THE BAD BOYS OF OAK CLIFF -- PART I

[David Andrews]

On 9/2/2021 at 8:04 AM, Gil Jesus said:

 I was a cop and I'd NEVER do something like that. Because if you're hunting, you want the element of surprise on YOUR side. There were people in that house. Why would you risk creating a hostage situation (assuming he killed the President and was in the act of fleeing and was armed) when you could just wait and grab him after he left the house ? And whose cruiser was it ? Who was in it ?

[...]

But unless someone can tell me which cruiser it was that stopped in front of 1026 North Beckley at 1pm on November 22, 1963 and the names of the two officers who were in that cruiser, it's just another story that can't be verified. And without verification, in my book, it's certainly interesting but not evidence.

Gil, it's been suggested on the Forum in the past (but never proven) that Oswald had contacts, perhaps involuntary ones, on the DPD.  What if they - not Mentzel or Tippit - rolled up to the N. Beckley house and tapped the horn real friendly-like, believing he would trust them? 

What if this crew regarded Oswald as a mere snitch who took a powder from the TSBD, and wanted to locate and question him apart from any murder mission?  Being his handlers, they would have known their assumed snitch was at N. Beckley and not at the Elsbeth Street address.  Officers who had had previous, clandestine contact with Oswald might not have feared an ugly response, and hostage-taking may not have been an anticipated response under the protocol of the times. 

What if his DPD contacts were among the things Oswald wanted to avoid that day, hence his getting out of the cab past his rooming house after checking the front, his avoiding of major streets on his walkaway route, etc.?

Are there DPD Intelligence or other officers not accounted for in the timeframe that the mystery cruiser pulled up at N. Beckley?  Could Oswald have been watching (or been told to watch) Joe Molina for DPD?

Edited September 4, 2021 by David Andrews

[Steve Thomas]

3 hours ago, David Andrews said:

Gil,...

Who were the officers in your previous post, that were refused by the FBI Academy because Curry said they had unrevealed knowledge of Oswald?

 

David,

I think Gil was trying to say is that Hoover denied the DPD (anyone from the Department) further admittance to the FBI Academy because Curry refused to take back the assertion that Hosty told Revill in the basement of DPD Headquarters around 3:15 PM, that the FBI knew that Oswald was in Dallas and didn't tell anybody.

Steve Thomas

[David Andrews]

28 minutes ago, Steve Thomas said:

David,

I think Gil was trying to say is that Hoover denied the DPD (anyone from the Department) further admittance to the FBI Academy because Curry refused to take back the assertion that Hosty told Revill in the basement of DPD Headquarters around 3:15 PM, that the FBI knew that Oswald was in Dallas and didn't tell anybody.

Steve Thomas

OK, thanks, I misread.  I have amended my post.

[Gil Jesus]

8 hours ago, David Andrews said:

Gil, it's been suggested on the Forum in the past (but never proven) that Oswald had contacts, perhaps involuntary ones, on the DPD.  What if they - not Mentzel or Tippit - rolled up to the N. Beckley house and tapped the horn real friendly-like, believing he would trust them?  What if his DPD contacts were among the things Oswald wanted to avoid that day, hence his getting out of the cab past his rooming house after checking the front, his avoiding of major streets on his walkaway route, etc.?

Are there DPD Intelligence or other officers not accounted for in the timeframe that the mystery cruiser pulled up at N. Beckley?  Could Oswald have been watching (or told to watch) Joe Molina for DPD?

Officers who had previous contact with Oswald may not have feared an ugly response, and hostage-taking may not have been an anticipated response under the protocol of the times.  What if this crew regarded Oswald as a mere snitch who took a powder from the TSBD, and wanted to locate and question him apart from any murder mission?  Being his handlers, they would have known their assumed snitch was at N. Beckley and not at the Elsbeth Street address.

A lot of interesting questions there.

[Gil Jesus]

5 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

David,

I think Gil was trying to say is that Hoover denied the DPD (anyone from the Department) further admittance to the FBI Academy because Curry refused to take back the assertion that Hosty told Revill in the basement of DPD Headquarters around 3:15 PM, that the FBI knew that Oswald was in Dallas and didn't tell anybody.

Steve Thomas

Thanks Steve for having my back. Sometimes my explanations don't come out clearly. 

BTW, I don't believe Oswald was in that cab. <wince>

[Ed LeDoux]

Here is Grover Lewis on Oak Cliff bad boys:

"AT THE AGE OF SEVENTEEN IN 1926 Clyde Barrow worked briefly as an usher at dallas’ palace theater but soon quit over the paltry $12-a-week salary. Twenty-five years later, I started work as an usher at the Texas Theater for $19 a week—a pittance but enough to see me through high school. The experience jerked some complex knots in and out of my young life, and I finished growing up very quickly.

In the early fifties, The Texas was the principal seat of allowable public pleasure in Oak Cliff—a spit-and-polish place where Daddy took Mama to the show on Sundays. Already twenty years old by then, it was well kept up, not even close to being run-down. But as Jefferson withered, the once-venerable movie house started falling to pieces too. In 1989, to avert demolition, the nonprofit Texas Theater Historical Society (TTHS) with aid from the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce, bought the old landmark, pledging its restoration and development as a cultural arts center. To meet the $3.000 monthly mortgage, TTHS volunteers—many of them teenagers from the area—reopened the theater as a $2 rerun venue. (This past February the TTHS board filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.)

On a late weekday afternoon before the evening show, Maxine Burroughs, the matronly manager, showed me around. She was a veteran Texas employee, along with her husband, the doorman who had been on duty when Oswald was apprehended. “Butch and I got involved,” she explained, “because there’s no place left in Oak Cliff for families and kids to go.

The lobby looked frayed, sad, smaller than I remembered. We mounted the foyer stairs, passing a mawkish amateur mural of JFK, and climbed to the balcony. “Were you here when the stars still worked?” she asked, pointing to the mud-colored ceiling. “I’ve only seen pictures of it-little planets and clouds outlined in electric lights. The architects said everything’s still up there, just stuccoed over.”

I wandered along the center aisle, glancing by reflex toward the last rows in front of the protection booth where the riffraff of Oak Cliff’s hillbilly gene pool had traditionally gathered—the dreaded “balcony rats.” In a watery light, I found my old spot by the A stairwell. While I was still a green hand, but a tall one, I was stationed there to keep a lid on the general anarchy. After a couple of grueling break-in shifts, less terrified of the badasses than worried about failing, I bought an oversized flashlight that suggested a club. The bluff worked pretty well for a year, until a beered-up lummox from West Dallas flung himself at me over four rows of seats, and I did the first thing that Matthew or Spook would’ve done— bobbed him on the ear. The injured party ran bellowing to the lobby, alerting the manager, who had him hauled off for drunk. As a sort of reward for “cutting it,” I was transferred downstairs to the candy case, a choice job compared with standing aisle."

 

Some things never change and the balcony rats were there November 22nd. 

Sneaking in was a favorite pastime as was carrying pistols.

Gayla Brooks sets the stage for the late fifties Street toughs, gangs and bad boys


"Born five years apart in different North Texas small towns, Benny “The Cowboy” Binion and Herbert “The Cat” Noble both ended up in Dallas during the 1920s boom, when East Texas oil money was pouring in and before the law was willing to challenge many of the significant vice industries thriving around the city. Both men were heavily into the local gambling machine, with Binion’s headquarters anchored in the Southland Hotel Downtown and Noble’s at his Airmen’s Club venue in Oak Lawn (although Noble was an established Oak Cliff resident). The two men prospered, grew their various “enterprises,” along with all the underpinnings, and enjoyed what most would describe as a free rein in the North Texas underworld market. But as the saying goes, there is no honor among thieves.

Binion, with his many “friendships” among North Texas law enforcement personnel, provided protection for the other gambling bosses — for a 25 percent interest in their profits. But when The Cowboy (nicknamed that because of his acrobatic shooting style) realized that Noble’s business was beginning to match his, Binion upped the fee for protection. Noble refused to pay.

The feud that ensued, along with the 1938 murder of another gambling racket competitor (and Kessler Parkway resident), Sam Murray, on the streets of Downtown Dallas — planned by Binion but carried out by one of his associates, Ivy Miller — started what became known as the Texas Gambling War. It lasted 20 years, and it got messy.

According to Gary Sleeper’s book, “I’ll Do My Own Damn Killin’: Benny Binion, Herbert Noble, and the Texas Gambling War,” the racketeer murders became so frequent that both Dallas and Fort Worth police departments came to accept the situation. Dead bodies were found in quicklime pools at Lake Worth, acid vats in East Texas and everywhere in between. It was a nasty business run by nasty people.

As a carrier for the Dallas Times Herald from 1940 to 1942, Adamson High School alumnus Don Coke had a route that included the west side of Beckley, home of a domino parlor just south of Jefferson and the “entertainment emporium” directly across the street. “These were well known hangouts for Noble and other shady characters,” Coke says. “My folks cautioned me to always go by to collect in daylight hours and never linger after getting my money.”

But things began to change in 1946, when Henry Wade was elected as the new district attorney for Dallas County and promised to crack down on crime in Big D.

Binion, known by most as the “boss gambler,” quickly moved his main operation to Las Vegas, where he had already begun buying property, and opened his famous (and also infamous) Binion’s Horseshoe Casino. Although Binion had physically left town, his fingers remained all over Dallas, Fort Worth and West Texas gambling operations. And he had no intention of letting Noble expand or take over.

Well-known hit man Lois (pronounced “Loyce”) Green — possibly the most ruthless and cruel man of his ilk — often worked for Binion and was almost certainly responsible for several of the at least 11 attempts on Noble’s life. Surprisingly, after most of these attempts, no matter where he was in North Texas, Noble hightailed it back to Methodist Hospital in Oak Cliff for treatment. During one hospitalization, a hit man actually fired rifle shots through Noble’s hospital room window on Methodist’s fourth floor.

On the morning of Nov. 29, 1949, Noble’s wife, Mildred, walked out of the family home at 311 Conrad in Beckleywood and stepped into the car that her husband normally drove. (Herbert Noble had earlier taken his wife’s car.) Starting the engine, Mildred Noble met her end when a car bomb exploded, killing her instantly and distributing body parts around the neighborhood.

Overcome with grief, Noble reportedly buried Mildred in a $15,000 (in 1949 money), two-ton, solid copper casket, said to have been the most expensive in Dallas County to that date. Those who knew him said he never adjusted to her loss.

In Las Vegas at the time, and without today’s tracing capabilities, Binion escaped any prosecution on Mildred’s murder. But everyone in Dallas — and Nevada — recognized all the signs, believing that Lois Green almost certainly carried out the hit on Binion’s behalf. Thus, on Christmas Eve, in the rear parking lot of the Sky-Vue Club at 542 W. Commerce, Lois Green was blown away by a 12-gauge shotgun. His death certificate states that he was “shot by unknown assassin;” however, insiders understood that one of Noble’s hired guns most likely did the deed. At the time, Green lived at 1401 Walmsley in Oak Cliff.

According to Sleeper, the death of Isaac “Slim” Tomerlin, a Forty Thieves gang member, was another among those “believed to be motivated by greed, jealousy, and the power vacuum created by Lois Green’s death.”

“My next-door neighbor on Melba Street was a gunman for Benny Binion and was gunned down in his living room,” says another Adamson alumnus, Bob Johnston. “Of course we didn’t know what Slim’s ‘career’ was.” Tomerlin was DOA at Methodist Hospital on Jan. 13, 1951.

A licensed pilot who had a landing strip at his Flower Mound ranch, Noble actually planned an air raid on the Binion family’s Las Vegas home. Noble had one of his airplanes equipped with bombs and an aerial map of the targeted house. Fortunately for the Binions, a Dallas police investigator intervened.

The many lives of The Cat came to an end on Aug. 7, 1951, when he stopped his bulletproof car next to his ranch’s mailbox just before noon. Another brutal explosion took care of business, and all signposts again pointed to The Cowboy.

Binion eventually was nailed on tax evasion charges and agreed to a prison term. When he died in 1989, his family had managed to entangle and foolishly manage his empire into a financial and legal disaster, with his immense wealth evaporated. However, Binion’s reputation remains, as does his bronze statue in Las Vegas and his status as the creator and patron saint of the World Series of Poker.

It’s a bit difficult to believe that so many participants in the Texas Gambling War lived and operated all over Oak Cliff — and that several of the major hits took place here. But those are the facts, ma’am. Those are the facts."

Then there was the BLACK SHIRT GANG of Oak Cliff of 40s and 50s.

This gang was not like the Lakewood Rats or Vickery Rats.

The rats used only fists. Fought one on one.

Black Shirts didn't limit themselves.

The kids of these gang members are what the 60's produced in Oak Cliff, and the inevitable decline of all the neighborhoods didn't help.

Helen Markham's son was mixed up in burglaries and thefts, ran with the bad boys and was buried in a prison graveyard. 

Edited September 4, 2021 by Ed LeDoux
Typo

[Ed LeDoux]

Just to put the Honk in perspective...

 

There is a interview with Earlene Roberts that she specified the Honk is what made her look outside, this though was AFTER Mr. Lee had exited.

The Honk caused her to look out the window and that is when she saw Mr. Lee waiting at the bus stop, and noticed a car with numbers on it out front of the house.

I'm guessing I need to post it again...

Cheers

[Ed LeDoux]

https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1781040/

Oak Cliff bad boy from the age of 8 Johnnie Robert Jenkins was in trouble for stealing copper wire.

https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc954943/m1/1/

He stabbed a ex boxer Roy Raines in Oct. '63 while robbing him leaving him for dead,, then robs and rapes a woman in Nov. 63

The topper,

He escapes during the Jack Ruby trial!!! 

News, Sunday, October 20, 1963 Section: 1 p. 19
A sheriff's department fingrprint expert Saturday identified the body of a man found in the Trinity River Thursday as that of Roy Raines, 66, of 532 Griffith in Oak Cliff, an apparent murder victim.
Sheriff bill Decker said the victim's wife showed up at the sheriff's office to inquire about her husband shortly after the identify was established.
The medical examiner's findings indicated that Raines, a former Ling-Temco-Vought employe, died of a stab wound in the lower part of the back.
Decker said the size of the wound led him to believe the weapon was an ordinary pocket knife.
Fire department skin divers recovered the body, clothed only in undershirt an shorts, from shallow waters, near the Hampton Viaduct after a motorist spotted it.
Mrs. Raines told investigators she last saw her husband a week ago. She said she want to Mineola and returned last Monday to find him missing
Decker said Mrs. Raines did not file a missing person's report, but conducted a search of her own. Raines had only a small sum of money, $30 to $40, in his possession when she last him and wore no jewelry, she told Decker.

Dallas (TX) Morning News, Friday, March 20, 1964, Section: 4, p. 1
Sheriff Bill Decker filed murder, rape and robbery charges Thursday against a 32-year-old ex-convict who participated in the March 6 jailbreak here.
Deck filed the murder charge after the ex-convict, Johnnie Robert Jenkins of 3323 Bataan, admitted the fatal stabbing of Roy Raines.
Jenkins said he plunged a "single blade Deep Elm special" pocket knife into the 67-year-old victim during a $9 robbery Oct. 12.
Firemen pulled Raines' body from the Trinity River after it was seen near the Hampton road viaduct. A medical examination of the body showed death resulted from a knife wound in the liver.
Jenkins admitted also that he raped a 37-year old woman near the Sylvan Avenue viaduct Nov. 16.....the ex-convict said he met Raines in a bar at Main and Exposition and, after they had drunk together, drove his victim to the banks of the Trinity.
There, Jenkins continued, he took $9 from the victim and ordered him to strip.
"I thought he had more money in his clothes and I wanted to check them," Jenkins explained.
The ex-convict said Raines swung at him and he jabbed his knife blade into Raines' side below the right rib cage.
"I don't like for people to shove me, " Jenkins told reporters, "When they do, I react."
Jenkins said that, when he drove away, Raines was clutching his wound and moaning. The ex-convict said Raines "must have fallen into the river" later.

Dallas (TX) Morning News, Friday, March 22, 1964, Section: 1, p. 12
A 32-year old ex-convict admits that he took a gold cross from an elderly robbery victim before stabbing him to death, Sheriff Bill Decker said Friday.
Decker has charged the ex-convict, Johnnie Robert Jenkins of 3323 Bataan in Oak Cliff with the Oct. 12 slaying of Roy Raines... the sheriff said Jenkins took Raines' suit and the tiny cross in addition to the cash....

Dallas (TX) Morning News, Friday, March 22, 1964, Section: 1, p. 12
Johnnie Robert Jenkins was assessed a life sentence for murder Thursday after he pleaded guilty to charges that he knifed a man while robbing him under the Hampton Street viaduct last October....Jenkins was one of seven prisoners who escaped from the Dallas county jail March 6 during the murder trial of Jack Ruby in Judge Brown's court.
The 32-year-old defendant already was under three life sentences and a 10-year sentence imposed by Judge brown Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to four other crimes.....

THEN!! 

In September 1984,

 52 year old Johnny Robert Jenkins had escaped from the Texas prison system in March. Since then, he hid from the authorities by staying with family members in the Dallas area. However, that ended with a murder and fire at this Pleasant Grove home Monday.
00:00:43Fifty eight year old Walter Thompson was found beaten to death in her burned out home.
00:00:47Her surviving sister said five thousand dollars in cash and the car was stolen and that Jenkins had done it.
00:00:53I have a good case on the man, and that's all I can say right now. Investigator Bob Irby says the family will not be charged with harboring an escaped convict.
00:01:01These people are telling us that they thought he was on parole and did not know he was wanted as an escapee. In the meantime, Jenkins remains in the loose there in jail until a court can decide if he is to be sent back to the Texas Department of Corrections or stay here until his trial comes up.
00:01:15No bond has been set and the money reported missing has not been recovered.

https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1309788/m1/

 

https://digital.library.unt.edu/search/?q5="Jenkins%2C Johnny"&t5=str_subject&searchType=advanced

[Steve Thomas]

On 9/3/2021 at 8:02 AM, Steve Thomas said:

Ed,

In his WC testimony,

WC testimony of George Bouhe March 23, 1964

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

George Bouhe told the Warren Commission that back in 1962, he thought that Oswald had told him that he (Oswald) had moved into the Carlton boarding house.

"Mr. LIEBELER - Do you know where he moved when he checked out of the YMCA?
Mr. BOUHE - At some point thereabouts he threw at me when I asked, "Where do you live now?" He gave me, if I recall correctly, a name of the Carlton boarding house on Madison Avenue, but it proved to be wrong."

Once upon a time, someone, (and I'm sorry I can't remember who) sent me a clipping from the Want Ad section from one of the Dallas newspapers that showed an room for rent advertisement from Mary Bledsoe's house on Marsalis directly above an ad from the Carlton Boarding House.

I've kicked myself because I didn't keep a copy of that Want Ad page.

I've wondered if Oswald got the idea to look for places to rent in the Want Ad section of the paper, or if Geprge Bouhe got the idea from there to give to the Warren Commission.

Steve Thomas

I thought I had forgotten to save the want ad I was referring to, but this morning, I ran across it in my notes on George Bouhe. I don't remember who sent it to me, or what paper this came out of. It doesn't show an ad for a Marsalis address next to the Carleton-Madison Hotel on Madison, but an ad for the Beckley St. address. This re-inforces my belief that Bouhe was lying to the Warren Commission in 1964. I think that George Bouhe got the idea from there to give to the Warren Commission.

Steve Thomas