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Looking at the Tippit Case from a Different Angle


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Training and Research Section consisted of three small departments: The Personnel Bureau was a tiny bureau, just down the hall from the Homicide offices, and was under the command of Captain William Westbrook. He controlled one Sergeant, two Detectives, one Patrolman and three female civilian clerical grades. Captain Westbrook described the work of the bureau as background investigations of applicants and the investigation of personnel complaints. His role on the day of the assassination was outlined in Just Another Day at the Office (1996). His scant one page of Warren testimony:



WESTBROOK: I was in my office and Mrs. Kinney, one of the dispatchers, came into the office and told us, and of course it's the same as everybody says--we didn't believe it until a second look at her and I realized it was so, and so, there's a little confusion right here because everybody became rather excited right quick, but somebody, and I don't know who it was, came into my office and said they needed some more men at this Texas Depository Building. You know, I didn't review my report before I came over here I didn't have a chance. I just came off of vacation and they hit me with this in the morning as soon as I got to the office.



Westbrook and Hill were involved in several coincidences and unexplained actions. They arrived at the TSBD very early, and left early. They arrived at the Tippit scene very early, and then left early. They are both linked with the shells at the Book Depository, and linked with the shells and wallet at the intersection of 10th & Patton where Tippit was killed... as well as the grey zipper jacket, the gun found (or planted) on Oswald, and the bullets in his pocket. The coincidences mount as Gerald Hill also is credited with unearthing the transfer for Cecil McWatter's bus, which conveniently happened to be at Jefferson & Marsalis during the library scene. For a downtown "beat sergeant" on temporary loan to Westbrook's personnel department (to help vet incoming Police Academy cadets), he managed to be center stage at all of the strategic locations and events of the day. His Warren testimony:



Mr. BELIN. Where were you on duty? HILL I was on special assignment, detached from the police patrol division, and assigned to the police personnel office investigating applicants for the police department.



Mr. BELIN. Where was this? HILL: On that particular day, I was at the city hall in the personnel office, and did not have an assignment of any kind pertaining to the President's trip or any other function other than the investigation of police applicants.



Capt. W. R. Westbrook, who was my commander, had apparently been on the streets watching the parade, and he came back in and we were discussing some facts about how fast it passed and the police unit in it. A lady came in and said that the President had been shot at Main and Lamar. Our first reaction was one of disbelief, but a minute later----she just made the statement and walked out--and a minute later Captain Westbrook said, "She wasn't kidding."

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Greg - that's a good idea. I don't understand why McBride, who suggested in his book that Tippit might have been on the grassy knoll, hasn't answered the several posts I have made regarding this question. Maybe he doesn't read my posts, too busy, or not spending much time on the forum. Is he active on your website?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I spent a considerable amount of time researching the Tippit shooting, knowing that Dale Myers book, while considered the Bible of the topic by mainstream media, had a fatal flaw;

that being that it was more or less written in the same vein as the Vincent Bugliosi style; meaning the verdict in his book as Oswald as Tippit's killer was a predetermined

conclusion.

Having come to that conclusion, and being aware that a writer for the Detroit Free Press, at the time the FBI and Dallas Police were interviewing Tippit murder scene witnesses

Roberts stated words to the effect that a suspicious individual whom he thought was carrying a firearm went into a residence near the shooting, he was very intrigued

by this and was given short shrift when he told investigators.

I came to the conclusion that Roberts knew that the individual was a bona-fide suspect in the Tippit shooting, even though he was ignored. The long and the short of it

was I became convinced that the person he was referring to was someone named Peter Cimino. Roberts description was similar to the "bushy-haired" suspect mentioned

by Aquilla Clemons who was not interviewed by the Warren Commission, while Helen Markham was, even the Warren Commission knew that Markham was practically a nutcase.

As fate or whatever you choose to call it would have it Gene Roberts went on to have an incredible life; the following is an interview with him.

http://www.maryferre...51&relPageId=79

FBI 105-82555 Oswald HQ File, Section 62

12/4/63

GENE ROBERTS, 1657 Nob Hill Street, Dallas, Texas, WHitehall6-4822

advised on November 22, 1963 at approximately 1:05 P.M., he was sitting in the Beckley Club

drinking coffee. He said the lady that owned the cafe had a radio on the counter and that they

were listening to reports of the assassination of the President.

A white female and male were sitting at the back of the cafe and walked to the front, whereupon

the white male asked "What's going on?" Mr. ROBERTS stated that the President had been

shot and the unknown white male stated that this was the best news he had heard. The white

female with him said he should not have said that. Mr. Roberts advised that the cafe owner also

heard this comment. Mr. Roberts advised that the white male was about 20 to 25, appeared to

be of Cuban or Puerto Rican or foreign extraction, 5'10" to 5'11," dark complexion and dark

hair. He advised the white female was about 18 to 20, 5'2" to 5'3" slender build, dark hair.

Mr. Roberts advised he finished his coffee and then drove down past the area where Officer

Tippit was shot and noticed a number of squad cars in the area. He said he asked some woman

nearby what had happened and they told him that a police officer had been shot and the body

had been removed. At this time Roberts stated he observed the same white male and female from

the cafe walk into a house directly across the street from where Officer Tippit had been shot

and enter a side door. He said this was about 405 E. 10th Street. He said the white male was

wearing a light green cloth jacket with leather patches on his elbows when he entered the

house and had the same jacket on when he came out alone about two minutes later. He said

he was straightening the jacket as if he had something hidden inside. He said the white male

kept looking back and forth over his shoulder and never inquired of any police officers what

had taken place. Roberts advised that he thought this was quite unusual and notified a police

sergeant on the scene about this individual

He advised the police sergeant told him that the man did not fit the description of the person

that had shot Officer Tippit.

On 12/3/63 at Dallas, Texas File DL 89-43

By Special Agent Robert E. Basham and James J Ward:jj Date dictated 12/4/63

Next page

Mr. Roberts advised that he had numerous friends on the police department and city council

and he got in touch with some of them and arrangements were made for him to see Detective

Joe R. Cody which he did shortly thereafter. He said he and Cody went to the area of

405A E. 10th Street, Dallas, Texas, which Detective Cody determined was occupied by a

Mr. and Mrs. PETER CIMINO. He said he made this determination through checking the

mailbox and cars parked in the area. He advised that he thought that the sergeant at the

scene should have arrested this man and found out who he was since he did act very

suspicious as far as he was concerned.

Roberts advised that since the above he had heard a few rumors and wondered whether

or not they had been checked out. He said that he learned from a Constable T. A. Vines,

offices in Oak Cliff Court House, Beckley and 12th Street that the woman was the night

manager of the Dobbs House, Beckley and Colorado, allegedly has claimed that Lee

Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby used to come into her restaurant two or three times a

week during the early morning hours.

He said he further heard that Lee Harvey Oswald had purchased his bullets for the rifle he

was using from Ray's Gun Shop on Singleton Blvd.

http://www.maryferre...51&relPageId=80

Two witnesses to the officer's murder were Mrs. Aquilla Clemons and Frank Wright, both lived on Tenth Street. Mrs. Clemons stated, "I saw two men near the policeman's car just before the shots. The man with the gun was short and chunky, kind of heavy build, wearing khaki and a white short," a description fitting Ruby, "the second man was thin and tall."

"The chunky man with the gun ran off in one direction, the second man in another."

Mr. Wright heard the shots in his front room, he said, "Stepping out my front door I caught sight of Officer Tippit in time to see him roll over then lie still. I saw a man of medium height wearing a long coat that ended just above his hands, he ran around the police car fast as he could and jumped in a little old gray coupe, he drove away very fast." Within three minutes radio cars and an ambulance arrived. Four empty casings were found on the ground ejected from an automatic pistol.

Sgt. Gerald Hill, an officer with many years of army experience and police work behind him recognized that the shells were ejected from an automatic pistol, he radioed this information immediately to headquarters. At the same time he ordered Office J.M. Poe to mark the casings with his initials to record the chain of evidence. Another patrol officer radioed in, "I have an eyeball witness to the suspect in the shooting, he's a white male armed with a dark finish automatic pistol." When arrested only minutes later in a theater Oswald carried a revolver which does not eject its shells.

The persons full name was Eugene Leslie Roberts

DMN 3/14/64 Visiting Reporters See Guilty Verdict

Gene Roberts Detroit Free Press: “I look for 25 to 35 years

There was a period when I thought Ruby might do better

but then the state had about eight witnesses that changed my mind”

Add the duality of Oswald's wallet's, recovered at the Tippit shooting scene; how many were there? possibly as many as four. The fact that the shells recovered at the scene of the Tippit shooting would never have been admissible in a court of law, due to the fact that there was not even a clear chain of evidentiary possession, that the Dallas Police could not even factually state that the shells recovered from Oswald's revolver were identical with the shells recovered from the Tippit crime scene, the time difference factually established, that proves the official time of Officer Tippit's death is a complete sham add up to one big zero in making Oswald the patsy in the Tippit murder.

PS For those [wishful] thinkers that would be pleasantly surprised to learn Gene Roberts was some sort of person of dubious character, you might want to read the following.

http://en.wikipedia....28journalist)

For myself, persons like Gene Roberts and those like him, serve as an inspiration for researchers, for the simple reason that he did the right thing, he spoke up for the truth, when it wasn't what some people wanted to hear, and not only survived, but made a life for himself, without compromising who he was.

Edited by Robert Howard
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Greg - that's a good idea. I don't understand why McBride, who suggested in his book that Tippit might have been on the grassy knoll, hasn't answered the several posts I have made regarding this question. Maybe he doesn't read my posts, too busy, or not spending much time on the forum. Is he active on your website?

Sorry for the delayed reply, Paul. I didn't see it until now. No, McBride isn't a member of my forum. Yet.

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Looking forward to seeing you there, Gene.

As for Gerald Hill...he was just about everywhere that day, huh?

I've often wondered why? Wasn't he in personnel that day at City Hall? Wasn't he vetting police officer applicants that day? There is something very "interesting" about his whole story. It starts with his not being able to remember if he climbed the steps from the 5th floor to the 6th floor of the TSBD that day? Right? When Belin first asks him about the elevator, he can't remember for sure if he took the steps to the top or not. That is extremely suspect. He would HAVE to remember that because it is memorable. Eventually he seems to "fill that part in" but his memory lapse is curious. There is a lot to consider about his story, too much to cover here. He was everywhere that Lee Harvey Oswald was supposed to have been that day following the assassination.

Plus he supplied transportation for the reporter, Jim Ewell, who hitched a ride with him to both the original "crime scene" at the TSBD and then to the Tippit crime scene in Oak Cliff! It's interesting that during Hill's Warren Commission testimony, the report misspelled the name as Jim E. Well when the reporter was hitching a ride to the TSBD with Hill, but spelled it correctly as Jim Ewell, when the reporter was hitching a ride to the the Tippit crime scene in Oak Cliff.

And since when does a police officer provide "courtesy" transportation to a reporter while the officer is in the middle of performing his law enforcement duties immediately following the commission of a crime--particularly a homicide--where the perpetrator(s) must be considered armed and dangerous? Police officers are notorious for limiting access to reporters because oftentimes reporters can inadvertently interfere with an investigation if allowed to roam freely. Inevitably reporters must be allowed to do their job, but not to the detriment of the investigation, and more importantly, not to the detriment of the apprehension of the suspected perpetrators in the immediate wake of the commission of a capital crime. I haven't even mentioned the safety of the reporter! Police tend to limit reporters' access for as long as legally possible. They do not tend to aid a reporter in getting a story in any manner including offering transportation especially while in pursuit of the perp.

If only Jim Ewell had a movie camera with him in the back seat. I can hear the song now: "Bad boys, bad boys, whatchya gonna do, whatchya gonna do when they come for you...bad boys bad boys..."

If Hill was a bad guy, why did he radio in that the shells found at the Tippit murder scene were from an automatic?

--Tommy :sun

Edited by Thomas Graves
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  • 4 years later...

Just stumbled across this and found it interesting in regards to Jim D's thread on Tippit a couple of months ago Mr. Mc Brides comment's there and since.  he's mentioned in one of Gene's posts.

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On 6/28/2014 at 10:30 AM, Robert Howard said:

I

 

On 12/3/63 at Dallas, Texas File DL 89-43

By Special Agent Robert E. Basham and James J Ward:jj Date dictated 12/4/63

Next page

Mr. Roberts advised that he had numerous friends on the police department and city council...

Roberts advised that since the above he had heard a few rumors and wondered whether

or not they had been checked out. He said that he learned from a Constable T. A. Vines,

offices in Oak Cliff Court House, Beckley and 12th Street that the woman was the night

manager of the Dobbs House, Beckley and Colorado, allegedly has claimed that Lee

Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby used to come into her restaurant two or three times a

week during the early morning hours.

 

I have always been intrigued by this entry in the Dallas Police tapes:

 

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/dpdtapes/tapes2.htm

 

1:26 Dispatcher 21 clear. 1:26. 9 (Inspector J.B. Jones) Yes, it will be done immediately. (1:26 p.m.)

 

550, car 2 (Sgt. G.L. Hill) 500/2.

Dispatcher Go ahead.

550/2 (Sgt. G.L. Hill) I'm at Twelfth and Beckley now. Have a man in the car with me that can identify the suspect if anybody gets him.

Dispatcher 10-4.

 

 

If you look at a Google maps page, 12th and Beckley is about two blocks south and 4 blocks west of where Tippit's shooting took place.

image.png.a71cd55c04c0c27ef192a1f6d41d9b95.png

The last known direction of the suspect at 1:23 PM, was that the suspect was in the 400 block of Jefferson, heading west.

 

What was Hill doing way down there?

 

Steve Thomas

 

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4 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

I have always been intrigued by this entry in the Dallas Police tapes:

 

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/dpdtapes/tapes2.htm

 

1:26 Dispatcher 21 clear. 1:26. 9 (Inspector J.B. Jones) Yes, it will be done immediately. (1:26 p.m.)

 

550, car 2 (Sgt. G.L. Hill) 500/2.

Dispatcher Go ahead.

550/2 (Sgt. G.L. Hill) I'm at Twelfth and Beckley now. Have a man in the car with me that can identify the suspect if anybody gets him.

Dispatcher 10-4.

What was Hill doing way down there?

And who was the "man in the car with me that can identify the suspect..."

Who did Hill take from the crime scene?

 

Steve Thomas

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On ‎6‎/‎7‎/‎2014 at 9:04 AM, Paul Brancato said:

Greg - I think its a brilliant analysis. I wonder whether the authors have thought of an explanation for Tippit's frantic actions prior to his death. McBride points out in his excellent research on Tippit that he was a marksman. The Gloco gas station, where Tippit was reliably identified at about 12:40 pm, was less than 2 miles from Dealey Plaza, and the witness who claimed Tippit answered a call to his retail business 10 minutes prior to the assassination only came forward years later, and his story is not corroborated by police records. We are supposed to believe that Tippit was searching for JFK's assassin as a result of a radio call from police dispatch to be on the lookout for a man whose physical description fit Oswald's, but what it really fits is the false physical description of Oswald planted by Angleton in his compartmentalized CIA file dangled by him to see where that false description might later appear. No way Tippit had an accurate description of Oswald at 12:40 pm. But his actions would appear to show a desperate man. Surely one possible explanation is that he was on the grassy knoll at 12:30 in police uniform.

I think the authors are right to mention Jack Crichton and Operation 40, along with George Bush, whose family was the direct beneficiary of the destruction of the Kennedy clan. Hoover's infamous George Bush memo, uncovered by McBride, seems to be the real smoking gun. Can anyone here point to another instance where Hoover named a CIA agent in a memo? Does anyone here believe that the 'George Bush of the CIA' was not our future president? So why did Hoover write this memo, and what does it tell us? First, that George Bush was indeed working for the CIA in 1963, and probably much earlier, and it tells us that Hoover knew that. In my opinion it also implies that Hoover knew who the plotters were, and that he wanted the plotters to know that he knew, and that he had the goods and was therefore untouchable.

Paul, I can't see Tippit on the grassy knoll.  For one thing I think all the shooters were professionally trained, practiced experts not marksmen.  But if he was there how did he get to the service station over the viaduct and Trinity river so quickly?  Where did he park his squad car while he was on the grassy knoll?  After running to it he would have had to get through dealy plaza from behind the TSBD, after the parade, through other traffic already congested.  He was a cop, in a cop car, I guess it could have happened.  But more evidence is needed to put him there. 

Edited by Ron Bulman
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