Two Dallas cops were involved in the pre-arranged murder of Tippit...

[Sandy Larsen]

Sandy and Jim,

If you read Barbara Jeannette Davis' testimony, unlike her 16 year old sister Virginia, she is solid on the order of events. It's worth reading as it clarifies everything Virginia said, and provides much more info regarding the finding of the shells.

Barbara states that after the phone call which took very little time as she did no more than report a shooting at her address, she and her sister walked out of the house, and directly to the Patrol car. They were there until the police cars started arriving about 5 minutes after they arrived at the car. At that time they returned to their yard.

According to the ambulance log sheet, the ambulance arrived at the shooting scene at 1:18. I don't recall them making any statements that there were police on the scene when they arrived. If they didn't then no policeman arrived prior to 1:18. IIRC...

Tom

Tom,

I just read Barbara Davis's WC testimony, and I agree that it help's clarify what Virginia Davis said. The most important thing is she said that she was out at Tippit's car not 5 minutes when the police cars began arriving. She doesn't explicitly say that she went right from the house to the car without delay, but her testimony reads that way.

One thing I noticed is that she was asked if she saw a man pick up Tippit's gun. She said no. This even though we know that Callaway picked it up and put in in the car, and later got it again, while she was standing there. My point in bringing this up is to show that an early witness could have picked up a wallet without others noticing.

Anyway, after reading Barbara's testimony, I went back and reread Virginia's WC testimony. I saw the sentence I had noted earlier where she said they went outside into the yard. But this time I also noticed, elsewhere in her testimony, a sentence that, like Barbara's, makes it sound like they went right to the car without delay. Because of that, I feel comfortable about making that change in my timeline. I will remove the four minute delay that Jim just objected to. (The delay that, ironically, I had put in to account for Virginia's "the police were already there" statement that Jim has stood so firm on.)

Here are my updated timelines:

Timeline (Version 3)

1:06 - Tippit is shot. [Time Witnesses: Helen Markham & Margie Higgins (in The Girl on the Stairs)]

1:10 - Witness T.F. Bowley calls in the shooting via Tippit's radio. [Time Witness: T.F. Bowley]

1:12 - The ambulance arrives.

1:13 - Croy arrives and sees Tippit being loaded into the ambulance. The ambulance leaves. Croy talks to a "hysterical" witness, probably Helen Markham.

1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker broadcasts the killer's description from the scene. [Time: Radio log transcript.]

According to Officer Poe's WC testimony, Walker arrived AFTER he and patrolman Jez arrived. They interviewed an excited Helen Markham, got a description of the shooter, and gave it to Walker for him to broadcast.

So Poe and Jez were the second and third officers to arrive. They arrived some time between 1:13 (Croy's arrival) and 1:17 (if we allow a 5 minute interview with Markham before giving the shooter's description to Walker to broadcast at 1:22).

Barbara Davis says that after calling the police, she and Virginia Davis went out and to the car. It "wasn't 5 minutes" before the police arrived, according to Barbara. (Virginia said that they had "already arrived." But this cannot be reconciled with other testimony. Note also that Virginia had a habit of using the word "already.")

So the Davises left their house at about 1:08 and arrived at Tippit's car shortly thereafter. And then, within 5 minutes, Officers Poe and Jez arrived. This fixes their time of arrival at 1:14. (It had to be after Croy's 1:13 arrival.)

Timeline (including police officers and Virgina Davis)

1:06 - Tippit is shot.

1:07 - Virginia Davis and her-sister-in-law arrive at the door, and Helen Markham screams to them that Tippit is dead and to call the police. They see the killer cross their yard and disappear around the corner of their house.

1:08 - The Davises call the police and then step out into their yard. They walk over and see Tippit's body lying on the ground.

1:10 - Witness T.F. Bowley calls in the shooting via Tippit's radio.

1:12 - The ambulance arrives and the body is loaded.

1:13 - Croy arrives and the ambulance leaves. Croy talks to a "hysterical" witness, probably Helen Markham.

1:14 - Officer Poe and Patrolman L.E. Jez arrive, and interview an excited Helen Markham.

1:15 to 1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker arrives. Officer Poe gives Markham's description of the shooter to Walker for him to broadcast..

1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker broadcasts the killer's description from the scene.

Edited July 7, 2016 by Sandy Larsen

[Ian Lloyd]

Tom,

You make some excellent points, and I agree that the most likely time of the shooting was about 1:06. Wouldn't you have to agree, though, that by many accounts the ambulance got to the scene much faster that the twelve minutes that would have expired between 1:06 and 1:18?

Jim,

The time that the ambulance service received the call (time stamped at 1:18) is the only question mark in the 1:06 shooting time. This would give LHO more time to arrive at the murder scene. However, this 'late' time would require convincing the ambulance company and crew to lie about the times, and that would be more than a bit suspicious to them. Would they lie?

The police were present at the hospital when JDT was pronounced. The only explanation of the 1:06 or 1:09 TOD was if they supplied that information. It was later changed to 1:15. DPD could have done the type-over at any time.

Barbara J. Davis called about 1:08 reporting a shooting (not knowing it was a police officer). IIRC T.F.Bowley looked at his watch and noted his arrival time as 1:10. The latest that DPD should have received his "Officer Down" call would be about 1:12. That is a long, long time for DPD to wait to make the ambulance call. Unless of course they wanted to be certain JDT did not survive the shooting...

1 minute to the shooting scene

3 minutes to load JDT

4-5 minute drive to hospital

2 minutes to ER

2 minutes to work on JDT, as they stated they did...

Total time: 12 (very optimistic) minutes

According to Bowley reporting at 1:12, they would not have pronounced JDT until 1:24... I only found this doc which pronounces JDT at 1:25, AFTER calculating the above times:

If they received a 1:18 call they certainly didn't pronounce him at 1:15, and given the 1:10 arrival time of Bowley, 1:15 couldn't be the time JDT was pronounced. IMO, the 1:15 time was the time DPD WANTED the shooting to have occurred, but it actually happened at 1:06.

Does DPD state a time that Barbara Jeannette Davis' call was received?

Tom

When I enlarge this, the '2' in the 1:25 looks like it's been altered...

[Sandy Larsen]

Timeline (Version 3)

1:06 - Tippit is shot. [Time Witnesses: Helen Markham & Margie Higgins (in The Girl on the Stairs)]

1:10 - Witness T.F. Bowley calls in the shooting via Tippit's radio. [Time Witness: T.F. Bowley]

1:12 - The ambulance arrives.

1:13 - Croy arrives and sees Tippit being loaded into the ambulance. The ambulance leaves. Croy talks to a "hysterical" witness, probably Helen Markham.

1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker broadcasts the killer's description from the scene. [Time: Radio log transcript.]

According to Officer Poe's WC testimony, Walker arrived AFTER he and patrolman Jez arrived. They interviewed an excited Helen Markham, got a description of the shooter, and gave it to Walker for him to broadcast.

So Poe and Jez were the second and third officers to arrive. They arrived some time between 1:13 (Croy's arrival) and 1:17 (if we allow a 5 minute interview with Markham before giving the shooter's description to Walker to broadcast at 1:22).

Barbara Davis says that after calling the police, she and Virginia Davis went out and to the car. It "wasn't 5 minutes" before the police arrived, according to Barbara. (Virginia said that they had "already arrived." But this cannot be reconciled with other testimony. Note also that Virginia had a habit of using the word "already.")

So the Davises left their house at about 1:08 and arrived at Tippit's car shortly thereafter. And then, within 5 minutes, Officers Poe and Jez arrived. This fixes their time of arrival at 1:14. (It had to be after Croy's 1:13 arrival.)

Timeline (including police officers and Virgina Davis)

1:06 - Tippit is shot.

1:07 - Virginia Davis and her-sister-in-law arrive at the door, and Helen Markham screams to them that Tippit is dead and to call the police. They see the killer cross their yard and disappear around the corner of their house.

1:08 - The Davises call the police and then step out into their yard. They walk over and see Tippit's body lying on the ground.

1:10 - Witness T.F. Bowley calls in the shooting via Tippit's radio.

1:12 - The ambulance arrives and the body is loaded.

1:13 - Croy arrives and the ambulance leaves. Croy talks to a "hysterical" witness, probably Helen Markham.

1:14 - Officer Poe and Patrolman L.E. Jez arrive, and interview an excited Helen Markham.

1:15 to 1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker arrives. Officer Poe gives Markham's description of the shooter to Walker for him to broadcast..

1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker broadcasts the killer's description from the scene.

When I first began making these timelines, I was assuming that the DPD was responding to the 1:10 T.F. Bowley call. Now I see that Barbara Davis's 1:08 call was made a couple minutes earlier and the DPD was likely acting on that. Yet I didn't adjust the times accordingly. I will do so now:

Timeline (Version 4)

1:06 - Tippit is shot. [Time Witnesses: Helen Markham & Margie Higgins (in The Girl on the Stairs)]

1:10 - Witness T.F. Bowley calls in the shooting via Tippit's radio. [Time Witness: T.F. Bowley]

1:10 - The ambulance arrives. [Time: Based on Davis's call.]

1:11 - Croy arrives and sees Tippit being loaded into the ambulance. Croy talks to a "hysterical" witness, probably Helen Markham.

1:12 - The ambulance departs.

1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker broadcasts the killer's description from the scene. [Time: Radio log transcript.]

According to Officer Poe's WC testimony, Walker arrived AFTER he and patrolman Jez arrived. They interviewed an excited Helen Markham, got a description of the shooter, and gave it to Walker for him to broadcast.

So Poe and Jez were the second and third officers to arrive. They arrived some time between 1:11 (Croy's arrival) and 1:17 (if we allow a 5 minute interview with Markham before giving the shooter's description to Walker to broadcast at 1:22).

Barbara Davis says that after calling the police, she and Virginia Davis went out and to the car. It "wasn't 5 minutes" before the police arrived, according to Barbara. (Virginia said that they had "already arrived." But this cannot be reconciled with other testimony. Note also that Virginia had a habit of using the word "already.")

So the Davises left their house at about 1:08 and arrived at Tippit's car shortly thereafter. And then, within 5 minutes, Officers Poe and Jez arrived. This pegs their time of arrival between 1:12 (after Croy's 1:11 arrival) and 1:13 or so.

Timeline (including police officers and Virgina Davis)

1:06 - Tippit is shot.

1:07 - Virginia Davis and her-sister-in-law arrive at the door, and Helen Markham screams to them that Tippit is dead and to call the police. They see the killer cross their yard and disappear around the corner of their house.

1:08 - The Davises call the police and then step out into their yard. They walk over and see Tippit's body lying on the ground.

1:10 - Witness T.F. Bowley calls in the shooting via Tippit's radio.

1:10 - The ambulance arrives and the body is loaded.

1:11 - Croy arrives and sees Tippit being loaded into the ambulance. Croy talks to a "hysterical" witness, probably Helen Markham.

1:12 - The ambulance departs.

1:12 to 1:13 - Officer Poe and Patrolman L.E. Jez arrive, and interview an excited Helen Markham.

1:13 to 1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker arrives. Officer Poe gives Markham's description of the shooter to Walker for him to broadcast..

1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker broadcasts the killer's description from the scene.

Edited July 7, 2016 by Sandy Larsen

[Jim Hargrove]

ACCORDING TO AMBULANCE DRIVER, HUGHES RECORDS MUST HAVE BEEN ALTERED

In 1977, ambulance driver Clayton Butler was interviewed by investigators for the House Select Committee on Assassinations. When asked how long it took him to reach the scene, he replied:

"I was on the scene in one minute or less. From the time I received the call in our dispatch office

until Officer Tippit was pronounced dead at Methodist Hospital was approximately four minutes."

It certainly appears that the logs of the Dudley Hughes company were changed. John suspects that all the times related to TippIt were changed by exactly ten minutes. (Time of shooting, time of ambulance arrival, police logs related to Benavides/Callaway call to the DPD dispatcher, time of Certificate of Death.)

[Jim Hargrove]

While Bowley was giving the police the location of the shooting, Mrs. Frank Wright was also acting quickly.

Mrs. Wright and her husband lived at 501 East 10th Street -about half a block from the shooting. Even though

Mrs. Wright never testified before the Warren Commission she was interviewed by George and Paricia Nash

for their article published in The New Leader magazine of 12th October, 1964. She stated: "I heard three shots.

From my window I got a clear view of the officer lying there on the street. I didn't wait a minute. I ran to the

telephone. I didn't look in the book I just ran to the telephone, picked it up and dialed 0. I said 'Call police, a

man's been shot.' After the phone call I decided to join my husband. It wasn't but a minute till the ambulance got there."

[David Andrews]

Just as a research lead, does anyone know if Tippit's body was photographed on the ground before it was taken away? Is there any log of still photos taken at the scene, excluding later recreation photos?

[Tom Neal]

The Other Witnesses
By George and Patricia Nash

The New Leader, 12 October 1964, pages 69

The question becomes all the more relevant when it is realized that it was a call from Mrs. Wright which was responsible for the ambulance being dispatched, and the police had her address:
I was sitting in my apartment watching television with my husband. We had just learned that the President was shot. I was sitting in a chair with my back to the intersection of 10th and Denver. My husband was sitting across from me. I heard shots fired and I immediately ran to the window.
I heard three shots. From my window, I got a clear view of a man lying there on the street. He was there in the next block. I could see there was a man lying in the street. I didnt wait a minute. I ran to the telephone. I didnt look in the book or anything. I ran to the telephone, picked it up and dialed O. I said, Call the police, a mans been shot! After that I went outside to join my husband. It wasnt but a minute till the ambulance got there.
The operator took Mrs. Wrights address, 501 East 10th, and called the police. The police noted there was a shooting at 501 East 10th and pushed a buzzer connecting them by a direct line to the Dudley M. Hughes Funeral Home.

The Dudley M. Hughes Funeral Home is the central ambulance dispatching point for southern Dallas. It either handles calls directly or calls other funeral homes in the system that cover other areas. Dudley M. Hughes Jr., the dispatcher, took the call from the police. He filled out an ambulance call slip with the code 3-19 (which means emergency shooting) and the address, 501 East 10th Street. He put the slip into the time clock and stamped it 1:18 p.m., November 22, in the space marked Time Called. Since the location was just two short blocks away he told one of his own drivers, Clayton Butler, to respond. Butler and Eddie Kinsley ran down the steps, got into the ambulance and took off, siren screaming.
Butler radioed his arrival at the scene at 1:18 p.m., within 60 seconds of leaving the funeral home. He remembers that there were at least 10 people standing around the man lying on the ground. It was not until he and his assistant pulled back a blanket covering Tippit that they realized the victim was a policeman.
Butler ran back to his radio to inform headquarters. The radio was busy and he could not cut in. He yelled Mayday to no avail, and went back to Tippit. The officer lay on his side, face down with part of his body under the left front fender of the police car. Butler and Kinsley rolled him over and saw the bullet wound through Tippits temple. Butler told us, I thought he was dead then. Its not my position to say so. We got him into the ambulance and we got going as quick as possible. On the way to the hospital I finally let them know it was a policeman. The record shows that Butler called in to the funeral home at 1: 26 p.m. to say he had reached the hospital.

Others never questioned included Butler’s assistant, Eddie Kinsley; Dudley M. Hughes Jr., who dispatched the ambulance; and the managers of the apartment house facing the murder site. All of these potential witnesses were in agreement on the lapse of time between the shots and the arrival of the ambulance

The above explains the incorrect address, 501 East 10th given to the ambulance company, et al.

I still have the problem with the 1:18 call logged by the ambulance. I agree with Jim that it SHOULD have been more like 1:08, but as I said in a previous post, that would require cooperation from the funeral home and the drivers. I'm looking for quotes from Butler, Eddie Kinsey, and Dudley Hughes that confirms or denies these times...

Tom Edited July 7, 2016 by Tom Neal

[Jim Hargrove]

I still have the problem with the 1:18 call logged by the ambulance. I agree with Jim that it SHOULD have been more like 1:08, but as I said in a previous post, that would require cooperation from the funeral home and the drivers. I'm looking for quotes from Butler, Eddie Kinsey, and Dudley Hughes that confirms or denies these times...

Tom

Are you sure that Hughes and the ambulance drivers needed to cooperate for the FBI to have altered the time stamps? There are all kinds of examples of how the FBI forged evidence in this case, and even altered witness testimony to hide its malfeasance. See this link, for example:

http://harveyandlee.net/FBI/FBI.html

Has anyone seen the original time-stamped dispatch from Dudley Hughes? My bet is that this document disappeared, and all we have is the altered FBI report as to what the dispatch supposedly said.

Edited July 8, 2016 by Jim Hargrove

[Jim Hargrove]

Timeline (including police officers and Virgina Davis)

1:06 - Tippit is shot.

Frank Wright, Mrs. Wright, Doris Holan, Helen Markham, Domingo Benavides, and Jimmy Burt are the first people to hear the shots and the first people to look at Tippit on the ground and see the shooter.

1:07 - Virginia Davis and her-sister-in-law arrive at the door, and Helen Markham screams to them that Tippit is dead and to call the police. They see the killer cross their yard and disappear around the corner of their house.

Mrs. Wright hears the shots, immediately dials "O" for operator and is passed over to the police dept. Police push a special button to notify Dudley Hughes ambulance, which is dispatched less than a minute later. Mrs. Wright was likely the first person to contact police. Scoggins called his dispatcher to report the shooting, Mrs. Holan walks outside of her house and watches a plainclothes police officer hurry from Tippit's body to a police car parked in a narrow driveway between two houses.

1:08 - The Davises call the police and then step out into their yard. They walk over and see Tippit's body lying on the ground.

Jimmy Burt and William Smith arrive by car from a block away and watch LHO as he crosses Patton and begins walking south toward Jefferson. Jimmy Burt saw two ladies at the scene of the shooting (Virginia/Barbara Davis). Callaway first sees Oswald walking south on Patton. Sam Guinyard sees the police care drive as it left the scene and drove down the alley between 10th & Jefferson.

1:09: Callaway runs to the scene and sees Tippit lying on the pavement.

1:10 - Witness T.F. Bowley calls in the shooting via Tippit's radio.

1:10 - The ambulance arrives and the body is loaded. Callaway helps load Tippit's body, then grabs Tippit's gun and says to Scoggins, "Let's go after him [LHO]."

1:11 - Croy arrives and sees Tippit being loaded into the ambulance. Croy talks to a "hysterical" witness, probably Helen Markham. Not likely Markham. Croy said he talked with a woman who was "watering her lawn" or something similar--hardly the description of excited Markham.

1:12 - The ambulance departs.

1:12 to 1:13 - Officer Poe and Patrolman L.E. Jez arrive, and interview an excited Helen Markham.

1:14: Ambulance arrives at Methodist Hospital. (According to Clayton Butler and Kinsley the trip to the hospital took 4 minutes.) Tippit is DOA.

1:13 to 1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker arrives. Officer Poe gives Markham's description of the shooter to Walker for him to broadcast..

1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker broadcasts the killer's description from the scene.

Edited July 8, 2016 by Jim Hargrove

[Sandy Larsen]

On 7/7/2016 at 3:34 AM, Sandy Larsen said:

When I first began making these timelines, I was assuming that the DPD was responding to the 1:10 T.F. Bowley call. Now I see that Barbara Davis's 1:08 call was made a couple minutes earlier and the DPD was likely acting on that. Yet I didn't adjust the times accordingly. I will do so now:

Timeline (Version 4)

1:06 - Tippit is shot. [Time Witnesses: Helen Markham & Margie Higgins (in The Girl on the Stairs)]

1:10 - Witness T.F. Bowley calls in the shooting via Tippit's radio. [Time Witness: T.F. Bowley]

1:10 - The ambulance arrives. [Time: Based on Davis's call.]

1:11 - Croy arrives and sees Tippit being loaded into the ambulance. Croy talks to a "hysterical" witness, probably Helen Markham.

1:12 - The ambulance departs.

1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker broadcasts the killer's description from the scene. [Time: Radio log transcript.]

According to Officer Poe's WC testimony, Walker arrived AFTER he and patrolman Jez arrived. They interviewed an excited Helen Markham, got a description of the shooter, and gave it to Walker for him to broadcast.

So Poe and Jez were the second and third officers to arrive. They arrived some time between 1:11 (Croy's arrival) and 1:17 (if we allow a 5 minute interview with Markham before giving the shooter's description to Walker to broadcast at 1:22).

Barbara Davis says that after calling the police, she and Virginia Davis went out and to the car. It "wasn't 5 minutes" before the police arrived, according to Barbara. (Virginia said that they had "already arrived." But this cannot be reconciled with other testimony. Note also that Virginia had a habit of using the word "already.")

So the Davises left their house at about 1:08 and arrived at Tippit's car shortly thereafter. And then, within 5 minutes, Officers Poe and Jez arrived. This pegs their time of arrival between 1:12 (after Croy's 1:11 arrival) and 1:13 or so.

Timeline (including police officers and Virgina Davis)

1:06 - Tippit is shot.

1:07 - Virginia Davis and her-sister-in-law arrive at the door, and Helen Markham screams to them that Tippit is dead and to call the police. They see the killer cross their yard and disappear around the corner of their house.

1:08 - The Davises call the police and then step out into their yard. They walk over and see Tippit's body lying on the ground.

1:10 - Witness T.F. Bowley calls in the shooting via Tippit's radio.

1:10 - The ambulance arrives and the body is loaded.

1:11 - Croy arrives and sees Tippit being loaded into the ambulance. Croy talks to a "hysterical" witness, probably Helen Markham.

1:12 - The ambulance departs.

1:12 to 1:13 - Officer Poe and Patrolman L.E. Jez arrive, and interview an excited Helen Markham.

1:13 to 1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker arrives. Officer Poe gives Markham's description of the shooter to Walker for him to broadcast..

1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker broadcasts the killer's description from the scene.

I now know that the DPD responded first not to Barbara Davis's 1:08 call, but rather to Mrs. Frank Wright's slightly earlier call. I will update the timeline accordingly. I will also update times to reflect ambulance driver Clayton Butler's testimony. Then I will add additional information provided by Jim. I'm trying to document how the timetable is being constructed (which is why I have it in two stages, so far), and so the information provided by Jim will be added in a manner that facilitates that.
 

Tippit Scene Timeline (Version 5)

1:06 - Tippit is shot. [Time Sources: Helen Markham & Margie Higgins (in The Girl on the Stairs)]

1:07 - Witness Mrs. Frank Wright calls in the shooting. [Time: Based on Mrs. Frank Wright comments reported in 10/12/64 The New Leader magazine article.]

1:09 - Witness T.F. Bowley calls in the shooting via Tippit's radio. [Time Source: T.F. Bowley. Actually, his statement suggests that his call was made at 1:11 to 1:12. But this makes the official time-of-death for Tippit of 1:15 impossible. So, this time presumes Bowley's watch being off by a minute or two, and that he rounded off to the nearest 5-minute mark.]

1:10 - The ambulance arrives. [Time: Based on Mrs. Frank Wright & Clayton Butler statements reported in 10/12/64 The New Leader magazine article. Actually, their comments suggest a time of 1:08. But the ambulance cannot have arrived before T.F. Bowley's ~1:10 call. Note also that Bowley said the ambulance arrived "a few minutes" after his call.]

1:11 - Police reserve Sergeant Croy arrives and sees Tippit being loaded into the ambulance. Croy talks to a "hysterical" witness, probably Helen Markham. [Time: Based on Croy's WC testimony, his seeing ambulance being loaded upon his arrival.]

1:12 - The ambulance departs.

1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker broadcasts the killer's description from the scene. [Time Source: DPD radio log transcript.]

 

Timing Analysis

According to Officer Poe's WC testimony, Walker arrived AFTER he and patrolman Jez arrived. They interviewed an excited Helen Markham, got a description of the shooter, and gave it to Walker for him to broadcast.

So Poe and Jez were the second and third officers to arrive. They arrived some time between 1:11 (Croy's arrival) and 1:17 (if we allow a 5 minute interview with Markham before giving the shooter's description to Walker to broadcast at 1:22).

Barbara Davis says that after calling the police, she and Virginia Davis went out and to the car. It "wasn't 5 minutes" before the police arrived, according to Barbara. (Virginia said that they had "already arrived." But this cannot be reconciled with other testimony. Note also that Virginia had a habit of using the word "already.")

So the Davises left their house at about 1:08 and arrived at Tippit's car shortly thereafter. And then, within 5 minutes, Officers Poe and Jez arrived. This pegs their time of arrival between 1:12 (after Croy's 1:11 arrival) and 1:13 or so.

 

Tippit Scene Timeline (with Virginia Davis and the first arriving police officers)

1:06 - Tippit is shot.

1:07 - Witness Mrs. Frank Wright calls in the shooting.

1:07 - Virginia Davis and her-sister-in-law arrive at the door, and Helen Markham screams to them that Tippit is dead and to call the police. They see the killer cross their yard and disappear around the corner of their house. [Time: Based on the above Timing Analysis.]

1:08 - The Davises call the police and then step out into their yard. They walk over and see Tippit's body lying on the ground. [Time: Based on the above Timing Analysis.]

1:09 - Witness T.F. Bowley calls in the shooting via Tippit's radio.

1:10 - The ambulance arrives and the body is loaded.

1:11 - Croy arrives and sees Tippit being loaded into the ambulance. Croy talks to a "hysterical" witness, probably Helen Markham.

1:11 to 1:12 - The ambulance departs.

1:12 to 1:13 - Officer Poe and Patrolman L.E. Jez arrive, and interview an excited Helen Markham. [Time: Based on the above Timing Analysis.]

1:13 to 1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker arrives. Officer Poe gives Markham's description of the shooter to Walker for him to broadcast. [Time: Based on the above Timing Analysis.]

1:22 - Patrolman Roy W. Walker broadcasts the killer's description from the scene.

 

Edited December 6, 2018 by Sandy Larsen

[Jim Hargrove]

DID HUGH AYNSEWORTH SAY HE WAS AT THE TIPPIT MURDER SCENE NO LATER THAN 1:10 PM?

Here is the text of a letter from Shirley Martin to Jim Garrison:

May 20, 1967

Dear Mr. Garrison:

I am so sorry that Newsweek chose Hugh Aynesworth to use in its rebuttal of you.

In the summer of ‘64 I had a long talk with Mr. Aynesworth, introducing myself to him as a friend of a relative to General Clyde Watts, ex-Major General Edwin A. Walker's close friend and attorney (Oxford). Mr. Aynesworth mistakenly assumed that I was a political conservative and immediately deluged me with disgusting anti-Kennedy stories. ("Kennedy needed a trip to Dallas like a hole in the head," etc.) At the same time Mr. Aynesworth heaped what seemed to me to be inordinate praise on the city of Dallas, the Dallas police (Lt. George Butler, Captain Fritz, Chief Curry, etc.), and the Dallas Morning News (for which newspaper Aynesworth was working at the time). He confided, too, that Tom Buchanan (Paris) was a "fairy" and detailed for me a number of extremely slanderous alleged incidents in the life of Mark Lane. In addition, Mr. Aynesworth definitively labeled Mr. Lane a "communist."

Aynesworth was extremely bitter that Merriman Smith had won the Pulitzer for his coverage of the assassination. Aynesworth sarcastically remarked that Smith "did nothing and saw less" on the day in question, whereas he, Aynesworth was "...the only reporter in America to make all four big scenes." (1) In addition, Aynesworth boasted that a Commission attorney had already confided to him (in July) what the Commission verdict was to be (in September). Oswald would be named, but according to Aynesworth it was in reality "...a communist plot. Warren will do a cover-up for Moscow."

Aynesworth insisted that Marina had had an affair with him after the assassination, and that during this period she had revealed to him that she and Ruth Paine had shared a Lesbian relationship prior to November 22, 1963. Aynesworth also declared that he had been on 10th Street "looking down on the Tippit murder scene at 1:05pm, not later than 1:10..." on November 22nd. (2) Needless to say, the "only reporter in America" to be in on all four "big scenes" was NOT called to testify before the Warren Commission, which did, however, call Thayer Waldo, Fort Worth reporter, because he had been in the police basement when Ruby shot Oswald. (3)

Finally, I have the statement by an employee of the Dallas Morning News that Aynesworth was deliberately and ILLEGALLY given the allegedly stolen Oswald diary story by a Commission attorney who was in Dallas on business at that time. Earl Warren later put the FBI on the trail of this illegal "leak", but

as was to be expected no discoveries were made.

This, then, is the man chosen by Newsweek to rebut you. What a pity Newsweek's taste is so concentrated in its tail.

- Sincerely,

(Mrs.) Shirley Martin

Box 226

Owasso, Oklahoma

Edited July 8, 2016 by Jim Hargrove

[Tom Neal]

hsca record 180-10107-10180 is the HSCA interview with J. Clayton Butler, the ambulance driver.

Does anyone know where to find this record?

Tom

[Tom Neal]

Tippit Scene Timeline (with Virginia Davis and the first arriving police officers)

1:06 - Tippit is shot.

1:07 - Witness Mrs. Frank Wright calls in the shooting.

1:07 - Virginia Davis and her-sister-in-law arrive at the door, and Helen Markham screams to them that Tippit is dead and to call the police. They see the killer cross their yard and disappear around the corner of their house. [Time: Based on the above Timing Analysis.]

1:08 - The Davises call the police and then step out into their yard. They walk over and see Tippit's body lying on the ground. [Time: Based on the above Timing Analysis.]

Sandy,

IMO you have the Davises arriving at JTD's car a little too soon. They were both lying down when they heard the first shot. They didn't suspect gunfire until they heard the second shot. They put on their shoes and then proceeded to the front door in time to see the shooter cross their lawn and disappear around the corner. They then called the police, which would have taken a minute or two. Do people react immediately in a shocking situation that they've never experienced? I doubt events transpired as quickly as even they may think... Based upon their activities, I'd put their arrival time at JTD's car at 1:10 at the earliest.

T.F. Bowley arrived at 1:10 according to his watch. He said he went to JTD to see if he could help him. Domingo Benavides was already in the car and on the radio, or attempting to call in. TFB said that DB didn't know how to use the radio, so he called the shooting in. I would think that took him a minute or two, and even presuming it was exactly 1:10 when he arrived, I doubt he was out of the car before 1:12. He doesn't mention that the ambulance was already there, or arrived just after he got out of the car. I would think that since as far as he knew he was the first to report the shooting he would have been surprised to find the ambulance there waiting when he got out of the car, but he doesn't mention it.

Barbara Davis said she went to the car and saw JTD on the ground so she arrived before the ambulance. She also doesn't mention seeing TFB getting out of the police car after reporting the shooting, so she couldn't have arrived before 1:11 or 1:12. She says she stayed at the car for about 5 minutes until the police cars started to arrive. Presumably, the ambulance had lights and siren going. She could have mistaken the ambulance arrival for the arrival of DPD.

Additionally, I have found 5 statements by researchers that the ambulance log sheet is nowhere to be found. Butler et al agree that it took about a minute for the ambulance to get to the shooting scene and another four minutes to get to the hospital, but I am unable to find a statement from them or Hughes as to what time the ambulance departed or arrived at the shooting.

Of course, the only REALLY important time here is the time of the shooting, which is almost certainly 1:06. This does NOT give LHO enough time to be the shooter.

Tom

Edited July 9, 2016 by Tom Neal

[Jim Hargrove]

DID HUGH AYNSEWORTH SAY HE WAS AT THE TIPPIT MURDER SCENE NO LATER THAN 1:10 PM?

Here is the text of a letter from Shirley Martin to Jim Garrison:

May 20, 1967

Dear Mr. Garrison:

I am so sorry that Newsweek chose Hugh Aynesworth to use in its rebuttal of you.

In the summer of ‘64 I had a long talk with Mr. Aynesworth, introducing myself to him as a friend of a relative to General Clyde Watts, ex-Major General Edwin A. Walker's close friend and attorney (Oxford). Mr. Aynesworth mistakenly assumed that I was a political conservative and immediately deluged me with disgusting anti-Kennedy stories. ("Kennedy needed a trip to Dallas like a hole in the head," etc.) At the same time Mr. Aynesworth heaped what seemed to me to be inordinate praise on the city of Dallas, the Dallas police (Lt. George Butler, Captain Fritz, Chief Curry, etc.), and the Dallas Morning News (for which newspaper Aynesworth was working at the time). He confided, too, that Tom Buchanan (Paris) was a "fairy" and detailed for me a number of extremely slanderous alleged incidents in the life of Mark Lane. In addition, Mr. Aynesworth definitively labeled Mr. Lane a "communist."

Aynesworth was extremely bitter that Merriman Smith had won the Pulitzer for his coverage of the assassination. Aynesworth sarcastically remarked that Smith "did nothing and saw less" on the day in question, whereas he, Aynesworth was "...the only reporter in America to make all four big scenes." (1) In addition, Aynesworth boasted that a Commission attorney had already confided to him (in July) what the Commission verdict was to be (in September). Oswald would be named, but according to Aynesworth it was in reality "...a communist plot. Warren will do a cover-up for Moscow."

Aynesworth insisted that Marina had had an affair with him after the assassination, and that during this period she had revealed to him that she and Ruth Paine had shared a Lesbian relationship prior to November 22, 1963. Aynesworth also declared that he had been on 10th Street "looking down on the Tippit murder scene at 1:05pm, not later than 1:10..." on November 22nd. (2) Needless to say, the "only reporter in America" to be in on all four "big scenes" was NOT called to testify before the Warren Commission, which did, however, call Thayer Waldo, Fort Worth reporter, because he had been in the police basement when Ruby shot Oswald. (3)

Finally, I have the statement by an employee of the Dallas Morning News that Aynesworth was deliberately and ILLEGALLY given the allegedly stolen Oswald diary story by a Commission attorney who was in Dallas on business at that time. Earl Warren later put the FBI on the trail of this illegal "leak", but

as was to be expected no discoveries were made.

This, then, is the man chosen by Newsweek to rebut you. What a pity Newsweek's taste is so concentrated in its tail.

- Sincerely,

(Mrs.) Shirley Martin

Box 226

Owasso, Oklahoma

The following is an excerpt from a letter written to Joachim Joesten concerning an interview of Hugh Aynesworth, Dallas Morning News reporter.

“… It has intrigued me that Aynesworth was so convinced in his conversation with me that Tippit had been killed around 1 p.m. Aynesworth is extraordinarily proud of the fact that he is the only reporter in the United States to have been at all four major scenes (the assassination, the Tippit killing immediately after, the arrest of Oswald in the Texas Theater, and the murder of Oswald in the police basement). When I praised Mr. Aynesworth for this and suggested that perhaps he should have been considered for the Pulitzer Prize (rather than Mr. [Merriman] Smith whom Mr. Aynesworth claims does not deserve the prize as another Dallas reporter did all his, Smith’s, writing for him), Mr. Aynesworth modestly admitted to an oversight on the part of the committee, but continued to speak at great length over his four unique experiences. When I asked Mr. Aynesworth how and when he first heard about Tippit, he replied: “I was standing near the Texas Book Building, all the other reporters had gone to Parkland (Hospital), but I felt a story was breaking near the building, when I heard a squad radio blast out that a policeman had been shot in Oak Cliff. This was around one o’clock. I ran to the car and went with it to Patton and Tenth. I had a hunch that the policeman’s murder was tied in with the assassination. I got to the Tenth Street area about 1:05, no later than 1:10 p.m. …” [1]

1. Joachim Joesten, The Garrison Inquiry (Hills and Lacy, Limited: London, 1967), pp. 102-103. The letter was written on October 29, 1964.

***********************************************************************************************************************

Years later, Aynesworth gave author Larry Sneed additional details. [2] He was at the police command post at the corner of Houston and Elm with Inspector Herbert Sawyer, Sgt. Calvin Owens, Sgt. Gerald Hill, Assistant District Attorney Bill Alexander, and news reporter Jim Ewell. As Gerald Hill urged Sawyer to get the crime lab over to the Texas School Book Depository, the police radio traffic was interrupted: “This is a citizen. A policeman’s been shot! He’s hurt pretty bad, I think!” The citizen then gave the location.

After receiving the call, Hill, Alexander, and Owens promptly left for Oak Cliff. Aynesworth went with WFAA-TV newsmen Ron Reiland and Vic Robertson in the Channel 8 cruiser. Reiland drove the cruiser recklessly, making a lot of fast moves to pass other cars and barreling through intersections as fast as he could go, using an illegal flashing light accessory to warn other drivers. These details show how the three newsmen managed to reach the scene of the crime between 1:05 and 1:10. Aynesworth statement to Martin agrees with that of T.F. Bowley who arrived at the scene at about the same time. He noted the time as 1:10 on his watch.

According to Callaway:

“… I saw a squad car, and by that time there was four or five people that had gathered, a couple of cars had stopped. Then I saw he had been shot in the head. So the first thing I did, I ran over to the squad car. I didn’t know whether anybody reported it or not. So I got on the police radio and called them, and told them a man had been shot, told them the location, I thought the officer was dead. They said we know about it [from a telephone call?], and to stay off the air, so I went back. …”

Since about five or six minutes had passed since Callaway made the first call, and no police had arrived (although the three newsmen had arrived), Benavides decided to try the radio.

“… I mashed the button and told them that an officer had been shot, and I didn’t get an answer, so I said it again, and this guy asked me whereabouts all of a sudden, and I said, on Tenth Street. I couldn’t remember where it was at the time. So I looked up and I seen this number and I said 410 East Tenth Street . . . I put the radio back. I mean, the microphone back up, and this other guy was standing there, so I got up out of the car, and I don’t know, I wasn’t sure if he heard me, and the other guy sat down in the car . . . I don’t know what he said to the officer or the phone, but the officer told him to keep the line clear. …”

The “other guy” was T. F. Bowley. Benavides was the one who reached the dispatcher at 1:16. Since Benavides seemed to be mishandling the microphone, Bowley was the next to try. He reached the dispatcher at 1:18.

The ambulance came about a minute later. Bowley and Callaway helped the attendants put the body in the ambulance. Immediately afterwards Callaway took Tippit’s gun and embarked on a hunt for the suspect with cab driver William Scoggins.

2. Larry Sneed, No More Silence, An Oral History of the Assassination of President Kennedy (Three Forks Press: Dallas, TX, 1998), pp. 292-293.

Edited July 9, 2016 by Jim Hargrove

[Jim Hargrove]

hsca record 180-10107-10180 is the HSCA interview with J. Clayton Butler, the ambulance driver.

Does anyone know where to find this record?

Tom

I've spent several days looking for this too, also without success. It used to be EASY to find HSCA testimony online.

I thought for sure it would be found here:

http://aarclibrary.org/publib/contents/hsca/contents_hsca_vols.htm

But after searching the contents of each volume and doing a Google site search of aarclibrary.org, it simply doesn't seem to be there. Very frustrating!