13-02-2017, 08:07 PM
The official script writers faced a two-fold problem relative to Tippit's murder. On one hand they had to set back the start time and compress the interim. On the other they had to restrict the cast to a pliable subset of neighborhood characters. The former required a distorted bus schedule, transcript mutilation, slow watches & human motion in space out of time; the latter isolation chambers for players who fail the test of coincidence, invisible to others despite being thrust upon the same stage at the same time.
Obvious example -- pseudo-eyewitness Benavides, seen by no one at the time the shots were fired, chosen in large part because Bowley was rejected and someone had to make the radio call, and his bright yellow pick-up was due on site soon enough. For WC purposes he was a competent radio operator, a skill lost by the time HSCA went about its business of modifying the WR script concerning Tippit's murder while attempting to prop up its invalid hypothesis by overlaying defective participants with improved models.
Callaway operated in another isolation chamber inside Scoggins' cab -- unrecognized by both Scoggins & Russell, an identification easily ascertained by a quick visit to Dootch Motors, directly across Patton from Scoggins' domino club and directly across Jefferson from Russell's POE.
Plotting was further complicated by investigative multiplicity and inevitable intrusion of personna non grata into the official playlist, which brings us to Frank Cimino of 405 East 10th Street. He was something of an accidental witness, evidenced only by a statement given to the FBI, spurned by DPD, SS, WC & HSCA, who had good reason to act as if he did not exist.
The DPD shunned the odd-numbered side of East 10th Street, with the sole exception of reserve Sergeant Croy whose sense of suspicion was aroused by a woman who may have been watering a yard at a northside residence. His keen mind at once entertained the possibility that she might have lived there, a problem he could have solved if not for the failure of discerning the precise nature of her activity. [WC XII p.203]
Cimino resided directly across the street from the Tippit murder, heard the shots, heard the screams, donned his shoes and rushed outside to encounter Markham --
First to encounter Markham post-shooting, Cimino otherwise saw nobody. However, here we have an example of temporal compression. Despite the sense of immediacy conveyed by the terse wording of the report, his emergence from the house was not instantaneous. An interval of several minutes elapsed between hearing the shots and arriving at the body during which Markham traveled from the NW corner of Patton & 10th to the front of his residence, with attendant delays. She did not move from the corner until the gunman had already turned onto Patton. This event unfolded in stages, as Mrs. M painstakingly repeated for Congressman Ford, enumerated:
At this point the shoes went on and Cimino went out to a scene of death & near solitude. He heard Markham, examined the corpse, observed the holster & gun, and "about this time people came from all directions." Among them Bowley, who looked at his watch and noted the time, 1:10, about to take over the radio from a nondescript individual in the squad car "who stated he didn't know how to operate it." [DPD affidavit 12/2/63] In fourteen years this man will acquire Mexican features, the HSCA feigning identification instead of taking the trouble to establish it. [HSCA interview 11/12/77]
Cimino missed what next door neighbor Doris Holan saw during the interval between shots & screams --
The second police car is not mentioned in Cimino's report. Tippit's car #10 may have blocked his view of the alley [CE 522], or it was deliberately omitted. Holan said nothing about either Benavides or his truck. She did not see him because he was not there. If his truck had been parked in the WR position [CE 1968] it would have blocked her view of Tippit. DPD photo 91-001/016 shows the sight line from the south side of 10th street.
Unknown what Holan did next, but she may have receded back into the northside landscape, picked up a hose and watered the grass, thereby boggling Croy.
Obvious example -- pseudo-eyewitness Benavides, seen by no one at the time the shots were fired, chosen in large part because Bowley was rejected and someone had to make the radio call, and his bright yellow pick-up was due on site soon enough. For WC purposes he was a competent radio operator, a skill lost by the time HSCA went about its business of modifying the WR script concerning Tippit's murder while attempting to prop up its invalid hypothesis by overlaying defective participants with improved models.
Callaway operated in another isolation chamber inside Scoggins' cab -- unrecognized by both Scoggins & Russell, an identification easily ascertained by a quick visit to Dootch Motors, directly across Patton from Scoggins' domino club and directly across Jefferson from Russell's POE.
Plotting was further complicated by investigative multiplicity and inevitable intrusion of personna non grata into the official playlist, which brings us to Frank Cimino of 405 East 10th Street. He was something of an accidental witness, evidenced only by a statement given to the FBI, spurned by DPD, SS, WC & HSCA, who had good reason to act as if he did not exist.
The DPD shunned the odd-numbered side of East 10th Street, with the sole exception of reserve Sergeant Croy whose sense of suspicion was aroused by a woman who may have been watering a yard at a northside residence. His keen mind at once entertained the possibility that she might have lived there, a problem he could have solved if not for the failure of discerning the precise nature of her activity. [WC XII p.203]
Cimino resided directly across the street from the Tippit murder, heard the shots, heard the screams, donned his shoes and rushed outside to encounter Markham --
...dressed like a waitress ... out in front of his residence shouting, "Call the police." She also advised a man had just shot a police officer and stated he had run west on Tenth Street and pointed in the direction of an alley which runs between Tenth Street and Jefferson off Patton Street. [DL 89-43]
First to encounter Markham post-shooting, Cimino otherwise saw nobody. However, here we have an example of temporal compression. Despite the sense of immediacy conveyed by the terse wording of the report, his emergence from the house was not instantaneous. An interval of several minutes elapsed between hearing the shots and arriving at the body during which Markham traveled from the NW corner of Patton & 10th to the front of his residence, with attendant delays. She did not move from the corner until the gunman had already turned onto Patton. This event unfolded in stages, as Mrs. M painstakingly repeated for Congressman Ford, enumerated:
1. After he shot the policeman he turned around, came back around toward Patton Street. He wasn't he didn't seem to be in a no hurry.
2. he was fooling with his gun in his hands, and he seen me, and he stops.
3. I put my hands over my face and closed my eyes, because I knew he was going to kill me. I couldn't scream, I couldn't holler. I froze.
4. after I put my hands up, and when I had opened my fingers and my eyes and slowly pulled them down, he was trotting off.
5. He ran back, turned and came back down 10th to Patton Street. He cut across Patton Street like this.... Then he was still in sight when I began to scream and holler and run to this police car, well, to Mr. Tippit.
[WC III p.321]
At this point the shoes went on and Cimino went out to a scene of death & near solitude. He heard Markham, examined the corpse, observed the holster & gun, and "about this time people came from all directions." Among them Bowley, who looked at his watch and noted the time, 1:10, about to take over the radio from a nondescript individual in the squad car "who stated he didn't know how to operate it." [DPD affidavit 12/2/63] In fourteen years this man will acquire Mexican features, the HSCA feigning identification instead of taking the trouble to establish it. [HSCA interview 11/12/77]
Cimino missed what next door neighbor Doris Holan saw during the interval between shots & screams --
Mrs Holan also noticed something else that had not previously, ever been reported. A second police car in the driveway, which went all the way back to the alley, moving forward slowly towards Tippit's car on Tenth. Near the police car she also saw a man in the driveway walking toward the street where Tippit was parked.
She went downstairs at once and over to Tippit. The man in the driveway continued to the street, walked in front of Tippit's patrol car, paused and looked down at Tippit's head, and retraced his path up the driveway. At the same time, the police car changed direction and backed up in the driveway to the alley running parallel to Tenth, behind the houses on 404 and 410.
[Brownlow interview]
The second police car is not mentioned in Cimino's report. Tippit's car #10 may have blocked his view of the alley [CE 522], or it was deliberately omitted. Holan said nothing about either Benavides or his truck. She did not see him because he was not there. If his truck had been parked in the WR position [CE 1968] it would have blocked her view of Tippit. DPD photo 91-001/016 shows the sight line from the south side of 10th street.
Unknown what Holan did next, but she may have receded back into the northside landscape, picked up a hose and watered the grass, thereby boggling Croy.