Tom Hanford

[Tom Hanford]

While I'm certainly not an 'expert' or a famed author, my interest in the case began early, since I had relatives in Dallas. A childhood friend here in Tulsa was deep into JFK research, and loaned me Gary Shaw's book 1976 'Cover-Up'. After reading this I was immersed. In 1988 I met a local researcher named Bill Esche, who had made some good ground by locating Tom Alyea and Shirley Martin (Lester) here in Tulsa, and he also found Floyd Riebe living in Sand Springs, OK. Bill loaned me a VHS tape of a JFK assassination lecture Gary Shaw had just given here in Tulsa. Gary, who had just opened the JFK AIC in Dallas, subsequently introduced me to many researchers, witnesses and authors. By the late 80s/early 90s our little researching chapter from here in Tulsa OK included John Armstrong, Shirley Martin Lester, Connie Kritzberg, Craig Roberts, Bill Esche and Tom Alyea among others.

When Esche found Alyea in 1985, he recorded a 2-hour audio interview in which Alyea described his experiences. These included having scooped up his 1963/64 WFAA film footage from the cutting room floor, and by 1989 he had finally transferred these onto a VHS tape. With Alyea's permission, a copy was made for me to deliver to Gary Shaw and Robert Groden at the AIC in Dallas, which I did. This was a few years before Alyea had sold his footage to the History Channel- so although some of this footage was broadcast on WFAA, much of it was at that time unseen by anyone.

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I was born in Arlington TX, and most of my mother's relatives are from Dallas. She

attended Adamson High School with the daughter of Dallas police chief Jesse Curry, becoming friends of the family. Later, as an employee of the Dallas Morning News in the early 50s, she interviewed Dallas mayor Earle Cabell.

My mother knew two persons who would eventually work at Parkland Hospital. One was her uncle Dr. Marion 'Pepper' Jenkins; since the soda pop headquarters of the same name were located in Dallas, naturally he was nicknamed 'Dr. Pepper'. She also knew Dr. Paul Peters, possibly from her time at Southern Methodist University (SMU). In 1988 she and I were watching the PBS Nova special 'Who Shot President Kennedy' and when Dr. Peters appeared, she recognized him. After she passed away in 2007, I found two photos of Mom and Dr. Peters together from 1949.

My uncle, who still live in Oak Cliff, was friends with the Benavides brothers in the late 50s, and said that Domingo was known as 'Danny' to his friends. Uncle Kay's last name is Yarborough, and says that as he understands it, the late Senator Ralph Yarborough is his second cousin; however I have yet to verify that. Uncle Kay said he had occasionally visited the Vegas Club, saw Jack Ruby there many times, and spoke to him a few of those (this is not unusual as it seems ½ of Dallas knew Ruby). Also, my uncle worked at Bell Helicopter during this period (but did not know Michael Paine- already asked).

Edited January 7, 2012 by Tom Hanford