Chief Jesse Curry: The Very First CT'er?

[Benjamin Cole]

Chief Curry, The Motorcade, Steel-Jacketed Bullets—and a Suspicions of a Second Gunman?  

 

November 22

 

In the lead car in the JFK presidential motorcade as it made the hairpin turn onto Elm Street from Houston, was Chief Jesse Curry of the Dallas Police Department. 

Curry was not a witness to the actual shooting, which occurred behind him as his car lead the motorcade through Dealey Plaza towards the Triple Overpass. 

Immediately after gunfire raked Dealey Plaza, Curry’s first broadcast on the police radio, within moments at 12:30 pm, was this: “Get a man on top of that Triple Overpass and see what happened there.”

Dallas Sheriff Bill Decker was also in the lead car with Curry, and had the identical first instinct. Decker broadcast on the Sheriff Department radio this announcement at 12:30 and 40 seconds on that day: 

“Stand by one. All units and officers vicinity of station report to the railroad track area, just north of Elm. Report to the railroad track area, just north of Elm.”

That area described by Decker is directly behind the Grassy Knoll and the stockade fence. 

Like many others, Curry’s and Decker’s first and unalloyed reaction was that shots aimed at the motorcade had come from the Grassy Knoll area. In some regards, they were the very first CT’ers. 

 

November 23  

 

On November 23, Chief Curry received a memo from the FBI.

The FBI memo identifies Q1 (to become the Warren Commission’s CE399, aka ‘the Magic Bullet”), the slug found on the floor in Parkland Hospital, as a copper-jacketed 6.5 millimeter Mannlicher Carcano bullet. The use of the words “Mannlicher Carcano” is odd, since CE399 is a Western Cartridge bullet, and Mannlicher Carcano did not make ammo. 

The FBI memo also identified fragment of bullets found in the presidential limo as copper-jacketed. 

 

November 29 

 

Yet on November 29, Chief Jesse Curry told the Associated Press (AP), the national news wire service, that "in his opinion the bullets [that struck President Kennedy] were steel jacketed, but he said this was not confirmed to him [by the FBI].”

In light of the fact that Curry had received an FBI memo on November  23 that the Parkland Hospital bullet, that is the soon-to-be CE399, and some limo-bullet fragments were copper-jacketed, this statement by Curry is puzzling. 

Why would Chief Curry, one week after the murder of JFK, opine to a national news media organization that the bullets that struck the President—which Curry had never seen, or examined, and which were still an FBI “secret”—were relatively rare steel-jacketed bullets, rather than the industry norm, standard and very common copper-jacketed bullets?

And this was after Curry received the November 23 FBI memo indicating copper-jacketed bullets were involved in the JFKA. 

Why such a statement by Curry, and is there a deeper meaning in it? 

There is nothing in the JFKA itself to suggest steel-jacketed bullets were used. In fact, the horrible head shot at Z-313 was evidently accomplished with a copper-jacketed bullet—or at least so says the Warren Commission. 

The answer to the Curry riddle is twofold, and fascinating. 

 

General Edwin Walker

 

Interestingly, as early as November 23, Chief Curry was asked by an unidentified news reporter whether LHO was the failed assassin of General Edwin Walker. 

The unflustered Curry is captured on newsreel in the hallway interview, and evenly replied, “I don’t know.”

As detailed in other posts on EF-JFKA, two patrolman and two Dallas Police Department detectives found a “steel jacketed” bullet in the home of Walker the night of April 10, 1963, according two separate and signed reports authored by the quartet. All had handled the Walker bullet and inscribed the slug with initials or marks.

The quartet were investigating Walker’s report that someone had shot at him, through a window at the rear of his house. Evidently, LHO become a suspect in the Walker shooting almost immediately after the JFKA. 

According to Dec. 4, 1963 FBI memo sent to FBI Director Hoover, the DPD had considered turning the Walker Bullet over to the FBI even before being asked, as “they felt there was some possibility that Oswald might have shot at Walker.”

So, in his interview with the AP, Chief Curry had evidently deduced that LHO, after having shot at Walker with a steel-jacketed bullet six months earlier, had repeated his actions in the JFKA. And again used steel-jacketed bullets. 

 

But there is also the rest of the story. 

 

By telling the national wire-service AP that he thought a steel-jacketed bullet had slain JFK, Curry was very likely indicating he thought there at least two gunman had perped the JFKA. 

And naturally so. 

Obviously, Decker and Curry thought shots had come from the Grassy Knoll area towards the presidential limo, and then learned of the LHO-TSBD story only later. If the pair believed their own eyes and ears, they would believe at least two gunmen perped the JFKA. 

By Curry’s deductive reasoning, one assassin had used copper-jacketed bullets, the fragments of which had been found in the presidential limo, as reported in the FBI memo. 

As for the slug recovered from Parkland Hospital, the soon-to-be-famous CE399, or magic bullet, perhaps Curry dismissed a connection between that slug and the JFKA altogether, 

After all, how often are nearly pristine slugs from a murder found rolling around the hallways of a hospital, a couple of floors away from the surgery rooms? That may be a unique event in murder history. 

So Curry was, in effect, on November 29 opening the door to this version: One assassin of JFK loaded copper-jacketed bullets, and fired from the Grassy Knoll (as Curry himself had suspected), and another—likely LHO—armed with steel-jacketed bullets, fired from the TSBD. 

Remember, Chief Curry was not part of the federal government, and the post-assassination program to identify LHO as the lefty-loner-loser who effected the JFKA entirely without confederates. 

In later months, Curry would become contrite, and he told the Warren Commission he did not know where the shots had some from that struck JFK. But the record of Curry’s initial radio-call, summoning troops to the Triple Overpass, is indisputable (as is that of Sheriff Decker’s nearly identical broadcast).

Chief Curry was contrite in the early months of the JFKA-aftermath, but never totally satisfied with his own understanding of the JFKA. 

In 1969, Curry wrote a book about the JFKA entitled, Retired Dallas Police Chie, Jesse Curry Reveals His Personal JFK Assassination File. At the book’s release, Curry indicated he had doubts about the WC’s single bullet theory, and was quoted as saying a shot could have come from the front of the presidential limo. 

As he himself believed he may have witnessed in Dealey Plaza. 

So ultimately, Curry may have been the first CT’er—and an eyewitness to the horrible events of November 22, 1963. 

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Benjamin Cole

[George Govus]

Interesting, Benjamin.Thanks. A lot to chew on. I've enjoyed reading your work with Tom Gram on the Walker bullet.

Multiple shooters would want to use the same make of ammo, to pin the shooting on a single patsy. One would think.

Quote

Retired Dallas Police Chief, Jesse Curry Reveals His Personal JFK Assassination File

I had to go look and see the cover of this book, and what was the typeface font size. Once a graphic designer... There's one new copy listed for sale on Amazon (U.S.). Limited Collector's Edition, classic sixties design, $299. And used copies, too.

I reduced the quality, and thus the file sizes of these images of the wraparound cover.

 

[Benjamin Cole]

Oh yes, I agree.

Thanks for your generous comments. 

Curry only deduced that LHO was armed with steel-jacketed bullets, due to his understanding of the Walker shooting, and LHO as a suspect in the Walker shooting. 

Likely, someone armed with a 30.06 rifle, using steel-jacketed bullets, shot into the Walker home April 1963. If that was LHO, he likely borrowed the rifle from confederates. 

On Nov. 22, it appears a Mannlicher Carcano rifle was found in the TSBD (although as you know, there is controversy on that). 

So likely, no one was shooting at JFK with steel-jacketed bullets. 

Steel-jacketed bullets were and are rare, and generally disliked. They were especially disliked in the 1960s for rusting, jamming equipment and wearing out interior gun barrels. Also, it appears many hunting jurisdictions, that is game wardens, outlawed steel bullets as a risk of starting fires. 

 

[Mark Ulrik]

[I have a few comments but no time right now]

Edited June 9, 2023 by Mark Ulrik

[Benjamin Cole]

13 minutes ago, Mark Ulrik said:

[I have a few comments but no time right now]

Give me advance notice so I can load up on mai-tais. 

Also see my comment about Wood Buffalo National Park and steel-jacketed bullets, in the other Walker shooting.

 

[Michael Griffith]

7 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Chief Curry, The Motorcade, Steel-Jacketed Bullets—and a Suspicions of a Second Gunman?  

November 22

In the lead car in the JFK presidential motorcade as it made the hairpin turn onto Elm Street from Houston, was Chief Jesse Curry of the Dallas Police Department. 

Curry was not a witness to the actual shooting, which occurred behind him as his car lead the motorcade through Dealey Plaza towards the Triple Overpass. 

Immediately after gunfire raked Dealey Plaza, Curry’s first broadcast on the police radio, within moments at 12:30 pm, was this: “Get a man on top of that Triple Overpass and see what happened there.”

Dallas Sheriff Bill Decker was also in the lead car with Curry, and had the identical first instinct. Decker broadcast on the Sheriff Department radio this announcement at 12:30 and 40 seconds on that day: 

“Stand by one. All units and officers vicinity of station report to the railroad track area, just north of Elm. Report to the railroad track area, just north of Elm.”

That area described by Decker is directly behind the Grassy Knoll and the stockade fence. 

Like many others, Curry’s and Decker’s first and unalloyed reaction was that shots aimed at the motorcade had come from the Grassy Knoll area. In some regards, they were the very first CT’ers. 

November 23  

On November 23, Chief Curry received a memo from the FBI.

The FBI memo identifies Q1 (to become the Warren Commission’s CE399, aka ‘the Magic Bullet”), the slug found on the floor in Parkland Hospital, as a copper-jacketed 6.5 millimeter Mannlicher Carcano bullet. The use of the words “Mannlicher Carcano” is odd, since CE399 is a Western Cartridge bullet, and Mannlicher Carcano did not make ammo. 

The FBI memo also identified fragment of bullets found in the presidential limo as copper-jacketed. 

November 29 

Yet on November 29, Chief Jesse Curry told the Associated Press (AP), the national news wire service, that "in his opinion the bullets [that struck President Kennedy] were steel jacketed, but he said this was not confirmed to him [by the FBI].”

In light of the fact that Curry had received an FBI memo on November  23 that the Parkland Hospital bullet, that is the soon-to-be CE399, and some limo-bullet fragments were copper-jacketed, this statement by Curry is puzzling. 

Why would Chief Curry, one week after the murder of JFK, opine to a national news media organization that the bullets that struck the President—which Curry had never seen, or examined, and which were still an FBI “secret”—were relatively rare steel-jacketed bullets, rather than the industry norm, standard and very common copper-jacketed bullets?

And this was after Curry received the November 23 FBI memo indicating copper-jacketed bullets were involved in the JFKA. 

Why such a statement by Curry, and is there a deeper meaning in it? 

There is nothing in the JFKA itself to suggest steel-jacketed bullets were used. In fact, the horrible head shot at Z-313 was evidently accomplished with a copper-jacketed bullet—or at least so says the Warren Commission. 

The answer to the Curry riddle is twofold, and fascinating. 

General Edwin Walker

Interestingly, as early as November 23, Chief Curry was asked by an unidentified news reporter whether LHO was the failed assassin of General Edwin Walker. 

The unflustered Curry is captured on newsreel in the hallway interview, and evenly replied, “I don’t know.”

As detailed in other posts on EF-JFKA, two patrolman and two Dallas Police Department detectives found a “steel jacketed” bullet in the home of Walker the night of April 10, 1963, according two separate and signed reports authored by the quartet. All had handled the Walker bullet and inscribed the slug with initials or marks.

The quartet were investigating Walker’s report that someone had shot at him, through a window at the rear of his house. Evidently, LHO become a suspect in the Walker shooting almost immediately after the JFKA. 

According to Dec. 4, 1963 FBI memo sent to FBI Director Hoover, the DPD had considered turning the Walker Bullet over to the FBI even before being asked, as “they felt there was some possibility that Oswald might have shot at Walker.”

So, in his interview with the AP, Chief Curry had evidently deduced that LHO, after having shot at Walker with a steel-jacketed bullet six months earlier, had repeated his actions in the JFKA. And again used steel-jacketed bullets. 

But there is also the rest of the story. 

By telling the national wire-service AP that he thought a steel-jacketed bullet had slain JFK, Curry was very likely indicating he thought there at least two gunman had perped the JFKA. 

And naturally so. 

Obviously, Decker and Curry thought shots had come from the Grassy Knoll area towards the presidential limo, and then learned of the LHO-TSBD story only later. If the pair believed their own eyes and ears, they would believe at least two gunmen perped the JFKA. 

By Curry’s deductive reasoning, one assassin had used copper-jacketed bullets, the fragments of which had been found in the presidential limo, as reported in the FBI memo. 

As for the slug recovered from Parkland Hospital, the soon-to-be-famous CE399, or magic bullet, perhaps Curry dismissed a connection between that slug and the JFKA altogether, 

After all, how often are nearly pristine slugs from a murder found rolling around the hallways of a hospital, a couple of floors away from the surgery rooms? That may be a unique event in murder history. 

So Curry was, in effect, on November 29 opening the door to this version: One assassin of JFK loaded copper-jacketed bullets, and fired from the Grassy Knoll (as Curry himself had suspected), and another—likely LHO—armed with steel-jacketed bullets, fired from the TSBD. 

Remember, Chief Curry was not part of the federal government, and the post-assassination program to identify LHO as the lefty-loner-loser who effected the JFKA entirely without confederates. 

In later months, Curry would become contrite, and he told the Warren Commission he did not know where the shots had some from that struck JFK. But the record of Curry’s initial radio-call, summoning troops to the Triple Overpass, is indisputable (as is that of Sheriff Decker’s nearly identical broadcast).

Chief Curry was contrite in the early months of the JFKA-aftermath, but never totally satisfied with his own understanding of the JFKA. 

In 1969, Curry wrote a book about the JFKA entitled, Retired Dallas Police Chie, Jesse Curry Reveals His Personal JFK Assassination File. At the book’s release, Curry indicated he had doubts about the WC’s single bullet theory, and was quoted as saying a shot could have come from the front of the presidential limo. 

As he himself believed he may have witnessed in Dealey Plaza. 

So ultimately, Curry may have been the first CT’er—and an eyewitness to the horrible events of November 22, 1963. 

Remember, too, that Curry said, "No one has ever been able to put him [Oswald] in the Texas School Book Depository with a rifle in his hand."

Edited June 9, 2023 by Michael Griffith

[Lawrence Schnapf]

He says in his book that no one can put a rifle in Oswald's hand on the sixth floor at 12:30.  

[Michael Crane]

Someone didn't get the "other" memo.

[Mark Ulrik]

12 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

November 23  

On November 23, Chief Curry received a memo from the FBI.

The FBI memo identifies Q1 (to become the Warren Commission’s CE399, aka ‘the Magic Bullet”), the slug found on the floor in Parkland Hospital, as a copper-jacketed 6.5 millimeter Mannlicher Carcano bullet. The use of the words “Mannlicher Carcano” is odd, since CE399 is a Western Cartridge bullet, and Mannlicher Carcano did not make ammo. 

The FBI memo also identified fragment of bullets found in the presidential limo as copper-jacketed.

November 29 

Yet on November 29, Chief Jesse Curry told the Associated Press (AP), the national news wire service, that "in his opinion the bullets [that struck President Kennedy] were steel jacketed, but he said this was not confirmed to him [by the FBI].”

In light of the fact that Curry had received an FBI memo on November  23 that the Parkland Hospital bullet, that is the soon-to-be CE399, and some limo-bullet fragments were copper-jacketed, this statement by Curry is puzzling. 

Why would Chief Curry, one week after the murder of JFK, opine to a national news media organization that the bullets that struck the President—which Curry had never seen, or examined, and which were still an FBI “secret”—were relatively rare steel-jacketed bullets, rather than the industry norm, standard and very common copper-jacketed bullets?

And this was after Curry received the November 23 FBI memo indicating copper-jacketed bullets were involved in the JFKA. 

You've got the timing horribly wrong, Ben. According to the AP article, it was soon after the shooting that Curry said that in his opinion the bullets were steel-jacketed, etc. It's not known if he actually said "steel-jacketed" or it was a misquote, but he went on to say that it had not been confirmed to him. This tells us that he almost certainly hadn't yet received the 11/23 FBI memo identifying the bullet specimens as copper-jacketed. It would seem that the AP reporter, not knowing about the memo, simply assumed that Curry was still waiting for a response when they wrote that "the type of bullets used to shoot JFK a week ago remained a secret of the FBI."

NB! It feels a bit harsh to criticize the FBI for using the expression "Mannlicher-Carcano rifle bullet." The stretcher bullet (Q1) and limo fragments (Q2+3) were ballistically matched to the TSBD rifle (K1) identified as a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (a slight misnomer for the Carcano rifle) whereas the TSBD cartridges and cases (Q6+7+8) were easily identified by their headstamp as having been manufactured by the Western Cartridge Co.

More later, if I can summon the energy. Ben has the Mai Tai advantage.

[Michael Griffith]

29 minutes ago, Mark Ulrik said:

The stretcher bullet (Q1) and limo fragments (Q2+3) were ballistically matched to the TSBD rifle (K1) identified as a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (a slight misnomer for the Carcano rifle) whereas the TSBD cartridges and cases (Q6+7+8) were easily identified by their headstamp as having been manufactured by the Western Cartridge Co.

This stuff is decades behind the information curve. The stretcher bullet now in evidence does not resemble the description of the bullet that was originally found. And, NAA testing actually proved that the fragments could have come from any number of FMJ bullets, not just WCC bullets.

[Mark Ulrik]

9 minutes ago, Michael Griffith said:

This stuff is decades behind the information curve. The stretcher bullet now in evidence does not resemble the description of the bullet that was originally found. And, NAA testing actually proved that the fragments could have come from any number of FMJ bullets, not just WCC bullets.

That's lovely, but not exactly on-topic.

[Mark Ulrik]

12 hours ago, George Govus said:

I had to go look and see the cover of this book, and what was the typeface font size. Once a graphic designer... There's one new copy listed for sale on Amazon (U.S.). Limited Collector's Edition, classic sixties design, $299. And used copies, too.

Curry's book is pretty common, and it shouldn't be hard to find a moderately priced copy on eBay. I own a couple myself. The "limited" edition is the only one, btw.

[Lawrence Schnapf]

@Michael Griffith you are correct. most of the supporters of the official position have not kept up with the developments and remain frozen in time circa 1964. 

[Lawrence Schnapf]

I must correct myself. His quote about no one being able to place Oswald on the sixth floor with a gun in his head was from a November 6. 1969 interview in the Dallas Morning News. His quote is: " We don't have any proof that Oswald fired the rifle, and never did. Nobody's yet been able to put him in that building with a gun in his hand."

 The quote from his book (page 61 of my copy) is: "The physical evidence and eyewitness accounts do not clearly indicate what took place on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository at the time John F. Kennedy was assassinated." He ends that paragraph by saying: "The testimony of the people who watched the motorcade was much more confusing than either the press or the Warren Commission seemed to indicate."

These statements were made after he had retired from the DPD and was free to share his views.  

[Mark Ulrik]

22 minutes ago, Lawrence Schnapf said:

@Michael Griffith you are correct. most of the supporters of the official position have not kept up with the developments and remain frozen in time circa 1964. 

Let's try to stay on topic for a change. Not everything in this case is about NAA testing.