Decipherment of the James Odell Estes story (Carousel Club July-Aug 1963)

[Greg Doudna]

Michael K., if you feel I have wronged you please contact me at gdoudna "at" msn.com and let's talk. If I see I have wronged you I will come back here with an apology. Sincerely, Greg.

More on Benavides

On whether Benavides was where he said he was, at the moments of the Tippit killing--about fifteen feet away from officer Tippit's parked patrol car--and saw the back of the killer's head from a uniquely close position as no other witness, this is critically important.

I have come to realize that Benavides' testimony is actually devastating to the Oswald-did-it case.

Either Benavides was seriously mistaken; was not as close to the killer as he said he was; or was truthful and the killer was not Oswald. 

Because: Oswald's thinning hair was straight, not wavy or curly or bushy. Oswald had tapered hair on the back of his neck, not a block cut hairline, from many photos. And Oswald's skin complexion was light, not "darker than average" for a white man. 

That is the significance of Benavides' testimony. If there was funny stuff about why he was not invited downtown, why there is no record of a written affidavit or statement or FBI interview, etc. ... and those things were not a matter of accident or routine police sloppiness ... Benavides' physical description of the killer, combined with his credibility as the closest witness in a position to see, could be a possible factor.

Benavides' physical description of the killer describes Curtis Craford, and excludes Oswald.

I cannot imagine anyone in a position to suborn perjury from Benavides having Benavides perjure that kind of testimony exculpatory to Oswald.  

I do not believe anyone suborned perjury on Benavides' testimony, or that Benavides perjured. 

Instead, Benavides' testimony was regarded as a possible embarrassment or dissonant note, probably only taken at all because of the negative criticism it would bring upon the Warren Commission investigation if his testimony were not taken. Belin was the WC counsel of choice for such witnesses. He preinterviewed his witnesses before their testimony ("rehearsing" the witnesses; learning their answers in advance of the questions asked for the record). Belin knew how to constrain and word and limit questions to best draw out what was helpful, and best minimize what was unhelpful, in the development of the prosecutorial case against Oswald which was the bulk of the Warren Commission's work.

On the question of "was Benavides there close at hand at the time of the shots?" the following says he was.

• if one accepts Bowley's testimony of the witness on Tippit's police radio before Bowley, that confirms Benavides was there within ca. 90 seconds of the killing according to the timeline estimate of Myers. Myers estimates the time of the shots as 1:14:30 and the time of the police radio sounds of Benavides mashing down the button trying to get through, as 1:16 pm. (With Malice [2013 edn], 138-39)
• The point: Benavides was first to try to use the police radio to get contact for help, and this was before the ambulance arrived, making it likely Benavides was already at the scene at the time of the shots 90 seconds earlier.
• It makes little sense that Benavides would have been somewhere else, away from the scene, heard the shots, and have been able to drive or run there to arrive that quickly. Benavides mashing the button on the police radio was either before or just as Callaway arrived running from around the corner, and it only took Callaway an estimated 90 seconds after the shots, by Myers' estimate, to get to the scene (p. 139). Callaway attempted to use the police radio when he arrived, which is recorded as happening after the Benavides-Bowley transmissions. 
• And finally, it is Benavides' testimony that he was there at the time of the shots. That was his Warren Commission testimony under oath, and why would he not tell the truth to the best of his memory.

Guinyard

On Guinyard, there is a reference which seems introduced oddly by WC counsel Ball alluding to Benavides newly driving up in his truck after the ambulance arrived. But that cannot be, because Benavides is confirmed present at the police radio prior to/at the same time as Bowley, which occurred before the ambulance arrived.

Mr. BALL. And what did Callaway do? 
Mr. GUINYARD. He turned around and run back to the street and we helped load the policeman in the ambulance. 
Mr. BALL. He ran back up to 10th Street, did you say? 
Mr. GUINYARD. Yes. 
Mr. BALL. Did you go with him? 
Mr. GUINYARD. Right with him. 
Mr. BALL. Did you see a police car there? 
Mr. GUINYARD. Yes. 
Mr. BALL. What did you see besides the police car? 
Mr. GUINYARD. The police that was laying down in the front of the car. 
Mr. BALL. A policeman? 
Mr. GUINYARD. Yes. 
Mr. BALL. Was he dead or alive at that time? 
Mr. GUINYARD. He looked like he was dead to me. 
Mr. BALL. What did you do? 
Mr. GUINYARD. Helped put him in the ambulance. 
Mr. BALL. You stayed there until the ambulance came? 
Mr. GUINYARD. Yes, sir. 
Mr. BALL. Were you there when the truck came up that was driven by Benavides? 
Mr. GUINYARD. Yes, sir. 
Mr. BALL. He came up right after this? 
Mr. GUINYARD. Yes; he came up from the east side---going west. 
Mr. BALL. And then what did you do after that? 
Mr. GUINYARD. Well, we stood there a while and talked and I called him Donnie, he picked up all them empty hulls that come out of the gun. 
Mr. BALL. Who did--Benavides? 
Mr. GUINYARD. Yes.   

Note that Mr. Ball initiates the notion that Benavides drove up later, after the Benavides-Bowley police radio transmissions and the ambulance-loading.

It is unclear why Mr. Ball did this. What was going on with that-was it useful to discredit Benavides' physical description testimony? 

The testimony of Guinyard was taken by Mr. Ball the morning of April 2, 1963. Benavides' testimony was taken by Belin on the afternoon of that same day.

In any case, the placement of Benavides with Bowley at the initial police radio call places Benavides at the scene earlier than Benavides is placed there in the Mr. Ball question to Guinyard and Guinyard's answer.

Guinyard comes across as suggestible and agreeable to whatever was asked of him.

Guinyard did not initiate in his WC testimony (though he possibly could have pre-testimony) that the Benavides' truck belatedly "came up".

Mr. Ball initiated that, and nothing prior in Guinyard's WC testimony explains where that detail came from. Whatever was going on with that, Benavides' presence with Bowley at the police radio transmission with says Mr. Ball's question assumed incorrect information, or was wanting to get that incorrect information into Guinyard's testimony, whichever it was.

A final point: Benavides' picking up the shell hulls tossed by the killer is consistent with Benavides' testimony that he saw where the killer tossed those hulls moments after the shots. If Benavides had arrived later and never seen the gunman drop those shell hulls, Benavides would not have known where to go immediately to find those hulls as he did.

M. Kalin: please feel welcome to contest this, or offer comment or elaboration on what you may see as a better reconstruction. I will attempt to not represent views expressed by you.

Edited September 12, 2023 by Greg Doudna

[Michael Griffith]

On 4/10/2023 at 5:39 AM, Greg Doudna said:

• Governor John Connally--showed up once with another man with him, a closed-door meeting with Chuck and Nick and Ruby in Ruby's office, briefcase of cash changed hands. 

I find this part of Estes's story very hard to believe. Connally was straight-laced. Also, if Connally were going to hold such a meeting, he certainly would not have held it in Ruby's club.

[Joe Bauer]

4 hours ago, Michael Griffith said:

I find this part of Estes's story very hard to believe. Connally was straight-laced. Also, if Connally were going to hold such a meeting, he certainly would not have held it in Ruby's club.

You'd think Connally would have had a "bag man" picking up his payoff money.

Especially a cash one.

However, maybe Jack's place was the better place to do this. A back room where no one could just saunter in. Worst place to do so would be in a more public setting.

[Michael Griffith]

21 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

You'd think Connally would have had a "bag man" picking up his payoff money.

Especially a cash one.

However, maybe Jack's place was the better place to do this. A back room where no one could just saunter in. Worst place to do so would be in a more public setting.

I can't see Connally being caught dead in a strip club, much less attending a meeting in one. He was, after all, the governor of the state. In the 1960s, a governor taking the risk of being seen in a strip club was unthinkable. The much more logical place for such a meeting would have been in a private home or in a hotel room. 

[Joe Bauer]

5 minutes ago, Michael Griffith said:

I can't see Connally being caught dead in a strip club, much less attending a meeting in one. He was, after all, the governor of the state. In the 1960s, a governor taking the risk of being seen in a strip club was unthinkable. The much more logical place for such a meeting would have been in a private home or in a hotel room. 

Was this meeting a night time one?

Or was it during the day when the club was closed?

 

[Greg Doudna]

1 hour ago, Joe Bauer said:

Was this meeting a night time one?

Or was it during the day when the club was closed?

According to Estes' statement Connally and another man accompanying him arrived between two and three in the afternoon (when the club was closed). 

[Leslie Sharp]

A prime candidate for "Nick" at the Carousel Club, Nick Popich:

As noted in this government record, Popich had known William Wayne Dalzell* since Dalzell was a young lad. 

Popich had agreed that if Dalzell — who had significant experience in the oil industry in Yemen in particular — could arrange anything concrete with any Middle East government, he/Popich Marine Construction would be on board any feasible project.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=68908#relPageId=1&search=addis_ababba

As revealed in a 1964 article detailing Bobby Baker's role in the F-111 scandal, in May 1963, Nick Popich played host to his business associate, Puerto Rican Paul Aguirre along with Baker, his girlfriend Nancy Carole Tyler, and Ellen Rometsch.**

At the time, Popich was operating the Vieux Carré, a venue he co-owned with Marcello. Buried in remarks we find that Andrew "Moo Moo" Sciambra shared a passion for boxing with Popich who employed him at the restaurant. 

Fast forward, it was Asst. DA Sciambra who provided memos to his boss Jim Garrison outlining the activities of Popich's friend for decades, Bill Dalzell  including a brief collaboration with Ed Butler of INCA which was partially funded by Dallas oilman Clint Murchison. I've not found any indication that Moo Moo disclosed to Garrison his past employment at Popich's Vieux Carré; we do have reason to consider the restaurant also employed sous chef Jean Martin a.k.a. Pierre Lafitte at the time.
 

Scenes from Lafitte’s New OrleansIn 1961, with significant funding from Californian industrialist Patrick J. Frawley and Dallas oilman Clint Murchison, mentioned previously as a financial benefactor of Ferenc Nagy’s Permindex, and with financial support from his friends at International Trade Mart, Lloyd Cobb and Director Clay Shaw, twenty-seven-year-old Ed Butler founded the Information Council of the Americas (INCA). His publications under that banner were relied on by the CIA in a blitz of propaganda just prior to the invasion at the Bay of Pigs which could explain his association with Deputy Director CIA, Charles Cabell. Some of their money went toward a film titled Hitler in Havana, reviewed as a “tasteless affront to minimum journalistic standards” by the New York Times.      Researchers will be aware that Butler was a member of “Free Voice of Latin America” for a short time before being ousted for his extreme right political views. Its own secretary treasurer, William Klein who filed incorporation papers which designated a young Cuban student at Univ of Tulane as president, and a shy, intelligent former citizen of Belize Honduras as vice president, wrote in a recap of the organization for DA Jim Garrison, “The life of the Free Voice as a corporate entity was ephemeral and uneventful. For my own part it was an absolute bore.”       The letter states that Ed Butler’s globe-encircling communist conspiracy theory quickly made his removal from office mandatory. According to Grand Jury testimony, the originator of the concept of Free Voice was William Dalzell. He testified that along with Klein (who according to an investigator present during Grand Jury later went to work at the Office of Naval Intelligence in DC), he wanted to “warn Latin America of what has transpired here since Castro has been in power for the last few years.” Klein’s dismissive remarks about the organization as well as his version of Butler’s role at Free Voice contradicts Dalzell’s testimony in several areas, including that Butler was never active because INCA was in effect competing with Free Voice. However, there is no doubt that Butler and Dalzell were well acquainted in spite of his claims. 



* On Wednesday, April 17, Pierre Lafitte made the following entry: “Dalzell – K money for Drilling.” Three days earlier, Lafitte’s entry reads, “Delong meet with T. Cuba.” We have reason to believe that “Delong” is a reference to the patent holder of various designs of heavy equipment for the oil industry, Leon Delong; we know that Dalzell had been attempting to raise money in New Orleans for another of his oil related schemes, and we know that he had been employed briefly in Odessa, Texas by Dixilyn Drilling the same year that the West Texas oil company invested in the “Julie Ann,” one of the first floating, self-contained platform rigs with jack-up legs for off-shore drilling designed by Texan R. G. LeTourneau.*** An oil industry manufacturing magnate, LeTourneau had been in joint ventures with Delong. The “Julie Ann” was the fifth such jack up rig based in Longview, Texas (the first two being commissioned by Zapata Oil founded by George H. W. Bush who held extensive contracts with LeTourneau). Three months later, on July 17, Lafitte wrote “-Dalzell crazy? (Rene says ignore his antics.)” Bill Dalzell had been in psychiatric care the summer of 1963. 

**  Author G. R. Schreiber in a book published in 1964 by ultra-conservative Regnery Press, The Bobby Baker Affair: How to Make Millions in Washington, confirms Lafitte’s entries when he writes that East German born Ellen Rometsch, on at least one occasion “went along with Bobby and Nancy Carole [Tyler] and Paul Aguirre, a friend from Puerto Rico, on a jaunt to New Orleans.” Continues Schreiber, “The chief counsel for the Senate Rules Committee said that Bobby's Puerto Rican friend told committee investigators that if he were ‘asked anything about what took place [on the trip to New Orleans] he would take all the amendments, from 1 to 28.’” We see from Pierre Lafitte entries that later in the year a shipment of LSD from New Orleans to Dallas was on the cards. Schreiber goes on, “The Rules Committee did not call Paul Aguirre, but Senator Hugh Scott reported on some of what the Puerto Rican told the committee's investigators. "Mr. Aguirre admitted that Baker brought Carole Tyler and Ellen Rometsch with him from Washington to New Orleans on the May, 1963, trip.’” This claim coincides with Lafitte’s record of May 14: “Carole – (airport) Paul Aguirre  Others?” 

*** Dr. Lawrence Alderson stated that a Captain, first name unknown, Letourneau [sic]  replaced him at the depot in Petette Malioun, France, and it is his understanding that Captain Letourneau became well acquainted with [OAS Captain Jean Rene] Souetre. He stated Letourneau was from Texas, but he does not know his address.

 
 

Edited September 12, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Paul Jolliffe]

On 9/12/2023 at 9:55 AM, Michael Griffith said:

I find this part of Estes's story very hard to believe. Connally was straight-laced. Also, if Connally were going to hold such a meeting, he certainly would not have held it in Ruby's club.

On 9/12/2023 at 2:29 PM, Michael Griffith said:

I can't see Connally being caught dead in a strip club, much less attending a meeting in one. He was, after all, the governor of the state. In the 1960s, a governor taking the risk of being seen in a strip club was unthinkable. The much more logical place for such a meeting would have been in a private home or in a hotel room. 

 

Candy Barr (who knew, but did not work directly for Jack Ruby) was pardoned by John Connally in 1967 for her 1957 marijuana possession conviction for reasons unknown to her, "unless he had read her record and realized she had been framed."

Candy Barr - Biography - IMDb

Uh huh. I'm sure that was the reason . . . 

Ms. Barr's resume: 

 

On 9/12/2023 at 9:55 AM, Michael Griffith said:

 

 

[Paul Jolliffe]

Odell Estes claimed that "Chuck" gave him the keys to a white 1963 Cadillac Coupe de Ville (which Estes believed belonged to "Mr. Ruby") and instructed him to drive Lee Oswald to Love Field airport.

Hmm.

Jack Ruby did not own a late model Cadillac Coupe de Ville. 

But Ruby's silent partner and business associate, Ralph Paul, a man who lent Ruby untold sums of money, certainly did own exactly that vehicle!

From the Warren Commission Volume XXI:

Warren Commission, Volume XXI: Paul Ex 5319 - Copy of an FBI report of an interview with Ralph Paul, dated November 25, 1963. (history-matters.com)

Odell Estes knew the right make, year and model of the car at Jack Ruby's!

Estes was NOT lying!

[Greg Doudna]

That is brilliant on the Ralph Paul Cadillac de Seville, Paul Jolliffe! I believe you got that right! 

Ruby had use of it loaned from Ralph, and had the hired help--Estes--wash it as a courtesy in appreciation to Ralph Paul for the loaner, or something like that. 

The FBI report does not give a color for Paul's de Seville (Estes says it was white), and Estes' 1963 was off by a year, it was a 1962 Cadillac de Seville in the FBI report. But thats close enough--Estes was not lying, is right. 

Michael G., on Connally as governor would not want to be seen patronizing a strip club for image reasons, probably true (though that didn't stop Secret Service agents in the presidential party the night before the JFK assassination). But in Estes' description, Connally and the man with Connally came up to Ruby's office via a "back" door entrance with a stairway up to the second floor, then going to Jack Ruby's office which I think was at the end of a hallway off the club premises proper. From many such alleys and commercial buildings I have seen, the ground-level door at the alley entrance may have been unmarked, just a rear doorway into a multi-story building from an alley, likely going up all floors with doorways to the floor of choice as one went up the stairs.

As viewed from the outside, the stairs could go anywhere, to walk-up apartments up above, anything. The club was closed during the daytime; entrance was not done from the main entrance with signage on Commercial; and the path to Jack Ruby's office via that rear door and stairwell I believe did not involve even passing through the closed premises of the public and stage area of the club. And if some semi-shady types visiting from New Orleans sought a brief in-person meeting to discuss a favor someone unnamed in New Orleans was seeking, with the possibility of some gratuity or appreciation in return extended from a grateful favor recipient, and the go-between suggested the venue, Connally (if so) might not wish to inform his normal staff. A visit to an office in a building entered by way of a non-public unmarked ground-level alley entrance might work. In any case that is what Estes said happened.

[Paul Jolliffe]

Thanks, Greg.

I realize that we can't say for sure whether the lawman accompanying John Connally to the Carousel Club was Jim Leavelle, but I think it's quite likely, apart from the near certain identification by Odell Estes.

Why?

Because Jim Leavelle himself freely admitted to knowing Jack Ruby as part of his official DPD duties since 1948. Leavelle's job for years was to verify that club's like Ruby's were not violating any of the Dallas ordinances on the conduct of the dancers, patrons, wait staff, etc.

From a conversation with Jim Leavelle:

Detective Leavelle Knew Why Jack Ruby Killed Lee Harvey Oswald Because Ruby Told Him – Re-Elect Brandon Birmingham for Judge (judgebirmingham.com)

"At the beginning of his career, Leavelle was tasked with making sure the nightclubs followed the rules – closed when they were supposed to and stopped serving booze at certain times, among other things. Ruby’s clubs were on Leavelle’s beat. As such, Leavelle and Ruby knew each other for nearly 15 years before Ruby made that fateful walk down the ramp into the basement of the Dallas Police Headquarters and into history.

I asked him what he thought of Ruby: “He was always honest with me. He never caused any trouble. He was sometimes hot-headed and picked on the drunks he knew he could whoop. But he never lied to me, and always followed the rules.”

 

Again, while we can't be certain who Estes saw, he believed it was Jim Leavelle. Leavelle absolutely had been a regular official presence in Ruby's club for many years. Estes was almost certainly right.

[Joe Bauer]

Connally pardoning Candy Barr?

Come on...don't you know that granting pardons is one of the best side-income earning gigs known?

And the payoffs are always laundered in a million different ways.

Candy Barr was L. A. mobster Mickey Cohen's main squeeze for several years.

John Connally above corruption?

How about Bill Clinton pardoning Marc Rich?

New York Post

Bill Clinton’s pardon of fugitive Marc Rich continues to pay big

 

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Greg Doudna]

"He won't work with us on paroles"--Ruby on why Ruby and his associates were displeased with Governor Connally, overheard Oct 4, 1963

That was a comment of Ruby according to Jarnagin when he overheard Ruby and Craford (not Oswald) on Friday night, Oct 4, 1963. Jarnagin was a flawed witness, he was under the influence of alcohol, he appears to have only set down in writing what he remembered after the assassination on Nov 22, and his mistaken belief that that was Oswald with Ruby I believe corrupted his account such that it incoherently mixes real Craford material with fictitious Oswald information in Jarnagin's reconstruction of what he heard that evening. 

Jarnagin failed a polygraph, but I do not think he invented that he overheard much of what he claimed he did that night of which he tried to communicate by letter to J. Edgar Hoover in early December 1963. The FBI basically wrote his story off as the story of a nut, since Jarnagin was certain that the date was Friday night, Oct 4, 1963, and Oswald was in Irving visiting his wife Marina at Ruth Paine's house that night. No way was that Oswald drinking beer with Ruby that night in the Carousel Club discussing a contract killing of Governor Connally involving a rifle shot taken from the Carousel Club during an unspecified future parade.

Since it wasn't Oswald (and since he also later failed the polygraph), essentially no attention has been given to taking seriously that Jarnagin did overhear something, talk of a contract killing, with Craford. That makes a lot of sense on a number of levels, and follows with similar description and in continuity from the entirely independent story of James Odell Estes telling of Craford showing up at the Carousel Club and meeting with Ruby only four to six weeks earlier. 

The method to be used in analysis of Jarnagin's story is (a) subtract everything uniquely "Oswald"; (b) what is left, that is "not Oswald", much of which does agree with Craford, is the possible real information there, to be read critically, concerning Craford and Ruby and discussion of a contract killing of Governor Connally to be carried out by Craford. 

Jarnagin says he overheard Ruby say Governor Connally "will not work with us on paroles" as why Ruby's mob backers were displeased with Connally. 

That hardly is reason to have a contract killing of Governor Connally. Craford says (all this in Jarnagin's writeup) not that it mattered to him, but why did Ruby's backers dislike Connally. I interpret Ruby's answer about "working with us on paroles" to be deflection. Yet it was not invented, it was a true statement, there was some issue with "paroles", but that would not have been the reason for a mob contract killing of Connally, that doesn't sound right, makes little sense. Whatever the true reason was, either Ruby didn't know and wasn't saying, or Ruby did know and also wasn't saying. (And was there really a mob contract on Connally? Or was that itself smoke and a possible recruitment of Craford to become a patsy in planning underway for a JFK assassination in Dallas? How knowledgeable was Ruby? Did Ruby believe everything he was telling Craford? Who knows--speculation can run in a thousand directions.)

Who was Ruby talking about in which "parole" was a live issue? ... one may have been Candy Barr, girlfriend of leading mob figure Mickey Cohen

Yes, Joe Bauer, you hit it. Candy Barr, who had been sentenced in 1957 to fifteen years for possession of marijuana, began her sentence in 1959 and by 1963 had served three years in Huntsville with only a mere 11 more years to go. She was paroled in April 1963 but her parole requirements were objectionably strict and there was an effort to get her parole restrictions loosened.

The "he won't work with us on paroles"--of Ruby concerning Governor Connally, Oct 4, 1963 ... was that related to the late Aug meeting in Ruby's office in which Governor Connally was present and Estes saw the briefcase with $100 bills?

Ruby was taking an active interest in Candy Barr's welfare in this time frame ... visited her, allegedly to give her a gift of dogs. Ruby gives the impression of being a go-between, an intermediary who did favors for others in the background, in addition to the legal running of the clubs. 

Ruby's Oct 4 words, "he won't work with us on paroles", was exactly the issue with Candy Barr at that time. Maybe there were more paroles than just Candy Barr, but Candy Barr's was one that could have involved a request to Governor Connally. 

"Jack Ruby and Candy Barr--in her own words" (letter of Candy Barr in 1996): https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=16249#relPageId=44.

A 2001 Texas Monthly article interviewing a reclusive Candy Barr reminiscing about her earlier life: https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/candy-barr/ . 

From the wikipedia article on Candy Barr:

On December 4, 1959, Barr entered the Goree State Farm for women near Huntsville, Texas to serve her prison term. During her imprisonment, she was a witness in Los Angeles in mid-1961, of the tax evasion trial of her former boyfriend Mickey Cohen. She testified that he paid $15,000 to her attorneys and gave gifts to her during their engagement in 1959. She said that among the other gifts she received from him were jewelry, luggage, and a poodle. It was her understanding, she said, that Cohen was to settle a clothing bill of hers for $1,001.95.

After serving over three years of her fifteen-year sentence, Barr was paroled from the Goree Women's Unit on April 1, 1963. She left the prison, having requested that no pictures be taken and no interviews arranged. Barr had intended to return to Dallas, but her parole stipulations were too strict, so it was not permitted. Instead, she returned to her hometown of Edna, where her father and stepmother still lived. At this time, she became closer to Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby in telephone conversations. As she was having health problems when she was released from prison, she decided the best way to earn a living was by raising animals for profit. Ruby went down to Edna and gave her a pair of dachsund breeding dogs from his prized litter to help. 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Greg Doudna

[Michael Kalin]

On 9/11/2023 at 9:21 PM, Greg Doudna said:

On the question of "was Benavides there close at hand at the time of the shots?" the following says he was.

• if one accepts Bowley's testimony of the witness on Tippit's police radio before Bowley, that confirms Benavides was there within ca. 90 seconds of the killing according to the timeline estimate of Myers. Myers estimates the time of the shots as 1:14:30 and the time of the police radio sounds of Benavides mashing down the button trying to get through, as 1:16 pm. (With Malice [2013 edn], 138-39)

This is critical. Myers' estimate does not stand up to the facts. Markham arrived at the scene at 1:06. Bowley arrived at 1:10. The ambulance arrived at 1:19. All three of these times are about as firm as the evidence gets in this case. The intervals allow plenty of time for Benavides to arrive after the shooting but before Bowley, missing the murder event and its immediate aftermath entirely.

If there were witnesses who attested to the presence of Benavides' truck at the murder scene when Tippit was killed it would undermine Guinyard's WC testimony, but I don't believe any such witness has ever been produced. Ball tried and failed to fit Markham into this role in an amusing exchange [3H320].

As to Crafard -- Andy Armstrong didn't see a resemblance to LHO. Neither do I.

[Michael Griffith]

On 9/13/2023 at 5:13 PM, Paul Jolliffe said:

Candy Barr (who knew, but did not work directly for Jack Ruby) was pardoned by John Connally in 1967 for her 1957 marijuana possession conviction for reasons unknown to her, "unless he had read her record and realized she had been framed."

Candy Barr - Biography - IMDb

Uh huh. I'm sure that was the reason . . . 

I don't see how Connally's 1967 pardon of Candy Barr, four years after the assassination, has any bearing on the claim that Connally held a secret meeting with Ruby and others at Ruby's strip club before the assassination. Governors get dozens of requests for pardons every year and usually rely on some kind of screening board to vet the pardon requests. 

It just makes no sense to me that a Boy Scout like Connally, who was the governor of the state at the time, would have been caught dead in a strip club for any reason, much less that he would have attended an illicit meeting at such a club. It would have been far more logical and much safer to hold such a meeting in a private home or in a hotel room.

Is it possible that the FBI padded Estes's account and added the bit about Connally meeting with Ruby and others at the strip club? Or did Estes fabricate this meeting in an otherwise-truthful account?