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Research question: Obtaining police reports from DPD (William Whaley)


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If a person wants to obtain a Dallas Police Department report from an incident in the 1960's, does anyone here know if you those files would be requested through the DPD or through a state archives?

I'm looking for the police report on William Whaley's fatal cab accident from December 1965, but I am also asking in general for future possible research questions.

Thank you all in advance! 🙂

Edited by Stephanie Goldberg
Added Whaley's name to title of thread for easier reference
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5 hours ago, Stephanie Goldberg said:

If a person wants to obtain a Dallas Police Department report from an incident in the 1960's, does anyone here know if you those files would be requested through the DPD or through a state archives?

I'm looking for the police report on William Whaley's fatal cab accident from December 1965, but I am also asking in general for future possible research questions.

Thank you all in advance! 🙂

I found this through google. Not sure what comes up on searches but it might help.

 

https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/BCDPA/

 

Edit: Only thing on there about his death is the news report and the transcript of the report.

Edited by John Kozlowski
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6 hours ago, Stephanie Goldberg said:

If a person wants to obtain a Dallas Police Department report from an incident in the 1960's, does anyone here know if you those files would be requested through the DPD or through a state archives?

I'm looking for the police report on William Whaley's fatal cab accident from December 1965, but I am also asking in general for future possible research questions.

Thank you all in advance! 🙂

I was looking around and found out apparently the day he died the weather was extremely bad and there were numerous accidents and fatalities on the weekend of the 17th-19th in the area due to weather. The 83yo man who he wrecked into did not have his headlights on and had been in 3 previous accidents. 

 The report is available through the Dallas Sheriffs office.

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Thanks, Michael!  The navy pilot/lawyer passenger was Maurice R Barnes, Jr of Utah (& Washington, D.C).  He was seriously injured in the crash.

Thanks, John!  So the Dallas Sheriff instead of the DPD then?  Thanks so much!!  I just wasn't sure if they had records that far back or if one had to request them from some other repository.  (And I didn't even think about the sheriff's office having the record.)

I am trying out my hand at research.  Every time I see William Whaley's death mentioned, it's almost always referenced as being suspicious.  While I agree that the date of his death in 1965 certainly places it within the range of suspicious deaths of various witnesses in the JFK case, I didn't see anything immediately in the newspaper articles about the wreck which waved a big warning flag.  So I thought I'd dig into it and see what I could find.  I'd love to be able to cross off one thing on the 'is it suspicious or not' list, plus I'd like to learn a little more about to actually do this type of research.

 

 

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14 hours ago, Stephanie Goldberg said:

If a person wants to obtain a Dallas Police Department report from an incident in the 1960's, does anyone here know if you those files would be requested through the DPD or through a state archives?

🙂

Stephanie,

 

I've used this site a lot over the years:

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/index.html

The index is helpful, and after you use the documents for a while, you get a feel for which boxes contain which types of records.

For non-JFK related police records, the DPD materials would probably be housed at the Texas State Archives at the Texas State Library in Austin.

 

Steve Thomas

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10 hours ago, Stephanie Goldberg said:

Thanks, Michael!  The navy pilot/lawyer passenger was Maurice R Barnes, Jr of Utah (& Washington, D.C).  He was seriously injured in the crash.

Thanks, John!  So the Dallas Sheriff instead of the DPD then?  Thanks so much!!  I just wasn't sure if they had records that far back or if one had to request them from some other repository.  (And I didn't even think about the sheriff's office having the record.)

I am trying out my hand at research.  Every time I see William Whaley's death mentioned, it's almost always referenced as being suspicious.  While I agree that the date of his death in 1965 certainly places it within the range of suspicious deaths of various witnesses in the JFK case, I didn't see anything immediately in the newspaper articles about the wreck which waved a big warning flag.  So I thought I'd dig into it and see what I could find.  I'd love to be able to cross off one thing on the 'is it suspicious or not' list, plus I'd like to learn a little more about to actually do this type of research.

 

 

The site I came across dealt with the mysterious deaths of witnesses and gave the address of either the DPD or Sheriff for those looking into getting a copy of records. It had the sheriffs address under Whaley’s name.

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Maurice R Barnes, Jr's obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune (UT) on Oct 28, 2014 said:

"...he was a Navy jet fighter pilot with Fighter Squadron 11 flying the F8 'Crusader' off the carrier USS Roosevelt."  He also "...served a number of years as an attorney in the Aviation Litigation Section of the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice."

His father, Barnes, Sr., practiced radio and television law in Washington where he also worked for the Treasury Department and the FCC per his obituary in the Washington Post, July 7, 1983.

The family appear to have been devout Mormons.

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Skip past the map to the 1965 article.  All seems legit, slick road, old guy veer's over the line.  Interesting he was Navy in WWII, still in reserves and his passenger was an Officer but it does seem to be an accident according to this.

https://isgp-studies.com/DL_1965_12_18_William_H_Whaley_death_traffic_accident

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