The welter of witnesses

[Milo Reech]

Relative to his part in the chase Scoggins never identified his passenger, despite being a habitue of the dominoes club across the street from Dootch Motors. Not much of a surprise since he described the vigilante with Tippit's gun as a young man who looked like a cop. He also gave an entirely different account of the route to the Secret Service, while fudging this to everyone else.

DPD (11/23/63) -- This man got into the cab with me and we circled around several blocks but did not see this man who shot the officer.

SS (12/2/63) -- We proceeded north on Patton and possibly turned west on 10th. We cruised an area north of 10th street looking for the man I had seen, but we did not see him. When we left the intersection of 10th and Patton we did not go to Patton and Jefferson, but went in a northerly direction which would be opposite from the intersection of Patton and Jefferson streets.

FBI (3/17/64) -- They drove around the neighborhood for four or five minutes looking for OSWALD.

WC (3/26/64) --
Mr. Belin.
    What did you see him do? This man came up and picked up the policeman's gun. He picked it up and said, "Let's go see if we can find him?"
Mr. Scoggins.
    I thought the man was a kind of police, Secret Service or something, I didn't know, and I take him and we drove around over the neighborhood looking, and I still didn't know what kind--I still thought he was connected with the Police department in some way.
Mr. Belin.
    What route did you take as you drove over the neighborhood?
Mr. Scoggins.
    I couldn't tell you.
Mr. Belin.
    You can't tell us the route you took over the neighborhood?
Mr. Scoggins.
    I was doing the driving and he was doing the directing.
Mr. Belin.
    He directed you where to go?
Mr. Scoggins.
    Actually, I couldn't say where he was going.

The DPD version is typically laconic. The FBI report is an elaboration & reworking of an earlier FBI report that does not mention the chase episode. WC's give & take between Scoggins & Belin is close to hilarious, the former muffing his lines despite the latter's repeated prompting.

The chase, featuring a pair of clowns who did not learn each other's name and went separate ways in the same vehicle, was scripted by someone who had seen It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, released earlier that month.