Gladys Johnson

[James DiEugenio]

I am not very impressed with The Lone Star Speaks so far.  And I probably will not review it.

But there is one really interesting story in it.  Which I never heard before.

As we  know Gladys Johnson was the owner of the Beckley rooming house, managed by Earlene Roberts.  Roberts reportedly left the job a few weeks after in the middle of the night. She made one phone call about it to her sister Bertha Cheek. Cheek, of course, knew Ruby and he contemplated a real estate deal with her.

According to this book, Gladys had a daughter named Stella Fay Puckett.  Stella was running Puckett Photography on the day of the assassination. This happened to be across from the Texas Theater.  At the time of the arrest, she looked out the front window and she recognized the guy being escorted out, because he used to toss the football around with her young sons at Beckley.  But she did not recall his name.  So she called her mother and told her what was happening. She first called a restaurant that Gladys owned but got no answer, since it had closed down upon the news of Kennedy's assassination. So she then called the boarding house, which is where Gladys was at.

She told her mother that this guy staying at her place was being arrested for something.  The reply was that, well that explains why the FBI is searching his room. (p. 175)

I had never heard this before, but I guess no one ever talked to Puckett before. If its true it is really something for the obvious reasons.  Oswald did not use his real name when he signed the room register. He used the name O. H. Lee. On his job application at the TSBD he gave the Paine address as where he lived, even though he rented the Beckley place the day before. So, if this is true,  how did the FBI know to go to Beckley that fast?

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by James DiEugenio

[Joseph McBride]

Oswald was an FBI informant who infiltrated the plot and reported on it to them and then

found out after Kennedy was shot that he was being made the patsy in the plot. The Dallas Police

Department also knew who he was before the assassination. Both agencies knew where he

lived -- and the FBI clearly knew he was going by the pseudonym of O. H. Lee. Gladys Johnson

gave me a tour of the house on one of my research visits to Dallas.

Edited January 3, 2021 by Joseph McBride

[James DiEugenio]

If the story is true yes that would be one way they would have known.

The other way would have been through Ruth Paine.

Again, if this is true it is disturbing.  Because its important and has been kept under wraps for so long.

Edited January 3, 2021 by James DiEugenio

[Lawrence Schnapf]

is this the follow-up to Voices from the Shadows? there were some interesting stories in that book but the authors did not record their conversations so it is hard to evaluate the veracity of some of the accounts. I have followed-up with some of the people they interviewed and some did not hold up too well under scrutiny. 

[Steve Thomas]

14 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

She told her mother that this guy staying at her place was being arrested for something.  The reply was that, well that explains why the FBI is searching his room. (p. 175)

I had never heard this before, but I guess no one ever talked to Puckett before. If its true it is really something for the obvious reasons.  Oswald did not use his real name when he signed the room register. He used the name O. H. Lee. On his job application at the TSBD he gave the Paine address as where he lived, even though he rented the Beckley place the day before. So, if this is true,  how did the FBI know to go to Beckley that fast?

 

Jim,

I believe that Mrs. Johnson confused the plainclothed Detectives of the Dallas Police Department for the FBI.

https://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/johnso_g.htm

Mr. BALL. On the day of the 22d of November, were you home around 1 o'clock?
Mrs. JOHNSON. It must have been 1:30 or 2, something like that.
Mr. BALL. When you came home?
Mrs. JOHNSON. Yes; after serving lunch.

https://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/johnso_a.htm

Mr. BELIN. All right. What happened when the officers got there? They asked if Lee Harvey Oswald lived there?
Mr. JOHNSON. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. How long had you been at the house when the officers arrived?
Mr. JOHNSON. Oh, probably 30 minutes.
Mr. BELIN. Do you remember about what time of the day they arrived?
Mr. JOHNSON. Well, it must have been around 1:30 or 2 o'clock--the best I remember.
Mr. BELIN. When did you get home that day from your work?
Mr. JOHNSON. Well, it was around 1 o'clock or maybe a little bit after.
Mr. BELIN. At the time you had gotten home, had you heard that the President had been shot?
Mr. JOHNSON. Yes. I heard that before I went home.
Mr. BELIN. Did you hear that the President had died before you went home?
Mr. JOHNSON. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. So you got home sometime after you had heard that the President had died?
Mr. JOHNSON. Yes.

Mr. BELIN. When did you get home that day from your work?
Mr. JOHNSON. Well, it was around 1 o'clock or maybe a little bit after.

 

The announcement that the President had died was made around 1:30 PM

Oswald was arrested at approximately 1:50 PM

He was brought into Headquarters at 2:00 PM

 

I first posed the question on November 22, 2004 in the Education Forum JFK Assassination Seminars

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/2331-how-did-the-police-first-learn-of-1026-n-beckley/

How did the police first learn that Oswald lived at 1026 N. Beckley?

 

At 2:40 PM, W.E. Potts, B.L. Senkel and Lt. E.L. Cunningham were dispatched to 1026 N. Beckley. Potts wrote in his after-action report (Box 2, Folder# 9, Item# 32) http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box2.htm that after he finished taking some affidavits, Fritz dispatched them to the Beckely St address at 2:40 and they arrived at Beckley at 3:00PM.
Detective B.L. Senkel also said in his after action report (Dallas Police Archives Box 3, Folder# 12, Item#1) that they arrived at 1026 N. Beckley at 3:00PM. They did not have a search warrant, and one wasn't issued until 3:55 PM by Justice of the Peace David Johnston.

Report of Justice of the Peace, David Johnston.

Johnston Exhibit 1

(20H314

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1137#relPageId=334&tab=page

 

What cannot be answered is why, when the police arrived at 1026 N. Beckley, they were asking for Harvey Lee Oswald.

 

WC testimony of Earlene Roberts April 8, 1964

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/robertse.htm

 

Mr. BALL. Do you remember the day the President was shot?
Mrs. ROBERTS. Yes; I remember it---who would forget that?
Mr. BALL. And the police officers came out there?
Mrs. ROBERTS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Do you remember what they said?
Mrs. ROBERTS. Well, it was Will Fritz' men---it was plainclothesmen and I was at the back doing something and Mr. Johnson answered the door and they identified themselves and then he called me.
Mr. BALL. What did they say?
Mrs. ROBERTS. Well, they asked him if there was a Harvey Lee Oswald there.
Mr. BALL. What did he say?
Mrs. ROBERTS. And he says, "I don't know, I'll have to call the housekeeper," and he called me and I went and got the books and I said, "No; there's no one here by that name," and they tried to make me remember and I couldn't, and Mrs. Johnson come in in the meantime and there wasn't nobody there by that name, and Mrs. Johnson said, "Mrs. Roberts, don't you have him?" And, I said, "No; we don't, for here is my book and there is nobody there by that name." We checked it back a year.
Mr. BALL. And you didn't have that name you didn't ever know his name was Lee Oswald?
Mrs. ROBERTS. No---he registered as O. H. Lee and they were asking for Harvey Lee Oswald.

 

To the best of my knowledge, no FBI agents were at 1026 N. Beckley.

Steve Thomas

 

[Matt Allison]

Seems very believable to me. The FBI knew more about Oswald prior to the assassination than we were told. I imagine as soon as Truly reported Oswald missing from the TSBD, they made a beeline to his residence.

[James DiEugenio]

Steve:

There is a time divergence between those reports and what this woman says.  She says it was about 1:50, because it was either when Oswald was being arrested or a few moments after,  when she called Gladys. Gladys  said people were there already.

The DPD reports you cite are significantly later than that.

 

Larry, I never heard of that other book, and the authors of this one, Sara Peterson and K. W. Zachry,  do not cite it or mention it at all.

Edited January 5, 2021 by James DiEugenio

[Joseph McBride]

The DPD sent Officers Tippit and Mentzel out to track down

Oswald in Oak Cliff shortly after the assassination. So

the department knew where he lived well before his arrest and where he

would be going. Oswald met repeatedly with the FBI

that November. They would have known where he lived.

[Andrej Stancak]

I read this book (The Lone Star Speaks...) by picking chapters of interest rather than reading it from the beginning to the end. I find this book interesting, important and timely. In a way, it feels like a continuation of Larry Sneed's book: "No more silence. An oral history of the assassination of President Kennedy". No doubt about  Authors having archived their interviews. It is not usual to post all audio recordings from interviews for download on some server. I trust the Authors that they can backup all statements by authentic data. Actually, they have tried to verify witness accounts whenever possible. 

The book is important because some revelations are just mind-boggling. For instance, information obtained from Buell Wesley Frazier about knowing members of Dixie mafia and Charles Harrelson before arriving at Dallas is stunning. Not because anyone would see Mr. Frazier as a mafia man but rather that his relatives or family friends had links with mafia. These people could have used young Wesley to unwittingly (or wittingly?) frame Lee Oswald. Another chapter that stuck in my mind is chapter 21 containing interviews with Lt. J. Goode and Tosh Plumlee.  J. Goode shares more details about the work of the abort team on Dealey Plaza and about the dark complected man standing next to Umbrella Man.

The book is timely because the witnesses are slowly disappearing and any effort to save their memories should be applauded. Unless we want to recycle and ruminate the same data over and over for the next 57 years without being able to break through, we need novel information. There are basically three sources of data that could shed light on what happened to President Kennedy:

1. Documents in files and archives. While it is still possible that some game-changing documents will emerge, the last batch of documents released by Donald Trump did not reveal anything substantial. Researchers have little control over the release of the files that remain top secret even today. 

2. Interviews with witnesses who had directly or indirectly witnessed the assassination or knew Lee Oswald, Jack Ruby or Cuban or New Orleans community. This is what the JFKA researchers still can do and what Peterson and Zachry have done.  

3. Photographs and films from the assassination. It is possible that visual documents contain information which has not been extracted so far or neglected. Living  in Europe, this is the area I can realistically focus on. Even photographs that have been seen by thousands if not millions, such as Altgens6, can reveal novel information  overlooked for so long: https://youtu.be/C0Hwt-cIGq4 .

Here is a link to a youtube interview with the Authors:

 

 

 

   

[Pete Mellor]

Just ordered 'The Lone Star Speaks'

Thank you for the reviews on this thread...Jim, Lawrence & Andrej.

Amazon showed  +Ve reviews too, e.g. "Really liked it. The material on Tom Alyea alone is invaluable."--Bill Simpich, attorney at law, Richmond, CA.

[James DiEugenio]

Alyea said the chicken bones were not found on the sixth floor but the fifth floor. 

[Jamey Flanagan]

That would make WAY more sense to me if the chicken bones were found on the 5th floor. As late as Bonnie Ray Williams claimed he was still up there eating, do you think the shooter or shooters would just be sitting there hoping he'd leave in time? LOL! Something has to give. Either someone told him to leave and then threatened him not to talk about it or he ate on the 5th and they just tried claiming the bones were found on the 6th to make Oswald seem cool and calculated and eating chicken just before blowing away the President. In a case where nothing really is as it ever seems it's at least plausible.

[James DiEugenio]

Its probably the latter.

 

[Ron Bulman]

Not to detract from the subject at hand, the chicken bones.  But to enhance attention to it.  The voodooists among us at least can probably appreciate "we got chicken in our bones, bones, bones".  Full screen, volume.  All the way thru for historical value.  A little bit of levity in trying times?  A classic performance.

 

[James DiEugenio]

From Greg Parker:

It not only can be answered - it has been answered. 

Oswald's name appears at the top of the Revill list because he was first to be let out by Truly and Lt Kaminsky (just before Truly reported Oswald missing). Those leaving were required to show Kaminsky ID with an address. All Oswald had was his old library card. He appears to have flashed this at Kaminsky upside down causing Kaminsky to write down Harvey Lee Oswald with a slightly wrong number for Elsbeth.

Truly's role at the door was to confirm that the person had genuine business being in the building - thus his misappropriated line "He's okay - he works here." That line was said in the context of letting out the front door - not in the phony 2nd floor encounter.

I think the cops who went to the boarding house either saw that list, or took a copy with them in order to check all names against the register - looking to  unearth a communist cell.