Did Captain Westbrook Watch Tippit's Murder?

[Drew Phipps]

excerpts from handwritten statement of Laura Kittrell

"the name of Murray Chotiner I inadvertently noted down in the space of "former employers" of the man I remembered as Oswald....it was entirely possible that the man I remembered as Oswald was not even acquainted with Mr. Chotiner."

"A. A stranger, later believed to me to be Oswald, had taken occasion to mention to me at my desk the name Murray Chotiner...B. A few days later, a person whose name I remember to be Oswald , was sent to me...He turned out to be the stranger I have already mentioned..."

"At a subsequent interview, a young fellow of German descent, who may or may not have been Oswald, came to my desk...Incidentally, I am not as sure as it would seem from the items at the beginning of the paragraph, that this man was Oswald." (This is the "Teamster Fellow")


She also claims that she saw Marina Oswald at the TWC "talking with her hands as if she were deaf," blonde, and also wearing the clothing of a Seventh Day Adventist.


She never at any time said that there were two Oswalds. She never said at any time that the "Teamster fellow" (who was similar in appearance to Oswald) used Oswald's name.. In fact she says that the "Teamster fellow" was Larry Crafard.



The FBI investigated her information reported early:

"Dallas FBI Office...on November 23, 1963, Mr. Frank Cooney, Counselor, Texas Employment Commission, called to inform he had received information from Miss Laura Kittrell, a fellow employee, that she had interviewed a person on Wednesday, November 20, 1963, who had professed to have a subversive background. She had reported the matter as having a possible connection with Lee Harvey Oswald. Inquiry into the matter on November 23, 1963, resulted in the identification and an interview with the person November 23, 1963, resulted in the identification and an interview with the person Ms. Kittrell had in mind. No connection of any nature whatsoever with Oswald was disclosed by this inquiry."

She does have some interesting information: About the TSBD: "in past years, when I had been sending them applicants, I had sent then, anyone who was not a 100% red-blooded, true-blue, American, I would have heard about it, plenty! The people who used to, then, own the Depository, the Ross Carleton family (who sold it a year or so before the assassination) were leading lights in the Public Affairs Luncheon Club, one of those Dallas vigilante groups a little to the right of the John Birch Society."

And this gem: The second point Kittrell said she made to Golz In her note was that the Dallas police came to the Texas Theater on November 22, 1963, In the morning, not the afternoon, "and they were apparently called." She said: "They came
Into the empy theater, It was not opened yet, and the Janitor told me they wore such a hindrance he could hardly get the cleaning done." She said the Janitor spoke as If there were several policeman. She said she Interviewed the Janitor at the Texas Employment Commission In 1976 and noticed that his records Indicated he had retired from his Job at the Texas Theatre. That's how they got to talking about the Kennedy assassination, she said. She said the Janitor told here that he cleaned up the theater every morning and worked until about lunch time at noon. That's how he said he knew it was the morning when the Dallas police come. "They didn't say what they wanted," he told Kittrell, "didn't say a word to me. Just went around opening doors and looking all over the place." Kittroll said she didn't have the name of the janitor but suggests questioning those who work around the Texas Theatre. "They must know of him, since he worked there so long," she said. She believes she talked to the Janitor sometime In 1976.