Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination (48 page)

Givens: Report, p. 143; (narcotics) Roffman,
op. cit.
, p. 177; XXIII.873; VI.355; (FBI questioning, November 22) VI.355.

90
Oswald at 11:45 a.m.: III.168 (Williams); VI.337 (Lovelady).

Chicken bones/lunch: III.169– (Williams); III.288 (Mooney); VII.46 (Hill); VII.121 (Boyd); VII.105 (Johnson); VII.146 (Studebaker); VI.330 (Shelley); VI.307 (Brewer); IV.266 (Day).

91
     Jarman: III.200– (Jarman).

Norman: III.189 (Norman).

Shelley: VII.390 (Shelley).

Piper: VI.383 (Piper).

Note 13
: It appears that Jarman years later said that—like Givens—he observed Oswald on the first floor as early as noon. He did not say this in his more contemporary Warren Commission testimony. With Piper, Shelley (and Givens), this would make four witnesses who saw Oswald downstairs at noon. In his 2007 book, Vincent Bugliosi questioned whether it was noteworthy that Oswald had described seeing Jarman and Norman, but his argument appears to hinge to a degree on whether Oswald actually had lunch
with
the two men—something Oswald did not claim to have done. (HSCA Report, p. 57, referring to an HSCA interview; III.201; Vincent Bugliosi,
Reclaiming History, The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
, New York: Norton, 2007, p. 830).

92
     “Going up to eat”: XIX.499 (Piper).

Carolyn Arnold: conversations with author, November 1978; also with Earl Golz of
Dallas Morning News
, November 26, 1978; FBI report V.41.

Note 14
: Carolyn Arnold later remarried.

Note 15
: Mrs. Arnold’s 1978 comments seem important, if true. The author received a letter from Associate Professor James Chalmers, of the Department of Political Science at Wayne State University in Detroit, expressing doubt on Mrs. Arnold’s 1978 version of events. He suspected that the passing of time led her to enlarge on what she really saw, and that the original FBI report cited here is the accurate version. There is, too, the statement of
Pauline Sanders, a Depository clerk who said she left the second-floor lunchroom at about 12:20 p.m.—and did not see Oswald that day at all.

Chalmers, for his part, pointed out that Mrs. Arnold herself signed a 1964 affidavit stating that, having left the Depository at “about 12:25,” she “did not see Lee Harvey Oswald at the time President Kennedy was shot.” Chalmers also pointed out that Oswald, as reported by agents who were present during his interrogations, spoke variously of having lunched on either the first or second floor. But Mrs. Arnold’s 1964 affidavit should not necessarily lead us to doubt her 1978 account. When Kennedy was shot, Arnold was outside the Depository. The 1964 affidavit does not cover what she may have seen before leaving the building. The author found Mrs. Arnold credible when he spoke with her in 1978. On contacting her again in 1993, it emerged that she had been much harassed as a result of publicity following publication of the original edition of this book. Nevertheless, speaking through her husband, she confirmed that her version of events remained the same as in 1978. (Letter to author from Associate Professor James Chalmers, April 20, 1993; int. Mr. Arnold, 1993; and see Sanders & 1964 affidavit, CE 1381.)

93
     Haste by FBI:
The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover
by Anthony Summers; New York: Pocket Books, 1994; pp. 367, 519.

Rowland: II.169, 183(Arnold Rowland); VI.181, 185 (Barbara Rowland).

94
     Motorcade approaching at 12:15 p.m.: XVII.460; XXI.390, 911.

Mrs. Arnold’s leaving time: XXII.635 (Baker); XXII.656 (Johnson); XXII.671 (Rachey); XXII.645 (Dragoo); Brennan: III.142 (Brennan).

Brennan at lineup: Report, p. 145 (see also for both Brennan comments to FBI).

Brennan and “Communists”: III.148 (Brennan).

Eyesight: III.147, 157 (Brennan).

Brennan and “no recoil”: III.154 (Brennan).

95
     Brennan and “smoke in knoll area”: III.211.

Report on
Brennan: Report, p. 146.

Oswald’s brown shirt: XXIII.417; XXVI.445; II.250; III.257; CD 1405;
Life
magazine, October 2, 1964, p. 8; (pictured in color) Model and Groden,
op. cit.
, p. 137.

Oswald’s “reddish” shirt: Report, pp. 605, 613, 622, 626.

Policeman on shirts: III.263; III.257 (Baker).

Note 16
: An analysis of a film made by a citizen named Charles Bronson (reported in
Dallas Morning News
, November 27,1978) suggested that (at 12:24 p.m.) one of the moving figures on the sixth floor wore “purplish red” upper clothing. Oswald claimed during his questioning that he had changed his shirt at his roominghouse after leaving the Depository and before his arrest. He said, according to reports of his interrogation, that the shirt he discarded was “reddish-colored” or “red.” No such shirt was ever traced. So far as is known, he owned only brown, light brown, and blue shirts (XVI.515). What’s more, he was remembered as wearing a tan shirt by a neighbor who saw him leave for work on the day of the assassination (II.250). Yet Officer Baker’s testimony (III.263, 257) does seem to corroborate Oswald’s statement that he had changed into a darker shirt. It is not really clear what color shirt Oswald wore to work that day. While the matter remains unresolved, it was evidently not white or light-colored—and that is the color clothing reported by most of those observing a window gunman. (The shirt Oswald was wearing when arrested is preserved at the National Archives.)

Rowland on shirt: II.171.

Brennan: III.145.

96
     Clerks: VI.194 (Fischer); VI.203 (Edwards); also XXIV.207, 208.

Mrs. Walther: interview with Earl Golz, November 1978 (in line with early statement, XXIV.522).

Baker: III.244– (Baker).

97
Note 17
: Baker himself initially wrote in his statement (XXVI.3076) that he “saw a man standing in the lunchroom
drinking a Coke
[
author’s emphasis].” He subsequently crossed out “drinking a Coke.” One of the details announced by Police Chief Curry was that Oswald was seen by Baker and the building superintendent, Roy Truly, carrying a Coke (Leo Sauvage in
Commentary
,
op. cit.
, p. 56). If that were not so, it is hard to see how such a precise detail arose in the first place. Yet Baker and Truly ended up saying Oswald had nothing in his hand when they met him (Report, p. 151). The question is important to the issue of whether Oswald could have got down from the sixth floor to encounter Baker and Truly when he did. Even without a pause to obtain a Coke, it would have been a close shave. If Oswald purchased and started drinking a Coke by the time of the encounter with the policeman, then the known time frame is stretched to bursting point—some would say beyond. (Oswald himself, incidentally, told the chief of Homicide he was “drinking a Coca-Cola when the officer came in.”) (Report, p. 600.) In this author’s opinion, the balance of the evidence suggests he was.

A relatively new book, which the author received only as this edition went to press, is relevant to the timing of Oswald’s descent to the lunchroom. In
The Girl on the Stairs
, author Barry Ernest examined the account of a Book Depository witness named Victoria Adams. Adams claimed she and a colleague hurried down the stairs from the fourth floor without seeing or hearing Oswald making the same descent. The crucial factor, the
exact
time they actually went down the stairs, however, remains unclear. Citing the evidence of other testimony and contemporary film footage, Gary Mack, today the curator of the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, believes Adams descended the stairs
before
Oswald—and that this explains why the women did not see him. (Barry Ernest,
The Girl on the Stairs
, Gretna, LA: Pelican, 2013, Mack corr., 2013)

Reconstructions: For extensive discussion, see Roffman,
op. cit.
, p. 201–;
Meagher,
op. cit.
, p. 70–; (Assassinations Committee, 1979) HSCA Report, p. 601nl23.

President late: Report, p. 3; XXII.613– (and see especially 616); Report, p. 643.

98
     Oswald asked workmate: III.201 (Jarman).

Curry:
VF
, December 1994.

99
Note 18
: The two newsmen who recalled being directed to a phone were Robert MacNeil, then a reporter for NBC, and Pierce Allman, then program director for WFAA TV. Both men remembered the encounter but did not recall the individual who pointed out the phone well enough to say he had been Oswald. (crew-cut man: Report, p. 629; MacNeil: “Covering the Kennedy Assassination,” MSNBC; Allman:Wardlaw to Gannaway, February 18, 1964, Dallas PD, Criminal Intelligence files, Box 13, www.jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us, CD 354.)

Supervisor: III.279 (Mrs. Reid).

Foreman: XXIV.226 (Shelley).

Bus ticket: IV.211 (Fritz); VII.173 (Sims).

Taxi driver: II.260 (Whaley).

6. The Other Murder

101
     Alexander quoted: int. 1977.

Roberts: VI.438; VII.439.

102
     Check on cars: XXV.909; XXIV.460.

Oswald name crops up: Report, p. 9 (in Hill 1:51 p.m. radio report); XXI.40, 397; (Beckley address discovered after 2:00 p.m.) Report, p. 601.

103
     Order to Tippit at 12:45: IV.179 (Curry); XXIII.844.

Tippit call at 12:54: IV.179, 184 (Curry); VII.75 (Putnam); XXIII.849–.

Call to Tippit at 1:00 p.m.: XVII.406 (precise time pinpointed by private study of police tapes).

Tippit call at 1:08 p.m.: XVII.407.

Citizen’s call at 1:16 p.m.: XVII.408.

Report scenario: Report, pp. 6, 7, 165.

104
Markham according to Report: Report, pp. 167, 168.

Markham statements: III.305–, 321–342; VII.409–.

Death instantaneous: Report, p. 165; (Benavides testimony)VI.446–.

Crowd: III.336, 354; VI.448–.

105
     Ammonia: IV.212 (Fritz).

Note 1
: Attention has been drawn to the fact that one witness in the Tippit case, Warren Reynolds, was shot in the head two days after telling the FBI he could not identify Oswald. There was no apparent cause for the shooting. Reynolds recovered and later agreed he thought the fleeing gunman had been Oswald after all. Within a week or two of the Reynolds shooting, a key witness in that affair was found dead in a police cell, having apparently hanged herself. She had herself earlier mentioned an association with Jack Ruby and his club. The brother of a Tippit witness was shot dead, and many assumed it was a matter of mistaken identity. While these incidents arouse speculation, there is nothing evidentiary to link them to the Tippit or Kennedy killings. However, it is clear they were inadequately investigated. (Injured witness: XXV.731; XI.437; XI.435; dead brother, (Eddy Benavides): Meagher,
op. cit.
, p. 299).

Ball: debate in Beverly Hills, California, December 4, 1964. Lane,
op. cit.
, p. 161.

Clemons: interview filmed by Mark Lane, March 3,1966; interview report by George and Patricia Nash,
New Leader
, November 12, 1964; notes of int. by Earl Golz and Tom Johnson, 1965.

106
     Wright: Nash interview—
New Leader
, November 12, 1964.

Note 2
: Myers’s book is
With Malice: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Murder of Officer J. D. Tippit
, Milford, MI: Oak Cliff Press, 1998.

Best evidence/forensic: See Myers,
op. cit.
, p. 250– & previous edition of this book (New York: Marlowe, 1998), p. 69–.

107
     Travel possible in time frame?:
ibid
., p. 72–.

108
Alexander: ints. by author, December 1977 & August 1978.

Note 3
: Alexander pointed out that the alleged assassin was close to U.S. Highway 67—R. L. Thornton Freeway—when he supposedly clashed with the policeman, and may have been returning from it. Highway 67 is the route to Red Bird Airport, then a field for small aircraft on the outskirts of Dallas. Alexander speculated (interview with this author, 1978) that Oswald may have expected to be picked up and taken to the airport, but that something went wrong at the rendezvous, and the getaway failed.

109
     Record shop: Hurt,
op. cit.
, p. 163–, but see Bugliosi,
op. cit.
, p. 583–.

Mechanic: HSCA XII.37, 39, 40.

Note 4
: The author is indebted to researcher William Kelly for his summary of this episode. Kelly points out that the owner of the car in question, aside from being a friend of Tippit, worked for Collins Radio in nearby Richardson, Texas. That same month, Collins Radio had received publicity in connection with its lease of a ship, the
Rex
, involved in a CIA operation to land commandos in Cuba. Alleged assassin Oswald had been introduced to a Collins executive, retired Admiral Chester Bruton, by George de Mohrenschildt. (Research supplied to the author by William Kelly; and see De Mohrenschildt references in this book.)

HSCA on Tippit: HSCA Report, p. 59–.

110
Note 5
: The Mafia associate was John Martino—see index under “Martino”—his claims are covered in Chapter 24. Additionally, a Dallas police source was years later to report a allegation he said had been made to him by Max A. Long, a sometime boxer and “motel-bar operator” with a criminal arrest record. When Oswald killed Tippit—outside 404 East 10th Street—Long said, he had been on his way to a “safe house” at 324 East 10th. Long said he knew Jack Ruby and other figures who have been linked to the assassination. He has been linked, under variants of his name, to two addresses on 10th Street—the homes at 324 and 317. The report was turned over to the FBI, but it is not clear that it ever received serious attention.
Long died in 1980. (Myers, p. 360, citing FBI 62-109060-9866, August 24, 1977)