Business as usual or meet the lone gunman(UA-66627984-1)

Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald being searched

Lee Harvey Oswald being searched

 

This article is derived from my up and coming update to the Anatomy of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Interrogations paper, which will be released in Q2 2022.

Since my work with the records of Malcolm Blunt’s archives beginning in Feb. 2019 I have come across many interesting documents which have enabled me to piece a few extraordinary things together. I had no intention of writing about Lee Harvey Oswald being searched until the find of some statements that cause a contradiction too significant to ignore.

Left to right: ? – Richard Sims – Lee Harvey Oswald – Marlin G Hall (partially obscured) – Elmer Boyd. Click pic to enlarge.

The so called official picture is described in a joint report from detectives Richard Sims and Elmer Boyd it states that “Boyd searched Oswald and found five live rounds of .38 caliber revolver pistol shells in his front left pocket. Sims found a bus transfer slip in Oswald’s shirt pocket”  The shirt Oswald allegedly changed into after arriving at his North beckley home. What would be the point of taking that ticket with him?

Joint report Elmer Boyd & Richard Sims. From: UNT. Click pic to enlarge.

 

In the Will Fritz report from Nov 22 1963 (page 7), Boyd and Sims are mentioned as well. As a side note I am amazed at the speed this DPD report apparently has been produced on the very same day of the assassination, as many reports were not produced days if not weeks after the fact.

Case Report on Lee Harvey Oswald by J. W. Fritz. From UNT. Click to enlarge.

The FBI has a statement from Richard Sims as well, on Nov 25th he states:

FBI – Richard Sims Nov 25 h1963. Click to enlarge.

Elmer Boyd’s Warren Commission testimony which contains two passages with regards to the matter at hand. I shall paste in below the relevant text of it. First of all from page 8.

Mr. BILL. Before you went into the showup, did you search Oswald?
Mr. BOYD. Yes; I did.
Mr. BALL. And what did you find?
Mr. BOYD. I found five .38 shells, I believe it was five.
Mr. BALL. Live? Live shells?
Mr. Born. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. What did you do with them?
Nr. BOYD. Well, I put them in an envelope and put them with the rest of the property up there to be turned in.
Mr. BALL. Did you put any mark on them?
Mr. BOYD. Let me see-1 can look and see.
Mr. BALL. I will show you Commission Exhibit 592 in an envelope, will you take a look at that-at the cartridges?
Mr. BOYD. Yes-1 got my mark on them.
Mr. BALL. You have your mark on all five of them?
Mr. BOYD. I have my mark on the first three-yes, sir-1 have my mark on all of them.
Mr. BALL. On all five of them?
Mr. BOYD. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. You put those marks on there, did you?
Mr. BOYD. Yes, I did.
Mr. BALL. Now, looking those cartridges over, can you tell me whether these five cartridges, which constitute Commission Exhibit 592, are the cartridges which you took from Oswald?
Mr. BOYD. Yes; they are.
Mr. BALL. And where were you when you put the mark on them?
Mr. BOYD. I was back up in my o5ce.
Mr. BAILL. When you first took them from Oswald, where did you put them?
Mr. BOYD. I put them in my pocket.
Mr. BALL. And after you were back in the office, you put a mark on them, did you ?
Mr. BOYD. Yes.
Mr. BALL. And turned them over to whom?
Mr. BOYD. Well, let me see-it seems like we had a drawer there where we had some more property, where we put it all in there-you know, where they had the other stuff-I have forgotten just exactly where it would be.
Mr. BALL. You turned them over to someone in the police department?
Mr. BOYD. Yes, sir.

Elmer Boyd with Lee harvey Oswald after his first interrogation. Oswald raised his cuffed hands by request of the photographers. Click to enlarge.

Then on page 18 of the same PDF document.

Mr. BALL. When you participated in the search of Oswald and found five pistol cartridges in his pants pocket, was there any discussion of these bullets with him; did he say anything, or did you say anything to him about it?
Mr. BOYD. I just asked him, “What were they doing in there,” and he said, “I just had them in my pocket.”
Mr. STERN. The memorandum mentions the cartridges-bus transfer, except that he had a ring on his finger which he took off and he gave it to Mr. Sims, Do you remember any other items that he had that you got from him during this search?
Mr. BOYD. No, sir; I know that Mr. Sims did get the bus transfer and took his ring. He took his ring off and give it to Mr. Sims, and I got those five shells, and that’s all that I recall being taken from him.

Then there is Detective Richard Sims, who during his WC testimony on pages 16 & 17 says:

Mr. BALL. When you participated in the search of Oswald and found five pistol cartridges in his pants pocket, was there any discussion of these bullets with him; did he say anything, or did you say anything to him about it?
Mr. BOYD. I just asked him, “What were they doing in there,” and he said, “I just had them in my pocket.”
Mr. STERN. The memorandum mentions the cartridges-bus transfer, except that he had a ring on his finger which he took off and he gave it to Mr. Sims, Do you remember any other ite,ms that he had that you got from him during this search?
Mr. BOYD. No, sir; I know that Mr. Sims did get the bus transfer and took his ring. He took his ring off and give it to Mr. Sims, and Mr. BALL. R’ow, during this time, or sometime during this period-sometime between these three showups, you searched Oswald, didn’t you?
Mr. SIMS The first one; yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. And that was what time?
Mr. SIMS. It was 4:05, I believe, but I will have to check my record here and see [checking his record referred to].
Mr. BALL. That was after the second showup?
Mr. SIMS. So, sir; the first one.
Mr. BALL. After the first showup?
Mr. SIMS. It was before the first showup.
Mr. BALL. It was before the first showup the 4:05?
Mr. SIMS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. And that was after the first interrogation?
Mr. SIMS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. And where were you when you first searched him?
Mr. SIMS We was in the holdover, in other words, the showup room.
Mr. BALL. When you took Oswald down for the first showup and waited in the room outside, the showup room, you searched him?
Mr. SIMS. Yes; Boyd and I.
Mr. BALL. What did you find?
Mr. SIMS. I found a bus transfer slip in his shirt pocket.
Mr. BALL. And what else?
Mr. SIMS Well, Boyd found some .38 cartridges in his pocket.
Mr. BALL. How many?
Mr. SIMS. I don’t know-1 have it here I believe it’s five rounds of .38 caliber pistol shells in his left front pocket.
Mr. BALL. Left-front shirt pocket?
Mr. SIXS. No, sir ; they were in his pants pocket.
Mr. BALL. Left front?
Mr. SIMS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Where was the transfer?
Mr. SIMS. The transfer was in his shirt pocket.
Mr. BALL. Would that be on the left side, I suppose?
Mr. SIMS. I don’t know if he’s got two pockets or not.
Mr. BALL. Let’s take a look at it.
Mr. SIMS. (Examined Exhibit hereinafter referred to).
Mr. BALL. Commission Exhibit 150 is being exhibited for the witness’ examination.
Mr. SIGHS. Well, he’s got two pockets in here and let’s see if I have it on herewhat pocket it was-1 didn’t say-1 don’t remember what pocket he had that in.
Mr. BALL. What did you do with the transfer?
Mr. SIMS. I went back up to the office and I believe initialed it and placed it in an envelope for identification.
Mr. BALL. Who did you turn it over to?
Mr. SIMS. I don’t remember.
Mr. BALL. You don’t remember?
Mr. SIMS. No, sir ; it was either in the lieutenant’s desk or Captain Fritz’ desk.
Mr. BALL. Lieutenant who?
Mr. SIMS. We have two in there-Lieutenant Wells and Lieutenant Bohart.
Mr. BALL. And what about the five rounds of live ammunition, what did you do with those?
Mr. SIGHS. It was also placed in the envelope.
Mr. BALL. And turned over to whom-Fritz?
Mr. SIMS. I don’t know who that was turned over to.
Mr. BALL. Did you ever talk to a busdriver named McWatters?
Mr. SIMS. No, sir ; I remember a busdriver coming up there but I don’t think I talked with him.
Mr. BALL. Did you ever examine the transfer for the punchmark date?
Mr. SIMS. The busdriver did. He identified that as coming from his punchcard.
Mr. BALL. I know, but I want to know about you–did you look at the transfer?
Mr. SIMS. Yes, sir ; I looked at it.
Mr. BALL. Did you look at the date and the time that it was punched on the transfer?
Mr. SIMS I don’t remember if I did or not. I’m sure I looked at it but I don’t remember.
Mr. BALL. You say it was shown to a busdriver and he made some remarks about it ; were you there when it was shown to the busdriver?
Mr. SIMS. No, sir.
Mr. BALL. So, you are just telling me what some other officer told you?
Mr. SINS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. All right.
Mr. SIMS. I didn’t see actually the busdriver, I don’t believe, identify his transfer.
Mr. BALL. Do you know the officer that showed the transfer to the busdriver?
Mr. SIMS. No, sir; I don’t.
Mr. BALL. Did you see any idI got those five shells, and that’s all that I recall being taken from him.

Richard Sims on the far left and Marlin G Hall (eyes closed) while escorting Lee Harvey Oswald. Click to enlarge.

Then later on page 23.

Mr. STERN. Now, the search in which you participated of Oswald at 4:05 on Friday, just before the first show up you have told us that either you or Mr. Boyd found five live rounds of .38 caliber pistol shells, and a bus transfer slip, and an identification bracelet, according to your memorandumOswald took his ring off and gave it to you?
Mr. SIMS. That’s right.
Mr. STERN. Do you recall that?
Mr. SIMS. Yes, sir.
Mr. STERN. Do you remember anything else that was found on Oswald at that time?
Mr. SIMS. No, sir ; I don’t remember anything else.
Mr. STERN. A wallet or identification card?
Mr. SIMS. No, sir ; that had been taken off of him.
Mr. STERN. That had been taken off of him upon his arrest at the time of his arrest?
Mr. SIMS. Well, I don’t know when, but he didn’t have it on.
Mr. STERN. Did you say anything to him at that time about the ownership of these things, about the ownership of the pistol shells-cartridges-did you comment on that ?
Mr. SIMS. No,sir.
Mr. STERN. Did he say anything about it?
Mr. SIMS. No, sir ; there was no comment at all.
Mr. STERN. Or on the bus transfer slip?
Mr. SIMS. No, sir; he was asked something about it, I don’t remember what I asked or what he said.

Besides Boyd and Sims, M.G. Hall was part of the escort of bringing Oswald down (he is spotted in the first three oictures in this article in the background) for the Helen Markham line-up. Hall makes no mention of this so called search that yielded the bus ticket and the five bullets. You would think that these finds would have been noticed or reported as such by Hall, but no…..

DPD statement by Marlin G Hall. From UNT. Click to enlarge.

During my investigations I became aware of a document from the HSCA where Charles Truman Walker is interviewed. And page five Walker states “Being alone in there with him made me think. He could still have a weapon, so I searched him good, but found nothing.” From the way Walker talks you can derive that the search inside the unmarked patrol car

HSCA interview Charles Truman Walker. Click to enlarge.

Charles Truman Walker can be seen in the Stuart Reed photograph below on the left wearing his white cap.

From left to right: DPD patrolman, Charles Truman Walker, Lee Harvey oswald, Paul Bentley and Gerald Hill. Pic: Stuart Reed. Click to enlarge.

That by itself is pretty interesting, but wait there is more.

Paul Bentley, in the photograph above chomping on a cigar and busy posing to secure himself a place in history without any crutches he himself appears with shortly after…

Paul Bentley (Will Fritz partially seen behind him) on crutches in the 3rd floor corridor of City Hall. Posted on Nov 24th in the Chicago Tribune. From Newspapers.com. Click to enlarge.

The FBI report from Feb 3rd 1964.

FBI statement Paul Bentley Feb 3 1964. Thanks to Malcolm Blunt. Click document to enlarge.

Then there is Lt. T.L. Baker who in his undated report on the period Nov 22nd – 24th makes mention of the search on Oswald again as well. Why “again?”

T.L. Baker undated report. From: UNT Click to enlarge.

It is perfect natural to assume that arresting officer(s) search the person they have placed under arrest since it is part of procedure. What is unnatural is to search him two hours after his arrest and the suspect has been interrogated and questioned by quite a few individuals (Gus Rose, Richard Stovall, Will Fritz, Jim Hosty, James Bookhout and Forrest Sorrels). Other researchers have pointed out years ago about the timing of the find of the bullets and the bus ticket. Rightly so, but not produced anything that would prove their case. The Walker HSCA statement did not surface until many years later and the Bentley statement “must have been kept in a drawer”.

This of course has serious consequences for the so called finds of the bus ticket and the actual truth of the bus ride ever happening! More so for the find of the bullets which were part of the revolver ‘found’ on Oswald, as per Gus Rose claims, that Oswald claimed it was tossed to him.

Summer 2021 Update

Summer 2021 Update

 

Ok so this year I did a lot of scanning of Malcolm Blunt’s materials for a soon to be fully accessible archive in Nov 2021. There is a lot of material to plough through if you are a student of certain facets of the JFK Assassination. Law Enforcement Agencies, Committees and various individuals all connected in this case are all well represented in this archive. If you have read a decent amount of books on this matter then this archive can help you gain more additional knowledge.

The work done and still ahead…. Click pic to enlarge. Photo: Bartolomy

By the time of its primary release I think I have about 150.000 pages over about 17,000 PDFs ready to be shared. The work will continue for at least another year with regular updates.

I am going to slow down on scanning for the next few months so I can tidy some bits up in the archives and also put the focus back on my own work and this website. I will put the finishing touches to my forthcoming releases of the four(!) Anatomy papers for starters. They have been dormant for most of this year and some of 2020 as well. I hope to have all this done before the anniversary or it will be a X-Mas release read instead.

In November there will be an article written and photographed by me and published in Garrison Magazine, the article will have exclusive pictures I have made of Malcolm and his archive these past three years.

Malcolm Blunt – Tetbury Apr 2019. Click pic to enlarge. Photo: Bartolomy

I am also creating a set of videos in which Malcolm and I are having a chat about his materials. So far two have been posted and I hope to do a few more over the next few months.

 

Then there are also some talks scheduled such as JFK Lancer, DPUK and Project JFK in November where I will speak in great depth about the above mentioned project and its vast content.

I have some more articles in the pipeline, such as the Minox  camera and Oswald’s fingerprints and once I get my papers finished then I shall be developing those articles as well.

And last but not least the movies, which I hope to make a begin with early next year.

Plenty to get on with.

Best regards.

Bart.

Spaulden Jones Photos at the Sixth Floor Museum

Spaulden Jones Photos at the Sixth Floor Museum

 

Spaulden Jones. Thanks to Phil Hopley.

A few weeks back the Sixth Floor Museum published a set of colour photographs taken by Spaulden Jones inside the Texas School Book Depository. Jones was a regional manager of Macmillan and Company, which were housed on the third floor of the TSBD.  Spaulden Jones believed that he was on the elevator with Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963 at 08:30 as per his notes seen below.

Click pic to enlarge. Photo: Spaulden Jones – Sixth Floor Museum.

The next day on the morning of the 23rd, Jones took a series of color photographs on the sixth floor of the Depository, and it is just amazing to see the so called ‘scene’ in colour for a change.

I like the photo of the two men in the so called sniper’s nest with one on the phone and the other being close to the sniper’s position and is fairly well concealed from view unless from relative closeness which this shot perfectly demonstrates. Those pipes look like a bother for a right handed shooter.

Click pic to enlarge. Photo: Spaulden Jones – Sixth Floor Museum.

Two other photos stood out to me as they were not  taken on the third floor, where the MacMillan office was based inside the TSBD.

They are of the second floor front entrance of the TSBD office of which there is a similar FBI photograph that was published by the Warren Commission in 1964. A quick comparison immediately shows this to be the same front entrance.

Click pic to enlarge. Photo: Spaulden Jones – Sixth Floor Museum.

Click to enlarge. Photo:  Spaulden Jones – Sixth Floor Museum.

 

Second floor office space entrance, click pic to enlarge. From MFF.

I reckon that potential clients of the companies housed inside the TSBD where received through the second floor front entrance. And that also goes for the conference room photo pasted below. There is no other conference room in the building than on the second floor in the back where the upper management such as Jack Cason and Ochus Campbell had their offices. It is nice to see what the conference room looked like. Obviously the books belong to the publishing companies housed on the second, third and fourth floors. No idea of identifying the people in the photographs above the shelf unit are. Nor the Emblem, could be an award?

Click to enlarge. Second floor conference room TSBD. Photo: Spaulden Jones – Sixth Floor Museum.

Click to enlarge. Second floor conference room TSBD, back of image. Photo: Spaulden Jones – Sixth Floor Museum.

And for more clarification I share the 2nd and 3rd floor plans made by the FBI. For some strange reason rooms 302, 303 and 304 are missing on the third floor plans.

Add on April 14th 2023.

Jones also did an Oral History Interview with the Sixth Floor Museum in 1996.

Spaulden Jones being interviewed in April 1996. Pic.: Sixth Floor Museum. Click to enlarge.

During the first ten minutes he explains what he had done during his career and his position inside the TSBD as a manager for MacMillan book publishing company, he worked from the fourth floor and he had six secretaries working for him.

  • He knew Roy Truly very well. Truly was in charge of the physical shipping of the books.
  • Jones was out for lunch with Herbert Junker (one of his sales reps) at the closeby Blue Front restaurant when JFK was killed.
  • They returned to the TSBD straight after hearing the news. His estimation was that about five or ten minutes had passed.
  • He noticed that there was a lot of confusion.
  • He had five of his office ladies down out in front of the TSBD when he returned.
  • When asking them how many shots they had heard many of them could not precisely recall as to how many they thought they had heard. It differed from 2-4 shots.
  • Some of the women were near the front entrance and some were further down Elm St.
  • He was milling around and he mentions meeting Wes Wise, but also a suited gentleman who was holding a shoe box  which contained a piece of Kennedy’s skull and which he saw being handed over.
  • People were listening to their radios where they would hear that the President was at Parkland hospital. But upon seeing that piece of skull Jones had not much faith in JFK still being alive.
  • They, the office people, were let back into the TSBD, but they couldn’t leave.
  • Upon return inside the women were very much upset and before they let anyone go they were being interviewed in their office. Strangely enough he cannot remember who questioned them, only that they were not wearing uniforms. He thinks they were FBI or USSS. The ladies were interviewed first.
  • He mentions seeing and talking to Doris Burns afterwards. They had questioned her already but would not let her go. After which one of the other older ladies remarked “She won’t tell them her age.”
  • When asked what questions he was asked at that time he states: “How many shots did you hear? Where were you standing?”

 

 

With special thanks to Gary Murr (for the drawings) and Ed Ledoux for some additional research.

Bill Alexander – Charles W Webster and the ACLU

Bill Alexander – Charles W Webster and the ACLU.

 

  I was introduced to Charles Webster in a post at ROKC that was started by Greg R Parker entitled “Send Lawyers, Guns and Money  Part 2” and realised I needed to include him in my Anatomy of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Interrogations paper (pages 161-168).

Charles W Webster. Click to enlarge.

Webster was present on the 22nd at the DPD. In what capacity Webster was inside D.P.D. is a bit of a mystery. But through some searching I came across some articles at newspapers.com that show that Charles W Webster was involved with a psychological evaluation of General Edwin Walker. He is also named in that capacity in conjunction with Jack Ruby during his trial for murdering Lee Harvey Oswald.

This may be a stretch but from the information mentioned above I am inclined to think that Webster was around Dallas Police Department’s Robbery & Homicide to observe Lee Harvey Oswald. I have not seen any evidence that he was able to observe him as close as Will Fritz did nor is there any record of him questioning Oswald himself.

It is known that he also had a meeting with Greg Olds of the ACLU, when he, Grier Raggio, Otto Mullinax and L.N.D. Wells Jnr  arrived in the late evening of Nov 22nd. Charles Webster is being mentioned by Greg Olds in his Warren Commission Testimony.

Mr. STERN. Excuse me. Did Captain Fritz say that Oswald did not want counsel at that time, or that he was trying to obtain his own counsel?
Mr. OLDS. What I was told, that he had been given the opportunity and had not made any requests. So, I called our board member back and conferred with him and he suggested that we go down and see about it at the police department, in person, to get further assurances. And he and I and two others of our organization met down there at the Plaza Hotel lobby about 11:15, directly across the street from the police station, and we discussed the matter there, and I called Mayor Earle Cabell at his office, but was told that he was busy at the moment so we went then over to the police station, and we got in there. Let’s see, it was up on the I guess the third or fourth floor, wherever Oswald was being questioned, and Chuck Webster, a lawyer–professor of law, who was known to the other three men with me said he had been there a good part of the time since the assassination, and that–we told him what we were there for, and he said he thought he knew who we could see to get our assurances. Did you have something?
Mr. STERN. No.
Mr. OLDS. We went to–first, we talked-conferred with Captain King, I believe is the right name, who is, I believe, assistant to the chief of police. I’m not sure on that. We all went in with Mr. Webster, and this was shortly after 11:35, or 11:40, and Captain King was, at this time, talking to somebody and said that Oswald had just been charged with the assassination of President Kennedy. He had here earlier been charged with the assassination–I mean the murder of the policeman, Tippit, and we told Captain King what we were there for, and he said, he assured us that Oswald had not made any requests for counsel. And we went outside of the office and went downstairs, at least–I didn’t, but two of the others, I believe, went downstairs to the basement where Justice of the Peace David Johnston was. He was the one that had held the I believe an arraignment, I believe is the right term, at 7:30 when the first charge of murder was filed against Oswald, and he also assured us that there had been an opportunity of–Oswald’s rights had been explained, and he had declined counsel. Said nothing beyond that. I think that was the extent of our inquiry.

Charles W Webster (2nd from left) in 1959. From Legal Center News SMU. Click pic to enlarge.

That is all I have, for now, on Charles Webster around the time of Oswald’s incarceration.

Bill Alexander, an arch conservative or perhaps in today’s terms a right wing extremist had few kind words to say about Charles Webster.

Photo: Fort Worth Star Telegram March 18 1964. From: newspapers.com

From a document that I found in the Malcolm Blunt Archives this is the type of ‘gold’ that is hard to come by. What makes the document below so special is Alexanders abrasiveness. It can be compared to his statement that Earl Warren did not need impeaching, he needed hanging which cost him his job as an assistant DA and from which he went into private practice. That this report is made up by Manning Clements is an interesting side note.

Bill Alexander on Charles W Webster. In a Manning Clements Report. Click pic to enlarge. From the Malcolm Blunt Archives.

Alexander’s baseless remarks are not going very far. From the testimony above nothing indicated that Greg Olds and Charles Webster were affiliated thru the ACLU other than knowing each other thru the profession. Looking at the file below from R. S Westphal to W.P. Gannaway that even from a large suspected group of people who are suspected with their affiliation with the ACLU Charles Webster is not named on it.

Dallas Criminal Intelligence Unit Report on the Dallas ACLU. Click to enlarge.

Dallas Criminal Intelligence Unit Report on the Dallas ACLU. Click to enlarge.

Thanks to Ed Ledoux who noted the existence of some ACLU files at NARA of which one of them is the above document. I shall try and get the other batch.

Lee Harvey Oswald – Alek James Hidell

Lee Harvey Oswald – Alek James Hidell

 

While working on my forthcoming paper Anatomy of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Interrogations Vol. 3, which I hope to release in the Autumn of 2021 (more like June 2022!), I came across some documents that made me take a closer look into the find of the Hidell ID and realised something was amiss. This then got me to investigate and trying to figure out how the Alek James Hidell ID came forward during the time that Oswald was incarcerated and interrogated by the DPD until his death. The ‘discovery’ of the Hidell ID on Nov 22 and the significant developments on the 23rd and 24th are this article’s primary focus. And things are not as they are meant to appear at all.

Before I get into the details I suggest you check out Accessories After The Fact by Sylvia Meagher, which to this day, after more than 50 years remains one of the best generic books on the JFK Assassination. In chapter 6 simply titled “Hidell” this matter is already addressed in very good detail. I suggest you read this as it shows how soon after the assassination Sylvia Meagher was close to pointing the many discrepancies on the Hidell matter out. Another good read has been created by Paul Hoch for the Third Decade Magazine who brings in the all important important military intelligence angle, this material was kept far afield from the Warren Commission at that time and only surfaced during the HSCA and also the ARRB investigations. And then there is The Assassination Tapes by George O’Toole. He managed to interview two individuals who were involved with the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald at the Texas Theatre.

Oswald gets arrested at about 13:50 and is searched while inside the car transporting him towards City Call, where they arrive at about 14:00 or just after. During that journey they radio the DPD dispatch starting at 13:51. A full transcript is on pages 107-110 HERE.

 Sergeant Gerald Hill: Suspect of shooting of police officer is apprehended and en route to station.

Dispatch (Hulse and MacDaniel): 10-4. At the Texas Theatre?

Sergeant Gerald Hill: Caught him on the lower floor of the Texas Theatre after a fight.

A little later.

Sergeant Gerald Hill: Patrolman CT walker is in the car with us. Have someone pick up his car at the rear of the Texas Theatre and take it to station. It’s got the keys in it.

Dispatch (Hulse and MacDaniel): 10-4.

And after that another transmission from Gerald Hill to report they were in a special service unit car and giving their location.

Captain C.E. Talbert: You do have the suspect arrested in the Texas Theatre?

Sergeant Gerald Hill: Yes, sir, him and the gun.

This is what is available from the transcript between the car containing Lee Harvey Oswald, a group of 5 DPD officers and detectives and dispatch. I don’t know whether there is anything missing from that transcript but that is all there is. Now then let’s have a closer look at these 5 lawmen and their statements and interviews during that weekend and thereafter.

  • Paul Bentley, the DPD detective who sprains his ankle during the scuffle to arrest Oswald inside the Texas Theater speaks to gathered press on the third floor corridor. There is no mention of any Hidell ID.

On the 23rd Bentley is interviewed on WFAA TV and asked about the identification cards he pulled from Oswald’s wallet while they are on their way to City Hall. At 08:39 Paul Bentley explains all this in good detail. Is there any mention of the Hidell ID? Nope.

On Dec 3rd 1963 Paul Bentley writes up his report, rather late if I may add, but even then there is not one mention of a Hidell ID. And that makes it even stranger since the Hidell ID has already come into play by then.

During the first half of the 1970’s, George O’Toole in his book The Assassination Tapes (chapter 9 page 160), manages to interview Paul Bentley, who by that time has moved on from the DPD to work for the First National Bank in Dallas.

Bentley: We had no information hat he was the man who had actually committed the assassination of the president until we radioed in that we had a prisoner and gave the names. And I say names, this was taken from his wallet. he used several different names, as you know. But we gave the names. This was when they told us that he was a suspect in the assassination of the president. So we were instructed to bring him directly to Captain Fritz, who was in the homicide and robbery bureau.

O’Toole: He had the names of both Oswald and Hidell?

Bentley: Right, right.

O’Toole: Both of those identifications?

Bentley: Seems to me like he was using another name, also I can’t remember. I’ve got all this stuff at home. I’m not sure. There were several names that he was using on various cards and then we gave the names to the dispatcher who was instructed to bring them to Captain Fritz.


In a second interview by phone  he again asks about the Oswald-Hidell identification (page 163).

O’Toole: Now the identification that he had, though, he had both Hidell and Oswald?

Bentley: Yes, and if I am not mistaken, he had some identification by the other names on him, but I can’t remember offhand what the names were. Seems to me like there were three or four different names that he had in there.

In his first HSCA interview (May 4 1978) Bentley only mentions ‘numerous identifications’

But during a second HSCA interview on June 15 1978 he recalls that he had pulled 5-6 ID cards out of Oswald’s wallet with different names. No mention of Hidell or any other details as to what names they were. A first by Bentley to mention this almost 15 years after the fact!

But it gets better during his  Living History talk with the Sixth Floor Museum at 18:08 he even has the nerve to state that Oswald had several aliases. So Mr. Bentley how would you know which name to pick and inform dispatch about this while en route to City hall? There are a few other statements by him during that interview, not context related to this post, that are highly questionable from a truth perspective.

  • Kenneth E. Lyon, another Dallas Police Department detective who was part of the arrest team has his report made up on the 3rd of Dec 1963. Again no mention of any Hidell ID.

Kenneth E. Lyon, on the very right, arriving out of the elevator on the 3rd floor with Oswald just behind him. Still grab of CBS footage. Click image to enlarge. Thanks to Denis Morissette for the ID.

Kenneth E Lyon report Dec 4 1963. From History Matters. Click pic to enlarge.

Mr. BELIN. Was he ever asked his name?
Mr. CARROLL. Yes, sir; he was asked his name.
Mr. BELIN. Did he give his name?
Mr. CARROLL. He gave, the best I recall, I wasn’t able to look closely, but the best I recall, he gave two names, I think. I don’t recall what the other one was.
Mr. BELIN. Did he give two names? Or did someone in the car read from the identification?
Mr. CARROLL. Someone in the car may have read from the identification. I know two names, the best I recall, were mentioned.

  • Another one of the arresting DPD officers is sergeant Gerald Hill. He spoke to the press shortly after as Bentley did and supplied incriminating details, yet not once mentioned the Alek HIdell ID. In a radio interview that same afternoon

Gerald Hill being interviewed inside City Hall. Screen B.K. Click pic to enlarge.

Now Gerald Hill could have forgotten to mention this during that interview, but when he is interviewed for a second time as mentioned In the supplementary volumes of the Warren Report, Hill states to the newsmen, “The only way we found out what his name was, was to remove his billfold and check it ourselves; he wouldn’t even tell us what his name was.” Later in the interview a reporter asks, “What was the name on the billfold?” Hill replies, “Lee H. Oswald, 0-S-W-A-L-D.” No mention at all of the name Hidell.  In another filmed interview (at 02:55) Hill makes no mention of the billfold at all. This video is rather poorly edited and looks incomplete.

And then four months later Gerald Hill is being interviewed by the Warren Commission, and by a miracle the Hidell ID appears.

Mr. BELIN. Now after, from the time you started in motion until the time you called in, do you remember anyone saying anything at all in the car?
Mr. HILL The suspect was asked what his name was.
Mr. BELIN. What did he say?
Mr. HILL. He never did answer. He just sat there.
Mr. BELIN. Was he asked where he lived?
Mr. HILL. That was the second question that was asked the suspect, and he didn’t answer it, either.
About the time I got through with the radio transmission, I asked Paul Bentley, “Why don’t you see if he has any identification.”
Paul was sitting sort of sideways in the seat, and with his right hand he reached down and felt of the suspect’s left hip pocket and said, “Yes, he has a billfold,” and took it out.
I never did have the billfold in my possession, but the name Lee Oswald was called out by Bentley from the back seat, and said this identification, I believe, was on the library card.
And he also made the statement that there was some more identification in this other name which I don’t remember, but it was the same name that later came in the paper that he bought the gun under.
Mr. BELIN. Would the name Hidell mean anything? Alek Hidell?
Mr. HILL. That would be similar. I couldn’t say specifically that is what it was, because this was a conversation and I never did see it written down, but that sounds like the name that I heard.
Mr. BELIN. Was this the first time you learned of the name?
Mr. HILL. Yes; it was.

He repeats this years later in an interview with George O’Toole in his book The Assassination Tapes chapter 9, page 157. “As I say, in the car on the way downtown he was belligerent, he was surly, he wouldn’t tell us who he was. We took his billfold out of his pocket, we found the ID in both names, Oswald and Hidell, that he later was proved to have ordered the gun under. He had library cards and drafty cards in one name, and he had identification  cards from various organizations in the other name.” 

  • Charles Truman Walker was present as well during Oswald’s arrest. His official report, from Dec 2 1963, regarding the Oswald arrest does not mention anything about inside the unmarked squad car during the ride towards City Hall. Then it becomes interesting, during Charles Truman Walker’s HSCA interview (page 5) he takes credit for taking the bill fold out of Oswald’s pants pocket, after dropping him off at City Hall. Something Paul Bentley did in the car already! And he makes mention of the Hidell ID and also mentions that he searched Oswald again.
  • Gus Rose and Richard Stovall ‘deal’ with Oswald next. They arrive at City Hall just before Oswald is brought in and talk with him for about 10-15 minutes after which Will Fritz arrives and sends them to go to Irving. In the joint report by Richard Stovall, Gus Rose and John Adamcik there is only the briefest mention of this ‘interrogation’. Not a word in that statement on an ID carrying the name Hidell. You’d think something like that would be reported no?

Months later on April 8 1964 Richard Stovall’s W.C. testimony mentions the following before he is sent out by Fritz.

Mr. BALL. Do you remember what was said to him and what he said to you?
Mr. STOVALL. I don’t recall exactly–I went in and asked him for his identification, asked him who he was and he said his name was Lee Oswald, as well as I remember. Rose and I were both in there at the time. He had his billfold and in it he had the identification of “A. Hidell,” which was on a selective service card, as well as I remember.

Mr. BALL. That’s [spelling] H-i-d-e-l-l, isn’t it?.
Mr. STOVALL. I’m not positive on that–I believe it was [spelling] H-i-d-e-l-l, I’m not sure. And he also had identification of Lee Harvey Oswald, and I believe that was on a Social Security card and at that time Captain Fritz opened the door to the office there and sent Rose and I to go out to this address in Irving at 2515 West Fifth Street in Irving.

And later during the same testimony.

Mr. BALL. Now, did you do anything else on this investigation?
Mr. STOVALL. No, sir; that’s all I can recall that I did on the investigation. I might add, there was–well, you have that on the list–some property.
Mr. BALL. What is that?
Mr. STOVALL. When we took this identification off of Lee Oswald that had this selective service card, the name Hidell, and he also had his own identification–at the time we were in the garage we found some negatives out there that appeared that he had make a snapshot of a selective service card, and on the back of the negatives it was where the name would have been typed in–there was some stuff on the back of the negatives to block out the name when it was reprinted, and there were some selective service cards that he had printed himself out there from a negative that were blank and which appeared to be the same that he had on him at the time, on the 22nd of November, that had the name of “A. Hidell” typed in on it.

From the handwritten list (made by two individuals) of the evidence taken from Ruth Paine’s house, and unless these negatives were inside the brown box, 13th entry on the first page, then there is no direct link to these so called negatives at all. Again I will apply the benefit of doubt on this one.

A closer look at the University of Texas JFK Collection which stores the DPD evidence on Lee Harvey Oswald has five pictures with negatives on display. It has hard to look at the details, but Negatives, Photographs #2 seems to display a Selective Services card. The issue is that the resolution is too low to actually see anything to be able to ID and conclude what Stovall is attesting to. Nor is there a photograph of the backside of that negative to see the masking of said negative. I tried to enhance and invert the #2 image. But I have not become any the wiser.

Negatives #2 from UNT. Enhancement by B.K. Click pic to enlarge.

Gus Rose behind Buell Wesley Frazier late on Nov 22 1963. Photo: Jim Murray – Blackstar. Scan by Terry Martin at NARA. Click pic to enlarge.

Mr. ROSE. There were some people in the office from the Book Depository and we talked to a few of them and then in just a few minutes they brought in Lee Oswald and I talked to him for a few minutes?
Mr. BALL. What did you say to him or did he say to you?
Mr. ROSE. Well, the first thing I asked him was what his name was and he told me it was Hidell.
Mr. BALL. Did he tell you it was Hidell?
Mr. ROSE. Yes; he did.
Mr. BALL. He didn’t tell you it was Oswald?
Mr. ROSE. No; he didn’t, not right then–he did later. In a minute–I found two cards–I found a card that said “A. Hidell.” And I found another card that said “Lee Oswald” on it, and I asked him which of the two was his correct name. He wouldn’t tell me at the time, he just said, “You find out.” And then in just a few minutes Captain Fritz came in and he told me to get two men and go to Irving and search his house.
Mr. BALL. Now, when he first came in there–you said that he said his name was “Hidell”?
Mr. ROSE. Yes.
Mr. BALL. Was that before you saw the two cards?
Mr. ROSE. Yes; it was.
Mr. BALL. Did he give you his first name?
Mr. ROSE. He just said “Hidell”; I remember he just gave me the last name of “Hidell”.
Mr. BALL. And then you found two or three cards on him?
Mr. ROSE. Yes; we did.
Mr. BALL. Did you search him?
Mr. ROSE. He had already been searched and someone had his billfold. I don’t know whether it was the patrolman who brought him in that had it or not.
Mr. BALL. And the contents of the billfold supposedly were before you?
Mr. ROSE. Yes.

And from this short interview session with Oswald on the 22nd in their Warren Commission testimonies it becomes apparent that Rose and Stovall contradict each other about Lee Harvey Oswald telling them what his name was.. Yet they were inside the same room. They make mention of the Selective Service Car found on Oswald only during their W.C. testimony.

In 1998 in an article from DMagazine Gus Rose mentions the card again. On the table lay the two identification cards. Rose looked down at them. One read “Alec Hiddel.” The other: “Lee Oswald.”

In which case it would be easy to spot for the people involved with interrogating Lee Harvey Oswald shortly after, no?

  • Will Fritz starts to interrogate Oswald, first by himself, backed up by Elmer Boyd and Richard Sims, starting at about 14:30 inside room 317 of Robbery & Homicide. Gus Rose and Richard Stovall could have mentioned the Hidell ID, but they failed telling him. Fritz does not mention anything about the ID during this first interrogation lasting an hour and a half until 16:00..
  • James P Hosty and James W Bookhout join Fritz about 45 minutes later at about 15:15. In those 90 minutes again the Hidell ID is not brought up once by either FBI agent at any time during this first interrogation. It is not found in Fritz’s interrogation notes and his subsequent report, Hosty’s handwritten interrogation notes and the joint Bookhout and Hosty FBI report. And yet they do bring up the O.H. Lee name which is the name accredited to Oswald using it at his North Beckley residence. Which from a timing p.o.v. and compared to the Hidell name is remarkable.

James W Bookhout (in a light colored suit wearing glasses and smoking a pipe) inside Robbery & Homicide. Photo by Jim Murray. Scan by: Terry Martin at NARA. Click pic to enlarge.

During James Bookhout’s W.C. testimony the Hidell name gets brief mentions, but only in the vaguest terms.

Mr. STERN – What sort of question would he refuse to answer? Was there any pattern to his refusing?
Mr. BOOKHOUT – Well, now, I am not certain whether this would apply then to this particular interview, the first interview or not, in answering this, but I recall specifically one of the interviews asking him about the Selective Service card which he had in the name of Hidell, and he admitted that he was carrying the card, but that he would not admit that he wrote the signature of Hidell on the card, and at that point stated that he refused to discuss the matter further. I think generally you might say anytime that you asked a question that would be pertinent to the investigation, that would be the type of question he would refuse to discuss.

And later during the same testimony  when they do discuss the first interrogation of the 23rd.

Mr. STERN – Did you ask any questions in the course of this interview?
Mr. BOOKHOUT – Yes.
Mr. STERN – What were they, and what were the responses, if you recall?
Mr. BOOKHOUT – One specific question was with regard to the selective service card in the possession of Oswald bearing a photograph of Oswald and the name Alek James Hidell. Oswald admitted he carried this selective service card, but declined to state that he wrote the signature of Alek J. Hidell appearing on same. Further declined to state the purpose of carrying same, and—or any use he made of same.

  • Robert E Jones of the 112th INTC contacts the DOJ at 15:15 while Oswald is being interrogated by Will Fritz and in this document Oswald is already marked as the guilty man for the Tippit murder.  Jones provides of plenty information on Lee Harvey Oswald and his previous endeavors in Russia and New Orleans, the majority coming from newspaper clippings. The timing and the sharing of this is most interesting when Oswald is still being interrogated and Hosty and Bookhout have only just walked in. But the hammer of course is that Jones already knows that Oswald was carrying a Selective Service Card bearing the name of A.J. Hidell. This is quite remarkable as well when not one of the arresting officers attested to having found this card that day. Not until months later! Following this report we get a report by the Secret Service on Dec 5 1963 which tries to clarify that the Ana J Hidell is a typo. As much as I want to believe that correction I also know that the Secret Service messed around a lot in their reporting with TSBD workers i/e in early Dec of 1963. But let’s give ’em the benefit of doubt in this instance.

The HSCA investigates and interviews Jones on 3 occasions over the period of a year.

The first time on April 4 1977. The following document is Robert Jones’ HSCA interview from April 20 1978. This session is filled with some good details. In a nutshell Jones got his information from someone inside the D.P.D. at about 13:30-14:00 and that poses quite an issue, since no DPD officer is on record at that time about the Hidell ID or name at that time. Better yet Oswald was arrested at 13:50 after the vaguest description possible was sent through DPD dispatch. Compare that to the one sent out for Charles Douglas Givens just before the DPD entered the Texas Theater.

  • Forrest Sorrells gets about ten minutes to talk to Oswald before he is taken down for his first line-up with Helen Markham. Not a word about Hidell.
  • Then at 16:25 the San Antonio bureau of the FBI sends a report to its director and to the Dallas office. Again Oswald is declared the guilty man for murdering Tippit. Which is remarkable as well since the timing of the cable is ten minutes before Oswald’s first line-up with the hysterical Helen Markham.

 

FBI Report 16:25 Nov 22 1963. Click to enlarge

  • Jim Hosty, later that day and not allowed to be present during the interrogations anymore hangs about Robbery & Homicide Bureau and takes notes of the so called Oswald evidence which is laid out on a table.

James P Hosty (newspaper to his side) speaking to Bill Alexander inside Robbery & Homicide. Photo by Jim Murray. Scan by: Terry Martin at NARA. Click pic to enlarge.

In the photograph above you can see the office with the blinds on the right which is where Oswald was interrogated. The glass window on the left behind Bill Alexander was Walter Potts office where the evidence was laid out.

In Assignment Oswald Hosty states “I decided nonetheless that I would remain at the police station. Just because I couldn’t talk to the police didn’t mean I couldn’t learn things from them. I headed back to Fritz’s office, where I knew the police were keeping Oswald’s personal belongings. Nothing there, but in the second inner office, which belonged to Lieutenant Walter Potts, I spotted Oswald’s things, which had been removed from his person and from his apartment at the Oak Cliff rooming house.” Hosty then starts mentioning Oswald’s address book and the entry of his name in it. Anything about Hidell then? Ehm……no! Keep this in mind when it is Manning Clements’ turn to go through the same evidence not much later.

Then there is the Church Committee testimony that Hosty gave on Dec 13th 1975. On page 138 he mentions the same as above that he goes into the adjoining office and goes through the evidence. And again the direction moves immediately towards the address book. No mention of a Hidell ID. Hosty would have mentioned that if there was one.

  • Manning Clements arrives in the evening of Nov 22nd and sees James Bookhout, and asks him if anyone has, to his knowledge, taken a detailed physical description and background information from Lee Harvey Oswald. Bookhout tells him that such description and background data had not been obtained, and suggests that Clements do it. In his Warren Commission testimony Clements says that he questioned Oswald at about 10 PM, but this is wrong. Thanks to a report by M.G. Hall, who is very precise with his timings. he makes mention of Clements’ arrival at 19:40. Which is very close to the “I’m just a patsy” scene in the corridor. Clements talks with Oswald over a period of just about half an hour, and his questioning the suspect gets interrupted during which time Oswald is taken out for a line-up, which would be the one with the Davis Sisters. While Oswald is gone Clements has a look at the evidence and he, allegedly, sees the Selective Services card with the Alek James Hidell name on it.  In his report made the next day on the 23rd he is the first person that makes an actual mention of seeing the Hidell Selective Services card the day before yet he does not make no mention of any other item from Oswald’s wallet. What boggles the mind even more is that he makes no mention of this ‘fact’ to James Bookhout or Will Fritz who start their third interrogation at 19:55!
  • This FBI report from its director is made up at 10:21 PM on the 22nd of Nov. and it deals predominately about the Hidell link to the FPCC.

FBI report 10:21 PM Nov 22 1963. Click pic to enlarge.

 

  • On Nov 23rd, near the end of the first interrogation just before 11:30 Will Fritz mentions in his notes that FBI agent James Bookhout asks him about the Hidell ID. This handwritten note is the first trace of anyone of the D.P.D. actually asking Oswald about this. James Bookhout and Thomas J Kelley mention this at the end of their reports as well. This is after the mail order for the rifle has been discovered in Chicago earlier that morning. Come on…this is just ‘sheer coincidence’.
  • On the morning of the 24th Harry Dean Holmes has joined Will Fritz, Jim Leavelle, Forrest Sorrels for a last interrogation before Oswald is to be transported to the Dallas jail. Holmes writes in a report in which he stated that Fritz asked Oswald about the Hidell I.D. card, and Oswald “flared up and stated ‘I’ve told you all I’m going to about that card. “You took notes, just read them for yourself, if you want to refresh your memory” Oswald could have been referring to anyone in that room.

In Harry Dean Holmes’ W.C. testimony he states:

Mr. HOLMES. In his billfold the police had found a draft registration card in the name of A. J. Hidell on his person at the time of his arrest, and I had seen it.

And later on during the same testimony session Harry Dean Holmes brings up the ID again..

“Well, who is A. J. Hidell?” I asked him.
And he said, “I don’t know any such person.”
I showed him the box rental application for the post office box in New Orleans and I read from it. I said, “Here this shows as being able to receive, being entitled to receive mail is Marina Oswald.” And he said, “Well, that is my wife, so what?”
And I said also it says “A. J. Hidell.”
“Well, I don’t know anything about that.”
That is all he would say about it.
Then Captain Fritz interrupted and said, “Well, what about this card we got out of your billfold? This draft registration card, he called it, where it showed A. J. Hidell.”
“Well, that is the only time that I recall he kind of flared up and he said, “Now, I have told you all I am going to tell you about that card in my billfold.” He said, “You have the card yourself, and you know as much about it as I do.” And he showed a little anger. Really the only time that he flared up.

  • Walter E Potts’ report states that he had gone to the Beckley address on the 22nd and claims that they checked for the Oswald and Hidell names and then find out that Oswald was registered under the name O. H Lee. The issue with this report is that it is made after the 25th.
  • In Will Fritz interrogation report of which there are half a dozen different versions available and which he wanted amended before it was sent of to the Warren Commission, he makes a brief entry about the Hidell ID.

 

Will Fritz – Interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald. From: UNT. Click pic to enlarge.

So let’s recap!

There is no report from the DPD on the 22nd of Nov that points to the Hidell name and ID at all. Anyone from that group interviewed by the press makes no mention of this either.

Robert Jones of the 112th INTC was informed by someone of the DPD, name not remembered during his HSCA testimony, early that afternoon of the 22nd about Oswald and the Hidell ID

The FBI claims that Jones rang them and gave them the news after which they shared this with other bureaus.

The Hidell name is not brought up by anyone at all on Nov 22nd even though some law enforcement officers claim they saw the ID, yet when they had the opportunity to question Oswald about this ID it did not happen. This includes Will Fritz, James Bookhout, James Hosty and Manning Clements.

The first real evidence that Oswald was asked about the Hidell name is at the end of the first interrogation close to 11:30 on Nov 23rd 1963. This is confirmed by reports of Will Fritz, James W Bookhout and Thomas J Kelley.

Shortly before, in Chicago, an order for the alleged murder weapon, a Mannlicher-Carcano in the name of Alek J Hidell is found and reported to the FBI.

On Nov 23 1963 Richard Sims of the DPD submits the wallet contents to the Identification Bureau and requests 4 copies of photographs of each item. The description of them is very generic.

On Nov 29 1963 the FBI creates a report of the wallet contents sent from the DPD to the FBI, is there a mention of the Hidell Selective Service Card? Nope. On top of that according the Feds it appears the DPD had failed to photograph this content and requests the FBI to do so…….

In a document dated Dec 19th 1963 the FBI states that it had received Oswald’s wallet and that it did not contain the US Marines Certificate of Service and the Selective Service Card in the name of  Hidell. And that these were subsequently sent as such at a later date. And that the SSC was a complete forgery.

This FBI document from Nov 23 1963 is also not online anywhere else. I have highlighted the Hidell related matters. This document provides a good insight that the Hidell name and rifle order came not in play until Saturday morning the 23rd.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

With thanks to:

Malcolm Blunt for a lot of documents.

Harold Weisberg Archive at Hood College.

UNT.

The Sixth Floor Museum.

Ⓒ Bart Kamp

TSBD Descent Timing by the HSCA

TSBD Descent Timing by the HSCA

 

Too good to keep hidden for any time longer while I am still scanning in for  Malcolm Blunt’s Archives. This document mentions the descent by HSCA Staff members inside the TSBD while on their trip in Sept 1977. From the 19th on to the 29th of that month various staff members, a total of 9 persons, of the HSCA were on a Dallas trip to ascertain more info from several witnesses.

While browsing I came across the following on the last two pages (p 11 & 12) from the bottom paragraph. They met ‘en masse’ at the TSBD, where they took notes and photographs but they also did something much more significant and that was that they timed their descent from the 6th floor (the so called sniper’s window) down to the 2nd floor lunch room via the stairway which could be done in 46 seconds……which compared to the Secret Service Report which claimed it was around a minute and a half and the re-enactment the WC allegedly did.  The Warren Commission made mention of it during the sessions in March 1964. But no one in Dallas while the W.C. was there could attest to this particular re-enactment actually happening!

Still 46 seconds is half the time compared to what both the Warren Commission and the Secret Service came up with about an event that did not take place in the first place ;)

HSCA Dallas Trip Sep 1977. Click pic to enlarge.

HSCA Dallas Trip Sep 1977. Click pic to enlarge.

 

The whole document is at the Malcolm Blunt Archives.

The Malcolm Blunt Archives Update

The Malcolm Blunt Archives Update. 

Greetings and happy new year.  Hope you have had, under these difficult circumstances, a somewhat decent X-Mas break. I know I have not posted that much and the reason for that is that the Malcolm Blunt Archives have kept me occupied for quite some time now. And especially the second half of 2020 has been a very busy period scanning tens of thousands of pages in. I have been working on this project for more than two years now.

Harry Livingstone’s Files April 2019. Click pic to enlarge.

Starting with Harry Livingstone’s material which then slowly transcended into scanning Malcolm’s files, little did I know how much there was, yet at the same time has proven to be an absolute goldmine filled with rare and never before published documents, audio & video recordings.

Documents, tapes and videos. Click pic to enlarge.

Early Dec 2020, while there was a gap in Covid 19 travel restrictions, Peter Antill and I made our way to Malcolm to see what we could get our hands on to take back with us. Peter and I offloaded the 14 bags we had brought with us, yet I managed to bring ten bags back with me and that was only with 90 minutes left to do so. Two bags fill a drawer of a filing cabinet and contain anything between 2-3,000 pages. If you are wondering what type of content there is, well…..almost anything.

This is by far one of the best document collections when it comes to the JFK Assassination, but also for Dallas matters, anti-Castro, CIA, New Orleans, the ARRB, HSCA and a handful of other commissions investigating. At this point I have created roughly 10,000 PDFs. Scanning will continue for most part of this year trying to complete the digitisation of Malcolm Blunt’s entire archive.

For the first time in 18 months I managed to get access to the files I had worked on in the first half of 2019 while in Tetbury. These files have been kept at a storage site and I was very happy being able to regain access to them. The files in here are much more within my remit.

Click to enlarge.

The coloured boxes are of course Harry Livingstone’s files. Malcolm’s materials in here refer a lot to Dallas Police and FBI. Due to some finds of great documents I am preparing a handful of articles which I will start working on more this month when I am taking a break from scanning.

Click to enlarge.

While the Covid 19 restrictions are in place I will not be able to regain access until some time in March this year. But I have plenty to get on with for now and I reckon I will be working on this archive for the rest of the year. Expect a few cool articles to come in the next six months. And of course The Papers I have been working on these past few years and which are being crammed full with not before seen material, so plenty to look out for.

The Hosty document in the documentary: Oswald and JFK UNSOLVED CASES

The Hosty document in the documentary: Oswald and JFK UNSOLVED CASES

 

Last year it was reported by several attendees of the November 2019 Dallas conferences that a Japanese documentary film crew of  NHK World was present filming in Dealey Plaza in Dallas.

Photo by Neil Safaty. Click to enlarge.

I got to know that John Newman and Jefferson Morley were contributing to it so I would definitely want to see the end result.

Shortly after, the November conferences I was contacted by Stu Wexler asking me about a copy of the Hosty document I found in Feb 2019 at Malcolm Blunt’s archives.. Did not think it would be used and forgot about it so to speak. Low and behold when the documentary was released in July this year it featured the all important pre-statement made by James Hosty on the back of a blank Dallas Police Department affidavit sheet with the all important sentence “Then went outside to watch the P. Parade.”

The James Hosty Document.

And it is nice to see the Malcolm Blunt Archive being credited for it. It is a good thing that people outside the so called ‘clique’ get to see this all important document.

 

The documentary itself, has some good bits, bot not enough of it. Would have liked to have seen more of Newman and thought it was a bit overloaded with the dramatisations of the reenactment scenes of which some is rather questionable. The perfect JFKA documentary simply doesn’t exist. Or will Oliver Stone change things when his comes out? Nah….

The fragment with the document is in Part two “The Chessmaster” at 35:00, which you can view here. The first segment “!The Pawn” can be viewed here.

 

The Hosty document with its all important passage here.