Whatever happened to T.R. Gregory?

[Steve Thomas]

Over the last couple of days, I've been trying to find out what happened to the man riding with M.N. McDonald. His name was T.R. Gregory. McDonald was training him.

Mr. BALL - Did you ride alone or have a partner?

Mr. McDONALD - No, sir; I had a partner.

Mr. BALL - What is his name?

Mr. McDONALD - T. R. Gregory.

After the president was shot, they reported to the TSBD and helped with crowd control.

When the call came out about Tippit's shooting McDonald and Gregory went to the scene. McDonald dropped Gregory off to assist in searching the houses in the 400 block of East Jefferson while he (McDonald) cruised through the alleys.

Mr. BALL - How did you happen to go to the 400 block on Jefferson?

Mr. McDONALD - I was stopped by other officers there. They wanted to search a house. So I relieved my partner to go to help the supervisors search this house, in the 400 block of East Jefferson. Then I went around to the alleys, and started cruising the alley in my squad car.

Notice that McDonald says, “supervisors.”

Two of the supervisors who were there at the houses on Jefferson were Sgt. Gerald Hill and Sgt. Calvin “Bud” Owens.

19: “One of the men here at the service station that saw him seems to think he's in this block, the 400 block of East Jefferson behind this service station. Would you give me some more squads over here?”

19 is Calvin Owens.

Beginning at about 1:27 on the Dispatch tapes, officers were being instructed to report to the 400 block of East Jefferson. Units 79, 76, 77, 79, 93, 95, 221, 223 and 412 responded.

None of those units except for 95 (McDonald) and 223 (C.T. Walker) testified before the WC.

Mr. HILL. And met Owens in front of two large vacant houses on the north side of Jefferson that are used for the storage of secondhand furniture.

By then Owens had information also that some citizen had seen the man running towards these houses. At this time Sergeant Owens was there; I was there; Bill Alexander was there; it was probably about this time that C. T. Walker, an accident investigator got there; and with Sergeant Owens and Walker and a couple more officers standing outside, Bill Alexander and I entered the front door of the house that would have been to the west--it was the farthest to the west of the two--shook out the lower floor, made sure nobody was there, and made sure that all the entrances from either inside or outside of the building to the second floor were securely locked.

Then we went back over to the house next door, which would have been the first one east of this one, and made sure it was securely locked, both upstairs and downstairs. There was no particular sign of entry on this building at all.

Hill left the scene of the houses and went back to where Tippit had been shot and gave 105’s keys back to him. (Poe and Jez). He then walked to the Abundant Life Temple and was prepared to search it.

Owens remained outside the houses while other officers went in to do the actual search.

Mr. OWENS. Then we started searching the buildings and houses--there are some old two-story houses there used as businesses.

Mr. ELY. What was the nature of your search of these buildings? Did you just look through the halls?

Mr. OWENS. Well, I didn't go in. I was standing on the outside and the other officers were going in.

When the radio announced that the suspect was in the Library, McDonald sped off leaving his partner behind. When the radio announced that the suspect was in the Theater, McDonald sped there without picking up his partner (or the man he was training anyway).

McDonald told the WC that he never saw Gregory again that day.

Mr. BALL - Did you go down there with your partner?

Mr. McDONALD - No, sir; I had let my partner out on arrival; my first arrival in the 400 block.

Mr. BALL - He was on foot?

Mr. McDONALD - Yes, sir; I didn't see him any more that day.

I thought that was sort of odd behavior.

Gregory didn't testify to the WC and the only reports from him in the DPD Archives concerned his activities on the 24th.

All reports had the suspect running west on Jefferson and the houses and church that were being searched were all west of where Tippit got shot. But when the radio announced that the suspect was in the Library, which is east of where Tippit got shot, virtually every officer in the vicinity sped off to the Library. The search of the houses and church were abandoned.

Neither Hill or Owens spoke of taking Gregory with them and Bill Alexander did not testify to the WC. What happened to Gregory?

Steve Thomas

[Greg Parker]

Over the last couple of days, I've been trying to find out what happened to the man riding with M.N. McDonald. His name was T.R. Gregory. McDonald was training him.

Mr. BALL - Did you ride alone or have a partner?

Mr. McDONALD - No, sir; I had a partner.

Mr. BALL - What is his name?

Mr. McDONALD - T. R. Gregory.

After the president was shot, they reported to the TSBD and helped with crowd control.

When the call came out about Tippit's shooting McDonald and Gregory went to the scene. McDonald dropped Gregory off to assist in searching the houses in the 400 block of East Jefferson while he (McDonald) cruised through the alleys.

Mr. BALL - How did you happen to go to the 400 block on Jefferson?

Mr. McDONALD - I was stopped by other officers there. They wanted to search a house. So I relieved my partner to go to help the supervisors search this house, in the 400 block of East Jefferson. Then I went around to the alleys, and started cruising the alley in my squad car.

Notice that McDonald says, “supervisors.”

Two of the supervisors who were there at the houses on Jefferson were Sgt. Gerald Hill and Sgt. Calvin “Bud” Owens.

19: “One of the men here at the service station that saw him seems to think he's in this block, the 400 block of East Jefferson behind this service station. Would you give me some more squads over here?”

19 is Calvin Owens.

Beginning at about 1:27 on the Dispatch tapes, officers were being instructed to report to the 400 block of East Jefferson. Units 79, 76, 77, 79, 93, 95, 221, 223 and 412 responded.

None of those units except for 95 (McDonald) and 223 (C.T. Walker) testified before the WC.

Mr. HILL. And met Owens in front of two large vacant houses on the north side of Jefferson that are used for the storage of secondhand furniture.

By then Owens had information also that some citizen had seen the man running towards these houses. At this time Sergeant Owens was there; I was there; Bill Alexander was there; it was probably about this time that C. T. Walker, an accident investigator got there; and with Sergeant Owens and Walker and a couple more officers standing outside, Bill Alexander and I entered the front door of the house that would have been to the west--it was the farthest to the west of the two--shook out the lower floor, made sure nobody was there, and made sure that all the entrances from either inside or outside of the building to the second floor were securely locked.

Then we went back over to the house next door, which would have been the first one east of this one, and made sure it was securely locked, both upstairs and downstairs. There was no particular sign of entry on this building at all.

Hill left the scene of the houses and went back to where Tippit had been shot and gave 105’s keys back to him. (Poe and Jez). He then walked to the Abundant Life Temple and was prepared to search it.

Owens remained outside the houses while other officers went in to do the actual search.

Mr. OWENS. Then we started searching the buildings and houses--there are some old two-story houses there used as businesses.

Mr. ELY. What was the nature of your search of these buildings? Did you just look through the halls?

Mr. OWENS. Well, I didn't go in. I was standing on the outside and the other officers were going in.

When the radio announced that the suspect was in the Library, McDonald sped off leaving his partner behind. When the radio announced that the suspect was in the Theater, McDonald sped there without picking up his partner (or the man he was training anyway).

McDonald told the WC that he never saw Gregory again that day.

Mr. BALL - Did you go down there with your partner?

Mr. McDONALD - No, sir; I had let my partner out on arrival; my first arrival in the 400 block.

Mr. BALL - He was on foot?

Mr. McDONALD - Yes, sir; I didn't see him any more that day.

I thought that was sort of odd behavior.

Gregory didn't testify to the WC and the only reports from him in the DPD Archives concerned his activities on the 24th.

All reports had the suspect running west on Jefferson and the houses and church that were being searched were all west of where Tippit got shot. But when the radio announced that the suspect was in the Library, which is east of where Tippit got shot, virtually every officer in the vicinity sped off to the Library. The search of the houses and church were abandoned.

Neither Hill or Owens spoke of taking Gregory with them and Bill Alexander did not testify to the WC. What happened to Gregory?

Steve Thomas

Steve, I looked into Gregory a while back, and was also unable to find what had happened to him.

You mention above the church being searched. Do you know who searched it? As far as I've been able to ascertain, it wasn't. McDonald claimed he was about to when the library sighting diverted him. Hill got to the door where he was met by two female church employees who assured him nobody had entered. He then heard the call about the movie ticket sneak and high-tailed it over to the TT.

McDonald is the only person I can find who places McDonald at the library. Are you aware of any others who place him there? IMO, he did not go to the library, he went into the church where, according to DPD transcripts, "A witness said he saw [the suspect] last at the Abundant Life Temple at 10th..."

Funny how no one mentioned that in testimony and that it was excised from the version in the Sawyer exhibits.

One more question. Did anyone give McDonald and Gregory the order to go to Oak Cliff?

Mr. McDONALD - Well, after I left the car, my partner and I reported to a supervisor, and he directed us to patrol the crowd and move the crowd around Elm Street, and rope off the area.

Mr. BALL - Now, was your radio on?

Mr. McDONALD - Yes, sir. There were several police units around the intersection, and all the radios were on. And after I had moved the crowd around, went back to the entrance of the Texas School Book Depository, I heard this over the police radio, of--the first thing I heard was that President Kennedy had expired at Parkland Hospital.

And the next thing I heard was a voice over the radio that was not familiar to police procedure. He was saying that an officer had been shot, and that he was using car No. 10 radio. Of my own knowledge, I knew that car was driven by Officer Tippit, and that that car was assigned to his district.

Mr. BALL - Did he give you a location?

Mr. McDONALD - Yes, sir; 400 block of East 10th Street.

Mr. BALL - What did you do?

Mr. McDONALD - I told my partner we were not doing much good here, to go to Oak Cliff, and see if we could help out over there, try to apprehend the person that shot Tippit.

Reading his testimony, it appears he actually abondoned orders and went to Oak Cliff on some type of intuition that he'd be the arresting officer. I'm asking on the off chance he just forgot he was ordered there, and that some testimony or document exists which shows he received such an order. Without it, and in light of what happened thereafter, it's difficult not to wonder about McDonald.

[Steve Thomas]

Hi Greg,

You wrote:

Steve, I looked into Gregory a while back, and was also unable to find what had happened to him.

You mention above the church being searched. Do you know who searched it? As far as I've been able to ascertain, it wasn't.

I agree.

The only person I can find talking about the Church is Gerald Hill and a careful reading of his testimony leaves the impression that he did not go inside. He said that accident investigator, Bob Apple was at the scene. There is a B.L. Apple listed on p. 132 of Batchelor’s Exhibit as being with the Accident Prevention Bureau of the Traffic Division on the 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM shift.

http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/...Vol19_0075b.htm

Apple did not testify to the WC and there are no reports from him in the DPD Archives.

I read an old thread on the alt.conspiracy.jfk newsgroup that said because Hill was on foot and tied up at the Church, he completely missed the exchange about the Library. He was unaware of it.

McDonald is the only person I can find who places McDonald at the library. Are you aware of any others who place him there? IMO, he did not go to the library, he went into the church where, according to DPD transcripts, "A witness said he saw [the suspect] last at the Abundant Life Temple at 10th..."

Funny how no one mentioned that in testimony and that it was excised from the version in the Sawyer exhibits.

At 1:33 PM on the Channel 1 transcripts, there is this exchange:

95: Send squad over here to Tenth and Crawford to check out

this church basement.

1189. DIS: Need a squad at Tenth and Crawford.

(noises)

1190. 66: 66 en route.

1191. DIS: 10-4.

95 is McDonald

66 is Ptm. F.S. Williams

One minute later, at 1:34, C.T. Walker announces that the suspect is at the Library and everyone in the world takes off.

I’ve never read where someone else places McDonald at the Library, but it’s possible that McDonald could have been at both places.

One more question. Did anyone give McDonald and Gregory the order to go to Oak Cliff?

Reading his testimony, it appears he actually abondoned orders and went to Oak Cliff on some type of intuition that he'd be the arresting officer. I'm asking on the off chance he just forgot he was ordered there, and that some testimony or document exists which shows he received such an order. Without it, and in light of what happened thereafter, it's difficult not to wonder about McDonald.

Herbert Sawyer told the WC, “Mr. SAWYER. The only other thing I can remember that I did down there, was when the shooting on Officer Tippit came in, I released half a dozen men to go to Oak Cliff to help with that.”

McDonald could have been one of them.

Greg, you wrote, “according to DPD transcripts, "A witness said he saw [the suspect] last at the Abundant Life Temple at 10th..."

Can you tell me where in the transcripts that appears, and who transmitted it?

Steve Thomas

[Steve Thomas]

Over the last couple of days, I have been trying to determine if the police who responded to the call to search the houses in the 400 block of East Jefferson, also responded to go to the Library and what happened to them.

Based on the Dispatch tapes, it appears that most of them did not go to the Library, but they do evetually show up at the Theater.

Sgt. Owens told the WC, “Quite a few of us left that area we were at and proceeded to the library,”

Sgt. Hill, who took an active part in searching at least two houses, told the WC, "At this time Sergeant Owens was there; I was there; Bill Alexander was there; it was probably about this time that C. T. Walker, an accident investigator got there; and with Sergeant Owens and Walker and a couple more officers standing outside..."

I think it would be worthwhile to try and get these men's stories. Most of them did not file a report with Chief Curry on their activities that day, and most of them did not testify before the Warren Commission. Roy Walker would be an interesting person. He was at all three locations.

1:23 Suspect is reported to be fleeing west on Jefferson from 400 East Jefferson

1:27 19 Reports that the suspect has been seen in the 400 block of East Jefferson and requests squads

All hell seems to break loose. Squads started reporting in from all over that they were enroute - many from neighboring districts like 75, 76, 77 and 79, but also from other substations around the City.

1:27 79: enroute Billy W. Anglin

1:27 412: enroute CID (This may have been the car that Lt. Cunningham, Marvin Buhk, J.B. Toney and E.E. Taylor were in).

1:28 75: almost there E.G. Sebastian (2nd Platoon Headquarters Station)

1:28 76: enroute Henry H. Horn

1:28 16: I’ll be out on East Jefferson Sgt. Roy D. Shipley (2nd Platoon Northeast substation)

1:29 77: Going back over about 400 East Jefferson Walter E. Smith

1:29 93: enroute Holly M. Ashcraft (2nd Platoon Northwest Substation)

1:30 79: enroute Billy W. Anglin

1:30 95 enroute Maurice N. McDonald and Thomas R. Gregory

1:30 221’s: about there H.W. Summers

1:30 223: 223’s: there C.T. Walker

As far back as 1:22, Unit 85 had given a description of the suspect to Dispatch, so we know he is there. Roy W. Walker

1:33, 19 reports that they are shaking down these old houses in the 400 block of East Jefferson Sgt. Calvin “Bud” Owens

1:33, 95 asks Dispatch to send a squad to 10th and Crawford to check out this church basement Maurice N. McDonald

66: enroute Frank S. Williams (2nd Platoon Headquarters Station)

1:34, 223 reports that the suspect is in the Library C.T. Walker

Sgt Owens, “Quite a few of us left that area we were at and proceeded to the library,”

1:34 85: enroute Roy W. Walker

1:34 6(?): enroute

1:35 29: enroute J.M. Williams

1:35 22 they’ve got him hole up in this building Leonard L. Hill (2nd Platoon Northwest Substation)

1:35 211: out at that location Ray Hawkins

Hawkins told the W.C. that Elmer Baggett and Hutson were in the car with him

1:36 19: We’re all at this location Sgt. Owens

1:36 Dis: 223 is supposed to be there C.T. Walker

1:45 We have information that a suspect just went in the Texas Theater

1:45 85: Out that way Roy W. Walker

1:46 111: enroute Jerry G. Pollard (2nd Platoon Headquarters Station)

1:46 76 Code 5 Henry H. Horn

1:46 492: Out at Texas Theater CID (Carroll and Lyons)

1:46 85: At Texas Theater Roy W. Walker

1:47 Dis orders someone to go to the rear of the Theater

1:47 211 says there are about five squads back here with me now Ray Hawkins

1:48 15 says send 99 to the Texas Theater

1:48 29: about two blocks away J.M. Williams

1:49 99 re-directed to go to the TSBD

1:49 19: 15 and some squads are going to the Texas Theater Cap’t Talbert

(Paul Bentley rode with Captain Talbert)

1:52 550/2: suspect on the shooting the police officer is apprehended Sgt Gerald Hill

At 2:04, 77: reports Clear Walter E. Smith

75: I’m still in front of the theater E.G. Sebastian

At 2:06, 66 radios in and says, see if you can raise 79, we have his shotgun

66 is Frank S. Williams and 79 is Billy W. Anglin

Steve Thomas