Gedney and Woodrow Noble

[Steve Thomas]

In February, 1992 alleged tramp, John Forrester Gedney told FBI Agent John E. Decker that he (Gedney), Gus Abrams, and Harold Doyle were placed in a four-man jail cell on November 22, 1963.

After they had been there for a while, they were joined by another individual by the name of Woodrow Noble, whom he described as an "older while male, who apparently was known to the local police."

However, CD 1444 is a letter from Jesse Curry to Lee Rankin concerning the phone calls made by jail inmates over November 22 - 23, 1963.

On page 9 of that document the name Woodrow Noble appears as making a phone call during the 3rd Platoon shift.

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...mp;relPageId=10

He appears listed as being in cell A-9, and appears to be the only prisoner from that particular cell to make a phone call over that weekend.

According to Deputy Chief Batchelor, the Headquarters Third Platoon worked the 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM shift

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...p;relPageId=157

I can't make out the signature of the jail personnel who signed Noble out, but it doesn't appear to match any of the names on the list of Third Platoon shift personnel.

To an untrained eye, the signature almost looks like Revill, which if true, raises some questions, because in 1963 Jack Revill was a Lieutenant in the Special Service Bureau.

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...p;relPageId=138

From what I can tell, this person only signed out two other people over that weekend: an Edgar Cox, and an Ed Lane.

Take a look at the prisoner sign-out sheets and tell me what you think.

(Just on a a side note curiosity, Daniel Wayne Douglas and the Joiner brothers were all listed as making phone calls during that shift).

The name Noble does not appear in the Index to the DPD Archives.

Nor do I find him him in a Google search.

He's only listed once in a google groups search by Denis Morisette back in around 2000, asking the same kind of questions I am.

Who was Noble?

Where did he come from?

Where did he go?

I got to thinking, if I was a Dallas Policeman, and I had three people who were suspected of having shot the President, I'd stick them in a cell and then plant someone to listen in on their conversation and try to draw them out. Maybe when Gedney said that Noble was "apparently known to the local police", maybe he did not mean that Noble was known because he was a troublemaker

Steve Thomas

[James Richards]

Steve,

I can tell you that Woodrow Noble is in fact Charles Woodrow Noble. He was 46 in 1963.

His criminal career began when he was 17 - he was busted for selling marijuana. Here's the good bit, he was working for his mother, Mary Noble, who employed young boys to make drug sales. They were both arrested and did time.

Noble went on to a career of crime which included burglary and attempted murder. He tried to kill Buster James in 1959 during an underworld dispute.

Noble was friends with a guy named James Butler and both of them were well known to the Campisi brothers.

At the time of the assassination, Noble lived at 230 Acres Road in Dallas.

James

Edited August 21, 2007 by James Richards

[Charles Drago]

James,

Do you know of any relationship to a Noble family who summered in Rhode Island and/or one of the founders of the Julliard School?

Charles

[James Richards]

James,

Do you know of any relationship to a Noble family who summered in Rhode Island and/or one of the founders of the Julliard School?

Charles

Sorry, Charles. No.

James

[Steve Thomas]

James,

Steve,

I can tell you that Woodrow Noble is in fact Charles Woodrow Noble. He was 46 in 1963.

Thank you. I answered you in the Lancer Forum, but for the benefit of the others here, this is what a former Dallas policeman told me:

Steve Thomas

Steve:

Charles Woodrow Noble was a small time criminal that was still around in the late sixties.

There was a gambler that was always in trouble and owed every bookie in Dallas named Buster James. Buster had a nasty wife named Doris Jean (Pookie) James.

The last time I saw Woody Noble as he was known, he was with Pookie at a beer joint in East Dallas called the Hart Club which was a hangout for criminals. Pookie was a heroin addict and she and Woody both looked like they were 30 years older than they actually were and sure looked down on their luck.

Woody has a warrant out for not paying the fine and court costs on a Theft conviction and my partner and I put him in the County Jail. That was in 1968 and that is the last time I saw him. He had been to the State Prison several times and as I recall mostly for burglary and theft offenses. He swore he wasn't taking drugs, but he shook all the time and all his teeth had fallen out. I guess he was in his late fifties then, but looked like an 80 year old man.

I seem to remember Pookie's old man Buster was in prison at that time.

I had an old friend that was a retired Dallas County Deputy Sheriff. He worked the Kleberg-Seagoville area of Dallas County for years beginning in 1939. He went to World War II and returned and went right back to working the same area. He talked about the Noble family often.

There were four notorious sorry families in the area. the Sorrells, the Watsons, the Daniels and the sorriest of all the Nobles. The all married into the other families and were all bootleggers, thieves, burglars and small time criminals.

Woody Noble's mother was always getting arrested for something and he had a sister that killed her husband when he was passed out drunk by pouring gasoline all over him and setting him on fire.

Here are a few newspaper articles mentioning Woody--------------