Tippit witness 1967 letter to Playboy

[Gerry Down]

16 minutes ago, Bill Brown said:

 

Greg,

 

Below is an image of Tenth, Patton and Jefferson.  The blue circle is the spot where Tippit was killed.  The red circle is the location where Callaway was standing on the sidewalk on Patton.  The black arrow depicts the spot where Tippit fell to the corner of Tenth and Patton.

 

Pete Barnes measured the distance from the location where Tippit fell to the corner of Tenth and Patton to be 114 feet.  Obviously this image below is not to exact scale but it's much more reliable than your car length estimate.  I stand by my 300 foot estimate.

 

Hi Bill,

On another thread I stated the following:

There is an account somewhere where she specifically says the two people, one waved to the other to "Go on", did NOT know each other which suggested Oswald was telling some bystander to go away. In this account Acquilla stated: "Probably somebody he told to get out of his way or something”. That is the only line I have from the account.

Does anyone know that account? I had assumed it was in Dale Myers book but upon looking at that book I could not find it there. 

To the best of my memory, I read this rare account of Acquilla Clemons in some book but I did not write down which book in my notes. All I have is the above quote from Acquilla where she states: "Probably somebody he told to get out of his way or something”. 

Do you know the source of this Acquilla Clemons interview?

[Bill Brown]

34 minutes ago, Gerry Down said:

Hi Bill,

On another thread I stated the following:

There is an account somewhere where she specifically says the two people, one waved to the other to "Go on", did NOT know each other which suggested Oswald was telling some bystander to go away. In this account Acquilla stated: "Probably somebody he told to get out of his way or something”. That is the only line I have from the account.

Does anyone know that account? I had assumed it was in Dale Myers book but upon looking at that book I could not find it there. 

To the best of my memory, I read this rare account of Acquilla Clemons in some book but I did not write down which book in my notes. All I have is the above quote from Acquilla where she states: "Probably somebody he told to get out of his way or something”. 

Do you know the source of this Acquilla Clemons interview?

 

Gerry,

 

Yes.  That is Clemons' interview with Shirley Martin.

 

[Greg Doudna]

2 hours ago, Bill Brown said:

Below is an image of Tenth, Patton and Jefferson.  The blue circle is the spot where Tippit was killed.  The red circle is the location where Callaway was standing on the sidewalk on Patton.  The black arrow depicts the spot where Tippit fell to the corner of Tenth and Patton.

Pete Barnes measured the distance from the location where Tippit fell to the corner of Tenth and Patton to be 114 feet.  Obviously this image below is not to exact scale but it's much more reliable than your car length estimate.  I stand by my 300 foot estimate.

You're right Bill on the ca. 300 feet, according to my checking of some map scales on Google Maps, and using the schematics in Myers at pp. 130 and 135 and p. 131 photo of Callaway standing where he said he was that day at the time of the interaction, to establish Callaway's location. I stand corrected. 

Still seems like what Acquilla Clemons saw and thought she heard as "Go on!", was the end of Callaway's shouted "what the hell's going on?". I suppose its possible she saw them waving and saying something and imagined it was "Go on!" The other possibility is I'm mistaken and there was some waving/calling interaction between the killer and some other person on 10th right before the killer ran south on Patton, in which the unknown other figure ran east on 10th. My problem with that is nobody else saw that, no witness tells of a man running east on 10th at that time, whereas the killer-Callaway interaction is well-described by one of the two of that interaction firsthand and sounds like that of Acquilla's description, issue of the location aside. But, agree on the ca. 300 feet point. 

[Gerry Down]

3 minutes ago, Greg Doudna said:

You're right Bill on the ca. 300 feet, according to my checking of some map scales on Google Maps, and using the schematics in Myers at pp. 130 and 135 and p. 131 photo of Callaway standing where he said he was that day at the time of the interaction, to establish Callaway's location. I stand corrected. 

Still seems like what Acquilla Clemons saw and thought she heard as "Go on!", was the end of Callaway's shouted "what the hell's going on?". I suppose its possible she saw them waving and saying something and imagined it was "Go on!" The other possibility is I'm mistaken and there was some waving/calling interaction between the killer and some other person on 10th right before the killer ran south on Patton, in which the unknown other figure ran east on 10th. My problem with that is nobody else saw that, no witness tells of a man running east on 10th at that time, whereas the killer-Callaway interaction is well-described by one of the two of that interaction firsthand and sounds like that of Acquilla's description, issue of the location aside. But, agree on the ca. 300 feet point. 

For anyone interested, the Shirley Martin interview is here:

http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2017/11/acquilla-clemons-and-murder-of-jd-tippit.html

Here is how DVP presents it on his website:

Mrs. Martin asked Acquilla Clemons what happened to the man standing across the street after the gunman ran off.

MARTIN: The other one went up that… Patton?
CLEMONS: Yeah. He went up [unintelligible]. He may have been just a boy getting out of the way. [emphasis added]
MARTIN: Scared maybe.
CLEMONS: Yeah. Probably somebody he told to get out of his way or something...

Here, too, is another ah-hah moment – a sharp, left-turn off the path that we were led down fifty-three years ago.

It is quite clear from the above exchange, that Mrs. Clemons didn’t think the man standing across the street from the gunman was an accomplice – as has been presented as a matter-of-fact by Mark Lane and virtually every person seeking to exonerate Oswald for the Tippit murder – but rather, that Mrs. Clemons thought the man might have been simply another eyewitness who, like her, ran away from the gunman in fear of losing his life.

From this we can see that Oswald was simply motioning to someone on the other side of the street to get lost as Oswald reloaded his gun and took off running. 

[Greg Doudna]

23 minutes ago, Gerry Down said:

For anyone interested, the Shirley Martin interview is here:

http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2017/11/acquilla-clemons-and-murder-of-jd-tippit.html

Here is how DVP presents it on his website:

Mrs. Martin asked Acquilla Clemons what happened to the man standing across the street after the gunman ran off.

MARTIN: The other one went up that… Patton?
CLEMONS: Yeah. He went up [unintelligible]. He may have been just a boy getting out of the way. [emphasis added]
MARTIN: Scared maybe.
CLEMONS: Yeah. Probably somebody he told to get out of his way or something...

Here, too, is another ah-hah moment – a sharp, left-turn off the path that we were led down fifty-three years ago.

It is quite clear from the above exchange, that Mrs. Clemons didn’t think the man standing across the street from the gunman was an accomplice – as has been presented as a matter-of-fact by Mark Lane and virtually every person seeking to exonerate Oswald for the Tippit murder – but rather, that Mrs. Clemons thought the man might have been simply another eyewitness who, like her, ran away from the gunman in fear of losing his life.

From this we can see that Oswald was simply motioning to someone on the other side of the street to get lost as Oswald reloaded his gun and took off running. 

Right Gerry. Some interesting things from the "unedited transcript of the Lane interview" of David von Pein's link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B46baYyr9-rHRTZ3QXI0a3c2bjA/view?resourcekey=0-Rr4fiuZ_5XIBn3MliaWuig .

The most critical point is I wonder if Bill Brown you have been getting Acquilla saying the other man (than the gunman) of her description "ran east". That unedited transcript reads:

"they weren't together, they went this way from each other: the one done the shooting went this way; other went straight down past street that way."

"Past" not east. I don't see Acquilla using cardinal directions elsewhere in the transcript, "past" might be more naturally expected here than "east". 

And the second point is Acquilla presents the interaction as happening after she first sees the gunman "reloadin' his gun" which actually does not begin before the corner of 10th and Patton at the earliest as the gunman rounded the corner through the Davises yard on the corner, not at the location of the Tippit cruiser. After that first sight of the gunman "reloadin' his gun" she then sees the shouting/waving interaction.

The third point is she alternates between saying she couldn't hear what they were saying, but then says she heard "go on", making it a little unclear whether she actually heard or was interpreting gestures to mean that.

"there was one on the other side of the street, but I don't know what is with him, or not. All I know, he told him to gone"

(error for "go on"?)

Q. And did the man with the gun talk to the man on the other side of the street?

A. I couldn't tell.

Q. Did he motion to him?

A. He just looked at him and went on.

Q. Mrs. Clemons--er--the man who had the gun--uh--did he make any motion at all to the other man across the street?

A. No more'n told him to go on."

Q. Well, he waved his hand and said 'go on'.

A. Yes, said 'Go on'.

Q. and then what happened with the man with the gun?

A. Er--he unloaded and reloaded.

Q. And what did the other man do?

A. Man kept going...straight down the street.

Q. And then did they go in opposite directions?

A. Yes, they were--they weren't together, they went this way from each other: the one done the shooting went this way; other went straight down past street that way"

The gunman was reloading as going south on Patton according to witnesses which would agree with Acquilla seeing this on Patton after first seeing him maybe rounding the corner of 10th and Patton. The other man, if it were Callaway, going in the opposite direction, going "straight down past street that way" (= "past the street [corner] that way"?) In the film clip she seems to gesture as if the man rounded the corner and headed toward the Tippit cruiser. All of this may agree with Callaway running north on Patton around the corner ("past [the?] street that way") east on Tenth toward the Tippit cruiser.

The other man, not the killer, Acquilla said was "tall" which agrees with Callaway who is over 6 feet, though she also says the man was "thin" which is not quite in agreement, Callaway being a big solid man, not obese but not skinny or lean either. 

The final point is perhaps the most important one. Acquilla explicitly says she saw neither of these men at the location of the Tippit cruiser. She hears shots, leaves her house, catches first sight of the killer "reloadin' his gun" rounding the corner, and then--after seeing the killer "reloadin' his gun"--sees the killer/waving-arms interaction. That sequence places that interaction most naturally on Patton where the killer was at that point.

A. I heard the shots.

Q. And what did you do?

A. I ran out into the street -- and looked down into the street and I ran back down the street where he was lying, and I looked at him--I had to go back to the house: I had a patient."

Is Acquilla speaking of two streets here, "looked down into the street" (Patton?) then "ran back down the (different?) street where he was lying" (Tenth)? Hard to tell. Could parse that either way. 

Q. When you heard the shots, Mrs. Clemons, and then you ran out of the house, did you see anyone there?

Meaning, "there", at the Tippit cruiser, scene of the killing. And Acquilla answers:

A. No, I didn't see anyone down there where he were layin'--

Q. But did you see anyone at the scene at all?

A. The other lady who was shouting in the street.

Q. Did you see any men there?

A. No.

So the notion of some sort of interaction between two men--the killer and another man across the street on Tenth--at the scene of the killing, at the scene of the Tippit cruiser, is excluded. Acquilla did not see any men there.

So where did she see the interaction? Right in her face on Tenth and Patton, where she was? Or on Patton which makes narrative sense in that interaction following when she first saw the killer rounding the corner on to Patton "reloadin' his gun"?

If Acquilla had seen the interaction on Tenth at about the position of the corner of Tenth and Patton, would not Helen Markham have seen the interaction too because that's right where she is? But Helen Markham said nothing of such an interaction on Tenth in the vicinity of Tenth and Patton where she was standing--she spoke only of terror of the single gunman on Tenth--nor did any other witness.

I think Acquilla Clemons saw the interaction on Patton, saw Callaway then run around the corner of Patton and Tenth toward the cruiser, and then Acquilla went toward the area of the cruiser--after the killer was gone from Patton. I think that sounds like the sequence, with the interaction happening on Patton. Bill makes a point that 300 feet which is the length of a football field might make it questionable whether a shout could actually be heard. I don't know about that, but if so, I would say it only means Acquilla didn't really hear it, but still saw it--not that it did not happen where it is known an interaction happened that sounds exactly like that of Acquilla Clemons' description, the Callaway-killer interaction on Patton.  

[Bill Brown]

8 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

Right Gerry. Some interesting things from the "unedited transcript of the Lane interview" of David von Pein's link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B46baYyr9-rHRTZ3QXI0a3c2bjA/view?resourcekey=0-Rr4fiuZ_5XIBn3MliaWuig .

The most critical point is I wonder if Bill Brown you have been getting Acquilla saying the other man (than the gunman) of her description "ran east". That unedited transcript reads:

"they weren't together, they went this way from each other: the one done the shooting went this way; other went straight down past street that way."

"Past" not east. I don't see Acquilla using cardinal directions elsewhere in the transcript, "past" might be more naturally expected here than "east". 

And the second point is Acquilla presents the interaction as happening after she first sees the gunman "reloadin' his gun" which actually does not begin before the corner of 10th and Patton at the earliest as the gunman rounded the corner through the Davises yard on the corner, not at the location of the Tippit cruiser. After that first sight of the gunman "reloadin' his gun" she then sees the shouting/waving interaction.

The third point is she alternates between saying she couldn't hear what they were saying, but then says she heard "go on", making it a little unclear whether she actually heard or was interpreting gestures to mean that.

"there was one on the other side of the street, but I don't know what is with him, or not. All I know, he told him to gone"

(error for "go on"?)

Q. And did the man with the gun talk to the man on the other side of the street?

A. I couldn't tell.

Q. Did he motion to him?

A. He just looked at him and went on.

Q. Mrs. Clemons--er--the man who had the gun--uh--did he make any motion at all to the other man across the street?

A. No more'n told him to go on."

Q. Well, he waved his hand and said 'go on'.

A. Yes, said 'Go on'.

Q. and then what happened with the man with the gun?

A. Er--he unloaded and reloaded.

Q. And what did the other man do?

A. Man kept going...straight down the street.

Q. And then did they go in opposite directions?

A. Yes, they were--they weren't together, they went this way from each other: the one done the shooting went this way; other went straight down past street that way"

The gunman was reloading as going south on Patton according to witnesses which would agree with Acquilla seeing this on Patton after first seeing him maybe rounding the corner of 10th and Patton. The other man, if it were Callaway, going in the opposite direction, going "straight down past street that way" (= "past the street [corner] that way"?) In the film clip she seems to gesture as if the man rounded the corner and headed toward the Tippit cruiser. All of this may agree with Callaway running north on Patton around the corner ("past [the?] street that way") east on Tenth toward the Tippit cruiser.

The other man, not the killer, Acquilla said was "tall" which agrees with Callaway who is over 6 feet, though she also says the man was "thin" which is not quite in agreement, Callaway being a big solid man, not obese but not skinny or lean either. 

The final point is perhaps the most important one. Acquilla explicitly says she saw neither of these men at the location of the Tippit cruiser. She hears shots, leaves her house, catches first sight of the killer "reloadin' his gun" rounding the corner, and then--after seeing the killer "reloadin' his gun"--sees the killer/waving-arms interaction. That sequence places that interaction most naturally on Patton where the killer was at that point.

A. I heard the shots.

Q. And what did you do?

A. I ran out into the street -- and looked down into the street and I ran back down the street where he was lying, and I looked at him--I had to go back to the house: I had a patient."

Is Acquilla speaking of two streets here, "looked down into the street" (Patton?) then "ran back down the (different?) street where he was lying" (Tenth)? Hard to tell. Could parse that either way. 

Q. When you heard the shots, Mrs. Clemons, and then you ran out of the house, did you see anyone there?

Meaning, "there", at the Tippit cruiser, scene of the killing. And Acquilla answers:

A. No, I didn't see anyone down there where he were layin'--

Q. But did you see anyone at the scene at all?

A. The other lady who was shouting in the street.

Q. Did you see any men there?

A. No.

So the notion of some sort of interaction between two men--the killer and another man across the street on Tenth--at the scene of the killing, at the scene of the Tippit cruiser, is excluded. Acquilla did not see any men there.

So where did she see the interaction? Right in her face on Tenth and Patton, where she was? Or on Patton which makes narrative sense in that interaction following when she first saw the killer rounding the corner on to Patton "reloadin' his gun"?

If Acquilla had seen the interaction on Tenth at about the position of the corner of Tenth and Patton, would not Helen Markham have seen the interaction too because that's right where she is? But Helen Markham said nothing of such an interaction on Tenth in the vicinity of Tenth and Patton where she was standing--she spoke only of terror of the single gunman on Tenth--nor did any other witness.

I think Acquilla Clemons saw the interaction on Patton, saw Callaway then run around the corner of Patton and Tenth toward the cruiser, and then Acquilla went toward the area of the cruiser--after the killer was gone from Patton. I think that sounds like the sequence, with the interaction happening on Patton. Bill makes a point that 300 feet which is the length of a football field might make it questionable whether a shout could actually be heard. I don't know about that, but if so, I would say it only means Acquilla didn't really hear it, but still saw it--not that it did not happen where it is known an interaction happened that sounds exactly like that of Acquilla Clemons' description, the Callaway-killer interaction on Patton.  

 

"The most critical point is I wonder if Bill Brown you have been getting Acquilla saying the other man (than the gunman) of her description "ran east". That unedited transcript reads:

"they weren't together, they went this way from each other: the one done the shooting went this way; other went straight down past street that way."

"Past" not east. I don't see Acquilla using cardinal directions elsewhere in the transcript, "past" might be more naturally expected here than "east"."

 

Greg, in my opinion, Clemons says this:

 

"They weren't together, they went this way from each other: the one done the shooting went this way; other went straight down Tenth street that way."

 

If I'm right, it certainly suggests that the exchange (if you will) between the killer and the other man did NOT occur three-fourths of the way down Patton.

 

 

[Greg Doudna]

35 minutes ago, Bill Brown said:

Greg, in my opinion, Clemons says this:

"They weren't together, they went this way from each other: the one done the shooting went this way; other went straight down Tenth street that way."

If I'm right, it certainly suggests that the exchange (if you will) between the killer and the other man did NOT occur three-fourths of the way down Patton.

Bill I found the place in the Mark Lane interview clip of Acquilla Clemons at 1:41f, where the Unedited Transcript has

"They weren't together, they went this way from each other: the one done the shooting went this way; other went straight down past <the> street that way."

And you believe she is saying:

"They weren't together, they went this way from each other: the one done the shooting went this way; other went straight down Tenth street that way." 

I have listened to that carefully probably two dozen times now, and it sure sounds like "past" not "tenth" to me. I urge you to recheck it some more yourself? Ask a second or third opinion of a friend or two, ask what they hear? I don't claim to be infallible on this, but I would say I am certain that she is saying "past" not "tenth", that the Unedited Transcript got that right at this point. I actually believe Clemons was saying "past the street" so rapidly that it is "past th' street", indistinguishable in hearing from "past street". Or if she did elide "the" that's what she meant, "other went past (the) street". (She elided "the" in front of "other went...", so she does elide some particles and words.)  

And look at the way she is pointing. I don't know for sure which way in cardinal directions she is facing when speaking to Mark Lane, who is off camera facing her in the opposite direction, or if that is in the house where she worked days, but if so she could be actually pointing in the real directions, right arm gesturing south on Patton for the gunman, left arm gesturing east on Tenth where "the other one" ran "past the street" (around the corner on to Tenth). 

So bottom line: there is no "east" in her words at all, and there is no "Tenth" in her words at all according to the Unedited Transcript which I believe is accurate at that point in that transcript.

And again, she is very clear she saw no men at all at the scene of the cruiser where Tippit was on the ground. So the choice is basically the interaction (which sounds like the gunman and Callaway) happens with some different second figure right at about the corner area of Tenth and Patton right in front of Helen Markham and Acquila and nobody else, not a single other witness, sees happening at that location ... or its the known interaction of the gunman and Callaway down Patton. Her narrative places the timing of the interaction after she sees the gunman "reloadin' his gun". All of this is at some remove, some time later than, the moments after the shots are fired in the vicinity of the cruiser. 

Not only does an interaction in the vicinity of the Tippit killing on Tenth not fit her narrative sequence but she explicitly says that is not what she saw--she saw no men at all there. Yet somehow there has been this fixed idea for so long that she is telling of two gunmen right at the Tippit cruiser, or two men involved in the killing right at the Tippit cruiser, or the gunman and some witness across the street right at the Tippit cruiser. When it cannot get any more plain that Acquilla Clemons said she saw no man or men in that position. That location is not what she means in her story of the interaction. And if its not there, where is it? Well, its the gunman and Callaway, on Patton. 

Isn't it better to simplify? One major across-the-street waving/shouting running-opposite-directions interaction rather than two (a new created one that no other witness ever saw, at Tenth about at Patton; and then again, same verse song two, Callaway and the gunman further down Patton)?

Doesn't it make more sense that Acquilla Clemons was describing something about the crime scene that other witnesses saw, that that is the simplest solution? Instead of she saw something that all other witnesses on Tenth just didn't see for no known reason? 

[Gerry Down]

8 minutes ago, Greg Doudna said:

Her narrative places the timing of the interaction after she sees the gunman "reloadin' his gun". All of this is at some remove, some time later than, the moments after the shots are fired in the vicinity of the cruiser.

Its worth considering that when Oswald began emptying the shells out of the gun in front of he Davis house that this in-and-of-itself could be considered to be reloading the gun by some people. Yes I know technically he was not putting bullets into the gun, but he was taking them out. 

I think there were shells found relatively close to Tippits car. Then more were found in the bushes over near Scoggins car. 

[Paul Cummings]

58 minutes ago, Gerry Down said:

Its worth considering that when Oswald began emptying the shells out of the gun in front of he Davis house that this in-and-of-itself could be considered to be reloading the gun by some people. Yes I know technically he was not putting bullets into the gun, but he was taking them out. 

I think there were shells found relatively close to Tippits car. Then more were found in the bushes over near Scoggins car. 

How long of time were the empty shells in Davis yard before the police took them?

Edited February 1, 2023 by Paul Cummings

[Joseph McBride]

My book INTO THE NIGHTMARE goes into the

questions and remaining mysteries of what Tippit was doing on the

day of November 22, 1963, leading

up to his death.

 

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Joseph McBride

[Greg Doudna]

A comment Joseph McBride: I too think the killing of Tippit looks like an execution, a preplanned execution not an impulse killing, and that there had to be a reason for that. But it does not follow that reason was because Tippit was a gunman in the assassination of Kennedy. 

It makes no sense that Tippit goes on shift duty as an officer, takes time out to knock off the president while pretending to still be on his shift, then returns to his shift duty as an officer again, all in a day's work. You go to a lot of work on Tippit's timeline that day but never give any evidence or reason to suppose part of Tippit's timeline was shooting from the grassy knoll other than the argument that that would provide a motive for his execution.

If the Tippit killing was an execution, a hit, then the reason does call for explanation but some relationship with Oswald, perhaps some relationship with Carl Mather in some relationship with Oswald, knowledge of some kind possessed by Tippit ... seem more fruitful speculations. Say Tippit was in covert contact with Oswald (they drank coffee in the same particular restaurant at the same time regularly mornings way out of Tippit's district right?). Someone uses Tippit to get information on Oswald's movements (say), and then Tippit is killed to remove evidence of that. Just guessing, I don't know, but Tippit as assassin of JFK is way too much of a stretch for an officer with no prior criminal record or hitman record and no evidence otherwise. I can see why it could be a hunch to consider at the outset but it does not add up as plausible and never had positive weight in its favor to begin with stronger than that original hunch.  

[Joseph McBride]

What you are referring to is just part of a 675-page book

in which I explore many complex facets of

Tippit, his life and murder, and the Kennedy assassination.

Rather than taking it out of context, I will just refer

readers to the book itself.

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Joseph McBride

[Bill Brown]

15 minutes ago, Joseph McBride said:

What you are referring to is just part of a 675-page book

in which I explore many complex facets of

Tippit, his life and murder, and the Kennedy assassination.

Rather than taking it out of context, I will just

refer readers to the book itself.

 

I haven't read your book.  In it, is Oswald placed in lineups alongside men in suits?

 

[Charles Blackmon]

1 hour ago, Bill Brown said:

 

I haven't read your book.  In it, is Oswald placed in lineups alongside men in suits?

 

Very interesting Bill. Since you are an expert on the Tippit killing, tell us who it was who claimed they waved at Tippit as he was leaving his house after having lunch on 11/22?

Granted if you know the answer it doesn't mean much as so much info is available on the Net.

[Leslie Sharp]

On 1/29/2023 at 4:54 AM, Greg Doudna said:

Just brainstorming here. Could this be Jack Tatum, earlier version of his story? The author of the letter (a) says he was a witness; (b) has a wife; (c) says he is not coming forward with what he saw; (d) gives the same two reasons for not coming forward Jack Tatum later gave in explanation (thought there were enough other witnesses; fear for life). Those points agree with Tatum.

Tatum did not come forward later but was found, via HSCA door-to-door checking in Oak Cliff for leads as I recall, i.e. not Tatum's idea to be outed as a witness. When he was outed and found, he now says he saw Oswald. One possibility is that could be a strategic alteration of his story intentionally, if he believed the real killing was mob- or underworld-related, and that they might still be at large if he told a non-Oswald story.

There is no doubt to me that what Acquilla Clemons saw, and what Doris Holan from her second-story window on Patton saw, was the known shouting/waving-arms interaction between the killer and Ted Callaway on Patton, running in opposite directions on Patton. Neither of those two women claimed that both of the men they saw were gunmen; both claimed they saw one gunman waving or interacting with another man across the street going the opposite direction, one of the two men of that interaction testifying to the Warren Commission directly of that interaction which Clemons and Holan saw (Callaway). 

That would not agree with the author of the letter if his claim is real that he witnessed the shooting and claimed to see two involved in the shooting (if the letter is not bogus). This is just shot-in-the-dark speculation, but imagine Tatum is the author of the Playboy letter, was a witness, and the letter represents an original version of what Tatum saw or thought he saw, prior to when HSCA found him and he was then up and down with the Oswald smirk and etc., if he changed or developed the story to that.

Is there a possible reconstruction from Tatum's HSCA and post-HSCA version, and the known facts of the Tippit crime scene, to interpret the Playboy letter claim if Tatum wrote it? Imagine Tatum driving his red car, the one Benavides sees in front of him. Tatum goes west, passes the Tippit cruiser, sees the man standing by the right front fender of the cruiser, Tippit getting out of the car. Tatum hears shots as he goes through Patton and Tenth, looks into his rear view mirror and sees not much distinct but does not turn around bodily to look yet because is focused on clearing the intersection. Tatum pulls his car over to the right and stops, and only then turns around bodily to look and see clearly. There he sees (so he said) the killer running around the back of the cruiser and firing a coup de grace shot into Tippit on the pavement. However Tatum has got the shot numbers garbled and there were three final shots in quick succession into Tippit on the ground, not just one final coup de grace. The shot sequence is as Callaway heard, bam...bam...bam-bam-bam, two with a delay and then three final quick. Therefore: shot #1 over the hood, a hit into Tippit's side. As Tippit stumbles and topples from that hit shot #2 misses for that reason. With Tippit down and out of a line of fire over the hood the gunman cannot shoot further from that position and runs around the car (around the rear is what Tatum said he saw), fires the final three in rapid succession into Tippit on the ground, one the button hit, one in the chest, and last one in the temple. Then the killer, with Tatum watching, starts loping, slow run, in what looks like his direction west on Tenth and Tatum thinks he's headed for him and guns his car forward and loses further sight temporarily, but sees in the rear view mirror the killer turn south on Patton and out of sight. Once Tatum sees the killer has gone south on Patton Tatum stops his car a second time and turns around and looks again and now he sees Callaway who has arrived, unseen by Tatum up to that point, almost to the position of the cruiser. Tatum sees Callaway in the vicinity of the cruiser and the fallen Tippit, and Tatum sees Callaway running beyond the cruiser (east) to Benavides' truck appealing to Benavides to drive so they can try to catch the killer. From Tatum's vantage point Callaway looks like a second man involved in the shooting and running in the opposite direction. Tatum knows there are a few other witnesses. This is reflected in the letter to Playboy. Or something like that?

·       That the shooting of police officer J. D. Tippitt after the assassination was apparently not part of anyone’s plan: November 22: “O Tippett [sic] (why?) – ask JA who is Tippet?”  — The Lafitte Datebook: A Limited Analysis by Dick Russell, author of the much-lauded 1993 breakthrough in the Kennedy investigation, The Man Who Knew Too Much.

An understanding of the Tippit murder is incomplete without factoring in the role played by FBI SA Bardwell Dewitt Odum. From Coup in Dallas  by Hank Albarelli with Leslie Sharp and Alan Kent . . .  

Odum, an agent of the federal government, was at the DPD headquarters only briefly before dashing to the Texas Theater where a suspect in the shooting of a Dallas police officer was about to be apprehended. It has yet to be explained what prompted Odum to attend that particular arrest in the middle of what should have been the most aggressive manhunt in the nation’s history. Why would his boss, SAC Gordon Shanklin pull one of his prize protégés from the search for Kennedy’s assassin to pursue a local shooting, unless of course, Shanklin had already been advised that Lee Oswald would not only be charged with gunning down Officer J.D. Tippit, but that he would soon be charged with the assassination of Kennedy. 

      Once Oswald was in custody at the Texas Theatre, Odum, instead of tracking federal arrests being made in critical hours of the assassination, inexplicably spent another hour and a half in pursuit of the Tippit shooting along with nearly a dozen DPD staff. Federal detentions in the Dallas area during that twenty-four hour period—persons of interest to the Feds since the spring of 1963—stand out: Jean Rene Souetre and Michel Mertz and possibly Michel Roux.

      Rather than being ordered to question Souetre and or Mertz or Roux, Odum seems focused on Tippit’s murder, even taking time to interview Helen Markham who had witnessed a young male fleeing the scene. In another rarely heralded essay published in the Fourth Decade in 1997, researcher Tom Wallace Lyons summed up Odum’s early influence over the Tippit investigation, asserting that Odum sewed the confusion that contributed to Markham being labeled as an inconsistent, unreliable witness for decades to come. 

      In another noteworthy timeline, while Odum is biding time in Oak Cliff, pursuing a case that was technically outside his jurisdiction, Lee Oswald’s various addresses were being nailed down at the school book depository. Meanwhile, Oswald was being driven to police headquarters in Car Number 2 under the custody of Jerry Hill and his colleagues. According to Bill Simpich, another researcher who has long recognized that the elusive Bard demands close scrutiny, Jerry Hill had been on the sixth floor of the depository building when Mannlicher-Carcano shells were found and reported as a match to the rifle that Bard Odum escorted to police headquarters. Either the police department and the FBI were stretched thin that afternoon, or this was one of numerous serendipitous coincidences that would unfold in the next few days. 

      Once Lee Oswald was identified as AWOL during an alleged formal roll call of depository employees, and once his addresses were known, including that of the Paines, Odum seems to have finally returned his keen eye to the assassination, and with every subsequent step he took, the profile of the lone nut commie suspect was advanced. By December 2, he was responsible for the transfer of a fragment of a bullet retrieved from the wall of General Edwin Walker’s study to Washington D.C. for comparison against fragments from Dealey Plaza. In light of the September 4 Lafitte datebook entry, which reads Hotshot – Walker (Caretaker), we’re forced to consider the possibility that Odum knew more about the Walker incident than has ever been contemplated. 

After transferring the rifle from the “scene of the crime” to DPD headquarters, after witnessing the arrest of Oswald at the Texas Theatre and following a stop off to interview a witness in the Tippit shooting, Odum either cooled his heels the rest of the afternoon, or pursued leads that were not documented or have not been released. We do know from records that he ended up with shells and slugs from the Tippit scene in his pocket.

And for those on this forum who have spent decades in pursuit of this investigation, deeper in the shadows we find Jack Crichton of Empire Trust and the 488th . . . 

A brief note on Jack and Roberta Pew of Sun Oil Company—best known for funding the Pew Charitable Trust: after arriving in Dallas, the couple assumed a low-key social life compared to their economic peers, preferring a behind the scenes role in pursuit of their very conservative politics. Nonetheless, they were privy to data disseminated judiciously by a number of national security agencies intent on keeping certain wealthy Americans apprised of national and global security issues. To reiterate, Pew employee Ilya Mamantov was seconded by Jack Crichton to serve as translator for the young Russian-born mother of two in the hours after her husband, Lee Harvey, had been arrested for the murder of Dallas Police Patrolman J. D. Tippitt. 

Rene  t  merde merde xxxx xxxx

-O Tippett [sic] (Why?)

-ask JA who is Tippet? [sic]

—Lafitte datebook, November 22, 1963

 

In 1964, Pew protégé Jack Crichton, as president of the Dallas Chapter of Alumni of Texas A&M University was responsible for securing scholarships to his alma mater, Texas A&M, for the sons of Officer J.D. Tippit.. . .