This man tried to save the President.
He would be arrested as Kennedy's killer an hour after the deed.
He would be murdered by the Mafia to silence him, only 47 hours later.
FBI AGENT DON ADAMS SAW HIS EVIDENCE WIPED OUT --EVIDENCE THAT PROVES A CONSPIRACY KILLED JFK AND THAT LEE HARVEY OSWALD WAS INNOCENT!
"Oswald was at the sniper's nest on the sixth floor at the time of the shooting, then how is it he was seen by the building manager and a pistol-waving police officer less than 90 seconds afterwards on the second floor, standing in the lunchroom with a Coke in his hand, giving every appearance of being perfectly calm and relaxed? (The manager was Roy Truly and the policeman was Officer Marrion Baker.)
Jim Moore and other lone-gunman theorists assume that Oswald bought the Coke after the encounter with the manager and the policeman (3:53). However, the available evidence indicates Oswald purchased the Coke before the second-floor encounter (5: 50-52). Oswald had no reason to lie about when he bought the Coke. When he mentioned the Coke-buying during his questioning, he did so in passing, and he could not have known the important role the timing of this detail would subsequently play in the investigation. I agree with what David Lifton has said on this subject:
The original news accounts said that when Baker first saw Oswald, the latter was drinking a Coke. This seemingly minor fact was crucial, because if Oswald had time to operate the machine, open the bottle, and drink some soda, that would mean he was on the second floor even earlier than the Commission's reconstructions allowed. In a signed statement Officer Baker was asked to make in September 1964, at the tail-end of the investigation, he wrote: "I saw a man standing in the lunchroom drinking a coke." A line was drawn through "drinking a coke," and Baker initialed the corrected version. [Dallas] Police Captain Will Fritz, in his report on his interrogation of Oswald, wrote: "I asked Oswald where he was when the police officer stopped him. He said he was on the second floor drinking a Coca Cola when the officer came in." If I were a juror, I would have believed Oswald already had the Coke in hand, and indeed, had drunk some of it, by the time the officer entered the lunchroom. (18:351)
"...DRINKING A COKE" TESTIMONY CROSSED OUT
BUT ACCORDING TO CRITICS, THE DEPOSITION WAS WRITTEN JUST TWO DAYS BEFORE THE WARREN COMMISSION CEASED ITS INVESTIGATION AND THE WRITER WAS IN A BIG HURRY AND SIMPLY WROTE DOWN SOME EXTRA WORDS THAT MARRION BAKER NEVER SAID--SO BAKER HAD TO CROSS THEM OUT. YES, THE FBI AGENT TAKING THE DEPOSITION JUST REPEATED A MYTH HE'D HEARD. BAKER ALSO TOLD THE WARREN COMMISSION HE SAW NOTHING IN LEE'S HANDS AT THAT TIME. ALL WELL AND GOOD. BUT WHY, THEN, DO WE HAVE THIS:
1) TESTIMONY INCLUDES A COKE:
Mrs Robert A Reid, a TSBD Clerical Sup
ervisor... described eating her lunch in the second floor lunchroom about noon, then going downstairs to see the motorcade. After Kennedy was shot, she was frightened, and ran up the front stairs to her second floor office.
MR BELIN: "And then what did you do?"
MRS REID: "Well, I kept walking and I looked up and Oswald was coming in the back door of the office. I met him by the time I passed my desk several feet and I told him: 'Oh, the President has been shot, but maybe they didn't hit him.' ..... He had gotten a coke and was holding it in his hands ..... The only time I had seen him in the office was to come and get change and he already had his coke in his hand ..... " (3H 274).
Mrs Reid saw Lee Oswald after Baker and Truly saw him. (3H 275). Reid also said that Lee's coke bottle was full. (3H 278). We cannot prove when the coke was purchased from her account. Griffith, however, tells us that A WARREN COMMISSION COUNSEL also said Baker saw a coke in Lee Oswald's possession:
"During a radio program on December 23, 1966, Albert Jenner, a former senior WC counsel, said that when Baker saw Oswald in the lunchroom, Oswald was holding a Coke in his hand. Said Jenner, "the first man this policeman saw, was Oswald with a bottle of Coke" (17:226)."
Now, why would he do that? Is it true that this coke might have become a "myth" by then, as Oswald-did-it theorists maintain? But if so, how? And why would a Warren Commissioner senior counsel bring it up? Griffith goes on to say:
"The fact that Oswald was holding a Coke when Baker confronted him in the lunchroom was one of the details that Chief Jesse Curry of the Dallas police mentioned to reporters the day after the shooting."
OOPS! Jesse Curry was mentioning all sorts of evidence AGAINST Lee Oswald. Who told Curry just one day after the shooting that BAKER saw Lee Oswald with a coke in his hand? This was the earliest account of the coke's existence -- and Curry connects it firmly with Baker:
"When Jesse Curry retired as police chief of Dallas, Texas, he wrote a book called "JFK Assassination File." In a 1969 interview for the Dallas Morning News around the time of publication, Curry stated,
"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." [1]
Griffith adds that "As late as ten days later this detail was still being reported in major newspapers, such as theWashington Post."
We can consider the early statement by Curry as too important to dismiss.
Griffith next argues that:
"Oswald simply could not have made it to the second floor without first being seen by Roy Truly, who was running ahead of Patrolman Baker. The Dallas police descriptions of the rifle in its hiding place indicate that the alleged murder weapon was very carefully stashed under and between a stack of book boxes at the opposite end of the sixth floor from where the shots were supposedly fired. It is reasonable to assume Oswald would have attempted to wipe his fingerprints off the rifle (at least those parts of the rifle he had just handled while firing it). Someone wiped off the Carcano before it was "discovered" because the FBI found no identifiable prints on it when it examined the weapon on November 23. This would mean that in less than 90 seconds Oswald squeezed out of the sniper's nest, ran all the way to the opposite end of the sixth floor, wiped off the rifle (at least those parts that he would have just handled while firing it), carefully hid it under and between some boxes, ran down four flights of stairs to the second floor (actually eight small flights), went through the foyer door, and then made his way to the lunchroom, yet did not appear the least bit winded or nervous when seen by the manager and the policeman. And, if we add the Coke-buying, Oswald's alleged journey becomes even more implausible.
The WC's own reenactments of Officer Baker's encounter with Oswald indicated that it occurred no more than 75 seconds after the shots were fired. There is no way Oswald could have done everything the Commission said he did and still have made it to the lunchroom in time to be seen by Baker and without being seen by Truly."
Today we are told that Lee could not have made it down those stairs and across that hall and into that room, door closed even in 90 seconds. Some dishonest "time trials" have been made with athletes who ran down simulated stairway lengths (but not even built the same way)--which have been criticized elsewhere for their rigged results. But even those rigged trial runs could not get around the startling testimony we now have from Victoria Adams--"The girl on the stairs":
"On November 22, 1963, a young Victoria Elizabeth Adams stood behind a fourth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. She watched as John Kennedy was murdered in the streets below. Then, with a co-worker in tow, she ran down the back stairs of the building in order to get outside and determine what had happened.
At that precise moment, her life changed forever.
Unbeknownst to her but certainly in the forefront of the government's thinking was the fact that if Miss Adams was telling the truth, then she had descended those stairs at the same time Lee Oswald would have been on them as he made his escape from the sixth floor sniper's nest."
Yet Miss Adams saw no one.
And even though the stairs were old, wooden, and very creaky under any weight, she heard no one on them.
Her story presented obvious problems for the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald was the sole assassin. When Miss Adams was called to testify before a Commission attorney, she was quickly discredited, humiliated, and eventually branded a liar. Behind closed doors she pleaded with the government to conduct time tests of her actions if she wasn’t believed. She begged the government to question her co-workers, particularly the woman who had accompanied her down the stairs, if she was felt to have been inaccurate.
But she was ignored.
And so, knowing the truth of what she had done and now fearing for her life because of it, she went into hiding and became willing to die with that private knowledge.
Intrigued by what little was available about Miss Adams, the author went in search of her. It took him 35 years to eventually find this elusive witness. Along the way, many of the rumors and speculations surrounding the JFK assassination were finally put to rest. And in the end, the truth of what Miss Adams did was discovered.
This is an important story, unique in this mess surrounding the Kennedy assassination and buried for decades. It is an account the government did not want us to hear, and actually went to the extreme of fabricating evidence in order to prevent us from hearing it."
And if Lee wasn't on the stairs, he was in that room. The door was closed...Lee had to walk across the room, insert coins, wait for the coke to roll down, open the coke... and he was not seen crossing a wide hallway from stairs on the other side of that wide hallway, before entering the lunchroom. LEE OSWALD WAS NOT ON THE 6TH FLOOR 90 SECONDS EARLIER. He did not go down those stairs. Curry himself said Baker had seen Lee with a coke just a day after the assassination. Or should we believe that the words were accidentally written down in haste by somebody taking an oral deposition, which then needed correction by Baker himself? Probably the most shameful batch of lies about Lee Oswald were written in the book MARINA AND LEE by Priscilla Johnson McMillan, who has been linked to the CIA. She went out of her way to impress upon readers --who would be unaware of her intentions, but which would plant the image in their head--that Lee had no coke in his hands, for she wrote, on p. 531: "When Baker and Truly reached the second-floor landing, Baker caught a glimpse of someone in the lunchroom. Revolver in hand, he rushed to the door and saw a man 20 feet away walking to the far end of the room. The man was empty-handed."
The way Baker was questioned by Dulles (and by Belin) for the Warren Commission was absolutely shameful, as an attempt was made to get Baker to say Lee Oswald wore the SAME SHIRT in the TSBD that he was wearing when arrested. This was important because a bus transfer ticket, obtained from his pocket due to Lee's 'escape by public transit'--would not have been in a different shirt. The ticket had to be planted because it has not a single crease in it and was never tested for fingerprints, unlike so many other pieces of evidence. To get Baker to say it was the SAME SHIRT was essential, but the poor man just wasn't cooperating very well. The persistence of Dulles is shocking as he tried to get around Lee's "escape by car" as seen by officer Roger Craig, which meant a conspirator was involved: (Baker's "brown jacket" and the 'other' short he saw, as well as the gist of the leading questions, are underlined)
Mr. Baker.
At that particular time I was looking at his face, and it seemed to me like he had a light brown jacket on and maybe some kind of white-looking shirt. Anyway, as I noticed him walking away from me, it was kind of dim in there that particular day, and it was hanging out to his side.
Mr. Belin.
Handing you what has been marked as Commission Exhibit 150, would this appear to be anything that you have ever seen before?
Mr. Baker.
Yes, sir; I believe that is the shirt that he had on when he came. I wouldn't be sure of that. It seemed to me like that other shirt was a little bit darker than that whenever I saw him in the homicide office there.
Mr. Belin.
What about when you saw him in the School Book Depository Building, does this look familiar as anything he was wearing, if you know?
Mr. Baker.
I couldn't say whether that was--it seemed to me it was a light-colored brown but I couldn't say it was that or not.
Mr. Dulles.
Lighter brown did you say, I am just asking what you said. I couldn't quite hear.
Mr. Baker.
Yes, sir; all I can remember it was in my recollection of it it was a light brown jacket.
Mr. Belin.
Are you referring to this Exhibit 150 as being similar to the jacket or similar to the shirt that you saw or, if not, similar to either one?
Mr. Baker.
Well, it would be similar in color to it--I assume it was a jacket, it was hanging out. Now, I was looking at his face and I wasn't really paying any attention. After Mr. Truly said he knew him, so I didn't pay any attention to him, so I just turned and went on.
Mr. Belin.
Now, you did see him later at the police station, is that correct?
Mr. Baker.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Belin.
Was he wearing anything that looked like Exhibit 150 at the police station?
Mr. Baker.
He did have a brown-type shirt on that was out.
Mr. Belin.
Did it appear to be similar to any clothing you had seen when you saw him at the School Book Depository Building?
Mr. Baker.
I could have mistaken it for a jacket, but to my recollection it was a little colored jacket, that is all I can say.
Mr. Dulles.
You saw Oswald later in the lineup or later
Mr. Baker.
I never did have a chance to see him in the lineup. I saw him when I went to give the affidavit, the statement that I saw him down there, of the actions of myself and Mr. Truly as we went into the building and on up what we are discussing now. (At this point Senator Cooper entered the hearing room.)
Mr. Belin.
Officer Baker
Mr. Dulles.
I didn't get clearly in mind, I am trying to check up, as to whether you saw Oswald maybe in the same costume later in the day. Did you see Oswald later in the day of November 22d?
Mr. Baker.
Yes, sir; I did.
Mr. Dulles.
Under what circumstances? Don't go into detail, I just want to tie up these two situations.
Mr. Baker.
As I was in the homicide office there writing this, giving this affidavit, I got hung in one of those little small offices back there, while the Secret Service took Mr. Oswald in there and questioned him and I couldn't get out by him while they were questioning him, and I did get to see him at that time.
Mr. Dulles.
You saw him for a moment at that time?
Mr. Baker.
Yes, sir.
It should be clear that witnesses were being pushed to say what the Commission wanted. Some witnesses later insisted that their testimony had been changed. Those who defend the Warren Commission today either have double-digit IQ's, must be enamored of anti-conspiracy writers, and/or be in the pay of those still attempting to blame the Kennedy assassination on the one man who was trying to stop it. It is my hope that you will read the true story of Lee Oswald in my book, ME & LEE.
Lee Harvey Oswaldsurrounded by looks of hatred... they have all been
told Lee was THE ONLY ONE INVOLVED --even though
the FBI has not yet examined the rifle or any other evidence
They cut a several chunks of hair off for a "sample" -- humiliated him also by shaving all the hair from his pubic area, since they needed a "sample" of that, too. Soon we learn that "pubic hairs belonging to Oswald" were found on a blanket that supposedly held the rifle. Note that the Warren Commission published a photo of these hairs as evidence, even though they are CUT. Normal hairs FALL OFF and would have bulbs at the end.
IT MUST BE UNDERSTOOD THAT THE POLICE AND OTHERS WERE WILLING TO MANIPULATE EVIDENCE.
Of course we cannot see any bulbs to prove a normally-fallen hair was found on the blanket. The photo is so bad that nothing of value can be seen. It could be hair from anybody, insofar as this poor photo is concerned.
The WC testimony of Paul Strombaugh :
Mr. STOMBAUGH. . . . Pubic hairs ordinarily are rather thick. Oswald's hairs were relatively narrow. Pubic hairs also have what we term nobbiness. You can see a nob right here, it is twisted----
Mr. EISENBERG. Could you circle that with a pen, and mark it "A" on chart 672?....
Mr. STOMBAUGH. . . . The tips of Oswald's pubic hairs were not worn. . . . This would indicate to me that his pubic hairs were rather strong, much tougher than the average persons.
BESIDES LEARNING TOO MUCH ABOUT PUBIC HAIRS, WE DO NOT LEARN ENOUGH ABOUT
HOW FIBERS FROM THE BLANKET WERE FOUND ON THE RIFLE (JUST A COUPLE). RESEARCHER DAVID WRONE WAS RIGHTLY CONCERNED ABOUT THAT. HE WRITES:
.
It seems to me that the whole episode focuses upon the
packag-er of the rifle to who shipped it to FBI SOG. I think [I was told...]
it was not shipped by package, as Stombaugh says, but was
courier delivered. Further, Howard in Presumed Guilty has the
Dallas police photograph of the rifle resting on the blanket
prior to being "shipped" to the lab. [MEANING, THE BLANKET WAS
PLACED NEXT TO THE RIFLE WHEN IN POLICE HANDS== BEFORE IT WAS
EXAMINED FOR FIBERS FROM THE BLANKET!] Thus I do not see how the
rifle got from the Dallas police to the FPI to Stombaugh with any
reasonable degree of clear and distinct purity to make the
scientific credentials of P.S. mean anything. The premise is false.
ONE OF THE MOST BLATANT INSTANCES OF THE MISHANDLING OF EVIDENCE CONCERNS THE JACKETS ASSOCIATED WITH LEE OSWALD. ACCORDING TO THE WARRANER COMMISSION, LEE OSWALD THREW OFF A JACKET AS HE RAN AWAY AFTER SHOOTING OFFICER TIPPIT, ON HIS WAY TO THE TEXAS THEATER WHERE HE WOULD BE ARRESTED SHORTLY THEREAFTER.
THE PROBLEM IS, THERE ARE WAY TOO MANY JACKETS...AND COLORS.
NOT THAT THIS STOPPED THE WARREN COMMISSION FROM CLAIMING THE DISCARDED JACKET (THOUGH TOO BIG FOR OSWALD) WAS ANOTHER PIECE OF 'EVIDENCE' AGAINST HIM.
..and the chameleon like qualities of the alleged assassin's coat.
Marina Oswald said Lee had only two jackets - one Dark Blue and one a lightweight Gray.
At least two witnesses at the scene of Tippit's slaying reported his killer wore a White jacket.
One of these, Helen Markham, was shown Oswald's gray jacket by a Warren Commission attorney who asked, "Did you ever see this before?" Despite having been shown the jacket by the FBI prior to her testimony, Markham replied:
"No, I did not....that jacket is a darker jacket than that, I know it was."
Witness Domingo Benavides was shown a jacket by Commission Attorney David Belin, who said, "I am handing you a jacket which had been marked as Commission's Exhibit 163, and ask you to state whether this bears any similarity to the jacket you saw this man with the gun wearing?" Benavides responded:
"I would say this looks just like it..."
The problem here is that Commission's Exhibit 163 is Oswald's dark blue jacket. The gray jacket is Commission's Exhibit 162.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ON THE BUS?
The driver, Cecil McWatters, and passenger Roy Milton Jones said the man who boarded the bus was wearing a jacket. Jones said the jacket was LIGHT BLUE in color. Interestingly, the cab driver initially said the man who rode in his cab during the time in question was wearing a faded BLUE jacket. The WC said the man in both instances was Oswald, but the commission also insisted Oswald wasn't wearing a jacket after he left the Book Depository. The commission had to deny the accounts of a light blue jacket because it claimed Oswald left his blue jacket at work that day, where it was "found" WEEKS later, and because that jacket was not light blue. (WCR p. 163).
Roy Milton Jones described this man as follows: Races White Sex. Male Age. 30-35 Height. 5'11" Weight. 150 Builds Medium Remarks. wore no glasses and no hat Hairs. Dark brown, receding at temples Dress. Light blue jacket and gray khaki trousers
Mary Bledsoe describes Oswald's shirt, that is was undone, dirty, had a hole in the sleeve at the elbow. Why is Bledsoe the only one who notices this?
Only Bledsoe described such a shirt. No one else who saw Oswald that day referred to Oswald as wearing a ripped or torn shirt.
McWatters and Jones said Oswald was wearing a jacket. (2H 264;277, CE 2641, also Meagher p.81) McWatters thought he was identifying a man who most closely resembled Jones.
McWatters testifies, "...he was the shortest man in the lineup...and the lightest weight one...the rest of them were larger men....he kind of had a thin like face and he weighs less than any of them...I really thought he was the man who was on the bus...that stayed on the bus." (2H281)
Mr. Ball.- "Were you under the impression that this man that you saw in the lineup and whom you pointed out to the police, was the teenage boy who had been grinning?"
Mr. McWatters.- "I was, yes, sir;"
Bledsoe never went to a line up. She identified Oswald from photographs shown to her by the Dallas police of Oswald holding a gun. ( Meagher p. 80)
Only Bledsoe gives the condition of his shirt as undone, ripped, torn, dirty, and missing buttons. If Jones and McWatters saw Ozzie wearing a jacket then how did Bledsoe see the shirt? Was she on a different bus altogether?
Mr. Ball - "What bus did you catch?"
Mrs. Bledsoe - "Well, I don't remember whether it was the Marsalis or the Romana."
Later counsel asks this pointed question:
Mr. Ball. - "Did you remember seeing him get on or are you telling me something you read in the newspapers?" <6H410>
Then comes this exchange about the shirt:
Mr. Ball.- No, I am talking about---I am showing you this shirt now, and you said, "That is it." You mean---What do you mean by "that is it"?
Mrs. Bledsoe.- That is the one he had out there that day?
Mr. Ball.- Who had it out there?
Mrs. Bledsoe.- Some Secret Service man.
Mr. Ball.- He brought it out. Now, I am---you have seen this shirt then before?
Mrs. Bledsoe.- Yes.
Mr. Ball.- It was brought out by the Secret Service man and shown to you?
Mrs. Bledsoe.- Yes.
Mr. Ball.- Had you ever seen the shirt before that?
Mrs. Bledsoe.- Well---
Mr. Ball.- Have you?
Mrs. Bledsoe.- No; he had it on, though. (6H413)
To recap; Oswald is said to be on the bus with Bledsoe, then goes home and changes his clothes, takes off ripped torn shirt (WCR 604-605, 622), gets arrested and somehow has on the same ripped torn dirty shirt which is shown to Bledsoe. Right.
More plausible Oswald did not go home he rode by bus all the way to the theater. He wore only the clothes he had on when he left work, the same clothes he was arrested in.
Or... in a Rambler. Oswald was under the impression that he left Dealey Plaza in "Mrs. Paine's" station wagon. Bert Sugar and Sybil Leek apparently had information that Paine borrowed a car similar to the one seen in Dealey Plaza. What was not mentioned, however, was that they claimed she "sometimes borrowed" the car from Jack Ruby. 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IN THE CAB?
Cabdriver William Whaley, who reportedly drove Oswald home from downtown Dallas. Whaley identified the gray jacket as the one Oswald was wearing in his cab.
Yet the Warren Commission, based on testimony from Earlene Roberts, stated that Oswald put on the jacket AFTER arriving at his lodgings.
At the police lineup, Whaley picked out eighteen-year-old David Knapp instead of twenty-four-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald ( Knapp did not even resemble Oswald). Whaley had said that Oswald was number two in the lineup he witnessed. The numbers were from left to right and clearly visible; each man in the lineup had a number that was clearly visible to the man trying to identify the ‘suspect’. The Commission, however, said that Oswald was number three. Trying to explain this problem (this really meant that he didn’t identify Oswald but the man next to him), he said that he had counted from the right to the left, ignoring the numbers that were put there to aid identification (why make it easy when it can be done in a more difficult way?). This could mean, of course, he identified number 5, since he believed there were six people in that lineup.
Mr. Ball. Did you notice how he was dressed? Mr. Whaley. Yes, sir. I didn't pay much attention to it right then. But it all came back when I really found out who I had. He was dressed in just ordinary work clothes. It wasn't khaki pants but they were khaki material, blue faded blue color, like a blue uniform made in khaki. Then he had on a brown shirt with a little silverlike stripe on it and he had on some kind of jacket, I didn't notice very close but I think it was a work jacket that ALMOST MATCHED THE PANTS (EMPHASIS MINE- MEANING A FADED BLUE JACKET). He, his shirt was open three buttons down here. He had on a T-shirt. You know, the shirt was open three buttons down there.
Whaley’s identity as the man who drove that taxi, however, is not an ‘open and shut’ issue. Henry Wade said that man was “Darryl Click”. The mistake was explained as Wade having misunderstood “Oak Cliff” as the name of the cabdriver. On November 27, Click became Whaley. Another cabdriver, Charles Kimerlin, however, would later say he was the man who took Oswald to his boardinghouse.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whaley and TWO jackets?
Mr. Ball. Here is Commission No. 162 which is a gray jacket with zipper. Mr. Whaley. I thank that is the jacket he had on when he rode with me in the cab. Mr. Ball. Look something like it? And here is Commission Exhibit No. 163, does this look like anything he had on? Mr. Whaley. He had this one on or the other one. Mr. Ball. That is right. Mr. Whaley. That is what I told you I noticed. I told you about the shirt being open, he had on the TWO JACKETS with the open shirt. Mr. Ball. Wait a minute, we have got the shirt which you have identified as the rust brown shirt with the GOLD stripe in it. Mr. Whaley. Yes, sir. Mr. Ball. You said that a jacket-- Mr. Whaley. That jacket now it might have been clean, but the jacket he had on looked more the color, you know like a uniform set, but he had this coat here on over that other jacket, I am sure, sir. Mr. Ball. This is the blue-gray jacket, heavy blue-gray jacket. Mr. Whaley. Yes, sir. (EMPHASIS MINE)
How accommidating Mr. Whaley is. So it was both jackets, or either jacket, you choose Mr. Ball, but it still did not match exactly. Even the shirt changed from silver striped to a gold striped one!
---------------------------------------------------------------- Per FBI report: MARINA OSWALD was interviewed at 11611 Farrar, A faded blue cloth Jacket with padding bearing label "Sir Jac" with zipper front was exhibited to MARINA. She immediately identified this jacket as being the property of her husband, LEE HARVEY OSWALD. She said she recognized the jacket because she has handled it and washed it for OSWALD.
Does this dark blue jacket look faded? Why is the FBI altering the description of this jacket?
picture of LHO dark blue jacket* (SORRY, NO PHOTO)..
.[NOTE TO READERS: HERE IS WHAT ONE INTERNET SITE SHOWS--THE DISCARDED WHITE JACKET--WHICH THIS SITE SAYS LEE OSWALD WAS WEARING WHEN HE WAS ARRESTED --JUST ANOTHER LIE FOR THE NEWBIES OUT THERE:
Researcher Gil Jesus has some interesting comments to make about the Cab driver, Whaley, who said Lee rode with him:
Whaley's Description of His Passenger
One of the more obvious examples of Whaley's lack of credibility comes in his description of the clothing of the passenger who the Commission claimed was Oswald.
"He was dressed in just ordinary work clothes. It wasn't khaki pants but they were khaki material, blue faded blue color, like a blue uniform made in khaki. Then he had on a brown shirt with a little silverlike stripe on it and he had on some kind of jacket, I didn't notice very close but I think it was a work jacket that almost matched the pants. ( 2 H 255 )
But shortly later in his testimony, Whaley changed his mind about the blue faded work pants and identified Commission Exhibit 157, Oswald's light grey pants, as the same color as the pants his passenger wore:
Mr. BALL. Here are two pair of pants, Commission Exhibit No. 157 and Commission Exhibit No. 156. Does it look anything like that? Mr. WHALEY. I don't think I can identify the pants except they were the same color as that, sir. Mr. BALL. Which color? Mr. WHALEY. More like this lighter color, at least they were cleaner or something. Mr. BALL. That is 157? Mr. WHALEY. Yes, sir.
( 2 H 259-260 )
[and here are the two jackets attributed to Lee that Gil Jesus posts:
here are the pants in question:
---------------------------------------------------------------- Returning to the Essay by Ed LeDoux:
Testifying to the Warren Commission, Earlene Roberts said:
"He (Oswald) went to his room and he was in his shirt sleeves...and he got a jacket and put it on - it was kind of a zipper jacket."
Mr. Ball.- "You say he put on a separate jacket?"
Mrs. Roberts.- "A jacket."
Mr. BALL.- "I'll show you this jacket which is Commission Exhibit 162---have you ever seen this jacket before?"
Mrs. Roberts.- "Well, maybe I have, but I don't remember it. It seems like the one he put on was darker than that. Now, I won't be sure, because I really don't know, but is that a zipper jacket?"
Ruby associate Bertha Cheek was the sister of Earlene Roberts, the housekeeper at Oswald's rooming house. Ruby and Mrs. Cheek could have been involved in Cuban arms sales of which Oswald gained knowledge through his efforts to infiltrate the anti-Castro Cubans." 2 Mrs. Cheek was the sister of Earlene Roberts, housekeeper at 1026 N. Beckley, where Oswald was living at the time of the assassination. 3
Barbara Davis, another witness at the Tippit slaying, also could not identify Oswald's gray jacket to the Warren Commission. In fact, she stated the killer wore- "a dark coat...it looked like it was maybe a wool fabric...more of a sporting jacket."
Cabdriver William Scoggins also failed to identify Oswald's jacket, saying,-"I thought it was a little darker."
Despite these problems of identification, the Commission went right on asserting that the jacket belonged to Oswald.
Virginia Davis did not see a gray jacket. Mr. BELIN.- "Do you remember what he had on?" Mrs. DAVIS.- "He had on a light-brown-tan jacket." Mr. BELIN.- "Do you remember what color his trousers were?" Mrs. DAVIS.- "I think they were black. Brown jacket and trousers."
Ted Callaway ran from the car lot and saw the man with the gun. What does he say about the jacket?
Mr. Callaway.- "I told them he had some dark trousers and a light TANNISH gray windbreaker jacket, and I told him that he was fair complexion, dark hair."
Mr. Ball.- "I have a jacket here Commission's Exhibit No. 162. Does this look anything like the jacket that the man had on that you saw across the street with a gun?"
Mr. Callaway.- "Yes; it sure does. Yes, that is the same TYPE jacket. Actually, I thought it had a little more TAN to it." (EMPHASIS MINE)
More Commission deception occurred in its reporting of the discovery of the jacket. The Warren Report stated:
"Police Capt. W.R. Westbrook...walked through the parking lot behind the service station and found a light-colored jacket lying under the rear of one of the cars."
However, in his testimony, Westbrook was asked if he found some clothing.
He replied:
"Actually, I didn't find it - it was pointed out to me by... some officer..."
According to the Dallas Police Radio log, a "white jacket" was found by "279 (Unknown)" a full 15 minutes before Westbrook arrived on the scene. The Commission made no effort to determine who really found the jacket, if a jacket was actually found or if it was a white jacket which only later was transformed into Oswald's gray jacket. Recently, the owner of the Texaco station where the jacket reportedly was found told Texas researchers that no one - neither the FBI, Dallas police nor the Warren Commission - ever questioned him or his employees about this important piece of evidence. In addition, the jacket identified by federal authorities as belonging to Oswald carried inside a laundry mark "30 030" and a dry-cleaning tag "B 9738." A full-scale search by the FBI in both Dallas and New Orleans failed to identify any laundry or dry cleaners using those marks. (a fact not mentioned in the WC report) Oswald's wife, Marina, testified she could not recall her husband ever sending his jackets to a cleaning establishment, but that she did recall washing them herself. (CE 1843).
Yet in CE 3000 Leslie Lawson, the owner/manager of Gray's Cleaners, 1209 Eldorado, Oak Cliff, (that location is only a hundred yards from Oswald's rooming house) stated that he has seen Lee Harvey Oswald on one particular occasion and possibly on other occasions. Mr Lawson said that approximately a month earlier, Oswald handed in a tie, white shirt and black pair of trousers for cleaning. Two days later, when Oswald called to collect these items, he had been charged $1.25 and had complained about being charged 25 cents for the cleaning of his tie.
Lawson stated that he had seen Oswald at Reno's Speed Wash. A former Reno's employee, Joseph Johnson, was interviewed by the FBI on 28th July 1964 and stated that on the evening of 20th or 21st November 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was 'washing laundry at Reno's Speed Wash. Oswald remained there, reading magazines, until midnight. (CE 3001) Further investigation by the FBI turned up no laundry or dry-cleaning tags on any of Oswald's other clothing, and did not connect the laundry tag to any establishment.
If the jacket doesn't fit.
Oswald wore a size "small" shirt and jacket, all his clothes are size small, the "jacket" is a MEDIUM size, which adds to the suspicion that it was not his jacket. . If he had attorney Johnnie Cochran to represent him can you imagine what he would say?(sARCASM MINE)
Officer J. M. Poe interviewed Mrs. Markham, she told him Tippit's killer had bushy hair. She said the killer was "a white male about 25 years old, 5'10", slender build, bushy hair, wearing a brown jacket" (Myers, With Malice, p. 118, emphasis added). The jacket that the police claimed Oswald discarded after allegedly shooting Tippit wasn't even close to being brown in color. The police initially said the jacket they reportedly "found" was white. The jacket that was finally submitted as evidence was gray with a slight touch of blue.
Mr. BALL. Did he have a jacket or a shirt? The man that you saw shoot Officer Tippit and run away, did you notice if he had a jacket on?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had a jacket on when he done it.
Mr. BALL. What kind of a jacket, what general color of jacket?
Mrs. MARKHAM. It was a short jacket open in the front, kind of a grayish tan.
Mr. BALL. Did you tell the police that?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, I did.
Comment: But the first police radio report on Tippit's killer, which was supposedly based at least partly on Mrs. Markham's description, said he was wearing a white jacket (CE 1974; Meagher, Accessories After the Fact, p. 272). In fact, three minutes after this report went out over the air, a police officer, who remains unidentified to this day, radios that he had the killer's white jacket in his possession. It would have been very hard to mistake Oswald's gray jacket for a white jacket after holding it and having a chance to look at for even just a few seconds.
To add to the confusion, one of the witnesses, Barbara Davis, said Tippit's killer was wearing a black coat. Is it not odd, and in fact astounding, that the "policeman" who allegedly "discovered" the killer's coat has never been identified (see Meagher, Accessories After the Fact, pp. 276-279; Lane, Rush to Judgment, pp. 203-204)?
Mr. BALL. Does it look like, anything like, the jacket the man had on?
Mrs. MARKHAM. It is short, open down the front. but that jacket it is a darker jacket than that, I know it was.
Mr. BALL. You don't think it was as light a jacket as that?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, it was darker than that, I know it was.....
to Mark Lane:
Jacket :LIGHT GRAY looking jacket Trousers :kind of dark trousers Shirt :didn't see colour of shirt
in the men who killed kennedy (with her emphasis that she can exactly remember)
"We were met by a white female who identified herself as being Helen Marsalle, 328 E. 9th St., who stated she witnessed the shooting of the officer. When she went to his aid the suspect threatened to kill her and she ran. She identified the subject as a white male about 25 years old, 5'10", slender build, bushy hair, wearing a BROWN jacket"... "There were approximately six to eight witnesses, all telling officers that the subject was running west in the alley between tenth and Jefferson Streets"
Later in the day, Poe filed a Supplementary Offense report (Box 7, Folder # 2, Item # 37). Here he wrote:
"We were met by a white woman who identified herself as being Helen Marsille of 329 E. 9th Street who stated that she witnessed the shooting of the officer be an unknown white male of about 25 years of age about 5'10" wearing a BROWN jacket and dark pants. When she went to the aid of the Officer, the suspect threatened to kill her"... "6 or 7 witnesses said that the suspect was running east in the alley that was between Tenth and Jefferson".
Here is radio transcript that shows when poe got to the scene:
1:22 Dispatcher Remain in the downtown vicinity, 26. Clear. 1:22. 26 (Ptm. G.W. Hammond) 10-4. 75 (Ptm. E.G. Sabastian) 75 Clear. 85 (Ptm. R.W. Walker) 85. Dispatcher 85. 85 We have a description on this suspect over here on Jefferson. Last seen about 300 block of East Jefferson. He's a white male, about thirty, five eight, (siren) black hair, slender, wearing WHITE jacket, a white shirt and dark slacks. (Sirens) Dispatcher Armed with what? 85 Unknown. 602 (ambulance) 602 in service. 105 (Ptm. J.M. Poe and L.E. Joz) 105. Dispatcher 105. 105 We're at the location now. Dispatcher 10-4.
So its Walker(85) who gives out description of white jacket before Poe talks to Markham.
------------------------------------------------------------------ The following exchange is logged at about 1:25 p.m.
279 (Unknown): "279, 279."
Dispatcher: "279" (Unknown).
279 (Unknown): "We believe we've got the suspect on shooting this officer out here. Got his white jacket. Believe he dumped it on this parking lot behind this service station at 400 block East Jefferson, across from Dudley Hughes (Funeral Parlor), and he had a white jacket on. We believe this is it."
Dispatcher: "You do not have the suspect, is that correct?"
279 (Unknown): "No, just the jacket on the ground."
per Ian Griggs: "Incidentally, radio call sign 279 is one of the difficult ones. It appears that it was allocated to at least two officers that day - three-wheel motorcyle officers J.R. Mackey and J.T. Griffin."
I agree the Lawrence exhibit (wh20) shows it assigned to both officers that day and shift. Why does not the other respond when he hears his number being used by the other? Griffin on parking duty and Mackey was at Stemmons Service Road & Industrial with W.E. Wilson and R.J. Kosan.
Calvin “Bud” Owens, Tippit’s supervisor from 10H79
Mr. OWENS. Yes--we were informed by a man whom I do not know, that the suspect that shot Officer Tippit had run across a vacant lot toward Jefferson, and thrown down his jacket, I think he said, WHITE, I'm not sure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At 1:40PM Westbrook transmitted -
"We got a witness that saw him shed his jacket."
Did Westbrook ever tell us who this witness was who saw the jacket shed by the suspect? No.
Captain Westbrook's testimony at 7H 116-118: "Yes; behind the Texaco service station, and some officer, I feel sure it was an officer, I still can't be positive - pointed this jacket out to me and it was laying slightly under the rear of one of the cars."
Now we find out it the witness maybe an officer but he is not sure who pointed it out.
Mr. BELIN. I am showing you Commission Exhibit 162, which appears to be a jacket with a zipper. Does that look like the Jacket you saw? Mr. HUTSON. That looks like the jacket that was picked up by the officer behind the Texaco service station, behind the cars parked on the lot.
Mr. BELIN. Do you know the name of the officer that found it? Mr. HUTSON. No, sir; I don't know. Mr. BELIN. Do you know who he gave it to? Mr. HUTSON. No, sir; I don't. Mr. BELIN. You don't know if he gave it to Captain Westbrook? Mr. HUTSON. I don't know. Captain Westbrook was there behind the house with us, and he was there at the time this was picked up with the man, but I don't know who had it in their hands.
Interrogations of Oswald do not mention any jacket; nothing in the official record indicates he was questioned about or confronted with the white jacket by the DPD, FBI or SEcret service. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ IN THE TSBD?
Marion Baker said in his report, "...as we reached the third or fourth floor I saw a man walking away from the stairway. Not second. Third or fourth. No lunchroom. No door with a glass panel. Just walking away from the stairway.
With regard to a description of this person, Baker said it was "a white man, approx 30 years old/5'9"/165 pounds, dark hair and wearing a LIGHT BROWN jacket."
Not a description of LHO, but one fitting Brennean's and Rowland's description of the man they saw. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- More witnesses
Frank Wright in interview.
Wright;"I was the first person out, and caught sight of Tippit in time to see him roll over once and then lie still." I saw a man standing in front of the car(Tippits) He was looking toward the man on the ground, the man who was standing in front of him(Tippit) was about medium height. He had on a LONG COAT, it ended just above his hands(?)I didnt see any gun. he ran around on the passenger side of the police car, he ran as fast as he could go, and GOT INTO HIS CAR, the car was about 1950-1951, maybe a Plymouth. He got in that car and drove away as fast as he could. I know what I saw, nothing in the world is going to change my opinion." (emphasis Wright's)
Jimmy Burt, across the street from the construction site where W.L Smith was working, watched the same man as he came from the direction of the Town and Country Cafe and continued walking west on 10th. Burt described him as a white male, approximately 5'8", wearing a light colored short jacket (interview of Burt by SA Christianson and Acklin 12/16/63). Burt watched as the man passed them and continued walking west toward Patton. As the man approached Tippit's patrol car, Tippit rolled down his passenger side car window and spoke to this man.
William Arthur Smith was with Burt at the time and described the same man seen by he and Burt as "a white male, about 5'7" to 5'8", 20 to 25 years of age, 150-160, a white shirt, light BROWN jacket and dark pants (interview of Smith by SA Ward and Basham 12/13/63). Both Burt and Smith watched this unknown man as he walked toward Patton, approached the squad car, spoke with Tippit, and then shot him. (emphasis mine)
Jack Roy Tatum was driving east on 10th St. As he "approached the squad car, he noticed this young white male with both hands in the pockets of his zippered jacket leaning over the passenger side of the squad car". "It looked as if Oswald and Tippit were talking to each other. There was conversation. It did seem peaceful." Tatum swore "he had on a light colored zipper jacket, dark trousers and what looked like a t-shirt on". He also remembered Oswald "as having dark hair, dark eyes of medium build and around 5'10". At the point where Tatum drove slowly past Tippit's squad car, he was less than 10 ft from Oswald. Tatum did not see Oswald wearing a brown shirt, just a white T-shirt (HSCA --- Moriarty 2/1/78)
Ted Callaway described Oswald to DPD Officer HW Summers as "white male, 27, 5'11",165 lbs, black wavy hair, fair complected, wearing LIGHT GRAY Eisenhower type jacket, dark trousers and a white shirt" (CE 705, pg 27). When interviewed many years later, Callaway again said "he had on a WHITE Eisenhower type jacket and a white T-shirt" --- again no brown shirt, just a white T-shirt.(emphasis mine)
Mary Brock was the next person who identified Oswald's clothing. She said Oswald was wearing "light clothing, a light colored jacket and with his hands in his pocket" (interview of Brock by SA Kesler and Mitchem 1/22/64).
FBI statement of Mary Brock: "The man wearing a WHITE shirt AND jacket hurried west on Jefferson and passed the Ballew Texaco Station. Mary Brock said an individual with a "light complexion" and wearing "light clothing" walked passed her at a fast pace with his hands in his pockets." (emphasis mine)
DPD dispatch 1:22 PM: Last seen about the 300 block East Jefferson. He's a white male about 30 5'8". Black hair, slender, wearing a WHITE jacket, white shirt and dark slacks.
DPD dispatch 1:33 PM: w/m/30 5'8", very slender build, black hair, a WHITE jacket, white shirt and dark slacks. (emphasis mine)
The police broadcast of Tippit's killer described him as a "white male, 5'8", black hair, wearing a white jacket and shirt." Oswald passed Hardy's Shoe store and slipped into to the Texas Theater. Julia Postal, the cashier, called the police. Police broadcasts reported the suspect in the balcony of the theater. When the police arrived, they were told by a "young female", probably Julia Postal, that the man was in the balcony. All policemen who entered the front of the theater went to the balcony. They were questioning a young man when more police entered the main floor of the theater from the rear entrance.
They were looking for a man in a white shirt and white jacket in the balcony, but they arrested a man on the main floor wearing a brown shirt. Captain Westbrook told the officers to "get him out of here as fast as you can and don't let anybody see him". Harvey Oswald was brought out the front entrance, placed in a police car and escorted to jail.
The police homicide report of Tippit's murder read "suspect was later arrested in the balcony of the Texas neater at 231 W. Jefferson". Detective Stringfellow's report states "Oswald was arrested in the balcony of the Texas Theater". But the man in the balcony was not arrested. He may have been escorted out the rear of the theater and driven away in a police car. Bernard Haire, owner of a hobby shop two doors from the theater, witnessed this event. For 25 years Mr. Haire and other witnesses thought they had witnessed the arrest of Oswald at the rear of the Texas Theater. Who was this person if not Lee Oswald? Three police officers were directed to obtain the names and addresses of all theater patrons, but no list exists. There is no police report, no record of arrest, nor mention of any person taken from the rear of the theater.
Mr. Ball. Were you the senior officer there? Mr. Westbrook. Possibly--I don't think there was another captain there. There was a lieutenant and then I ordered all of them to be sure and take the names of everyone in the theatre at that time. Mr. Ball. We have asked for names of people in the theatre and we have only come up with the name of George Applin. Do you know of any others? Mr. Westbrook. He possibly might have been the only one in there at the time the rest of them might have been working there, because I'm sure at that time of day you would have more employees than you would have patrons. Mr. Ball. You didn't take the names of any of the patrons? Mr. Westbrook. No, Sir.
Mr. Ely. Yes; I have one. Captain, you mentioned that you had left orders for somebody to take the names of everybody in the theatre, and you also stated you did not have this list; do you know who has it? Mr. Westbrook. No; possibly Lieutenant Cunningham will know, but I don't know who has the list.
From a FBI report: Lieutenant CARL DAY of the Dallas Police Department furnished a rifle slug which, according to his records, had come from the residence of General EDWIN A . WALKER, 4811 Turtle Creek, Dallas, Texas, on April 10, 1963, being contributed by Detective D.G. Brown . _-The slug was identified by a cross and the word, "DAY" which Lieutenant DAY stated he had placed on the slug . He advised that Detective D.G. Brown had been at the WALKER home and had obtained the slug from an officer, whose identity he does not know, but whose identity is known to Lieutenant CUNNINGHAM of the Forgery Bureau of the Dallas Police Department .
So if you don't know something, blame it on Cunningham? Was he ever questioned by the WC? NO.
Out of twenty odd witnesses in the theater we are left with Evangelist Jack Davis, and two other witness in the theater at the time, only because they testified, George Applin & John Gibson.
P.S.: Dr Liquori certified Tippit dead at 1:15 PM. That was at Methodist Hospital! per R.A. Davenport's report (note he changed it from 1:00 to 1:15 by typing over the :00)
picture of changed report by Davenport*
Per E.E. Taylor report: I along with Lt. Cunningham and J.B. Toney remained at the theater and took the names and addresses of the occupants of the theater.
But several witnesses placed Oswald, wearing a brown shirt, in the Texas Theater at 1:15, not at 10th and Patton. Theater concession operator Butch Burroughs sold Oswald popcorn at 1:15. Dallas Evangelist Jack Davis said Oswald was sitting next to him while the opening credits to the movie were running--at 1:20 p.m. Perhaps some of the twenty four theater patrons would have remembered Oswald, but a list of their names and addresses, taken by Dallas Police, disappeared.
4:45 PM At a Lineup for Helen Markham, Witness to Tippit Murder Oswald said:
"It isn't right to put me in line with these teenagers. . . . You know what you are doing, and you are trying to railroad me. . . . I want my lawyer. . . . You are doing me an injustice by putting me out there dressed different than these other men. . . . I am out there, the only one with a bruise on his head. . . . I don t believe the lineup is fair, and I desire to put on a jacket similar to those worn by some of the other individuals in the lineup. . . . All of you have a shirt on, and I have a T-shirt on. I want a shirt or something. . . . This T-shirt is unfair." (what jackets did the others "cops" have on, what color?) Why would Oswald want to wear a jacket if he had discarded the one he was wearing when he shot Tippit? And why didn't police facilitate the identification process by making him wear the "WHITE" jacket in the lineups?
In the end there was "No jacket", "One jacket", "Two jackets" and was "Black", "Brown", "Tan", "Blue", "Light Blue", "Grey", "Blue-Gray" and lastly "White."
As the saying goes "The FBI always gets their man" no matter what he is wearing,4
or what color................With all this, in addition to a broken chain of evidence, the jacket cannot be considered evidence of Oswald's guilt in the killing of Officer Tippit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Steve Thomas, Ian Griggs, Joseph Backes, Todd Teachout and others for your research efforts as this did help me with this multiple-multi-colored jacket phenomenon.
Ed
"Now facts are all very well but they have their little weaknesses. Americans often assume that Facts are solid, concrete (and discrete) objects like marbles, but they are very much not. Rather they are subtle essences, full of mystery and metaphysics, that change their color and shape, their meaning, according to the context in which they are presented. They must always be treated with skepticism, and the standard of judgment should not be how many Facts one can mobilize in support of a position but how skillfully one discriminates between them, how objectively one uses them to arrive at Truth, which is something different from, though not unrelated to, the Facts."—Macdonald, Critique of the Warren Report, Esquire, March 1965, p. 61.
