The Tippit Case in the New Millenium

[James DiEugenio]

I thought the Tippit case merited a new look considering the appearance of the McBride book, which has not gotten enough attention I think.

And also some work by other people like Armstrong and Simpich and Mike Griffith, who is also relatively ignored.  In my view, the Tippit case has been taken to a new plateau.

How anyone can read Croy's story and keep a straight face is beyond me.  Due to the work of these writers, the Tippit case looks very suspicious today.

 

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-tippit-case-in-the-new-millennium

[Gene Kelly]

Jim

I couldn't agree with you more about Joseph McBride's book.  It is excellent and - together with the previous work of others (Armstrong, Drenas, Griggs, Griffith, Lane and Simpich to name but a few)  - makes the Tippit murder story hard to accept.  I would also recommend a November 2002 article by Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., a Professor at University of Georgia School of Law published in Flagpole Magazine.  Also a paper by Staffan Westerberg and Pete Engwall (see June 2014 EF thread started by Greg Burnham). 

So many facts surrounding Tippit's murder are questionable (ballistics, jacket evidence, the revolver, the three wallets) as to border on the absurd. The there are Julia Postal and Bernard Haire, who witnessed the man in the balcony, and the list of theater patrons which conveniently disappeared thanks to Westbrook  As one researcher joked, you don't want to go into a Dallas movie theater without a ticket, since - within about 30 minutes after Tippit’s body was in an ambulance - more than a half-dozen police cars descended on the Texas Theater in response to a "reported infraction" (i.e. some unknown person had gone into the theater without paying).  An amazing show of force for sneaking into a movie without paying.

Captain William R. Westbrook and Sergeant Gerald L. Hill of the DPD are clearly working for/with the bad guys, and are apparently corrupt officers.  It strains credibility that a plainclothes Captain in Human Resources can end up at all the key crime scenes and apprehend the most infamous assassin of the 20^th Century. These individuals appear to be controlling the post-assassination evidence (and witnesses)  - at the TSBD, the Tippit murder scene, the Texas Theatre and later during Oswald's interrogation/arraignment - ensuring the incrimination of Oswald in the pivotal period after the assassination. There are many coincidences and unexplained actions on their parts: 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  the shells and wallet at 10th & Patton where ... as well as the grey zipper jacket, the gun found/planted on Oswald, and the bullets in his pocket.  If that’s not enough, Gerald Hill also is credited with finding the transfer for McWatter's bus, which conveniently happened to be at Jefferson & Marsalis during the library scene in Oak Park. Hill clearly lied about his movements prior to the Texas Theater arrest … for a downtown "beat sergeant" on temporary loan to Westbrook's personnel group, he managed to be center stage - at all strategic locations - with knowledge unsurpassed by any other law enforcement officer (DPD, FBI, Secret Service or otherwise). 

The sacrificial killing of Tippit accomplished several objectives: it brought the police to Oak Cliff to capture/kill the designated patsy; it helped establish the frame of Oswald as a killer desperate to escape; and it removed police focus from Dealey Plaza.  When Oswald was arrested for the Tippit killing, the traditional police and public animus against an alleged cop killer was effected.  As researcher Mark Knight stated (see 2005 EF Tippit thread):

“It is a stroke of pure evil genius, totally unanticipated by cops... and a god-send for anyone looking to escape from police scrutiny in the plaza ... like a strategy the CIA might have employed during a coup d'état in some banana republic"

Gene

 

 

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks Gene.  Apt quote by Mark Knight.

I kind of felt that the stuff in McBride's book had gone unrecognized by the research community.  I really do think that his book is by far the best compendium of research on that case that we now have.  And combined with some of the people you named, it was time to reassess that case.

A few things that struck me were:

1.  The press interview that Hill did late in the afternoon where he pretty much smears the heck out of Oswald before any of the forensic tests are in. I mean, where did he get that stuff? He said he got it from Westbrook.

2. Hill also said that Westbrook told him to add Oswald as the suspect in the JFK case as well as the Tippit case.  And I could not find anyone who ever asked either guy:  Why the heck would you do that so early?  This was even before Hill went on the air.

3. The Holan testimony, and the corroboration.  That is important. And thanks to David Josephs for drawing that map of it and Jim Hargove for letting me use it. That shows you how she could see what she did so well.  Also, how close she and Higgins were.

4.  How can anyone believe anything that Croy said?  I was not kidding when I drew that map of Dealey Plaza and said underneath, if Croy was not lying this belongs on a SNL skit.  And that pile of baloney gives him and Westbrook a large amount of unaccounted for time.

5.  No one ever saw the Oswald wallet on the ground.  Croy was the first guy on the scene and he gave it to Westbrook.

We have come a long way in the Tippit case.  Thanks to the people in the article, especially McBride.

 

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by James DiEugenio

[Gene Kelly]

It seems that Tippit was lured to 10^th and Patton, and killed for the following reasons:

1. Remove as many DPD Officers from Dealey Plaza as possible, and send them into Oak Cliff where Oswald could be apprehended
2. Create a strong bias against Oswald ( a cop killer) by the DPD
3. Incriminate Oswald for the assassination by leaving a mock-up wallet containing the fictitious Hidell name (linked to the rifle and revolver purchases)
4. Portray Oswald as a homicidal maniac capable of murdering the President (and shooting at Walker)

[James DiEugenio]

I would agree with that.

And I should add, anyone who really wants to understand the TIppit case needs to read McBride's book.  It is really a fountain of information on that case.

Its really incredible to think that no one talked to Tippit's father before Joe did.

Plus the background work that McBride did on TIppit went rocket miles above what the WC did.

What his book shows is that, on  a smaller scale, the WC did just as bad a job on the Tippit case as they did on the Kennedy shooting.  

BTW, when you read the article, the webmaster made the sources clickable.  There is so much good and new information in there that you really should read some of them.  As I said, the calculus on the Tippit case has truly been altered with this new work.  Led by McBride's book.

[Gene Kelly]

Vincent Salandria, an early critic of the Warren Commission, said that “Dealey Plaza reeked of conspiracy."  In the summer of 1964, he interviewed Mrs. Helen Markham and came away convinced that she had been intimidated into giving testimony that conformed to the Warren Commission's lone gunman thesis.

[Rob Couteau]

Thanks for this great piece Jim, which I just finished. I have the  McBride book here; it's the next on my reading list, after I finish The Devil's Chessboard. I always thought that Mark Lane's videotaped interviews with the Tippit witnesses spoke volumes, and now this work continues where he and Garrison left off.

[Ron Bulman]

I think Into the Nightmare was overlooked in part because of it coming out on the 50th anniversary.  The official response geared up for the occasion and there were several new books, from both sides, as well as revised editions released.  I thumbed through my copy tonight.  Twenty eight pages with the top corner edge folded over.  Three flagged with scrap paper/postits.  One of those mentioned in the article is 392, about Acquilla Clemmons.  Ignored by not only the Warren Omission, FBI and DPD (other than maybe a threat not to talk).  Two men, 1 with a gun, communicating then leaving in opposite directions.  She refuses interviews.  Then does so with Mark Lane.  Then is Disappeared.

I need to re read the part on the Belmont Memo and his chapter on Badgeman in particular.  Using the book with comments from posters and writers from Yusuf's to Harrison Livingstone to Bill Simpich coalesce the information to a point it's hard to refute.  Tippit, like Oswald, was set up.

Why has no one (to my knowledge) ever asked what happened to Acquilla Clemmons?

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=mark+lane+acquilla+clemmons&view=detail&mid=F1FF1D6CA32D7444C37CF1FF1D6CA32D7444C37C&FORM=VIRE

[Paul Brancato]

Into the Nightmare is a great book. The interview with the father was very suggestive. Tippit’s alibi for his whereabouts at 12:30 doesn’t hold up.his death certainly put the DPD into overdrive. But it may also have gotten rid of a loose thread. 

If Westbrook is dirty, what does that imply? What group of conspirators most readily lead to him? 

[B. A. Copeland]

34 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Into the Nightmare is a great book. The interview with the father was very suggestive. Tippit’s alibi for his whereabouts at 12:30 doesn’t hold up.his death certainly put the DPD into overdrive. But it may also have gotten rid of a loose thread. 

If Westbrook is dirty, what does that imply? What group of conspirators most readily lead to him? 

Pre- or foreknowledge of the assassination. He was a crucial part of the plan. He, as Simpich so amazingly states, had to be "in on the assassination", which would be huge. This potentially leads (quite powerfully) into Military Intelligence. I consider Westbrook a top suspect. I also know that Armstrong certainly considers him a top suspect as well.

[Ron Bulman]

1 hour ago, Paul Brancato said:

Into the Nightmare is a great book. The interview with the father was very suggestive. Tippit’s alibi for his whereabouts at 12:30 doesn’t hold up.his death certainly put the DPD into overdrive. But it may also have gotten rid of a loose thread. 

If Westbrook is dirty, what does that imply? What group of conspirators most readily lead to him? 

Well he quit within a year and went to Vietnam as an adviser for the Agency for International Development.  That CIA front that Ruth Paine's daddy worked for.  Is that about right?

[David Von Pein]

James DiEugenio said:

I thought the Tippit case merited a new look considering the appearance of the McBride book, which has not gotten enough attention I think.

And also some work by other people like Armstrong and Simpich and Mike Griffith, who is also relatively ignored.  In my view, the Tippit case has been taken to a new plateau.

How anyone can read Croy's story and keep a straight face is beyond me.  Due to the work of these writers, the Tippit case looks very suspicious today.

That anyone in the 21st century can have even a shred of a doubt about Lee Harvey Oswald's painfully obvious guilt in the murder of Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit is beyond me. (But I'm certainly not surprised that another Oswald Didn't Do It thread would pop up here at EF Conspiracy Central.)

In short, we have the BEST possible COMBINATION of evidence that hangs Oswald in the Tippit case ---

1. Physical (ballistics) evidence left behind at the murder scene by the one and only gunman. (With the murderer---Oswald---being kind enough to HANG ONTO that gun after the crime, instead of chucking it in a dumpster in the alley behind Jefferson Boulevard someplace. Thank you for that, Lee.)

--and--

2. A multiplicity of witnesses who positively identified Lee Oswald as the one and only person who shot Officer Tippit or fled the scene (gun in hand) immediately after the shooting.*

* And the people, like Mark Lane, who don't even consider William Scoggins to be a good witness to the murder itself are highly delusional (and they should know why without me even mentioning the reasons).

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"Just having Lee Oswald in the general area of the crime, with a gun, and acting "funny" and obviously avoiding the police is a good hunk of circumstantial evidence leading to his guilt right there. Where does the road of common sense take a reasonable person when JUST the above after-the-shooting activity of Lee Harvey Oswald is examined objectively? It sure doesn't lead to total innocence, I'll tell ya that right now. (Especially when the stuff that went on inside the movie theater is factored in as well.) In a nutshell, this murder boils down to the following concrete fact (based on the overall weight of the evidence that surrounds the crime): If Lee Harvey Oswald didn't kill J.D. Tippit -- then J.D. Tippit wasn't killed at all. Maybe it was all some kind of "Bobby Was In The Shower" type of dream or something instead."

-- David Von Pein; October 2006

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Evidence Galore.....

http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2011/04/index.html#JD-Tippit

http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/search?q=Kenneth+Croy

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Edited May 1, 2018 by David Von Pein

[Ron Bulman]

5 minutes ago, Ron Bulman said:

Well he quit within a year and went to Vietnam as an adviser for the Agency for International Development.  That CIA front that Ruth Paine's daddy worked for.  Is that about right?

https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/usaid-history

[James DiEugenio]

But Ron, don't miss the payoff.

When Hill was making out his offense report against Oswald for the Tippit case , Westbrook came over to him and told him to add Oswald as a suspect in the JFK case also!

And then Hill does the interview that goes national with all of the incriminating stuff about Oswald, half of it BS, and he says he got that from Westbrook too!

What is so amazing about this is that when Hill says this stuff, Belin does not even raise an eyebrow.  Not one query as to "Did he tell you what he based that upon?"  I mean not paying to get into a movie gets you two murder indictments?

And how about Hill taking the gun to Westbrook's office?  That was the personnel office.  See these are the kinds of things that are made to order for a good prosecutor. "OK, Mr. Westbrook, Hill says he got this stuff from you.  Where did you get it from?"

And man could you bust open Croy!  I mean look at that map.  I was really serious when I said that his story about being in front of the courthouse and a guy telling him to go home at 12:45, and his estranged wife saying "Hey let's get a hamburger." should be an SNL skit.  Can you imagine this BS?  Sirens are screaming, people are running around looking for snipers, the police are stopping motorcycles and running up the GK, and Croy wants to eat and go home!  And he is less than two blocks from Dealey Plaza!!  And Griffin buys it!!!

Whenever you think the WC cannot get any worse, it does.  A Barnum and Bailey sideshow.

Edited May 1, 2018 by James DiEugenio

[Steve Thomas]

6 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

And then Hill does the interview that goes national with all of the incriminating stuff about Oswald, half of it BS, and he says he got that from Westbrook too!

 

Jim,

 

The one that got me is that according to the Dispatch Tapes, at 1:26 PM, Hill radios in and says, " I'm at Twelfth and Beckley now. Have a man in the car with me that can identify the suspect if anybody gets him."

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

 

If you look at a Google Maps page, 12th and Beckley is like four blocks south and four blocks west of where the shooting took place.

https://www.google.com/maps/search/12th+and+Beckley+Dallas,+TX/@32.7456299,-96.8224142,17z

 

What's he doing way down there? And who is this "man" who can identify the subject, and why is Hill riding around with a witness 10 minutes after the shooting?

The Dispatcher asks Hill if he has been to the scene. He says yes, and Tippit was already gone by the time he got there. At the scene, Poe shows him a Winston cigarette package with shells in it.

Eight minutes later, at 1:34, Hill radios in and tells the Dispatcher that the shells indicate they came from a .38 automatic.

 

Phooey.

 

Steve Thomas