"Oswald and the Amazing Technicolor Jacket"

[Ed LeDoux]

"Oswald and the Amazing Technicolor Jacket"

..and the chameleon like qualities of the alleged assassins coat.

Marina Oswald said Lee had only two jackets - one Dark Blue and one a lightweight Gray.

At least two witnesses at the scene of Tippit's slaying

reported his killer wore a White jacket.

One of these, Helen Markham, was shown Oswald's gray jacket

by a Warren Commission attorney who asked,

"Did you ever see this before?"

Despite having been shown the jacket by the FBI prior to her testimony, Markham replied:

"No, I did not....that jacket is a darker jacket than that, I know it

was."

Witness Domingo Benavides was shown a jacket by Commission Attorney David

Belin, who said, "I am handing you a jacket which had been marked as

Commission's Exhibit 163, and ask you to state whether this bears any

similarity to the jacket you saw this man with the gun wearing?"

Benavides responded:

"I would say this looks just like it..."

The problem here is that Commission's Exhibit 163 is Oswald's dark blue jacket.

The gray jacket is Commission's Exhibit 162.

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ON THE BUS?

The driver, Cecil McWatters, and passenger Roy Milton Jones said the man who

boarded the bus was wearing a jacket.

Jones said the jacket was LIGHT BLUE in color. Interestingly, the cab driver

initially said the man who rode in his cab during the time in question was

wearing a faded BLUE jacket. The WC said the man in both instances was

Oswald, but the commission also insisted Oswald wasn't wearing a jacket

after he left the Book Depository. The commission had to deny the accounts

of a light blue jacket because it claimed Oswald left his blue jacket at

work that day, where it was "found" WEEKS later, and because that

jacket was not light blue. (WCR p. 163).

Roy Milton Jones described this man as follows:

Races White

Sex. Male

Age. 30-35

Height. 5'11"

Weight. 150

Builds Medium

Remarks. wore no glasses and no hat

Hairs. Dark brown, receding at temples

Dress. Light blue jacket and gray khaki

trousers

Mary Bledsoe describes Oswald's shirt, that is was undone, dirty, had a hole in the sleeve at the elbow. Why is Bledsoe the only one who notices this?

Only Bledsoe described such a shirt. No one else who saw Oswald that day referred to Oswald as wearing a ripped or torn shirt.

McWatters and Jones said Oswald was wearing a jacket. (2H 264;277, CE 2641, also Meagher p.81) McWatters thought he was identifying a man who most closely resembled Jones.

McWatters testifies, "...he was the shortest man in the lineup...and the lightest weight one...the rest of them were larger men....he kind of had a thin like face and he weighs less than any of them...I really thought he was the man who was on the bus...that stayed on the bus." (2H281)

Mr. Ball.- "Were you under the impression that this man that you saw in the lineup and whom you pointed out to the police, was the teenage boy who had been grinning?"

Mr. McWatters.- "I was, yes, sir;"

Bledsoe never went to a line up. She identified Oswald from photographs shown to her by the Dallas police of Oswald holding a gun. ( Meagher p. 80)

Only Bledsoe gives the condition of his shirt as undone, ripped, torn, dirty, and missing buttons. If Jones and McWatters saw Ozzie wearing a jacket then how did Bledsoe see the shirt? Was she on a different bus altogether?

Mr. Ball - "What bus did you catch?"

Mrs. Bledsoe - "Well, I don't remember whether it was the Marsalis or the Romana."

Later counsel asks this pointed question:

Mr. Ball. - "Did you remember seeing him get on or are you telling me something you read in the newspapers?" <6H410>

Then comes this exchange about the shirt:

Mr. Ball.- No, I am talking about---I am showing you this shirt now, and you said, "That is it." You mean---What do you mean by "that is it"?

Mrs. Bledsoe.- That is the one he had out there that day?

Mr. Ball.- Who had it out there?

Mrs. Bledsoe.- Some Secret Service man.

Mr. Ball.- He brought it out. Now, I am---you have seen this shirt then before?

Mrs. Bledsoe.- Yes.

Mr. Ball.- It was brought out by the Secret Service man and shown to you?

Mrs. Bledsoe.- Yes.

Mr. Ball.- Had you ever seen the shirt before that?

Mrs. Bledsoe.- Well---

Mr. Ball.- Have you?

Mrs. Bledsoe.- No; he had it on, though. (6H413)

To recap; Oswald is said to be on the bus with Bledsoe, then goes home and changes his clothes, takes off ripped torn shirt (WCR 604-605, 622), gets arrested and somehow has on the same ripped torn dirty shirt which is shown to Bledsoe. Right.

More plausible Oswald did not go home he rode by bus all the way to the theater. He wore only the clothes he had on when he left work, the same clothes he was arrested in.

Or... in a Rambler.

Oswald was under the impression that he left Dealey Plaza in "Mrs. Paine's" station wagon. Bert Sugar and Sybil Leek apparently had information that Paine borrowed a car similar to the one seen in Dealey Plaza. What was not mentioned, however, was that they claimed she "sometimes borrowed" the car from Jack Ruby. 1

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IN THE CAB?

Cabdriver William Whaley, who reportedly drove Oswald home from downtown Dallas.

Whaley identified the gray jacket as the one Oswald was wearing in his cab.

Yet the Warren Commission, based on testimony from Earlene Roberts, stated that Oswald

put on the jacket AFTER arriving at his lodgings.

At the police lineup, Whaley picked out eighteen-year-old David Knapp instead of twenty-four-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald ( Knapp did not even resemble Oswald). Whaley had said that Oswald was number two in the lineup he witnessed. The numbers were from left to right and clearly visible; each man in the lineup had a number that was clearly visible to the man trying to identify the ‘suspect’. The Commission, however, said that Oswald was number three. Trying to explain this problem (this really meant that he didn’t identify Oswald but the man next to him), he said that he had counted from the right to the left, ignoring the numbers that were put there to aid identification (why make it easy when it can be done in a more difficult way?). This could mean, of course, he identified number 5, since he believed there were six people in that lineup.

Mr. Ball.

Did you notice how he was dressed?

Mr. Whaley.

Yes, sir. I didn't pay much attention to it right then. But it all came back when I really found out who I had. He was dressed in just ordinary work clothes. It wasn't khaki pants but they were khaki material, blue faded blue color, like a blue uniform made in khaki. Then he had on a brown shirt with a little silverlike stripe on it and he had on some kind of jacket, I didn't notice very close but I think it was a work jacket that ALMOST MATCHED THE PANTS

(EMPHASIS MINE- MEANING A FADED BLUE JACKET).

He, his shirt was open three buttons down here. He had on a T-shirt. You know, the shirt was open three buttons down there.

Whaley’s identity as the man who drove that taxi, however, is not an ‘open and shut’ issue.

Henry Wade said that man was “Darryl Click”. The mistake was explained as Wade having

misunderstood “Oak Cliff” as the name of the cabdriver.

On November 27, Click became Whaley.

Another cabdriver, Charles Kimerlin, however, would later say he was the man who

took Oswald to his boardinghouse.

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Whaley and TWO jackets?

Mr. Ball.

Here is Commission No. 162 which is a gray jacket with zipper.

Mr. Whaley.

I thank that is the jacket he had on when he rode with me in the cab.

Mr. Ball.

Look something like it?

And here is Commission Exhibit No. 163, does this look like anything he had on?

Mr. Whaley.

He had this one on or the other one.

Mr. Ball.

That is right.

Mr. Whaley.

That is what I told you I noticed. I told you about the shirt being open, he had on the TWO JACKETS with the open shirt.

Mr. Ball.

Wait a minute, we have got the shirt which you have identified as the rust brown shirt with the GOLD stripe in it.

Mr. Whaley.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Ball.

You said that a jacket--

Mr. Whaley.

That jacket now it might have been clean, but the jacket he had on looked more the color, you know like a uniform set, but he had this coat here on over that other jacket, I am sure, sir.

Mr. Ball.

This is the blue-gray jacket, heavy blue-gray jacket.

Mr. Whaley.

Yes, sir. (EMPHASIS MINE)

How accommidating Mr. Whaley is.

So it was both jackets, or either jacket, you choose Mr. Ball,

but it still did not match exactly.

Even the shirt changed from silver striped to a gold striped one!

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Per FBI report:

MARINA OSWALD was interviewed at 11611 Farrar,

A faded blue cloth Jacket with padding bearing

label "Sir Jac" with zipper front was exhibited to MARINA.

She immediately identified this jacket as being the property

of her husband, LEE HARVEY OSWALD. She said she recognized

the jacket because she has handled it and washed it for

OSWALD.

Does this dark blue jacket look faded? Why is the FBI altering the description of this jacket?

picture of LHO dark blue jacket*

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Testifying to the Warren Commission, Earlene Roberts said:

"He (Oswald) went to his room and he was in his shirt sleeves...and he got

a jacket and put it on - it was kind of a zipper jacket."

Mr. Ball.- "You say he put on a separate jacket?"

Mrs. Roberts.- "A jacket."

Mr. BALL.- "I'll show you this jacket which is Commission Exhibit 162---have you ever seen this jacket before?"

Mrs. Roberts.- "Well, maybe I have, but I don't remember it. It seems like the one he put on was darker than that. Now, I won't be sure, because I really don't know, but is that a zipper jacket?"

Ruby associate Bertha Cheek was the sister of Earlene Roberts, the housekeeper at Oswald's rooming house. Ruby and Mrs. Cheek could have been involved in Cuban arms sales of which Oswald gained knowledge through his efforts to infiltrate the anti-Castro Cubans." 2

Mrs. Cheek was the sister of Earlene Roberts, housekeeper at 1026 N. Beckley, where Oswald was living at the time of the assassination. 3

Barbara Davis, another witness at the Tippit slaying, also could not

identify Oswald's gray jacket to the Warren Commission. In fact, she

stated the killer wore- "a dark coat...it looked like it was maybe a wool

fabric...more of a sporting jacket."

Cabdriver William Scoggins also failed to identify Oswald's jacket, saying,-"I thought it was a little darker."

Despite these problems of identification, the Commission went

right on asserting that the jacket belonged to Oswald.

Virginia Davis did not see a gray jacket.

Mr. BELIN.- "Do you remember what he had on?"

Mrs. DAVIS.- "He had on a light-brown-tan jacket."

Mr. BELIN.- "Do you remember what color his trousers were?"

Mrs. DAVIS.- "I think they were black. Brown jacket and trousers."

Ted Callaway ran from the car lot and saw the man with the gun. What does he say about the jacket?

Mr. Callaway.- "I told them he had some dark trousers and a light TANNISH gray windbreaker jacket, and I told him that he was fair complexion, dark hair."

Mr. Ball.- "I have a jacket here Commission's Exhibit No. 162. Does this look anything like the jacket that the man had on that you saw across the street with a gun?"

Mr. Callaway.- "Yes; it sure does. Yes, that is the same TYPE jacket.

Actually, I thought it had a little more TAN to it." (EMPHASIS MINE)

More Commission deception occurred in its reporting of the discovery of

the jacket. The Warren Report stated:

"Police Capt. W.R. Westbrook...walked through the parking lot behind the

service station and found a light-colored jacket lying under the rear of

one of the cars."

However, in his testimony, Westbrook was asked if he found some clothing.

He replied:

"Actually, I didn't find it - it was pointed out to me by... some

officer..."

According to the Dallas Police Radio log, a "white jacket" was found by

"279 (Unknown)" a full 15 minutes before Westbrook arrived on the scene.

The Commission made no effort to determine who really found the jacket, if

a jacket was actually found or if it was a white jacket which only later

was transformed into Oswald's gray jacket. Recently, the owner of the

Texaco station where the jacket reportedly was found told Texas

researchers that no one - neither the FBI, Dallas police nor the Warren

Commission - ever questioned him or his employees about this important

piece of evidence.

In addition, the jacket identified by federal

authorities as belonging to Oswald carried inside a laundry mark "30 030"

and a dry-cleaning tag "B 9738." A full-scale search by the FBI in both Dallas

and New Orleans failed to identify any laundry or dry cleaners using those

marks. (a fact not mentioned in the WC report)

Oswald's wife, Marina, testified she could not recall her husband

ever sending his jackets to a cleaning establishment, but that she did

recall washing them herself. (CE 1843).

Yet in CE 3000 Leslie Lawson, the owner/manager of Gray's Cleaners, 1209 Eldorado, Oak Cliff,

(that location is only a hundred yards from Oswald's rooming house) stated that he has seen Lee Harvey Oswald on one particular occasion and possibly on other occasions. Mr Lawson said that approximately a month earlier, Oswald handed in a tie, white shirt and black pair of trousers for cleaning. Two days later, when Oswald called to collect these items, he had been charged $1.25 and had complained about being charged 25 cents for the cleaning of his tie.

Lawson stated that he had seen Oswald at Reno's Speed Wash. A former Reno's employee, Joseph Johnson, was interviewed by the FBI on 28th July 1964 and stated that on the evening of 20th or 21st November 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was 'washing laundry at Reno's Speed Wash. Oswald remained there, reading magazines, until midnight. (CE 3001)

Further investigation by the FBI turned up no laundry or dry-cleaning tags on any of Oswald's other clothing, and did not connect the laundry tag to any establishment.

If the jacket doesn't fit.

Oswald wore a size "small" shirt and jacket, all his clothes are size small, the "jacket" is a MEDIUM size, which adds to the suspicion that it was not his jacket. . If he had attorney Johnnie Cochran to represent him can you imagine what he would say?(sARCASM MINE)

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Officer J. M. Poe interviewed Mrs. Markham, she told him Tippit's killer had bushy hair. She said the killer was "a white male about 25 years old, 5'10", slender build, bushy hair, wearing a brown jacket" (Myers, With Malice, p. 118, emphasis added). The jacket that the police claimed Oswald discarded after allegedly shooting Tippit wasn't even close to being brown in color. The police initially said the jacket they reportedly "found" was white. The jacket that was finally submitted as evidence was gray with a slight touch of blue.

Mr. BALL. Did he have a jacket or a shirt? The man that you saw shoot Officer Tippit and run away, did you notice if he had a jacket on?

Mrs. MARKHAM. He had a jacket on when he done it.

Mr. BALL. What kind of a jacket, what general color of jacket?

Mrs. MARKHAM. It was a short jacket open in the front, kind of a grayish tan.

Mr. BALL. Did you tell the police that?

Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, I did.

Comment: But the first police radio report on Tippit's killer, which was supposedly based at least partly on Mrs. Markham's description, said he was wearing a white jacket (CE 1974; Meagher, Accessories After the Fact, p. 272). In fact, three minutes after this report went out over the air, a police officer, who remains unidentified to this day, radios that he had the killer's white jacket in his possession. It would have been very hard to mistake Oswald's gray jacket for a white jacket after holding it and having a chance to look at for even just a few seconds.

To add to the confusion, one of the witnesses, Barbara Davis, said Tippit's killer was wearing a black coat. Is it not odd, and in fact astounding, that the "policeman" who allegedly "discovered" the killer's coat has never been identified (see Meagher, Accessories After the Fact, pp. 276-279; Lane, Rush to Judgment, pp. 203-204)?

Mr. BALL. Does it look like, anything like, the jacket the man had on?

Mrs. MARKHAM. It is short, open down the front. but that jacket it is a darker jacket than that, I know it was.

Mr. BALL. You don't think it was as light a jacket as that?

Mrs. MARKHAM. No, it was darker than that, I know it was.....

to Mark Lane:

Jacket :LIGHT GRAY looking jacket

Trousers :kind of dark trousers

Shirt :didn't see colour of shirt

in the men who killed kennedy (with her emphasis that she can exactly remember)

Jacket :BROWN jacket

Trousers :light gray trousers

Shirt :a light shirt

In his official report, Poe wrote that:

"We were met by a white female who identified herself as being Helen Marsalle, 328 E. 9th St., who stated she witnessed the shooting of the officer. When she went to his aid the suspect threatened to kill her and she ran. She identified the subject as a white male about 25 years old, 5'10", slender build, bushy hair, wearing a BROWN jacket"... "There were approximately six to eight witnesses, all telling officers that the subject was running west in the alley between tenth and Jefferson Streets"

Later in the day, Poe filed a Supplementary Offense report (Box 7, Folder # 2, Item # 37). Here he wrote:

"We were met by a white woman who identified herself as being Helen Marsille of 329 E. 9th Street who stated that she witnessed the shooting of the officer be an unknown white male of about 25 years of age about 5'10" wearing a BROWN jacket and dark pants. When she went to the aid of the Officer, the suspect threatened to kill her"...

"6 or 7 witnesses said that the suspect was running east in the alley that was between Tenth and Jefferson".

Here is radio transcript that shows when poe got to the scene:

1:22 Dispatcher Remain in the downtown vicinity, 26. Clear. 1:22.

26 (Ptm. G.W. Hammond) 10-4.

75 (Ptm. E.G. Sabastian) 75 Clear.

85 (Ptm. R.W. Walker) 85.

Dispatcher 85.

85 We have a description on this suspect over here on Jefferson. Last seen about 300 block of East Jefferson. He's a white male, about thirty, five eight, (siren) black hair, slender, wearing WHITE jacket, a white shirt and dark slacks. (Sirens)

Dispatcher Armed with what?

85 Unknown.

602 (ambulance) 602 in service.

105 (Ptm. J.M. Poe and L.E. Joz) 105.

Dispatcher 105.

105 We're at the location now.

Dispatcher 10-4.

So its Walker(85) who gives out description of white jacket before Poe talks to Markham.

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The following exchange is logged at about 1:25 p.m.

279 (Unknown): "279, 279."

Dispatcher: "279" (Unknown).

279 (Unknown): "We believe we've got the suspect on shooting this officer out here. Got his white jacket. Believe he dumped it on this parking lot behind this service station at 400 block East Jefferson, across from Dudley Hughes (Funeral Parlor), and he had a

white jacket on. We believe this is it."

Dispatcher: "You do not have the suspect, is that correct?"

279 (Unknown): "No, just the jacket on the ground."

per Ian Griggs:

"Incidentally, radio call sign 279 is one of the difficult ones. It appears that it was allocated to at least two officers that day - three-wheel motorcyle officers J.R. Mackey and J.T. Griffin."

I agree the Lawrence exhibit (wh20) shows it assigned to both officers that day and shift. Why does not the other respond when he hears his number being used by the other? Griffin on parking duty and Mackey was at Stemmons Service Road & Industrial with W.E. Wilson and R.J. Kosan.

Calvin “Bud” Owens, Tippit’s supervisor from 10H79

Mr. OWENS. Yes--we were informed by a man whom I do not know, that the suspect that shot Officer Tippit had run across a vacant lot toward Jefferson, and thrown down his jacket, I think he said, WHITE, I'm not sure.

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At 1:40PM Westbrook transmitted -

"We got a witness that saw him shed his jacket."

Did Westbrook ever tell us who this witness was who saw the jacket shed by the suspect? No.

Captain Westbrook's testimony at 7H 116-118:

"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."

Now we find out it the witness maybe an officer but he is not sure who pointed it out.

Mr. BELIN. I am showing you Commission Exhibit 162, which appears to be a jacket with a zipper. Does that look like the Jacket you saw?

Mr. HUTSON. That looks like the jacket that was picked up by the officer behind the Texaco service station, behind the cars parked on the lot.

Mr. BELIN. Do you know the name of the officer that found it?

Mr. HUTSON. No, sir; I don't know.

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.

Interrogations of Oswald do not mention any jacket; nothing in the official record indicates he was questioned about or confronted with the white jacket by the DPD, FBI or SEcret service.

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IN THE TSBD?

Marion Baker said in his report, "...as we reached the third or fourth floor I saw a man walking away from the stairway. Not second. Third or fourth. No lunchroom. No door with a glass panel. Just walking away from the stairway.

With regard to a description of this person, Baker said it was "a white man, approx 30 years old/5'9"/165 pounds, dark hair and wearing a LIGHT BROWN jacket."

Not a description of LHO, but one fitting Brennean's and Rowland's description of the man they saw.

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More witnesses

Frank Wright in interview.

Wright;"I was the first person out, and caught sight of Tippit in time to see him roll over once and then lie still." I saw a man standing in front of the car(Tippits) He was looking toward the man on the ground, the man who was standing in front of him(Tippit) was about medium height. He had on a LONG COAT, it ended just above his hands(?)I didnt see any gun. he ran around on the passenger side of the police car, he ran as fast as he could go, and GOT INTO HIS CAR, the car was about 1950-1951, maybe a Plymouth. He got in that car and drove away as fast as he could. I know what I saw, nothing in the world is going to change my opinion." (emphasis Wright's)

Jimmy Burt, across the street from the construction site where W.L Smith was working, watched the same man as he came from the direction of the Town and Country Cafe and continued walking west on 10th. Burt described him as a white male, approximately 5'8", wearing a light colored short jacket (interview of Burt by SA Christianson and Acklin 12/16/63). Burt watched as the man passed them and continued walking west toward Patton. As the man approached Tippit's patrol car, Tippit rolled down his passenger side car window and spoke to this man.

William Arthur Smith was with Burt at the time and described the same man seen by he and Burt as "a white male, about 5'7" to 5'8", 20 to 25 years of age, 150-160, a white shirt, light BROWN jacket and dark pants (interview of Smith by SA Ward and Basham 12/13/63). Both Burt and Smith watched this unknown man as he walked toward Patton, approached the squad car, spoke with Tippit, and then shot him. (emphasis mine)

Jack Roy Tatum was driving east on 10th St. As he "approached the squad car, he noticed this young white male with both hands in the pockets of his zippered jacket leaning over the passenger side of the squad car". "It looked as if Oswald and Tippit were talking to each other. There was conversation. It did seem peaceful." Tatum swore "he had on a light colored zipper jacket, dark trousers and what looked like a t-shirt on". He also remembered Oswald "as having dark hair, dark eyes of medium build and around 5'10". At the point where Tatum drove slowly past Tippit's squad car, he was less than 10 ft from Oswald. Tatum did not see Oswald wearing a brown shirt, just a white T-shirt (HSCA --- Moriarty 2/1/78)

Ted Callaway described Oswald to DPD Officer HW Summers as "white male, 27, 5'11",165 lbs, black wavy hair, fair complected, wearing LIGHT GRAY Eisenhower type jacket, dark trousers and a white shirt" (CE 705, pg 27). When interviewed many years later, Callaway again said "he had on a WHITE Eisenhower type jacket and a white T-shirt" --- again no brown shirt, just a white T-shirt.(emphasis mine)

Mary Brock was the next person who identified Oswald's clothing. She said Oswald was wearing "light clothing, a light colored jacket and with his hands in his pocket" (interview of Brock by SA Kesler and Mitchem 1/22/64).

FBI statement of Mary Brock:

"The man wearing a WHITE shirt AND jacket hurried west on Jefferson and passed the Ballew Texaco Station. Mary Brock said an individual with a "light complexion" and wearing "light clothing" walked passed her at a fast pace with his hands in his pockets." (emphasis mine)

DPD dispatch 1:22 PM: 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 dispatch 1:33 PM: w/m/30 5'8", very slender build, black hair, a WHITE jacket, white shirt and dark slacks. (emphasis mine)

The police broadcast of Tippit's killer described him as a "white male, 5'8", black hair, wearing a white jacket and shirt." Oswald passed Hardy's Shoe store and slipped into to the Texas Theater. Julia Postal, the cashier, called the police. Police broadcasts reported the suspect in the balcony of the theater. When the police arrived, they were told by a "young female", probably Julia Postal, that the man was in the balcony. All policemen who entered the front of the theater went to the balcony. They were questioning a young man when more police entered the main floor of the theater from the rear entrance.

They were looking for a man in a white shirt and white jacket in the balcony, but they arrested a man on the main floor wearing a brown shirt. Captain Westbrook told the officers to "get him out of here as fast as you can and don't let anybody see him". Harvey Oswald was brought out the front entrance, placed in a police car and escorted to jail.

The police homicide report of Tippit's murder read "suspect was later arrested in the balcony of the Texas neater at 231 W. Jefferson". Detective Stringfellow's report states "Oswald was arrested in the balcony of the Texas Theater". But the man in the balcony was not arrested. He may have been escorted out the rear of the theater and driven away in a police car. Bernard Haire, owner of a hobby shop two doors from the theater, witnessed this event. For 25 years Mr. Haire and other witnesses thought they had witnessed the arrest of Oswald at the rear of the Texas Theater. Who was this person if not Lee Oswald? Three police officers were directed to obtain the names and addresses of all theater patrons, but no list exists. There is no police report, no record of arrest, nor mention of any person taken from the rear of the theater.

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Did they gather the names of theater witnesses?

Mr. Ball.

Were you the senior officer there?

Mr. Westbrook.

Possibly--I don't think there was another captain there. There was a lieutenant and then I ordered all of them to be sure and take the names of everyone in the theatre at that time.

Mr. Ball.

We have asked for names of people in the theatre and we have only come up with the name of George Applin. Do you know of any others?

Mr. Westbrook.

He possibly might have been the only one in there at the time the rest of them might have been working there, because I'm sure at that time of day you would have more employees than you would have patrons.

Mr. Ball.

You didn't take the names of any of the patrons?

Mr. Westbrook.

No, Sir.

Mr. Ely.

Yes; I have one. Captain, you mentioned that you had left orders for somebody to take the names of everybody in the theatre, and you also stated you did not have this list;

do you know who has it?

Mr. Westbrook.

No; possibly Lieutenant Cunningham will know, but I don't know who has the list.

From a FBI report:

Lieutenant CARL DAY of the Dallas Police Department furnished

a rifle slug which, according to his records, had come

from the residence of General EDWIN A . WALKER, 4811 Turtle Creek,

Dallas, Texas, on April 10, 1963, being contributed by Detective

D.G. Brown .

_-The slug was identified by a cross and the word, "DAY"

which Lieutenant DAY stated he had placed on the slug . He advised

that Detective D.G. Brown had been at the WALKER home and

had obtained the slug from an officer, whose identity he does

not know, but whose identity is known to Lieutenant CUNNINGHAM

of the Forgery Bureau of the Dallas Police Department .

So if you don't know something, blame it on Cunningham? Was he ever questioned by the WC? NO.

Out of twenty odd witnesses in the theater we are left with Evangelist Jack

Davis, and two other witness in the theater at the time, only because they testified, George Applin & John Gibson.

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P.S.: Dr Liquori certified Tippit dead at 1:15 PM. That was at Methodist Hospital! per R.A. Davenport's report (note he changed it from 1:00 to 1:15 by typing over the :00)

picture of changed report by Davenport*

Per E.E. Taylor report: I along with Lt. Cunningham and J.B. Toney remained at the theater and took the names and addresses of the occupants of the theater.

But several witnesses placed Oswald, wearing a brown shirt, in the Texas

Theater at 1:15, not at 10th and Patton. Theater concession operator

Butch Burroughs sold Oswald popcorn at 1:15. Dallas Evangelist Jack

Davis said Oswald was sitting next to him while the opening credits to

the movie were running--at 1:20 p.m. Perhaps some of the twenty four

theater patrons would have remembered Oswald, but a list of their names

and addresses, taken by Dallas Police, disappeared.

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4:45 PM At a Lineup for Helen Markham, Witness to Tippit Murder Oswald said:

"It isn't right to put me in line with these teenagers. . . . You know what you are doing, and you are trying to railroad me. . . . I want my lawyer. . . . You are doing me an injustice by putting me out there dressed different than these other men. . . . I am out there, the only one with a bruise on his head. . . . I don t believe the lineup is fair, and I desire to put on a jacket similar to those worn by some of the other individuals in the lineup. . . . All of you have a shirt on, and I have a T-shirt on. I want a shirt or something. . . . This T-shirt is unfair." (what jackets did the others "cops" have on, what color?) Why would Oswald want to wear a jacket if he had discarded the one he was wearing when he shot Tippit? And why didn't police facilitate the identification process by making him wear the "WHITE" jacket in the lineups?

In the end there was "No jacket", "One jacket", "Two jackets" and was "Black", "Brown", "Tan", "Blue", "Light Blue", "Grey", "Blue-Gray" and lastly "White."

As the saying goes "The FBI always gets their man" no matter what he is wearing,4

or what color................With all this, in addition to a broken chain of evidence,

the jacket cannot be considered evidence of Oswald's guilt in the killing of Officer

Tippit.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to Steve Thomas, Ian Griggs, Joseph Backes, Todd Teachout and others for your research efforts as this did help me with this multiple-multi-colored jacket phenomenon.

Ed

"Now facts are all very well but they have their little weaknesses. Americans often assume that Facts are solid, concrete (and discrete) objects like marbles, but they are very much not. Rather they are subtle essences, full of mystery and metaphysics, that change their color and shape, their meaning, according to the context in which they are presented. They must always be treated with skepticism, and the standard of judgment should not be how many Facts one can mobilize in support of a position but how skillfully one discriminates between them, how objectively one uses them to arrive at Truth, which is something different from, though not unrelated to, the Facts."—Macdonald, Critique of the Warren Report, Esquire, March 1965, p. 61.

other references-

1. Sugar with Leek, The Assassination Chain, p. 113.

2. CD 23, CE 2694, CD 853, cited in George Michael Evica, And We Are All Mortal: New Evidence and Analysis in the John F. Kennedy Assassination, (West Hartford, CT: University of Hartford, 1978), p. 112.

3. Canfield with Weberman, Coup d'état in America, pp. 50-52.

4. Kelly and Wearne, Tainting Evidence

post script:

The only thing I may have left out is the fiber evidence in the sleeves, BUT that does not say it was LHO's shirt in the jacket to the exclusion of all other shirts.

FBI Memo, Jevons to Conrad, 12-3-63. FBI RIF 124-10009-10499 is the one they sat on for 35 years. There has to be a real

problem with the fiber evidence for this to be buried.

After the blanket was lying next to the bag at DPD (contamination), who knows what went on with the jacket and shirt.

Looking at the DPD photo CE738 I would be more concerned if they did NOT find fibers from the blanket or the shirt on other evidence.

Debra Conway said:

"If the jacket doesn't fit...you must acquit.

I had to say it."

Deb

Gary K Meyers said:

Mabye it was made by a color blind tailor who couldn't measure

correctly.

Bill Cheslock said:

Ed,

I can comment on the fiber evidence that the

Commission tried to use against Oswald. After

FBI expert Paul Stombaugh testified, there was

no way that the WC could say that Oswald's shirt

was the one that left fibers in the butt of the

alleged assassination rifle, as the following exhcange

between Eisenberg and Stombaugh illustrates:

Stombaugh: "There is just no way at this time to be

able to positively state that a particular small group

of fibers came from a particular source, because there

just aren't enough microscopic characteristics present

in these fibers. We cannot say, 'yes these fibers came

from this shirt to the exclusion of all other shirts.' "

Eisenberg: "We appreciate your conservatism, but the

Commission, of course, has to make an estimate, and

what I am trying to find out is whether your conservatism,

whether your conclusions, reflect the inability to draw

mathematical determinations or conclusions, or reflect

your own doubts?"

Stombaugh: "No."

Eisenberg: "Can you tell us which that is?"

Stombaugh: "There is no doubt in my mind that these fibers

could have come from this shirt. There is no way, however,

to to eliminate the possibility of the fibers having come

from another identical shirt." (WCH IV, p. 88)

How's that, Ed, for a very vague argument that the

fibers taken from the butt of the rifle matched the shirt

that Oswald was alleged to have worn during the assassination?

Stombaugh could not, and would not state what Eisenberg

was desperately trying to get out of him; that the fibers

taken from the rifle butt exactly matched the shirt Oswald

was alleged to have been wearing during the shooting.

All Stombaugh could give Eisenberg was the FACT that the

fibers could have come from any amount of other shirts.

So much for the shirt fiber argument.

Bill C

Anthony Frank said:

"Excellent research, Ed. Domingo Benavides, who worked at "Dootch Motors" and who identified the wrong jacket, was a really great witness."

Belin - Taking you back to November 22, 1963, anything unusual happen that day?

Benavides - On the 22d?

Belin - 22d of November 1963?

Benavides - This would be embarrassing. Was that the day of the Assassination of the President?

Belin - Yes.

Benavides - I was thinking it was the 24th. Well, nothing except it seemed like a pretty nice day.

Belin - Do you remember what day of the week it was?

Benavides - I don't remember.

Belin - Do you remember the day that the President was assassinated?

Benavides - No.

Belin - Do you remember that he was assassinated in Dallas?

Benavides - Oh, yes; I remember this.

Belin - He was going south on Patton Street?

Benavides - Yes; do you know Dootch Motors?

Belin - Do I know Dootch Motors?

Benavides - Yes, sir.

Belin - Now, the first time that you saw him, what was his position?

Benavides - He was standing, the first time I saw him. The man that shot him?

Belin - Yes.

Belin - What color hair did he have?

Benavides - Oh, dark. I mean not dark.

Belin - Average complexion?

Benavides - No; a little bit darker than average.

Belin - My complexion?

Benavides - I wouldn't say that any more. I would say he is about your complexion, sir.

Benavides kept saying that the guy who shot Tippit looked like Belin, so Belin finally says, "I might say for the record, that I was not in Dallas on November 22, 1963."

Benavides was at the scene of the Tippit shooting because some guy "stalled this car in the middle of the street and asked me if I would fix it" and after Benavides went to get a carburetor part, he "forgot the number of the carburetor," so he went back and was driving by when Tippit got shot.

Tony

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thus ends the chameleon like qualities of the alleged assassins

coat.

Edited August 1, 2011 by Ed LeDoux

[Guest John Woods]

Another view of his clothing

johnw

[Lee Forman]

Nice post Ed.

Throw in Roger Craig - esp for those who believe it's possible that this was Oswald entering the Rambler. I still find it feasible that the whole Oswald bus scenario may have been James Worrell - mistaken as Oswald? - too bad we can't ask him.

Mr. SPECTER - You went in an easterly direction how many blocks down Pacific?

Mr. WORRELL - I went down to Market and from Market I went on Ross.

Mr. SPECTER - You went left on Market down to Ross, and then?

Mr. WORRELL - From Ross I went all the way to Ervay.

Mr. SPECTER - Where were you heading for at the time?

Mr. WORRELL - For the bus stop near my mother's office. And I rode the bus from there out to the school and hitchhiked the rest of the way to Farmer's Branch.

I'd also be curious to know the description of the clothing left by Vaganov in the phone booth - does that exist anywhere?

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WTKaP.html

Back to November 22, 1963. As I have earlier stated, the time was approximately 12:40 p.m. when I ran into Buddy Walthers. The traffic was very heavy as Patrolman Baker (assigned to Elm and Houston Streets) had left his post, allowing the traffic to travel west on Elm Street. As we were scanning the curb I heard a shrill whistle coming from the north side of Elm Street. I turned and saw a white male in his twenties running down the grassy knoll from the direction of the Texas School Book Depository Building. A light green Rambler station wagon was coming slowly west on Elm Street. The driver of the station wagon was a husky looking Latin, with dark wavy hair, wearing a tan wind breaker type jacket. He was looking up at the man running toward him. He pulled over to the north curb and picked up the man coming down the hill. I tried to cross Elm Street to stop them and find out who they were. The traffic was too heavy and I was unable to reach them. They drove away going west on Elm Street.

In addition to noting that these two men were in an obvious hurry, I realized they were the only ones not running TO the scene. Everyone else was running to see whatever might be seen. The suspect, as I will refer to him, who ran down the grassy knoll was wearing faded blue trousers and a long sleeved work shirt made of some type of grainy material. This will become very important to me later on and very embarrassing to the authorities (F.B.I., Dallas Police and Warren Commission). I thought the incident concerning the two men and the Rambler Station Wagon important enough to bring it to the attention of the authorities at the command post at Elm and Houston.

...

As to Lee Harvey Oswald shooting J. D. Tippit, let us examine the evidence: Dallas Police Unit #221 (Summers-refer-police radio log) stated on the police radio that he had an "eye ball" witness to the shooting. The suspect was a white male about twenty-seven, five feet, eleven inches, black wavy hair, fair complexioned, (not Oswald) wearing an Eisenhower-type jacket of light color, dark trousers, and a white shirt, apparently armed with a .32 caliber, dark-finish automatic pistol which he had in his right hand. (The jacket strongly resembles that worn by the driver of the station wagon).

...

I first saw my testimony in January of 1968 when I looked at the 26 volumes which belonged to Penn Jones. My alleged statement was included. The following are some of the changes in my testimony:

Arnold Rowland told me that he saw two men on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository 15 minutes before the President arrived: one was a Negro, who was pacing back and forth by the southwest window. The other was a white man in the southeast corner, with a rifle equipped with a scope, and that a few minutes later he looked back and only the white man was there. In the Warren Commission: Both were white, both were pacing in front of the southwest corner and when Rowland looked back, both were gone;

I said the Rambler station wagon was light green. The Warren Commission: Changed to a white station wagon;

I said the driver of the Station Wagon had on a tan jacket. The Warren Commission: A white jacket;

[Ed LeDoux]

>Another view of his clothing<

john,

Thats a cool shot. Colorized?

His clothing or just his head....

Ed

[Duke Lane]

I still find it feasible that the whole Oswald bus scenario may have been James Worrell - mistaken as Oswald? - too bad we can't ask him.

Ah, but of course you already know that "the next best thing to being him" is already in progress, eh? See the thread James Worrell: Fact or Fiction? elsewhere on this forum for the first installment of this intriguing story (and forgive the things that may change: it was, after all, a first draft).

In any case, you'll remember that Worrell said that he ran AWAY from Elm....

[Guest John Woods]

>Another view of his clothing<

john,

Thats a cool shot. Colorized?

His clothing or just his head....

Ed

Oswald and his clothing. I have a better quality on 35mm.

The image posted is about the size of a stamp, thus the poor

quality.

johnw

[Jack White]

Excellent article, Ed...great research!

Jack

[Ed LeDoux]

Thank you Lee,

>that the whole Oswald bus scenario may have been James Worrell - mistaken as Oswald? - too bad we can't ask him.<

Oh we CAN ask him, but just don't expect an answer without a ouija board.

Mr. SPECTER - You went in an easterly direction how many blocks down Pacific?

Mr. WORRELL - I went down to Market and from Market I went on Ross.

Mr. SPECTER - You went left on Market down to Ross, and then?

Mr. WORRELL - From Ross I went all the way to Ervay.

Mr. SPECTER - Where were you heading for at the time?

Mr. WORRELL - For the bus stop near my mother's office. And I rode the bus from there out to the school and hitchhiked the rest of the way to Farmer's Branch.

I wonder if he got a transfer? Actually he would have been going to North Dallas(Farmers Branch) from Evray, wrong direction for the "lakewood" run.

I'd also be curious to know the description of the clothing left by Vaganov in the phone booth - does that exist anywhere?

Are you talking of "turk's" Dark grey suit, white shirt, blue tie, red printed vest with pearl buttons from FBI report; or what he left the apartment in , khaki trousers, white shirt, light jacket (tan?)?

Tell me more, I maybe missing something about the clothes and phone booth... I get so side tracked with your great replys.

>I said the Rambler station wagon was light green. The Warren Commission: Changed to a white station wagon; <

I said the driver of the Station Wagon had on a tan jacket. The Warren Commission: A white jacket;

Was Craig color blind or did the Rambler look that color in shadow? Or am I trying to fit Wing's Rambler into the scenario again?

More later,

Ed

[Ed LeDoux]

Excellent article, Ed...great research!

Thank you Jack!

Ed

[Donald Diabo]

by crackie! this is a much more indepth investigation than the WC.

how on earth could the WC be so blind?

woops, dare it is.

what a way to run a railroad. lol

great work, to whom it may concern.

and thanks much for this great post.

[Ed LeDoux]

>by crackie! this is a much more indepth investigation than the WC.

how on earth could the WC be so blind?

woops, dare it is.

what a way to run a railroad. lol<

Donald,

I call it the Oswald Express. All aboard, no stops, and full steam ahead. Now passing Truth, soon to pass Judgement.

Ed

[Donald Diabo]

we're all melting! what a world...curses to dorothy, and her little dog too.

[Duke Lane]

More witnesses

...

Jimmy Burt, across the street from the construction site where W.L Smith was working, watched the same man as he came from the direction of the Town and Country Cafe and continued walking west on 10th. Burt described him as a white male, approximately 5'8", wearing a light colored short jacket (interview of Burt by SA Christianson and Acklin 12/16/63). Burt watched as the man passed them and continued walking west toward Patton. As the man approached Tippit's patrol car, Tippit rolled down his passenger side car window and spoke to this man.

William Arthur Smith was with Burt at the time and described the same man seen by he and Burt as "a white male, about 5'7" to 5'8", 20 to 25 years of age, 150-160, a white shirt, light BROWN jacket and dark pants (interview of Smith by SA Ward and Basham 12/13/63). Both Burt and Smith watched this unknown man as he walked toward Patton, approached the squad car, spoke with Tippit, and then shot him. (emphasis mine)

Having recent cause to be looking at this, a closer examination to the referenced documents shows the above to not be exactly so.

The FBI's first interview in conjunction with this account was with Smith on 12/13/63. There is no indication in the report of the interview how it came to pass that they had learned of Smith having any knowledge of the Tippit shooting since Smith, who had been on probation at the time, did not give his name to any officials because he "thought he might get in trouble with the police" ... for giving them information about a cop-killer!

[sarcasm off.]

Smith lived at 328½ East 8th Street, about two blocks from where Tippit was killed. He said that he saw a white male, whom he didn't think resembled Oswald (but he was also "too far away" to positively identify anyone, he'd said), shoot a policeman, then walk toward Patton and turn on it toward Jefferson Boulevard.

Smith said that he'd seen the shooter "walk up to the police car and as the officer started to emerge he heard four or five shots," whereupon the shooter "continued along 10th Street and turned left on Patton, heading towards Jefferson." There's a clear implication here that the shooter must've been already moving westward in order to "continue" in that direction and "turn left ... towards Jefferson."

Smith said that he'd "immediately went up to talk to Mrs. MARKHAM, a neighbor of his that lives at 328½ East 9th Street," that is, one street over from, about even with his home, and on the same side of the street. (We learn from Smith's WC testimony that he also hung around with Markham's son, James.)

Despite living just two blocks away from the murder scene, Smith told the agents that "his reason for being in the area was that he was visiting a friend of his, one JIMMY BURT, who was living with his father-in-law, DAVID SCHAFFER at 505 East 10th Street." Smith "thought JIMMY might have seen the shooting also but he was not certain" since Smith believed he had arrived at Burt's house before Burt did.

(For some reason, the FBI agents also noted that Smith "advised that he did not have any relatives in New Mexico...." The New Mexico connection was not explained.)

The next day, the FBI interviewed Ross Burt, Jimmy's father, at Jimmy's father-in-law's home at 505 East 10th Street, Apartment 8. Burt Senior advised that Jimmy had been living at the Schaffer residence there for the past three months, apparently with his wife (Schaffer's daughter) and their baby, but was by December 14 living in Belmont, Louisiana. Jimmy had apparently told his father that he'd been with Smith when the Tippit murder took place.

Agents interviewed Jimmy Burt the next day in Belmont. He affirmed that he'd been living at the Schaffer residence on 10th Street on November 22, but told a different and more detailed story from his friend Smith. According to Burt, he and Smith had been "sitting in his brother, BILLY BURT's house at the corner of 9th and Denver," a block east and another block north from where Tippit had been shot, "when they heard two gunshots."

They jumped up, ran outside and, as they ran toward Burt's car (parked facing south on Denver Street), heard four more gunshots. They got in the car, a 1952 two-toned Ford, and drove south on Denver to 10th, and then west on 10th toward the police car "parked at the curb in the middle of the block," facing east. Burt "later recognized him as being an officer who frequented that neighborhood" [emphasis added] and "was known by the name 'Friendly' to the residents of that area."

Burt parked his car in front of Tippit's patrol car on the same side of the street, facing it, at about the same time as the shooter reached the intersection with Patton Street, about "50 or 60 yards" from where Burt was. The man was wearing "a light colored short jacket," but he could offer no further description because of the distance.

Burt said he then ran to the corner and saw the man running into the alley way that runs between 10th and Jefferson, heading west. As he went toward the corner, he also noticed two women "going toward the officer who was lying on the street," possibly Helen Markam and one of the two Davis sisters-in-law (Virginia and Charlie), or the Davises. By the time he'd finished watching the gunman flee, a crowd had gathered, and he did not again "have a chance to view the slain officer." He "made no further observations" at the scene.

Of the two, Burt and Smith, only the latter testified before the Warren Commission. Smith said that he'd spent "the whole day," from "in the morning" until "in the evening," at Burt's house at 505 East 10th, and at the time of the shooting, he was "in the front yard" at 505, with Jimmy Burt. He - or they - heard shots, which was what first attracted them to what had happened down the street.

Smith also said in his testimony that he had not seen the man walking anywhere prior to the time he'd heard the shots, and specifically that he hadn't seen him walk in front of Burt's house.

----------------

What, then, to make of all this? Neither apparently man said that they had seen the shooter walking westward along 10th, and neither of them gave any indication of having seen him prior to the time they heard the first shot(s), much less having seen the shooter "approach the squad car," Tippit "roll down his window" or talk to the man.

So where from was this story derived as it's been told for so long? It's what's in Rush to Judgment, but is an interview on Lane's film? If it came along well after the Report had been published and contradicts the reports made to the FBI and under oath (by Smith), can it be credited?

As an aside, I think it was John Armstrong (but I could be mistaken) who conjectured that it was these boys whom Aquila Clemmons had seen, or possibly the shooter and one of them. Thoughts?

[Duke Lane]

...

Throw in Roger Craig - esp for those who believe it's possible that this was Oswald entering the Rambler. I still find it feasible that the whole Oswald bus scenario may have been James Worrell - mistaken as Oswald? - too bad we can't ask him. ...

And, of course, too bad the bus was going in the wrong direction for Worrell ... not to mention that Worrell!probably wasn't even downtown.

[Chuck Robbins]

Man that Oswald sure was a hell of a magician wasn't he?

Poe has the suspect running WEST in the alley, then, in his supplemental report, the suspect is running EAST in the alley.

He was pulling jackets out of his sleeve the way common magicians pull scarves out of their sleeves.

Ed, You have managed to put together many tidbits in this topic which, together, help to show how evidence has been

methodically changed, time after time, to fit whatever scenario was needed, at any particular time, during the commission's

investigation.

Glad to see your work.

Edited April 26, 2008 by Chuck Robbins