Tippit: Acquila Clemons

[Greg Doudna]

Acquila Clemons is one of the most misunderstood witnesses. Either she is disregarded, or else is cited as evidence of two gunmen. The simplest, clearest explanation of Acquila Clemons has not previously been proposed in any prior study to my knowledge but to me is just obvious: she was describing the fleeing killer and Ted Callaway, on Patton Avenue. What she saw was real and there was only one fleeing gunman, though there was an interaction with a second man, Callaway, who had nothing to do with the killing of Tippit. That Acquila Clemons was came to the corner of Patton and Tenth and was there (but was no further down Tenth St. than that corner when she witnessed the two men interacting) is corroborated from testimony of Mary Austin, age 12 at the time, as found and interviewed by Dale Myers just recently in 2020. On Nov. 23, 1963 Acquila Clemons was at 327 E. 10th, and Mary Austin was just around the corner on Patton to the north, at 111 N. Patton. When Mary heard the shots killing Officer Tippit, she "ran out the front door and saw a black maid approaching the northwest corner of Tenth and Patton from the west. Mary ran up to her. She [Acquila Clemons] was bawling and taking the white apron she was wearing and wringing her hands with it, saying, “Oh my god! Oh my god! What’s happening? First the president and now this!” This was the first Mary heard that the president had been shot" (Myers interview of Mary Little, 2020, at https://jfkfiles.blogspot.com/2020/11/emory-austin-his-daughter-mary-and.html).

Then here is Acquila Clemons and below my transcription from this Utube clip where she is interviewed by Mark Lane.

Q Now when you heard the shots, and you went out of the house, did you see a man with a gun?)

A Yes I did.

Q What was he doing?

A Ah, he was reloading it. And I see he was reloading his gun.

Q And how would you describe that man?

A Well, he was kind of chunky. He was kind of heavy, he wasn't a very big man.

Q Was he tall or short?

A He was kind of a short guy.

Q Short and heavy?

A Yes.

Q Was there any other man there?

A Yes there was one on the other side of the street. All I know is he told him to go on. [waves her hand outward]

Q Did the man with the gun make any motion to the man across the street?

A No, he told him to go on. [motions outward]

Q He waved his hand and said go on?

A He said, 'go on'. [waves outward]

Q And then what happened with the man with the gun?

A He unloaded and reloaded.

Q And what did the other man do? 

A The man kept going, down the street.

Q And then did they go in opposite directions?

A Yes they weren't together, they went this way from each other. [extends both arms in opposite directions] The one that did the shooting went this way [extends one arm one way]. The other one went straight down past the street that way [extends other arm the other way]

Q What was the man who did not do the shooting, the man who went in the other direction from the man with the gun--what was he wearing, if you remember?

A It looked like khakhi and a white shirt.

Q Was he tall or short?

A He was tall.

Q Was he heavy or thin?

A He was thin.

Q But the one who did the sh-- the one who had the gun seconds after Tippit was shot--he was short?

A Yeah he was short and kind of heavy.

Compare this to Ted Callaway, who from photos in Myers, With Malice, is a big man, looking maybe 6'1"(?), maybe 210 pounds(?) (guessing). Callaway ran a used car lot on N. Patton. The same interaction with the fleeing killer seen by Acquila Clemons, here in Ted Callaway's own words:

"'I heard shots coming from the direction behind the lot there,' Callaway said. 'Well, I come running of the side of the porch and toward the sidewalk that runs along Patton. Before I got to the sidewalk, I could see this taxi cab parked down on Patton. I saw the cabdriver [Scoggins] beside his cab, and I saw this man [the Tippit killer] run through this hedge up there on the corner [corner 10th and Patton, the Davis sisters-in-law apartments]. He runs from the yard--jumped the little hedge--and at the time he had a gun in his right hand, holding it in--what we used to say in the Marine Corps--in a raised pistol position. His left hand was going toward the butt of the gun--like the way you'd load an automatic--butt end. He just took his left hand and pushed it up--or put it up toward the butt, or handle of the gun. That's the way you'd take a clip and put it in there. I never really concentrated much on--didn't concentrate at all on the gun--I was concentrating on him--but, my first impression was that he had an automatic. The man then cut from one side of the street to the other. That would be the east side of Patton over to the west side of Patton. I went the remaining distance, probably fifty feet in all, to the sidewalk on Patton Street, and watched the man come south on Patton toward me. The man was not in a dead run, but rather a good trot.

"When he reached a point about twenty feet north, and across the street from me--the FBI came out later and measured it at about 56 feet [between Callaway and the killer]--I hollered out to him, 'Hey man, what the hell's going on?'

"That's exactly what I was wondering. At first, I thought he was a plain clothes officer. That's the first thing that entered my mind, that maybe he was after somebody. That's why I hollered at him. If I'd thought he had just killed somebody, I certainly would not have done that.

"So, he slowed his pace--almost halted for a minute--and turned and looked at me. He appeared to be very pale, but not excited. He said something to me, which I could not understand, and shrugged his shoulders as if to say he did not know what was happening. Then, he slowed down and started walking." (Myers, With Malice, 130-132, sources at n. 395 p. 717)

This is what Acquila Clemons saw! It looked like two men who knew each other--she could see them calling to each other! But it was not a second gunman, for there never was any second gunman! And Callaway was no accomplice to the killing of Tippit either!

Furthermore, the words of Callaway I have bolded above clears up another longstanding misconception repeatedly cited in discussions over the years--a notion that when Callaway moments later got to the scene of Tippit's cruiser on 10th, grabbed Tippit's revolver and got Scoggins the cab driver to drive the two of them after the killer in hot pursuit, and then Callaway asked someone standing there which way he had seen the killer go, that that proves Callaway was lying in saying he had encountered the killer on Patton! Because (so the logic goes), if he had just seen which way the killer went, why would he need to ask someone else? That has been cited as if it is ironclad evidence Callaway was lying, never saw the fleeing killer himself as he said, was fabricating. Not at all! Callaway asked which way the killer had gone because, as his testimony above indicates, he did not immediately realize that the man he saw with a gun was the killer. He asked someone at the location of the fallen Tippit and Tippit cruiser, not because he had not seen the killer himself, but because he had not immediately realized that the man he had just passed and called out to on Patton was the killer. Acquila Clemons told another interviewer, Shirley Martin, that the two men she saw "were on opposite sides of the street and seemed to be talking with each other but that she [Clemons] didn't know if they were together" (cited at Joseph McBride, Into the Nightmare, 2013, p. 493). So many, from the Warren Commission on down to today, have been so certain that the two men Clemons said she saw, if true, meant both of those men were involved in the murder, even though Clemons herself did not claim to know that--she simply told what she saw, which was seeing Callaway and the killer exchanging words and going in opposite directions on Patton. 

This identification of Acquila Clemons' two men as Callaway and the killer is new, so far as I can tell. (Myers, With Malice, has the two as the killer [identified by Myers as Oswald] and maybe Frank Cimino farther down on 10th St. [pp. 124-125].) 

Acquila Clemons was a credible witness. She confirms that Callaway saw and exchanged words with the fleeing killer running south on Patton. 

[Pete Mellor]

Good stuff Greg!  Shame neither Martin or Lane got Clemons to give a description of the killers clothing, but short & heavy isn't Oswald.

[Sean Coleman]

Domingo Benavides, arguably the nearest witness to the shooting at 15 feet away only saw the one assailant, who fled, which fits with witnesses Markham and Clenmmons.

But puzzlingly, Frank Wright who lived across the street from the shooting and half a block down claims he saw “…a woman come down from her porch….” -Clemmons?-and a man in a long coat run from the police car to a “little grey coupe” and drive away “…as quick as you could see…”

Witnesses with conflicting accounts make my head spin.

 

 

 

 

[Steve Thomas]

8 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

Q Was there any other man there?

A Yes there was one on the other side of the street. All I know is he told him to go on. [waves her hand outward]

Q Did the man with the gun make any motion to the man across the street?

A No, he told him to go on. [motions outward]

Q He waved his hand and said go on?

A He said, 'go on'. [waves outward]

Q And then what happened with the man with the gun?

A He unloaded and reloaded.

Q And what did the other man do? 

A The man kept going, down the street.

Q And then did they go in opposite directions?

A Yes they weren't together, they went this way from each other. [extends both arms in opposite directions] The one that did the shooting went this way [extends one arm one way]. The other one went straight down past the street that way [extends other arm the other way]

 

 

Doug,

I have always been fascinated by the abrupt change, or insertion, or whatever you want to call it in the flight of the suspect that was broadcast by the Dispatcher that you find in the Dispatch Tapes at around the 1:34 PM mark.

Up until that moment, all accounts of the suspect's flight, even as late as 1:32PM,  had him running west, either on Jefferson, or in the alley between Jefferson and Tenth.

But, all of a sudden, at 1:34 PM. you have this exchange, and I've thought, "What in the world?"

https://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/dpdtapes/tapes3.htm

1:34 PM

 

	550 (Sgt. W.R. Westbrook)	There's nothing to this Marsalis here. Let's back up to the place where . . .
	223 (Ptm. C.T. Walker)	223.
	550 (Sgt. W.R. Westbrook)	. . . and work to North Jefferson. We've got a witness that seen him go north . . .
	223	223.
	550 (Sgt. W.R. Westbrook)	. . . after . . . shed his jacket. And check from that area towards Tyler.

This was repeated by the Dispatcher 10 minutes later at 1:44 PM.

1::44 PM

 

87 (Ptm. R.C. Nelson)	87. What was the last location anybody had on that suspect out here in Oak Cliff?
	Dispatcher	Running north on Patton.

Look who is the source of that flight description. William Westbrook.

Did Westbrook talk to Aquila Clemons?

Steve Thomas

 

[Greg Doudna]

18 hours ago, Sean Coleman said:

Domingo Benavides, arguably the nearest witness to the shooting at 15 feet away only saw the one assailant, who fled, which fits with witnesses Markham and Clenmmons.

But puzzlingly, Frank Wright who lived across the street from the shooting and half a block down claims he saw “…a woman come down from her porch….” -Clemmons?-and a man in a long coat run from the police car to a “little grey coupe” and drive away “…as quick as you could see…”

Witnesses with conflicting accounts make my head spin.

On Frank Wright, I think I have an idea what was going on there: the individual Frank Wright saw looking at the body of Tippit, then quickly running around the car and driving away, was not the killer (who had already left the scene) but rather it was Jimmy Burt, a witness. The telltale detail that establishes this is the unusual description of the way the car was parked that Frank Wright saw. The Frank Wright story, from Nash and Nash, "The Other Witnesses" (1964), pp. 106-109 of 139, is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Gig-Pi9TEQZWh8obarl2tM8s8mOuLjc/view?pli=1. Wright was a block away to the east on the same side of 10th as the Tippit cruiser, and came out of his apartment after hearing shots. Frank Wright:

"I went out the door. I could see a police car in the next block. It was toward the end of the next block. I could see it clearly. The police car was headed toward me [facing east]. It was toward the end of the next block. I could see it clearly. The police car was headed toward me. It was parked on the south side of the street. In other words, it was parked across the street from our apartment house . . . (describes seeing Tippit body next to the cruiser) . . . I looked around to see what had happened. I knew there had been a shooting. I saw a man standing right in front of the car. He was looking toward the man on the ground. He stood there for a while and looked at the man. . . . I didn't see any gun. He ran around on the passenger side of the police car. He ran as fast as he could go and he got into his car. His car was a grey, little old coupe. It was about a 1950-1951, maybe a Plymouth. It was a grey car, parked on the same side of the street as the police car but beyond it from me. It was headed away from me. He got in that car and he drove away as quick as you could see. He drove down 10th Street, away from me. I don't know how far he drove . . . I couldn't figure out who did the shooting. I didn't see a gun on the man who was standing in front of the car . . . It wasn't any time at all until the ambulance got there . . . I've seen what came out on television and in the papers but I know that's not what happened. I knew a man drove off in a grey car. Nothing in the world's going to change my opinion. i saw that man drive off in a grey coupe just as clear as I was born. I know what I saw. They can say all they want about a fellow running away, but I can't accept this because I saw a fellow get in a car and drive away." 

Here is the FBI interview report of Jimmy Burt, Dec. 16, 1963:

". . . he was living at 505 E. 10th Street . . . He and a friend William Smith were sitting in his brother, Billy Burt's house located at the corner of 9th and Denver Streets, Dallas. It was some time after lunch when they heard two gunshots. He and Smith immediately ran from the house toward his car, a 1952 two-tone blue Ford which was parked facing south on Denver Street. As they ran from the house they heard four more shots making a total of six. Burt said he drove his car to the next intersection which is Denver and 10th Streets and turned west on 10th. He immediately saw a police car parked at the curb in the middle of the block. It was parked facing east on 10th Street. A police officer was lying on the street near the left front wheel. . . . Burt parked his car in front of the police car on the same side of the street with the front end facing the west. He and Smith jumped out of the car and as they did so he looked west on 10th Street. At that moment he caught a glimpse of a man running on the sidewalk on the south side of the street. The man at this pont had reached the intersection of 10th and Patton Streets. He described this man as a white male, approximately 5'8' . . . He said at one point he did notice the man had a pistol in his right hand . . . At the intersection of 10th and Patton Streets the man ran south on Patton Street. Burt said he ran to the intersection of 10th and Patton and when he was close enough to Patton Street to see to the south he saw the man running into an alley located between 10th and Jefferson Avenue on Patton Street. . . . 

Frank Wright's original seeing of the man spending some time looking at the body of Tippit, without a gun, before the gray car takes off agrees with this being a description not of the killer, but of Jimmy Burt. "'We stood there a few minutes and looked at the body,' Burt reported" (Myers, With Malice, 411, citing a 1968 interview). 

Then there is this, which I do not think has ever appeared in any book or article, from a 2008 post on this forum from Jack White:

"In a recent email to me researcher Roy Schaeffer wrote in part... 

'''... In 1988 I was at the Tippit murder scene that summer. A woman and her son who lived across the street from where Tippit was shot struck up a conversation with me. I learned from her that she was the woman who put a blanket over Tippit. When talking to me she said she noticed a grey coupe blocked the driveway in front of where Tippit pulled up behind the car. She noticed a policeman get out and go toward the coupe. The next thing she noticed was hearing shots. She ran back in the house and got a blanket off the couch and placed it on Tippit.'" (https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/12363-new-info-on-tippit/)

 

I think these descriptions support that Frank Wright saw what he said he saw, though his interpretation that the person he saw was the killer was mistaken.

There are some anomalies that have to be worked through. Myers basically does not know what to make of the Frank Wright story and considers the existence of the gray coupe at the Tippit scene doubtful, in part because of timeline objections. He notes that witness Jack Tatum, who was in a vehicle on 10th to the west looking back at the scene, was clear in saying he saw no car between him and the Tippit cruiser--where the gray coupe was supposed to be. And in later accounts of Jimmy Burt and William Smith they ran to the scene rather than drove. However the old car belonging to Jimmy Burt of similar color and parked the odd way at the Tippit scene, of the original FBI interview of Jimmy Burt, agrees with Frank Wright and the woman who provided the blanket which covered Tippit's body.

I do not think Jimmy Burt and William Smith went around on Patton and the alley off Patton between Jefferson and 10th to follow the killer. Instead, after seeing the killer walk by their house heading west and then (apparently) witnessing the actual killing of Tippit from a distance by the man who had walked by, they drove to the Tippit scene, Burt got out, Burt got back in and they drove off, as Frank Wright saw and said. Myers points out: 

"[T]he sequence of events and the testimony of other witnesses suggests that Burt and Smith were delayed slightly before [arriving at] the murder scene . . . Contrary to Burt's 1968 interview, Bill Smith told the FBI and Warren Commission that they did not pursue the gunman. In 1997, Smith was unable to recall whether they had or not . . . Burt's trouble with the military, police record, and professed desire to withhold his identity from the Dallas police raises the possibility that Burt altered his 1963 FBI account to avoid deeper involvement in the case . . . Chapman writes that Burt had remained at the Tippit scene only a 'few seconds' before starting for the alley. However, Burt states that he and Smith 'stood there a few minutes' before pursuing the gunman. A timetable which incorporates the recollections of other eyewitnesses shows Burt and Smith remained at Tippit's squad car at least 45 seconds" (from endnotes 410, 427, and 453 of Myers, Without Malice).

The basic conclusion is that Frank Wright saw not the killer but Jimmy Burt. Tatum did not see the gray car because he drove off quickly when the killer came running his way, before the arrival of Jimmy Burt and William Smith. Frank Wright saw what he saw with just enough delay that the killer had already gone and turned the corner of Patton, leaving Frank Wright to see Jimmy Burt looking at Tippit's body and then driving away.  

[Sean Coleman]

Brilliant!

[Pete Mellor]

13 minutes ago, Sean Coleman said:

Brilliant!

Agree!  As always, very logical analysis Greg.  Thanks.

[Greg Doudna]

On 9/1/2021 at 7:47 AM, Steve Thomas said:

Doug,

I have always been fascinated by the abrupt change, or insertion, or whatever you want to call it in the flight of the suspect that was broadcast by the Dispatcher that you find in the Dispatch Tapes at around the 1:34 PM mark.

Up until that moment, all accounts of the suspect's flight, even as late as 1:32PM,  had him running west, either on Jefferson, or in the alley between Jefferson and Tenth.

But, all of a sudden, at 1:34 PM. you have this exchange, and I've thought, "What in the world?"

https://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/dpdtapes/tapes3.htm

1:34 PM

 

	550 (Sgt. W.R. Westbrook)	There's nothing to this Marsalis here. Let's back up to the place where . . .
	223 (Ptm. C.T. Walker)	223.
	550 (Sgt. W.R. Westbrook)	. . . and work to North Jefferson. We've got a witness that seen him go north . . .
	223	223.
	550 (Sgt. W.R. Westbrook)	. . . after . . . shed his jacket. And check from that area towards Tyler.

This was repeated by the Dispatcher 10 minutes later at 1:44 PM.

1::44 PM

 

87 (Ptm. R.C. Nelson)	87. What was the last location anybody had on that suspect out here in Oak Cliff?
	Dispatcher	Running north on Patton.

Look who is the source of that flight description. William Westbrook.

Did Westbrook talk to Aquila Clemons?

Steve Thomas

 

Steve, looking at the radio transcripts here-- http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/D Disk/Dallas Police Department/Dallas Police Department Records/Volume 04/Item 01.pdf -- I do not see an abrupt change in direction of flight of the killer at 1:34. The first report of direction of the killer is broadcast at 1:19-1:22:

Have a signal 19 involving a police officer 400 E. Tenth suspect last seen running west on Jefferson, no description at this time.

I think Myers explains the sequence sensibly. There was a false alarm at the library on Jefferson (in the other direction, not in the direction reported for the fleeing suspect) at which police converged, then realized the man that had been reported suspiciously running into the library to hide was not the killer but had just run inside to tell people the news. The reports of the true direction of the killer--around the corner from 10th to south on Patton, then east on Jefferson, then turning to the right at the service station past Dean's Dairy back toward the area of the east-west alley--there are known witnesses to that, such as Warren Reynolds, B.M. Patterson, Scoggins, Callaway, Guinyard. I doubt Acquila Clemons was a source for that since neither Acquila nor any other witness ever told of her talking to any officer the day of the killing.

Incidentally the transcription you cite differs from the wording of the one on my link (not sure why, do you know?). Where you quote "and work to North Jefferson. We've got a witness that seen him go north...", the transcription at the link I see has:

There is nothing to this Marsalis here, let's get back
up to the place and work to north Jefferson, we got a witness that saw him shed his jacket and check towards Tyler. (223 interrupted this transmission several times.)

The key wording of your interest, "We've got a witness that seen him go north", is not in the police transcript of the link I have. 

Callaway saw the killer run north on Patton all the way to Jefferson and turn right. Warren Reynolds saw the same thing, so did others. Myers' blog has an account from a daughter of Mrs. Dean of Dean's Dairy on Jefferson that her mother saw the killer go by westward on the sidewalk in front of her store before turning right, toward the alley running behind her store. Frank Wright on 10th saw Burt driving away in his car from the Tippit scene directly. Yet there are photos of Burt and Smith at the Tippit scene among other bystanders later, so they were around, evidently returning on foot after driving the car away.

"Jimmy Burt and Bill Smith were jogging south on Patton. 'I had it in my mind to go all the way to Jefferson,' Burt recalled, 'but we got to the alley [between Tenth and Jefferson] and we kind of come to a stop and looked down the alley and we saw this guy down there. He was down almost to the next street.' Unaware of the gunman's true route, Burt and Smith were under the impression that Tippit's killer had fled west through the alley that runs between Tenth and Jefferson. In fact, the gunman had just entered the alley adjacent to the parking lot where he had been observed by Robert and Mary Brock [at the Texaco next to Dean's Dairy]. Jimmy Burt decided against pursuing the killer. 'He had a gun and we didn't,' Burt reasoned. 'We just stood there for a minute and the guy was going on so we turned around and come back to the scene.'" (Myers, With Malice, p. 142)

Therefore I do not see a change in direction in reported direction of the killer in the police radio transcript. The witnessed and reported direction of the killer from the beginning was consistent--south on Patton, then west on Jefferson--and the police convergence on the library at Marsallis, which was not consistent with the reported direction, was simply a false alarm.

Edited September 3, 2021 by Greg Doudna

[George Govus]

Fascinating, Greg. Now I'm wondering where you go, if you are headed West on Jefferson.

In trying to figure that out, I had to fight my way out of Google Map. Which led to grokking Dallas Love Field with respect to Dallas downtown. Which led to a portion of the Robert Hunter lyric to the Jerry Garcia song, "He's Gone."

Nine-mile skid, on a ten-mile ride.

Also how high in the sky Challenger got.

Sorry for the multiple digressions, please, y'all carry on.

Edited September 3, 2021 by George Govus
omission

[Steve Thomas]

10 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

 

Steve, looking at the radio transcripts here-- http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/D Disk/Dallas Police Department/Dallas Police Department Records/Volume 04/Item 01.pdf -- I do not see an abrupt change in direction of flight of the killer at 1:34. The first report of direction of the killer is broadcast at 1:19-1:22:

Incidentally the transcription you cite differs from the wording of the one on my link (not sure why, do you know?).

 

Callaway saw the killer run north on Patton all the way to Jefferson and turn right. Warren Reynolds saw the same thing,

Greg,

One quick note. I'm sure you meant to say the witnesses saw the killer run south on Patton and turn right. If he was running north on Patton and turned right, he would be heading east.

 

As far as the different versions of the Dallas Police Dispatch Tapes, this has vexed researchers over the years. It's been a long time since I looked at this, but to my knowledge, there are at least three different versions. Judging from the version you cited, this looks like it came from CD 87 (the Secret Service copy).

There are:

1) Secret Service Copy CD 87

Went through Deputy Chief Charles Lumpkin

(Dallas Police Department starts at page 637)

Commission Document 87 - Secret Service report of 08 Jan 1964 re: Oswald

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10490#relPageId=637&tab=page

 

2) FBI Copy CE 705

Went through Inspector Herbert Sawyer

(Starts at page 390)

Warren Commission Hearings Volume XVII

Current Section: CE 705 - Radio log of channel 1 of the Dallas Police Department for November 22, 1963.

.https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1134#relPageId=416

 

The Warren Commission was frustrated by the two earlier versions because the radio callers were not identified, so in July, 1964, they asked the FBI to work with the Dallas Police Department to identify who the various people were. This resulted in CE 1974, found in Volume XXIII of the Commission Exhibits.

 

3) CE 1974

Warren Commission Hearings, Volume XXIII

Current Section: CE 1974 - FBI report dated August 11, 1964, at Dallas, Tex., of transcripts of Dallas police radio transmissions covering ...

(starting at page 832)

(Commissioned by the Warren Commissio in July, 1964. Identifies the callers)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1139#relPageId=864

 

The copy I use is Word document copy found on the McAdams web site. I like the Word document copy because I can copy and paste.

https://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/dpdtapes/

The Web site says,

“The basis for these audio clips is an especially high-quality recording of the Dallas Police transmissions discovered by David Dix in the Minneapolis Public Library. Copies of this tape are available for sale. The transcript of Channel One is based on a transcript edited by Russ Shearer, and the transcript for Channel Two is from Warren Commission Exhibit 1974 (with some minor revisions).”

Russ Shearer also did a comprehensive list of all the Police Department's badge numbers that he could identify that I have found useful over the years. I've added to it myself.

I would be happy to provide that to anyone who is interested.

Steve Thomas

 

Edited September 3, 2021 by Steve Thomas

[Steve Thomas]

Doug,

The Secret Service version (CD 87) angered a lot of people because the DPD released a version in January, 1974 of the Tapes that they deemed "only relevant to the assassination". That version left out a lot of things such as the 12:45 PM Dispatcher's instructions to Tippit and Ptm. Nelson to move into the Central Oak Cliff area, and the 12:54 PM imstructions to Tippit to remain in Oak Cliff for any emergency that might come in.

 

Memorandum by SS Agent Roger Warner and Elmer Moore dated 12/1/63

These became the SS copy of the Dispatch Tapes found in CD 87 beginning on page 636 and running to page 644.

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/J%20Disk/Justice%20Department%20of/Justice%20Department%20of%20JFK-King%20Reinvestigation/Item%2005.pdf

Page 5.

“On November 29, 1963, SA Warner conferred with Chief Lumpkin, Police Department, relative to reports of Police dispatches covering the arrival of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, the subsequent assassination and removal of President Kennedy to Parkland Memorial Hospital. These broadcasts were transmitted on Channel 2 which was an auxiliary channel used by the Police for special occasions. Also Chief Lumpkin provided for transcription on our tape the Police recordings of Channel# 1, the standard Police band which on the date of the Presidential assassination contained the Police broadcasts relative to the capture of Lee Harvey Oswald and the shooting of Police Officer Tippit.”

This memo from Warner is on page 339 of CD 87

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10490#relPageId=339&tab=page

 

Steve Thomas

Edited September 3, 2021 by Steve Thomas

[Greg Doudna]

Got it Steve, thanks very much. I will go by CE 1974 from now on unless otherwise noted.

 

Edited September 6, 2021 by Greg Doudna

[Steve Thomas]

40 minutes ago, Greg Doudna said:

Got it Steve, I see, thanks very much! I will go by the last one from now on, CE 1974, unless otherwise noted.

 

Greg,

What interests me more is the role that Lumpkin played:

Lumpkin, who was the Commandant of the 4150th U.S. Army Reserve Training School

Lumpkin, who took charge at the TSBD following the assassination

Lumpkin, who, early on, took charge of the Dispatch Tapes transcription

Lumpkin, who rode in the Pilot car with George Whitmeyer, who Winston Lawson told the HSCA "taught military intelligence:; and, as far as I know, made no effort to shoo people off the railroad overpass

George Lumpkin is a very interesting individual.

Steve Thomas