NOVEMBER 22, 1963

By John Armstrong


In the early morning hours of November 22, some 12 hours before the assassination, Mary Lawrence was working at the B & B Restaurant, just two doors from Jack Ruby's Vegas Club. She was the head waitress and had known Jack Ruby for the past eight years. She and the night cashier saw Jack Ruby and a person identical to Lee Harvey Oswald in the restaurant shortly after midnight on November 22. Following the assassination, she reported this to the Dallas Police and received a phone call on December 3 from an unknown male who stated, she said, "If you don't want to die, you better get out of town." When subsequently questioned by the Dallas Police, Mary Lawrence stated that the man with Ruby was "positively Lee Harvey Oswald." Neither Mary Lawrence nor her friend were interviewed by the Warren Commission. Adding some credibility to Mary Lawrence's report is the fact that few people in America knew back then what we know today--that Jack Ruby and (LEE) Harvey Oswald were seen together by many witnesses, in different locations, prior to the assassination, who gave statements to that effect to Dallas and D.C. authorities.

See Dallas Police Department report of Mary Lawrence's observations.

The Warren Commission's version of Oswald's actions on November 22, 1963, is familiar to many. What follows are the actual activities and whereabouts of LEE Oswald and HARVEY Oswald on that infamous day.

Russian-speaking HARVEY Oswald didn't drive and didn't have a driver's license. Around 7:15 AM, he walked the short distance to Wesley Frazier's house in Irving, TX. As he approached the house Linnie Mae Randle saw him and told the FBI that he was wearing a grey colored jacket. Randle's brother, Wesley Frazier, also told the FBI that Oswald was wearing a grey colored jacket. HARVEY Oswald rode with Frazier to the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) in Dallas, where both men were employed.


While HARVEY was riding in Frazier's car, American-born LEE Oswald, wearing a white shirt, was seen in Oak Cliff, a suburb of Dallas. J.W. "Dub" Stark was the owner of the Top 10 Record Store located at 338 W. Jefferson, across the street and a block and a half west of the Texas Theater. On December 3, 1963, FBI agent Carl E. Walters wrote a memo to the FBI's SAC (Special Agent in Charge) in Dallas. The memo stated, "On 12/3/63, Mr. John D. Whitten, telephonically advised that he heard Lee Harvey Oswald was in the Top 10 Record Shop on Jefferson on the morning of 11/22/63. Oswald bought a ticket of some kind and left. Then some time later, Oswald returned to the record shop and wanted to buy another ticket." News reporter Earl Golz confirmed this story in his interview with Mr. Stark (notes of Earl Golz). This story was further confirmed by Top 10 Record store employee Louis Cortinas, also in an interview conducted by Earl Golz (notes of Earl Golz).

Around 8:30 AM, while HARVEY was working at the TSBD, LEE Oswald entered the Jiffy store at 310 S. Industrial and took two bottles of beer to the counter. Fred Moore, the store clerk, asked Oswald for identification. FBI Special Agent (SA) David Barry interviewed Moore on 12/02/1963. Barry wrote, "identification of this individual arose when he asked him for identification as to proof of age for purchase of two bottles of beer. Moore said he figured the man was over 21 but the store frequently requires proof by reason of past difficulties with local authorities for serving beer to minors. This customer said, 'sure I got ID' and pulled a Texas drivers license from his billfold. Moore said that he noted the name appeared as Lee Oswald or possibly as H. Lee Oswald. As Moore recalled, the birth date on the license was 1939 and he thought it to have been the 10th month."

HARVEY Oswald went to the theater because he was following orders. See FBI report on 11/30/63 interview with Fred Moore.

PRESIDENT KENNEDY IS SHOT AND KILLED

Minutes before the assassination seven eye witnesses saw two men on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. One of the men was wearing a white or light colored shirt and the other a dark jacket or dark clothing. Most of these witnesses said the man wearing the white shirt looked like (LEE) Harvey Oswald. Several witnesses saw one of the men (light colored shirt) holding a rifle with a scope. Across the street, on the 5th and 6th floors of the county jail, as many as 40 inmates saw two men on the 6th floor "fooling around" with a scope on a rifle about six minutes before the assassination. Attorney Stanley Kaufman represented one of the inmates, Willie Mitchell, and advised the Warren Commission that numerous inmates witnessed the assassination and saw two men on the 6th floor. Kaufman always wondered why the WC never interviewed any of these witnesses.

Mrs. Robert Reid was standing a few feet in front of the front steps to the TSBD when the shooting occurred. She then briefly spoke with with building superintendent Roy Truly and TSBD official O.V. Campbell before returning to her office on the 2nd floor. As she entered the front door of her office, Mrs. Reid saw a man wearing a white t-shirt enter the office from the rear door. She recognized the young man as (LEE) Harvey Oswald and said he was carrying a coke in his right hand. Oswald mumbled something to Mrs. Reid as he walked towards the front door of the office, and then down the front stairs and out of the building.

As Mrs. Reid was walking into the TSBD, Dallas Police Department (DPD) officer Marion Baker got off his motorcycle, ran 45 feet to the front steps of the TSBD, and began speaking with Roy Truly. Truly and Baker hurried through the main entrance, through the double doors, and into the first floor warehouse. By this time LEE Oswald, wearing a white t-shirt and carrying a Coke, had already left the TSBD. Truly repeatedly pushed the button to call the west freight elevator, gave up, and he and Baker then ran up the rear stairs. Baker emerged from the stairway onto the second floor and caught a glimpse of HARVEY Oswald through the glass window in the hallway door. Baker drew his pistol and hollered, "Come here." (HARVEY) Oswald, wearing a brown button-down shirt, was confronted by Baker at arms length. WC member Allen Dulles asked Baker, "Did he have a coke?" Baker replied, "No, sir.... No drink at all." After Mr. Truly told Baker that Oswald worked in the building, the two men left the lunchroom and continued running up the stairs. HARVEY Oswald, wearing a brown shirt, walked down the rear stairs, picked up his grey jacket from the domino room, and began walking toward the main entrance. As he was preparing to leave the building he was confronted by Pierce Allman and Terrence Ford (employees of WFAA-TV) who asked for the location of a phone. HARVEY Oswald, when questioned by Capt. Fritz, said that he watched one of the men use the phone as he walked out the foyer.

Victoria Adams, who worked in the TSBD, told the WC that she observed a man standing on the corner of Houston and Elm a few minutes after the assassination who may have been Jack Ruby. Across the street Mrs. Louis Velez, and two co-workers, saw Ruby walking up and down the street near the TSBD. When LEE Oswald came out of the building, they saw Ruby give a pistol to him. The women knew Oswald, who ate with them at a nearby restaurant, and both were acquainted with Jack Ruby. Mrs. Velez told her story of Ruby giving Oswald a pistol to her mother (Mrs. Evelyn Harris), who was interviewed by FBI agent Manning on 11/30/63. Neither Mrs. Velez nor her co-workers were interviewed by the DPD or FBI and given the opportunity to confirm or deny their story. If their story is true, then Ruby was deeply involved in the assassination. Ruby knew and associated with LEE Oswald in the summer of 1963, while HARVEY and Marina were living in New Orleans.

In October, a three-man musical "combo" group was performing in Ruby's club that consisted of John Anderson (trumpet), Bill Willis (drums), and William Simmons (piano). The small group worked only four hours a day, from 9 PM to 1 AM. Curiously, and without explanation, Willis and Simmons lived fifteen miles away from the Carousel Club, in a house located at 2530 W. 5th in Irving, TX., just 200 feet west on the opposite side of the street from Ruth Paine (2515 W. 5th). When Ruby shot HARVEY Oswald, Nancy Powell (Tammi True) told the WC that she saw Bill Willis (drummer) near the police station. Neither Willis nor Simmons were interviewed by the WC.

This is Ruth Paine's home as seen from 5th St.  Jack Ruby band members Bill Willis and William Simmons  lived in a house located just 200 feet west, on the opposite side of 5th St., where they could easily watch the Paine home.

HARVEY, WEARING A T-SHIRT, LONG-SLEEVED BROWN SHIRT AND CARRYING HIS GREY COLORED JACKET, LEAVES DEALEY PLAZA

A few minutes after President Kennedy was shot HARVEY Oswald, wearing a long-sleeve brown shirt and carrying his grey colored jacket, left the book depository. HARVEY Oswald walked east on Elm Street and saw a city bus stopped in traffic as he was approaching Griffin St. He walked to the bus and began pounding on the door. Driver Cecil McWatters opened the door and allowed HARVEY Oswald, and a blond woman, to board the bus around 12:40 PM.

NOTE: Stuart L. Reed, a 30-year army veteran, photographed McWatters' bus a few blocks from the TSBD at about the very time HARVEY Oswald was on it.  Reed was a U.S. government employee, managing civilian employees under the auspices of the U.S. Army, which was in charge of the Panama Canal.


The bus was soon stalled in traffic and about 4 minutes later Oswald got up from his seat, obtained a bus transfer, and left the bus via the front door. The blond woman left the bus at the same time via the rear door. This blond woman may have been following Oswald, may have followed him to Whaley's cab, and may have been the woman who asked Whaley to call a taxi for her. HARVEY Oswald walked three blocks south on Lamar St. toward the Greyhound Bus station and got into William Whaley's taxi. Whaley said, "He wasn't in any hurry. He wasn't nervous or anything." Oswald was wearing a dark brown button-up shirt, a t-shirt, and a grey jacket.

NOTE: Stuart L. Reed took a second photograph of McWatters' bus a few minutes later while the bus was stalled in traffic close to the TSBD. This was very near the time two police officers boarded the bus, looking for HARVEY Oswald. Reed then took a photo of the 6th floor window of the TSBD, and one hour later he took several photos of HARVEY Oswald as he was being escorted from the Texas Theater in handcuffs. Stuart Reed took all of these photos, which sequentially followed Oswald's movements, within 1 1/2 hours. Reed dropped his color transparency film off at a photo lab in Dallas, and then hurried to New Orleans to catch a boat to the Canal Zone. Prior to boarding the boat, Reed signed an authorization that allowed the FBI to pick up his developed photo slides in Dallas. The FBI told the WC that a government executive (Reed), answering to the military, took the photos. This seemed to satisfy the WC, and Reed dropped out of sight without ever seeing his photos.

Reed's photo of McWaters' bus as it approached the School Book Depository.	Reed's second photo of McWaters' bus shows it stalled in traffic near the TSBD.

THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF HARVEY OSWALD

Some of the brightest minds in the CIA planned the assassination of President Kennedy. Top-level CIA officers like Angleton, Phillips, Hunt, Joannides, and others could easily put together a hit team based on the Operation 40 group. And they were very experienced in creating a smoke and mirrors propaganda campaign and an evidentiary paper trail that would be easy for investigators (Warren Commission) to follow and fall in line behind, with the intractable conclusion that Oswald killed the President. A tremendous amount of time, money, and effort was put into setting up HARVEY Oswald as the one and only “patsy” in the murder of President Kennedy. And these people could not afford to have their one and only suspect remain alive for very long-with the real fear that he might start singing like a canary to the police. The longer he was held in custody, the greater that risk became. They needed him dead as quickly as possible after he left the TSBD on 11/22/63. But HARVEY Oswald's destination, likely chosen by his handlers, was clearly the Texas Theater.

Following the assassination of President Kennedy, the killing of (HARVEY) Oswald was the number one priority for the planners. This posed a serious problem because the planners were not "on the ground" in Dallas to carry out their objective and had to depend on others. Their worst nightmare would be if HARVEY Oswald was arrested and began revealing details of his work as a spy, his false defection to the USSR, his true identity and place of birth, the CIA's "Oswald Project," his undercover work for the FBI, and his activities leading up to the assassination. If Oswald talked he could not only demonstrate his innocence, but implicate others, and the public would soon learn who was behind the coup d'etat that killed JFK. After JFK was killed, eliminating Oswald as quickly as possible became their most urgent priority. It appears the first attempt to kill HARVEY Oswald may have been on a Dallas city bus driven by Cecil McWatters. Bus passenger Roy Milton Jones told the FBI that shortly after a man (HARVEY Oswald) got off the bus, two police officers boarded the bus and searched passengers for weapons.

This was before anyone knew that HARVEY Oswald had left the TSBD. Why did two police search that particular bus? Answer: They knew that HARVEY Oswald was supposed to be on that bus. Who were these police officers?

Captain W. R. Westbrook was in charge of personnel at Dallas Police headquarters. He had his own office, worked at a desk, and dressed in plainclothes. Westbrook's work, on a day to day basis, was more like a civilian than a police officer.  He told the WC, "At the present time I am personnel officer. We conduct all background investigations of applicants, both civilian and police, and then we make--we investigate all personnel complaints--not all of them, but the major ones." Around 12:31-32 PM one of the DPD dispatchers, Mrs. Kinney, came into Westbrook's office and told him shots had been fired at President Kennedy. Westbrook sent officers from his office, Sergeants Stringer and Carver, and possibly Joe Fields and McGee, to the TSBD building. But why did Westbrook send his officers DIRECTLY to the Texas School Book Depository building, when the earliest police dispatches reported gunshots from the grassy knoll area?

Westbrook told the WC that he then walked down the hall spreading the word and telling the other people that they needed some men down there (TSBD) and that almost everybody left (CIRCA 12:33-34 PM). Westbrook said that he "sat around" a while (TIME UNKNOWN--5 MINUTES?) and then began walking, in civilian clothes, one mile to the Texas Depository Building, a 22 minute walk. Westbrook said there wasn't a police car available to drive him, yet Capt. Westbrook could easily have asked the dispatcher to call a patrol car. Westbrook said that while walking to the TSBD he stopped along the way to listen to transistor radio reports. Westbrook told the WC, "After we [WE, PLURAL!] reached the building, I contacted my sergeant, Sgt. Stringer, and he was standing in front and so then I went into the building to help start the search [START THE SEARCH? THE SEARCH WAS ALREADY WELL UNDERWAY!] and I was on the first floor and I had walked down an aisle and opened a door onto an outside loading dock. And when I came out onto this dock, one of the men hollered and said there had been an officer killed in Oak Cliff [CIRCA 1:16-1:19 PM]." 

WESTBROOK'S WC TESTIMONY ASIDE, HIS WHEREABOUTS FROM THE TIME HE WAS SEEN AT THE POLICE STATION (CIRCA 12:33-12:40 PM) TO HIS ARRIVAL AT THE TSBD (CIRCA 1:10-1:15) ARE UNKNOWN. HIS STORY OF WALKING TO THE TSBD, AFTER THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WAS SHOT, IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO BELIEVE. THERE IS NO PROOF THAT WESTBROOK WAS EVER IN THE TSBD. BUT THIS STORY GAVE WESTBROOK AN ALIBI TO ACCOUNT FOR 40-50 MINUTES OF HIS TIME. CAPTAIN WESTBROOK WOULD LIKE US TO BELIEVE THAT HE WALKED 22 MINUTES TO THE SCENE OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S MURDER, BUT THEN HURRIEDLY DROVE TO THE SCENE OF OFFICER TIPPIT'S MURDER.

Kenneth Croy was a 26-year-old reserve police officer, separated from his wife, and living with his parents. Croy told the WC that when President Kennedy was shot he was sitting in his car at City Hall (same location as Capt. Westbrook). Croy said that while driving his car home he  was "hemmed in from both sides" by traffic on Main and Griffin for about 20 minutes. He drove past the courthouse on Elm and asked police officers (names unknown) if he could be of any assistance. Croy said that after the officers said "No" that he proceeded to drive home. Croy would have us believe that he was told by these officers that his services were not needed, when many off-duty police officers were called at home and told to report for duty.  And Croy testified that while at the courthouse his estranged wife "pulled up beside me," and the couple then decided to go to lunch together at Austin's Barbecue (yet Croy and his wife were separated).  But first, Croy said that he needed to change clothes at his parents' home. On the day of a President Kennedy's assassination Sergeant Croy would like us to believe that his priorities were to drive to his parents' house, change clothes, and have lunch with his estranged wife!!

CROY'S WC TESTIMONY ASIDE, HIS WHEREABOUTS FROM 12:30 PM UNTIL 1:10 PM ARE UNKNOWN. HIS STORY OF SITTING IN HIS CAR WHEN THE PRESIDENT WAS SHOT, AND GETTING HEMMED IN WITH TRAFFIC FOR 20 MINUTES GAVE HIM AN ALIBI TO ACCOUNT FOR NEARLY 3/4 OF AN HOUR OF HIS TIME. CROY WOULD LIKE US TO BELIEVE THAT ON THE DAY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WAS KILLED, ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE DAYS OF THE CENTURY, HE DECIDED TO HAVE LUNCH WITH HIS ESTRANGED WIFE AND GO HOME.

If HARVEY Oswald was not shot and killed on McWatters' bus, then the apparent back-up plan was to murder Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit near (HARVEY) Oswald's home in Oak Cliff, blame the murder on HARVEY Oswald, and expect that the police would shoot the "cop-killer" on site. After President Kennedy was shot HARVEY Oswald left the TSBD and went to his rooming house (circa 1:00 PM). A few minutes later he arrived at the Texas Theater (circa 1:07 PM), but his arrival at the theater was no accident--HARVEY Oswald went to the theater because he was following orders. While in the darkened theater he moved from seat to seat, as remembered by theater patron Jack Davis. This shows that HARVEY Oswald was looking for someone, likely a "contact." After (HARVEY) Oswald was arrested and taken to police headquarters, the halves of two one dollar bills were among the items taken from him. Half of a dollar bill was a spy technique that allowed one agent, when first meeting an unknown agent, to verify the identity of the unknown agent when the agent produced the other half of the dollar bill (see DPD report below).

As HARVEY Oswald arrived at the Texas Theater (circa 1:07 PM), LEE Oswald, Officer J.D. Tippit, Dallas Police Captain William Westbrook, and reserve police sergeant Kenneth Croy arrived at a narrow driveway near 10th & Patton. Their arrival, at the  same time, and at the same location, was for the purpose of murdering officer Tippit. LEE Oswald walked west on 10th St. and then, after spotting Officer Tippit's patrol car driving east, Oswald turned around and walked west--directly to Tippit's patrol car. Tippit had stopped and parked directly in front of a narrow driveway that ran from the alley to 10th St. As the two men began talking, a police car (#207) driven by Capt. Westbrook, with passenger Kenneth Croy, drove from the alley onto the narrow driveway. Westbrook parked the car between two houses where it was partially hidden from view and could only be seen by onlookers who were directly in front of the car. These four men, all arriving at the same time, at the same narrow driveway near 10th & Patton a few minutes after 1:00 PM, was not a coincidence. Their meeting was pre-arranged for the purpose of murdering Officer Tippit, and blaming HARVEY Oswald for his murder.

After LEE Oswald shot and killed Tippit at 10th & Patton (while HARVEY Oswald was sitting in the Texas Theater), he likely met up with one of those police officers (Capt. Westbrook) and gave him his wallet, his white Eisenhower-type jacket, and the weapon used to kill Tippit (a .38 revolver). LEE Oswald then hurried to the Texas Theater, purchased a ticket, and ran upstairs to the balcony. Sgt. Croy remained at the scene of the shooting and was seen by Virginia Davis, while Capt. Westbrook drove car #207 back to the Texas School Book depository (TSBD) and waited.  Westbrook told the WC that he heard about the Tippit shooting over his police radio when he was at the TSBD. Westbrook, along with Sgt. Stringer and reporter Jim Ewell, got into Westbrook's car and drove toward Oak Cliff. Does Westbrook drive to the scene of Tippit's murder at 10th & Patton? No, he drives to Balleu Texaco which is 1 1/2 blocks from the murder scene. After Stringer and Ewell get out of the car Westbrook is alone, and drives around the corner to the parking lot where he throws down LEE Oswald's jacket and then alerts nearby police officer Mackey that the jacket was probably discarded by the man who shot Officer Tippit. A few minutes later, at 1:25 PM, Westbrook notified the police dispatcher that the suspect's jacket had been found. Westbrook then drove to 10th and Patton, where Tippit was murdered and immediately produced the wallet given to him by LEE Oswald a half hour earlier. He showed the wallet, complete with identification for Lee Harvey Oswald and Alec Hidell, to fellow police officers and to FBI agent Robert Barrett. That wallet, and police officers inspecting the wallet, was filmed by WFAA television cameraman Ron Reiland. Now, thanks to Capt. Westbrook, police officers at 10th & Patton knew the name of the prime suspect (Oswald/Hidell) in the murder of Officer Tippit. The wallet, first seen in the hands of Capt. Westbrook and last seen in the hands of Capt. Westbrook, soon disappeared and was never seen again--no police report, no photographs, no FBI reports, no WC testimony, no HSCA testimony. The problem with this 2nd wallet has always been "why did not a single witness see the wallet prior to Capt Westbrook's arrival at 10th & Patton?" Sgt. Croy tried to resolve this issue when he said that an unidentified person at 10th & Patton gave him the wallet which he in turn gave to Westbrook. But this wallet was never seen again, never entered into evidence, never mentioned by Croy or Westbrook to anyone, including the Warren Commission. In my opinion, this wallet proves that Captain Westbrook, and Sgt. Croy, were complicit in the pre-arranged murder of Tippit and the framing of HARVEY Oswald for the crime of murder.

J.D. Tippit at the Gloco station

As taxi driver William Whaley drove south on Zang Blvd. his taxi, and passenger HARVEY Oswald, passed by Officer J.D. Tippit, who was observed by 5 witnesses sitting in his patrol car at the GLOCO station (1502 N. Zang Blvd) watching traffic. The witnesses were photographer Al Volkland, his wife Lou, and three employees of the Gloco station-Tom Mullins, Emmett Hollingshead, and J.B. "Shortly" Lewis, and they all knew Tippit personally. Officer Tippit knew both HARVEY and LEE and his assignment that day may have been to drive both young men to the Texas Theater.


After driving past Tippit's patrol car Whaley turned left on N. Beckley and stopped in the 700 block near Neeley Street about 12:54 PM. Whaley, however, wrote in his trip manifest that he drove his passenger (HARVEY Oswald) from the Greyhound Bus station to 500 N. Beckley.







HARVEY Oswald got out of the taxi and began walking to his rooming house about three and a half blocks away. He arrived just before 1:00 PM and spent a few minutes changing his pants and work shirt (t-shirt) in his room.

Officer Tippit, sitting in his patrol car at the GLOCO station, was probably waiting for HARVEY Oswald to get off of McWatters' bus at the bus stop directly across the street. Tippit's assignment may have been to take HARVEY Oswald to the Texas Theater. But when McWatter's bus failed to arrive on time Tippit became alarmed, quickly left the GLOCO station, and began driving south on Lancaster.

At 12:54 PM, after leaving the Gloco station in a hurry, Tippit reported his position as Lancaster and 8th. He drove 1/4 mile south to Jefferson Blvd, turned right, and then drove west one mile (2-3 minutes) to the Top Ten Record Store (where he arrived circa 12:58 PM). Tippit parked his patrol car, hurriedly entered the store, and asked store clerk Louis Cortinas for permission to make a phone call. Louis Cortinas was a store clerk in the record shop in 1963 and his boss, the shop's owner, was Dub Stark. In a 1981 interview with the Dallas Morning News Cortinas told reporter Earl Golz the following:

While Tippit was in the Top 10 Record store, HARVEY Oswald, unknown to Tippit, was changing clothes in his room at 1026 N. Beckley (circa 1:00 PM). The housekeeper, Earlene Roberts, saw a police car drive slowly past and honk the horn. Oswald left the romming house a minute later, wearing the dark brown long-sleeve shirt and white t-shirt, and was last seen standing near the corner of Beckley and Zhang (circa 1:01-1:02). Out of the thousands of houses in Oak Cliff, why would a police car slowly drive past Oswald's rooming house less than 1/2 hour after President Kennedy was shot, and honk the horn only minutes after he (HARVEY Oswald) arrived? Because the driver of the police car knew exactly where to find HARVEY Oswald.

The driver of the police car was not Officer Tippit, and it was not Officer Tippit who drove HARVEY Oswald to the Texas Theater where he arrived between 1:00 PM and 1:07 PM. The author believes, as we will soon discover, the police car that drove slowly past HARVEY Oswald's rooming house was most likely driven by Capt. W. R. Westbrook with Sgt. Kenneth Croy. They picked up HARVEY Oswald near his rooming house (circa 1:01-1:02 PM) and drove him one mile to the Texas Theater, arriving circa 1:03-1:04 PM (follow the yellow/green line in the aerial photo below).

Capt. Westbrook and Sgt. Croy, driving in police car #207, could not take the chance of being seen dropping off Oswald in front of the Texas Theater on Jefferson Blvd. Instead, they dropped him off in the alley behind the theater (see photo below). HARVEY then walked thru a narrow pathway on the east side of the Texas Theater, turned right and walked to the cashier, where he purchased a ticket and entered the theater (circa 1:03-1:04 PM).

After Officer Tippit left the record shop (circa 1:01-02 PM) he drove two blocks north and pulled over a car driven by James A. Andrews, who worked for American National Life Insurance Company. Andrews said that he was driving west on 10th St. when a police car passed him and then cut in front of him forcing him to stop his car. The officer jumped out of his patrol car and motioned for Andrews to remain stopped. Andrews looked at the officer's nameplate, which read "Tippit." Officer Tippit seemed to be very upset, agitated, and was acting wild. He looked in the space between the front seat and the back seat of his (Andrews' car) and then,  without saying a word, Officer Tippit went back to his patrol car and drove off quickly, heading west on 10th St (circa 1:03-1:04 PM). Tippit turned his car around and drove 5 blocks east on 10th street and parked directly in front of the driveway between 404 and 410 E. 10th (circa 1:04-1:05 PM) where neighbor Virginia Davis thought Tippit was living. LEE Oswald walked over to Tippit's patrol car and, according to witnesses, began having a normal conversation with Tippit thru the passenger window.

As Officer Tippit was looking over James Andrews' car (circa 1:03-1:04) HARVEY Oswald was dropped off in the alley behind the Texas Theater by Capt. Westbrook. Oswald then walked, sight unseen, from the alley thru the narrow fire escape walkway adjacent to the theater, and emerged on Jefferson Blvd only a few yards from theater cashier Julia Postal (see photo below). HARVEY Oswald, wearing a long-sleeve brown shirt, purchased a ticket from Julia Postal and walked into the theater (circa 1:04-1:06 PM).  It is important to remember that HARVEY Oswald had a .38 revolver tucked under his belt while in the Texas Theater. This was the gun taken from HARVEY Oswald by Officers McDonald and Carroll when he was arrested. Concession attendant Butch Burroughs said that Oswald arrived between 1:00 PM and 1:07 PM (Officer Tippit was shot around 1:06 PM). A few minutes after HARVEY Oswald arrived at the theater, Burroughs sold him popcorn (circa 1:15 PM).

After dropping HARVEY Oswald off in the alley (circa 1:04 PM), Capt Westbrook and Sgt. Croy drove 5 blocks west, via the alley between Jefferson Blvd. & 10th St, and arrived at 404/408 E. 10th around 1:05 PM (follow purple line in aerial view above). As LEE Oswald was talking with Officer Tippit thru the car window (circa 1:05 PM), Capt. Westbrook turned left from the alley and drove his police car onto the narrow driveway between the two houses at 404 and 410 E. 10th. Capt. Westbrook parked his car and, directly ahead, was Tippit's police car parked at the entry of the same driveway. As Capt Westbrook arrived Officer Tippit got out of his police car while LEE Oswald backed away from Tippit's car. As Tippit was walking around the front of his car LEE Oswald shot and killed him while Capt. Westbrook and Sgt. Kenneth Croy watched from their police car.

Taxi driver William Scoggins was sitting in his taxi at the corner of 10th & Patton eating his lunch, as a police car passed by driving east. Scoggins recognized the driver and told the Warren Commission "just used to see him (Tippit) every day." As Tippit stopped, and parked his vehicle in front of the small driveway at 410 E. 10th, Scoggins saw a young man walking west (toward Scoggins) on 10th St., and watched the man approach the police car. Scoggins told the Warren Commission the young man was wearing a light colored jacket, a white shirt, and dark trousers.

As LEE Oswald (white shirt) began talking with Tippit (in front of 404 E. 10th), he was carrying a concealed weapon, a .38 revolver. "HARVEY Oswald" (brown shirt) was .7 mile west, inside of the Texas Theater, and was also carrying a concealed weapon--a .38 revolver (click here to see YouTube interview with Burroughs). HARVEY Oswald arrived at the theater at 1:03-04 PM, and almost certainly purchased a ticket from Julia Postal. Jones Harris, a long time assassination investigator, arrived in Dallas the day after the assassination. Harris interviewed Julia Postal in the office of the manager of the Texas Theater. Harris asked Postal if she sold a ticket to the man arrested in the theater by the Dallas Police. Postal immediately burst into tears. Harris walked out of the office and returned a short time later. When Harris asked Postal again if she sold (HARVEY) Oswald a ticket she again burst into tears. Harris was convinced that Postal knew that she sold Harvey Oswald a ticket to the theater. Butch Burroughs told Texas researcher Jim Marrs that Postal knows that she sold (HARVEY) Oswald a ticket.  Burroughs was the "ticket-taker" inside of the theater, and sold HARVEY Oswald popcorn a few minutes after he arrived. If HARVEY Oswald had not purchased a ticket, Burroughs would have known.

HARVEY Oswald purchased popcorn from Burroughs about 1:15 PM, and then returned to the lower level and took a seat next to a pregnant woman. Within a few minutes both Oswald and the woman got up from their seats. HARVEY Oswald walked into the concession area and then back into the lower level and took a seat next to Jack Davis in the first row on the right side. Davis remembered that Oswald was sitting next to him, in the near empty theater, as the opening credits to the movie began (a few minutes before 1:20 PM). After sitting next to Davis for a few minutes, Oswald got up and walked past empty seats to the small aisle on the right side of the theater and into the concession area. Davis watched (HARVEY) Oswald as he again re-entered the theater and took a seat next to a man on the back row, directly across the aisle from Davis. Within a few minutes HARVEY Oswald got up and once again returned to the concession area. He returned a few minutes later and took a seat across the aisle from Mr. Davis, and then moved to another seat on the fourth row. It appeared to Davis as though (HARVEY) Oswald was looking for someone, perhaps a contact.

NOTE: After his arrest, the police found two halves of two different dollar bills in his wallet (see below). This was a CIA method of clandestine contact (review CIA memorandum of 7/9/63 below). Wherever and whenever Oswald met his contact, this person would provide confirmation of his identity with the other half of these dollar bills. Curiously, neither of these items were listed on the police inventory of 11/23/63, the joint FBI/DPD inventory of 11/26/63 (Oswald's so-called possessions), nor were they photographed. At the National Archives, in Adelphi, MD, I inspected and handled each item of inventory listed on the joint FBI/DPD inventory of 11/26/63. These items were not among the inventory.

Butch Burroughs saw HARVEY Oswald sitting next to one person-- a pregnant lady, and both got up from their seats only minutes apart. (Why would a pregnant woman watch a war movie at 1:15 PM on a Friday afternoon? How likely is that? And why and how did this pregnant woman leave the theater just before the police arrived?)  Burroughs remembered that prior to the police arriving this pregnant lady went to the restroom in the balcony and he never saw her again. Could this woman have been HARVEY's  contact at the theater? Perhaps, but what was her purpose or her assignment? Could her assignment have been to simply walk past Hardy's Shoe Store, in order to alert Johnny Brewer and/or Tommy Rowe (Jack Ruby's good friend) that HARVEY Oswald was in the theater?

Building identification and labels courtesy of David Josephs

Seconds after shots were fired, Mrs. Holan saw a man (probably Capt. Westbrook) emerge from the 2nd police car and walk toward Tippit's body lying in the street, apparently to see if he (Tippit) was alive or dead.  In 1990 a resident of the neighborhood was interviewed by JFK researcher Prof. Bill Pulte, on the condition of anonymity. This resident said that he heard that a man walked down the driveway and approached Tippit just after the shooting.  In January, 1968, Playboy Magazine interviewed Jim Garrison. In response to the Garrison interview a reader wrote to Playboy and said, “I read Playboy's Garrison interview with perhaps more interest than most readers. I was an eyewitness to the shooting of policeman Tippit in Dallas on the afternoon President Kennedy was murdered. I saw two men, neither of them resembling the pictures I later saw of Lee Harvey Oswald, shoot Tippit and run off in opposite directions. There were at least half a dozen other people who witnessed this. My wife convinced me that I should say nothing, since there were other eyewitnesses. Her advice and my cowardice undoubtedly have prolonged my life-or at least allowed me now to tell the true story...” (Playboy, January 1968, Vol. 15, No 1, pg 11. Mrs. Acquilla Clemmons (interview August, 1964) said that after the shooting she saw the killer wave to the other man and they departed the scene in two different directions. This is a clear indication that the killer (LEE Oswald) and the occupants of the 2nd police vehicle were co-conspirators in the murder of Officer Tippit.

From her 2nd floor bedroom Mrs. Holan hurried downstairs to the 1st floor and outside the house. She watched the man standing beside Tippit as he began to retrace his path up the driveway to the 2nd police car, and then backed up the car into the alley. The 2nd police vehicle quickly and quietly left before witnesses began to arrive at the scene. Sam Guinyard, who worked at the Harris Motor Company, directly south and across the alley from Virginia and Barbara Davis' home (400 E. 10th), apparently saw the 2nd police car. In 1970 Guinyard told JFK researcher Michael Brownlow that he saw a police car in the alley shortly after Tippit was shot.  After the shooting the second occupant of the police car, Sgt. Kenneth Croy, remained at 10th & Patton and was seen moments later by Virginia Davis. Capt. Westbrook quickly left the scene, briefly met up with LEE Oswald, and then drove the police vehicle back to the TSBD and arrived around 1:15 PM. Westbrook and Croy, occupants of the 2nd police car, were co-conspirators whose involvement and manipulation of evidence will be further explained.

Tippit's car parked in front of driveway between 404 and 410 E. 10th	Home of the Davis Sisters, 400 E. 10th
Mrs. Holan's home at 409 E. 10th	Mrs. Holan's view of the Tippit murder scene

Mrs. Margie Higgins, a neighbor of Mrs. Holan who lived at 417 East 10th St. said, "Well, I was watching the news on television and for some reason the announcer turned and looked at the clock and said the time was six minutes after one (1:06 PM). At that point I heard the shots."  Mrs. Higgins described the shooter and said, "He definitely was not the man they showed on television." Mrs. Higgins called the police.


James W. Archer and Jimmy Brewer, sitting in Archer's pick-up truck, heard gun shots and soon saw Tippit laying in the street.


Shortly after 1:00 PM brick masons Francis Kinneth and Elbert Austin were working on a scaffold at a construction project when they heard gunshots. Both men heard shots, saw a policeman laying on the ground, and watched a man run from the scene and turn south on Patton. On January 21, 1964, Kinneth was shown a photograph of Oswald and said that he could not identify him as being the individual he observed leaving the scene of the Tippit shooting. Co-worker Franklin M. Griffin was eating lunch when he heard the shots, ran to the street, and saw the policeman laying in the street.

After hearing gun shots Jimmy Burt and William Arthur Smith quickly ran toward Burt's 1952 two-tone blue Ford, which was parked on Denver Street near 10th Street facing south. They jumped into the car and within a minute arrived in front of Tippit's patrol car. They arrived so quickly that they saw LEE Oswald walking south near the corner of 10th & Patton with a gun in his right hand. Burt got out of the car and began to follow LEE Oswald as he continued walking south on Patton.

As LEE Oswald walked past taxi driver WW Scoggins, parked near the corner of 10th & Patton, he was wearing dark trousers and a light shirt. Scoggins called his dispatcher to report the shooting and his dispatcher called for an ambulance.


Virginia Davis heard shots and looked out the screen door of her home at 400 E. 10th St. As LEE Oswald was cutting across the yard in front of her house (400 E. 10th)) he removed empty shell casings from his gun and tossed them on the ground.

Virginia Davis was probably not aware of a 2nd police car that during the shooting was parked between 404 and 410 E. 10th St. But her WC testimony places a police officer at the scene only moments after the shooting, just after the shooter hurried around the corner of her house and disappeared.

Virginia Davis told the Warren Commission the policeman "was already there" after "he (the shooter) disappeared around the corner (seconds after the shooting)." Virginia said, "we ran out in the front yard and down to see what had happened." The policeman was likely 26 year old reserve officer Sgt. Kenneth Croy, who accompanied Westbrook in the 2nd police car seen by Mrs. Holan. Croy was the only police officer at the Tippit murder scene before the ambulance arrived (only 1 block from the scene). And Sgt. Croy was the only officer who said he saw Tippit being loaded into the ambulance. If the police officer seen by Virginia Davis was not Croy, then who was it?


LEE OSWALD LEAVES 10TH & PATTON


Domingo Benavides, who was sitting in his truck on the opposite side of the street facing Tippit's car, watched Oswald as he left the scene. He remembered, "the back of his (LEE Oswald's) head seemed like his hairline sort of went square instead of tapering off. His hair didn't taper off, it kind of went down and squared off." HARVEY Oswald's hairline, as we know from numerous photographs taken at the police station, extended well down his neck and past his collar line--it was not "squared off" as described by Benavides. The white vehicle in the photo at left is the approximate location where Benavides stopped and observed the shooting.

Mr. Benavides. Yes. In other words, he didn't go all the way on the sidewalk. He just cut across the yard.
Mr. Belin. Where was he when you saw him throwing shells? Had he already started across the yard?
Mr. Benavides. No, sir. He had just got back to the sidewalk when he threw the first one and when he threw the second one, he had already cut back into the yard. He just sort of cut across.
Mr. Belin. Now you saw him throw two shells?
Mr. Benavides. Yes, sir.
Mr. Belin. You saw where he threw the shells?
Mr. Benavides. Yes, sir.
Mr. Belin. Did you later go back in that area and try and find the shells?
Mr. Benavides. Yes. Well, right after that I went back and I knew exactly where they was at, and I went over and picked up one in my hand, not thinking and I dropped it, that maybe they want fingerprints off it, so I took out an empty pack of cigarettes I had and picked them up with a little stick and put them in this cigarette package; a chrome looking shell.

Ted Callaway worked at a used car lot on Jefferson Blvd., across the alley from the house where Virginia and Barbara Davis lived. He did not see the shooting, but he did see (LEE) Oswald walking south on Patton at a distance of about 60 ft. Callaway described him as "white male, 27, 5'11", 165 lbs, black wavy hair, fair complected, wearing a light gray Eisenhower type jacket, dark trousers, and a white shirt" (CE 705, pg 27). When interviewed and filmed many years later, Callaway again said, "he had on a white Eisenhower type jacket and a white t-shirt"--once again no brown shirt, just a white t-shirt (brown shirt--HARVEY; white shirt--LEE). The next person to see LEE Oswald was Warren Reynolds, part owner of Johnny Reynolds Used Car Lot at the corner of Patton and Jefferson Blvd. Reynolds followed Oswald a short distance and last saw him walking past the Ballew Texaco Station. On January 22, 1964, FBI agents Kesler and Mitchem showed a photograph of Lee HARVEY Oswald to Reynolds, at which time he advised the two agents that he would hesitate to definitely identify the man shown in the photograph as the shooter.

T.F. Bowley, driving west on 10th Street, did not see the shooting. He arrived at the scene and used the police radio to report the shooting. Bowley looked at his watch--the time was 1:10 PM (CE 2003). An original DPD police transcript, found in the National Archives, lists the time of transmission as 1:10 PM. The police were quickly notified of the shooting by telephone (Mrs. Higgins; Barbara Davis), Scoggin's dispatcher, and by Bowley using Tippit's car radio. The police dispatcher broadcast the shooting at 1:10 PM as witnesses (Markham, W.A. Smith, Scoggins, Virginia Davis, Barbara Davis, Callaway, Benavides, Wright) began to walk to Tippit's patrol car and saw him lying on the street. An ambulance was dispatched from the Dudley Hughes Funeral Home (one block south on Jefferson) and quickly arrived at 10th & Patton.

RESERVE OFFICER SGT. KENNETH CROY

Croy told the WC that he was driving his car in downtown Dallas when he heard about the shooting of the President over his police radio. Minutes after the shooting, while driving past the court house, Croy saw police officers and asked if they needed any help. According to Croy, these officers said "no." Croy then said his wife (estranged) pulled up beside him driving her car and asked if he wanted to get something to eat. They agreed to meet at Austin's Bar-B-Que in Oak Cliff. This was Sgt. Croy's testimony, but it makes no sense. Croy was unable to identify the police officers who were standing in front of the court house. Croy said nothing about the large crowds in and around the court house, less than a block from the TSBD, on the most infamous day in Dallas history. Why would police officers decline Croy's offer to help, when off-duty police were being called at home and asked to return to duty? Why would Croy and his estranged wife allegedly agree to meet for lunch, only a few minutes after the President of the United States had been shot. Croy's testimony makes no sense, but it does give him an alibi that helps to mask and keep secret his activities and involvement with the murder of officer Tippit.

RESERVE OFFICER CROY AT THE TIPPIT MURDER SCENE

Croy told the Warren Commission that while driving on Zang Blvd., he heard about the Tippit shooting over the police radio. Croy said that he was the first police officer to arrive at the scene of Tippit's murder. After arriving at the scene he saw Tippit being loaded in the ambulance. However, witness Virginia Davis said a police officer (probably Sgt. Croy) was there just after the shooter (LEE Oswald) threw empty shells on the ground and ran south on Patton. Croy said that he then stood next to Tippit's car and interviewed a witness for about 10 minutes, but could not remember her name. In fact Croy could not remember the name of a single witness nor could he remember the name of any police officer.

Mr. Griffin.  Were you at the scene when Tippit was there?
Mr. Croy.  Yes.
Mr. Griffin.  Unassigned.
Mr. Croy.  Yes.

Mr. Griffin. I see. Now, I am just referring to the street you found him on. When you got there, was Tippit's car there?
Mr. Croy. Yes.
Mr. Griffin. Was Tippit there?
Mr. Croy. They were loading him in the ambulance.
Mr. Griffin. Were other officers on the scene?
Mr. Croy. None that I saw.

Mr. Griffin. Did any of the--how many police officers came out to the scene of the Tippit killing while you were there?
Mr. Croy. I don't know. There was a slew of them. That would be hard to say.
Mr. Griffin. Were there any officers there that you knew?
Mr. Croy. There were several officers there that I knew. I don't know their names.

Mr. Croy. It was a woman standing across the street from me. I don't recall her name. She gave me her name at that time.
Mr. Griffin. How long did you talk with her?
Mr. Croy. Oh, a good 5 or 10 minutes.
Mr. Griffin. This conversation all took place near the scene of the Tippit killing?
Mr. Croy. Leaning up against his car.
Mr. Griffin. Do you know the name of the woman you talked to across the street?
Mr. Croy. I don't recall. I think she lived across the street. She was standing out in front watering her yard or doing something in her yard.
Mr. Griffin. Well, you stated that she was watering her yard?
Mr. Croy. Or something. She was standing in the yard doing something.
Mr. Griffin. But the first thing you indicated was, she had been watering her yard? Apparently that was something that stuck with you from, of course, talking with her?
Mr. Croy. I don't remember what she said she was doing. She was doing something in the yard, and I presume that is where she lived was across the street.

How convenient that Croy just happened to be the first officer at the scene of the Tippit shooting--some 10 minutes before any other police officers arrived. Croy's presence at 10th & Patton is best explained by the arrival of the 2nd police car seen by Mrs. Holan. Not a single police officer talked about Croy's presence at 10th and Patton.

NOTE: Croy testified before the WC. However, most of their questions related to Croy's presence and activities in the basement of the Dallas Police station when HARVEY Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby. In the author's opinion, it was likely Croy who helped Ruby gain entrance to the basement so that he could kill Oswald.

Summary of Sgt. Kenneth Croy and Capt. W.R. Westbrook (SPECULATION by the author)

It is very possible, and likely, that Croy was in the 2nd police vehicle parked between the two houses (404 and 410 E. 10th) that was seen by Mrs. Holan. It is very possible, and likely, that Dallas Police Capt. W.R. Westbrook, wearing plain clothes, was the man who got out of the police vehicle and walked over to Tippit in order to confirm that Tippit was dead. Capt. Westbrook returned to the police vehicle, and backed up to the alley, while reserve officer Croy remained at the scene. After watching LEE Oswald hurry across their lawn Virginia Davis and her sister in law left their home and stood beside Tippit, while Sgt. Croy was "already there."  As the police vehicle backed up the narrow driveway and into the alley it was seen by Sam Guinyard, who worked for Harris Motor Company across the alley from the Davis' home. Westbrook likely drove the 2nd police vehicle a half block south to Jefferson Blvd., and then turned right toward the Texas Theater (only 5 blocks west). Westbrook likely met and/or picked up LEE Oswald near the Texaco station and may have driven him to the Texas Theater. Capt. Westbrook meeting LEE Oswald within minutes of the Tippit shooting would explain Westbrook's possession of three very important items given to him by LEE Oswald--a light-colored, medium size Eisenhower-type jacket (supposedly found later by Westbrook and officer John Mackey under a car at the Texaco Station), the 2nd Oswald wallet which Westbrook soon produced at the Tippit murder scene (allegedly given to Westbrook by Croy), and the .38 revolver that LEE Oswald used to shoot and kill Tippit. Following the shooting of Tippit, Westbrook drove the police car to the TSBD and waited for the police dispatcher to broadcast information about the shooting.

TIPPIT'S BODY IS REMOVED

As Sgt. Croy looked on, Tippit's body was loaded into the ambulance (circa 1:11-1:12 PM) by Clayton Butler and Eddie Kinsley and driven to nearby Methodist Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival by Dr. Liquori (circa 1:15 PM). Among the items removed from Tippit at the hospital and taken to the police station was one "black billfold."

At 1:22 PM, DPD officer J.M. Poe arrived and said, "there were already 150 to 200 people around there and the ambulance had already left." Benavides gave two empty shell casings, in an empty cigarette package, to Poe. We must wonder why Benavides did not give the two shell casings to Croy, if Croy was the first police officer at the scene. Helen Markham provided Poe with a description of the shooter (Markham never said she talked to Croy) which he immediately passed onto the DPD dispatcher who reported: "Last seen about the 300 block East Jefferson. He's a white male about 30, 5'8", black hair, slender, wearing a white jacket, white shirt and dark slacks."

DPD officers began to question witnesses as more and more on-lookers gathered. We will soon learn that a wallet containing identification for Lee Harvey Oswald and Alex Hidell was allegedly found at the Tippit murder scene by Croy, who claims that he gave the wallet to Capt. Westbrook.  But not one witness, not one ambulance driver, not one neighbor, not one on-looker and not one trained police officer saw a wallet lying on the street or in Tippit's car. One of the first witnesses at the murder scene was Ted Calloway, who said, "I'll tell you one thing, there was no billfold at that scene. If there was, there would have been too many people who would have seen it."

NOTE:  We can now understand that Croy's testimony about asking police officers if they needed assistance in Dealey Plaza shortly after the President was shot was nonsense. Croy's WC testimony about meeting his estranged wife for lunch at Austin's Bar B Que, and Croy's hearing about the Tippit shooting over his police radio are also nonsense. Croy was not driving his car near 10th & Patton when he heard about the Tippit shooting. Croy likely arrived at 10th & Patton with Capt. Westbrook in the police car seen by Mrs. Holan. He remained at the scene of the crime after Westbrook left in the police car, and was the officer seen by Virginia Davis after she walked from her porch to Tippit's police car. By claiming that he was the first and only officer on the scene, Croy could claim that he found, or was given, a wallet at the murder scene, before witnesses arrived (circa 1:10-1:12 PM). Croy should have been asked why he didn't give the wallet to any of two dozen regular police officers and detectives who arrived at the scene. Croy should have been asked why he held onto the wallet for 1/2 hour before giving the wallet to Westbrook, who did not arrive at the scene until 1:40 PM. In the authors opinion, Croy never saw the wallet nor had the wallet in his possession at any time.

WAS TIPPIT SHOT WITH A .38 REVOLVER OR A SEMI-AUTOMATIC PISTOL?

After talking with witness Ted Callaway Patrolman H.W. Summers reported that he had an "eyeball witness to the getaway man." The suspect was described as having black wavy hair, wearing an Eisenhower jacket of light color, with dark trousers and a white shirt. He was "apparently armed with a .32, dark finish, automatic pistol," which he had in his right hand. However, if an automatic pistol was used to kill Tippit, three of the spent shell casings would have been ejected at the point where Oswald began shooting Tippit and would have landed on 10th St. (near the passenger side of Tippit's squad car). After Oswald shot Tippit in the head, at point blank range, the last shell casing would have been ejected onto the pavement on 10th St., which it was not. Barbara and Virginia Davis watched Oswald as he crossed in front of their house and crossed their lawn, using his right hand to shake empty shells from an open revolver into his left hand. Two shell casings were recovered near a bush in the Davis' side yard on 10th St., about 50-60 ft. from the front of Tippit's squad car where the shots were fired.

A semi-automatic pistol would have ejected shell casings onto 10th St.	Two .38 shell casings were recovered near the bush at the right side of the porch.

LEE OSWALD ARRIVES AT THE TEXAS THEATER

It is obvious to this author that LEE Oswald's pre-arranged assignment was to kill Officer Tippit (which he did by intentionally shooting him in the head), and then lead police to the Texas Theater where HARVEY Oswald was sitting in the darkened theater with a loaded .38 revolver. Tippit's murder would soon be blamed on HARVEY Oswald, based upon identification found in a wallet that suddenly appeared in the hands of Capt. Westbrook at 10th & Patton. Identifying HARVEY Oswald as the killer of Officer Tippit would give Dallas Police ample justification to shoot HARVEY Oswald on site, especially if he was carrying a loaded revolver (perhaps with a defective firing pin). But I always wondered about two issues.   

1) How could the conspirators be absolutely sure that employees of the Texas Theater and the police would respond immediately to a young man who simply snuck into a movie theater, when their focus of attention was on the assassination of President Kennedy, the shooting of Texas Governor John Connally, and the murder of a DPD officer. Why would the police care about a person who snuck into a theater without buying a $.90 ticket? The conspirators needed to make absolutely sure that the police would be called, and that they would arrive at the theater.

NOTE: It was Johnny Brewer who raised such a commotion about a "suspicious man" sneaking into the theater that theater cashier Julia Postal finally called the police at 1:44 PM. But Julia was not the only person who called the police. JFK researcher Leo Sauvage asked Dallas Assistant District Attorney Jim Bowie whether a telephone call (by Julia Postal) had led to Oswald's arrest. Bowie told him there was a call from the cashier, but also that there were “Half a dozen calls!” Someone wanted to make sure the police would respond to a suspicious person hiding inside the Texas Theater.

2) The more important issue is that Tippit was shot at 1:06 PM, and it is only an 8-9 minute walk to the Texas Theater. Why were the police not called until 1:44 PM. What happened happened during that time (nearly 40 minutes) always bothered me, and has been on my mind for more than 20 years.

NOTE: I was not the first to wonder about these missing minutes. In 1964 Wesley Liebeler wrote the following memo (JFK Exhibit No. 36--memo re. galley proofs of Chapter IV of the Report, Sept 6, 1964): "At first I was surprised to learn that Johnny Calvin Brewer knew that a patrolman had been shot when Oswald walked by his place of business, less than eight blocks from the point of the Tippet killing which Oswald apparently left as fast as he could. Then I was surprised to learn that the police radio did not send out information about the suspect being in the Texas Theater until 1:45, about 30 minutes after the police first learned of the Tippit killing from Benavides over Tippit's radio. What were Oswald and Brewer doing during this 30 minutes? Oswald was strangely inactive during this period, considering all that he had done the 45 minutes following the assassination."

The author believes that after killing Tippit LEE Oswald met up with Capt. Westbrook and gave him his jacket, his wallet, and his .38 revolver. LEE Oswald, when he entered the theater, was now wearing a white t-shirt and dark trousers (not a dark, long-sleeve shirt as reported by Johnny Brewer). LEE Oswald should have arrived at the Texas Theater 8-9 minutes after shooting Tippit (around 1:15 PM).

NOTE: Less than 10 minutes after Tippit was shot and killed the author believes that Capt. Westbrook had possession of three very important items of evidence, given to him by the suspect--LEE Oswald's jacket, LEE Oswald's wallet, and the .38 revolver used to kill Tippit. This author believes the suspect (LEE Oswald) gave these items to Capt. Westbrook (who was present when LEE Oswald shot Tippit) prior to arriving at the Texas Theater. We will soon learn that Westbrook did everything he could to distance himself from the jacket. We will also learn the wallet produced by Westbrook and shown to officers at 10th & Patton disappeared. LEE Oswald also gave the .38 revolver that he used to murder officer Tippit to Westbrook (LEE Oswald could not take any of these items into the theater fearing that, if he was still there when the police arrived, he would be searched).

If Johnny Brewer had followed LEE Oswald, wearing a white t-shirt and dark trousers, from his shoe store to the theater, as he claimed, then Julia Postal would have called the police around 1:15-1:20 PM and the police would have arrived within a few minutes (as they did after being notified by Julia Postal at 1:44 PM). But I don't believe Johnny Brewer's story. I don't believe Brewer saw either HARVEY Oswald or LEE Oswald walk past his store on Jefferson Blvd.

The author believes that LEE Oswald, wearing a white t-shirt and dark trousers, either walked to the theater or was driven to the theater by Capt. Westbrook after killing Tippit and arrived around 1:15 PM. LEE Oswald had just shot and killed a Dallas policeman. He certainly didn't want to attract attention by sneaking into a movie theater. So he bought a $.90 ticket from Julia Postal (as did HARVEY Oswald around 1:03-04 PM), walked into the theater and up the stairs into the balcony. The missing 30 minutes begins at 1:15 PM.

At 1:22 PM  the police dispatcher reported,  "white male, 30, about 5'8", slender, black hair, wearing shirt, a white jacket,  and dark slacks."  If a Dallas radio station broadcast a description of the suspect at 1:30 PM, their only source of information was police radio broadcasts. The police reported that Tippit's killer was 5'8", black hair, white shirt, white jacket,  dark slacks.  But Johnny Brewer told Julia Postal, the Dallas Police, and the WC that the man he saw sneak into the theater was wearing a  long-sleeved dark brown shirt--not a white shirt and not a light colored jacket as reported by the police.

 Brewer also said that this man was acting suspicious and appeared to be scared outside of his shoe store around 1:30 PM. Brewer's description of Oswald's clothing did not match the police broadcast. Brewers description of Oswald acting scared did not match police observations of HARVEY Oswald after he was arrested. Police officers said Oswald was calm and showed no signs of being scared. This author believes the "missing 25 minutes" are the result of Brewer needing to wait to hear about the murder of a policeman on the radio. After hearing a description of the suspect Brewer could then approach Julia Postal, tell her that a suspicious man had snuck into the theater, and insist that she call the police. BREWER NEVER EXPLAINED HOW HE WAS ABLE TO IDENTIFY THE SUSPECT, WEARING A WHITE SHIRT AND A WHITE JACKET ACCORDING TO THE RADIO, AS THE SAME MAN WHO APPEARED IN FRONT OF HIS STORE WEARING A DARK BROWN, LONG SLEEVE SHIRT. AND, ACCORDING TO DALLAS RADIO STATIONS, INFORMATION ABOUT THE TIPPIT SHOOTING WAS FIRST BROADCAST AT 1:51 PM, LONG AFTER BREWER CLAIMED TO HAVE HEARD IT ON THE RADIO.

Five radio stations covered the Dallas area on 11/22/63, and all routinely monitored the Dallas police radio. Four of these stations did not broadcast the Tippit shooting nor its location until after Oswald's arrest at 1:51 PM.

WBAP reported the Tippit shooting after Oswald's arrest at 1:51 PM.

KRLD reported the Tippit shooting after Oswald's arrest at 1:51 PM.

WFAA reported the Tippit shooting after Oswald's arrest at 1:51 PM (their archived recordings began at 1:47 PM, but did not cover the entire assassination period).

KLIF broadcast the Tippit shooting at 2:02 PM.     

KBOX was the only radio station that may have reported the Tippit shooting prior to Oswald's arrest, but this has never been proven. KBOX has archived radio broadcast recordings from 11/22/63 which begin at 1:35 PM, but information about the Tippit shooting begins only after Oswald's arrest at 1:51 PM. At 1:59 PM newsman Sam Pate repeated information that had supposedly been previously reported on KBOX about the Tippit shooting. If true (there are no archived recordings), this information would have to have been broadcast prior to the beginning of the KBOX archived radio recording at 1:35 PM.

At 1:35 PM Julia Postal was listening to KLIF radio and heard the official announcement that President Kennedy was dead. Julia said that Johnny Brewer appeared shortly after she heard the news of President Kennedy's death (circa 1:36 PM). Brewer asked Julia if she had sold a ticket to a man who was wearing a brown shirt  and she replied, "What man?" (How would Johnny Brewer know about a man wearing a long sleeve dark brown shirt (HARVEY Oswald), when that man had been sitting in the theater for a half-hour?)

Mr. Belin. Well, would you state then what happened? You said that you saw him walk into the Texas Theatre?
Mr. Brewer. He walked into the Texas Theatre and I walked up to the theatre, to the box office and asked Mrs. Postal if she sold a ticket to a man who was wearing a brown shirt, and she said no, she hadn't. She was listening to the radio herself. And I said that a man walked in there, and I was going to go inside and ask the usher if he had seen him.

I don't believe that Julia Postal saw anyone, precisely because there wasn't anyone--the entire story about a man sneaking into the theater was made up by Brewer. WC Attorney Belin wondered why Brewer would ask Postal if she sold a man a ticket, when Brewer had supposedly just seen the man sneak into the theater without buying a ticket.

Mr. Belin.  Why did you ask Julia Postal whether he had or hadn't?
Mr. Brewer.   I don't know.
Mr. Belin.  You just asked her?
Mr. Brewer.  Just asked her whether he had bought or she had seen him go in.

Brewer hurried into the theater and asked Butch Burroughs if he had collected a ticket from a man who he thought had just entered the theater and was acting very suspicious (Burroughs indicated he had not collected a ticket). At this point we know that HARVEY Oswald (brown shirt) purchased a ticket, entered the theater around 1:07-1:08 PM, and sat in the lower section. LEE Oswald (white shirt) probably entered the theater around 1:20 PM, purchased a ticket, and took a seat in the balcony.

The Warren Commission asked Butch Burroughs  what he would do if a person entered the theater without purchasing a ticket.

Mr. Ball.  If anybody comes in there without a ticket, what do you do, run them off?
Mr. Burroughs.  I make it a point to stop them and ask them to go out and get a ticket. I just failed to see him when he slipped in.
Mr. Ball.  We will get to that in a minute I want to see what you usually do if somebody comes in without a ticket.
Mr. Burroughs.  I stop them and have them go out to the box office and get an admission ticket.

QUESTION: If you saw someone enter a movie theater, apparently without buying a ticket, how likely is it that you would take any action at all? It's not like it was a violent crime, an assault, where a victim needed help. It's not your theater. It's not your business. Plus, there might be an exigent circumstance, such as that he already bought a ticket but had to do something else first...who knows? So, at most, you might tell a theater employee that someone snuck into the theater, in this case Julia Postal. But, would you take it on yourself to chase this person into the theater? I doubt it....

So, neither Butch Burroughs nor Julia Postal would have called the police, even if they had seen a man sneak into the theater. It was Johnny Brewer who raised such a commotion that Julia finally called the police at 1:44 PM. But readers must remember that Julia was not the only person who called the police about a suspicious man hiding inside of the Texas Theater. JFK researcher Leo Sauvage asked Dallas Assistant District Attorney Jim Bowie whether a telephone call (by Julia Postal) had led to Oswald's arrest. Bowie told Sauvage there was a call from the cashier, but also that there were “Half a dozen calls” to the police concerning a suspicious man sneaking into the theater. A "HALF A DOZEN CALLS" to the police, by a person or persons unknown, is a clear indication of a conspiracy. One of those calls may have come from Jack Ruby's friend, Tommy Rowe, who may have prodded Johnny Brewer into thinking that the suspicious man who snuck into the theater killed officer Tippit. Rowe's "prodding" of Brewer may account for some of the missing minutes. After "HALF A DOZEN" phone calls to the police, the dispatcher finally reported that a suspicious man had gone into the Texas Theater. Twenty six police officers, mostly from 10th & Patton, quickly arrived at the theater, but it is very important for readers to understand that Captain Westbrook was probably the first to arrive.

At some point LEE Oswald may have tried to leave the theater. He could have walked down the rear stairway and out the exit door that opened into the alley.  Behind the theater was a young man standing next to a pickup truck with the engine running. If LEE had left the building,  HARVEY Oswald would be sitting in the theater with the murder weapon. But Burroughs, able to see the west exit door at the bottom of the stairs to the balcony from the concession stand, may have prevented his departure.

We will soon learn that when Capt. Westbrook arrived at the Tippit murder scene he was carrying a wallet that contained identification for Lee Harvey Oswald and Alek Hidell. Neither Croy nor Westbrook discussed the wallet with the police, FBI, SS, nor Warren Commission. Eventually, in 1996, Croy told researchers that he gave the wallet to Westbrook at 10th & Patton, but there is, and never has been, no existing evidence, testimony, or police/FBI reports to support or verify his claim. Croy should have been asked why he didn't give the wallet to any of two dozen regular police officers and detectives who arrived at the scene. Croy should have been asked why he held onto the wallet for 1/2 hour before giving the wallet to Westbrook, who did not arrive at the scene until 1:40 PM. In the authors opinion, Croy never saw the wallet nor had the wallet in his possession at any time.

NOTE: Croy testified before the WC, but nothing was mentioned about the wallet that Croy claimed to have given to Westbrook. Most of the WC questions related to Croy's presence and activities in the basement of the Dallas Police station when HARVEY Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby. In the author's opinion, it was likely Croy who helped Ruby gain entrance to the basement so that he could kill Oswald.

POLICE OFFICERS ARRIVE AT 10TH & PATTON. . . . 

WHILE CAPT. WESTBROOK DRIVES TO A PARKING LOT BEHIND BALLEW TEXACO

Captain W.R. Westbrook had a desk job at police headquarters, where he was in charge of personnel. On 11/22/63 Westbrook took it upon himself to participate in a homicide investigation at the TSBD, the Tippit shooting, and HARVEY Oswald's arrest at the Texas Theater. This author, however, believes that  on 11/22/63 Westbrook was an active participant as a CIA co-conspirator. I believe that Capt. Westbrook drove his unmarked police car to Dealy Plaza, and was one of the police officers looking for HARVEY Oswald on McWatters' bus (circa 12:46 PM). After searching McWatters' bus, and not finding HARVEY Oswald, Westbrook knew that HARVEY Oswald would not be meeting Officer Tippit at the GLOCO station. Capt. Westbrook then commandeered one of numerous police vehicles parked at the TSBD (likely car #207). Westbrook, along with Sgt. Kenneth Croy, then drove to Oak Cliff (circa 12:52 PM) in an attempt to locate HARVEY Oswald and deliver him to the Texas Theater where he (Oswald) would meet his contact. Westbrook and Croy were likely the two police officers seen by Earlene Roberts driving past 1026 N. Beckley and honking the horn at 1:01 PM. They likely picked up HARVEY Oswald, drove him to the Texas Theater, and then drove west 5 blocks to meet up with LEE Oswald and Officer Tippit at 404 E. 10th. After Tippit was shot and killed at 1:06 PM Sgt. Croy remained at the scene, and was likely the policeman seen by Virginia Davis. Capt Westbrook left the scene and likely met up with LEE Oswald, who gave Westbrook his wallet, light colored jacket, and .38 revolver. Capt. Westbrook then drove police vehicle #207 back to the TSBD and waited. A few minutes later the police dispatcher reported that an officer had been shot in Oak Cliff. Capt. Westbrook got into his unmarked police vehicle and drove toward Oak Cliff. When Capt. Westbrook's testified before the Warren Commission, his answers as to how he and fellow officers got to 10th & Patton, who they rode with, and what occurred, differed significantly.

NOTE: when the police car drove past Oswald's rooming house on North Beckley, around 1:00 PM, the housekeeper (Earlene Roberts) saw the car. Mz. Roberts told the Warren Commission the number of the police car was "207." The WC asked the Dallas Police the whereabouts of car 207 on 11/22/63, which was assigned to Officer J. M. Valentine. On 11/22/63 Valentine drove car 207 from police headquarters to Dealy Plaza, parked the car, and assisted in the search of the TSBD until late afternoon. Valentine should have been questioned by the WC, but was not. Valentine should have provided a statement as to the location of his vehicle at 1:00 PM on 11/22/63, but he did not. A letter, explaining the whereabouts of car 207 on 11/22/63, was given to Chief of Police Jesse Curry and forwarded to the Warren Commission. The letter was prepared and signed by Capt. Westbrook.


Officer Valentine was not interviewed by the Warren Commission and there is no confirmation that Valentine gave the car keys to Sgt. Putnam. When Putnam was interviewed by the Warren Commission he was not asked, nor did he offer, any information relating to keys to police cars given to him at the TSBD on 11/22/63. He told the WC, "he assisted in covering the Book Depository Building and aiding in searching the building."

Soon after Westbrook returned to the TSBD, the police dispatcher reported that an officer had been shot in Oak Cliff. Many police officers left the book depository and drove two miles to 10th & Patton. However, their stories differ as to how they got there and who they rode with.

Sgt. Hill. Sgt. Hill, assigned to the personnel bureau, told the WC that he, Sgt. Owens, Assistant DA William Alexander, and an unidentified man rode together in a police car.  They arrived at 10th & Patton about 1:23 PM.

Sgt. Owens told the WC that he got in his police car, with Capt. Westbrook (personnel bureau) and Assistant DA William Alexander. At 1:19 PM Owens reported "en route to 10th & Patton."

Jim Ewell, a reporter for the Dallas Morning News, said that he jumped into the back seat of a car driven by Capt. Westbrook, along with Sgt. H.H. Stringer (assigned to the personnel bureau). Westbrook drove his unmarked police car from the TSBD to Oak Cliff, but did not go to the Tippit murder scene. Westbrook drove his unmarked, dark blue police car to a parking lot behind the Ballew Texaco Station on East Jefferson where the suspect's jacket was found moments later. (Click here for more from Jim Ewell)

Capt. W.R. Westbrook  told the WC that while at the TSBD he heard over his police radio (his police radio!!) that an officer had been shot in Oak Cliff. Westbrook said that he "ran to my radio (my radio!!) because I am the personnel officer and that then became, of course, my greatest interest right at that time, and so, Sergeant Stringer and I and some patrolman---I don't recall his name---then drove to the immediate vicinity of where Officer Tippit had been shot and killed." Westbrook told the WC that he didn't have a car, and that an officer drove him to the scene of the Tippit murder. Yet Westbrook said he heard about the shooting over "his police radio" and then "ran to my radio." Westbrook said, "I don't know where this officer went after he let us out at the scene. Westbrook was lying when he said "some patrolman" drove him to Oak Cliff. Capt. Westbrook drove his dark blue unmarked police car to Oak Cliff. The officer did NOT let Westbrook out at the scene of Tippit's murder, because Westbrook drove his car directly to a parking lot behind 401 E. Jefferson, where moments later the suspect's jacket was found.

None of these people agree as to which officers rode in which car. However, it appears as though Hill, Alexander and an unidentified person rode in one police car and arrived about 1:23 PM. They began searching buildings in the 400 block of East Jefferson, near the Ballew Texaco Station. It appears that Capt Westbrook, Sgt. Stringer, and reporter Jim Ewell arrived a few minutes later. Stringer got out of the car and assisted fellow officers in searching nearby buildings. Jim Ewell got out of the car, entered a convenience store, and telephoned his office to advise of his whereabouts. Capt. Westbrook was now alone in his police car, with LEE Oswald's light colored jacket, LEE Oswald's wallet, and the .38 revolver that LEE Oswald used to murder Officer Tippit.

At 1:22 PM the police dispatcher reported, "He's a white male, about thirty, five eight, (siren) black hair, slender, wearing a white jacket, a white shirt and dark slacks."

At 1:24 PM the police dispatcher reported, A white male; approximately thirty, about five foot eight, slender build, has black hair, a white jacket; a white shirt and dark trousers.

Jim Ewell said the unmarked dark blue police car was driven by Capt. Westbrook with Sgt. Stringer, Sgt. Owens, and himself riding in the backseat (all three officers assigned to Westbrook in the personnel bureau). They arrived at 401 East Jefferson about 1:25 PM (one block south from 10th & Patton).  It is important for readers to remember that Westbrook told the WC, "I am personnel officer. We conduct all background investigations of applicants, both civilian and police, and then we make--we investigate all personnel complaints--not all of them, but the major ones." Why does a personnel officer, who works at a desk in an office at the police station, involve himself in a homicide investigation? Westbrook told the WC, "I am the personnel officer and that then became (Tippit's murder), of course, my greatest interest right at that time." But Westbrook's actions and whereabouts show that he had very little interest in officer Tippit.  Westbook did not drive to the scene of the Tippit murder at 10th & Patton. He did not drive to the hospital where Tippit was taken by ambulance. He did not visit Tippit's wife later in the day. Westbrook's priority was to drive to the parking lot behind the Ballew Texaco Station on East Jefferson, where moments later the suspect's Eisenhower-type jacket was "found."

Sgt. Owens got out of Westbrook's car and began talking with an attendant at the Texaco Station. Ewell got out of Westbrook's car and hurried to McCandles Minute Market, where he made a telephone call to the "city desk" at the Dallas Morning News and told his employer that he was in Oak Cliff. As Ewell left the Minute Mart he saw Assistant D.A. William Alexander "with an automatic pistol stalking across the balcony of a two story boarding house that police were searching." Sgt. Stringer probably got out of the car and joined fellow officers in shaking down adjacent buildings looking for the suspect.  Westbrook was then alone in his police car and, in the authors opinion, drove past the Texaco station, turned right, drove about 100 ft., and turned right into an alley.  Wesbrook then slowly drove past a 1954 Oldsmobile and either threw (LEE) Oswald's jacket under the back end of this car or he already knew the jacket's whereabouts. If Westbrook was not somehow involved with the jacket, then why did he drive from the TSBD directly to this parking lot?
 
Motorcycle officer John R. Mackey was in the parking lot benind the Texaco station. Mackey said: "About the time we reached the area the dispatcher was broadcasting information regarding the suspect & his escape route. We pulled up on Jefferson & started checking some cars parked behind a service station to see if the suspect was hiding in or under one of the cars. That's when we found his jacket. We saw Captain Westbrook in his car on Jefferson so I turned the jacket over to him." Mackey said that he turned the jacket over to Capt. Westbook. When questioned by the WC, personnel officer Westbrook said that he could not remember the name of the officer who found the jacket. Westbrook told the WC: "…. I walked on towards the parking lot behind the Texaco service station, & some officer...said, 'Look! There's a jacket under the car.... So I walked over & reached under & picked up the jacket." Westbrook said that he picked up the jacket. While Westbrook's and Mackey's stories may differ, motorcycle patrolman Thomas Hutson, who was about 25 yards away, told the HSCA that he saw Capt. Westbrook standing in the alley holding the jacket.

NOTE: In 1978  researcher Larry Ray Harris interviewed John Mackey, who refused to discuss the jacket. Mackey told Harris, "that information might be something they (senior DPD officials) don't want given out." I doubt that "senior DPD officials" would care whether it was Westbrook or Mackey who "found" the jacket. However, "senior DPD officials" would not want to give out any information that suggested Capt. Westbrook was somehow connected to the jacket.

Mr. Belin. All right, now, prior to that time had there been any recovery of any items of clothing?
Mr. Hutson. Yes, sir.
Mr. Belin. When did that occur?
Mr. Hutson. That occurred while we were searching the rear of the house in the 400 block of East Jefferson Boulevard at the rear of the Texaco station (readers should remember that news reporter Jim Ewell saw police searching houses near the Texaco station when they arrived, about 1:23 PM). Behind cars parked on a lot at this location, a white jacket was picked up by another officer. I observed him as he picked it up, and it was stated that this is probably the suspect's jacket. (Hutson said that CAPTAIN WESTBROOK WAS IN THE PARKING LOT, AROUND 1:24-1:25 PM, WHEN OFFICER JOHN MACKEY PICKED UP THE JACKET).
Mr. Belin. What kind of jacket was it?
Mr. Hutson. It looked like a white cloth jacket to me.
Mr. Belin. Was it the zipper type?
Mr. Hutson. I didn't see it that close. I was approximately 25 yards away from the officer who picked it up.

Mr. Belin. What happened to the jacket?
Mr. Hutson. The last time I saw this jacket, the officer had it in his possession.
Mr. Belin. Do you know who he gave it to?
Mr. Hutson. No, sir; I don't.
Mr. Belin. You don't know if he gave it to Captain Westbrook?
Mr. Hutson. I don't know. Captain Westbrook was there behind the house with us, and he was there at the time this was picked up with the man, but I don't know who had it in their hands. The only time I saw it was when the officer had it.

At 1:25 PM, only one minute after finding the jacket, the DPD dispatcher received information from unit #279 that the suspect had "dumped it [jacket] on this parking lot behind this service station at 400 block East Jefferson across from Dudley Hughes and he had a white jacket on. We believe this is it." But why would a motorcycle patrolman (Mackey) radio in such information when Capt. Westbrook was with him? The police dispatch logs show "unit #279" reported finding the jacket, but the log does not identify the officer by name. This unit number was used by two officers--J.T. Griffin and J.R. Mackey. The author believes that the officer who identified himself as unit #279 was not Mackey, but was Capt. Westbrook, who used Mackey's unit number when he called the dispatcher. Interested readers should listen to the DPD police dispatch recording of unit #279. The voice is that of a middle-age man (Westbrook?), not a young man (Mackey).

NOTE: Officer John Mackey supposedly found the jacket, along with Capt. Westbrook, but why did neither policeman initial the jacket or write a police report about finding the jacket? Why was Mackey never interviewed by the FBI, SS, WC, or HSCA and asked about finding and identifying the suspects jacket? Because Westbrook was trying to hide his involvement and any connection with the suspect's jacket.

Nothing concerning this jacket, allegedly thrown down by the man who shot and killed officer Tippit, was discussed nor mentioned in the police logs for the next 20 minutes. Why?

When questioned by the WC about the jacket, Westbrook said "actually, I didn't find it--it was pointed out to me by either some officer that--that was while we were going over the scene in the close area where the shooting was concerned [the parking lot was 1 1/2 blocks from 10th & Patton], someone pointed out a jacket to me that was laying under a car and I got the jacket and told the officer to take the license number." Westbrook failed to identify the officer who discovered the jacket, because it was Westbrook who "planted" the jacket in the parking lot. Westbrook then said that he turned the jacket over to one of the officers, yet he could not remember the name of this officer. Capt. Westbrook, in charge of personnel, could not remember the name of the officer who gave him the jacket nor the name of the officer to whom he gave the jacket? More lies from Westbrook.

Mr. Ball. You were just looking around to see what you could see?
Mr. Westbrook. Yes; and at this time I had a shotgun--I had borrowed a shotgun from a patrolman.
Mr. Ball. Where did you go when you got out of the car?
Mr. Westbrook. I walked through, and this is a car lot or a parking area right along in here, and I don't know whether I am wrong on my location on not, but I think I'm right.
Mr. Ball. You walked through a car lot, did you?
Mr. Westbrook. Yes, sir; and I think I came out---is that a church---there's a church right there close by.
Mr. Ball. Was there a station anywhere near there, a service station?
Mr. Westbrook. Oh, there could have been--yes, sir. There was either a used-car lot or a parking lot--that I don't know.
Mr. Ball. On what street?
Mr. Westbrook. It was actually on Jefferson, but the place where this jacket was found would have been back closer to the alley, Mr. Ball.
Mr. Ball. Behind the Texaco service station?
Mr. Westbrook. Yes; behind the Texaco service station, and some officer, I feel sure it was an officer, I still can't be positive pointed this jacket out to me and it was laying slightly under the rear of one of the cars.
Mr. Ball. What was the name of the officer?
Mr. Westbrook. I couldn't tell you that, sir.
Mr. Westbrook. Now, I did, when I left this scene, I turned this jacket over to one of the officers and I went by that church, I think, and I think that would be on 10th Street.
Mr. Ball. I show you Commission Exhibit 162, do you recognize that?
Mr. Westbrook. That is exactly the jacket we found.
Mr. Ball. That is the jacket you found?
Mr. Westbrook. Yes, sir.
Mr. Ball. And you turned it over to whom?
Mr. Westbrook. Now, it was to this officer--that got the name.
Mr. Ball. Does your report show the name of the officer?
Mr. Westbrook. No, sir; it doesn't. When things like this happen--it was happening so fast you don't remember those things.

Around 1:36 PM  Capt. Westbrook left the parking lot and drove a few blocks west to the library, in response to a report that a suspicious man was seen entering the building. After Sgt. Owens reported it was the wrong man at the library Capt. Westbrook drove to the Tippit murder scene for the first time.

NOTE: If Westbrook was the man seen by Mrs. Holan inspecting Tippit's body after he was shot and killed, then Westbrook's return to 10th & Patton had to be very brief. Otherwise, witnesses may have remembered his presence at 10th & Patton when Tippit was murdered.

Westbrook's reason for driving to 10th & Patton was to show fellow police officers the wallet given to him a half hour earlier by LEE Oswald. Identification in this wallet would identify "Lee Harvey Oswald" as the prime suspect in the murder of officer Tippit. Identification for Alek Hidell would link Oswald/Hidell to the rifle found on the 6th floor of the TSBD. There were now many police and dozens and dozens of on-lookers with whom Westbrook could mingle. Hopefully, nobody would recognize Westbrook as the man who was with LEE Oswald when Tippit was shot and killed.

Between 1:38 PM and 1:40 PM Capt. Westbrook arrived at 10th & Patton and ordered officers to search the area west of the shooting scene (in the direction of the Texas Theater).  He then began showing fellow officers the 2nd Oswald wallet. A few minutes later (1:42 PM) crime lab officers George Doughty, W.E. Barnes, and Paul Bentley arrived and inspected the wallet produced by Westbrook. FBI Agent Bob Barrett arrived, parked his car, and walked toward Tippit's patrol car. Barrett explained, "I went on over there and Captain Westbrook was there with several of his officers.... It hadn't been very long when Westbrook looked up and saw me and called me over. He had this wallet in his hand. Now, I don't know where he found it, but he had the wallet in his hand... the wallet was there. There's no getting around that. Westbrook had the wallet in his hand and asked me if I knew who these people were. I'm adamant that there was a wallet in somebody's hand and (Westbrook) asked me if I knew who 'Lee Harvey Oswald' was and who 'Hidell' were."  As Westbrook showed the wallet to Barrett and fellow DPD officers WFAA-TV (Channel 8) news photographer Ron Reiland filmed the event. In the photo below Sgt. Bud Owens is holding the wallet and Capt. Doughty is looking at the wallet. Westbrook's possession of the wallet shows that he knew LEE Oswald, and knew about the pre-planned assassination of Officer Tippit. About 4-5 minutes after arriving at 10th & Patton Capt. Westbrook reclaimed the wallet and returned to the parking lot behind the Texaco Station.

NOTE: Identification from the wallet guaranteed that HARVEY Oswald was the prime suspect in the murder of Officer Tippit and President Kennedy. If HARVEY Oswald had not been found in the Texas Theater, a nationwide manhunt would have begun for the former "defector," the "communist" supporter of Castro, the man (Hidell) who ordered a 6.5 mm Mannlicher-Carcano from Klein's, the man who ordered a .38 revolver from SeaPort traders, the man who left the TSBD after President Kennedy was shot, and the man whose identification was found in a wallet at the Tippit murder scene. The wallet produced by Westbrook at the Tippit murder scene is the best single piece of evidence that proves both conspiracy and the framing of HARVEY Oswald. This wallet was never initialed by DPD officers, never entered into evidence, never turned over to the identification bureau or homicide department, never mentioned in police reports or FBI reports or discussed with the Warren Commission. This wallet, shown to officers for only a few minutes, was last seen in Westbrook's hands and then disappeared.

A frame from Ron Reiland's WFAA newsreel footage

CAPT. WESTBROOK RETURNS TO THE PARKING LOT

Westbrook was only at the Tippit murder scene for a few minutes, but that was long enough for Westbrook to show LEE Oswald's wallet to fellow police officers.  After showing the wallet, and identifying the suspect as Lee Harvey Oswald, Westbrook reclaimed the wallet and returned to the parking lot behind the Texaco Station. While at 10th & Patton Westbrook likely told crime lab officers George Doughty and W.E. Barnes about the jacket in the nearby parking lot. They then accompanied or followed Westbrook to the parking lot where they photographed a 1954 Oldsmobile under which the jacket was allegedly found.WFAA-TV (Channel 8) news photographer Ron Reiland may also have accompanied Westbrook to the parking lot where a brief film clip was made of an officer holding the jacket.

Ballew Texaco Station (parking lot is behind the station)	Jacket found under this 1954 Oldsmobile

Jacket  held by police officer

At 1:44 PM someone called the police dispatcher and said, "The jacket the suspect was wearing over here on Jefferson bears a laundry tag with the letter B 9738. See if there is any way you can check this laundry tag." The police logs identify the caller as Sgt. Stringer (personnel bureau). However, when interviewed in 1978 by researcher Larry Ray Harris, Stringer said, "I never did see the jacket, and I didn't radio in on it." It appears that Capt. Westbrook, using Sgt. Stringer's call sign, radioed the police dispatcher and provided information about the laundry tag on the jacket. Reporter Jim Ewell said, "I was with Westbrook as we all went over to examine the jacket because it was the only tangible thing we had at the moment that belonged to the killer. In fact, I held the jacket in my hands."

At 1:44 PM the police dispatcher reported, "Have information a suspect just went in the Texas Theater on West Jefferson ... supposed to be hiding in balcony" (17H418). Reporter Jim Ewell recalled, "They were discussing it [the jacket] when the report came in that a suspect had just gone into the Texas Theater. Immediately, Capt. Westbrook and Sergeant Stringer ran back to their car, which was across the street, and I ran to jump in the backseat. By that time, they were already turning out and accelerating. When I got in the backseat with the door still hanging open, I came out of the car hanging onto to the door. They slowed down long enough for me to get back in." Capt. Westbrook, however, said nothing about running to his car and racing to the theater. He told the WC, "when I left this scene, I turned this jacket over to one of the officers and I went by that church, I think, and I think that would be on 10th Street." But Capt. Westbrook was lying. He did not give the jacket to one of the officers. Westbrook held onto the jacket. He had crime lab personnel initial the jacket for evidence (Barnes and Doughty). Westbrook then took the jacket to police headquarters (arrived circa 2:10 PM), wrote a police report about the jacket, and placed the jacket in evidence at 3:00 PM.

NOTE: Less than 10 minutes after Tippit was shot and killed Westbrook had possession of three very important items of evidence that belonged to the suspect--including LEE Oswald's jacket and LEE Oswald's wallet. This author believes the suspect (LEE Oswald) gave these items to Capt. Westbrook (who was present when LEE Oswald shot Tippit) prior to arriving at the Texas Theater. We know that Westbrook did everything he could to distance himself from the jacket. We know the wallet produced by Westbrook and shown to officers at 10th & Patton disappeared. The author also believes that LEE Oswald gave the .38 revolver that he used to murder officer Tippit to Westbrook (LEE Oswald could not take any of these items into the theater fearing that, if he was still there when the police arrived, he would be searched). A half hour after HARVEY Oswald's arrest at the theater these three items of evidence (wallet, jacket, .38 revolver) were in Capt. Westbrooks office at police headquarters.

CAPT. WESTBROOK DRIVES TO THE TEXAS THEATER

Jim Ewell said that when they arrived at the Texas Theater, Capt. Westbrook parked his unmarked dark blue police car directly in front of the theater (see photo by Stuart Reed). This is a good indication that Westbrook was the first police officer to arrive at the theater. Everybody jumped out and went into the lobby. Ewell was very clear that it was Westbrook who drove the police car. But Capt. Westbrook told the WC a very different story. Westbrook told the WC, "Sergeant Stringer, I, and (FBI) Agent Barrett got in another squad car, and I don't know what officer was driving this one, but then when we arrived and were approaching the theatre, I directed the patrolman to turn down into the alley instead of going around to the front because I figured there would be a lot of cars at the front. There were two or three at the back. So, I and Barrett---Stringer went to another door, and I and Barrett---we stopped at the first one---we got out and walked to this first entrance that was nearest us, and as we walked into the door we met an employee of the theatre. Again, Capt. Westbrook was lying. FBI Agent Bob Barrett did not ride to the theater with Westbrook. In a 1977 interview for the HSCA, Westbrook said that Barrett drove his own vehicle to the theater. Barrett, in a 1996 interview, confirmed that he drove himself to the theater in his own car. Westbrook lied to the Warren Commission.

Westbrook drove his dark blue unmarked police car to the theater, but told the WC that a patrolman drove him to the theater. Westbrook parked his police car directly in front of the theater on Jefferson Blvd., yet told the WC he directed a patrolman to turn down the alley behind the theater.  Westbrook was lying. Nearly everything Westbrook said concerning the jacket and his involvement with the Tippit shooting was a lie. Westbrook had to lie, in order to conceal his involvement in the Tippit murder.

Capt. Westbrook ordered his officers to “cover his [Oswald's] face” and “get him out of here.”  The famous Stuart Reed photo  at left shows an officer's cap near Oswald's face, but the photo at right shows Oswald's face almost entirely hidden by the cap.

RUBY'S FRIEND, TOMMY ROWE, POINTED OUT HARVEY OSWALD TO THE POLICE

HARVEY Oswald, wearing a dark brown shirt (not a white jacket), had been in the theater since 1:07 to 1:08 PM. He sat next to Jack Davis, changed seats a few times, purchased popcorn from Butch Burroughs at 1:15 PM, and was then seen sitting next to a pregnant woman (by Burroughs). The only "Oswald" that Brewer could have seen at 1:35 PM, if he saw anyone, would have been LEE Oswald, wearing a  short-sleeve white t-shirt  as described by the police dispatch. But who does Brewer identify to the police in the theater? The man wearing a  dark brown long  sleeve shirt--HARVEY Oswald. I don't know if Johnny Brewer was  a minor co-conspirator or a "wannabe." But  I do know that when Brewer described the man he claimed to have seen in his store to Julia Postal (dark brown long-sleeve shirt) and to the WC, his description was very different than the suspect described by the police dispatcher (white shirt). Because of Brewer, the police were called to the theater and arrested HARVEY Oswald, the man wearing the long sleeve dark brown shirt. Brewer lied about hearing (HARVEY) Oswald's description on the radio broadcast. Brewer lied about Oswald acting suspicious and being scared in front of his store. Brewer lied to Julia Postal. He lied to Butch Burroughs. Brewer lied to the police when he identified the man wearing the dark brown shirt  (HARVEY Oswald) as the "suspicious man" who snuck into the theater. Brewer lied to the Warren Commission. Brewer had to lie, because Brewer never saw anyone in front of his store. There are clear indications that Brewer may have been given the description of the man arrested in the theater (dark brown, long sleeve shirt) by a co-worker in his shoe store. Brewer most certainly did not see HARVEY Oswald, wearing a long sleeve brown shirt, sneak into the theater at 1:07 PM. Nor did Brewer see LEE Oswald, wearing a white t-shirt, sneak into the theater around 1:20 PM.

Tommy Rowe, a very close friend of Jack Ruby's, worked at Hardy's Shoe Store with Johnny Brewer. In 1964 Rowe told researcher/publisher Penn Jones that it was he who told shoe store manager Johnny Brewer that he saw a man wearing a brown shirt enter the Texas Theater (click here to see Midlothian Mirror editorial about Tommy Rowe) . Inside the darkened theater Rowe claims that it was he (NOT Brewer) who directed the police to the man wearing the long sleeved brown shirt--HARVEY Oswald. Rowe was never interviewed by the DPD or FBI. For years after the assassination Rowe told friends, relatives, and JFK researchers that it was he, NOT Brewer, who pointed out (HARVEY) Oswald to the police in the dark of the Texas Theater. Rowe was so close to Jack Ruby that he moved into Ruby's apartment when Ruby went to jail for killing HARVEY Oswald . In 1967 the New Orleans District Attorney's office interviewed Tommy Rowe, who lived in Apt. 206 at 223 S. Ewing (the apartment next to the one occupied by Jack Ruby in 1963). If Rowe's statement is true then Johnny Brewer lied to Julia Postal, lied to the police, lied to the FBI, and lied to the WC. He never followed the man in the brown shirt, or anyone else, to the theater. The man responsible for getting the police to the Texas theater appears to have been Jack Ruby's friend, Tommy Rowe. And it appears that Johnny Brewer may have been merely a "wannabe" and not a co-conspirator.

NOTE: if Rowe's story is true, then we have to wonder how Rowe knew about a man (HARVEY OSWALD) wearing a dark brown long sleeve shirt in the Texas Theater. Rowe's close relationship with Jack Ruby may be the answer. Theater patron George Applin said that he saw Jack Ruby sitting in a seat at the back of the theater as Oswald was being subdued and arrested by police.

LEE Oswald probably arrived at the theater  8-9 minutes after shooting Tippit,  around 1:20 PM, and he was wearing a white short-sleeve shirt (not a dark brown long sleeve shirt).When the police arrived, they already knew the name of their suspect from identification in the wallet produced by Capt. Westbrook. And Westbrook probably knew that HARVEY Oswald was in possession of a loaded .38 revolver. If HARVEY displayed the revolver or pointed it at the police, he would be shot and killed.

POLICE ARRIVE AT THE TEXAS THEATER

The plan may have been to kill (HARVEY) Oswald inside the dark theater, if and when Oswald pointed his .38 revolver (allegedly with a defective firing pin) at the police. But the one thing the conspirators could not control was the number of potential witnesses, both civilian and police. Too many witnesses would make killing (HARVEY) Oswald inside the theater difficult, if not impossible.

Capt. Westbrook parked his unmarked, dark blue police vehicle directly in front of the theater.  Jim Ewell said, "I went up these stairs into the balcony. I stepped to the railing where I could look down onto this. Then I saw the fight that broke out. Someone was trying to hold the barrel of a shotgun, or train the barrel of a shotgun down among the heads of these officers. I don't know what was going on, but this person was holding a shotgun; I did see that." The only Dallas police officer known to have a shotgun at the Tippit murder scene was Capt. Westbrook.

POLICE IN THE BALCONY. The police dispatcher reported that the suspect was wearing dark trousers and a white t-shirt" and "Have information a suspect just went in the Texas Theater on West Jefferson ... supposed to be hiding in balcony." Deputy Sheriff Bill Courson entered the front of the theater, hurried up the stairs to the balcony, and was "reasonably satisfied in his own mind" that he met Lee Harvey Oswald com­ing down the front stairs. If this young man was LEE Oswald, then he was wearing a white t-shirt and dark trousers. Lt. Cunningham and Detective J.B. Toney encountered the young man and began to question him, perhaps because he matched the description of the suspect. As Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walthers rushed up the stairs to the balcony, he saw the officers as they were questioning the young man.

When police arrived in the alley, behind the theater, Capt. C.E. Talbert noticed a young man standing beside a pickup truck with the engine running. Officers questioned the young man and searched the pickup, but made no police reports about the incident. Talbert testified before the Warren Commission, but at no time in over 20 pages of testimony was he asked, nor did he volunteer, anything about the Texas Theater, Oswald's arrest, or the young man in the alley (24H242). We will probably never know the name of this man nor will we know what he was doing in the alley while LEE Oswald was hiding in the balcony.

POLICE IN THE LOWER AREA. When Johnny Brewer opened the rear exit door of the theater, the police were waiting in the alley. Brewer claimed that he pointed out (HARVEY) Oswald to the police inside the theater. However, this may not be true. A very close friend of Jack Ruby's, Tommy Rowe, worked at Hardy's Shoe Store with Brewer. In 1964 Rowe told friends, relatives, and JFK researchers that it was he, NOT Brewer, who pointed out (HARVEY) Oswald to the police in the dark of the Texas Theater. Rowe was so close to Jack Ruby that Rowe moved into Ruby's apartment when Ruby went to jail for killing HARVEY Oswald. (Click here to see Midlothian Mirror editorial about Tommy Rowe.)  (Click here for a 3/1/68 Los Angeles Free Press interview with Penn Jones and Roger Craig also discussing Tommy Rowe.) Unfortunately, Tommy Rowe was never interviewed by the DPD or FBI or WC or HSCA. It is worth repeating that in 1967 the New Orleans District Attorney's office interviewed Tommy Rowe, who lived in Apt. 206 at 223 S. Ewing (the same apartment occupied by Jack Ruby in 1963). Mr. Rowe said that he told shoe store manager Johnny Brewer that he saw a man wear­ing a brown shirt enter the Texas Theater on the afternoon of November 22, 1963. If Rowe's statement is true then Johnny Brewer never saw the man in the brown shirt in front of his store, enter the theater, nor did he point out (HARVEY) to the police.

HARVEY OSWALD, WITH A LOADED .38 REVOLVER, IS ARRESTED ON THE MAIN FLOOR

Capt. Westbrook parked his unmarked, dark blue police vehicle directly in front of the theater.  Jim Ewell said, "I went up these stairs into the balcony. I stepped to the railing where I could look down onto this. Then I saw the fight that broke out. Someone was trying to hold the barrel of a shotgun, or train the barrel of a shotgun down among the heads of these officers. I don't know what was going on, but this person was holding a shotgun; I did see that." The only Dallas police officer known to have a shotgun at the Tippit murder scene was Capt. Westbrook.

As the police scuffled with HARVEY Oswald, Officer McDonald grabbed the revolver from Oswald's hand and passed it to Officer Bob Carroll. After Oswald was handcuffed, Capt. Westbrook ordered his officers to “cover his face” and “get him out of here” (“cover his face” because Westbrook knew that LEE Oswald was also in the theater. The two young men, Harvey and Lee, looked very much alike, and it would be difficult to explain why they were in the Texas Theater at the same time.) As HARVEY Oswald was taken out the front of the theater a DPD officer told Julia Postal, "we have our man on both counts." Julia said this was the first time she heard of Tippit's death and the officers arresting Oswald had identified him by calling his name-- "Oswald" (interview with Julia Postal by SA Carter 2/28/64). Thanks to Captain Westbrook, most of the police officers participating in Oswald's arrest already knew his name.

NOTE:  As noted above, Jones Harris, a long time assassination investigator, arrived in Dallas the day after the assassination. He interviewed Julia Postal in the office of the manager of the Texas Theater. Harris asked her, when she saw (HARVEY) Oswald being led out of the theater by the police, if she had sold him a ticket. Postal immediately burst into tears. Harris walked out of the office and returned a short time later. When Harris asked again if she sold (HARVEY) Oswald a ticket she again burst into tears. Butch Burroughs, interviewed by Texas researcher Jim Marrs, said that Julia Postal knows that she sold (HARVEY) Oswald a ticket. Burroughs collected movie tickets when patrons entered the theater. When Burroughs sold HARVEY Oswald popcorn, a few minutes after he entered the theater, he must have recognized (HARVEY) Oswald as a paying customer. Otherwise, Burroughs would have asked him if he bought a ticket.

HARVEY Oswald, wearing a long sleeve brown shirt, was brought out the front entrance of the Texas Theater and placed in Capt. Westbrook's dark blue, unmarked police car. Stuart L. Reed, the 30-year army veteran who took a photo of McWatters' bus on Elm St., took another photo of McWatters' bus near the TSBD, and took a photo of the 6th floor window at the TSBD, was now taking photos of HARVEY Oswald's arrest.

Jim Ewell watched as the police brought HARVEY Oswald out the front of the theater. Ewell said, "The next thing I recall is that I was out on the street with the car that I arrived in (Capt. Westbrook's unmarked police car) between me and the officers bringing Oswald out of the theater as they kind of separated the crowd and made an aisle for him to come through to get to the car. I'd say that I was about ten to twelve feet away from Oswald at the time." Jim Ewell said, "Oswald then took my place in the backseat of the same car that I arrived in [the car driven by Capt. Westbrook]." Officer Bob Carrol carried HARVEY Oswald's revolver to the police car, and handed it to Sgt. Hill (who worked for Westbrook). Officer Carrol drove, with officer K.E. Lyons sitting on the right and officer Gerry Hill in the middle of the front seat. HARVEY Oswald was in the backseat with officer Paul Bentley on his right and C.T. Walker on his left.  Capt. Westbrook, when interviewed by the WC, said nothing about Oswald being driven to police headquarters in his unmarked police car.

From the police dispatch at 1:44 PM it had taken the Dallas police less than eight minutes to drive from 10th & Patton to the Texas Theater, arrest HARVEY Oswald, place him in the police car, and begin driving him to the police station (1:52 PM).

QUESTION: Bentley found identification for Lee Oswald in this wallet, but there was no mention of any identification for Alek Hidell

Bentley told WFAA-TV (11/23/63), "I removed his wallet from his back pocket and obtained his identification." Sgt. Hill said, "the only way we found out what his name was was to remove his billfold and check it ourselves; he wouldn't even tell us what his name was." Paul Bentley removed HARVEY Oswald's wallet from his left rear pocket en route to the DPD headquarters (along with Officers Carrol, Hill, Walker and Lyons) and found identification for "Lee Harvey Oswald." Bentley and Hill had possession of HARVEY Oswald's wallet, while Capt. Westbrook had possession of a 2nd "Oswald" wallet. These two wallets could have created serious problems, and alerted the public to the possibility of two Lee Harvey Oswalds, if properly identified as evidence and reported. HARVEY Oswald's wallet and contents were turned in at police headquarters where all items were inventoried and photographed. But the wallet that appeared in the hands of Capt. Westbrook at 10th & Patton was unexplainable. A 2nd Oswald wallet could never, ever be made public, and quickly disappeared--last seen in the hands of Capt. Westbrook.

Contents of wallet removed from HARVEY Oswald by Paul Bentley.  Bottom center is Dallas library card   with address 604 Elsbeth (in Oak Cliff).  The North Beckley address was not on any ID from this wallet.

It is worth remembering that (HARVEY) Oswald never gave the police his name or address while riding in the squad car to police headquarters.

NOTE: There were a total of five Oswald wallets: a black plastic wallet (CE 1798); a red billfold found at Ruth Paine's (CE 2003 #382); a brown billfold found at Ruth Paine's (CE 2003 #114); a billfold taken from LHO upon arrest--initialed by HMM (Henry Moore), wallet and contents inventoried and photographed; and the Westbrook wallet, which was not initialed by police, not listed in inventory, not photographed, not mentioned by a single witness to the FBI, WC, HSCA, ARRB, etc. and disappeared, but not before it was filmed by Ron Reiland of WFAA TV and seen by FBI agent Bob Barrett and other police officers.

Before leaving the Texas Theater, Capt. Westbrook ordered Detective Taylor, Lt. Cunningham, and J.B. Toney "to take the names and addresses of the occupants of the theater." Detective Taylor noted in his report (CE 2003, page 97, at WCH 24/243) that he, Lt. Cunningham, and J.B. Toney remained at the theater following the arrest "and took the names and addresses of the occupants of the theater." These officers would likely have turned their completed lists over to the man who gave them the order, Captain Westbrook. But these lists of theater patrons, like the wallet produced by Westbrook at 10th & Patton, disappeared and were never seen again. There was no chain of evidence regarding the list of theater patrons or the wallet, no police reports, and both items simply disappeared. The WC, perhaps intentionally, did not take the testimony of Taylor, Cunningham, or Toney. They could have asked any of these officers what they did with their completed lists. The WC did ask Westbrook about the list of theater patrons and, as can be expected, he answered "No; possibly Lieutenant Cunningham will know, but I don't know who has the list."

The WC asked Westbrook what he did after Oswald was arrested (1:51 PM). Westbrook told the WC that he “went back to city hall and resumed my desk.”

LEE OSWALD IS ARRESTED IN THE BALCONY AND TAKEN OUT THE BACK OF THE THEATER

Westbrook may not have seen HARVEY Oswald again after he was arrested, but he most likely saw LEE Oswald and may have escorted him out the back of the theater. Deputy Sheriff Bill Courson saw a young man in the balcony who looked identical to Lee Harvey Oswald. One police homicide report of Tippit's murder reads, "suspect was later arrested in the balcony of the Texas theater at 231 W. Jefferson." At least two other DPD documents reported the arrest occurred in the balcony. In his report to Captain Gannaway, Dallas Police Detective L.D. Stringfellow wrote: "On Novemberr 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in the balcony of the Texas Theater, 231 West Jefferson Blvd., and was charged with the murder of President John F. Kennedy and the murder of Officer JD Tippit." How could several experienced, career police officers and detectives report that Oswald was arrested in the balcony, when he was arrested in the lower section?

After entering the Texas Theater Deputy Sheriff Bill Courson hurried up the stairs to the balcony and was "reasonably satisfied in his own mind" that he met Lee Harvey Oswald coming down the front stairs. Lt. Cunningham and Detective J.B. Toney encountered the same young man and began to question him. As Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walthers rushed up the stairs to the balcony, he saw the officers as they were questioning the young man. According to a Dallas police Homicide Report LEE Oswald was arrested in the balcony of the theater.

Sgt. Jerry Hill and Det. Paul Bentley were checking fire escapes in the balcony when Hill opened the exit door to the fire escape. Sgt. Stringer, standing in the alley below, heard someone inside the theater yell "We got him." The police officer inside the theater may have thought the man on the staircase, being questioned by Lieutenant Cunningham and Toney, was under ar­rest, which caused him to shout "we got him." This young man may have been wearing a white t-shirt and dark pants, which matched the description of the suspect as reported by the police dispatcher. But an unknown person, who identified himself as the "manager on duty," said the young man had been in the theater since 12:05 PM. The unidentified "manager on duty" may have been an accomplice who provided Oswald with a much needed alibi, as theater manager John Callaghan left the theater before the police arrived (Julia Postal, Butch Burroughs, and the projectionist were the only employees left in the theater). The young man was released. Sgt. Stringer, standing below in the alley, asked Hill if the suspect had been arrested. Hill looked back into the balcony area and said, "No, we haven't got him."

Something happened in the 2nd floor balcony that caused a police officer to yell, "We got him." Something caused veteran police officers to write reports that Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in the balcony. Something happened in the 2nd floor balcony.

After HARVEY Oswald was arrested and taken out the front of the theater, LEE Oswald was escorted out the back of the theater. There is no police report, no record of arrest, nor any mention of a person taken out the rear of the theater. Capt. Westbrook saw LEE Oswald shoot officer Tippit at 10th & Patton. Capt. Westbrook produced a 2nd Oswald wallet at 10th & Patton. Capt. Westbrook either planted or knew exactly where to find the suspect's jacket. Capt. Westbrook was the first police officer to arrive at the theater. Capt. Westbrook told his officers to cover (HARVEY) Oswalds face and get him out of here. Capt. Westbrook ordered police to compile a list of the names and addresses of theater patrons, a list that soon disappeared. Capt. Westbrook was the highest ranking officer at the Texas Theater, and it was likely that Capt. Westbrook escorted LEE Oswald out the rear of the theater. During author James Douglas's 2007 interview with theater concessionaire Butch Burroughs,  Burroughs said that he saw two different people arrested in the Texas Theater.  He saw (Harvey) Oswald's arrest and then, "three or four minutes later," watched as the Dallas police arrested "an Oswald lookalike."  Burroughs added that the second man arrested "looked almost like Oswald, like he was his brother or something."  Apparently, Butch Burroughs saw both Harvey and Lee at the Texas Theater.

See the Dallas Police Homicide Report for J.D. Tippit and Detective L.D. Stringfellow's report, which both state that (LEE) Oswald was arrested in the balcony.

Bernard Haire, owner of a hobby shop two doors east of the theater, saw the police escort a young man who he thought was LEE Oswald out the rear of the theater. Perhaps the young man in the balcony, who was identified by Deputy Sheriff Bill Courson as LEE Oswald, was this man. For the next 25 years Mr. Haire thought he had seen the arrest of Oswald. If Bernard Haire and Butch Burroughs observed "LEE" Oswald taken out the back of the theater then who, if not Captain Westbrook, was responsible for escorting him out of the back of the theater? After all, it was likely Capt. Westbrook who watched his co-conspirator, LEE Oswald, murder Tippit at 10th Patton only a half hour earlier. After he was taken out the rear of the theater, someone (perhaps Croy) then drove LEE Oswald to a red 1961 Ford Falcon that was parked nearby. Croy told the Warren Commission that after leaving 10th & Patton he drove by the Texas Theater (how convenient).

On the other hand, recall that (HARVEY) Oswald, according to many reports and police statements, was arrested on the main floor of the theater.

See Dallas Police reports indicating (Harvey) Oswald was arrested on the main floor and charged with the murder of President Kennedy and J.D. Tippit.

Capt. Westbrook returned to his office at police headquarters shortly after 2:00 PM. A few minutes later, before Capt. Fritz began to interrogate Oswald (circa 2:20 PM), someone told him that Oswald lived on N. Beckley. Who in the police department, other than Capt. Westbrook  (and Tippit, who was dead; and Croy, who was allegedly with his estranged wife), knew about HARVEY and LEE? Who knew HARVEY Oswald's address on N. Beckley at 2:00 PM and had immediate access to Capt. Fritz?  Capt. Westbrook.

Around 2:15 PM Sgt. Hill, assigned to the personnel office, brought the .38 revolver taken from HARVEY Oswald to Westbrook's office. The gun should have been taken immediately to Homicide and Robbery, but Hill brought the gun to the personnel office. Why? The murder weapon remained in Capt. Westbrook's personnel office for the next hour. The author believes that Capt. Westbrook secretly switched the revolver taken from HARVEY Oswald at the theater with the revolver used to murder Tippit (given to Westbrook by LEE Oswald). The .38 revolver used to murder Tippit was then initialed by police officers in Westbrook's office (circa 3:15 PM), entered into evidence, and turned over to the FBI later that evening. The .38 revolver, taken from HARVEY Oswald, and brought to Westbrook's office by Sgt. Hill, disappeared and was never seen again--thanks to Capt. Westbrook.

TWO .38 REVOLVERS


REVOLVER #1. Around 1:06-1:09 PM Tippit was shot with a .38 revolver. At the same time HARVEY Oswald was sitting in the Texas Theater with a loaded .38 revolver. This author believes that after LEE Oswald shot Tippit, and fled from 10th & Patton, he met up with Capt. Westbrook and gave him his wallet, Eisenhower-type jacket, and the .38 revolver used to kill Tippit. This author believes that Westbrook returned to the police station and to his desk in the personnel office with these three items of evidence.


REVOLVER #2. At 1:52 PM, after HARVEY Oswald was arrested at the Texas Theater, Sgt. Hill took possession of HARVEY Oswald's .38 revolver from Officer Carroll at the Texas Theater. According to Hill the revolver remained in his possession, at Capt. Westbrooks office (the personnel office), until he gave the weapon to Lt. Baker (Homicide & Robbery).

DETAILS FOR REVOLVER #1. Following the shooting of Tippit, LEE Oswald got rid of his wallet, his white Eisenhower-type jacket, and especially the .38 revolver used to kill Tippit (LEE Oswald would not want to carry a loaded .38 revolver into the Texas Theater). This author believes that Westbrook received these items from LEE Oswald, and Westbrook had possession of all of these items when he returned to his desk at  police headquarters.

DETAILS FOR REVOLVER #2.After HARVEY Oswald was subdued by the police in the Texas Theater, his .38 revolver was taken by Officer McDonald and passed quickly to Detective Bob Carroll. Prior to entering the police car, and driving HARVEY Oswald to police headquarters, Carroll gave the revolver to Sgt. Gerry Hill, who was assigned to the personnel department and worked for Capt. Westbrook. Around 2:10 PM Sgt. Hill arrived at police headquarters and, instead of delivering the pistol to Homicide and Robbery (Capt. Fritz), Hill went to the personnel department with the .38 revolver (the serial number of the gun was not yet recorded).

Sgt. Hill said the revolver taken from (HARVEY) Oswald remained in his possession until Lt. T.L. Baker (Homicide and Robbery) arrived and took possession of the weapon an hour later. However, Sgt. Hill did not actually have "personal possession" of this revolver while in the personnel department. Capt. Westbrook told the Warren Commission that he saw the revolver "laying on Mr. McGee's desk with the shells out of it."  For approximately 1 hour this author believes there were two .38 revolvers in Capt. Westbrook's office at police headquarters. This author believes that Capt. Westbrook may have switched revolvers, with or without help from Sgt. Hill. The revolver taken from HARVEY Oswald at the Texas Theater (laying on McGee's desk) disappeared (just like Westbrook made the 2nd Oswald wallet disappear), and was replaced by Westbrook with the .38 revolver used to kill Tippit.

Around 3:15 PM Det. Baker came to the personnel office to pick up the revolver and take it to Capt. Fritz. Before surrendering the gun to Det. Baker, officers McDonald, Bentley, Carroll, and Hill initialed the .38 revolver in the personnel office. IT IS VERY LIKELY THESE OFFICERS INITIALED THE .38 REVOLVER THAT WAS USED TO KILL OFFICER TIPPIT (not the gun taken from HARVEY Oswald at the theater). According to Hill, Det. Baker took possession of a .38 revolver and 6 rounds of live ammunition (3 Western .38 Special & 3 Remingon-Peters .38 Special) and left. However, there is no documentation (specifically a Crime Scene Search Section report) that shows Sgt. Hill transferred possession of the .38 revolver to anyone, including Det. Baker. There is an unsigned police report, allegedly submitted by Sgt. Hill, wherein he claims to have given the revolver to Det. Baker at 3:15 PM. But there is nothing from Baker that confirms that he received this weapon from Hill.

Baker apparently took the revolver to Cap. Fritz (head of Homicide and Robbery), who was then interrogating HARVEY Oswald. Fritz then asked Officer R.A. Davenport, of the traffic division, to take the gun to the identification bureau. According to the police report, at 3:30 PM Capt. Fritz told Davenport to take a .38 revolver and 3 live shells to Capt. Doughty in the identification bureau (3 shells; not 6 shells !!). A police report, signed by Davenport at 3:30 PM, shows that he (Davenport) took a .38 revolver (serial # 510210) and 3 live shells from Capt. Fritz and gave them to W.E. Barnes and G.M. Doughty in the identification Bureau (see below). Barnes and Doughty are the same two officers who initialed the Eisenhower-type jacket that was allegedly "found" by Capt. Westbrook. This revolver (serial #510210) was then turned over to FBI agent Vincent Drain at 11:05 PM, and immediately taken to FBI headquarters in Washington, DC.

Capt. W.R. Westbrook

Prior to being questioned by the WC, Capt. Westbrook was asked to provide a resume relating to his involvement with the Tippit shooting. But in the resume Westbrook failed to mention anything about the suspect's jacket and, of course, nothing about the 2nd wallet. WC attorney Joseph Ball asked Westbrook, "When did this happen? You gave me a sort of a resume of what you had done, but you omitted this incident." Westbrook not only omitted any mention of the suspects jacket, but lied to the WC again and again. Westbrook falsely told the Warren Commission that he didn't have a car and was driven in a police car to the Tippit murder scene. He never once mentioned to anyone that he "found" a wallet at 10th and Patton containing ID's for "Lee Harvey Oswald" and "Alek Hidell." When the jacket was "found" in the parking lot behind the Texaco station, Westbrook falsely claimed he "turned this jacket over to one of the officers....," but told the WC he could not remember the name of the officer. Westbrook said that he rode in a car driven by FBI agent Bob Barrett to the Texas Theater when, in fact, he drove an unmarked police patrol car and parked directly in front of the theater. Just before Oswald's arrest, Westbrook said he stood in the alley by the back door of the theater, but he really entered the theater through the front door on Jefferson Blvd.

Oswald was arrested, placed in Westbrook's unmarked police vehicle at 12:52 PM (the car that Westbrook claimed he didn't drive to the theater), and arrived at police headquarters around 2:00 PM (see photo below).

Shortly after Oswald arrived at police headquarters Capt. Fritz was told by an "unidentified" officer that (HARVEY) Oswald resided in a rooming house at 1026 N. Beckley. Fritz claimed to have forgotten the name of the officer, but I believe it was Capt. Westbrook. If not Westbrook, then who in the Dallas Police Dept. would have known anything about (HARVEY) Oswald, and who could have spoken directly with Capt. Fritz within minutes of Oswald's arrival at police headquarters? Later that afternoon DPD officer Jerry Hill, a former television news reporter, was interviewed on camera. Hill, only a couple of hours after Oswald was arrested, was on television talking about Oswald's "defection" and life in the Soviet Union. When the reporter asked Hill how he knew about Oswald's activities in the Soviet Union, Hill said “Westbrook told me!”


We have to wonder why Capt. Westbrook, in charge of personnel at the Dallas Police Dept., would involve himself in a homicide investigation. We have to wonder why and how Capt. Westbrook knew so much about the background of (HARVEY) Oswald on 11/22/63. We have to wonder why Capt. Westbrook was in the parking lot at the Texaco station when the medium-size Eisenhower type jacket was found. We have to wonder why and how Capt. Westbrook was able to produce a wallet containing identification for Lee Oswald and Alex Hidell at 10th & Patton. Why did Westbrook not write a police report about the wallet. Why was this wallet, containing identification for Oswald and Hidell, not placed into evidence? What did Westbrook do with this wallet? Why did Jerry Hill bring the revolver taken from (HARVEY) Oswald at the Texas Theater to Westbrook's office, instead of taking it to homicide and robbery?  We have to wonder how Capt. Westbrook, a personell officer at the DPD, was able to be in so many places at just the right time....Westbrook was at 10th & Patton when LEE Oswald shot Tippit. Westbrook was in the Texaco parking lot when the jacket was found. Westbrook showed Oswald's wallet to fellow police officers and to FBI agent Barret at 10th & Patton. Westbrook was the first police officer to arrive at the Texas Theater. Westbrook was in his office when officer Gerald Hill brought the gun taken from (HARVEY) Oswald and placed the gun on Westbrook's desk. Westbrook, very likely, was the "officer" who told Capt. Fritz that (HARVEY) Oswald resided at 1026 N. Beckley.  And Westbrook knew a lot about (HARVEY) Oswald's background. Capt. Westbrook was obviously a co-conspirator.

The lies and factual omissions in Capt. Westbrook's accounts of his personal involvement in the events surrounding the murder of J.D. Tippit have four common themes: 1) they hide Westbrook's involvement in Tippit's murder at 10th & Patton; 2) they downplay his role in identifying Lee (HARVEY) Oswald as Tippit's assailant; 3) they downplay his involvement in the probable disappearance of the list of witnesses at the Texas Theater; 4) they hide the fact that Westbrook was the only person who had personal possession of the 3 most important items of evidence in the Tippit shooting--Oswald's wallet, the jacket, and the revolver taken from (HARVEY Oswald).  Following the assassination, Capt. Westbrook re-located to South Vietnam, where he worked as an advisor to the Saigon Police Dept. (courtesy of the CIA).

Captain W.R. Westbrook was a co-conspirator and deeply involved in the murder of Officer J.D. Tippit. However, the extent of Capt. Westbrook's involvement in President Kennedy's assassination, and the identities of his co-conspirators, remain unknown.

There are two varying accounts of police officers arriving at Oswald's rooming house at 1026 N. Beckley. The first account (WC testimony of the landlord and housekeeper) describes events that occurred within minutes of Oswald's arrest at 1:51 PM, before the police, FBI or any law enforcement agency knew that Oswald had a room on N. Beckley. The second account (WC testimony of police officers) has the police arriving at 3:00 PM. This was after Oswald was in custody and interrogated by Capt. Fritz, who told the WC that an "officer" (identity not remembered) told him Oswald had a room on Beckley.

The FIRST ACCOUNT is based upon the WC testimony of Mr. Arthur Carl Johnson, Mrs. A.C. Johnson (property owner), and Earlene Roberts (housekeeper). These people said that three plainclothes officers arrived between 1:30 PM and 2:00 PM, and were joined shortly thereafter by two FBI agents. Mrs. Johnson said, "They came as soon as Tippit was shot." She asked the police officers how they knew to come there in light of the fact that he (Oswald) was using an assumed name (O.H. Lee). The police officer said, "when we arrested him he had your address in his pocket." Mrs. Johnson said they must have arrived about 2 o'clock, when they (Mr. & Mrs. Johnson) arrived home from their restaurant. They (police) asked if Lee Harvey Oswald lived in the house, not realizing that Oswald was registered under the name "O.H. Lee." As Oswald's picture appeared on television, Johnson and Roberts recognized him as "O.H. Lee, while the police recognized him as Lee Harvey Oswald. Mrs. Johnson, after realizing this was the man the police were asking about, told the housekeeper, "Go get your keys and let them see in." Earlene Roberts let the police into the room occupied by Oswald, and said they took everything in the room, including a pillow case and two towels and  wash cloths. According to the Johnson's and Roberts the police arrived within minutes of Oswald's arrest, and then searched his room and removed evidence prior to securing a search warrant.

The SECOND ACCOUNT is based upon the WC testimony of Dallas Police officers. These officers said they arrived at 3:00 PM, without a search warrant, and claimed they did not search Oswald's room until a search warrant was issued. Officer Potts called Capt. Fritz and told him that Oswald was registered under the name "O.H. Lee." Justice of the Peace David Johnson was contacted and issued a search warrant for Oswald's possessions, at 3:55 PM, and then drove to Beckley and served the warrant. Police officers then searched the room, removed everything, and then inventoried and photographed the items after returning to police headquarters. According to the police, everything was done according to procedure.

The arrival time of the police is crucial, because Oswald's address on N. Beckley was "officially" unknown to the police prior to Capt. Fritz's interrogation of Oswald, which began around 2:20 P.M. However, shortly after Capt. Fritz returned to police headquarters, an officer told Fritz that Oswald had a room on Beckley. This officer could have been responsible for the three plainclothes officers arriving at Beckley within minutes of Oswald's arrest. And who knew more about Oswald and Hidell than Capt. Westbrook? Capt. Fritz had a reputation for being able to remember minute details of investigations that occurred years earlier. Yet Fritz told the WC that he could not remember the name of the officer who told him the address of the man accused of killing President Kennedy and Officer Tippit!!!

Following are the details of the two accounts of police arriving at Beckley.

After Oswald's arrest (1:51 PM) Capt. Westbrook said he returned to police headquarters and "resumed his desk." But around the time that  (HARVEY) Oswald was placed in the police car at the Texas Theater, three plainclothes DPD officers and two FBI agents arrived at his rooming house (a two minute drive from the theater). These officers knocked on the door and asked  Mr. Arthur Carl Johnson  (husband of landlady Gladys Johnson) if Lee Harvey Oswald lived there. Mr. Johnson asked his wife to talk to the officers. It is worth remembering that  (HARVEY) Oswald never told the police his name or his address on N. Beckley while riding to the police station in the squad car nor prior to his first interrogation.  After taking the testimony of Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Johnson (landlady) and Earlene Roberts (housekeeper), the WC wondered who these five officers/agents were and how they knew Oswald's address on Beckley. After Oswald was brought to headquarters, a fellow police officer told Dallas Police Capt. Fritz that Oswald had a room on Beckley. Fritz told the Warren Commission that he could not remember the name of the officer who told him that Oswald had a room on Beckley, which is difficult to believe. It is more likely that Capt Fritz was "covering up/concealing" the identity of fellow police officer Capt Westbrook, who had driven past Oswald's rooming house on Beckley only one hour earlier.

I don't believe that Capt. Fritz would forget the name of a fellow police officer who told him the address of the accused assassin of President Kennedy and Officer Tippit.

We know that police officers arrived at Oswald's rooming house on the afternoon of November 22, but the time of their arrival is crucial. If police officers and two FBI agents arrived shortly after Oswald's arrest, as remembered by Mr. A.C. Johnson, Mrs. A.C. Johnson, and Earlene Roberts, then someone in the police department had prior knowledge of (HARVEY) Oswald and knew his address on Beckley.

The owner of 1026 N. Beckley was Mr. Johnson's wife, Mrs. A.C. Johnson, and she was questioned by WC attorney Joseph Ball:

Earlene Roberts signed an affidavit (12/5/63) and said, "About thirty minutes later [after LHO left N. Beckley at 1:03 PM] three Dallas policemen came to the house looking for Lee Harvey Oswald. We didn't know who Lee Harvey Oswald was until sometime later his picture was flashed on television [as early as 2:20 PM]. I then let the Dallas policemen in the room occupied by Lee Oswald. While the Dallas police were searching the room two FBI agents came in. The police and FBI agents took everything in the room that belong to Lee Oswald and also took our pillow case and two towels and wash cloths."

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Carl Johnson and Earlene Roberts said the three plainclothes officers arrived between 1:30 and 2:00 PM, and were soon joined by two FBI agents. At 2:10 PM (CST), 11/22/63, local television broadcast the first pictures of (HARVEY) Oswald as he was being escorted through the basement at police headquarters (the same time that Mrs. Johnson told Earlene Roberts to "go get your keys and let them see in"). Reporters announced that he was under arrest for the Tippit murder and being questioned about the assassination of President Kennedy.

According to Mrs. Johnson, the police searched Oswald's room while she looked on. She noticed that one of the officers was holding a gun holster in his hands.

The Warren Commission attempted to show, thru the testimony of Capt. Fritz, Walter Potts, F.M. Turner, and Justice of the Peace David Johnson how the police learned of Oswald's address on Beckley and sent officers to investigate. These officers arrived around 3:00 PM.

While interrogating HARVEY Oswald, Capt. Fritz asked him about his address at 2515 W. 5th in Irving. Oswald explained to Fritz that his wife and children lived in Irving, but he had a room at 1026  Beckley. After further discussion Fritz soon realized that the address was "North" Beckley (instead of "South" Beckley). Fritz then stepped outside the room and instructed his officers (Senkel, Potts, and Cunningham) to go to Beckley.

JUSTICE OF THE PEACE DAVID JOHNSTON ISSUES SEARCH WARRANT

After reading the WC testimony of these people it becomes obvious that the time of arrival of the police officers is crucial. If they arrived between 1:30 and 2:00 PM, as remembered by Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and Earlene Roberts, then someone in the Dallas police had prior knowledge of HARVEY Oswald and of his address. If the police officers arrived at 3:00 PM, then the memories of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and Earlene Roberts are incorrect. The over-riding question and concern, that has never been answered or explained, is the identity of the police officer who told Capt. Fritz that Oswald had a room on Beckley. This man was very likely a co-conspirator. And why would these officers arrive at Beckley so early, without a search warrant? One possibility was to plant evidence, such as a .38 holster.

LEE OSWALD, STILL WEARING A WHITE T-SHIRT, WAS SEEN SOON AFTER HARVEY OSWALD'S ARREST

HARVEY Oswald, sitting in the Dallas jail, now had both the CIA and FBI desperately trying to distance themselves from him, link him with Castro and/or Cuba, frame him for the assassination, hide his true identity, and create a legend that portrayed him as a "lone nut."





LEE Oswald was not in jail, and shortly after HARVEY Oswald's arrest LEE was seen driving a red Ford Falcon back and forth on Davis St., six blocks north of the Texas Theater. LEE Oswald soon drove his car behind a large billboard adjacent to the El Chico Restaurant, and appeared to be hiding from the police who were patrolling the streets.





T.F. White, a career mechanic who worked across the street at Mack Pate's Auto Service, was curious and walked toward the car. The man, sitting in the car with the engine running, was wearing a white t-shirt and looked directly at Mr. White. As White walked toward the car the driver quickly sped away throwing gravel with his rear tires. White wrote the make and model of the car and the license plate number (PP4537) in his notebook.

After seeing Oswald's photograph on television Mr. White told his employer, Mac Pate, that he saw Oswald sitting in a car in the El Chico parking lot on the afternoon of the assassination. A week later Mr. Pate was sitting in the audience listening to radio announcer Wes Wise discuss the assassination of President Kennedy. Pate then met with Mr. Wise and told him that one of his employees (T.F. White) saw Oswald sitting in a car on the afternoon of November 22. Mr. Pate then contacted the Dept. of Public safety and provided the license plate number of the vehicle. Mr. Pate next contacted FBI agent Charles Brown and reported the man driving the car was Oswald, and gave SA Brown the number of the license plate. The license plates were registered to a two-tone blue 1957 Plymouth that was owned by Tippit's best friend, Carl Mather, an employee of Collins Radio (a very important CIA contractor).

LEE Oswald murdered Officer Tippit, and an hour later was driving a red Ford Falcon with license plates registered to a 1957 blue Plymouth owned by Tippit's best friend, Carl Mather. Wes Wise (later the Mayor of Dallas), accompanied by a CBS reporter, interviewed Carl and Barbara Mather over dinner. Barbara Mather was calm, but Carl Mather was so upset and agitated that he was unable to eat. Years later Carl Mather agreed to be interviewed by the HSCA, but not before insisting on a grant of immunity. Ken Porter, another employee of Collins Radio, quit his job after the assassination, divorced his wife, and married Oswald's widow--Marina.

In the FBI report relating to Mr. White's sighting of Oswald driving Carl Mather's car, the FBI changed the two-tone blue 1957 Plymouth to a red Ford Falcon. This allowed Carl Mather's wife, Barbara, to tell the FBI that they had never owned a red car.

The fate of HARVEY Oswald, in Dallas Police custody until he was killed by Jack Ruby, is well-known.  But LEE Oswald's whereabouts following the assassination became increasingly difficult to follow.  One intriguing account of his possible escape from the Dallas area comes from a  decorated U.S. Air Force 20-year veteran named Robert Vinson.  Vinson said that on the afternoon of November 22 he was a passenger on a nearly deserted C-54 cargo plane that departed from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Soon after the assassination the plane was diverted and landed on what appeared to be a road under construction near the Trinity River south of Dallas.  There, Vinson said, a Jeep carrying two men and a driver pulled up to the plane and two passengers came aboard.  Vinson said the taller man might have been Cuban, and, after he saw televised pictures of Lee HARVEY Oswald, he felt the shorter man "looked an awful lot like Oswald."  The flight continued to an Air Force Base in Roswell, New Mexico, where all the passengers deplaned.  Vinson said he was told the entire base was on lockdown until later in the evening. Click here for Part 2 of the YouTube interview with Vinson.  Additional background information on Vinson is in Part 1 of the interview, also on YouTube.

Robert Vinson

NOVEMBER 23-24, 1963: THE FBI SOLVES THE CASE

The day after the assassination (Saturday, 11/23/63) Hoover wrote to James J. Rowley, head of the US Secret Service, and said, "There are enclosed the results of our inquiry into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and background information relative to Lee Harvey Oswald."

The next day (Sunday, 11/24/63) Jack Ruby shot and killed (HARVEY) Oswald. FBI Associate Director Clyde Tolson sent a memo to FBI official Alan Belmont. Tolson wrote, "Shanklin said results of the investigation have been reduced to written form and consequently the information will all be available for these two supervisors. We can prepare a memorandum to the Attorney General [Robert Kennedy] to set out the evidence showing that Oswald is responsible for the shooting that killed the President. We will show that Oswald was an avowed Marxist, a former defector to the Soviet union and an active member of the FPCC, which has been financed by Castro. We will set forth the items of evidence which make it clear that Oswald is the man who killed the President."

Within 48 hours of President Kennedy's assassination, the FBI had already decided that Oswald was the lone assassin of President Kennedy. All they needed to do was to make sure the items of evidence and documentation supported their conclusion. FBI official William Sullivan knew the FBI's capabilities and said, "When an enormous organization like the FBI with tremendous power still can sit back and shuffle the deck of cards and pick up the card they want to show you it may be you're not going to get the entire picture as fully as you would otherwise.... If there were documents that possibly he [Hoover] didn't want to come to the light of the public, then those documents no longer exist, and the truth will never be known."

Hoover and his FBI would make sure that all evidence given to the Warren Commision supported the Bureau's conclusion that one man, "Lee Harvey Oswald," had assassinated JFK. This is precisely why FBI agent Vince Drain took all evidence collected by the Dallas Police to Washington, DC in the early morning hours of November 23 (approximately 225 items). Three days later, after altering, manipulating, and adding items of "evidence" that would be used to help frame HARVEY Oswald, the FBI returned 455 items of evidence to the Dallas Police. How can we tell which items of "so-called evidence" were added by the FBI? Simply look at any of the original 225 item of evidence confiscated by the Dallas Police and listed on their inventories (Stoval A & B; Turner #1). Each of these items were initialed by DPD officers, listed in inventory, and photographed on the floor of Dallas Police Headquarters. Items listed on the joint FBI/DPD inventory of 11/26/63 (455 items) that do NOT have the initials of DPD officers and are NOT listed on the original DPD inventories were items that were added by the FBI in Washington, DC. Very simple. While at the National Archives I inspected all items listed on the joint FBI/DPD inventory. It was very easy to see which items had been initialed and dated by the Dallas Police, and which items had not been initialed by the police and were simply "added" to the inventory.


FBI agent James Hosty was ordered to have no discussions with Oswald and not to investigate his background. On January 27, 1964, less than two months after the Warren Commission was created, member Senator Richard Russell said, "They [FBI] have tried the case and reached a verdict on every count." Warren Commission member Hale Boggs wrote to JFK researcher Harold Weisberg and said, "We have not been told the truth about Oswald." In 1964 the New York Times quoted Chief Justice Earl Warren who said, "Full disclosure was not possible for reasons of national security." But if Oswald was the lone gunman and if he was not a government agent and if there was no conspiracy, then please tell us, Mr. Chief Justice, why cover up Oswald's background for reasons of National Security?

In 1969, former Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry said at a press conference that he wasn't convinced Oswald shot at President Kennedy.  "I'm not sure about it," he said.  "No one has ever been able to put him [Oswald] in the Texas School Book Depository with a rifle in his hand."  Curry was chief of the Dallas Police Department at the time JFK was murdered.  According to the Dallas Morning News story covering his press conference, "Curry told reporters he takes Connally's word for it that he (the governor) was hit by a different bullet than one which possibly pierced the President's throat."



Dallas Morning News, Nov. 6, 1969


Richard Sprague, chief counsel to the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) said, "If he had it to do over again, he would begin his investigation of the Kennedy assassination by probing 'Oswald's ties to the Central Intelligence Agency.'" Sen. Richard Schweiker said, "We do know Oswald had intelligence connections. Everywhere you look with him, there're fingerprints of intelligence." In 1996 former HSCA counsel Robert Tanenbaum told the ARRB, "the major area, and I can't overemphasize this, focused on the government and what the government knew about Lee Harvey Oswald... and what the CIA was doing with Lee Harvey Oswald. And what he was doing in New Orleans with anti-Castro Cubans, rabid anti-Castro Cubans, and to get everything you could get from the government with respect to it. And how this government today could want to hold that information and feed the kind of anti-government feeling that results from non-disclosure is really beyond my comprehension." Mr. Tanenbaum's words were as true and correct today as they were in 1996: WHAT DID THE GOVERNMENT KNOW ABOUT LEE HARVEY OSWALD AND WHAT WAS THE CIA DOING WITH LEE HARVEY OSWALD?

Exposing and understanding the two "Oswalds" will answer many questions relating to the Kennedy assassination, and it will help us understand the capabilities and influence of intelligence agencies. It provides insight as to how and why certain government agencies concealed their knowledge and involvement with HARVEY and LEE Oswald. It helps us understand why witness testimony was ignored, altered, and in some cases omitted. It helps us understand why evidence was altered, fabricated and destroyed. We begin to understand why so many witnesses disappeared, died mysteriously or committed suicide. We realize that HARVEY Oswald could never have been allowed to stand trial, and had to be eliminated. As the years go by more and more pieces to this puzzle fall into place and allow us to better understand who HARVEY and LEE Oswald really were, who created and directed them, and who was responsible for the assassination of John Kennedy.