Deep Politics Timeline

[Tracy Riddle]

Nov 22 (Friday) Times are Central Standard Time unless indicated

Nov 22 1pm

1:00 PM (approx) Officer Mooney noticed the pile of cartons stacked around the sixth-floor window. (WR 79) Weisberg: "It was about a half-hour after the assassination before the chief of the crime laboratory, Lieutenant J. C. Day (4H249-78; 7H402), was ordered to the scene. By the time he got there, newsmen were already on the sixth floor (4H623). He and his assistants took about 50 pictures, but not one showing the bag in the place where it was found. No question is raised about this in the Report, especially regrettable because of the importance this bag assumes in the Commission's reconstruction. All sorts of pictures were taken, but not that one. Instead, there is a picture of the blank floor showing where the bag allegedly had been (Exhibit 729). Yet Day had immediately recognized the importance of this evidence, for "at the time the sack was found," he wrote on it, "Found next to the sixth-floor window gun fired from. May have been used to carry gun" (4H266-7). A number of pictures were taken with the police photographer standing on the very spot where that bag was found. There were no fingerprints on the outside, although it had been moved by Day's assistant, Robert Lee Studebaker (7H137-49). Studebaker testified that he had not taken any pictures first and that the bag does not show in any other pictures (7H144). He was not asked why. Everything else Studebaker is known to have moved he left well supplied with fingerprints (R 566). The Commission was no less indifferent in questioning Day about the inexplicable moving of evidence." (Whitewash)

1:00-1:02 PM Jay Watson, on WFAA-TV, continues his coverage of the assassination, reading a report that Secret Service agent Clint Hill had been heard saying "He's dead," referring to the president. "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 the police rushed…" The actual first use of "knoll" was in a wire service story reported on WFAA-TV at approximately 1:01 CST. It said the shots came from behind and to the right of the motorcade, from the "grassy knoll." WFAA reporter Jay Watson read a wire service bulletin (most likely United Press) on the air. It quoted a statement given by Congressman Jim Wright as follows: "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 the police rushed."

1:00 PM (2PM EST) Summoned by McNamara, Joint Chiefs of Staff begin an emergency meeting.

1:00 PM (2pm EST) Walter Cronkite appears in a news flash; he turns the story over to local reporter Eddie Barker from KRLD, in Dallas covering the Trade Mart, who reports: "As you can imagine, there are many stories that are coming in now as to the actual condition of the President. One is that he is dead. This cannot be confirmed. Another is that Gov. Connally is in the operating room. This we have not confirmed. Another is, and apparently this is correct, that one of the Secret Service Agents whose job it was to guard the life of the President was killed in his line of duty."

1:00PM CST 2:00 PM (EST) Edward Reed said he was alerted that LBJ had had a heart attack and might be coming to Bethesda. (RT Image, 11/21/1988)

1:00 PM Dallas police officers were filmed by Ernest Charles Mentesana removing a rifle from the roof of the Depository. Unlike the Oswald rifle, the rifle Mentesana filmed had no sling, no scope, and protruded at least 7-8 inches past the stock, where Oswald's extended only 4-5 inches. In the film two police officers are standing on a fire escape at the seventh floor of the Depository gesturing to the roof. In the next sequence the rifle is being examined. (Sibley, Robert. "The Mysterious, Vanishing Rifle of the JFK Assassination," The Third Decade, v. 1, n. 6, September 1985, p. 16.) Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Thayer Waldo watched a group of high-ranking Dallas police officers huddle together for a conference just a few minutes after 1 p.m. on the day of the shooting. When he spoke to a secretary who was privy to the officers' conversations, she told Waldo that police officers had found a rifle on the "roof of the School Book Depository." [18. Warren Commission Hearings and Exhibit, vol. 15, p. 5.] W. Anthony Marsh believes the rifle shown in the film is very likely a Dallas Police Department Remington 870 shotgun. Marsh notes that the Dallas Police Department used Remington 870 shotguns. One of the officers escorting three men in the railyards after the shooting was carrying a Remington 870 shotgun. There is no official record of this rifle. Frank Ellsworth, an agent of the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agency, assists in the TSBD search. He will testify that the "gun was not found on the same floor as the cartridges, but on a lower floor by a couple of city detectives ... I think the rifle was found on the fourth floor."

1:00 PM JFK pronounced dead by Dr. Kemp Clark, Parkland's director of neurological surgery. He tells Jacqueline Kennedy: "Your husband has sustained a fatal wound." She replies: "I know." There are approximately 19 doctors and nurses present during JFK's final agony - plus other witnesses such as the President's wife, Secret Service men, the Dallas Chief of Police, and Congressman Henry Gonzalez - who years from now will briefly serve as Chairman of the House Assassinations Committee.

Parkland nurse, Diana Bowron: "When we came back after all the work had been done on him [JFK]---so that Mrs. Kennedy could have a look before he was, you know, really moved into the coffin. We wrapped some extra sheets around his head so it wouldn't look so bad and there were some sheets on the floor so that nobody would step in the blood. Those were put down during all the work that was going on so the doctors wouldn't slip." Parkland nurse Doris Mae Nelson: "One of the nurses, Miss Hutton, came out and said that the President was having extensive bleeding from the head and they had wrapped four sheets around it but it was still oozing through, so I sent her to the second floor to obtain a mattress cover, a plastic mattress cover, to put in the casket prior to putting his body in the casket, so the mattress cover was placed in the casket and I did not see this happen, but this is how it was explained to me by the nurse, and the plastic was placed on the mattress cover and the cover was around the mattress."

Acting Press Secretary, Malcolm Kilduff will recall being at Parkland Hospital: "I didn't know what to call him [LBJ]. I sure as hell wasn't about to call him Lyndon. So when I said President Johnson,' Lady Bird let out a shriek. Nobody had bothered to tell the poor man" that Kennedy was dead. Kilduff will recall that Johnson is "as cool as a cucumber" and calmly asks what the next step is.

Dallas FBI SAIC J. Gordon Shanklin orders SA J. Doyle Williams to go to Parkland Hospital, locate the SS agent in charge, and inform him that J. Edgar Hoover has ordered all bureau resources to be at the ready to assist. Williams speeds to hospital, finds Roy Kellerman and relays message. He then offers J. Edgar Hoover's condolences to Mrs. Kennedy. He asks one of the nurses to help him find a telephone so that he can report to his superiors. When he returns from making this telephone call, reports of what happens next are confusing. Williams testifies that he is grabbed from behind by two SS agents and wrestled to the hall floor. Roy Kellerman steps in and asks Williams to leave. He does so and returns to his FBI office. Hoover will eventually demote Williams for this incident.

LBJ's Secret Service bodyguard, Rufus Youngblood, testifies: "When Mr. [Kenny] O'Donnell and Roy Kellerman told us that he [JFK] had died, the Vice President said, "Well, how about Mrs. Kennedy?" O'Donnell told the Vice President that Mrs. Kennedy would not leave the hospital without the President's body. And O'Donnell suggested we go to the plane and that they just come on the other plane. And I might add that, as a word of explanation, there were two jet planes, one Air Force 1, in which the President flew, and the other Air Force 2, in which the Vice President and his party flew on. And O'Donnell told us to go ahead and take Air Force 1. I believe this is mainly because Air Force 1 has better communications equipment and so forth than the other planes. President Johnson said that he didn't want to go off and leave Mrs. Kennedy in such a state. And so he agreed that we would go on to the airplane and board the plane and wait until Mrs. Kennedy and the body would come out."

SS agent Jerry D. Kivett, on orders from SS agent Rufus Youngblood, radios Love Field and speaks to someone aboard Air Force One. He orders them to refuel and be prepared for takeoff and to move the plane to another section of the airport. Kivett is advised that the plane is already refueled and that they are in the process of trying to find another location at the airport.

Jack Lawrence, a salesman from the Downtown Lincoln-Mercury dealership (two blocks west of Dealey Plaza) hurries into the dealership showroom with mud on his clothes. Pale and sweating profusely, he runs into the restroom and throws up. He tells coworkers that he has been ill and tried to drive a car (borrowed the day before from the dealership) back to the showroom but finally had to leave it parked some distance away because the traffic is so heavy. Two employees go to pick up the car and find it parked behind the wooden fence on the grassy knoll. The car salesman is arrested and soon released. He leaves Dallas immediately and is never questioned by the Warren Commission. An Air Force veteran, Lawrence has been qualified as an expert marksman. (It is interesting to note that Carlos Marcello had an interest in car dealerships in Dallas and his son, Carlos, Jr., settled in Highland Park, a ritzy suburb of Dallas.) Sam Giancana will later reportedly allege that Lawrence is sent along with Charles Harrelson by Carlos Marcello to take part in the assassination. Lawrence leaves almost immediately after the assassination and travels to North Carolina.

Jack Ruby telephones his sister, Eva Grant, from the Dallas Morning News building.

At about 1:00 PM, neighbors who live along the road running by the little Redbird private airport between Dallas and Fort Worth begin calling the police. A twin-engine plane, they report, is out there behaving very peculiarly. For an hour it has been revving its engines, not on the runway but parked at the end of the airstrip on a grassy area next to the fence. The noise has prevented nearby residents from hearing their TV's, as news comes over about the terrible events in downtown Dallas. But the police are too busy to check it out, and shortly thereafter the plane takes off.

Officers are also searching the bus that LHO has reportedly boarded. This search may suggest that someone other than Marina and Ruth Paine know that LHO cannot operate an automobile and has supposedly chosen to travel by bus.

No individual employed at the TSBD comes forward to police to indicate they are afraid to reenter the building. This may indicate that either all seventy-three known employees are convinced that shots have come from elsewhere, or that they know, or suspect, the depository as a location for shots, but now that JFK's car has passed, there is no further threat to human life. (Meagher)

Soon after 1pm, photographer Jim Murray has gone over to the Sheriff's office and photographs Larry Florer and others brought in for questioning. Then he made contact with amateur photographer Mary Moorman; he tried to get the picture for LIFE magazine, but UPI already had the rights. (Trask)

Max Allen Long, who lives with his mother at 324 East Tenth St. will later claim (on Aug. 24, 1977) that LHO is on his way to Long's address - which has been established as a "safe house." Long will claim that letting LHO come to his house is "supposed to wipe out a unspecific debt that Long had with some people in New Orleans." (With Malice)

Domingo Benavides, a mechanic at Dootch Motors, is approached by a man whose car is stalled on Patton between Tenth and Jefferson. Benavides looks it over and discovers the carburetor is faulty. (With Malice)

1:01 PM WBAPTom Whalen interviews Jean Hill on the radio.

1:01 PM Oswald is seen by Jimmy Burt and William Arthur Smith walking WEST. (The W.C. says LHO is walking EAST.) This puts LHO a block and a half east of the Tippit shooting and three blocks west of Ruby's apartment.

1:02 PM (2:02pm EST) Chase of Secret Service car transporting Caroline Kennedy.

1:03 The Associated Press releases the first picture of the assassination, taken by James Altgens right after JFK was first hit on Elm Street. (Trask)

1:00 PM or 1:03 PM (approx) Police dispatcher tries to contact Officer Tippit but there is no answer. Police dispatcher Murray Jackson called #78 (Tippit) at 1:03 P.M. and got no answer. One can guess that if Tippit was at Lancaster and Eighth at 12:54 P.M. he could have easily arrived at the Top Ten Record Shop a distance of 2 miles before 1:00 P.M. and could have been inside the record shop when the unanswered call was made. The distance from the Top Ten Record Shop to 404 E. 10th St. (the Tippit Murder site) is 6/10's of a mile with a travel time of about two minutes.

1:04 PM At about this time Oswald is noticed that he is missing at the Depository.

1:03-04 PM Earlene Roberts testified that she last saw Oswald waiting for a bus at this time. He went into his room and left again after three or four minutes. She said when he left he was zipping up his jacket. She said that it "was a dark color." The jacket found near the Tippit murder scene was a very light gray; in fact, the first police alert said the assailant was a "white jacket." (H 23 861-62; H 7 439).

1:04 - 1:07 PM This information is provided by Greg Lowrey by way of Bill Pulte. James A. Andrews worked for American National Life Insurance whose offices were located across the street from Austin's Barbecue. Greg Lowrey was interviewing Andrews to get recollections of Roscoe White who worked out of the same office as Andrews. During the interview Andrews told Greg "Since you are interested in the assassination, let me tell you something that happened" and told the following story. James A. Andrews was returning to work at his office in Oak Cliff a little after 1:00 P.M. on 11/22/63. He was driving west on West 10th Street (about eight or nine blocks from where Tippit was shot minutes later). Suddenly a police car also traveling west on West 10th Street came up from behind Andrews' car, passed him and cut in front of Andrews's car forcing him to stop. The police car pulled in front of Andrews' car at an angle heading into the curb in order to stop him. The officer then jumped out of the patrol car motioned to Andrews to remain stopped, ran back to Andrews' car, and looked in the space between the front seat and the back seat. Without saying a word the policeman went back to the patrol car and then drove off quickly. Andrews was perplexed by this strange behavior and looked at the officer's nameplate, which read "Tippit" (Tippit was wearing his nameplate on 11/22/63. This is documented in a list of personal effects removed from his body at the time of death. Source: Dallas Municipal Archives) Andrews remarked that Tippit seemed to be very upset and agitated and was acting wild. After returning to his police car Tippit turns the car around and begins driving EAST on 10th Street. (Armstrong)
The next Tippit encounter is one that has been reported in several different books and magazine articles but this incident remained unclear to me until I obtained transcripts of the interviews with the two men who were involved. This sighting took place at The Top Ten Record Shop which is near the corner of West Jefferson Boulevard and Bishop Ave. about one block West of the Texas Theater. Louis Cortinas, was an eighteen year-old clerk, in the record shop in 1963. The shop's owner and his boss was Dub Stark. In a 1981 interview with Dallas Morning News reporter Earl Golz, Cortinas stated the following: " He was behind the counter at The Top Ten Record Shop, 338 West Jefferson Boulevard, on November 22, 1963. Police Officer, J.D. Tippit, parked his car on Bishop Street, apparently heading North, and came into the shop in a hurry and asked Cortinas if he could use the phone at the counter. He recalls Tippit being in such a hurry that he had to ask people in the narrow aisle to step aside." "Tippit said nothing over the phone, apparently not getting an answer. He stood there long enough for it to ring seven or eight times. Tippit hung up the phone and walked off fast, he was upset or worried about something." "Tippit sped away in his squad car across Jefferson, down Bishop, to Sunset where he ran a stop sign and turned right down Sunset." "Maybe 10, no more than 10 minutes Tippit had left when I heard he had been shot on the radio." Cortinas said, "Tippit would come into the record shop occasionally to use the phone while on duty. He knew Tippit to talk to from other experience, having been ticketed many times for drag racing near Austin's Barbecue. He also knew Tippit from seeing him at Austin's Barbecue."

1:05 PM Presidential Naval aide Capt. Tazewell Shepard tells RFK that his brother is dead.

Bricklayer William Lawrence Smith leaves his Dallas construction job for lunch at the Town and Country Cafe - two doors west of the 10th Street Barber Shop. While walking east to the cafe a man, who he later identifies as LHO, walks past him heading west-toward 10th & Patton. A minute later, Oswald is seen by Jimmy Burt and William. A. Smith walking west. The suspect is now in a position to see J. D. Tippit's patrol car moving toward him. Some eyewitnesses claim that the gunman reverses his direction, so that he is now heading east - with his back to Tippit's approaching squad car.

Assistant District Attorney Bill Alexander, who will talk to residents along LHO's suspected route to the corner of Tenth & Patton, thinks it unlikely that LHO could have gotten to the scene on foot without being spotted. Alexander says: "There are enough old people that live in that neighborhood, that are at home, that in order to make that distance on foot, he would have to have double-timed a big part of the way, thus drawing attention to himself. Somebody would have seen him. Negative. I don't know how he got there and nobody else does either." (With Malice)

In 1978, author and researcher Anthony Summers retraces the route LHO took to the scene of the Tippit murder with William Alexander, who in 1963 was assistant district attorney in Dallas. Alexander says: "One of the questions that I would like to have answered is why Oswald was where he was when he shot Tippit ... Along with the police, we measured the route, all the conceivable routes he could have taken to that place; we interrogated bus drivers, we checked the cab-company records, but we still do not know how he got to where he was, or why he was where he was. I feel like if we could ever find out why he was there, then maybe some of the other mysteries would be solved. Was he supposed to meet someone? Was he trying to make a getaway? Did he miss a connection? Was there a connection? If you look at Oswald's behavior, he made very few nonpurposeful motions, very seldom did he do anything that did not serve a purpose to him. People who've studied his behavior feel there was a purpose in his being where he was. I, for one, would like to know what that was." (Not in Your Lifetime)

1:05 PM On Interstate 45, a few miles south of Dallas, highway patrolmen stopped a black car for speeding; witnesses to the incident say it contained three men in suits, one of whom identified himself to an officer as a Secret Service agent. This man reportedly said, "We're in a hurry to get to New Orleans to investigate part of the shooting." (Conspiracy of Silence 96) There is no record of Secret Service personnel being dispatched to New Orleans on the day of the assassination.

1:05 PM-1:12 PM Sgt. Gerald Hill is photographed leaning out a sixth floor window of the TSBD and pointing to the sniper's nest window. The Hertz sign on the roof says 1:05 according to Trask.

Homicide Detective Richard Sims thought the shells were found around 1:15pm. Inspector Sawyer called in a radio dispatch about them at 1:11pm. 1:12 PM The three empty bullet cases are found by police on the sixth floor by Luke Mooney (WR 79).
(WC testimony) Mr. FRITZ. I told them not to move the cartridges, not to touch anything until we could get the crime lab to take pictures of them just as they were lying there and I left an officer assigned there to see that that was done, and the crime lab came almost immediately, and took pictures, and dusted the shells for prints.

The Texas Theater begins showing newsreels and cartoons prior to the main feature, "War Is Hell." Concession attendant Butch Burroughs will tell British film producer Nigel Turner, "Oswald slipped into the theater between 1:00 and 1:07 PM." Butch Burroughs, an employee of the Texas Theater, hears someone enter the Texas Theater shortly after 1:00 PM and go to the balcony. About 1:15 PM LHO comes down from the balcony and buys popcorn from Burroughs. Burroughs watches him walk down the aisle and take a seat on the main floor. He sits next to Jack Davis during the opening credits of the first movie, several minutes before 1:20 PM. LHO then moves across the aisle and sits next to another man. A few minutes later Davis notices he moves again and sits next to a pregnant woman. Just before the police arrive, the pregnant woman goes to the balcony and is never seen again. In addition to Oswald there are seven people watching the movie on the main level (six after the pregnant woman left). Within 10 minutes, LHO will sit next to half of them. Note that at this time, J.D. Tippit has not yet been shot.

1:06 PM J.D. Tippit pulls out of the Gloco service station and heads south on Lancaster at a "high rate of speed." (With Malice)

Helen Markham leaves the washateria of her apartment house near the corner of 9th & Patton. While walking south on Patton she notices a police car driving slowly east on 10th Street. One half block in front of Markham, on the opposite side of Patton, cab driver William Scoggins is eating lunch in his cab. Scoggins notices a man walking west as J. D. Tippit's patrol car passes slowly in front of him. Jack Tatum, sitting in his red 1964 Ford Galaxie a block east, notices the same man turn and walk toward the police car. Tatum turns left onto 10th street and drives slowly west past Tippit's car.

1:07-1:10PM The best evidence from various witnesses is that the Tippit murder actually occurred during this time.

1:08 PM Tippit made two efforts to contact headquarters (H 17 406). Yet the Dallas transcript shows that the dispatcher did not answer him. The FBI's transcript changed these two entries to say that they came from officers 58 and 488, both unknown (Tippit was call #78.)(H 17 401,406; H 23 855,844,849,858; H 4 179).
William Drenas: "There have been many references in print to 2 calls that were made at 1:08 on the Dallas Police Radio. The original source of this information is the March 23, 1964 transcript of the channel 1 radio log, Commission Exhibit 705 page 17 in Vol. 17 page 406 of the Warren Commission Hearings. The transcript states that #78 (Tippit) called the dispatcher once just before 1:08 and then seconds later at exactly 1:08, but the dispatcher did not answer. Most researchers that have studied the many versions of the radio logs agree that Arch Kimbrough's Critics Copy is an excellent reference tool. Assassination researcher Russ Shearer has published a user-friendly copy of Arch's original work. The two radio calls in question at 1:08 do not appear in Arch's transcript. Upon discovering this discrepancy I started doing a great deal of work with my audio copy of the Dallas Police Tapes. I used noise filters to "clean up" the overall sound quality and used a 31 band graphic equalizer to make the voices on the tape clearer and more pronounced. After much study I concluded that the transmission was not made by Tippit but instead was made by "388" a unit from the Criminal Investigation Division. "388" was having a conversation with the dispatcher at about this time. Transmission #390A on page 31 of the Arch Kimbrough's Channel 1 transcript is what I believe was mistaken as "78" since it is slightly garbled. By comparing the voice characteristics of the calls Tippit made earlier in the tape to the 1:08 call in question I concluded that the voices did not match. At this point I contacted a very well respected Dallas researcher who has a great deal of experience listening to these tapes and he is in agreement with me that the 1:08 transmission is "388" and not Tippit."

1:09 pm cars 100X and 679X leave Parkland Hospital for Love Field. Secret Service records show both vehicles were driven directly, without stops, to the C-130 Hercules for loading.

1:10 PM McNamara joins the JCS meeting (2:10pm EST).

1:10 PM (CST) 2:10 PM (EST) Hoover called RFK again, still mentioning that Kennedy was only wounded; RFK shot back, "You may be interested to know that my brother is dead." RFK rushes upstairs in his home and immediately tries to call Kenny O'Donnell in Dallas. Not locating O'Donnell at Parkland Hospital, RFK speaks instead to Secret Service Agent Clint Hill. Edwin Guthman is on his way to RFK's home. When Guthman arrives, RFK tells him: "I thought they would get me, instead of the president." Guthman distinctly remembers RFK saying "they." (Brothers) Documents released in 1997 show that RFK was scheduled today to meet secretly with Manuel Artime, Roberto San Roman, and Harry Williams. It is not known if this meeting had in fact occurred when the news of JFK 's death arrived. According to author William Turner in an interview with Williams, "on that day he was meeting with CIA safe house in northwest Washington with Richard Helms, Howard Hunt, and several other CIA agents. Williams stated "it was the most important meeting I ever had on the problem of Cuba" with plans for this invasion from the Dominican Republic crystallizing. (Russo, 289; Hinckle and Turner, 251; Memo For the Secretary of the Army/Attn: Jos. Califano, "Training of Cuban Refugees in Nicaragua," 12-11-63) We know from other sources that Bobby Kennedy, on the afternoon of November 22, was fearful of a Cuban involvement in the assassination. Jack Anderson, the recipient of much secret CIA information, suggests that this concern may have been planted in Bobby's head by CIA Director McCone. "When CIA chief John McCone learned of the assassination, he rushed to Robert Kennedy's home in McLean, Virginia, and stayed with him for three hours. No one else was admitted. Even Bobby's priest was turned away. McCone told me he gave the attorney general a routine briefing on CIA business and swore that Castro's name never came up....Sources would later tell me that McCone anguished with Bobby over the terrible possibility that the assassination plots sanctioned by the president's own brother may have backfired. Then the following day, McCone briefed President Lyndon Johnson and his National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy. Afterward McCone told subordinates -- who later filled me in -- what happened at that meeting. The grim McCone shared with Johnson and Bundy a dispatch from the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, strongly suggesting that Castro was behind the assassination." [ Jack Anderson, with Daryl Gibson, Peace, War, and Politics: An Eyewitness Account (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1999), 115-16.] Barely an hour after the news from Dallas breaks, RFK is called by Haynes Johnson of the Washington Evening Star, who is on leave from the paper to write a book on the Bay of Pigs invasion. Johnson is in Harry William's room at the Ebbitt Hotel in Washington, the CIA's lodging of choice for visiting operatives because it is so nondescript. Williams, who has just arrived from his penultimate meeting with CIA officials on "the problem of Cuba," is Johnson's prime source among the Bay of Pigs veterans. He is also RFK's best-and-brightest choice to lead a renewed effort to get rid of Castro. As Bobby well knows, the CIA agenda has included assassination. "One of your guys did it," RFK tells Johnson in a flat, unemotional voice.

1:10 PM Police Ban (Channel 2) -- Report that Secret Service are coming downtown. Request made for K9 squad to help search TSBD.

1:10 PM Richard Saunders thought Ruby left the Morning News building at this time.

Cortinas said Tippit sped away from the record shop but by the time Tippit gets near the corner of East 10th and Patton Ave. Tippit Murder witness Helen Markham testifies Tippit's police car was "driving real slow now, real slow." William Scoggins a cab driver that also witnessed the Tippit murder while he was parked in his cab eating lunch near the murder scene describes Tippit's Patrol car as cruising "Not more than 10 or 12 miles a hour." Why would Tippit drive in such an erratic way? First very fast, then very slow in the last few minutes of his life may never be explained. Professor Bill Pulte has a possible explanation for Tippit's erratic movements in the final minutes of his life. Bill explained to me that Tippit's movements are consistent with the actions of a man frantically looking for someone. Let us look at Tippit's movements:
* Sitting at the Gloco station watching the cars come over the Houston Street Viaduct.
* Leaves the Gloco station and "tears" down Lancaster Road at a fast rate of speed.
* Could have possibly been involved in a "fight" at 12th and Marsalis.
* Makes a hurried phone call at the Top Ten Record Shop, and does not get an answer.
* Stops James A. Andrews car by cutting in front of him, does not say a word but looks between the front and back seats, and then leaves the scene without saying a word.
* Moments later Tippit is seen at the corner of 10th and Patton by William Scoggins and Helen Markham and they both remark in their testimonies that Tippit's car is traveling very slowly.

1:11 PM KRLDEddie Barker at the Trade Mart reports the unconfirmed death of President Kennedy.

1:11 or 1:21 PM JEAN HILL INTERVIEW - WBAP-TV (FT. WORTH) Broadcast over NBC at 1:11 p.m. C.S.T.
Q. "What is your name ma'am?''
A. "Jean Hill.''
Q. "From Dallas?"
A. "That's right."
Q. "Did you hear the shooting, Miss?"
A. "Yes sir."
Q. "Could you describe what happened?"
A. "Yes Sir.''
Q. "Will you do that now?"
"Ah...They were driving along...ah...and we were the only people in this area, on our side and the shots came from directly across the street from us, and just as the president's car became directly even with us, we...we took one look at him and he was sitting there - he and Jackie were looking at a dog that was in the middle of the...seat, and about that time two shots rang out just as he looked up - just as the president looked up - and these two shots rang out, as he grabbed his chest, and... looked like he was in pain, and he fell over the seat, and Jackie fell over on him and said, 'My God he's been, shot!"
Q. "Ah..have.."
A. "...And after that more shots rang out and the car sped away."
Q. "What kind of car was that?"
A. "What kind of car was it? The president's car.'
Q. "Well, no...Where did the shots come from?"
A. "The shots came from the hill."
Q. "From the hill?"
A. "Yes..ah..It was just east of the underpass ... and we were on the south side."
Q. "Did you see..could you..did you look up there where the shots came from, ma'am?"
A. "Yes Sir.''
Q. "Could you see anyone?"
A. "I thought I saw this man running, but I looked at the president, you know, for a while, and I looked up there and I thought I saw a man running and so, right after that, I guess I didn't have any better sense, I started running up there too."

1:11-1:12 PM Inspector J. H. Sawyer, who is the first officer on the scene at Elm and Houston Streets to coordinate police activity, calls in to radio dispatch (Police Channel 2) from outside the TSBD: "On the third floor of this book company down here, we found empty rifle hulls and it looked like the man had been here for some time. We are checking it out now." (H 3 285, H 7 162) Fritz places Detectives Johnson and Montgomery in charge of that location. Deputy Sheriff Luke Mooney reportedly notices a pile of cartons in front of the window in the southeast corner of the sixth floor of the TSBD. This area will eventually become known as "the sniper's nest." Photograph CE 723 shows eight stacks of cartons, three or four to a stack, arranged in a crude semi-circle, concealing the window area from view. Almost a half hour has now elapsed between the report by three employees who were watching the motorcade from the fifth-floor windows that they heard shells being ejected overhead, and this moment when Mooney stumbles into the sniper's nest. Police have also heard witnesses who have reported - immediately following the shots - that they had seen a rifle or an object like a rifle, or a man, or a man with a rifle, in the sixth-floor window of the TSBD. Despite this, no police have rushed immediately to the sixth floor. The sniper's nest is only discovered by chance during a floor-by-floor search.

1:12 PM Police Ban (Channel 2) -- Rifle hulls found in TSBD on sixth floor. Obvious that "the man" had been there for some time. A drunk has been spotted wandering on the railroad tracks. Ordered to be taken to #9 at Elm & Houston. Someone questions whether we should hold all men presently on duty. The answer is "yes."

Weisberg: "The police were at least consistent. The boxes in the area, especially those allegedly stacked up by the assassin to serve as a gun rest (7H149), were treated with equal carelessness. They were moved before they were photographed. Some had been moved before the police identification people arrived. Yet these were the pictures used to re-enact and reconstruct the crime!" (Whitewash)

1:12 PM DPD Lt. John Carl Day and Det. Studebaker arrive at the TSBD. (CE3145 26H829) Day takes a photograph which appears to show only two empty cartridges and one round of live ammunition laying on the floor. H&L Tomorrow, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover will sign a report that is sent to DPD Chief Jesse Curry which will identify two cartridge casings and one live cartridge that have been turned over to SA Vince Drain. The cartridges will be tested for latent fingerprints with negative results. Five days from now Captain Fritz will produce a third empty shell that he allegedly found on the sixth floor. This will conveniently back up the "official" story of three shots. The question is why Capt. Fritz picked up an empty casing on the sixth floor and failed to follow police procedure by immediately turning it over to the identification bureau. Additionally, the third empty casing has the initials "GD" scratched on it when it was allegedly picked up by Captain Fritz. "GD" would have most probably represented Captain George Doughty. However, Captain Doughty will not remember handling the third empty cartridge.
Weisberg: "The story of the empty rifle shells is just as bad and does not require complete tracing. They were photographed in place. Detective Sims carefully picked them up and Day sought fingerprints. There were none. They were put into an unsealed envelope which Day signed and returned to Sims. Although Day had earlier informed the Commission he had marked all three shells at the scene, he admitted that was incorrect. At about 10 o'clock that night he had marked two of the shells. Although the third shell was missing, Day said, "I didn't examine it too close at that time." The third shell bears the identification of Captain George Doughty, Day's superior. Why the shells did not all bear Day's mark is unexplained. How Doughty's mark constitutes any kind of an identification at all is a mystery. There was much conflicting and contradictory testimony about these empty cases and a number of affidavits of further explanation were filed. There is this additional mystery: Day was asked by the examiner of one of these shells, "It appears to be flattened out here. Do you know or have you any independent recollection as to whether or not is was flattened out on the small end when you saw it?" Day's response was, "No, sir; I don't." What needs explaining is how a deformed shell fit into a precisely machined rifle breach (4H253-5)." (Whitewash)

At this point, there are no photographs or any mention that an ammunition clip has been found in or near the sniper's nest. Only when the Warren Report is issued in September 1964 will the public learn that "when the rifle was found in the Texas School Book Depository Building it contained a clip." This assertion is unsupported by direct evidence and testimony. No fingerprints will be found on the clip - which holds six shells. One additional shell can also be loaded in the chamber of the rifle. Three spent shells are found on the sixth floor of the TSBD. One live shell will be ejected from the rifle now. This indicates that the clip was not fully loaded at the time of the assassination - which means that LHO set out to murder the President with only four shells - his last and only shells at that. No other rifle ammunition is ever found. Marina Oswald will later initially testify on December 16, 1963, that "Oswald did not have any ammunition for the rifle to her knowledge in either Dallas or New Orleans, and he did not speak of buying ammunition." However, Marina's story will change when she is questioned by the Commission on February 3, 1964. At that time, she will remember seeing ammunition in a box "in New Orleans and on Neely Street."
John McAdams: "Yet a little research would have turned up plenty of evidence that the clip was found with the rifle. Numerous still photos of Lt. J.C. Day taking the rifle out of the Depository show the clip in the rifle. One of them, shot by William G. Allen of the Dallas Times Herald, is shown at right, above. And Day did indeed document the discovery of the clip. A report, dated 11/22/63 and signed by him, mentions one live round in the barrel, three spent hulls, and notes that "THE CLIP IS STAMPED SMI 952." This is the notation on the clip that resides to this day in the National Archives in College Park, Maryland."
The Warren Report will also eventually state that "when the rifle was found in the Texas School book Depository Building it contained a clip." No witness who gave testimony about the search of the TSBD or the discovery of the rifle mentions an ammunition clip, either in the rifle or elsewhere on the sixth floor -- assuming this was the floor the rifle was actually found on. FBI expert Latona will later specifically refer to the clip by stating that no prints were found on the ammunition clip. The W.C. will state that "there is no evidence that Oswald wore gloves or that he wiped prints off the rifle." The clip should have been ejected from the rifle, falling on the floor somewhere near the southeast corner window. If it was not ejected, it may have been defective or deformed in such a way that it remained stuck in the weapon -- and that in itself should have been the subject of comment by Frazier or other witnesses. No such comment was made. The fact is that the rifle had not been fully loaded at the time of the assassination but had held only four cartridges instead of seven. If an ammunition clip was used in firing the rifle found in the Book Depository,, it must have been empty, since the single, live round was ejected from the chamber and no other unexpended ammunition was found in the Book Depository,. The clip should therefore have been ejected, falling on the floor somewhere near the southeast corner window. If it was not ejected, it may have been defective or deformed in such a way that it remained stuck in the weapon -- and that in itself should have been the subject of comment by Frazier or other witnesses. No such comment was made. Such an assassin would have had to be certain that he would hit his victim or victims without missing, and that his escape was guaranteed, so that there would be no need to shoot his way out of the Book Depository. The Warren Commission scenario, based upon available evidence, indicates that the rifle had not been fully loaded at the time of the assassination but held only four cartridges instead of seven. Thus, it conjures up a picture of a rather implausible assassin, who set out to kill the President armed with only four bullets, his last and only ones.

After many searches of LHO's property and possessions by local officers and federal agents, no rifle-cleaning equipment is ever found. According to the Warren Commission, LHO made active and frequent use of the rifle, even burying it in the ground for a few days. The rifle is well oiled when it is found in the TSBD. (Meagher)

Regarding the empty cartridges, Deputy Sheriff Luke Mooney recalls: "... he [Captain Fritz] was the first officer that picked them up, as far as I know, because I stood there and watched him go over and pick them up and look at them. As far as I could tell, I couldn't even tell what caliber they were, because I didn't get down that close to them. "They were brass cartridges, brass shells." BT

The unfired cartridge represented as Item-6 of Exhibit CE-738 more closely resembles an L.B.C.936, 6.5x52mm MC Italian GI cartridge, than it does an American made WCC 6.5x52mm MC Cartridge. Virtually all American bullets are jacketed with Gilders Metal which is an alloy of copper and zinc, with a distinct brassy appearance. The color photos of the unfired cartridge shows a bullet that is distinctly silver in color consistent with the cupra-nickle alloy used by European bullet makers. The spent cases more closely resemble a 6.5x54 mm Mannlicher-Schoenauer (MS) Cartridge then they do a 6.5x52mm MC cartridge. The distinction made in the above conclusion, if it holds up, is an important one as the Austrian designed MS rifle is prized for its smooth action, magazine efficiency, chambering characteristics and accuracy as opposed to the dismal performance of the MC rifle.

An evidence envelope, containing photographs, is signed by FBI special agent J. Doyle Williams today. The photographs in this envelope consist of eight prints, all showing only two empty cartridges and one round of live ammunition. Gary Shaw, in his book Cover-Up, also reveals a document showing that only two spent 6.5mm rounds were recorded in the original evidence sheet.

At least three Warren Commission photographs of the sixth floor "sniper's nest" -- Commission Exhibits 509, 724, and 733 -- show three different versions of the boxes stacked near the sixth-floor window. Sylvia Meagher notes that "it seems inconceivable that Oswald could have lifted and positioned those 24 cartons or more without leaving his prints. Yet neither the Report nor the Hearings and Exhibits suggest that any inquiry was made about the number and identification of prints on those cartons - an incomprehensible omission to which Leo Sauvage first called attention in a magazine article."

Luke Mooney, who stumbles on the "sniper's nest" first and might have been expected to see the long paper bag in his inventory of the scene, does not see it. The bag is not photographed in place. R. L. Studebaker says that he sees the bag in the southwest corner of the building - folded. He thinks he sees some sort of finger print on the bag and puts a piece of one-inch tape over it. (There is NO tape on the bag when it arrives in Washington and is examined by FBI fingerprint expert Sebastian Latona. He will testify that when he receives the bag, there is "nothing visible in the way of any latent prints"; or, needless to say, of the tape placed on the bag by Studebaker.) The bag is supposedly first picked up from the floor of the TSBD by L.D. Montgomery - yet his fingerprints are not found on the bag when it is delivered to Washington. Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig remembers a small paper lunch bag but not the long paper bag. Sergeant Gerald Hill remembers a lunch bag but says, "that was the only sack I saw... . If it [the long paper bag] was found up there on the sixth floor, if it was there, I didn't see it." J. B. Hicks of the police crime laboratory testifies that he does not see a long paper sack among the items taken from the Book Depository. Further, there are reportedly no oil stains on the bag - which is supposed to have contained a well oiled rifle. (Meagher)

The cast of The Andy Griffith Show has gathered around a table to read a script for an upcoming episode. The Assistant Director suddenly bursts in and gives everyone the news of the assassination. Andy Griffith softly says: "Those damn Southerners."

Atlanta, Georga - Dr. Martin Luther King has been watching television in his upstairs bedroom. Upon hearing the news of JFK's death, he tells his wife, Coretta Scott King: "That's what's going to happen to me. This is such a sick society."

From Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, ABC correspondent Larry Newman reports that state and local police have sealed off the area of Hyannis Port where the Kennedys live. No one is permitted to approach the area.

Police will find a set of fingerprints on Tippit's car, but they are not Oswald's. Officer Paul Bentley gives conflicting stories on the fingerprints, but tells George O'Toole that "we do know that his [Oswald's] fingerprints were taken off the passenger side of Tippit's car." Yet Sergeant W.E. Barnes (who dusted Tippit's car for prints) told the Warren Commission, "There were several smear prints. None of value ... No legible prints were found." When Tippit's cruiser is found, a police shirt is also found on the rear seat, and it does not belong to Tippit. (When LHO is eventually arrested at The Texas Theater, he will be wearing a rust brown salt-and-pepper shirt. Tippit witnesses describe Tippit's killer as wearing a white shirt underneath a tannish gray jacket, both of which are lighter in color than the rust brown shirt.)

T. F. Bowley is driving his daughter west on Tenth Street. He sees a group of by-standers gathered around a fallen policeman. As Bowley gets out of his car to lend assistance, he looks at his watch and notes the time is 1:10 PM. Aquilla Clemons, another eyewitness, sees two men at the scene. At the home of Mr. and Mrs. Smothers at 327 E. Tenth Street, Clemons hears the shots and goes outside. She looks down the street and sees two men standing on opposite sides of the street. The man nearest to a police car is short and heavy and he has a gun in his hand. The other man is tall and slender and is wearing a white shirt and light khaki pants. The heavy-set man is waving his gun with a sweeping gesture, urging the slender man to "go on." The two men separate, leaving the scene in opposite directions. Before the gunman disappears from view, Clemmons sees him either unloading or reloading his gun - an action which is consistent with the observations of other witnesses. The Fourth Decade/Nov. 1996

When news comes over the police radio that a police officer has been shot, Deputy Roger Craig, searching the sixth floor of the TSBD, looks at his watch and notes that the time is 1:06 PM.

Wes Wise, a reporter with KRLD-TV in Dallas (and later mayor of Dallas) says he receives information that a car near the scene of the Tippit shooting was traced to Carl Mather, a close friend of Tippit's. Tippit has also worked part-time at Austin's Barbecue. The owner, Austin Cook, is a member of the John Birch Society. CARL MATHER is now an employee of Collins Radio, an international firm based in Dallas, which specializes in the field of telecommunications. He has been here for twenty-one years. Prior to this job, he worked in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Co. In 1956, at the age of twenty-nine, he moved to Dallas, where he got his job with Collins Radio. He has been given a security clearance to work on secret projects. One of his assignments has taken him to Andrews Air Force Base in Brandywine, Maryland, where he has done electronic work on Air Force 2, which at this time is being used by Vice President Lyndon Johnson. In 1963, Collins Radio leases a boat which ostensibly is being used for electronic and oceanographic research, but is actually being used to transport illegal shipments of firearms to anti-Castro rebels. The Fourth Decade/Nov. 1996

Jack Ruby leaves the Dallas Morning News building.

Today, Dallas police receive reports of a man seen with a rifle near Cobb Stadium, located on the Stemmons Freeway route from downtown to the Trade Mart. Nothing comes of this report. Some researchers have put forth the theory that a second squad of shooters are at Cobb Stadium and are to fire at the president's limo if given orders to do so because the Dealey Plaza shooters conclude that the President is still alive after the shots in the Plaza.

1:13 PM Johnson is informed of Kennedy's death by Emory Roberts. (WC) In Parkland Hospital, Agent Roberts tells LBJ that JFK is dead. Johnson immediately looks at his watch and then turns to his wife and tells her to "make a note of the time."

1:13 PM Caroline Kennedy returns to the White House.

1:14 In his book, WITH MALICE, Dale K. Myers places the time of Tippit's murder at 1:14:30 P.M.

1:15 PM Ted Callaway spots the gunman who shot J.D. Tippit as he jumps through the hedges, cuts across the street, and runs toward him on Patton. WM After the shooting, the gunman reportedly goes south on Patton Street and turns west on Jefferson. Two used car lot workers named Warren Reynolds and B. M. Patterson see Tippit's assassin and start to chase him. The gunman realizes that he is being followed and dashes behind a Texaco gas station, hiding among the cars of a parking lot. Such a vulnerable hiding place could only have been the result of a desperate decision, but he really has no choice. If he tries to make a run across Crawford Street, he will be visible to his pursuers as he traverses the wide open ground of a drug store parking lot. The parking lot behind the gas station is quickly becoming an inescapable trap, as police come swarming into the area. The capture of the gunman is becoming a foregone conclusion. Yet a false alarm at a library saves him by diverting all the police to a location three blocks away. The Fourth Decade/Nov. 1996

1:15 PM (approx) Bill Newman is interviewed again by Jay Watson on WFAA-TV, recounted how he saw the President hit in the side of the head. He heard only 2 shots. Gayle Newman is interviewed again: "Kennedy reached up and grabbed his ear and blood just started gushing out…"

1:15 PM Photographer Jim Murray walks back down Houston to Elm and takes a photo. On the wall is graffiti reading, "If you want to live longer stay off the highways." (Trask)

1:15 PM LHO supposedly comes down from the balcony of the Texas Theatre and buys a box of popcorn from Butch Burroughs, walks into the main floor and sits next to a pregnant woman. This information is supplied by Burroughs. He says that Johnny Brewer arrives approximately 20 minutes after he sees LHO sit next to the pregnant woman. Within a few minutes the pregnant woman gets up from her seat, goes to the ladies' restroom in the balcony, and is never seen again. LHO then gets up from his seat, walks through the concession area, and reenters the theater by walking down the right aisle. (Armstrong)

"The suspect was the only employee of the school book building who was missing at a 1:15 checkup. It was at this point that Oswald was named in a police radio lookout." (Wash Post 12/1/1963)

1:15 PM (approx) Ira "Jack" Beers, local Morning News photographer, arrived at the TSBD around this time. (H 13 104-05) He took a photo of an older white-haired man in a disheveled suit being escorted by police.

1:15 PM (2:15PM EST) Joint Chiefs broadcast an alert to all US world commands.

1:15 PM Dallas Times HeraldThe newspaper releases a two-star edition.

1:16 PM Tippit is murdered around this time, according to the WC. Officer J. D. Tippit has now supposedly spotted a man walking east along Tenth Street who seems to fit the description of the suspected assailant in Dealey Plaza. Tippit then reportedly stops, and calls the man over to his car. The man walks over to the car, leans down, and speaks to Tippit through the window on the passenger's side. There is no indication that Tippit is at all concerned about the possibility of danger. Then, according to the Warren Commission report, Tippit gets out and starts to walk around the front of the car. The man Tippit has been talking to draws a pistol and fires from the hip, hitting Tippit in the chest. Earlier this morning, Tippit hugged his oldest son Allen and said, "no matter what happens today, I want you to know that I love you." This is the last time young Allen Tippit sees his father alive. In 2004, Tippit's widow will say: ""I was privileged to have been married to J.D. for 17 years. He was a good husband and a good father. And I knew I was loved. You know, that is the most important thing in your life. To be loved. And to be able to express that love to others. And that's what J.D. was for me." In the book, WITH MALICE, it is noted that Top Ten Record shop owner J.W. Stark and clerk Louis Cortinas claim Tippit comes into the store on west Jefferson and makes a phone call. Getting no answer, Tippit leaves heading north to Sunset, then east. The time given for Tippit's visit to top Ten Record shop is 1:11:00 PM.
This location was nine-tenths of a mile from Oswald's roominghouse. "From Oswald's rooming house, where he had stopped to pick up his gun, the nearest boarding point for use of the transfer was at Jefferson and Marsalis, and he had almost arrived there when he was stopped by Tippit." (Belin, Final Disclosure 214) Oswald could only have made it to the Tippit murder scene if he had run, and interviews with dozens of housewives in the area revealed that none of them saw a young man running at that time. No witness ever came forward saying they saw Oswald walking from his house to the murder scene. The WC determined that he had to have travelled the distance from his rooming-house to the murder scene in about 11 to 12 minutes. David Belin walked the distance and it took him 17:45. (H 6 434) One press account from that day read, "Investigators said....'We have a report the fellow who did the shooting of the policeman had a rifle in a car with him.'" (Dallas Times Herald 11/22/1963)
The Warren Commission and HSCA will ignore Markham's time of the shooting (1:06 PM), will not interview Bowley (1:10 PM), will not ask Roger Craig (1:06 PM) and will not use the time shown on original Dallas police logs. Instead, the Warren Commission (1964) will conclude that Oswald walks that distance in 13 minutes. The House Select Committee on Assassinations (1978) will determine the time was 14 minutes, 30 seconds. Both will conclude that Oswald was last seen at the corner of Beckley and Zang at 1:03 PM. Either of their times, 13 minutes or 14 minutes and 30 seconds, would place Oswald at 10th & Patton at 1:16 PM or later. The time of the Tippit shooting as placed by the Commission, 1:16 PM, contradicts the testimony of Markham, Bowley, Craig and the Dallas Police log. The Dallas Police record that the defendant was walking "west in the 400 block of East 10th." The Commission will ignore the evidence - 5 witnesses and the official Dallas Police report of the event - and will state that he was walking east, away from the Texas Theatre.

1:16 PM In the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, T. F. Bowley runs up to police car #10, grabs the microphone from Benavides and radios the dispatcher that an officer (Tippit) has been shot. "We've had a shooting here ... it's a police officer, somebody shot him!" This is the first report of the murder of Officer J.D. Tippit.

1:18 PM AP puts out an unconfirmed report that LBJ has been "wounded slightly." KRLDBarker reveals that a doctor from Parkland Memorial Hospital is his source for the unconfirmed announcement of the president's death.

1:18 PM 2:18 (EST) Speaker of the House John McCormack believes he may be President. (Manchester)

1:19 PM CBSDan Rather calls radio officials to discuss the announcement for television. In response to the conversation, radio personnel begin to play the "Star Spangled Banner." CBSCronkite relays KRLD's unconfirmed report of the president's death. Brinkley on camera in "controlled panic." (Manchester)

1:20 PM Police Ban (Channel 2) -- Need extra officers at Parkland Hospital

As the killer leaves the Tippit murder scene, he discards his light jacket on the street a few blocks away. A patrolman later examines the jacket and radios his colleagues: "The jacket the suspect was wearing ... bears a laundry tag with the letter B 9738. See if there is any way you can check this laundry tag." Eventually, every laundry and dry-cleaning establishment in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is checked -- 424 of them in all -- with no success. Knowing that Oswald has lived in New Orleans, the FBI checks 293 establishments in that area with similarly negative results. Further, the FBI's eventual examination of all of Oswald's clothing shows not a single laundry or dry-cleaning mark. The FBI will also learn that while the jacket is size medium, all of Oswald's other clothing is size small.

An ambulance is dispatched from Dudley Hughes Funeral Home (allegedly at 1:18 PM) and arrives at the Tippit murder scene within a minute. Tippit's body is quickly loaded into the ambulance by Clayton Butler, Eddie Kinsley (both Dudley Hughes employees) and Mr. Bowley. Tippit's body is en route to the Hospital by the time the Police arrive. Dallas Police Officer Westbrook is eventually given a brown wallet supposedly taken from where Tippit had fallen. He shows the wallet to FBI Agent Barrett. The wallet contains identification, including a driver's license, for Lee Harvey Oswald. It seems unbelievable that anyone would leave a wallet, containing identification, next to a policeman he has just shot. But Barrett insists Oswald's wallet was found at the Tippit murder scene. Supposedly, LHO does not drive - and yet a driver's license is also reported found in this wallet.

FBI agent Robert M. Barrett went to the scene of the Tippit murder and arrived after the body was taken away. Barrett insists that officer Westbrook picked up Oswald's leather wallet from the ground; it contained ID for both Lee Oswald and Alek J. Hidell. James Hosty (in Assignment Oswald) believes that Westbrook gave the wallet to another office at the Texas Theater, and they assumed it came off of Oswald there.

A Texas driver's license belonging to Lee Oswald will turn up at the Department of Public Safety the following week. Aletha Frair, and 6 employees of the DPS will see and handle Oswald's driver's license. It is dirty and worn as though it has been carried in a billfold. Mrs. Lee Bozarth (employee of DPS) states that she knows from direct personal experience there was a Texas driver's license file for Lee Harvey Oswald. The DPS file is pulled shortly after the assassination.

The second police car to arrive at the scene where Tippit was murdered is driven by Officer Gerald Hill. Riding with Hill is William Alexander. (Officer Hill testifies that he is given custody of the .38 revolver supposedly found on Oswald when he is arrested a few moments later.)

1:20 PM Ambulance, containing body of J.D. Tippit, leaves for Methodist Hospital. (With Malice)

Officer JD Tippit's sister, Christine Christopher, calls Tippit's wife, Marie, and asks, "Have you heard from J.D.? Do you know if he's all right?" "Why?" his wife asks, her startled tone followed by Ms. Christopher's admission that she has heard a news report about an Officer Tippit being shot in Oak Cliff, possibly by the same man who murdered the president. "So I called the station," says Marie. "There was so much confusion going on. But they told me he was dead. I just freaked out. I couldn't believe this was happening. Here the president and now my husband! You've got to be wrong!' It was total devastation."

NBC co-anchor Bill Ryan indicates that a neatly dressed young man has been taken into custody.

1:20 PM After Presidential aide Kenneth O'Donnell informs LBJ that JFK is dead, he advises LBJ to return to Washington ASAP.

1:21 PM Police Ban (Channel 2) -- Get me 20 more uniformed officers to Parkland entrance immediately. This is a precautionary move.

The second officer, H.W. Summers, arrives at the shooting scene of J.D. Tippit. (Myers)

1:22 PM The third officer, Roy W. Walker, arrives at the J. D. Tippit shooting scene. (Myers) Officer Walker radioed in: "We have a description on this suspect over here on Jefferson. Last seen about the 300 East Jefferson. He's a white male, about thirty, five feet eight inches, black hair, slender, wearing a white jacket and dark slacks." The dispatcher asked, "Armed with what?" He replied, "Unknown."

1:22 PM The suspected assassination rifle, a Mannlicher-Carcano, is found on the sixth floor of the TSBD, according to the Warren Commission. (H 3 294). The WC says that the weapon was found by Deputy Sheriff Eugene L. Boone on the sixth floor by the staircase. After Boone found the rifle, Captain Fritz, Deputy Roger Craig, and Deputy Sheriff Weitzman also examined the rifle.
Mr. FRITZ. A few minutes later some officer called me and said they had found the rifle over near the back stairway and I told them same thing, not to move it, not to touch it, not to move any of the boxes until we could get pictures, and as soon as Lieutenant Day could get over there he made pictures of that.
Mr. BALL. After the pictures had been taken of the rifle what happened then?
Mr. FRITZ. After the pictures had been made then I ejected a live shell, a live cartridge from the rifle.
Mr. BALL. And who did you give that to?
Mr. FRITZ. I believe that I kept that at that time myself. Later I gave it to the crime lab who, in turn, turned it over to the FBI.
Mr. BALL. Was there any conversation you heard that this rifle was a Mauser?
Mr. FRITZ. I heard all kinds of reports about that rifle. They called it most everything.
Mr. BALL. Did you hear any conversation right there that day?
Mr. FRITZ. Right at that time?
Mr. BALL. Yes
Mr. FRITZ. I just wouldn't be sure because there were so many people talking at the same time, I might have; I am not sure whether I did or not.
Mr. BALL. Did you think it was a Mauser?
Mr. FRITZ. No, sir; I knew--you can read on the rifle what it was and you could also see on the cartridge what caliber it was.

Weisberg: "After the rifle was photographed, Day held it by the stock. He assumed the stock would show no prints. Then Captain Fritz, perhaps because of the presence of newsmen, grasped the bolt and ejected a live cartridge. Day had found no fingerprints on the bolt. If there was any need for this operation, it was never indicated. There was no print on either the clip or the live bullet." (Whitewash)

The rifle found is initially described as a 7.6