Opinions on Roscoe White story?

[Adele Edisen]

I would like to get any opinions on the roscoe white story...has it been clearly discredited and has any researcher found any new info ...thanks for reply

Hi, Edwin,

Welcome to this forum. I can't give you a definitive answer about Roscoe White, but I can relate what little I know of him.

You may have heard of Beverly Oliver, a singer at a nightclub next door to Jack Ruby's Carousel Club. She's been referred to by some as the "Babuska Lady" who was in Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963, standing on the other side of Elm Street opposite to the Grassy Knoll. After President Kennedy was shot in the forehead, she and others rushed across the street and up the Grassy Knoll. There she saw "Geneva White's husband," as she states in her book, NIGHTMARE IN DALLAS. Geneva White worked for Jack Ruby, as a hostess or bartender (?) and was married to Roscoe White, and Beverly knew Geneva as she knew most of the women at the Carousel Club from visiting there when she was not peforming at her own nightclub.

Roscoe White had been hired by the Dallas Police Department as a clerk-photographer in October, 1963, and was in training to become a police officer, which he did a year or so later. However, when Beverly saw him, he was wearing a policeman's uniform (which he had no right to wear, not being a police officer yet), with no policeman's hat, and with no gun or holster which all officer's wore. I mention this because in a sense he was impersonating a police officer and could be mistaken for one. Another witness, Jean Hill, stated that the fatal bullet had been shot from the Grassy Knoll. In the Nix movie of the shooting of the President with the Grassy Knoll as backdrop, a vehicle can be seen in front of the wooden fence behind the lower concrete fence which was next to the sidewalk from the pergola leading to the steps onto Elm Street below. At the time of the shooting there seems to be a figure standing on the running board of the vehicle and this may be the person, possibly Roscoe White, who may have shot the fatal bullet.

The vehicle belonged to Jack Ruby's good friend, Rubin Goldstein, nicknamed 'Ruby', who owned a pawn shop called "Honest Joe's Pawn Shop." This vehicle had been circulating through Dealey Plaza before the motorcade arrived to advertise the pawn shop with the name painted on the vehicle. Jean Hill and her friend, Mary Moorman, and others noticed it as they sought a good place to view the motorcade. Jean noted that the windows of this vehicle, a station wagon, were covered on the inside with corrugated cardboard so the interior was not visible, and she also told one investigator that she had seen the name of shop painted on the side of the car. This investigator had visited the pawn shop much later and had seen used police officers' uniforms hanging in a back room (this was told to me privately).

You probably have heard of Ricky White, the son of Geneva and Roscoe White, who claimed his father had been involved in the assassination. We do know that Roscoe White did frequently do target practice. A Google search could bring up that material; it was years ago. I understand that the Ricky White story has been questioned, but I don't know enough about it to have a decision. A private investigator named, I think, Joe West, was looking into it.

In this Forum a few years ago, I started a thread about the vehicle on the Grassy Knoll. The Nix film probably is on You Tube; it's about 7 seconds long, and has been altered a bit. The first time I saw it on the internet, the top part was covered up so that the vehicle and upper part of each frame was not visible and all that could be observed were the limosine, spectators, and the Secret Service agent hopping on the back of the car. Sometime later someone showed the full frame version, but it was very strange that the upper half of the film was originally covered. We weren't supposed to see that vehicle. I will ry to locate that thread for you.

Jim Marrs book, CROSSFIRE, has the Jean Hill story about the vehicle.

Adele