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JFK Assassination

More Jim Murray aftermath photos

I went through some of the contact sheets ROKC managed to snag from Richard E Sprague’s NARA collection.

Here is another batch.

All photos: Jim Murray.

Pauline Sanders, Mrs Robert Reid and O.V. Campbell

What are the odds that both of Truly’s secretaries have the same conversation with the TSBD’s vice president just after the shooting?

Pauline Sanders who stood on top of the steps of the Texas School Book Depository, and Mrs Robert Reid who stood with Truly and Campbell near Elm St. both discussed the trajectory of where the shots came from just after the shooting, but with a few neat little twists.

Reid makes mention of it in her handwritten statement of Nov 23rd 1963, but there is one important fact that seems to be overlooked by many:

In it she says “I remarked to Mr. Campbell who was standing near by that I thought that the shots had come from our building. But I heard someone else say no, I think it was further down the street“

In the FBI affidavit of Nov. 26th 1963 there is no mention of this conversation at all. Nor is there any mention of this in the Secret Service Report of Dec 4th.

And when it is time for her testimony in front of the Warren Commission that ‘someone else’ who replied to her on Nov. 22nd has become O.V. Campbell instead!

***

Pauline Sanders makes mention of the O.V. Campbell conversation on Nov. 24th in her FBI statement, and she does not repeat it anywhere else nor does she get called up to testify so that’s that.

But Sanders does have a telephone conversation with Reid and a truckload of hearsay is being relayed (with regards Oswald’s so called encounter with Reid in the 2nd floor office). And the whole thing is jotted down in support of Reid’s and Sander’s testimony.

 

 

Captain George Max Doughty, Detective J.B. “Johnny” Hicks & Sergeant William E “Pete” Barnes

Photos: Jim Murray. All the pix besides the last one are scans made by Terry Martin at NARA from the Richard E. Sprague archive. The very last pic is from the FWST collection.

Captain George “Max” Doughty (wearing a tie), Detective J.B. “Johnny” Hicks (wearing a hat) & Sergeant William E “Pete” Barnes (wearing a bow tie), responsible for Oswald’s fingerprints, palm prints and paraffin test at about 21:30 Nov 22nd.

Thanks to Denis Morissette who pointed out that the guy in the hallway holding Oswald’s finger print card is different than William Barnes, and I cannot find his name, not even in That Day In Dallas that describes the shots Jim Murray took inside the DPD. Another mystery added……

Add on April 26th 2016:

Linda Giovanna Zambanini posted recently on Facebook the identity of  Captain George “Max Doughty” who was Head of the Crime Investigation La , he was Det. W.E. “Pete” Barnes’ and Det. “Johnny” Hicks’ superior.

George Max Doughty

George Max Doughty

George “Max” Doughty as part of the golf team 1934. Source e-yearbook.cm

A chat with Ian Griggs


Yesterday I met up with Ian Griggs, author of No Case To Answer.

He has been researching this case for decades and he has visited Dallas many many times (he has lost count). A former police officer himself he has dug into the Dallas Police Department more than anyone else. In the DPD section I show a brief summary of how the DPD was organised. This is all thanks to him and his  tenacious efforts in compiling this.

Obviously we discussed mostly Dallas Police related matters, and we went down his memory lane while he showed me around in his house of which one room was a mini museum with his collection, of which I post a few shots down below. I hope to do a proper interview in the near future.

Ian has interviewed quite a few people such as Beverly Oliver, James Tague, Jim Leavelle, Warren Caster to name a few, but his specialty lies with the DPD, of which he is writing another book which hopefully will be published later this year.

Some of our discussions:

  • After his article on Postal Inspector Harry Dean Holmes called The Four Faces Of Harry Dean Holmes, he was contacted by family members of Holmes and they were less than pleased with his assessment. Well they better not look at my page then ;)
  • He has been acquainted with Marina Oswald-Porter on a talk panel and she even bought him a massive plaque  of JFK. He said she asked him if he wanted some thing from an antique shop to which he replied your country is not old enough to have an antiques shop (which is a joke in case you missed it, although it has some truth to it). She went into the shop and bought it for him for about $ 25.00. Some researchers’burned’ Marina Porter, not much later and now she will not talk to anyone, which is a real shame as I and a few other scholars would love to talk to her.

JFK Plaque gifted by Marina Oswald-Porter to Ian Griggs. Pic: Barto.

  • He has tried to contact Harry Olson’s former missus Kay Coleman a few years back, but was warned not to pursue this any further. Kay Coleman remarried and lives in Ca.

Kay Coleman on the right with Jack Ruby.

  • Will Fritz bred horses.
  • The so called recording room right opposite Will Fritz’s Homicide and Robbery Division office, was not wired for sound.

Dallas Police Department Floor plan. Courtesy of No Case To Answer by Ian Griggs

 

  • Ian Griggs had a decommissioned Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. I had no measuring tape so could not say how long it was, but the rifle was broken apart, so I just held the wooden part of it and I can tell you now that there is no way that rifle could be inside the paper bag since this piece is way too long. I could not cup this underneath my shoulder and inside the palm of my hand.

Holding a Mannlicher-Carcano, which is way too long for cupping it. Pic: Barto

 

Colony Club flyer signed by Beverly Oliver

Colony Club flyer signed by Beverly Oliver. Pic: Barto

 

Dallas Police Buckle. Pic. Barto

Dallas Police Buckle. Pic. Barto

 

Jim Leavelle and RC Graves autographed phoptograph of Ruby shooting Oswald

Jim Leavelle and R.C. Graves autographed photograph of Ruby shooting Oswald.

 

  • Ian also had a nice collection of newspapers from that period, I produce two here with some interesting bits related to ‘our’ case, I hope to be able to reproduce more in the future.

Kingsport Times Nov 22nd 1963. Pic: Barto

 

Kingsport News Nov 23rd 1963. Pic Barto

 

  • Last but not least a time sheet of some major Dallas Police Department Officers from Nov 1963.
Dallas Police Department Time Sheet Nov 1963

Dallas Police Department Time Sheet Nov 1963

I hope to see Ian again at the Dealey Plaza UK Canterbury conference on April 23rd/24th where I will present a Prayer Man talk and also will be doing a Q&A with Malcolm Blunt.

I have also been notified that my chat with Rob Clark of the Lone Gunman Podcast has become the highest listened to show so far, not bad indeed! Thank you Robbo!!!

Jim Murray The Knoll Photos

Some more ROKC Scans of Jim Murray. The knoll falls outside my remit but hopefully they will offer some value to somebody else.

Good hunting! All photos by Jim Murray.

10K

The movie has gone past the 10.000 mark. I have to say that I am really chuffed by the numbers and the recent two weeks has seen a dramatic increase of almost 300 views per day.

Thanks to everyone who viewed Prayer Man The Movie Version 1!!!

Add on March 8th 2016:  In the last two weeks the film amassed another 4,000 hits! Compared to 7,300 in 11,5 weeks before.

What will happen with V2?

What I can tell you is that the format will be the same but this time they will be presented as individual movies, so there will be 5 or 6 clips of about 25 mins each. There will be a lot more new graphics and content and I hope to start in a few months time. It will be a different movie.

 

Goodreads

I got a mention on Goodreads, alongside the review of Stan Dane’s book.

“In 2015 Dealey Plaza U.K. held a presentation by a researcher named Bart Kamp which studied the image known as ‘Prayer Man’. Mr. Kamp hopes to publish his findings in 2016. His video is available on You Tube. In the meantime I found out about this 2015 publication from Stan Dane.”

I am chuffed :)

 

Review on GoodReads

Peggy Joyce Hawkins

Peggy Joyce Bibbler – Hawkins

Peggy Joyce Hawkins (maiden name Bibbler) met her husband at the TSBD along with her child, she stood roughly 50 feet away from the Texas School Book Depository when the shots rang out and she hid behind the retaining wall. After realising no more shots were being fired and  returning to the TSBD she saw a policeman stand there, and heard some remarks about the railroad yard through the police radio.

Truly and Baker, leg sticking out behind tall fella. Click pic. to enlarge.

The Darnell film only shows Baker’s run, it does not show him going up the steps, it has been automatically assumed he dashed up the stairs before Roy Truly could catch up with him. The story of them going up the stairs together has always been met with disbelief. You can see Truly in the Darnell film slowly turning and making his way towards the front steps, but at a slow speed compared to Baker. Then again the steps were pretty filled up with employees, some had left but others were returning and the whole east side of the steps was filled with mostly women looking out and discussing what had happened and Joe Molina stood at the very top. Buell Wesley Frazier stood dead centre.

But Peggy Joyce Hawkins. statement puts some doubt into this. This you can see at the bottom of page 1 of her FBI statement. She walked back to the TSBD and saw a motorcycle police officer in front of the building. Now unless some other motorcycle police officer went there it could be assumed that Marrion L. Baker stood longer outside than has been assumed.

The radio transmission she speaks of is Jesse Curry’s who said this while the cars were passing the triple underpass.

At 12:30 Have my office move all available men out of my office into the railroad yard to try to determine what happened in there and hold everything secure until Homicide and other investigators should get there.

She also made her way back into the building, and this is confirmed by the so called roll call sheet. This roll call sheet itself isn’t much from an evidentiary p.o.v., as Geraldine Reid is mentioned twice, Charles Douglas Givens is missing and Lee Oswald is right at the top (which points more to his name being taken down from the word go than him being the missing person!).

What doesn’t help is the second page of her FBI statement that she doesn’t remember who she encountered while making her way back. And let’s face it, this is a black hole overall with most statements from that day.

But then there is Robert Mac Neil, a journalist, who was part of the motorcade and who went into the TSBD to make a phone call. This call being logged at 12:36 and him stating that he did not see any police inside the building while making the call, and this has a ring of truth to it, since his head office reported the time, but also looking at the radio transmissions and the orders of going to the TSBD and investigate matters further.

At 12:34 I just talked to a guy up here who was standing close to it and the best he could tell it came from the Texas School Book Depository Building here with that Hertz Renting sign on top.

At 12:36 Witness says shots came from fifth floor, Texas Book Depository Store and Houston and Elm. I have him with me now and we are sealing off the building.

At 12:37 Get some men up here to cover this school depository building. It’s believed the shot came from, as you see it on Elm Street, it would be upper right hand corner, second window from the end.

 


Peggy Joyce Hawkins-1

Peggy Joyce Hawkins-2

Peggy Joyce Bibbler - Hawkins Roll Call

Robert Mac Neil FBI Statement

 

I am now pretty convinced Baker and Truly stood outside, this witness testimony in conjunction with Chris Davidson’s gif which shows Baker veering further to the right than the actual steps.

Add on Jan 30th

This might be Peggy Bibbler Hawkins standing and holding her child. If this is her then she had an excellent vantage point to hear the motorcycle belonging to Marrion Baker and look towards the front entrance of the Texas School Book Depository.

 

Peggy Bibbler Hawkins

Click picture to enlarge.

Here is an interview Ed Ledoux had in 2018 with Peggy.