A Few Oral Histories

[Josh Cron]

Was doing some research today on Eugene Boone and came across these:

https://texas2011sixthfloor.pbworks.com/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=SixthFloor

Other than Boone, the link has transcripts for the oral histories of Buell Frazier, Bob Jackson, Nick McDonald, Luke Mooney, Carl Day, Hank Norman, Paul Bentley, and Dorothy Bush.

Of interest so far:

Luke Mooney, 12/4/2002

Gary Mack: Were you... were you among the first people up there? [behind the picket fence]

Luke Mooney: No, no. Lord no. I don’t know how many people was up there before me, no telling.

Gary: So, you...

Luke: But anyway, when I looked around and checked the area and I didn’t see anybody out there that was suspicious, and so I said, “This...” We started over to the entrance to where the freight docks were, and there was two big ‘ole wire gates there made out of cyclone fencing, high, and they were open. And I happened to know a man standing there, and I told him, I said, “Bill, he’s a civilian.” And I says, “I’m shutting these gates. Don’t let nobody in or out.” And so, the other two officers went... took the stairs or went in, and I started up. And

I seen that old elevator and two employees that were women, we jumped on that ‘ole freight elevator and we went up one floor and they cut—the best I remember, one floor—they cut the power off. Thank goodness, it was where we could get off.

Gary: I’m sorry. They cut the power on or off?

Luke: They cut the power off in the building.

Gary: Really?

Luke: Right.

Gary: No... no electricity at all?

Luke: No, no power.

Gary: Who did that?

Luke: I don’t know. Management, I guess, or the maintenance, the engineers, or somebody. Anyway, they cut the power off to the building. We didn’t have no power, no lights, no nothing.

Gary: How soon after the assassination did that happen?

Luke: Man...

Gary: Like five minutes or...?

Luke: It wasn’t much over five or ten minutes.

Eugene Boone, 11/25/2003

The presidential car was just entering the Triple Underpass. Several of the motorcycles that had been leading the parade, the officers had dropped their motorcycles and it took just a second or two to get those motorcycles out of the way to get the presidential car going toward Parkland Hospital.

One of the motorcycle officers and I ran up what’s been referred to in the years since then as the Grassy Knoll area to where the cement abutment for the Overpass and the fence met in the corner. I helped him over the fence, and he helped me. He pulled me over the fence. He went back around over toward the Post Office Annex, and I went out into the freight yards. In a situation like that, you’re looking for something that really doesn’t belong there. You’re looking for something that’s really out of place. And I went through some of the Pullman cars that were over the freight yard and talked with an observer—a railroad employee—that was in the observation tower over there and asked him if he could see anything and he could not.

I did talk with a porter who had been over there cleaning up one of the Pullman cars. As a matter of fact, we scared each other. He came walking down beside the car, and I heard the gravel as he was walking on the gravel. And I was on the landing of one of the cars, and as he came abreast of the landing, I had my pistol out and he was just looking right down the barrel of my pistol whenever he came abreast of the car. And I said, “Hold it,” and he said, “Abba, abba, abba” (laughing). And we both were scared (laughing), and it wasn’t but just a moment until I could discover, you know, that he was back there cleaning up the cars and didn’t have anything to do with it. But... but did get an interview from him. There was an interview that was taken from him.

Edited January 5, 2014 by Josh Cron

[Larry Hancock]

Thanks Josh, that's really interesting. I was aware of Mooney's comments on the power but this is the first indication I've seen that any officer entered the Pullman cars, or searched them - well it sort of sounds like Bone went though them all but you can't really tell. I'd be fascinated by any interview of that porter.

Also, Bowers certainly didn't mentioned any officer approaching him in the tower - that's new as far as I am aware too.

-- Larry

[Chris Bennett]

These are pretty interesting. I don't remember hearing before that Frazier saw LHO walking away from the TSBD soon after the assassination.

Gary: You told us in part one a couple days ago that you had seen Oswald after the assassination walking south on Houston Street right next to the building (Buell nods). He reached the corner, then crossed the street... crossed Houston Street and then that you last saw him standing on that corner as if he were about to cross Elm Street. But then, you were interrupted, turned away, and you didn’t see him again.

Buell: (1:49:46) That is correct. He had... actually, he had started to cross Elm Street. The light had changed, and the traffic could... people could walk. And he had started to go across, and there was so much confusion and so forth going on down there. And somebody said something, and I turned to... turned to see who was talking to me and... where I could reply to them, and... and after conversing with them, he was gone.

Gary: Did you actually see him walking? I mean, the way you explained it yesterday was that he had come from the backdoor. Well, you were at the front, so you obviously could not have seen exactly where he came from. But what I’m asking is, did you see him before he reached Elm Street? In other words, did you see him on the side of the building or when he first reached the corner of the building?

Buell: No, he was... he was partly down the building on the sidewalk coming to...

Gary: Coming toward you?

Buell: Yes.

Gary: The Warren Commission never asked you about that. In fact, I can’t find where anyone’s ever asked you or where you’ve ever mentioned that you had seen Oswald. I mean, you’re sure it was Lee?

Buell: (nodding) Yes, it was Lee.

Gary: And this was just within a few minutes of the assassination?

Buell: Yes.

Best,

Chris