26-08-2016, 06:01 PM
Nothing muzzy about Scoggins' recollection of earlier events --
Mr. BELIN. Where were you driving your cab in the early part of the afternoon of November 22, 1963, if you remember?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Well, I picked up a gentleman at Love Field at approximately 12:35, I would say, and I discharged him at 1 o'clock at 321 North Ewing.
Mr. BELIN. Then where did you go?
Mr. SCOGGINS. I went around by the Gentlemen's Club which I believe is 125 Patton.
321 North Ewing is hard by Kay Coleman's apartment, where Harry Olsen spent much of his time. Off duty because of a knee injury sustained in an ice skating mishap with Ruby, but he could walk, despite a cast, possibly on crutches, or so he said. He told Specter his knee "swelled after I had walked" the four blocks to the house he did not identify. Possibly a dream sequence, but the idea of him catching a cab at North Ewing is not implausible.
Events following the murder quickly lose plausibility --
Callaway DPD (11/22/63) --
I got the officer's gun and hollered at a cab driver to come on, We might catch the man. We got into his cab, number 213 and drove up Patton to Jefferson and looked all around, but did not see him.
Scoggins DPD (11/23/63) --
This man got into the cab with me and we circled around several blocks but did not see this man who shot the officer.
One day later, so far so good. From the point of view of Callaway's statements this is the only route that makes sense. Nothing, for example, prevented the gunman from crossing the boulevard and hiding out in a box at Dudley Hughes or doubling back to read Tarzan books at the library.
Scoggins SS (12/2/63) --
We proceeded north on Patton and possibly turned west on 10th. We cruised an area north of 10th street looking for the man I had seen, but we did not see him. When we left the intersection of 10th and Patton we did not go to Patton and Jefferson, but went in a northerly direction which would be opposite from the intersection of Patton and Jefferson streets.
Callaway SS (12/3/63) --
We turned west on 10th and south on Crawford to Jefferson and then west on Jefferson to Beckley where we turned north. During the time we were on Jefferson, we did not see the man with the pistol.
End of script A. Scoggins slammed the door on it. Callaway's sudden itinerary shift & re-scripting by itself casts severe doubt on his involvement, unless one is willing to believe he forgot Friday night where he went Friday afternoon.
Getting back to the actual passenger in the cab, from Scoggins' WC testimony --
Mr. BELIN. There is an opening in part of that shrubbery?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes, and I heard that when he hit that, and he was looking over his left shoulder at that time. I first saw him and then I got out--
...
Mr. BELIN. Why did you jump out of your cab first when you heard the shots?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Because anytime that there is anything going on that is one thing the cab driver wants to do is to get away from that cab, because the man is going to try--if he had ever seen the cab, he looked back over his left shoulder, and I don't think he even seen the cab-he would have probably jumped in the cab and had me take him somewhere or maybe shot me, too, you know, and I didn't want to be around the cab at anytime while he was in the neighborhood, you know, when there was anything like that going on, or anything, robbery, or anything.
Seldom is the unspoken past more clearly disclosed by placing it in a hypothetical context. Continuing --
Mr. BELIN. When you saw the officer fall, when was the next place that you saw the man, or did you see him at the same time you saw the officer fall, the other man?
Mr. SCOGGINS. No, I saw him coming kind of toward me around that cutoff through there, and he never did look at me. He looked back over his left shoulder like that, as he went by. It seemed like I could see his face, his features and everything plain, you see.
From behind his cab on the east side of Patton how could Scoggins see the face of this man who was looking over his left shoulder? Either he was wrong three times or the cab was parked somewhere else, possibly in the alley next to the Gentleman's Club. After the man passed Scoggins drove to the corner of Patton & Tenth and walked toward the murder scene. Olsen, grabbing Tippit's gun, intercepted him and commandeered the cab, and Scoggins found himself in the middle of his worst nightmare.
Olsen's role remains murky, but his position had become isolated as the crowd gathered, and he had to get away fast. Perhaps he missed his ride in the second squad car seen by Benavides from his mother's place and described by Holan, so he took a cab. Following recovery from serious injuries sustained a few weeks later, Olsen moved with Coleman to California, where they were interviewed by an insipid Specter in 1964, eliminating the risk of getting fingered by someone who had seen him on East Tenth.
Mr. BELIN. Where were you driving your cab in the early part of the afternoon of November 22, 1963, if you remember?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Well, I picked up a gentleman at Love Field at approximately 12:35, I would say, and I discharged him at 1 o'clock at 321 North Ewing.
Mr. BELIN. Then where did you go?
Mr. SCOGGINS. I went around by the Gentlemen's Club which I believe is 125 Patton.
321 North Ewing is hard by Kay Coleman's apartment, where Harry Olsen spent much of his time. Off duty because of a knee injury sustained in an ice skating mishap with Ruby, but he could walk, despite a cast, possibly on crutches, or so he said. He told Specter his knee "swelled after I had walked" the four blocks to the house he did not identify. Possibly a dream sequence, but the idea of him catching a cab at North Ewing is not implausible.
Events following the murder quickly lose plausibility --
Callaway DPD (11/22/63) --
I got the officer's gun and hollered at a cab driver to come on, We might catch the man. We got into his cab, number 213 and drove up Patton to Jefferson and looked all around, but did not see him.
Scoggins DPD (11/23/63) --
This man got into the cab with me and we circled around several blocks but did not see this man who shot the officer.
One day later, so far so good. From the point of view of Callaway's statements this is the only route that makes sense. Nothing, for example, prevented the gunman from crossing the boulevard and hiding out in a box at Dudley Hughes or doubling back to read Tarzan books at the library.
Scoggins SS (12/2/63) --
We proceeded north on Patton and possibly turned west on 10th. We cruised an area north of 10th street looking for the man I had seen, but we did not see him. When we left the intersection of 10th and Patton we did not go to Patton and Jefferson, but went in a northerly direction which would be opposite from the intersection of Patton and Jefferson streets.
Callaway SS (12/3/63) --
We turned west on 10th and south on Crawford to Jefferson and then west on Jefferson to Beckley where we turned north. During the time we were on Jefferson, we did not see the man with the pistol.
End of script A. Scoggins slammed the door on it. Callaway's sudden itinerary shift & re-scripting by itself casts severe doubt on his involvement, unless one is willing to believe he forgot Friday night where he went Friday afternoon.
Getting back to the actual passenger in the cab, from Scoggins' WC testimony --
Mr. BELIN. There is an opening in part of that shrubbery?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes, and I heard that when he hit that, and he was looking over his left shoulder at that time. I first saw him and then I got out--
...
Mr. BELIN. Why did you jump out of your cab first when you heard the shots?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Because anytime that there is anything going on that is one thing the cab driver wants to do is to get away from that cab, because the man is going to try--if he had ever seen the cab, he looked back over his left shoulder, and I don't think he even seen the cab-he would have probably jumped in the cab and had me take him somewhere or maybe shot me, too, you know, and I didn't want to be around the cab at anytime while he was in the neighborhood, you know, when there was anything like that going on, or anything, robbery, or anything.
Seldom is the unspoken past more clearly disclosed by placing it in a hypothetical context. Continuing --
Mr. BELIN. When you saw the officer fall, when was the next place that you saw the man, or did you see him at the same time you saw the officer fall, the other man?
Mr. SCOGGINS. No, I saw him coming kind of toward me around that cutoff through there, and he never did look at me. He looked back over his left shoulder like that, as he went by. It seemed like I could see his face, his features and everything plain, you see.
From behind his cab on the east side of Patton how could Scoggins see the face of this man who was looking over his left shoulder? Either he was wrong three times or the cab was parked somewhere else, possibly in the alley next to the Gentleman's Club. After the man passed Scoggins drove to the corner of Patton & Tenth and walked toward the murder scene. Olsen, grabbing Tippit's gun, intercepted him and commandeered the cab, and Scoggins found himself in the middle of his worst nightmare.
Olsen's role remains murky, but his position had become isolated as the crowd gathered, and he had to get away fast. Perhaps he missed his ride in the second squad car seen by Benavides from his mother's place and described by Holan, so he took a cab. Following recovery from serious injuries sustained a few weeks later, Olsen moved with Coleman to California, where they were interviewed by an insipid Specter in 1964, eliminating the risk of getting fingered by someone who had seen him on East Tenth.