Tippit witness 1967 letter to Playboy

[Michael Griffith]

On 1/28/2023 at 9:02 PM, Gerry Down said:

This is possibly Ted Callaway and Oswald running in opposite directions after their brief interaction on Patton street.

Except that the witness specified that neither man resembled Oswald. 

When Mrs. Roberts looked out the window a few minutes after Oswald had left the boarding house, she saw him standing near the street. There is evidence that Oswald was in the Texas Theater several minutes before Tippit was shot. Two witnesses said they saw Oswald enter the theater a few minutes after 1:00.

[James DiEugenio]

Nice one Mike.

I always thought you were one of the best on the TIppit murder.

[James DiEugenio]

Did Denis say "smearing the Warren Commission?

OMG.  That implies what you are doing is really not justified.

The Tippit case  was even more skimpy in the WR than the case against Oswald for killing JFK.

Sylvia Meagher and Mark Lane did good work on it early.  

But Joe McBride's book goes way beyond them.  It set a new paradigm.

Someone was hunting Oswald.  Wade even said they knew who Oswald was before they cornered him.

As per the Playboy letter, I always thought that was really interesting. I never saw anything in Garrison's files though to indicate he contacted the person.

[Gerry Down]

52 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

But Joe McBride's book goes way beyond them.  It set a new paradigm.

Didn't McBrides book say that badge man was Tippit?

[Charles Blackmon]

33 minutes ago, Gerry Down said:

Didn't McBrides book say that badge man was Tippit?

I am reading that book but have not got to that part yet. Thanks for the heads up!

Who do you think was badge man?

[Gerry Down]

1 minute ago, Charles Blackmon said:

I am reading that book but have not got to that part yet. Thanks for the heads up!

Who do you think was badge man?

I think badge man was nothing but a bunch of tree leaves.

[Charles Blackmon]

1 minute ago, Gerry Down said:

I think badge man was nothing but a bunch of tree leaves.

Somebody on the another JFK Forum (McBrides?) thinks he sees assassins in all kinds of foliage and posts enhanced photos. Kind of funny really.

[Greg Doudna]

Nobody wants to comment on the idea of Jack Tatum as the author of the anonymous Playboy letter? If the letter is from a real witness Tatum would be an obvious one on the short list as a match, someone who saw, misunderstood some of what he saw, keeps it secret through the years, outed against his will in later years? I realize this doesn't go anywhere because no way to prove the letter isn't a hoax or who wrote it if it wasn't, nor is the content probative of much of anything even if it were confirmed non-hoax since really its not more than a witness claiming to have seen some people running, plenty of room for witnesses to confuse other running witnesses as gunmen. But, it seems to me a possible viable minor puzzle solution.

[Bill Brown]

On 1/28/2023 at 8:55 PM, Charles Blackmon said:

“I read Playboy's Garrison interview with perhaps more interest than most readers. I was an eyewitness to the shooting of policeman Tippit in Dallas on the afternoon President Kennedy was murdered. I saw two men, neither of them resembling the pictures I later saw of Lee Harvey Oswald, shoot Tippit and run off in opposite directions. There were at least half a dozen other people who witnessed this. My wife convinced me that I should say nothing, since there were other eyewitnesses. Her advice and my cowardice undoubtedly have prolonged my life—or at least allowed me now to tell the true story…”

One of many witnesses to the JFK/Tippit killings who did not testify before the Warren Commission. Either because the WC would not let them speak, or they were too afraid for their lives to speak.

 

What a bunch of nonsense.  This mysterious letter was signed at the bottom "anonymous".

 

Laughable to even mention it.

 

[Bill Brown]

On 1/29/2023 at 5:45 AM, Gil Jesus said:

Sounds like Frank Wright to me. Whoever it is, this witness corroborates what Acquila Clemmons said she saw: two men who ran off in different directions.

 

The letter's "anonymous" author claimed to be a witness to the Tippit shooting.

 

Frank Wright, himself, doesn't claim to have ever witnessed the shooting.

 

[Bill Brown]

On 1/29/2023 at 6:54 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?

 

"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."

 

Again, No.

 

The exchange between Callaway and the killer (Oswald) took place three-fourths of the way down the block on Patton Ave., down by Jefferson; nowhere near Tenth and Patton.

 

Clemons' scenario has the exchange between the two men as taking place on Tenth Street.

 

Greg, do you realize that the exchange between Callaway and the killer took place roughly THREE HUNDRED FEET south of the corner of Tenth and Patton?

 

[Greg Doudna]

29 minutes ago, Bill Brown said:

Greg, do you realize that the exchange between Callaway and the killer took place roughly THREE HUNDRED FEET south of the corner of Tenth and Patton?

Bill, she had line of sight to see (standing at nw corner of 10th and Patton direct line of sight) and she even heard at her distance the words said in the shout told by Callaway.

Callaway (telling what he shouted to the gunman): "Hey man, what the hell's going on?"

Acquilla Clemons (telling what she heard of that at her distance): "Go on!"

She sees the same thing, hears the very words, and has line of sight. Its obviously that. There is no other known match to what Acquilla Clemons saw than that. Acquilla Clemons was not the most clear person in telling what she saw at points but the notion that she saw the interaction on 10th is some misunderstanding or misstatement. I don't have her exact words to parse, maybe you do, but it happened on Patton not 10th, because that's where it happened.

[Bill Brown]

12 minutes ago, Greg Doudna said:

Bill, she had line of sight to see (standing at nw corner of 10th and Patton direct line of sight) and she even heard at her distance the words said in the shout told by Callaway.

Callaway (telling what he shouted to the gunman): "Hey man, what the hell's going on?"

Acquilla Clemons (telling what she heard of that at her distance): "Go on!"

She sees the same thing, hears the very words, and has line of sight. Its obviously that. There is no other known match to what Acquilla Clemons saw than that. Acquilla Clemons was not the most clear person in telling what she saw at points but the notion that she saw the interaction on 10th is some misunderstanding or misstatement. I don't have her exact words to parse, maybe you do, but it happened on Patton not 10th, because that's where it happened.

 

No.

 

You don't hear any of that from roughly three hundred feet away.

 

[Greg Doudna]

19 hours ago, Bill Brown said:

No.

You don't hear any of that from roughly three hundred feet away.

Bill I'm not disputing you but could you say how you come up with 300 feet? That seems a bit high. Intuitively it seems more like 200 feet not 300. In any case she heard it because she says she did. She didn't hear all of it though only the final two words. And Callaway was shouting.

I am looking at this photo of Patton. I'm counting 7 parked car lengths between 10th and that alley that is halfway down Patton on the other side of that large two-story structure in the middle of the photo where Doris Holan was living, so double that and another 7 parked car lengths to get to Jefferson makes ca. 14 parked car lengths for that block of Patton. At 18 feet per parked car length that would be roughly 250 feet the length of Patton. Callaway was not at Jefferson but some point north of Jefferson so it would be maybe ca. 160-180 feet south of 10th where he was at as a guess? Add another 30 feet for Acquilla Clemons on the other side of 10th close to ca. 200 feet estimate for the distance? How are you getting 300? 

[EDIT: checking map scale shows Bill Brown's 300 feet estimate is about right]

 

Edited February 1, 2023 by Greg Doudna

[Bill Brown]

15 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

Bill I'm not disputing you but could you say how you come up with 300 feet? That seems a bit high. Intuitively it seems more like 200 feet not 300. In any case she heard it because she says she did. She didn't hear all of it though only the final two words. And Callaway was shouting.

I am looking at this photo of Patton. I'm counting 7 parked car lengths between 10th and that alley that is halfway down Patton on the other side of that large two-story structure in the middle of the photo where Doris Holan was living, so double that and another 7 parked car lengths to get to Jefferson makes ca. 14 parked car lengths for that block of Patton. At 18 feet per parked car length that would be roughly 250 feet the length of Patton. Callaway was not at Jefferson but some point north of Jefferson so it would be maybe ca. 160-180 feet south of 10th where he was at as a guess? Add another 30 feet for Acquilla Clemons on the other side of 10th close to ca. 200 feet estimate for the distance? How are you getting 300?

 

 

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.