniper had greatly diminished. He dispatched one of his men to go down
and call for the crime lab. About fifteen minutes later, Lt. Day and
Studebaker arrived. Still pictures were taken of the positioning of the
rifle, then Lt. Day slid it out from its hiding place and held it up for
all of us to see. The world has seen my shot of this many times. Lt. Day
immediately turned toward the window behind him and started dusting the
weapon for fingerprints. Day was still within the enclosure formed by the
surrounding boxes. I filmed him lifting prints from the rifle. He lifted
them off with scotch tape and placed them on little white cards. When he
had finished, he handed the rifle to Captain Fritz. Fritz pulled the bolt
back and a live round ejected and landed on the boxes below. Fritz put the
cartridge in his pocket. I did not see Fritz pick up anything other than
the live round.
I filmed Captain Fritz talking with associates in this dismantled area
( the "sniper's nest") along with Studebaker, who was dusting the Dr.
Pepper bottle which had been brought up to him from the 5th floor. This is
all recorded on my film. I never learned if prints were lifted from the
pop bottle. I'm not sure if anybody ever asked.
I took the film from my camera, placed it back into its metal can, wrapped
the tape around it, and tossed it to our News Editor, A. J. L'Hoste, who
was waiting outside with the other newsmen who were not allowed in the
building. A. J. raced it to the television station which was about three
blocks away. About fifteen minutes later the world saw the murder weapon,
where it was found and pictures of the crime lab people dusting it for
fingerprints, and the shell casings that once housed those bullets. They
also saw how the assassin prepared for his ambush and the view he had of
the killing zone.....""
End of quote..
"Pictures of the Pain "..page 537
Back at the station Aylea's fim was being processed as quickly as it arrived most of it being broadcast unedited..Sometime after 3.15 pm the first Alyea film was telecast. ..The one minute 45 second sequence was not the first Tom had taken as it shows the rifle already discovered , as well as 15 other short sequences including the snipers nest scene.A short time later a 25 second additional segment was shown looking from the inside first floor entrance through the closed door at the two cops on the steps is also projected. All told WFAA broadcast Alyea's films some 5 separate occasions. Not including replays some 34 scenes were show, including views of the police on the street below and the spectators corralled below on the opposite side of Elm, near the reflecting pool area.The total none repeated film totalled 4 minutes..12 seconds. A David Wolper documentary film included five other short clips by Alyea not seen on the WFAA telecasts of 1963. These clips show an additional 14 seconds of film.A still later televised series ,
"The Men Who Killed Kennedy" included additional film.Among these three sources are a total of 54 separate fim clips of approximately 5 minutes 26 1/2 seconds duration , all identifiable to Alyea..The clips include several other views of the southeats corner of the 6th floor and views of the rifle prior to its being picked up by Lt. Day.Alyea shot all of his fim ammounting to some 500 feet.But at the station this precious film was not looked upon as of any historical documentation..or even as possible investigative use, It was part of a news package and would be edited, cut up, and shown only with only the concern of telling a breaking news story.....
Alyea increduously remembers, "The news director had a bunch of it burned and I said, "Bob, don't burn anything ---this is history, we don't know what's going on there..."..He said if we can't use it on the news get it out of here.".So much film was piling up in the cramped editing room floor that the next day much of it was destroyed .Alyea recalls that in between assignments he would come in to have his new fim processed , and while there would pick up some of his discarded film, spin it on a reel and take it. He retained some of these clips, but bemoans the lose of other potentially historic film , "I could have shot Oswald coming out ---could have shown someone else coming out."
In Apri 1964...WFAA furnished to the FBI, upon it's request ,a dub of all the segments which survived and could be indentified as Alyea's..
Tom Ayea would film one final dramatic, though post shootong event..Scheduled on Sunday to cover a news conference by Mrs John Connally at Parkland Hospital, the gathered press learned that Oswald had been shot by a phone call to the press room. Many took off for Baylor or Methodist Hospitals which were closer to the city jail,.. Aylea on a hunch and others ran to Parkand's emergency entrance. His camera is running as a police cruiser rounds the circular drive followed by an ambulance which stops and, as a cop motions with his hand, the vehice backs under the canopy..Oswald's strecher is removed from the back amid much pandemonium .Attempting to follow the gurnet Alyea recalls, ......" the officers forced a human wall across the hallway and refused to let us pass."
In the crowded corridor Alyea could not see in front of him ..Another cameraman , Bob Welch , had a light attached to his camera ,and Alyea told him to shine the light on the cops' heads. As he did this, Alyea using the man's light, held his camera as high as possible and pushed his film button .."I coudn't see what I was shooting:..His flim includes Oswald being wheeled down the hall "I had filmed that, as well as the Doctors rushing from the emergency room to take Oswald from the police, and I hadn't even been sure that I'd gotten anything"..It was a real stroke of luck."..
Tom Alyea also covered the trial of Jack Ruby for WFAA and also filmed a day in the life of Marina Oswald.. In 1966 he moved to Lafette, Louisiana, beginning his own news service operation and publishing a bulletin relating to the oil and gas industry. Following the 1983 oil price depression, Alyea moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma ..An avid cartoonist with a flair for teaching, known as "Toma" to his audience, he produced several successful children's tapes on learning to make cartoons. It has only been in recent years he has become aware of all the misinformation concerning the assassination and now believes it important to help correct some of the factual errors ..
Alyea Clip...
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