Jim Hargrove

Ron, Nearly identical accusations can be leveled at Kenneth Croy as at Westbrook. Croy told the WC that, immediately after the assassination, he was told he “wasn’t needed” by an unknown policeman and he (Croy) decided to change his clothes at his parents’ house and then have lunch with his estranged wife. John A. theorizes that Westbrook and Croy worked together on 11/22/63. We think Westbrook left his dark blue police car at the Book Depository and, with Croy, drove car #207 (allegedly assigned to Officer Jimmy Valentine) to Oak Cliff, where, looking for LHO, they honked the horn heard by Earline Roberts at the Beckley rooming house. We also think Westbrook and Croy were in car #207 seen by Doris Holan parked in the narrow driveway behind Tippit’s car. From the second floor of her building, Mr. Holan was in a unique position to see over Tippit's car to the narrow driveway behind it (see diagram below). Westbrook and Croy’s participation in the 10th and Patton throw-down wallet is well known. John also believes that Westbrook signaled Fritz when Ruby was in place to murder Oswald, and that Croy led Ruby to Oswald in the basement of the Dallas Police station.

Steve, Appreciate all your digging here, but Dallas Morning News reporter Jim Ewell said that he jumped into the car with Westbrook and Stringer and, “when we arrived at the Texas Theatre, we parked right in front and everybody jumped out and went into the lobby.” Ewell also wrote that, after the theater arrest, “Oswald then took my place in the backseat of the same car that I arrived in. So when they left with him, I stood there, stranded. I then hitchhiked a ride with a man in a pickup truck.” C.T. Walker’s car may well have been parked behind the theater as the dispatch tape indicates, but that’s not the car Ewell said they arrived in. To be blunt, I don’t necessarily believe anything the Dallas Police say, either individually or collectively. Why did none of them immediately recognize the Hidell ID when Oswald’s wallet was examined in the car? Why did it take days (weeks?) for these guys to start to remember seeing it? Why did none of them talk about the 10th and Patton throw-down wallet, even though WFFA’s Ron Reiland filmed it? The answer is pretty obvious, eh? If LHO was framed for the Tippit murder, wouldn’t the next question be, Was he also framed for JFK’s murder. Just my opinion, but I think the throw-down wallet is the key to this entire case.

John, Ahhh. I finally understand what you were saying about height and age. Neither one of us think Oswald would have shrunk that much in so short a time, and I don’t think he would indicate voluntarily he was two inches shorter than he was measured in the USMC. At the theater, could that dark object around Oswald be a policeman’s arm? It seems pretty narrow, but I can’t think of anything else. Steve, We think Westbrook was instrumental in framing Oswald for the murder of Tippit and JFK and was trying to hide his involvement in the case, especially his likely early appearance (before Tippit was shot) at 10th and Patton. To start covering his tracks, Westbrook told the WC that he couldn’t find a car and had to walk a mile from Police Headquarters to the Book Depository. Do we seriously believe Capt. Westbrook had no access to a car? To read about what we really think Westbrook was doing, click here. I think Carroll was just covering for him and probably was unaware of the full details. I’m going with Jim Ewell’s account unless there is other evidence against it. We may just have to agree to disagree, though I always appreciate your efforts here.

Hi, Sandy, Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into this.

Steve, Thanks for doing all the digging, but I’ve clicked on all your links and, unless I’m missing something, can’t find direct corroboration of Carroll’s statement about the car. I think Carroll was driving Wesbtbrook’s car from the theater to police headquarters. At one point Carroll, identified that car as “police equipment #226” but I haven’t been able to dig up the doc yet. At any rate, even if a whole squad of DPD personnel swore it was some other car than Westbrook’s parked in front of the theater, I’d be inclined to believe Jim Ewell’s account. After all, a number of Dallas cops, including Westbrook, Bud Owens, Capt. Doughty and probably Ken Croy as well as FBI SA Bob Barrett had, in full view of WFAA-TV’s news camera, just examined the Oswald/Hidell throw-down wallet at 10th and Patton. It took more than three decades for the rest of us to find out about it. Talk about a “blue wall of silence,” the DPD had it going in spades over the Kennedy case.

Steve, Carroll is covering for Westbrook because Westbrook told the WC he didn't drive his car to the Theater. Here is the picture Stuart Reed took of Oswald being dragged to Westbrook's unmarked blue car parked directly in front of the theater. Dallas Morning News reporter Jim Ewell, who was travelling with Westbrook that day, explained the whole thing years ago. Here's what he wrote: I was with Westbrook as we all went over to examine the jacket because it was the only tangible thing we had at the moment that belonged to the killer. In fact, I held the jacket in my hands. I remember that they were talking about a water mark on it that was obviously made by a dry cleaning shop. They were discussing it when the report came in that the person they thought might be the police officer’s assailant had gone into the Texas Theatre. Now we were on East Jefferson, so I’m thinking that we were about five blocks from that location. Immediately, Captain Westbrook and Sergeant Stringer ran back to their car, which was across the street, and I ran to jump in the backseat. By that time, they were already turning out and accelerating. When I got in the backset with the door still hanging open, I came out of the car hanging onto the door. They slowed down long enough for me to get back in, as I could have been flung out against the gravel into a curb if I hadn’t held on. Anyway, when we arrived at the Texas Theatre, we parked right in front and everybody jumped out and went into the lobby. The next thing I recall is that I was out on the street with the car that I arrived in between me and the officers bringing Oswald out of the theater as they kind of separated the crowd and made an aisle for him to come through to get to the car. I’d say that I was about ten to twelve feet away from Oswald at the time. During this sequence of events, I was distracted by the tone of a teenage girl, and we used this in the story because at that time, for teenagers, especially teenage girls to be so profane was just very uncommon. But this girl shouted, “Kill the son of a bitch!” And the Dallas News let us use that. Being a strong family newspaper in 1963, we still used that because it was very pertinent to describe to the readers how supercharged the area was. This was about thirty-five minutes after the shooting of Tippit, so the word apparently had already gotten out around that part of Oak Cliff that they were looking for a cop killer. Evidently this teenage girl got swept up into it to the point that she was that emphatic about what she thought ought to be done to this person later identified as Oswald. There were some other shouts and threats made right there by the crowd which had been brought there by the arrival of all these squad cars with sirens screaming and then screeching up front and also by the arrival of squad cars in the alley behind the Texas Theatre as they came in from the back as well. It was obviously an ugly crowd, but not to the point that they were going to overpower the police officers and try to get the prisoner. Oswald then took my place in the backseat of the same car that I arrived in. So when they left with him, I stood there, stranded. I then hitchhiked a ride with a man in a pickup truck.

The story of the Minox camera has been settled for several decades. The camera is at the National Archives and was held by John Armstrong while wearing white evidence gloves in the late 1990s. Here is John’s summary of what happened to the camera from this page of our website HarveyandLee.net: A small German camera was found and initialed by Dallas Police Detectives Gus Rose and Richard Stovall during their search of the Paine's garage in Irving, TX. The small spy camera was listed on the detective's handwritten inventory, the DPD typed inventory, the joint Dallas Police/FBI inventory (item #375) and was one of the items of evidence photographed on 11/26/63. Rose said, “Among the property we found a little Minox minature camera and on checking it, it did have a little roll of film in it.” All items of evidence, including the 5 rolls of film used to photograph the evidence, were given to the FBI. The chain of custody for the small Minox camera from the Paine's garage to the FBI was complete. The 5 rolls of film were developed at FBI headquarters, but by the time copies of the film were returned to the Dallas Police many negatives were missing. One of the missing negatives was of the Minox camera. The FBI did not want to explain why a poor, common laborer, such as Oswald, possessed a very expensive Minox spy camera. Rumors were beginning to circulate that Oswald was working for the FBI as a confidential informant. Anything that hinted of a connection between Oswald and the intelligence community had to be suppressed. FBI agents Vincent Drain and Warren DeBrueys created a second inventory and changed the Minox camera to a Minox light meter. They then sent photographs of the “light meter” to the Dallas Police in an attempt to convince them that the item was a light meter and not a camera. FBI agents met with Gus Rose on three separate occasions and tried to convince him to change the item to a light meter. Rose discussed the problem with DPD Captain Fritz and, after getting his approval, refused to change the inventory. The FBI intentionally tried to change the Minox camera into a Minox light meter to make it appear that Oswald did not own an expensive spy camera. The Minox camera, however, did not disappear and today can be found at the National Archives. But to make sure that nobody could trace ownership of the camera by serial number, the small Minox was filled with a heavy unknown substance that prevents it from being opened and exposing the serial number. The FBI tried to “change” the Minox camera into a Minox light meter to suit their purpose. But they never explained the additional 9 rolls of Minox film found by the Dallas Police, initialed by the Police, listed on the DPD inventory, and listed on the joint FBI/DPD inventory. All of the supporting documents for this summary are available at Baylor University’s online John Armstrong Collection, in a lengthy file at this address: https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/documents/mirador/686719 You’ll need to wait a minute or so for the images to appear in your browser.

Thanks for the post, Mr. Kossor! Don't recall if he said anything about Croy and Westbrook directly, but Joseph McBride has been highly supportive of John Armstrong's research for many years. In his recent book Political Truth: The Media and the Assassination of President Kennedy, Mr. McBride listed Harvey and Lee as one of the most important books ever published about the Kennedy assassination. Also, I couldn't agree with you more that the 10th and Patton wallet is a most damning revelation in this case. Had the American public known about this wallet in a timely manner, it would have been clear to them that LHO was being framed for the murder of J.D. Tippit. And, armed with that knowledge, the immediate next question would have been to ask whether Oswald was also being framed for JFK's murder. The Hidell ID's, of course, pretty much answer that question in the affirmative. If someone else doesn't do it first, I'm going to start a thread about the throw-down wallet and ask why researchers don't do more to publicize it as the most obvious evidence that LHO was framed for two murders.

Steve, I’d LOVE to find that account of Fritz’s precautions moving Ruby and compare them to his apparently careless preparations for Oswald’s transfer. Joe, That's a great point, and I'll bet you're right! The behavior of the entire DPD in this whole case is beyond deplorable. A few insiders were undoubtedly setting up the entire force to fail. I think Westbrook was probably one of them, but I'm not sure whether Fritz came on board before or after the JFK hit.

John, Not sure what you mean by your second sentence above, but one of the things that strikes me about the 5’11” USMC measurement is that we are supposed to believe that after having been measured at that height Oswald goes back AFTER the Marine Corps service and voluntarily fills out many documents, including a number of employment applications, saying he is two inches shorter. That’s just not the way young men typically behave, is it?

Ron, Thanks for your posts. I think John’s theory about Westbrook alerting Fritz when Ruby was nearing the building makes more sense explaining the incredible timing of events than any other, especially the WC’s. Your remark about some of the diagrams being too small to read is well taken. In the first draft of the Web article, I had many of the diagrams MUCH larger, but John A. and I agreed that it just made a mess out of the page layout. Do you think download links to larger images of some of the critical illustrations would help? Would people actually use them? John has so many details in his write-ups that I’m always conscious of trying to make the page move along as efficiently as possible. Thanks also for your notes on the Dallas area. Knowledge of that is one of numerous weaknesses in my understanding of the case, which is problematic because John A. knows Dallas so well. I'm still thinking about Dean's place in all of this, as, obviously, others are as well.

Steve, Kelley’s report is interesting (Why on earth was Harry Holmes there with Fritz and Oswald?) but it seems clear even from that report that it was Fritz’s call when to start transferring Oswald. It isn’t all that surprising that there were some other phone calls and, from Kelley’s description, it sounds like that brief interview with Oswald was right there in Fritz’s office, although Kelley thought Fritz didn’t hear it. Do you read it otherwise?

Steve, This is fascinating because, as you state, several USMC documents list LHO as 5"11" (71"). I've talked to a number of armed forces vets about this, and they said there was no way that height was self-reported in USMC medical exams, nor is it likely he was wearing shoes or boots, since true height could not be determined that way. Of course, the autopsy report listed LHO as 5'9". Are we to believe this young man shrunk by 2 inches in so short a time? Here's a chart John A. made decades ago about some, though not all, of the references to LHO's height.

Hi, Jim The 10th and Patton wallet is a smoking gun in the framing of LHO for both the Tippit and JFK murders, so it would be nice to get the terminology right. James Hosty broke the news of that wallet in 1996 when “Assignment Oswald” was published. On page 62 Hosty wrote: “Near the puddle of blood where Tippit’s body had lain, Westbrook had found a man’s leather wallet. In it, he discovered identification for Lee Oswald and Alek Hidell….” Of course, assuming Hosty’s information came from Westbrook, we don’t believe it, nor do we believe Croy when he said that he gave the wallet to Westbrook. I think they’re both lying, but there is no doubt that a wallet with LHO and Hidell ID’s was shown by Westbrook at 10th and Patton. Was it a “throwdown” wallet? Who knows. On the Blackie Harrison business, Jim Turner said that from the time he saw Ruby walking towards him down the ramp, it was less than 30 seconds before he (Ruby) shot Oswald. From the video clips (3 stills from it below) Ruby is standing at Croy’s left shoulder waiting for Oswald to appear, and he’s never seen on the right side of Croy, where Harrison was standing. Here’s a crop of the big WC map showing everyone’s position at the time Oswald was shot. Ruby’s path is shown as a dotted line. And here are three stills taken from the footage.

Thanks, Steve. There’s a lot of misinformation tucked into one short paragraph there. You have to wonder how much is courtesy of the U.S. Army and how much is from Stringfellow. As always on this LHO/commie stuff, you have to wonder how much is produced to get on the “let’s blame Castro” bandwagon immediately after the assassination and how much has some real biographical significance. Hoover did tell Johnson hours after the assassination that LHO had been to Cuba several times. Interesting too that the Army document gives a physical description of “Oswald, Harvey Lee” is identical to the physical description of “Lee Henry Oswald” in the infamous CIA cable of October 10, 1963 (see below). Most references to LHO’s height are either 5’ 9” or 5’ 11”; very few docs list his height at 5’ 10. Also, John Armstrong will be on Black Op Radio this evening (April 7) reading from the subject article of this thread.

Ah, I must be getting old…. I was trying to remember Stringfellow’s name and then looked up the names of DPD cops in 1963 and found H.H. Stringer and erroneously used his name. My mistake, and thanks for the correction! Everything I wrote above about Stringer above should have been attributed to Stringfellow. Interesting in Stringfellow’s report to Curry is that he talked about the activities behind the theater around the time LHO was arrested. Sure sounds similar to descriptions by Butch Burroughs and Bernard Haire about an Oswald look-alike being escorted out the back door of the theater. As I’m sure you recall, the official Homicide Report on J.D. Tippit also says Oswald was arrested in the balcony. Something happened there. In 2007 Burroughs told author Jim Douglass that the second man he saw arrested "looked almost like Oswald, like he was his brother or something." Weren’t you also suspicious of indications that Stringfellow reported that LHO had been to Cuba? If so, can you re-post a link to the document?

From John and David’s article, and some quick online checking, it looks like everything you say about Dean is accurate, though I’m not sure if he was responsible for re-assigning Worley and Brock away from the route Ruby probably took through the building. That’s a critical question that may not be answerable. The case can be made that, as director of DPD personnel, Westbrook was in a position to re-assign Worley and Brock. Sure wish we could find out who re-assigned them. I’m still most suspicious of Westbrook, Croy, and probably Fritz. We know that Westbrook and Croy were at 10th and Patton and handled the throw-down wallet there, and that both stayed silent about that fact for decades. Westbrook was apparently at the headquarters building but not in Fritz’s office while LHO was being held awaiting Ruby’s arrival, so he (Westbrook) certainly could have walked to the east side of the Annex building where he could look out the windows and watch Ruby approaching from the Western Union office. And there is all that photographic evidence of Croy arriving at the spot where Oswald was killed just milliseconds ahead of Ruby. The case against both these cops is pretty strong, at least imho. If memory serves, Steve Thomas is also suspicious of Sgt. H.H. Stringer because of some bad information he submitted, including an indication that Oswald had been in Cuba. But since Hoover said the same thing to LBJ immediately after the assassination, this may have been a reference to another LHO. What for me rules out Stringer as a member of the conspiracy is the fact that he reported that LHO had been arrested in the balcony of the Texas Theater. Had he been part of the plot against Oswald, I doubt that would have been allowed to happen.

Ron--Dean may have made an honest mistake about how Ruby arrived at the kill spot, but he then may have compounded it by saying that Ruby said he walked down the ramp, which, apparently, no one else heard. Burt Griffin clearly didn’t believe him. It’s kind of hard to illustrate, but John and David used this graphic to try and show how little Dean could see of the ramp from Main St.

At least some U.S. Army personnel surely had, at the very least, foreknowledge of the assassination. How else was 30-year-army veteran Stuart L. Reed able to take the remarkable set of photos showing the Book Depository, Bus 1213, and even Oswald’s arrest at the Texas Theater. No one from the WC or the FBI had the slightest interest in questioning Reed, clearly indicating they knew Reed knew too much.

Thanks for another fascinating post, Joe. Your sarcasm about the WC’s description of Ruby just sauntering down the crowded and highly secure entrance ramp to the DPD parking basement is well founded. We think Ruby took an entirely different route, one that was suppressed by the WC because it screamed out that there was at least one other accomplice, namely the “reserve officer” who replaced officers Brock and Worley along the route most likely taken by Ruby through the annex building (attached to City Hall). We think that reserve officer was Kenneth Croy, the same man who said he was first at the Tippit murder scene and gave the throw-down wallet to Westbrook.

Lt. Col. Jones told the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he got the information about ALEK JAMES HIDELL from someone inside the Dallas Police Department between 1:30 PM and 2:00 PM on Nov. 22. Since it was around 1:40 PM near 10th and Patton that Westbrook was showing the throw-down wallet with the Hidell ID’s, John makes the assumption that Westbrook was the most likely candidate for the call. There is no direct evidence other than that. Thanks also to Steve Thomas and Joe Bauer for the fascinating posts. In addition to what Steve wrote, there are several other errors in the article by Earl Golz. First, Golz wrote about Hill and the other officers in the car with Oswald: “On the way they discovered identification cards in his wallet under his real name and the Hidell alias.” Actually, only the Fair Play for Cuba Committee card signed by Hidell was found in the arrest wallet. The false Hidell ID’s were originally in the 10th and Patton throw-down wallet Westbrook was holding at the scene. In the same article, Golz wrote: “However, Biggio, who was directing police intelligence communications at the Fair Park office the day of the assassination said, ‘We called down to Austin after we got the name Hidell, I believe, and they came back with that information.’”’ Biggio may well have called Austin, but Austin already had the information because Jones said they received the call between 1:30 and 2:00 PM. Is there any evidence that either Stringfellow or Biggio communicated about the Hidell information before 2 PM that day?

Hi Paul, We think both Westbrook and Croy were intimately involved in the murder of J.D. Tippit, that both of them were responsible for producing the throw-down wallet (with the so-called Hidell IDs) near 10th and Patton, that they were the two men seen by Earlene Roberts driving car 207 honking the horn near the Beckley St. rooming house, and that both Westbrook and Croy were involved in leading Ruby to Oswald at police headquarters in Dallas. For John’s detailing of the evidence tying both Westbrook and Croy to the Tippit murder and the 10th and Patton throw-down wallet, see…. Westbrook and Croy

John, In Dallas, it’s nearly a mile from 106 S. Harwood St. (the old City Hall building) to Dealey Plaza, and so I doubt that is the Court House building, but I’ve only been to the area once. I’ll try to ask John about it next time we talk. Also, we just added a couple of introductory paragraphs to the essay, which I thought put the assassination of Oswald into perspective. You’ll may have to manually refresh your browser view to see it.

Anyone who has bothered to make even a cursory read of John Armstrong's work will realize that we believe it was Russian-speaking Harvey who was assassinated by Ruby. The issue here, though, is quite different. Ruby shot Oswald less than 5 minutes after he left the Western Union office. At the time he left, Oswald was still in Fritz's office. The Warren Commission concluded it was blind luck that Ruby arrived at the parking lot ramp just seconds before Oswald was brought there. This new essay presents a far more believable theory of the hit. But, of course, you have to bother to read it.

A new article, co-authored by John Armstrong and David Josephs, discusses this and other aspects of…. The Pre-Arranged Murder of Oswald