03-01-2018, 04:28 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-01-2018, 02:01 AM by Milo Reech.)
Sergeant Gerald Hill made two baffling radio transmissions --
1:26 I'm at Twelfth and Beckley now. Have a man in the car with me that can identify the suspect if anybody gets him.
1:34 The shells at the scene indicate that the suspect is armed with an automatic 38, rather than a pistol.
Indeed, the earlier transmission is rather puzzling. Who was this man? Myers in With Malice assigns Harold Russell to the role, but Russell's movements & observations were confined to Patton & 10th. Unknown DPD officers put him in a patrol car to "point out the area where he had last seen the man with the pistol," whom nobody placed near the sheriff's constable station at Twelfth & Beckley at any time.
Choices are limited. There is only one known migration by an eyewitness from the murder scene that may have reached Twelfth & Beckley. It has to be Scoggins accompanied by another, and this is where things get interesting. Callaway is usually identified as the driving force behind the wild ride but his credentials are weak, pointed out in several previous threads.
Unfortunately, my replacement proposal of Harry Olsen cannot be firmed up for lack of evidence that places him at the murder scene. With great regret I must let this phony go. However, another cop placed himself at the scene at the right time (just after the ambulance left). This person was Gerald Hill, who stated to WC he left the scene shortly thereafter in patrolman's Poe's car, whipping around the block, to meet "Owens in front of two large vacant houses on the north side of Jefferson that are used for the storage of secondhand furniture."
It's not what happened. Instead, Scoggins arrived at the murder scene after watching a fugitive rush down the alley next to the Gentlemen's Club, and Hill decided to isolate him from the scene. Acting quickly, Hill grabbed Tippit's gun and both left along a route Scoggins professed not to remember, eventually landing at Twelfth & Beckley.
For Scoggins it was the beginning of a long day. Croy described the departure & return to WC --
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you talk with the taxi driver?
Mr. CROY. Yes; I did. I talked to the taxi driver.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Now, did you talk with him on the scene of the crime?
Mr. CROY. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you remember what his name was?
Mr. CROY. No; I didn't get his name. There was a private detective agency. There was a report that a cabdriver had picked up Tippit's gun and had left, presumably. They don't know whether he was the one that had shot Tippit, or whether the man, I think it was he, brought someone out there, something. Anyway, he saw it and he picked up Tippit's gun and attempted to give chase or something like that.
Mr. GRIFFIN. There was a detective who was an eyewitness?
Mr. CROY. No; he brought the taxi driver back to the scene.
Mr. GRIFFIN. But the taxicab driver was an eyewitness?
Mr. CROY. As far as I know.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you talk to the taxicab driver?
Mr. CROY. No; I took Tippit's gun and several other officers came up, and I turned him over to them and they questioned him.
Reserving the "private detective agency" for a future post, what's clear is Scoggins gave the gun to Croy followed by questioning at the scene, taken thence according to his WC testimony to police HQ downtown.
Not much to puzzle over the second transmission other than the surprisingly widespread resistance to its straightforward & unambiguous message. Many attempts have been made to explain it away, but efforts to overturn the obvious significance require more ingenuity than applied to date. It's a plain statement from which the conclusion follows that the weapon of choice used by Tippit's assassin was not the revolver attributed to Oswald.
1:26 I'm at Twelfth and Beckley now. Have a man in the car with me that can identify the suspect if anybody gets him.
1:34 The shells at the scene indicate that the suspect is armed with an automatic 38, rather than a pistol.
Indeed, the earlier transmission is rather puzzling. Who was this man? Myers in With Malice assigns Harold Russell to the role, but Russell's movements & observations were confined to Patton & 10th. Unknown DPD officers put him in a patrol car to "point out the area where he had last seen the man with the pistol," whom nobody placed near the sheriff's constable station at Twelfth & Beckley at any time.
Choices are limited. There is only one known migration by an eyewitness from the murder scene that may have reached Twelfth & Beckley. It has to be Scoggins accompanied by another, and this is where things get interesting. Callaway is usually identified as the driving force behind the wild ride but his credentials are weak, pointed out in several previous threads.
Unfortunately, my replacement proposal of Harry Olsen cannot be firmed up for lack of evidence that places him at the murder scene. With great regret I must let this phony go. However, another cop placed himself at the scene at the right time (just after the ambulance left). This person was Gerald Hill, who stated to WC he left the scene shortly thereafter in patrolman's Poe's car, whipping around the block, to meet "Owens in front of two large vacant houses on the north side of Jefferson that are used for the storage of secondhand furniture."
It's not what happened. Instead, Scoggins arrived at the murder scene after watching a fugitive rush down the alley next to the Gentlemen's Club, and Hill decided to isolate him from the scene. Acting quickly, Hill grabbed Tippit's gun and both left along a route Scoggins professed not to remember, eventually landing at Twelfth & Beckley.
For Scoggins it was the beginning of a long day. Croy described the departure & return to WC --
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you talk with the taxi driver?
Mr. CROY. Yes; I did. I talked to the taxi driver.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Now, did you talk with him on the scene of the crime?
Mr. CROY. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you remember what his name was?
Mr. CROY. No; I didn't get his name. There was a private detective agency. There was a report that a cabdriver had picked up Tippit's gun and had left, presumably. They don't know whether he was the one that had shot Tippit, or whether the man, I think it was he, brought someone out there, something. Anyway, he saw it and he picked up Tippit's gun and attempted to give chase or something like that.
Mr. GRIFFIN. There was a detective who was an eyewitness?
Mr. CROY. No; he brought the taxi driver back to the scene.
Mr. GRIFFIN. But the taxicab driver was an eyewitness?
Mr. CROY. As far as I know.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you talk to the taxicab driver?
Mr. CROY. No; I took Tippit's gun and several other officers came up, and I turned him over to them and they questioned him.
Reserving the "private detective agency" for a future post, what's clear is Scoggins gave the gun to Croy followed by questioning at the scene, taken thence according to his WC testimony to police HQ downtown.
Not much to puzzle over the second transmission other than the surprisingly widespread resistance to its straightforward & unambiguous message. Many attempts have been made to explain it away, but efforts to overturn the obvious significance require more ingenuity than applied to date. It's a plain statement from which the conclusion follows that the weapon of choice used by Tippit's assassin was not the revolver attributed to Oswald.