Jim Braden was taken into custody as a suspicous person at Dealey Plaza shortly after the assassination.
A suspicious elevator operator in the Dal Tex building called him to the attention of Sheriff Deputy Lummie Lewis, who took Braden in and took a statement from him before releasing him.
Years later, California TV producer Peter Noyes read Braden's statement in the Warren Commission records, and tried to locate him through the California motor vehicle records. Noyes discovered that Eugene Hale Brading had officially changed his name to Jim Braden and obtained a new drivers license under that name a few weeks before the assassination, and was known as a money courier for the mob. He had served time, had been accused of bilking rich widows and was once thrown out of Dallas by Sheriff Bill Decker for being a vagrant while living at the Turtle Creek home of the widow of the President of Magnolia Oil Company.
Braden said he was in the oil business, and while registered at the Cabana Hotel with two other oil men who had visited the Hunt Oil offices on the day of the assassination, he was in the federal parole office at the same time, and after leaving there, saw the motorcade from the federal office steps. He then walked to the Dal Tex building where he tried to phone his mother from a pay phone on an upper floor, and took the elevator down. The elevator operator, thought him suspicious.
From Dallas, Braden went to New Orleans where he lived the previous summer, operating out of the offices of Vernon Main, Jr., on the 17th floor of the Pierre Marquette building, just down the hall from attorney G. Ray Gill.
Jim Braden testified for two days in executive sesssion, behind closed doors before the House Select Committee on Assassinations, but the testimony was sealed until the JFK Act released the transcript of his tesimony.
Does anyone know if Braden's HSCA testimony is available on line?
Does anyone know if Jim Braden is still alive - he would be in his 80s - and if so, where he is today?
Jim Braden
in JFK Assassination Debate
Posted
Bill, If you haven’t seen this yet, great information on Braden. I believe it could be Gaeton Fonzi’s? starting on page 21 is an exhaustive look into his ties to the family, Ruby, etc. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/additional/docid-32423629.pdf