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

[Mathias Baumann]

And what about this story? Tippit had a second uniform in the back of his car?

Quote

There's an extra policeman's uniform shirt hanging in the car. What's that for? Nobody knows.

https://ourhiddenhistory.org/entry/jfk-assassination-jd-tippit-bill-simpich-author-of-state-secret

Are there any photographs of the car that show that uniform?

[Jim Hargrove]

A very nice interview in which Bill Simpich discusses some of the unlikeliest aspects of the Official Story® of the Tippit murder.  Fascinating to me is how often the subject of an Oswald lookalike comes up in this discussion. 

Mathias, I don’t know if there is any significance to the second uniform hanging in the back of Tippit’s car.  One possibility is there is some evidence Tippit may have had a girlfriend living near 10th and Patton and he simply wanted a new set of clothes ready for an overnight stay.  That’s just a guess.

I hope others will read the interview with Bill Simpich.  There are a couple of areas I’d debate with him….

Bill indicates that Ken Croy was the first cop to arrive on the scene after Tippit’s murder.  I think Croy was already there, as 16-year-old Virginia Davis hinted to the Warren Commission.  She heard the shots and saw Tippit’s killer cutting across the front yard of her house and saw him throw empty shell casings on the ground.

Mr. Belin. All right, after this, did police come out there?
Mrs. Davis. Yes; they was already there.
Mr. Belin. By the time you got out there?
Mrs. Davis. Yes, sir.

I’d also like to suggest that anyone discussing Johnny Brewer needs to take a close look at his story and his credibility.  John Armstrong discusses reasons to suspect Brewer’s role in setting up “LHO” on the November 22 page of my website.

https://harveyandlee.net/November/November_22.htm

Look for the heading “LEE OSWALD ARRIVES AT THE TEXAS THEATER” a little more than a third of the way down the page.  The Brewer discussion is in that section.

Thank you for this link.  It leads to a significant and fresh overview of the Tippit slaying.

[Paul Brancato]

7 hours ago, Mathias Baumann said:

Interestingly Larry Crafard had worked at the Fairgrounds before he was employed by Ruby.

According to Laura Kittrell, Crafard impersonated Oswald.

Is this story true?

Good question. I’m trying to read Crafards WC testimony but it’s long and full of unnecessary details. He  says he met Ruby at the Fairgrounds btw.

Edited November 17, 2018 by Paul Brancato

[Jim Hargrove]

Laura Kittrell decided the second Oswald might be Larry Crafard only after she studied the Warren Volumes and located two photographs of Crafard.  In her ninety page manuscript, she wrote, “I wish I could settle this question in my mind, but I can’t.”

In Harvey and Lee, John Armstrong considered whether it might have been Crafard posing as LHO when he met Kittrell, and he concluded as follows:

Jack Ruby met Larry Crafard when he (Crafard) was working at the Texas
State Fair (October 5-20). Crafard did not begin working for Ruby and living
at the Carousel club until November 1, two weeks after Laura Kittrell interviewed
the "Teamster.”

Photographs of Crafard published in the 26 Volumes are very misleading as
they show him with a closed mouth and wearing a long sleeved jacket. When
these photographs were taken Larry Crafard's front teeth were missing en-
tirely and he had tattoos on both arms. If Laura Kittrell had known that Crafard
was missing his front teeth she would have realized that the "Teamster," who laughed
loud enough to be heard throughout the room, was not Crafard. [H&L, p. 729]

From my website:

Following the assassination Laura Kittrell telephoned and wrote to the FBI about her meeting with Oswald. The FBI finally got around to interviewing Mrs. Kittrell on June 4, 1965, nearly a year after the Warren Report was published. And then, 30 years later in 1994, the U.S. government finally got around to allowing the American people access to her statement. Shown below is the bottom of page 8 and the top of page 9 of a ten-page July 18, 1978 memo from the HSCA's Gaeton Fonzi to Blakey.
 

 

 

[Jim Hargrove]

This thread appears to be wrapping up, and I wanted to end it with a few paragraphs JA and I have been writing and re-writing for the end of the Tippit Murder page on HarveyandLee.net. Comments, praise, criticisms would be appreciated.

It may seem hard to imagine why anyone would plan to murder a uniformed Dallas policeman in broad daylight in front of numerous eyewitnesses, but it was simply the final act in the long drama in which LEE framed HARVEY for the murder of JFK. After LEE Oswald shot and killed Officer Tippit he began walking toward the Texas Theater. He likely meet-up with Capt. Westbrook near the parking lot behind the Texaco station, and may have been driven to the theater in order to avoid possible arrest while walking to the theater. En route LEE Oswald removed his jacket and then left his jacket, wallet, and pistol with Westbrook. In less than an hour these items would be used by Westbrook to identify Lee HARVEY Oswald as the man who murdered Tippit (wallet), the suspect who left the scene (jacket), and link Oswald to the assassination of President Kennedy (Hidell identification found in the wallet). LEE Oswald's orders were surely to go to the balcony in the Texas Theater, where he could observe HARVEY in the lower section, and remain in the theater until the police arrived and either shot or arrested HARVEY. If HARVEY did leave the theater, LEE was probably instructed to follow HARVEY outside.

But HARVEY did not leave the theater, and over a dozen Dallas cops DID arrive while HARVEY was still on the main floor. Police were looking for a suspect wearing a white t-shirt and dark pants (LEE Oswald), but HARVEY was sitting in the lower section wearing a long sleeve dark brown shirt. It was Tommy Rowe (not Johnny Brewer), who was a close friend of Jack Ruby, that told police the man in the brown shirt was their suspect. From the balcony, LEE was insulated a bit from HARVEY’s arrest, but after hearing the commotion below began to leave the balcony area and walk down the stairway. As Deputy Sheriff Bill Courson was running up the stairs he passed by a young man and later said "he was reasonably satisfied in his own mind" the man he saw was Lee Harvey Oswald. Seconds later LEE Oswald was stopped by police Lt. Cunningham and Detective J.B. Toney, who began to question him, perhaps because his clothing matched the most recent police description of the suspect wearing a white t-shirt and dark pants. As Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walthers rushed up the stairs, he saw these officers as they were questioning the young man.  

Capt. Westbrook, in charge of personnel, was the highest ranking police officer at the Texas Theater. Seconds after HARVEY Oswald was arrested Capt. Westbrook, who surely knew that LEE Oswald was upstairs in the balcony, told police officers to "cover his (HARVEY Oswald's) face and get him out of here." After HARVEY Oswald was taken out the front of the theater, LEE Oswald was arrested in the balcony. Theater concessionaire Butch Burroughs saw a man who "looked almost like Oswald, like he was his brother or something" taken out the back of the theater in handcuffs "three or four minutes" after HARVEY Oswald was taken out the front of the theater. Bernard Haire, the owner of Bernie's Hobby House, two doors east of the theater, saw police take this man out the back of the theater and place him in a police car. Mr. Haire thought he had witnessed the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald in the alley behind the Texas Theater. But the man seen by Mr. Haire was LEE Oswald, and not HARVEY Oswald who had been taken out the front of the theater and driven directly to police headquarters. The identity of the police officer(s) who left the alley behind the Texas Theater with LEE Oswald in custody remain unknown. But within minutes a high ranking police officer, certainly not a patrolman, released LEE Oswald. Who was this high ranking police officer? Likely Capt. Westbrook. The framing and arrest of HARVEY Oswald, the "patsy," for the assassination of President Kennedy and the murder of Officer Tippit was now complete.
 

[Steve Thomas]

On 11/17/2018 at 8:28 AM, Jim Hargrove said:

In a supplementary report Dep. Sheriff Buddy Walthers indicated that “Some unknown officer was holding a white man at the steps of the balcony and I proceeded on into the balcony.” 

Jim,

 

Walthers' Report:

 

Report of Lt. Cunningham DPD Archives Box 2, Folder# 7, Item# 65

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box2.htm

Report of E. E. Taylor Box 2, Folder# 7, Item# 35 page 1

Report of J.B. Toney Box 2, Folder# 7, Item# 43 page 1

WC testimony of Julia Postal:

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/postal.htm

Mr. BALL. On November 22, Friday, November 22, 1963, what time did your box office open?
Mrs. POSTAL. We open daily at 12:45, sometimes may be 5, 4 minutes later or something, but that is our regular hours.
Mr. BALL. On this day you opened on 12:45, November 22?
Mrs. POSTAL. Uh-huh.

It looks like Cunningham and Toney stopped and were questioning the man on the steps , while Taylor went on ahead and started searching the balcony.

The man on the steps could not have been there since 12:05 if the Theater didn't open until 12:45.

Perhaps the 12:05 is a typo.

Who is the manager Toney talks about?  John A. Callahan?

Butch Burroughs?

Mrs. POSTAL. Now, yes, sir; just about the time we opened, my employer had stayed and took the tickets because we change pictures on Thursday

Mr. BALL. Who is your boss?
Mrs. POSTAL. Mr. John A. Callahan.

Mr. BALL. Where did you say he was?
Mrs. POSTAL. Yes; I say, they bypassed each other, actually, the man ducked in this way and my employer went that-a-way, to get in his car.

Mrs. POSTAL. No, sir; I was looking up, as I say, when the cars passed, as you know, they make a tremendous noise, and he ducked in as my boss went that way to get in his car.

If Callahan is in his car, who is the manager Toney talks about?

If Toney is right, the man on the steps had been in the Theater for a good 20 - 30 minutes before Tippit had even been shot.

 

Steve Thomas

 

Edited November 19, 2018 by Steve Thomas

[Jim Hargrove]

Thanks, Steve, as always, for bringing these reports together so efficiently.

Toney’s report is the most interesting here. It’s up in full on my website at this address:

 

https://harveyandlee.net/November/Harvey_Arrest.html

The bulk of the evidence seems to show that the only employees inside the theater by 1:55 or so were Postal, Burroughs and the projectionist.  Manager Callahan had left the building.  

And so one big question, as you suggest, is: Who was the “manager on duty” who apparently provided Toney with an inaccurate alibi for the balcony Oswald?   Assuming what Toney reported was reasonably true, this apparently phony manager may have been part of the plot.

Which begs the question, What happened to the list of names and addresses of the occupants of the theater that Westbrook apparently ordered Taylor, Cunningham, and Toney to compile? Isn’t it remarkable that the WC chose not to question any of those three men?  Especially after Westbrook could only suggest that they ask Cunningham what happened to the list.  Fabulous investigation there!
 

[Steve Thomas]

3 hours ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Toney’s report is the most interesting here. It’s up in full on my website at this address:

 

https://harveyandlee.net/November/Harvey_Arrest.html

The bulk of the evidence seems to show that the only employees inside the theater by 1:55 or so were Postal, Burroughs and the projectionist.  Manager Callahan had left the building.  

And so one big question, as you suggest, is: Who was the “manager on duty” who apparently provided Toney with an inaccurate alibi for the balcony Oswald?   Assuming what Toney reported was reasonably true, this apparently phony manager may have been part of the plot.

Which begs the question, What happened to the list of names and addresses of the occupants of the theater that Westbrook apparently ordered Taylor, Cunningham, and Toney to compile? Isn’t it remarkable that the WC chose not to question any of those three men?  Especially after Westbrook could only suggest that they ask Cunningham what happened to the list.  Fabulous investigation there!
 

Jim,

 

Unless he considered Postal to be the "manager on duty".

The "manager on duty" told the cops that the person they were looking for was in the balcony. Wasn't that the gist of the original phone call at 1:44 PM?

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/dpdtapes/tapes3.htm

Dispatcher: 10-4. We have information that a suspect just went in the Texas Theater on West Jefferson.

79: 10-4

Dispather: Supposed to be hiding in the balcony.

79: 10-4

And didn't Postal say she called the police?

"I said "I am going to call the police, and you and Butch go get on each of the exit doors and stay there."
So, well, I called the police... "

If this person had been in the balcony since 12:45, that sort of begs the question, why would you call the cops on a suspect for an event that hadn't happened yet, and call them an hour after the suspect entered the theater.

Or, is this a confusion between Central and Eastern times?

 

PS: I agree about the Theater patron list.

 

Steve Thomas

 

 

 

[Jim Hargrove]

I think the brown-shirted Oswald (Harvey) bought a ticket and entered main floor of the theater at 1:07 or so, perhaps a minute after Tippit was murdered.  He probably stayed on the main floor level looking for a contact that wasn’t there.

I think the white-shirted Oswald (Lee), murdered Tippit at 1:06 pm (Margie Higgins said a tv announcer indicated it was 6 minutes after 1 just as she heard the shots).  I think Westbrook and Croy were parked in the narrow driveway blocked by Tippit’s car but were seen by Mrs. Holan, who was able to look over the top of Tippit’s car from her second story window directly across Tenth St.

Lee Oswald probably met up with Westbrook in an area behind the Texaco station and gave Westbrook his wallet, the .38 revolver used to kill Tippit, and his light color jacket.  Westbrook probably then drove Lee to the theater. (John found the original plat map for Oak Cliff, and it shows alleyways in every single block—perfect for approaching the theater without attracting attention).  Lee Oswald absolutely HAD to get to the theater without being stopped by police.

Lee, I think, entered the Texas Theater right around 1:20 and went directly up to the balcony, where he stayed until the police arrive.  My bet is he was instructed to keep an eye on Harvey Oswald to make sure he didn’t leave the building, or to follow him if he did.

Julia Postal called the police at 1:44 pm.  

[Jeff Carter]

Julia Postal seems to infer that Callahan would have seen “Oswald”:

”He, perhaps I said, he passed Oswald. At that time I didn't know it was Oswald. Had to bypass him, because as he went through this way, Oswald went through this way and ducked into the theatre there.” (WC testimony)

Despite this there doesn’t appear to be any statement from or interview with Callahan.

Walter Cronkite, citing Julia Postal as a source, reported early evening Nov 22 that Oswald on the main floor of the theater “moved from seat to seat.”  What cop-killer on the run calls attention to himself like that?

So Westbrook and other DPD members, with military intelligence connections, operate with apparent foreknowledge of the assassination and Oswald. In Washington, the FBI holds a high-level meeting approx 3-3:30 PM (2-2:30 Dallas time) and afterwards Hoover contacts RFK to tell him the assassin is Oswald and he acted alone, while in Dallas Hosty drives to DPD HQ and announces that JFK was killed by “a communist” (Oswald). Do you think the FBI (Hoover) also had foreknowledge, or were they suddenly privy to information revealed from another source (i.e. connected to the military) which drives the conclusion reached during that meeting?

[Steve Thomas]

4 hours ago, Jeff Carter said:

So Westbrook and other DPD members, with military intelligence connections, operate with apparent foreknowledge of the assassination and Oswald. In Washington, the FBI holds a high-level meeting approx 3-3:30 PM (2-2:30 Dallas time) and afterwards Hoover contacts RFK to tell him the assassin is Oswald and he acted alone, while in Dallas Hosty drives to DPD HQ and announces that JFK was killed by “a communist” (Oswald). Do you think the FBI (Hoover) also had foreknowledge, or were they suddenly privy to information revealed from another source (i.e. connected to the military) which drives the conclusion reached during that meeting?

Jeff,

 

Your timeline is interesting.

At 1:52 PM, Sgt. Jerry Hill announces on the DPD radio that "the suspect in the Tippit shooting of the police officer has been apprehended and is enroute to the station"

At 2:00 Oswald arrives at the station

At 2:20 as per Fritz, Fritz begins questioning Oswald.

Fritz and Curry both say that they do not know who Oswald is and did not know he was living in Dallas.

Revill says he had never heard of Oswald, and from what I have seen, I believe that he was not in the DPD Intelligence Files.

At 2:30 PM DPD officers are dispatched to Irving. Because of the delay waiting for Sheriff's Deputies to arrive,they don't enter the premises until 3:30.

At 2:40 PM DPD officers are dispatched to 1026 N. Beckley and arrive at 3:00 PM.

At 3:15, Hosty arrives at the station and tells Revill that Oswald is a communist.

In the "early afternoon" Robert Jones of the 112th INTC in San Antonio received a call from Region II (Dallas), that an A.J. Hidell had been arrested in Dallas.

"I do not remember the exact time" Testimony of Robert Jones before the HSCA

https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/unpub_testimony/Jones_4-20-78/html/jones_0019a.htm

page 19

He immediately begins searching his records.

Police Officers Adamcik (7H202), Rose (7H227) and Stovall (7H186) are unanimous in saying that Captain Fritz dispatched them to Irving at 2:30 PM. They are also unanimous in saying that when they arrived at this address, they had to wait for 35-40 minutes for the Deputy Sheriffs to arrive since Irving was outside their jurisdiction.

In his after-action report filed with Chief Curry (City of Dallas archives - JFK Collection) Box 3, Folder# 1, Item# 3 http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box3.htm
Guy Rose wrote that after the Deputies showed up, they arrived at the front door at 3:30PM.

They search the place and come up with pro-Castro material

Harry Weatherford, Buddy Walthers, and J. L. Oxford were the deputies dispatched to Irving. You can find their accounts in the Supplementary Reports they filed with Sheriff Decker in volume 19 of the WC Hearings. Walthers, Weatherford and Sheriff Decker all said that Ruth Paine gave them a telephone number where Oswald could be reached and that they criss-crossed that number and came up with the Beckley St. address.

At 2:40 PM, W.E. Potts, B.L. Senkel and Lt. E.L. Cunningham were dispatched to 1026 N. Beckley. Potts wrote in his after-action report (Box 2, Folder# 9, Item# 32) http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box2.htm that after he finished taking some affidavits, Fritz dispatched them to the Beckely St address at 2:40 and they arrived at Beckley at 3:00PM.

 

Steve Thomas

 

[Guest]

I have got issues with Jones, Steve, he is economical w the truth to say the least.

Weiss who took the calls from Stringfellow made no mention of Hidell whatsoever.

This 112th stuff is getting more intriguing the more I read about it.

[Jim Hargrove]

7 hours ago, Jeff Carter said:

Do you think the FBI (Hoover) also had foreknowledge, or were they suddenly privy to information revealed from another source (i.e. connected to the military) which drives the conclusion reached during that meeting?

I’ve thought about this a lot over the years.  I don't think Hoover had foreknowledge of the assassination, but he most certainly had foreknowledge of two Oswalds.  For example….

BANISTER, former head of the Chicago FBI office, was very close to Hoover and spoke with him almost every day. Banister had to have known that Ferrie had LEE Oswald in his CAP in 1955, and that both he and Ferrie knew HARVEY Oswald in 1963. Both men were eliminated because they knew about Harvey and Lee.

Hoover sent agents to Stripling JHS on Saturday morning to confiscate LHO's school records.

Hoover sent agents to Tujague's on Friday afternoon; he most certainly knew that LEE had worked at Tujague's from July 1955 through Aug/Sept, 1956, because the FBI took all of LHO's time cards.
 
Hoover sent agents to Pfisterer's Monday morning; employees were told not to discuss the LHO matter with anyone; all records were confiscated.

FBI created/forged all w-2 forms for LHO's employment in 1955-56

FBI secretly received 225 LHO possessions the evening of 11/22/63 and three days later returned 455 items, many of which belonged to LEE Oswald.

FBI obtained and then destroyed all original NYC school records; "located" and obtained from the US Post Office the uncashed money order allegedly used to pay for the rifle.

Hoover knew about Ralph Yates and tried endlessly to discredit him.

Hoover knew from FBI interview of McBride that LHO was in New Orleans in 1957-58 and lived at the Hotel Senator. He sent FBI agents to the Hotel Senator who asked for hotel records from 1955-56--intentionally avoiding 1957-58, when Harvey Oswald was actually there.

[Steve Thomas]

2 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Revill says he had never heard of Oswald, and from what I have seen, I believe that he was not in the DPD Intelligence Files.

 

Jeff,

 

There was a list of TSBD employees that was shown to Jack Revill when he testified. I've always referred to it as Revill's list, but it was actually drawn up by Detectives Westphal and Parks in the Special Service Bureau. Special Services were headed up by Lt. Revill and Gannaway. One of the things that Bureau investigated was subversives.

This list of employees can be found in CE 2003 in vol. 24, page 259 of the Hearings and Exhibits. (24H259).

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1140#relPageId=277&tab=page

That list has three columns, and the middle column is labeled Ref.Int.

For the longest time, I thought the Int. meant interview, but then I realized that it meant Intelligence File.

In his book, No More Silence, Detective Westphal told Larry Sneed that he had gone home, and that Gannaway called him at home and told him to go back to the Special Services office at the Fairgrounds and cross-reference the list of TSBD employees against the Department's Intelligence files.

That list has None for a record of Oswald in the DPD Intelligence files.

I once did a cross-reference of those employees with the DPD police officer who interviewed them and whether that interview consisted of a full interview, or just a deposition.

I personally found it kind of revealing and would be happy to share that with you if you'd like.

 

Steve Thomas

[Steve Thomas]

7 minutes ago, Jim Hargrove said:

I’ve thought about this a lot over the years.  I don't think Hoover had foreknowledge of the assassination, but he most certainly had foreknowledge of two Oswalds.  For example….

 

Jim,

 

Didn't Hoover post an international alert in 1960 that somebody might be using Oswald's birth certificate?

 

Steve Thomas