Apr
02
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.
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- Irving Daily News Nov 19 1962
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- Corpus Christi Caller Times Nov 5 1962
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- Corpus Christi Caller Times Nov 5 1962
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- Waco Tribune Herald Sun Feb 3 1963
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- Corpus Christi Caller Times Nov 30 1963
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.
Jun
21
Ochus Campbell and Betty Dragoo in Altgens 6.
With help from the Dave Wiegman film we can see Ochus Campbell standing next to Roy Truly. We know this due to their statements that they stood together when the motorcade passed by and as seen in the stills below.
Another good anchor point for the comparison between the Wiegman stills and Altgens 6 (at the bottom of this post) are the police officer and the two children on the right in the photograph below..
Danny Garcia, Betty Dragoo and Ochus Campbell in the Wiegman film. Click photo to enlarge.
Garcia is difficult to spot, but once looking at the Wiegman still and the Altgens 6 photo it becomes more clear.
Dany Garcia and Betty Dragoo in the Wiegman film. Click to enlarge.
Altgens 6. Click photo to enlarge.
In Altgens 6 Danny Garcia was already found in that photograph decades ago and a close-up was stored in the Weisberg Archive.
Danny Garcia in a close-up of Altgens 6. Click photo to enlarge.
And finally look in the detailed crop of Altgens 6 and what appears to look like a gas mask being held up in the open door window of the Secret Service follow up car is actually an arm right holding the top bit of the door right in front of Ochus Campbell’s face. What people assumed that looked like the tail end of the car is actually his shirt and his tie. The dark edging is his cardigan/jacket.
We also see Betty Dragoo’s face very clear through that same car’s window. Linda Giovanna Zambanini recognised her in the close-up Wiegman shot a few years ago, but her face is so much more in detail in the Altgens 6 photo..
Danny Garcia, Betty Dragoo and Ochus Campbell in Altgens 6. Enhancements by B.K. Click photo to enlarge.
Mar
29
Important to Hold That Man by Jerry D. Rose May 1986
Once in a blue moon you come across a great article. From The Third Decade; a magazine that has published some of the finest articles in JFK Assassination research. This article below by publisher Jerry D. Rose is no exception. And the reason for me to bring this up is because it falls nicely inside my remit but it is also a great way to compare it with my own work. And Rose does a terrific job. The parts where Truly had stated to the WC he had not seen Oswald after the assassination which of course makes no sense when the second floor lunch room encounter allegedly happened within 90 seconds after the shots had been fired. Rose’s remarks following up on Bill Shelley stating to Roy Truly that he did not see Lee Oswald are simply priceless.
Fritz’s movements and actions from the T.S.B.D. and to the D.P.D. are thoroughly questioned, but his pit stop at Bill Decker’s office is sadly missing from those paragraphs. All this makes Will Fritz look even more suspicious
Oswald being paraded past his fellow employees had more of an effect than Rose describes. He notes discrepancies from a procedural p.o.v. But add on that those fellow employees were told that Oswald had killed a cop at that time which of course meant that these people were distancing themselves from Oswald as much as they possibly could.
A perfect example of someone being too close is Buell Frazier who got it in the neck from early evening onwards from the D.P.D. that day. Joe Molina a worthy second.
The yellow marker (grey on these pages) and pen annotations are from Harry Livingstone whose archive I have been digitising this past year and a bit.
Do read!
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Jan
03
There were ten women on the fourth floor when it went down.
From my up and coming paper Anatomy of the T.S.B.D.
Updated with a new title, a little text and some pictures on Jan 5th 2020.
Updated with the addition of a gallery of 4th floor drawings on March 12th 2022.
I knew that Victoria Adams’ descent down the back stairs of the T.S.B.D. was one key to the assassination puzzle especially when Oswald was supposedly to go down those same steps “escaping” from the building at about the same time. The ladies had watched among other fourth floor employees the motorcade turn the corner in front of the building on to Elm St. Then they heard the shots fired at the limousine. Adams and Styles almost immediately left the window to go down the back stairs, make their way towards the railroad yard, and upon arrival they were told to go back where they came from, which they did thru the front doors of the T.S.B.D.
The first one who drew my attention to this was Oliver Stone, who brought this segment up during the Garrison trial in the movie JFK.
Actors representing Victoria Adams’ and Sandra Styles’ descent in a re-enactment for the film J.F.K. Click to enlarge.
If there is anyone who researched Victoria Adams’ and Sandra Styles’ descent from the fourth floor to the railroad yard and back into the front of the T.S.B.D. better than anyone else it is Barry Ernest.
His book The Girl On The Stairs: The Search for a Missing Witness to the JFK Assassination led me to focus more on the T.S.B.D. and its employees.
From his research we know that.
- Victoria Adams did go through her W.C. statement and applied corrections even though the document ends with her stating she waivers her signature. The ‘corrected’ statement is being held much longer under lock and key than the first version without any corrections.
- She accused the W.C. of inserting the Lovelady & Shelley encounter in her testimony. She described the person she encountered after arriving on the first floor as a tall black man. This was independently corroborated by Sandra Styles who knew Shelley and Lovelady and was sure it wasn’t them who they met. The so called Adams & Styles – Lovelady & Shelley encounter on the first floor is a fugezi to undermine the timing of the ladies’ descent. It shows Jim “I don’t recall” Leavelle of the D.P.D. the maker of this report as a fabricator, who placed the misleading statement inside that report from Feb 1964. Obviously Leavelle is responsible but the decision to do this comes from higher up obviously.
- The Martha J. Stroud document Ernest found at the archives in Washington in 1999 confirms Adams’ corrections to her statement, and also states that Dorothy Garner saw the girls leave before the police officer came up to the fourth floor. Garner’s real statement or anything besides the Stroud letter leading to it has disappeared.
- The W.C. discredited Adams’ story. by disbelieving her, nor did it really investigate further. But the W.C. did more to discredit Victoria Adams and it did that by minimising any attention towards the fourth floor.
While reading up about the other T.S.B.D. employees present on the fourth and fifth floors something else becomes apparent. The fourth floor was filled with ladies looking out through the south side windows.
Victoria Adams. Source: Barry Ernest.
Sandra Styles-Baylor Uni, Waco-1962
Elsie Dorman. Source: Life Magazine.
Thanks to Linda Giovanna Zambanini.
Judyth Louise McCully.
Avery Davis. Source E-Yearbook.com.
Mary Hollies. Source: E-Yearbook.com. Thanks to Linda Giovanna Zambanini.
Ruth Nelson. Source Ancestry Family Tree. Thanks to Linda Giovanna Zambanini.
Yola Hopson 1945. Source E-Yearbook.com. Thanks to Linda Giovanna Zambanini.
Betty Alice Foster. Source E-Yearbook.com. Thanks to Linda Giovanna Zambanini.
Think about it. Ten people on the fourth floor when it all went down. Some of them could have easily confirmed when Adams and Styles left. But that is something the Warren Commission, D.P.D., F.B.I. and the Secret Service, by the looks of it, did not bother much with.
Weaver Polaroid. Click to enlarge.
Even though Avery Davis claimed to be on the front steps, she is not recognised in either the Wiegman and Darnell films nor did any other person name her. Davis named Judyth McCully as the person she was on the steps with. McCully’s initial F.B.I. statement states that she was on the fourth floor while it all went down which then got changed to the front steps. Judyth McCully’s daughter told me that this was done at the behest of the F.B.I.
So if I do not know any better then efforts were made to look the fourth floor as a non event as much as possible with moving some witnesses away so original witness statements could not be corroborated.
Some more food for thought are the diagrams of the fourth floor. There were just three large rooms so people were close on each other.
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- WR 4th floor diagram 1964. From Mary Ferrell.
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- Fourth floor TSBD staff diagram. From Mary Ferrell.
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- Fourth floor TSBD staff diagram. From Mary Ferrell.
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- Fourth floor TSBD staff diagram. From Mary Ferrell.
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- FBI Diagram 1963. Thanks to Gary Murr
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- FBI Diagram 1963. Thanks to Gary Murr
Think about it, there were 10 people on the fourth floor. Some of them stood a few meters away from each other. Adams’ and Styles descent was the kryptonite to the Oswald ‘escape’.
Then there are the men from the 5th floor and especially Jarman, Norman and Williams. I have made a spreadsheet with all three workers’ answers from every statement they have given and that are available. Download it from HERE.
From left to right: James Earl Jarman, Bonnie Ray Williams and Harold Norman in the Tom Dillard photo. Click to enlarge.
The fourth floor stop is in some statements not to be found, but in the W.C. testimony from Bonnie Ray Williams he states: They paused for one minute on the 4th floor as there were all these women looking out. Then there is James Jarman who during his W.C. testimony disowns the fourth floor stop even after asked about it by John J McCloy by saying I believe we went all the way.
The fourth floor was a direct threat to Oswald’s so called escape, so they thought. Until of course the Prayer Man surfaced and it has transpired Oswald was nowhere near the 6th floor when the shots were fired…
Dec
05
Roger Craig inside Robbery & Homicide on Nov 22.
Roger Craig 1969
Roger Craig of the Dallas sheriff department is one of the guys who did not cooperate with everyone else in law enforcement about the happenings of investigating the J.F.K. assassination and ended up becoming an outcast who ultimately paid the highest price for it.
My personal research into Roger Craig has been limited to the assassination weekend, especially his observation of seeing Oswald leaving the T.S.B.D. and after that his visit to room 317 of Robbery & Homicide and pointing Oswald out as the person he saw running down the grass and getting into a Nash Rambler. Room 317 was Will Fritz’s fiefdom. I have been writing about this before in my Anatomy Of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Interrogations paper (pages 96-102).
During the 56th anniversary of the assassination there were two conferences in Dallas happening, one was CAPA, the other was Judyth Vary Baker’s shindig.
Judyth Vary Baker Conference 2019 program cover. Spellcheck anyone? Photo: Vince Palamara.
I was watching some of the live feed on YouTube, to me about the only positive thing of that conference and I thought the panel talk of Steve Cameron, who had a new book on Craig to push, could be interesting.
Besides Steve Cameron there was Roger Craig Jr., Gary Shaw and Robert Groden (no idea why someone who is economical with the truth is still given access to a platform like this ).
Roger Craig panel talk. From l to r: Gary Shaw, Robert Groden, Steve Cameron and Roger Craig Jr. Photo: Vince Palamara.
Roger Craig Jr. kicked things off claiming his dad was murdered in a rather emotional manner and I wasn’t too sure that this was a wise way of opening the panel talk like that, but it is what it is. Then he claimed that his dad was inside room 317 and that the photograph from Jesse Curry’s book was the proof.
Now I am not disputing his presence at Dallas P.D., but the photograph is not proof of Roger Craig’s visit. Here is the photograph in question.
The issue is that there is a tiny likeness, however after seeing other photos of this very same individual inside Room 317 of Robbery & Homicide of the Dallas Police Department below it is definitely not Roger Craig.
In the centre in front of the set of drawers. Pic. Jim Murray. ROKC scan from the Sprague archives at NARA. Click image to enlarge.
Speaking to Det. Richard Sims in front of the file cabinets. In front and on the right are detective Johnny Hicks on the phone and sergeant William ‘Pete’ Barnes with Oswald’s palm print on display and . ROKC scan from the Sprague archives at NARA. Click image to enlarge.
Pic.: Ft Worth Star Telegram. Click image to enlarge.
There is a small chance that the person noticed in these photos is Secret Service agent Charles Kunkel. But Vince Palamara said that cannot be since Kunkel was not in Dallas on Nov 22nd and these photos by Jim Murray and the Fort Worth Star Telegram were taken around 6 PM that day. At this point I would say nothing further than this man is a government agent, but it is not Roger Craig.
There is however other great evidence showing that Craig arrived inside Room 317. Like this James Bookhout report from Nov. 23rd.
James Bookhout report Nov 23 1963 on Roger Craig’s presence at Robbery & Homicide. Thanks to Malcolm Blunt. Click picture to view larger version.
Furthermore there is Jesse Curry talking to the press in the corridor of the 3rd floor of City Hall. where the D.P.D. resided. He does not quote Craig by name, but he does relay Craig’s story.
Craig was there, but it is not the man seen in the photograph from Jesse Curry’s book. Just wanted to set that record straight once and for all.
Nov
11
I had the pleasure to talk with Rob Clark on his Lone Gunman Podcast for two hours no less on Lee Oswald’s interrogations, it flew by as I had such fun.
Thank you Rob.
Ep. 157 ~ Explosive New Evidence and Timeline Tweaks About The Interrogations.
In case the audio volume is too low for you I have uploaded the file HERE (150 MB to d/l) which sounds a lot better than the Spreaker upload.
Nov
08
Howard Roffman to Richard Bernabei 1970
Howard Roffman wrote extensively with Harold Weisberg, but also with Richard Bernabei. I have managed to gotten hold of quite a bit of material myself after contacting his archive in Kingston and I also know that Denis Morissette went there and he sent me quite a few pages as well. I still have to go through all this. While browsing through the folder I came across this letter from 1970 that I gotten hold off in 2016.
It basically discusses the Couch film and Marrion Baker. Roffman did extensive research in the relation between the Couch film and Marrion Baker’s run almost 50 years ago. He also brings Gloria Calvery, Joe Molina and other T.S.B.D. employees’ statements in the fold and uses his common sense as most of his observations still stand today. Cool read.
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- Howard Roffman to Richard Bernabei – 1
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- Howard Roffman to Richard Bernabei – 2
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- Howard Roffman to Richard Bernabei – 3
May
05
Today I came across an article that I had read about when I read “Into The Nightmare” by Joe McBride. The article in question is called: The other Witnesses by George and Patricia Nash for the The New Leader in 1964 (pages 105 – 109). This article largely looks into the Tippit murder and points out other witnesses which were never properly interviewed nor brought forward. In this article at the end the second floor lunch room encounter is brought up as well and more importantly that Bill Shelley told them that Truly and Baker entered the T.S.B.D. five or six minutes after the shooting. This of course destroys the W.C. timings once again, which were set at 75-90 seconds and of course Oswald’ departure in 3 minutes after the deed.
I’d love to see George and Patricia Nash’s archives.
