01-05-2014, 12:46 AM
Immediate Aftermath of the Assassination 12:45-12:59PM
12:45 PM
Dallas' ABC television affiliate WFAA was airing a local lifestyle program, The Julie Benell Show, at the time. At 12:45 PM CST, the station abruptly cut from the prerecorded program to news director Jay Watson in the studio, who had been at Dealey Plaza and ran back to the station following the incident:"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. You'll excuse the fact that I am out of breath, but about 10 or 15 minutes ago a tragic thing from all indications at this point has happened in the city of Dallas. Let me quote to you this [briefly looks at the bulletin sheet in his left hand], and I'll...you'll excuse me if I am out of breath. A bulletin, this is from the United Press from Dallas: President Kennedy and Governor John Connally [in his agitated state, he mispronounced Connally's name as "Colony"] have been cut down by assassins' bullets in downtown Dallas." Bill and Gayle Newman are present in the studio, and are interviewed. Bill says the shots came from behind him (saying either "the knoll" or "mall"). Jay Watson and Newman agree that everyone was running toward the area of the fence/overpass after the shooting. Watson reads a UP report saying that Connally's wounds indicated an "automatic weapon" was used. Watson and fellow newsman Jerry Haynes had both been standing on Houston St. near Main, and recalled how they heard 3 shots.
12:45 PM Interview of motorcycle policeman J.M. Chaney, who was riding to the right-rear of the limousine. "On the first shot we thought it was a motorcycle backfire. I looked to my left and so did President Kennedy, looking back over his left shoulder, and when the second shot struck him in the face then we knew someone was shooting at the President.
"Q: When you saw the Bullet hit him, what did he do?"
"A: He slumped forward in the car. He fell forward in the seat there." …
"A: Did you see where the bullet came from or did you see the man with the gun?"
"A: No, all I knew it came over my right shoulder."" KLIF tape, The Fateful Hours, On tape, side I, 206 feet.
12:45 p.m. CST: KRLD-TV, a CBS affiliate, reported that a Secret Service agent had been killed. The first mention of the agent's death on the CBS television network actually came from Eddie Barker, news director at CBS affiliate KRLD, who was at the Trade Mart. During his first report for CBS, (around a half hour or so?) after full time CBS coverage began, Barker was fed the information by KRLD's Dick Wheeler, also at the Trade Mart. Barker reports, ". . . the fact that that one of the Secret Service agents who was riding with the President was killed." He then asks for backup of this from Wheeler, and Wheeler says, "That is the report at this moment." Wheeler had just seconds before indicated that Kennedy's condition as critical was only an "unconfirmed report." Although the story of Kennedy's critical condition was circulating, Wheeler was careful to label it only as "unconfirmed." But not so with the Secret Service agent story. Then after the "official" report of Kennedy's death by Eddie Barker (called "unconfirmed" by Walter Cronkite) and the quick followup "unconfirmed" announcement of the President's death by Dan Rather via either radio or phone report, Cronkite says, "A Secret Service man was also killed in the fusillade of shots that came apparently from a second story window." Again, this was not referred to as "unconfirmed" but as if it were fact. More than two hours later, the Secret Service agent story was still alive. In his first televised report, Rather now refers to the agent's death as "unconfirmed," but at the same time he answers the question as to where the story originated from. Rather says, "There is some confusion as to whether a Secret Serviceman also was killed at the time of the shooting. There has been no official confirmation of any Secret Serviceman being killed although there are widespread reports, including one from the Dallas Police Department, that a Secret Serviceman was killed at the same time President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally were shot."
Eddie Barker, KRLD-TV, a CBS affiliate, will note, "The word is that the President was killed, one of his agents is dead, and Governor Connally was wounded." ABC News in Washington will report, "A Secret Service agent apparently was shot by one of the assassin's bullets." ABC's Bill Lord report includes, "Did confirm the death of the secret service agent... one of the Secret Service agents was killed ... Secret Service agents usually walk right beside the car." ABC Washington will also note, "One of the Secret Service agents traveling with the President was killed today." The Associated Press (AP) is quoted on WFAA (ABC):"A Secret Service agent and a Dallas policeman were shot and killed some distance from where the President was shot."
Stavis Ellis sees a young boy, who has taken photographs along the motorcade route, taking pictures of the limousine while it is parked at Parkland Hospital. A Secret Service agent grabs the boy's camera and exposes his film by rolling it out of the camera. Dallas Police Officer James W. Courson, another motorcade officer, corroborates this account of the Secret Service agent destroying the film.
A Secret Service agent is stationed at the entrance of the Vice President's room to stop anyone who is not a member of the Presidential party. U.S. Representatives Henry B. Gonzalez, Jack Brooks, Homer Thornberry, and Albert Thomas join Clifton C. Carter and the group of special agents protecting the Vice President. (On one occasion Mrs. Johnson, accompanied by two Secret Service agents, leaves the room to see Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Connally.) [WC]
Malcolm Kilduff contacts White House transportation official Wayne Hawks and tells him to "get hold of the telephone company and start moving [additional] phones [into the hospital.]"
12:45 PM Zapruder returns to his office, and tells secretary Lillian Rogers to call authorities; 2 DPD officers arrive, asking for film, but Zapruder refuses. Zapruder testimony, 7H 571; Wrone, 17; Trask, 33
ABC-TV coverage (time approx): Early witnesses describe suspect as being a white male, about 30 years old. Announcer comments how unusual the shooting is, "because of the unusually tight security measures that are ordinarily taken by the Secret Service…Normally, any vantage point, a rooftop and windows which command a parade route are carefully scrutinized and carefully guarded, and men are usually posted on rooftops along parade routes…" Eddie Barker at the Trade Mart reports that a Secret Service agent was "killed instantly…on the spot." Bill Lord reports that Dallas Sheriff's office said that 4 shots were fired and SS agent was killed. Sen. Yarborough said two shots came from his right rear, but he was not sure about the third shot.
Miss Doris Nelson asks Mrs. Kennedy to leave Trauma Room #1. Diana Bowron, S.R.N. and Margaret Hinchcliffe, R.N., undress JFK swiftly, removing all his clothes except his undershorts and brace and fold them on a corner shelf. The first physician to arrive, Charles J. Carrico, a second-year surgical resident, examines JFK quickly. There is no pulse, no blood pressure at all. Yet, JFK is making slow, agonizing efforts to breathe, and an occasional heart beat can be detected. Blood is caked on JFK's steel-gray suit, and his shirt is the same crimson color. Dr. Charles A. Crenshaw notices that the entire right hemisphere of his brain is missing, beginning at his hairline and extending all the way behind his right ear. Pieces of skull that haven't been blown away are hanging by blood-matted hair. Part of his brain, the cerebellum, is dangling from the back of his head by a single strand of tissue. It is reported that someone in the Trauma Room orders the medical team to "Get him (JFK) some steroids." This order refers to JFK's secret Addison's disease and that it creates the life-or-death urgency of an immediate infusion of cortical hormones in order to treat JFK's shock. Testimony reveals that "some admiral" behind Dr. Paul Peters gives this order. Some researchers credit the order to Dr. George G. Burkley. This, however, is impossible, since evidence points to the fact that Burkley does not arrive until around 12:53 PM. The late arrival by Burkley at Parkland Hospital is documented on film and corroborated by other photographs and testimony.
Other doctors rush into Trauma Room #1 to help. SS agent, Clint Hill, is rambling around the room in wild-eyed, disoriented fashion, waving a cocked and ready-to-fire .38 caliber pistol. Doris Nelson, supervisor of the emergency room turns to Hill and snaps: "Whoever shot the President is not in this room." Hill leaves. Dr. Charles Crenshaw removes the President's shoes and right sock and begins cutting off his suit trousers, with nurses Diana Bowron and Margaret Hinchcliffe assisting. Don Curtis, an oral surgery resident, is doing the same thing to the left limb. Dr. Crenshaw notices that one of the oxford shoes that he has tossed to the side of the room has a lift in the sole. The President's right leg is three-quarters of an inch longer than his left leg. As the doctors cut away JFK's suit pants, they also unstrap his back brace and sling it to the wall and out of the way. Admiral George Burkley, JFK's personal physician, traveling with the Presidential party, gives Dr. Carrico three 100-mg vials of Solu-Cortef from the medical bag he carries which contains JFK's personal medication. (As a matter of policy, the government has not furnished the President's blood type or medical history to Parkland prior to the President's arrival. This has to be determined on the spot.) JFK's blood type is O, RH positive. Everyone in the emergency room remains in utter bewilderment. FBI and Secret Service agents, as well as the Dallas police, are rushing around, trying to identify one another and secure the hospital.
12:45 PM (approx) The elevator operator in the Dal-Tex Building notices an unknown man inside the building. Feeling that the man doesn't belong in the building, the elevator operator seeks out a policeman, who detains the suspicious man, bringing him to the sheriff's office for questioning. They hold him for nearly three hours. He tells police that his name is Jim Braden, and that he is in Dallas on oil business. He shows them identification, and explains that he had entered the building in hopes of finding a telephone to call his mother. Braden further asserts that he entered the building only after the assassination occurred, although eyewitnesses place him in the building at the time the shots were actually fired. Eventually, the police accept his explanation and release him. Jim Braden is actually Eugene Hale Brading, an ex-con from Southern California with reputed underworld ties. On September 10, just two months before the assassination, Brading had his name legally changed to Braden. Had Dallas police known his actual name, they would have learned that he was a parolee with thirty-five arrests on his record. Brading had told his parole officer that he was going to Dallas on oil business, and his parole records indicate that he planned to meet with Lamar Hunt. Although he later denied meeting with Hunt, a witness (Hunt chief of security Paul Rothermal) placed Brading and three friends at the offices of Lamar Hunt on the afternoon before the assassination. Brading's presence at Hunt's office was also confirmed in an FBI report. Coincidentally, Jack Ruby accompanied a young woman to the Hunt's office that same afternoon. And on the twenty-first, (last night) Brading checked into the Cabana Hotel in Dallas, where Jack Ruby just happened to visit sometime around midnight that same evening. During the months preceding the assassination, Brading kept an office in the Pete Marquette Building in New Orleans. Also occupying an office in that building, on the same floor and just down the hall, was G. Wray Gill, a lawyer for New Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcello. One of Gill's detectives is David Ferrie, who has been in and out of Gill's office many times during the time Brading keeps an office there. Ferrie later became the focus of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation into the Kennedy assassination. On the evening of June 4, 1968, Brading will check in to the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, more than a hundred miles from his home. Just a few minutes away at the Ambassador Hotel, Robert Kennedy will be murdered in the hotel pantry after winning the California primary. Upon learning of Brading's close proximity to the Ambassador Hotel that evening, the Los Angeles Police Department will be concerned enough to question Brading about his possible role in both assassinations.
Police car #106 - carrying Patrolmen B. L. Jones and M. D. Hall - arrives at the Texas School Book Depository. It has come from the corner of Pearl and Jackson Streets. (With Malice)
When motorcycle patrolman Bobby Hargis returns to the TSBD from Parkland Hospital, a man approaches him, vowing, in the officer's words, "to get his hands on $17,000 if I'd agree to sell him my helmet. I couldn't sell it anyway. It belonged to the city of Dallas." The helmet is spattered with JFK's blood and brain matter.
Washington Post Company president Katharine Graham, Osborn Elliott, Arthur Schlesinger [Jr.] and John Kenneth Galbraith are sitting in Graham's office having drinks when Al McCollough from the paper's copy desk pokes his head inside the door and says to Elliott: "I'm sorry to interrupt, Oz, but the president has just been shot." PKHBS
12:45 PM Officer J.D. Tippit received orders to move to the Oak Cliff area. (WC) After requesting orders, Tippit is ordered by radio to proceed to the central Oak Cliff area and to stand by for any emergency. Oak Cliff is about four miles south of Dealey Plaza. Officer Ronald C. Nelson is also ordered into the area. The previous statement is based on a transcript of a Dallas Police dictabelt recording. There is some question about whether or not this particular order was dubbed onto the tape at a later date by someone at the DPD. Not only is such an inexplicable instruction believed to be unique in the Dallas Police Department, it also was NOT included in the first transcript of the recording supplied to the Warren Commission. The speculation derives from the fact that, at the height of the turbulence and confusion surrounding the shooting of the President, when the police switchboard is constantly jammed with incoming and outgoing messages of utmost importance, someone still has time to order J.D. Tippit into central Oak Cliff, where at this time, there is not a single significant crime that requires police attention. At around 1:20, when Nelson next reports his position, he is in Dealey Plaza.
Dispatcher Murray Jackson, (a personal friend of Tippit's) orders squad "#87 and #78 move into Central Oak Cliff area." Jackson's reasoning for this is "there was the shooting involving the President and we immediately dispatched every available unit to the Triple Underpass, where the shot was reported to have come from. I realized that we were draining the Oak Cliff area of available Police Officers so if there was an emergency such as a robbery or a major accident to come up I wouldn't have anybody there that would be in close proximity to answer the call. And since J.D. was the outermost Unit, actually I had two Units, #87 which was Officer Nelson and #78 which was Officer Tippit" (in actuality Bill Anglin's District #79 was farther south and further away from the Texas School Book Depository than Tippit's District #78). It is also interesting to note that Bill Anglin responded to the 12:42P.M. radio call from the police dispatcher that said. "Attention all squads in the downtown area code 3 (red lights and siren) to Elm and Houston (Dealey Plaza) with caution. At 12:52P.M. Anglin radios the dispatcher that he will "be out at the triple underpass"(Dealey Plaza).
12:45 Dispatcher 87, 78, move into central Oak Cliff area.
12:45 78 (Ptm. J.D. Tippit) I'm about Kiest and Bonnie View.
12:45 87 (Ptm. R.C. Nelson) 87's going north on Marsalis at R.L. Thornton.
12:45 Dispatcher 10-4.
At approximately 12:45 to 1:00 P.M. there are 5 witnesses that placed Tippit not in Central Oak Cliff but at the Gloco (Good Luck Oil Company) gas station which was located at 1502 North Zang Boulevard. This is the absolute northernmost part of Oak Cliff, about 1.5 miles from the TSBD. They said Tippit stayed at the station for about 10 minutes, somewhere between 12:45 and 1:00 P.M., then drove off quickly toward the south. At 12:45 P.M. the Police Dispatcher asks Tippit his location, Tippit replies "I'm about Keist and Bonnie View"(8), we have to question the truthfulness of this statement. Police dispatcher, Murray Jackson, has stated in an interview that "If somebody is out of pocket off their district and you ask them their location, they are either not going to answer or they are going to give you somewhere else anyway." It is much easier to believe that Tippit was not being truthful about his location than to discount the statements of five witnesses that knew him personally and place him at a location approximately 5 miles away from the location he reported, at approximately the same time. The estimated travel time from Keist and Bonnie View to the Gloco station under normal driving conditions, is 18 minutes and 13-14 minutes for Tippit Travel Time. Given his witnessed location at 12:45 to 1:00 P.M. and the travel time involved it would seem more logical that Tippit had ventured out of his patrol district at approximately the time of the assassination for some unknown reason. Regardless of how good an officer J.D. Tippit was he could not have been in two places at the same time. Photographer, Al Volkland, and his wife, Lou, both of whom know J.D. Tippit, see him at a gas station and wave to him. They observe Tippit sitting in his police car at a Gloco gas station in Oak Cliff, watching the cars coming over the Houston Street Viaduct from downtown Dallas. Three employees of the Gloco station, Tom Mullins, Emmett Hollingshead, and J.B. "Shorty" Lewis, all of whom know Tippit confirm the Volklands' story. They say Tippit stays at the station for about 10 minutes, somewhere between 12:45 and 1:00 P.M., then he goes tearing off down Lancaster at high speed - on a bee-line toward Jack Ruby's apartment and in the direction of where he was killed a few minutes later. (Ramparts 11/1966, David Welsh)
12:45 PM Fritz arrives at the hospital. (WC testimony) DPD Chief Jessie Curry places CPT Fritz in charge of the crime scene. CPT Fritz, Detectives Boyd and Sims, and Sheriff Decker depart Parkland Hospital. (CD 81b)
Police Ban (Channel 2) -- TSBD should be saturated by now. Unknown if suspect is still inside. All information we have indicates the shot came from the 4th or 5th floor of the TSBD.
12:45 PM NBC reports that Kennedy and Connally have been wounded. Dallas Times HeraldManaging Editor Charlie Dameron orders the front page to be ripped up and new mock-ups developed. Dallas Times HeraldReporter Darwin Payne interviews Abraham Zapruder.
Dr. Ronald Coy Jones testifies: "There was a large defect in the back side of the head as the President lay on the cart with what appeared to be some brain hanging out of this wound with multiple pieces of skull noted next with the brain and with a tremendous amount of clot and blood."
Dr. Gene Akin, an Anesthesiologist at Parkland, testifies that "the back of the right occipital-parietal portion of JFK's head was shattered, with brain substance extruding."
Dr. Charles Baxter testifies that there is "a large gaping wound in the back of the skull." Baxter will also insist that the wound in the throat was "no more than a pinpoint. It was made by a small caliber weapons. And it was an entry wound."
Subsequent to the first interview with Parkland Hospital doctors by two unnamed Secret Service agents sometime before November 29, 1963, additional interviews are conducted with the Parkland doctors, nurses, and orderlies by both the Secret Service and the FBI. There are known to be 24 Secret Service and 6 FBI interviews, or a total of at least 30 interviews. Not one report of those 30 or more interviews will be included in the Hearings and Exhibits of The Warren Report. (Meagher)
Mrs. John Connally will later recall: "I saw all sorts of artillery and weapons. I assume it was Secret Service or security, I don't know, racing up and down around the corridor. Finally, somebody brought two chairs and sat them outside these two doors, and I sat in one and Mrs. Kennedy sat in the other. I kept seeing all this commotion in the President's room, and I wondered if--I knew the President was dead, but I wondered if they weren't all over there and nobody taking care of John. The only thing that would calm me a little was I would get up now and then and just push open the door in the room where he was, and if I could see any movement or hear them saying anything, then I was content to wait."
Gov. Connally recalled in his autobiography, In History's Shadow: "..the most curious discovery of all took place when they rolled me off the stretcher, and onto the examining table. A metal object fell to the floor, with a click no louder than a wedding band. The nurse picked it up and slipped it into her pocket. It was the bullet from my body, the one that passed though my back, chest and wrist and worked itself loose from my thigh. There was enormous significance to that scrap of metal, but I can't be certain how many years later I understood the importance of it. I have always believed that three bullets found their mark. What happened in the hospital demonstrated how easily a bullet could have been swept aside and lost.."
Inside Parkland Hospital, SS agent Roy Kellerman tells agent Clint Hill to establish continual telephone contact with Gerald A. Behn, Secret Service, White House. Telephone contact is made. Kellerman tells Behn there's been a double tragedy; that the President and Gov. Connally have been shot. Hill takes over telephone conversation and tells Behn the situation looks critical. Suddenly, the operator cuts in and says the Attorney General wants to speak to Hill. RFK comes on the line and asks Hill what the situation is. Hill advises him that JFK has been injured very seriously. Hill says he will keep RFK informed. Kellerman who has gone into Trauma Room #1 to check on JFK comes back and tells Hill: "Clint, tell Gerry that this is not for release and not official, but the man is dead." Gerald A. Behn has not only broken precedent by not coming to Texas with the Secret Service detail, he has left his men without a leader. In Parkland, Kellerman and Youngblood sometimes act independently of each other. For instance, when LBJ is taken to Air Force One, Kellerman will not be informed of the move.
When he sees Mrs. Kennedy at Parkland Hospital, limousine driver William Robert Greer breaks down and says, "Oh, Mrs. Kennedy, oh my God! Oh my God! I didn't mean to do it, I didn't hear, I should have swerved the car, I couldn't help it! Oh, Mrs. Kennedy, as soon as I saw it I swerved the car. If only I'd seen it in time!" He then weeps on the former First Lady's shoulder.
The Parkland Hospital doctors in trauma room #1, as a group, have the immediate impression that JFK's neck wound has been caused by a bullet entering from the front and possibly lodging in the chest or been deflected by the spine into the head. Dr. Malcolm Perry, himself a hunter who is familiar with different kinds of ammunition and the type of wounds they cause, is of the immediate opinion that JFK's neck wound is one of entrance. He initially observes the wound, asks a nurse for a "trake" (short for tracheotomy) tray, wipes off the wound, sees a ring of bruising around it, and starts making his incision. About a half-dozen of the Dallas doctors will testify that they believe the anterior neck wound is of entrance. At least two nurses also did. They are Diana Hamilton Bowron and Margaret M. Henchcliffe.
In Washington, D.C., Richard Reidel, press liaison aide in the U.S. Senate goes into the Senate chamber to Majority Leader Senator Mike Mansfield's desk. He raises his voice and tells Mansfield and those surrounding him: "Senators, the President has been shot."
In Parkland Hospital's Trauma Room #1, Dr. Kemp Clark (chief of neurosurgery) notes that the President's eyes are fixed and dilated. Glancing at the other doctors in the room, he shakes his head, indicating that it is too late. Still determined to continue, Dr. Malcolm Perry begins closed-chest cardiac massage. Dr. Jenkins continues to administer pure oxygen. None of the doctors wants to quit. Dr. Baxter testifies: "the time elapsing in all of this resuscitation and the time the heart actually ceased, I don't think one could be very sure of it. It was sometime between a quarter to 1 and 1 o'clock."
Another Dallas doctor, Dr. McClelland will be interviewed in 1989. He will explain that when he saw the President in the emergency room, a great flap of scalp and hair had been "split and thrown backwards, so we had looked down into the hole." Dr. McClelland will go on to say that the "great defect in the back" is visible on some photographs amongst the full set of some fifty pictures he will eventually see at the National Archives -- pictures in which the torn scalp has been allowed to fall back on the President's neck, pictures the public has so far never seen. None of the other doctors who will, over twenty-five years from now, inspect the autopsy evidence will refer to such photographs. On Inside Edition, a nationally syndicated television program, Dr. McClelland will, in 1989, say that "the X-rays do not show the same injuries to the President's head that he saw in the emergency room." "There is an inconsistency. Some of the skull X-rays show only the back part of the head missing, with a fracture of the anterior part of the skull on the right. Others, on the other hand, show what appears to be the entire right side on the skull gone, with a portion of the orbit -- that's the skull around the eye -- missing too. That to me is an inconsistent finding. I don't understand that, unless there has been some attempt to cover up the nature of the wound."
Dr. Robert Shaw arrives in Trauma Room 2 to take charge of the care of Governor John Connally.
Within the next hour, Dallas police sergeant D.V. Harkness, along with several other officers, rousts three "tramps" from a railroad car in the train yard just behind the Texas School Book Depository. The men have been spotted by Union Pacific Railroad dispatcher Lee Bowers and he orders the train stopped, then summons the Dallas Police. Once in the sheriff's custody, the three "tramps" officially disappear. (The House Subcommittee on Government Information and Individual Rights discover in 1975 that Dallas police arrest records for November 22, 1963, compiled for the Warren Commission, are missing.) The arrest reports of the three tramps are finally found by Larry Howard among the Dallas police records released in early 1992. Their names, according to those records, are Harold Doyle, John Forrester Gedney, and Gus W. Abrams. Of the three tramps escorted by the police through Dealey Plaza, one of the names used by the old man is "Albert Alexander Osborne." He also uses "Howard Bowen," and he has a son. The old man is thought by some to be the "House Mother" of a group of American assassins stabled in Mexico at the time. Albert Osborne is the name of the man who is said to have ridden on the bus with LHO to Mexico City prior to the assassination. Richard Helms will, during the Watergate hearings, mention a CIA agent by the name of Howard Osborne.
12:47 PM
12:47 PM NBCThe network airs a bulletin slide with Don Pardo reading the latest wire bulletins.12:47 PM LHO is reportedly seen at Tidy Lady Launderette at Davis and N. Clinton, where he makes phone call. (Armstrong)
12:48 PM
12:48 PM Oswald enters William Whaley's cab at the Greyhound bus station at Commerce and Lamar St (CE 1119-A) about five blocks away from Dealey Plaza.Whaley's log for November 22 records a trip for a single passenger from the Greyhound Bus Station to 500 North Beckley. It shows that the trip lasted from 12:30 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. If his time records are correct, it means that Oswald boards the cab at the exact time JFK is being shot in Dealey Plaza. The Warren Commission will later try to explain this away by saying that Whaley recorded his trips by quarter-hour intervals regardless of their actual length. But Whaley's log proves this theory to be in error. Further, Whaley testifies that, just as he was about to drive off, an old lady who sees his passenger enter the cab, tells Whaley she wants a cab too. Whaley's passenger opens the cab door and tells the lady that she can have Whaley's cab. The lady then says that Whaley can easily call another cab for her. Some researchers do not think the chivalrous passenger's behavior in this instance is exactly that of a fugitive who has just assassinated the President of the United States. If true, Oswald is the first presidential assassin to use public transportation to flee the scene of the crime. Relying solely on Whaley's testimony, the Warren Commission will eventually conclude that Oswald was unquestionably the man driven from the Greyhound Bus Station to North Beckley on the afternoon of November 22. To reach this finding, however, it has first to disprove almost every statement initially made by Whaley.
Police Ban (Channel 2) -- Someone remarks about an "interesting seizure" that someone had in the crowd prior to the motorcade's arrival in the Plaza. Instructions are given to check it out.
12:48 PM Rebroadcast of the suspect's description. A police broadcast indicates that the suspect was still believed to be in the TSBD and armed. (H 17 398)
12:48 PM Hoover gets in touch with the Dallas FBI office.
Sylvia Meagher: "The FBI was in the clear, but only for two hours....as the first interrogation of Oswald was getting under way, it became known to the Dallas police that the suspect had a thick FBI dossier...It became known that the FBI had not informed the Dallas police or the Secret Service of Oswald's presence in Dallas and his employment at the Book Depository. Suddenly the FBI became an interested party with huge stakes in the investigation of the assassination - stakes no less than reputation, trust, authority, and continued autonomy. The same FBI became the chief investigative agency for the Warren Commission...The FBI carried out about 25,000 interviews on behalf of the Commission, submitting more than 2,300 reports...Are there any indications that such a conflict of interests...compromised the performance of the FBI?" The Bureau's investigation of the assassination was its biggest ever. Within hours of the assassination, Hoover had decided that Oswald was the lone assassin, though publicly the agency would continue to go through the motions of an investigation for a short time. At the same time, the FBI also insisted that they never had any reason to believe that Oswald was violent, and therefore felt no need to inform the Secret Service of him when Kennedy went to Dallas. Asst Director Courtney Fields, Agent Harry Whidbee and supervisor Laurence Keenan all recalled how Hoover rushed them into wrapping up their investigation, and not pursuing leads that did not point to Oswald as the lone assassin. (Official and Confidential) When the FBI investigated the assassination, 80 special agents were detailed to the Dallas field office to assist. Gerald Posner: "After the assassination, J. Edgar Hoover was furious with the Bureau's handling of the case. Seventeen agents were secretly reprimanded for the preassassination investigation of Oswald. When some of the agents protested to Hoover that Oswald did not meet the criteria for the FBI's security index, he replied 'no one in full possession of all his faculties' could make such a claim. Hoover believed that agents with early contact to Oswald too willingly accepted his word that he was not in touch with Soviet agents or subversive elements and, at the very least, he should have been the subject of a more rigorous investigation. But Hoover kept this criticism private since he feared its disclosure would hurt the Bureau's reputation." (Case Closed 82) "According to a senior FBI official, Edgar ordered aides to get the Bureau's assassination report out of the Justice Department 'before Bobby gets back.'" (Official and Confidential 368) A Los Angeles Times article (11/21/1993, Sara Fritz) stated that since Congress passed a law (1992) requiring government agencies to disclose relevant documents about the assassination, the FBI still has 499,000 pages it refuses to release. (The CIA still has at least 10,000 pages.) In 1979 the HSCA decided that the FBI probe of the assassination was "seriously flawed," "insufficient to have uncovered a conspiracy." The HSCA also determined that Hoover seemed determined to make a lone-assassin case "within 24 hours of the assassination." (R 128) 1977 the FBI made a media hoopla out of release 100,000 pages from its assassination files; the US press cheered, but Anthony Summers got spokesman Hoynden to admit that "up to ten percent of the file will not be released" for reasons of national security and personal privacy. (12/1977) Harold Weisberg stumbled across much evidence of the FBI's writing guidebooks for authors and reporters who wanted to support the official version of the assassination and criticize conspiracy theorists.
12:48 PM CBSWalter Cronkite appears live on camera and begins CBS's continuous coverage.
12:49 PM
12:49 PM Capt. Talbert is still giving orders to seal the TSBD: "Have that cut off on the back side, will you? Make sure nobody leaves." He also ordered them to search "more than that building. Extend out from that building so it can be searched." (H 23 847,916)12:49 Police Ban (Channel 2) -- Was Governor Connally hit? No information. What to do at the Trade Mart?
12:50 PM
12:50 PM Cabinet aircraft turns around in mid-flight to return to Honolulu.12:50 PM Darwin Payne (Dallas Times Herald) tries unsuccessfully to purchase Zapruder film rights Wrone, 17; Trask, 95, 97-8; Payne/SFM interview
Photographer Jim Murray finds a phone and calls Patsy Swank of LIFE magazine. He then resumes taking photographs, noticing that activity in the Plaza is focusing on the TSBD. (Trask) He takes two photos of the front of the building. He takes a photo of Amos Euins in a police car, and photos of a man in glasses who looks somewhat like a younger Jack Ruby.
12:50 PM Dallas SS agent Forrest Sorrels finds rear door of Depository unguarded; asks Truly to draw up list of his employees.
12:50 PM Det. Senkel and Dep. Sheriff Weatherford enter the TSBD to begin a top-to-bottom search. DPD Asst. Chief Lumpkin, Detectives Senkel and Turner, MAJ Meiddemeyer, U.S. Army, and SA Forrest Sorrels arrive at TSBD. Senkel enters TSBD with Deputy Sheriff Weatherford and conducts search from ground floor up. Turner assists "in searching a box car" (CD 81b, 163 ( T.L. Bakers report))
Film from unknown time depicts Billy Lovelady outside the TSBD entrance in a red checkered shirt.
12:50 PM Dallas Police Sgt. S.Q. Bellah orders a rope barricade be erected to keep people away from the TSBD.
ABC News coverage (approximately this time): Several Secret Service agents went off in pursuit of the assassin, while the rest went with the President to the hospital. "When he was hit, Mr. Kennedy was standing up, he fell back over the seat of the car…" One anchor says that normally the SS carefully scrutinizes buildings and windows, men are posted on rooftops along the parade route. A SS agent was "killed instantly," confirmed by the Sheriff's Dept, which also said that 4 shots were fired.
NBC News coverage (approximately this time): Robert MacNeil is on the phone at the hospital. Several witnesses saw a man with a rifle in a window of a building overlooking the parade route. Switch to Ft Worth's Charles Murphy: a suspect, neatly dressed, early 20s was taken into custody in Dallas, protesting vehemently his innocence.
12:51 PM
Jim Murray photo showing the front of the TSBD.12:51 Police Ban (Channel 2) -- Homicide Chief Will Fritz: "Can we tell the crowd at the Trade Mart anything?" "Gov. Connally and the President have been shot." "Is President going to appear at Trade Mart?" Jesse Curry: "Very doubtful." Request for additional help at Main & Houston. Fire Dept. and rescue equipment are being dispatched to the location. Again, a request for a report on the extent of injuries. "Was the Governor hit?" Reply is that Governor Connally was hit. Injuries to JFK unknown.
Dallas police radio now indicates that the suspect is still believed to be in the TSBD and armed. "He is thought to be in this Texas School Book Depository here on the northwest corner Elm and Houston."
It is often suggested that LHO attracts the attention of police because he is the only employee who is absent when a check of TSBD personnel is made. Roy Truly says it is he who first notices that Oswald is absent and draws that to the attention of the police. However, LHO is not the only employee who does not return to the TSBD after the shooting.
Jack Charles Cason - President of School Book Depositary - left the building at 12:10 p.m. and went home. (VOL:22
640)Gloria Jean Holt - clerk at TSBD - did not return after shooting. (VOL:19
.526) (VOL:22.652)Sharon Simmons Nelson, Secretary, (VOL:19
.256;VOL: 22-P.665) did not return.Bonnie Richey, Secretary, (VOL22
.671) did not return.Carolyn Arnold (VOL:22
.635) did not return.Mrs. Donald Baker, Clerk, did not return (VOL:22
.635)Judy Marie Johnson (VOL22
.256) did not return.Mrs. Stella Mae Jacob (VOL:22
.665) did not return.Charles Givens did not come back.
Virginia H. Brnum - McGraw-Hill employee does not return (VOL:22
.636)Vida Lee Whatley, Clerk, does not return.(VOL:22
.680)Warren Caster (VOL;22
.641;VOL 26.738) eating lunch in Denton .Spauldin "Pud" Jones (VOL:22
.658) eating lunch at Blue Front with HerbertJunker (another McMillan employee) (22:659)
Mrs. Helen Palmer, clerk, (VOL:22
.666) not present was at Love Field.Franklin Kaiser - was absent from work on 11/22.(VOL:6
.342), (VOL:23.751)Vicki Davis, employee, was absent.
Dottie Lovelady, employee, was absent.
Mrs. Rudell Parsons, employee, was absent.
Joe Bergen, Scott Foresman, absent.
Maury Brown, McGraw-Hill, absent.
John Langston, absent.
12:52 PM
PABLO BRUNER (or BRENNER) received a phone call in Mexico City at 12:52pm on 11/22/1963 from a Riverside 8 exchange in Dallas. The caller said only, "He's dead, he's dead." (according to Gary Shaw in Conspiracy of Silence 91; the book does not elaborate further on the person's identity.)12:53 PM
12:53 PM NBCThe network begins continuous coverage by Chet Huntley, Frank McGee and Bill Ryan.Securing a pay telephone at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Merriman Smith constantly filed updates as he learned new information. A Smith dispatch, which cleared just before 12:55 p.m., says, "Some of the Secret Service agents thought the gunfire was from an automatic weapon fired to the right rear of the president's car, probably from a grassy knoll to which police rushed."
12:54 PM
12:54 PM Oswald leaves the cab at the 500 block of North Beckley Avenue (four-tenths of a mile beyond his rooming house.)(WR 158-62)Jim Murray contains taking photos outside the TSBD.
12:54 PM Police dispatcher Murray Jackson contacts J.D. Tippit, who reports in from Lancaster and Eighth in central Oak Cliff. Jackson tells him to "be at large for any emergency that comes in."
12:54 Dispatcher 78
12:54 78 (Ptm. J.D. Tippit) 78
12:54 Dispatcher You are in the Oak Cliff area, are you not?
12:54 78 (Ptm. J.D. Tippit) Lancaster and Eighth.
12:54 Dispatcher You will be at large for any emergency that comes in.
12:54 78 (Ptm. J.D. Tippit) 10-4.
It is about 8/10's of a mile from the Gloco station to Lancaster and Eighth. Normal travel time is about 4 minutes but since he was "tearing" when he left the gas station he could have made it in as little as 1-2 minutes. This definitely fits into the time frame and the direction he was headed as described by the five witnesses.
Some researchers have speculated that Tippit might have stopped off to see Harry Olsen, a Dallas Police Officer, who had broken his knee cap and by his own admission had taken a side job guarding an "Estate" in Oak Cliff from 7:00A.M. until 8:00P.M. on the day of the Assassination.(9) This is in the general area of the Tippit shooting. He could not remember many details about it, but he said the "estate" was on Eighth Street but he could not remember the exact location or address. Neither the Warren Commission, nor the House Select Committee asked him specifically if Tippit stopped off to see him.
FBI agent Robert M. Barrett arrives at the Texas School Book Depository. (With Malice)
In response to S. Q. Bellah's request, a Dallas Police dispatcher relates that they are sending a fire department rescue unit equipped with a large supply of rope to Dealey Plaza. (Trask)
12:55 PM
12:55 PM UPI reports that Jackie Kennedy and Nellie Connally are unharmed and that JFK is still alive.12:55 PM Another broadcast of the suspect's description.
12:55 PM For almost twenty minutes the emergency room crew in Parkland Hospital's Trauma Room #1 has been working to revive JFK. Drs. James "Red" Duke and David Mebane are stabilizing Governor John Connally in Trauma Room #2 by inserting a chest tube and starting intravenous infusion of Ringer's lactate before taking him to x-ray and surgery.
Under heavy guard, Lyndon Johnson remains hidden behind a curtain in the minor medicine room just across the hall from JFK in Trauma Room #1. Present in the room with LBJ are Mrs. Johnson, Congressman Homer Thornberry, ASAIC Youngblood, and most of the time, Congressman Jack Brooks and Special Agents Jerry Kivett and Warren Taylor. SS agent Roy Kellerman discusses JFK's condition with LBJ. LBJ requests coffee for himself and Mrs. Johnson. SS agent Youngblood tells Kivett to contact Austin and Washington and have agents assigned to the Vice President's daughters. Youngblood tells SS agent Thomas L. Johns (at the request of LBJ) to ask Kellerman for a report on the condition of JFK.
Jacqueline Kennedy is now just outside of Trauma Room #1. In shock, she sits down in a chair and asks a passing aide for a cigarette.
SS Agent Roberts tells LBJ: "The President won't make it. Let's get out of here." Youngblood concurs: "We don't know know the scope of this thing. We should get away from here immediately. We don't know what type of conspiracy this is, or who else is marked. The only place we can be sure you are safe is Washington."
Ken O'Donnell to Marty Underwood (advance man for JFK): "Marty, we don't know whether this is a plot -- maybe they're after Johnson, maybe they're not. We don't know. Get the vice president, and get them back to the plane."
Police dispatcher Murray Jackson contacts J. D. Tippit to make sure he has remained in Oak Cliff. Tippit responds affirmatively. This is to be J. D. Tippit's last known radio transmission. (With Malice)
Police car number 207, driven by James Valentine and carrying Sergeant Gerald L. Hill and Dallas Morning News reporter James Ewell arrives at the Texas School Book Depository. (With Malice)
12:56 PM
approx 12:45-12:56 PM J.D. Tippit arrives at the Gloco gas station at the south end of the Houston Street Viaduct, where Nelson has reported at 12:49 P.M. Witnesses state that Tippit sits in his car watching traffic coming out of downtown. Dispatcher Murray Jackson tries to raise Tippit during this time on his police radio. Tippit does not respond. It is assumed that Tippit has stepped away from his radio without notifying the dispatcher - a habit he has developed over the last few years.On the Oak Cliff side of the Houston Street viaduct is the Good Luck Oil Company service station (GLOCO). Five witnesses see J.D. Tippit arrive at the GLOCO station at 12:45 PM. He sits in his car and watches traffic cross the bridge from Dallas for about 10 minutes. There are no police dispatches ordering Tippit to this location. Tippit leaves GLOCO and speeds south on Lancaster. Two minutes later, at 12:54 PM, Tippit answers his dispatcher and says he is at "8th and Lancaster"- a mile south of the GLOCO Station. He turns right on Jefferson Blvd. and stops at the Top Ten Record Store a few minutes before 1:00 PM. Store owner Dub Stark and clerk Louis Cortinas watch Tippit rush into the store and use the telephone. Without completing his call or speaking to store personnel Tippit leaves, jumps into his squad car, and speeds north across Jefferson Blvd. He runs a stop sign, turns right on Sunset and is last seen speeding east-one block from N. Beckley. Tippit is now two minutes (at 45 mph) from Oswald's rooming house. Tippit's whereabouts for the next 8-10 minutes remain unknown.
12:57 PM
12:57 PM AP quotes Congressman Albert Thomas that JFK is in "very critical" condition. UPIWire reports state that priests have arrived at Parkland Memorial Hospital.12:57 PM Last rites are administered to JFK in Trauma Room #1 by Father Huber. JFK's clothes are now neatly folded and placed at one end of the room. Dr. Baxter testifies: "Mrs. Kennedy was in the room, there was a large number of people in the room by that time Secret Service Agents, the priests and so on. As soon as the President was pronounced dead, the Secret Service more or less--well, requested that we clear the room and leave them with the President's body, which was done. Everything that the Secret Service wished was carried out."
12:58-12:59 PM
12:58-12:59 PM Dallas Police Capt. Will Fritz enters the Texas School Book Depository (CD 81b) and gives orders to seal the building. There has been no effective containment of the crime scene for at least 10 minutes and possibly as long as twenty-eight minutes. Gerald Hill arrives at the TSBD just behind Capt. Fritz. (Trask)Mr. BALL. What time did you arrive there?
Mr. FRITZ. Well, sir; we arrived there---we arrived at the hospital at 12:45, if you want that time, and at the scene of the offense at 12:58.
Mr. BALL. 12:58; the Texas School Book Depository Building.
Mr. FRITZ. Some officer told us they thought he was in that building, so we had our guns----
Mr. McCLOY. Thought who was in the building?
Mr. FRITZ. The man who did the shooting was in the building. So, we, of course, took our shotguns and immediately entered the building and searched the building to see if we could find him…After I arrived one of the officers asked me if I would like to have the building sealed and I told him I would.
Mr. BALL. What officer was that?
Mr. FRITZ. That is a uniformed officer, but I don't know what his name was, he was outside, of course, I went upstairs and I don't know whether he did because I couldn't watch him…We began searching the floors, looking for anyone with a gun or looked suspicious, and we searched through hurriedly through most all the floors.
Mr. McCLOY. Which floor did you start with?
Mr. FRITZ. We started at the bottom; yes, sir. And, of course, and I think we went up probably to the top.
James Powell, Special Agent with the 112th Military Intelligence Group at 4th Army Headquarters at Fort Sam Houston carrying a 35 mm Minolta camera enters the Texas School Book Depository and is forced to show his identification after Dallas police seal the building. Powell has been taking photographs in Dealey Plaza prior to the assassination. No meaningful investigation is made by the government to determine what intelligence agent Powell is doing in Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination.
According to William C. Bishop - a CIA contract agent, U.S. Army colonel, and confessed political assassin - he is awaiting JFK's arrival at the Trade Mart. He further states that his job this day is to make sure the press at the Trade Mart have proper credentials. He hears that shots have been fired in Dealey Plaza. He commandeers a police car and orders the driver to take him directly to Parkland Hospital. There, the SS instruct him to secure the area outside the Trauma Room and to make himself available to the First Lady or medical staff. Bishop will assert to assassination researchers in 1990 that one of his CIA assignments was the assassination of Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1961.
12:59 PM (approx) The WC decided that after leaving the cab, Oswald walked the rest of the way, arriving home at 1026 North Beckley Avenue "about 12:59 to 1pm." (WR 163).
Charles Roberts: "In a reconstruction of his trip, Secret Service and FBI agents walked from the Depository to where he caught the bus (6.5 minutes), rode the bus through heavy traffic for two blocks (4 minutes), walked to where he caught the cab (4 minutes), rode the cab to where Whaley finally said he got out (6 minutes), then walked to his home (5 minutes). This 25.5 minutes of travel time...would put him in the door of the roominghouse at 12:58.5pm." (The Truth About the Assassination 68) Posner says that "he arrived at the rooming house about 12:55 to 12:56, and left again before 1:00. He had fifteen to seventeen minutes to walk nine-tenths of a mile" to the murder scene. (Case Closed 274) He got his gray jacket, apparently slipped a pistol in his waistband, and left the house a few minutes later. Mark Lane found it strange that Oswald would get his jacket when it was such a warm day. (National Guardian, 12/19/1963) Oswald told Fritz that during his stop at his roominghouse he had changed his trousers and his shirt "because they were dirty" and he had placed them "in the lower drawer of his dresser." (WR 604-605, 622) It was never established whether these items were found when police searched his room; the WC didn't seem to care, and they concluded that he wore the same shirt all day. (WR 124-5)
While he is inside, the housekeeper, Mrs. Earlene Roberts, says a police car pulls up outside the house, beeps its horn, then drives off. [An internal FBI document dated May 20, 1964, will state: "The reason for any police car honking the horn in front of this address is unknown, however, it is entirely possible this was a car in plant to determine if Oswald returned to his home."] (With Malice)
Exhaustive investigations have virtually established that the ONLY police car officially in the vicinity was that of Officer J.D. Tippit. It has also been suggested that the person who stops and sounds his car horn in front of Oswald's rooming house is actually Assistant D. A. William Alexander -- who is also a Right-Wing extremist. Alexander will be at The Texas Theater minutes later when Oswald is arrested there. Alexander rides in a car with Officer Gerald Hill, another Right Wing activist and friend of Jack Ruby. Hill was in command of the search that found the cartridge cases on the sixth floor of the TSBD. The discovery is actually credited in official reports to Deputy Sheriff Luke Mooney. Researchers have since become interested in the fact that Hill seems to be in quite a few important locations this day: present at TSBD and finds empty rifle cartridges; in the second squad car to arrive at scene of Tippit murder; at the Texas Theater to assist in Oswald's arrest; and in photo of Will Fritz's office - famous for finally proving Roger Craig's presence. It is also suggested that J. D. Tippit and Roscoe White could have been in this police car. This particular theory holds that Tippit has been told by White that they must pick up someone important and take them to the Redbird Airport. Once Tippit stops Oswald, gets out of the squad car and begins to draw his revolver, he is shot by White. White and Oswald then flee the scene in different directions with Oswald realizing that he is being framed.