James Tague and the Disappearing Patrolman

[Ron Ecker]

James Tague was the third man wounded during the JFK assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963. He was standing on Commerce Street under the triple underpass when he was slightly wounded in the face by debris from a missed shot that hit a Main Street curb. Tague, who died in February 2014, became a respected JFK researcher and authored two books on the assassination. But his story about what happened right after the shooting underwent an intriguing change after his Warren Commission testimony.

I corresponded with Tague several years ago by email about the change in his story. I found the explanation that he gave me to be less than satisfactory. I decided to say nothing publicly about our exchange as long as Tague was still alive, due to a feeling or suspicion that Tague may come under some kind of pressure after his WC testimony. But before going into that, let’s look at the change in his story.

Here is what Tague told the WC about the immediate aftermath of the shooting: “So I stood there (at the bridge abutment) looking around. . . and about that time a patrolman who evidently had been stationed under the triple underpass walked up and said, ‘What happened?’ and I said, ‘I don't know; something.’" Tague went on to testify that “we” (he and this patrolman) walked over to the area of the grassy knoll where a crowd was gathering, and a few minutes later, “the patrolman said, ‘Well, I saw something fly off back on the street.’ We walked back down there, and another man joined us who identified himself as the deputy sheriff, who was in civilian clothes.” This was Buddy Walthers, who tells Tague “you have blood there on your cheek.”

That was Tague’s first account of what happened, clearly placing him in the company of a uniformed police officer (“a patrolman”), with the two of them joined minutes later by a deputy sheriff in civilian clothes. Yet this “patrolman” who was “evidently stationed under the triple underpass” who asked Tague “What happened?” would simply disappear from all of Tague’s accounts after his WC testimony, leaving only the deputy sheriff in Tague’s company.

I emailed Tague in late 2005 and asked him about the patrolman who asked him “What happened,” and he replied, “In my book I stated a Deputy Sheriff ran up to me, it was Buddy Walthers who had been standing on Houston Street.”

I wrote him back, pointing out that a “patrolman” who “evidently had been stationed under the triple underpass” who “walked up” and asked him “What happened?” could not be Walthers, who was standing in front of the sheriff’s office at the time of the shooting and ran to the railroad yard.

Tague replied, “At the time I testified I did not have the advantage of reading other people’s testimony. When I put the pieces together, the man was not a patrolman but a deputy sheriff named Buddy Walthers who asked me what happened. Walthers had actually been standing on Houston Street in front of the court house with Sheriff Bill Decker’s wife and after the shooting ran toward the triple underpass by which I was standing. . . . Film footage and other testimony show that it was Buddy Walthers who ran over 100 yards to my position. When I used the word ‘evidently’ in my testimony, I was guessing as to who he was and from where he had come from.”

That to me is an odd explanation, since Tague clearly stated in his testimony that he did not encounter Walthers until after he had walked over to the Elm Street area in the company of a “patrolman, “ which clearly suggests someone in uniform and who had to be someone other than Walthers, who Tague stated was “in civilian clothes.” Tague testified that the deputy sheriff whom he later knew to be Walthers did not join them until after Tague and the patrolman had walked back to Main Street to see about the struck curb.

It was also less than satisfactory that the reason Tague gave me for changing the story of his own experience was his reading of the accounts of other people. Did he really want me to believe that this patrolman disappeared from his story because no one else mentioned seeing him and therefore he must not have been there?

I saw no point in pressing Tague further on this and thanked him for his time. But with Tague’s passing I suppose we are forever left with the mystery of the patrolman who disappeared from his story. I would like to suggest one possible reason for this change in Tague’s story, as it is really the only one I can think of.

One theory about the JFK assassination is that the fatal head shot came not from the famous grassy knoll on the north side of Dealey Plaza, but from the south knoll at the other end of the triple underpass. (Relevant to this theory is the testimony of a policeman who was stationed on the northwest end of the underpass that a train was passing at the time of the shooting, which among other things would have blocked his view of anything going on - like someone shooting - on the southeast end of the underpass. In fact there was no train passing at the time of the shooting, so why the claim that there was?) Now Tague was standing near the south knoll, and testified that he believed the shots came from the north knoll area. In considering the change in his story, I wondered about the possibility that Tague may have actually encountered a south knoll gunman, someone dressed as a policeman who came down after shooting with a silencer to ask “What happened?” and mix in with the crowd and other officers on the scene.

If Tague unknowingly encountered such a shooter, and testified about encountering this “patrolman” who by all other accounts was not in the south knoll area, it is understandable that Tague could have been pressured by someone into forgetting this encounter. But that is only a guess. Perhaps others here may have thoughts on Tague’s disappearing patrolman.

Edited March 9, 2014 by Ron Ecker

[Robert Prudhomme]

Hello Ron

This is amazing, to say the least. Awfully decent of you to not say anything for all of this time.

[Larry Hancock]

I'm going to guess that its a rather simple matter of memory. We know that one of the patrolmen (don't remember the name but it should be easy to find) came down from the overpass, made his

way across Main and ended up with Walther's in the area of the "phantom" bullet recovery on the south side of Elm. He's even on record in his report as investigating that and is clearly seen in the

area with Walthers.

Perhaps James T. simply mingled the two in his memory as time passed. We have discussed the issues of memory before and how scientific tests demonstrate that details begin to blur

after as short a time as a few hours and can become substantially different over the years. Lab experiments have shown that test subjects can write down their detailed impressions

within hours and begin to misremember details within weeks. Year's later they will even challenge their own written statements and sincerely recall something different (not notes made

by someone else but their own writing).

One mre reason to stay with "first day" evidence. Larry

,

[Ron Ecker]

Larry,

I agree with you about "first day evidence," and that's why I have a problem with your suggested explanation. Tague's first account, given to the WC only a few months after the event, should be the truest account. And that account has him encountering first a patrolman under the triple underpass, with Walthers joining them later. If faulty memory came into play over the years, then the faulty memory should have him encountering first Walthers, with the patrolman joining them later or (as happened in his accounts) disappearing altogether. So if faulty memory is the explanation, then Tague's accounts should be reversed from what they are. The first account, based on the first day evidence principle, should be the most accurate (he was encountered by a patrolman under the triple underpass), and then become muddled later on by faulty memory.

[Larry Hancock]

Well I certainly agree with that Ron - and it would be most consistent. The patrolman would be coming down from the overpass and have to cross main street, then cross the infield to Elm. From what I recall Walthers route to the south side of Elm, where we see both Walthers and a Patrolman pondering something in the grass, would likely have been from the area east of there. The patrolman's route seems more likely to intersect Teague first. Walthers was clearly wondering around the area. Perhaps Walthers just became the primary image in his memory?

No answers here but we do see a patrolman and Walthers together later on the south side of Elm so it seems possible that they were both with Teague at some point...

[Robin Unger]

Mr. BELIN. You talked to any other witnesses there?

Mr. HAYGOOD. Yes. There was another one came up who was located, at the time he stated, on the south side of Elm Street back toward the triple underpass. Back, well, it would be north of the underpass there, and said he had gotten hit by a piece of concrete or something, and he did have a slight cut on his right cheek, upper portion of his cheek just to the right of his nose.

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/haygood.htm

Edited March 11, 2014 by Robin Unger

[Ron Ecker]

Tague testified that he saw Haygood ("a motorcycle policeman") run up the knoll. Then "about that time" a "patrolman" walked up to him from under the triple underpass. So Haygood and the patrolman are clearly two different officers in Tague's original account.

Mr. TAGUE...After the third shot, I ducked behind the bridge abutment and was there for a second, and I glanced out and Just as I looked out, the car following the President's car, the one with the Secret Service men, was just flying past at that time.
Mr. LIEBELER. Going on Elm Street under the triple underpass?
Mr. TAGUE. Right. Going on Elm. So I stood there looking around. I looked up---there was a motorcycle policeman, and he stopped and had drawn his gun and was running up the embankment toward the railroad tracks. A crowd of people; several people, were starting to come down into that area where he was running, and the people pointing, and excitement up there and so on, and about that time a patrolman who evidently had been stationed under the triple underpass walked up and said, "What happened?" and I said, "I don't know; something."

[David Josephs]

the two men on the overpass were Foster and JC White both of whom drew a diagram of where they were... Both of their testimonies places them at the North East in the RR yard or by the TSBD afterward.

White is the man who stated his view was blocked by a train passing over the the overpass at the time of the shots, as he was on the west side of the overpass... which we all know did not happen.

Mr. BALL. Did you see the President's car come into sight?
Mr. WHITE. No, sir; first time I saw it it has passed, passed under the triple underpass.
Mr. BALL. You were too far away to see it, were you?
Mr. WHITE. There was a freight train traveling. There was a train passing between the location I was standing and the area from which the procession was traveling, and-a big long freight train, and I did not see it.

Yet in his drawing he places himself on the EAST side of the overpass....

Mr. WHITE. As soon as the train passed I went over and on the northwest side of the Depository Building. On the northwest side of the book store up there with the rest of the officers and after about 30 minutes they told me to go out and work traffic at Main and Houston, and I stood out there and worked traffic.

Looks to me that in Dillard versus Cancellare there is someone in the exact spot White says he was - and directly above Tague, on the east side... and is gone soon afterward.

FWIW

DJ

Edit - not sure what it looked like that day - there are a few images that do appear as if there was nothing to stop someone from coming down the WEST side of the overpass and back under the overpass...

DJ

Edited March 12, 2014 by David Josephs

[Ron Ecker]

the two men on the overpass were Foster and JC White both of whom drew a diagram of where they were... Both of their testimonies places them at the North East in the RR yard or by the TSBD afterward.

White is the man who stated his view was blocked by a train passing over the the overpass at the time of the shots, as he was on the west side of the overpass... which we all know did not happen.

Mr. BALL. Did you see the President's car come into sight?

Mr. WHITE. No, sir; first time I saw it it has passed, passed under the triple underpass.

Mr. BALL. You were too far away to see it, were you?

Mr. WHITE. There was a freight train traveling. There was a train passing between the location I was standing and the area from which the procession was traveling, and-a big long freight train, and I did not see it.

Yet in his drawing he places himself on the EAST side of the overpass....

During his testimony White drew an x and a circle with his initials on a map placing him on the west side of the overpass. The drawing you show that places him on the east side of the overpass must have been done at some time before his testimony, presumably not long after the event. He had to know he was contradicting himself, and the WC should have known (the drawing is one of its own exhibits) but said nothing.

Looks to me that in Dillard versus Cancellare there is someone in the exact spot White says he was - and directly above Tague, on the east side... and is gone soon afterward.

Yes, it looks like White could very well be the patrolman that Tague encountered in his first account, coming down from the overpass by the west side. And why would White, with his vantage point on the east side of the overpass per his x in the drawing, need to ask Tague "what happened?"

Edited March 13, 2014 by Ron Ecker

[David Josephs]

If he was indeed on the EAST side of the overpass... and why talk about a train blocking his view?

Strange stuff... as if anything we EVER come across is as it appears...

Take care Ron

DJ

[Robin Unger]

Cop on 3-wheeler seen in Bell and Daniel

[Chris Scally]

Robin:

I believe this 3-wheel motorcycle officer, seen parked on Main Street to the west of the Underpass, to be R.M. Williams.

Chris

Edited March 16, 2014 by Chris Scally

[Ron Ecker]

Robin:

I believe this 3-wheel motorcycle officer, seen parked on Main Street to the west of the Underpass, to be R.M. Williams.

Chris

It's believable that this officer would come over to the east side and ask Tague "What happened." But would he leave his motorcycle on Main Street to walk over to Elm Street with Tague? If the officer wanted to go to Elm, wouldn't he ride his motorcycle to it (via Houston Street or across the divider or whatever)?

[Chris Scally]

Ron:

I'm not suggesting that the officer on the 3-wheeler is the one who come to the east side of the underpass, and asked Tague what happened - I was just naming him, for the record. But yes, I agree with you that it seems unlikely that he would leave his motorcycle parked in the middle lane of Main Street and walk to the other side of the underpass! Unfortunately, other than the Bell and Daniel films, I cannot find any trace of Officer Williams or his motorcycle after that. The Daniel film seems to show him walking back to his motorcycle, and the Bell film seems to show Sgt. Harkness (who had ridden down Main from his position at the Main/Houston intersection) stopping his motorcycle nearby, but unfortunately I cannot go beyond that.

Chris

Edited March 17, 2014 by Chris Scally