Warren Commission Report

[Caroline Hall]

I am new to the forum and I have ben reading and looking at the Kennedy Assassination for many years now.

I was quickly reading the Warren Commission Report and I was perusing the witness statements.

It is possible that this topic has been discussed previously but if anyone can asisst me in clearing up something I saw in the report I would greatly appreciate it.

I was reading the statements of Kenneth L Brennan and Amos Lee Euins in which they stated they saw Lee Harvey Oswald or someone matching his description in the sixth floor window of the Book Depository. Brennan stated he picked Oswald out the line up later on the night of the assassination.

Can anyone tell me about these staements? Are they factually true? Because in all the books etc. I have read, I have never seen mention of these two people.

Also what is the general opinion of the accurateness and conclusion of the Warren Report?

Caroline Hall

[Steve Thomas]

Caroline,

I was reading the statements of Kenneth L Brennan and Amos Lee Euins in which they stated they saw Lee Harvey Oswald or someone matching his description in the sixth floor window of the Book Depository. Brennan stated he picked Oswald out the line up later on the night of the assassination.

The question about Howard Brennan's presence at a lineup has been hotly debated for years.

There were 3 lineups on Friday. The police listed each of the lineups, the witnesses present, and the officers present.

Dallas Police archives Box 15, Folder# 2, Item# 63

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box15.htm

Lineup# 1 was with Helen Markham at 4:05

Lineup# 2 was with Cecil McWatters, Sam Guinyard, and Ted Calloway at 6:30

Lineup# 3 was with Barbara and Virginia Davis at 7:55

Lineup# 4 was with W. Scoggins and William Whaley on Saturday at 2:15

Brennan's name doesn't appear in any of them.

However, his name does appear in one place. In the DPD Archives, Box 6, Folder# 1, Item# 73, page 3 Brennan's name appears at the bottom of a list of "showups"

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box6.htm

His name is out of order with the rest of the lineup participants and police officers.

It reads: "Mr. H.L. Brennan witnessed this showup with Mr. Forrest Sorrels of the Secret Service." Failed to identify"

The sentence ends right there with no punctuation mark.

I was reading through the Warren Commission testimony of Forrest Sorrels. (7H354)

He talks about going to Dallas Police Headquarters and wanting to get a positive ID from Brennan about seeing Oswald in the 6th floor window of the TSBD:

"I also got information to Captain Fritz that I had this witness, Brennan, that I had talked to, and that I would like very much for him to get a chance to see Oswald in a lineup. And Captain Fritz said that would be fine.

So I instructed Special Agent Patterson, I believe it was, after I had located Brennan---had quite a difficult time to locate him, because he wasn't at home. And they finally prevailed upon his wife to try to help me locate him, and she, as I recall it, said that she would see if she could locate him by phone. I called her, I believe, the second time and finally got a phone number and called him and told him we would like for him to come down and arrange for him to meet one of our agents to pick him up at the place there. And when they came down there with him, I got ahold of Captain Fritz and told him that the witness was there, Mr. Brennan.

He said, "I wish he would have been here a little sooner, we just got through with a lineup. But we will get another fixed up."

So I took Mr. Brennan, and we went to the assembly room, which is also where they have the lineup..."

If you go through the Warrren Commission testimony of every police officer who was there Friday night, you will not find Brennan's name appearing in any testimony.

I believe that Brennan was there Friday night, but when he failed to identtify Oswald, he was written out of the picture by the Dallas Police.

It was only after Forrest Sorrels testimony before the Warren Commission, that somebody went back into the official record and tried to alter it to reflect Brennan's appearance at police headquarters.

Steve Thomas