Brennan's Suspicious Car

[William Kelly]

Has anyone seen any photo or film evidence that supports Brennan's story of a suspicious car he saw parked next to the TSBD's side door? I didn't know it had a side door. - BK

Howard Brennan wrote in his book:

SUSPICIOUS CAR - 55-57 OLDS

While surveying the area, I glanced away to the side of the Depository Building and found something I could not understand. At that time there was a side entrance towards the rear of the building on Houston Street. At some point during the morning hours, the police had sealed off parking in that block and forced all cars to move. Saw horses were placed at Elm and Houston to block traffic. As I looked around I saw a lone car parked beside the Book Depository with a while male seated behind the wheel. The car was an Oldsmobile, a 195557 model. It is difficult to tell the exact year unless one is an expert because all those years looked nearly alike. I remember wondering why all the other cars had been made to move and this one had not.

I didn't have the chance to study the driver carefully but he was wearing civilian clothes and appeared to be middle aged.

One thing that interested me about the car was the way it was parked. The left front wheel was pulled sharply away from the curb and the driver had the door partially open. Later I wondered if the reason for this was so the car could make a quick U-turn in a speedy departure. As I was watching the man in the car I saw a policeman who was on foot walk over towards the car and begin talking to the man in a friendly, laughing manner. So far as I could see, there was no attempt made to get the man to move his car and after chatting for a minute or so, the policeman walked back to his post. It was this fact that made me think the police should have made some report about the presence of the car, but I have never seen any other account of this "mystery car."

….Finally, I saw a policeman standing at the Southwest corner of the SCHOOL BOOK DEPOSITORY and I ran across the street to get his attention.[1][4] There was much noise and confusion and people were trying to get out of the area. As I approached the policemen he said, "What do you want?" I said, "The man you want is in the building!" He said, "Are you sure?" I responded, "I sure am." He grabbed my arm and we both ran to the front of the School Book Depository.

THE SUSPICIOUS CAR GONE

I glanced back towards the street to the side of the building. The car I had seen PARKED there before the motorcade passed WAS GONE. Although only a few moments had elapsed and all exits were blocked except one, the car had disappeared. The policeman who had been talking to the driver was gone, but I assumed he was looking for the gunman...

Many times since, especially in recent years, I have thought about the car parked alongside the Texas Book Depository and wondered where it came from and where it went. I have always wondered why the policeman allowed the car to be parked illegally beside the building with its wheels turned outward when other cars had been made to vacate the area. Of course, the paramount question in my mind was, "Who was the man sitting behind the wheel that day?"

As I watched the car, it never occurred to me that an assassination was about to take place and this might be the "get-away" car. Even though I could not have positively identified the man behind the wheel, I can say this for certain. The man was white, middle-aged and dressed in civilian clothes. I didn't have an opportunity to study his face, so identification is impossible but I have always felt that somehow he was involved in the assassination.

Later, I would remember, "if that was a 'get-away' car, why didn't it wait to pick up the killer?" Was it possible that he was being left on purpose? These questions and others tormented me for years after that experience and will never be fully answered. The one thing I knew for certainthere was a car there before the assassination and it disappeared before the assassin had time to get out of the building

Authors Note: Howard did not report the presence of the car beside the Book depository Building initially because he did not make an association. Subsequent to that time he had already made a formal statement and probably realized that to insert this new item might cast some doubt on his testimony. He thus determined not to say anything he could not verify absolutely. In retrospect acknowledged he probably should have reported it, but he wanted to be sure his testimony would stand since it, he was critical.]

Edited August 2, 2010 by William Kelly

[William Kelly]

This is in the Remington book. I was unaware of it until I read it there.

Interesting how everyone ignores this in talking about Brennan. Remington notes how Posner cut this all out when he quoted from Brennan's bok. Cut it out with ellipses.

Yea, There's a lot more to Brennan than we've been told by Lone Nutters.

Thanks to Ken Rahn for posting two chapters from his book. There must be even more interesting tidbits in the rest of the book if there's all that in two chapters.

About that car again.

IS there any photo evidence of a 55-57 Olds parked near the TSBD illegally with a cop standing next to it talking to the driver?

BK

[Lee Forman]

This is in the Remington book. I was unaware of it until I read it there.

Interesting how everyone ignores this in talking about Brennan. Remington notes how Posner cut this all out when he quoted from Brennan's bok. Cut it out with ellipses.

Yea, There's a lot more to Brennan than we've been told by Lone Nutters.

Thanks to Ken Rahn for posting two chapters from his book. There must be even more interesting tidbits in the rest of the book if there's all that in two chapters.

About that car again.

IS there any photo evidence of a 55-57 Olds parked near the TSBD illegally with a cop standing next to it talking to the driver?

BK

Not that I am aware of Bill - the closest I think you can get to that is in examining the Croft photo of the area at the time [good luck with that]. Nothing visible [for what we have available] from Altgens. No clue what was on Moorman's #4.

I think Robin has quite a lot of good material with respect to the rear of the TSBD - there was a loading dock there with a door.

[Jerry Logan]

This is in the Remington book. I was unaware of it until I read it there.

Interesting how everyone ignores this in talking about Brennan. Remington notes how Posner cut this all out when he quoted from Brennan's bok. Cut it out with ellipses.

Yea, There's a lot more to Brennan than we've been told by Lone Nutters.

Thanks to Ken Rahn for posting two chapters from his book. There must be even more interesting tidbits in the rest of the book if there's all that in two chapters.

About that car again.

IS there any photo evidence of a 55-57 Olds parked near the TSBD illegally with a cop standing next to it talking to the driver?

BK

Bill,

Maybe Chris Davidson can help. There appears to be something parked by the TSBD in this Bell frame.

I'm pointing to the dark outline, not the white material.

Best to you,

Jerry

[William Kelly]

Jim, can you tell me what's Remington's book?

And Thanks Jerry,

That looks interesting and in the spot where Brennan would have seen it.

It should be in other photos though.

And this just in from Dallas.

Hi Bill,

Well that's certainly an interesting question, though one must be careful reading Brennan's story as written posthumously by Rev. Cherryholmes (what Remington book?).

Yes, there was a car there immediately after the shooting. It can be seen in the Don Cook/KTVT film as shot from the Elm-Houston intersection about a minute or so after the shooting. There was a two-tone with a light, probably white, top and dark body. The b&w film is too dark to know if anyone was inside it, but there was a small crowd of people directly in front of it and a police motorcycle in front of them. Another motorcycle was parallel to the left front fender just three or four feet from the car. Since that cycle blocked the view, I cannot tell whether the left front tire was angled out toward the street. Later views show the car had, in fact, disappeared.

The Cook film also shows that there was no doorway on the east side of the TSBD. Those windows, like the front ones, were covered by that concrete lattice work, which was removed decades later. There was a narrow chute right at the southeast corner of the building for deliveries to the basement, but certainly no doorway of any kind. Makes me wonder what Brennan/Cherryholmes were thinking.

Since the car was facing south, it's location at the side of the street makes perfect sense but one must remember that Houston Street did not go all the way through north of the TSBD. Construction was still going on and the city didn't finish the street until later the following month. Whoever parked the car there had to have driven up that half block of Houston and then made a U-turn to go south and pull over to the Houston curb.

Gary Mack

Edited August 13, 2010 by William Kelly

[Chris Davidson]

So Far!!!

chris

[Lee Forman]

So Far!!!

chris

Hi Chris.

The timestamp on those photos [minus Bell] would they be within 'moments' of the shooting?

Do you have any high quality frames from the Towner film for that turn?

- lee

[Lee Forman]

The car in your top left shot certainly looks to be the same...

[John Dolva]

Roughly guided by the shadows the photos appear to be not far past the shooting.

[Chris Davidson]

So Far!!!

chris

Hi Chris.

The timestamp on those photos [minus Bell] would they be within 'moments' of the shooting?

Do you have any high quality frames from the Towner film for that turn?

- lee

Lee,

I don't know how quickly the cameramen got to those positions.

Towner does not show this area because of the crowd in front.

Hughes is a better bet, but he is so far away, trying to distinguish anything is pretty much futile.

The frame you provided has Sitzman and Beatrice Hester included, if someone knows how long it took for them to move from their knoll positions, would be helpful, but don't count on it.

I believe the car in the lower left is closer to a 54 chevy.

chris

[William Kelly]

So Far!!!

chris

Hi Chris.

The timestamp on those photos [minus Bell] would they be within 'moments' of the shooting?

Do you have any high quality frames from the Towner film for that turn?

- lee

Lee,

I don't know how quickly the cameramen got to those positions.

Towner does not show this area because of the crowd in front.

Hughes is a better bet, but he is so far away, trying to distinguish anything is pretty much futile.

The frame you provided has Sitzman and Beatrice Hester included, if someone knows how long it took for them to move from their knoll positions, would be helpful, but don't count on it.

I believe the car in the lower left is closer to a 54 chevy.

chris

That would be a 54 Chevy allright.

Do you think that Brennen would mix up a 54 Chevyand a 57 Olds?

I don't know. Just asking.

In the top left photo, just under the shotgun, there appears to be another car parked at the curb,

just behind the parked motorcycle and fireplug.

I would think that's the car Brennan was refering to.

Thanks for taking the trouble to find some of these photos,

BK

[Thomas Graves]

The car in your top left shot certainly looks to be the same...

Interesting photo posted by Lee Forman in post #8, this thread. Not only is Howard Brennan's possible "suspicious car" partially visible in the right background, but so is Bill Kelley's "College Boy" at the far left, facing right.

Could that be police officer Welcome E. Barnett in the foreground?

Brennan claimed to have seen a 1955-1957 Oldsmobile parked strangely near a TSBD "side door" on Houston, but the car in the photo has been identified as a '54 Chevy, and although it is parked the "wrong way," it's across the street from the TSBD, in front of the DalTex building. I don't know how similar in appearance those cars were. Regardless, I'm thinking that maybe Brennan mistook a TSBD delivery chute, pointed out by Gary Mack as being at the south east corner of the building on Houston, for a TSBD "side door"?

--Tommy

Edit: I think the '54 Chev's right side and passenger side front wheel might be visible in this photo by Weaver. The antenna on JFK's limo is practically pointing to it, in front of the DalTex building. (Enlarge it to make out the whitewall on the car's right front tire.)

Edited December 6, 2013 by Thomas Graves

[Robert Howard]

photo courtesy of http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=47292337

There is something I have to mention, about two hours ago I found the only obituary I have ever seen for Howard Leslie Brennan, very short. Synchronicity, or whatever you want to call it, that there would be a new thread about him.

DMN 12/23/83 page 55a
obituary
Brennan, Howard L., 64 of Kemp, Kaufman County,
author of Eyewitness to the Kennedy Assassination and retired Katy Railroad steamfitter.
Services 11:00 a.m. Saturday. Anderson Clayton Bros. Chapel, Kemp




HOWARD LESLIE BRENNAN
OCCUPATION :
Steamfitter
LOCATION :
Wall Opposite Book Depository
Building
SOURCE OF SHOTS :
Book Depository
NUMBER OF SHOTS :
2

One or two things, although I don't have the book Harrison Livingstone's

book The Radical Right and the Murder of JFK, if I remember correctly

had a section where it was stated as fact that Brennan was employed

by Wallace & Beard Construction Co., I noticed that the brief obit,

made no mention of that. It would be good to get that information

settled one way or another.

The other matter has to do with the crossover on this thread

to the thread I have been posting on with reference to the video in

The Lost JFK Tapes.

See

Heavy Set, Middle Aged Man, Put in Car...
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=8680&page=2

I cannot tell if there is overlapping

footage, or two different men wearing a hardhat

being escorted from the direction of the "retaining wall,"

as Brennan refers to where he was sitting when he heard

the shots; If there is overlapping footage in the film

being repeated then it is probably just H L Brennan being escorted

to the front top of the stairs of the TSBD. [There is a photo of

this on Pictures of the Pain page 502 + an accompanying

account regarding Brennan....."Among the cluster of photos

Murray made, one can observe Howard Brennan in a series

of three exposures...END

Murray's first photo at Elm and Main with the two crying

African-American women also has a photo of a man with a

hardhat, it seems obvious to me, he is not Brennan.

If it is two different persons, [i believe it is] then there is something

very odd to all of this this, 50 years worth of odd!

And I will tell you why, I am very familiar with the physical appearance of

Detective E. R. "Buddy" Walthers, he already had one area

that seemed to be obfuscated in the 1960's when he was

shown with, ostensibly the FBI's SA Robert M. Barrett

looking at where a bullet had hit in the middle median between

Elm and Main Street. In the Lost JFK Tapes

what I believe is Detective Walthers escorting a man in

a hardhat whose arms are behind his back and Walthers

is holding onto him at that same area. You cant see handcuffs

but it is because of the fact that a combination of the angle

and the very short amount of the sequence the viewer

sees, that accounts for that. There is another bizarre

clip in the same sequence of film where seemingly

a civilian or a plainclothes detective is escorting a young man

who is wearing slacks a white shirt, with a tie. No handcuffs

but it is all very odd.

Brennan's MFF Blurb has the following

BRENNAN, HOWARD LESLIE
Sources: WC Report (5, 63-4, 71, 143-5, 155, 250); WC VOL 3 (140-61, 184-6, 211); WC Vol 19 (470); WC Vol 24 (203, 406); CE 2006; CD 205, pp. 15-18; CD 329, pp. 7-8; Whitewash, Weisberg (66, 81, 90-5, 151, 188, 198); Rush to Judgment, Lane (11-2, 38, 83-4, 96-8, 100, 107-8, 140, 231, 262, 269-70, 275, 347, 384, 395-7); Cover-up, Shaw & Harris (158); Conspiracy, Summers (72, 109-10); Accessories After the Fact, Meagher (10, 12-3, 28, 78, 372, 397, 430); Assassination Tapes, O'Toole (7, 95-6); Best Evidence, Lifton (355); Who Killed Kennedy, Buchanan (128, 203); Oswald: Assassin or Fall Guy Guy, Joesten (47, 163, 173, 191-2); They've Killed the President, Anson (18, 61); Inquest, Epstein (135-6, 150); HSCA VOL II (3); HSCA VOL XI (226, 445-6, 448)
Mary's Comments: Sitting on wall at SW corner Elm & Houston. Gave description of man he saw firing at Kennedy. CD 205, p. 16: "he is identified herein as having furnished at this time a positive identification of OSWALD as the person who fired a rifle from the window of the TSBD on November 22, 1963." Nov. 1963 was employed as a steamfitter by Wallace & Beard Contractors in Oil and Gas Bldg., Dallas, TX. Died in Kemp, TX, Dec. 1983. Had written a book, "One Day in Dallas: Eyewitness to the Kennedy Assassination," with help of Methodist Minister Edward Cherryholmes (privately published.)

Edited December 5, 2013 by Robert Howard

[Paul Brancato]

Robert - any idea who the young short guy is who is escorted into an office in the police station around 32 minutes into the film while the soundtrack is mentioning an arrest in Ft. Worth? It does not appear to me to be either of the two known arrests there that day - House and somebody else connected to House.

[Thomas Graves]

HOWARD L BRENNAN.gif

photo courtesy of http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=47292337

There is something I have to mention, about two hours ago I found the only obituary I have ever seen for Howard Leslie Brennan, very short. Synchronicity, or whatever you want to call it, that there would be a new thread about him.

DMN 12/23/83 page 55a

obituary

Brennan, Howard L., 64 of Kemp, Kaufman County,

author of Eyewitness to the Kennedy Assassination and retired Katy Railroad steamfitter.

Services 11:00 a.m. Saturday. Anderson Clayton Bros. Chapel, Kemp

HOWARD LESLIE BRENNAN

OCCUPATION :

Steamfitter

LOCATION :

Wall Opposite Book Depository

Building

SOURCE OF SHOTS :

Book Depository

NUMBER OF SHOTS :

2

One or two things, although I don't have the book Harrison Livingstone's

book The Radical Right and the Murder of JFK, if I remember correctly

had a section where it was stated as fact that Brennan was employed

by Wallace & Beard Construction Co., I noticed that the brief obit,

made no mention of that. It would be good to get that information

settled one way or another.

The other matter has to do with the crossover on this thread

to the thread I have been posting on with reference to the video in

The Lost JFK Tapes.

See

Heavy Set, Middle Aged Man, Put in Car...

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=8680&page=2

I cannot tell if there is overlapping

footage, or two different men wearing a hardhat

being escorted from the direction of the "retaining wall,"

as Brennan refers to where he was sitting when he heard

the shots; If there is overlapping footage in the film

being repeated then it is probably just H L Brennan being escorted

to the front top of the stairs of the TSBD. [There is a photo of

this on Pictures of the Pain page 502 + an accompanying

account regarding Brennan....."Among the cluster of photos

Murray made, one can observe Howard Brennan in a series

of three exposures...END

Murray's first photo at Elm and Main with the two crying

African-American women also has a photo of a man with a

hardhat, it seems obvious to me, he is not Brennan.

If it is two different persons, [i believe it is] then there is something

very odd to all of this this, 50 years worth of odd!

And I will tell you why, I am very familiar with the physical appearance of

Detective E. R. "Buddy" Walthers, he already had one area

that seemed to be obfuscated in the 1960's when he was

shown with, ostensibly the FBI's SA Robert M. Barrett

looking at where a bullet had hit in the middle median between

Elm and Main Street. In the Lost JFK Tapes

what I believe is Detective Walthers escorting a man in

a hardhat whose arms are behind his back and Walthers

is holding onto him at that same area. You cant see handcuffs

but it is because of the fact that a combination of the angle

and the very short amount of the sequence the viewer

sees, that accounts for that. There is another bizarre

clip in the same sequence of film where seemingly

a civilian or a plainclothes detective is escorting a young man

who is wearing slacks a white shirt, with a tie. No handcuffs

but it is all very odd.

Brennan's MFF Blurb has the following

BRENNAN, HOWARD LESLIE

Sources: WC Report (5, 63-4, 71, 143-5, 155, 250); WC VOL 3 (140-61, 184-6, 211); WC Vol 19 (470); WC Vol 24 (203, 406); CE 2006; CD 205, pp. 15-18; CD 329, pp. 7-8; Whitewash, Weisberg (66, 81, 90-5, 151, 188, 198); Rush to Judgment, Lane (11-2, 38, 83-4, 96-8, 100, 107-8, 140, 231, 262, 269-70, 275, 347, 384, 395-7); Cover-up, Shaw & Harris (158); Conspiracy, Summers (72, 109-10); Accessories After the Fact, Meagher (10, 12-3, 28, 78, 372, 397, 430); Assassination Tapes, O'Toole (7, 95-6); Best Evidence, Lifton (355); Who Killed Kennedy, Buchanan (128, 203); Oswald: Assassin or Fall Guy Guy, Joesten (47, 163, 173, 191-2); They've Killed the President, Anson (18, 61); Inquest, Epstein (135-6, 150); HSCA VOL II (3); HSCA VOL XI (226, 445-6, 448)

Mary's Comments: Sitting on wall at SW corner Elm & Houston. Gave description of man he saw firing at Kennedy. CD 205, p. 16: "he is identified herein as having furnished at this time a positive identification of OSWALD as the person who fired a rifle from the window of the TSBD on November 22, 1963." Nov. 1963 was employed as a steamfitter by Wallace & Beard Contractors in Oil and Gas Bldg., Dallas, TX. Died in Kemp, TX, Dec. 1983. Had written a book, "One Day in Dallas: Eyewitness to the Kennedy Assassination," with help of Methodist Minister Edward Cherryholmes (privately published.)

[emphasis added by T. Graves]

Robert,

FWIW, this is not a new thread as it was started by Bill Kelley on August 1, 2010. I just "renewed" it today because I noticed in the Weaver photo a car parked where the 1954 Chevrolet is shown parked the wrong way, in front of the DalTex Building, in other photos and film "captures" on this thread and the Oswald Leaving TSBD thread.

The "hard hat guy" talking with a policeman in the Murray photo (with the two crying Black women) is being listened to by the two mysterious "Rip Robertson" and "John O'Hare" characters who were earlier photographed standing on the Houston Street sidewalk, watching JFK and Jackie pass by. IMHO, if it really was Robertson and O'Hare, it would make sense that they were listening to (and perhaps "coaching") Howard Brennan. Brennan himself said that right after the assassination he spoke with policeman W. E. Barnett, and that (a few minutes later?) he started speaking with Secret Service man Forrest Sorrels. Is that possible? I thought Sorrels went to Parkland and was photographed leaving it with LBJ and Secret Service man Rufus Youngblood...

--Tommy

Edited December 6, 2013 by Thomas Graves