Donald Willis
2023-11-03 05:32:24 UTC
1:22pm DPD radio message translates as The Jacket Was Planted, Folks--and that ain't all
First faint clue: DPD Sgt. G.D. Henslee transcribes the first line of the transmission thusly: "Have a description of the suspect on Jefferson." Actually, the transmission runs, "We have a description on this suspect over here on Jefferson." The omitted "over here" makes it sound like the sender, Officer Roy Walker, is actually on Jefferson. Is there a problem with that? Oh, yes.
Second faint clue: But, first, continuing the text of the 1:22 transmission: "Last seen about 300 E. Jefferson. He's a white male, about 30, 5'8", black hair, slender, wearing a white jacket, white shirt, and dark slacks". (DPD radio logs) Dale Myers tinkers with the description: "Last seen about 300 block of East Jefferson." ("With Malice" p114) Note that he adds "block of", making it sound as if Walker is simply indicating a block. But Walker specified an address, 300, at Jefferson & Beckley, a full block west of the site where the jacket was found, at Jefferson & Crawford. And if it be thought that dictabelt skips account for the missing words, see below for follow-ups on Myers and Walker. And note that the dispatcher, at 1:26, has the suspect "going west on Jefferson from the 300 block". (CE 705 p22)
Third faint clue: At 1:19:05, the dispatcher tells Walker to check out 501 E. 10th at Denver (WMp105). Then, at 1:19:59, he tells Walker "The suspect's running west on Jefferson from the location" (DPD radio logs/WMp109). When, at 1:21:37, Walker radios "I haven't seen anything on Jefferson yet" (DPD radio logs), the dispatcher again directs him to "501 E. 10th at Denver" (CE 705p20/WM p113). Finally, at 1:22:36, Walker radios his "over here" description. From his 1:21:37 transmission, we know that Walker was, at the time, on Jefferson. But we don't know, from his radio transmissions, whether he was ever at 10th & Patton. He doesn't correct or follow-up the dispatcher's "10th at Denver", after either of the latter's advisories.
Fourth (getting somewhere) clue: And yet Myers insists that Walker met and talked to Warren Reynolds at the murder scene: "Reynolds returned to 10th & Patton at about [1:20], despite Reynolds' testimony to the contrary" (p112). True, in 1983, Walker told Myers that he did meet Reynolds, about 1:22. However, he adds, "One of the used car lot operators saw the incident... Warren Reynolds" (p114). The latter never said that he saw the shooting--Walker's memory fails him here.
And Reynolds would hardly have been the one to tell Walker, "Last seen about 300 E. Jefferson". Ruinously for him, Walker told Myers that it was "Reynolds [who] gave me the description of the gunman" (p114). Walker was apparently unaware that TV film footage has turned up showing Reynolds telling police at the scene that he last saw a suspicious man going into the back of an old house near the Texaco station (WM p131). Reynolds, then, could not have been Walker's "300 E. Jefferson" witness, a full block west of the house. (Reynolds' suspicious man may not have been the gunman at all, but a vigilante trailing the gunman.) Myers, then, with one hand, was simply extending Walker's witness-identity deception, despite his own text and frame grabs which, with the other hand, expose said deception! Myers giveth and Myers taketh away.
Fifth (gathering steam) clue: Myers then buttresses the invented Walker/Reynolds confab with yet another out-of-thin-air incident, based on the word of... no one at all: "Warren Reynolds, who had come with [Sgt. Bud Owens & Assistant DA Bill Alexander] from 10th & Patton, pointed to an old house near the Texaco station..." (p120) Alexander did not testify to the Warren Commission, and Owens, in his Commission testimony, did not mention bringing along a witness to the Texaco area. None of the principals, then--Reynolds, Walker, Alexander, Owens--can support Myers' vignettes re Reynolds "returning" to and leaving the scene of the crime circa 1:20 and 1:22. Thin air.
Sixth (Eureka!) clue: Relocation, relocation, relocation. Why would Walker and Myers go to so much trouble to falsely identify and relocate a witness? Well, what other witness or witnesses were "over here on Jefferson"? Yes--Robert and Mary Brock, in effect the gatekeepers of the parking-lot suspect. In fact, the Brocks were the only witnesses who stated that they "last observed [the suspect] in the parking lot directly behind" the service station. (WM p551) In fact, they may have been the last witnesses to have reported seeing the suspect, but not in the parking lot, and certainly not doffing his jacket. Because at 1:22, he was reported at "about 300 E. Jefferson", a block further west, still wearing his "white jacket". Certainly worth Walker's false identification of his witness, and Myers' subsequent, false relocation of him elsewhere. Two wrongs and no right.
And the first transmissions re the Texaco location were "Suspect just passed 401 E. Jefferson" and "Subject just passed 401 E. Jefferson" (CE 705pp20-21)
Seventh clue: At 1:26, Sgt. Gerald Hill reported from 12th & Beckley "Have a man in the car with me that can identify the suspect if anybody gets... one." (CE 1974 p63) About 1:23, at the Tippit scene, according to Hill's testimony, "Another person came up [and] told us the man had run over into the funeral home parking lot", which was opposite the Texaco station (v7p48). Sgt. Bud Owens similarly testified that, at the "scene of the shooting... we were informed by a man whom I do not know that the suspect that shot Officer Tippit had run across a vacant lot toward Jefferson" (v7p79). Someone, then, from the Texaco-station area--Hill and Owens both garbled the where of it--had run down to where the police were congregating. And Hill, clearly, immediately, took this man near to where the man had last seen the suspect, Beckley & Jefferson, or 300 E. Jefferson, which is two half-blocks north of 12th & Beckley. In fact, "300" would be on the south side of Jefferson. If Walker and his witness were being very very precise, that would mean that the suspect had crossed Jefferson, heading right towards... 12th & Beckley.
Eighth clue: But there must have been a big problem--retrospectively--with this witness. In fact, Hill's testimony constitutes an implicit, hapless denial that he even had a witness or that he had even radioed from 12th & Beckley, even though it's on the record. On the record, Gerald! Both the FBI transcription (see above) and Myers (p124) acknowledge that Hill sent the 1:26 message. Hill testified, falsely, that, about 1:25, he left the Tippit scene and "whipped around the block. I went down to the first intersection east of the block where all this incident occurred and made a right turn and traveled one block and came back up on Jefferson", where he met Owens at the Texaco/old-house site (v7p48). The poor Warren Commission did not have time to check out every DPD tale.
Who was Hill's radioactive witness, whom, figuratively, he dare not touch, or acknowledge, let alone name? Myers apparently knew, hence his totally unsupported relocation of that witness (as well as Officer Walker) from Crawford & Jefferson to 10th & Patton. This is known as throwing the hounds off the scent. But by fallaciously drawing a witness away from the Crawford area, Myers ironically draws attention to that area. Reynolds was looking east from Crawford area. But Hill's witness was looking west, towards Beckley. Now who could have gotten a pretty good look at the fleeing suspect, good enough to have estimated height, weight, race, and age, and described the man's clothing? Who could have seen him that closely--seen him as, say, he passed the Texaco station? Robert and/or Mary Brock, of course. Walker doesn't indicate the sex or number of his witnesses ("We have a description"), so it could have been either Mr. or Mrs. Brock, or both.
And, just as the WFAA-TV footage of Reynolds exposes the Walker lie, so it exposes the Brocks' lies. As noted above, Mrs. Brock stated that she informed Reynolds that "she last observed [the suspect] in the parking lot directly behind Ballew's Texaco Service Station". Clearly, she did not so inform him, not without some strong input from Reynolds, who had his own story to tell and was telling it to the cops, that day, and would have told it to her. But she failed to give herself and her husband a lifeline out of the Reynolds morass. A frame-grab is worth a thousand words. Moral: Whatever you do, don't hitch your wagon to Warren Reynolds.
Despite their apparent proximity to the suspect, neither Brock was invited either to attend a lineup or to testify for the Commission. It might have been too easy, then, for people to connect the dots: "over here on Jefferson", "300 E. Jefferson", the Brocks. As the witnesses both closest to 300 E. Jefferson and to the parking lot, the Brocks had to be downplayed, had to be weaned off Jefferson & Beckley and weaned onto the parking lot. (Sgt. Hill didn't just downplay them--he vaporized them, or one of them.) More publicity would have meant more scrutiny, prickly questions. (On that same day--Jan. 21, 1964--Reynolds himself was slipping further into the morass: For his part, he misleadingly told the FBI then that he "last observed the individual to turn north" by the service station: "[The Brocks] informed him the individual had gone through the parking lot." [FBI interview report/WMp544] Naively, he apparently thought that the WFAA footage had been deep-sixed.)
In sum: The jacket was planted, the Texaco jacket witnesses were manufactured, Oswald was, beyond doubt, being framed for Tippit's murder, and Dale Myers was last seen imploding.
dcw
First faint clue: DPD Sgt. G.D. Henslee transcribes the first line of the transmission thusly: "Have a description of the suspect on Jefferson." Actually, the transmission runs, "We have a description on this suspect over here on Jefferson." The omitted "over here" makes it sound like the sender, Officer Roy Walker, is actually on Jefferson. Is there a problem with that? Oh, yes.
Second faint clue: But, first, continuing the text of the 1:22 transmission: "Last seen about 300 E. Jefferson. He's a white male, about 30, 5'8", black hair, slender, wearing a white jacket, white shirt, and dark slacks". (DPD radio logs) Dale Myers tinkers with the description: "Last seen about 300 block of East Jefferson." ("With Malice" p114) Note that he adds "block of", making it sound as if Walker is simply indicating a block. But Walker specified an address, 300, at Jefferson & Beckley, a full block west of the site where the jacket was found, at Jefferson & Crawford. And if it be thought that dictabelt skips account for the missing words, see below for follow-ups on Myers and Walker. And note that the dispatcher, at 1:26, has the suspect "going west on Jefferson from the 300 block". (CE 705 p22)
Third faint clue: At 1:19:05, the dispatcher tells Walker to check out 501 E. 10th at Denver (WMp105). Then, at 1:19:59, he tells Walker "The suspect's running west on Jefferson from the location" (DPD radio logs/WMp109). When, at 1:21:37, Walker radios "I haven't seen anything on Jefferson yet" (DPD radio logs), the dispatcher again directs him to "501 E. 10th at Denver" (CE 705p20/WM p113). Finally, at 1:22:36, Walker radios his "over here" description. From his 1:21:37 transmission, we know that Walker was, at the time, on Jefferson. But we don't know, from his radio transmissions, whether he was ever at 10th & Patton. He doesn't correct or follow-up the dispatcher's "10th at Denver", after either of the latter's advisories.
Fourth (getting somewhere) clue: And yet Myers insists that Walker met and talked to Warren Reynolds at the murder scene: "Reynolds returned to 10th & Patton at about [1:20], despite Reynolds' testimony to the contrary" (p112). True, in 1983, Walker told Myers that he did meet Reynolds, about 1:22. However, he adds, "One of the used car lot operators saw the incident... Warren Reynolds" (p114). The latter never said that he saw the shooting--Walker's memory fails him here.
And Reynolds would hardly have been the one to tell Walker, "Last seen about 300 E. Jefferson". Ruinously for him, Walker told Myers that it was "Reynolds [who] gave me the description of the gunman" (p114). Walker was apparently unaware that TV film footage has turned up showing Reynolds telling police at the scene that he last saw a suspicious man going into the back of an old house near the Texaco station (WM p131). Reynolds, then, could not have been Walker's "300 E. Jefferson" witness, a full block west of the house. (Reynolds' suspicious man may not have been the gunman at all, but a vigilante trailing the gunman.) Myers, then, with one hand, was simply extending Walker's witness-identity deception, despite his own text and frame grabs which, with the other hand, expose said deception! Myers giveth and Myers taketh away.
Fifth (gathering steam) clue: Myers then buttresses the invented Walker/Reynolds confab with yet another out-of-thin-air incident, based on the word of... no one at all: "Warren Reynolds, who had come with [Sgt. Bud Owens & Assistant DA Bill Alexander] from 10th & Patton, pointed to an old house near the Texaco station..." (p120) Alexander did not testify to the Warren Commission, and Owens, in his Commission testimony, did not mention bringing along a witness to the Texaco area. None of the principals, then--Reynolds, Walker, Alexander, Owens--can support Myers' vignettes re Reynolds "returning" to and leaving the scene of the crime circa 1:20 and 1:22. Thin air.
Sixth (Eureka!) clue: Relocation, relocation, relocation. Why would Walker and Myers go to so much trouble to falsely identify and relocate a witness? Well, what other witness or witnesses were "over here on Jefferson"? Yes--Robert and Mary Brock, in effect the gatekeepers of the parking-lot suspect. In fact, the Brocks were the only witnesses who stated that they "last observed [the suspect] in the parking lot directly behind" the service station. (WM p551) In fact, they may have been the last witnesses to have reported seeing the suspect, but not in the parking lot, and certainly not doffing his jacket. Because at 1:22, he was reported at "about 300 E. Jefferson", a block further west, still wearing his "white jacket". Certainly worth Walker's false identification of his witness, and Myers' subsequent, false relocation of him elsewhere. Two wrongs and no right.
And the first transmissions re the Texaco location were "Suspect just passed 401 E. Jefferson" and "Subject just passed 401 E. Jefferson" (CE 705pp20-21)
Seventh clue: At 1:26, Sgt. Gerald Hill reported from 12th & Beckley "Have a man in the car with me that can identify the suspect if anybody gets... one." (CE 1974 p63) About 1:23, at the Tippit scene, according to Hill's testimony, "Another person came up [and] told us the man had run over into the funeral home parking lot", which was opposite the Texaco station (v7p48). Sgt. Bud Owens similarly testified that, at the "scene of the shooting... we were informed by a man whom I do not know that the suspect that shot Officer Tippit had run across a vacant lot toward Jefferson" (v7p79). Someone, then, from the Texaco-station area--Hill and Owens both garbled the where of it--had run down to where the police were congregating. And Hill, clearly, immediately, took this man near to where the man had last seen the suspect, Beckley & Jefferson, or 300 E. Jefferson, which is two half-blocks north of 12th & Beckley. In fact, "300" would be on the south side of Jefferson. If Walker and his witness were being very very precise, that would mean that the suspect had crossed Jefferson, heading right towards... 12th & Beckley.
Eighth clue: But there must have been a big problem--retrospectively--with this witness. In fact, Hill's testimony constitutes an implicit, hapless denial that he even had a witness or that he had even radioed from 12th & Beckley, even though it's on the record. On the record, Gerald! Both the FBI transcription (see above) and Myers (p124) acknowledge that Hill sent the 1:26 message. Hill testified, falsely, that, about 1:25, he left the Tippit scene and "whipped around the block. I went down to the first intersection east of the block where all this incident occurred and made a right turn and traveled one block and came back up on Jefferson", where he met Owens at the Texaco/old-house site (v7p48). The poor Warren Commission did not have time to check out every DPD tale.
Who was Hill's radioactive witness, whom, figuratively, he dare not touch, or acknowledge, let alone name? Myers apparently knew, hence his totally unsupported relocation of that witness (as well as Officer Walker) from Crawford & Jefferson to 10th & Patton. This is known as throwing the hounds off the scent. But by fallaciously drawing a witness away from the Crawford area, Myers ironically draws attention to that area. Reynolds was looking east from Crawford area. But Hill's witness was looking west, towards Beckley. Now who could have gotten a pretty good look at the fleeing suspect, good enough to have estimated height, weight, race, and age, and described the man's clothing? Who could have seen him that closely--seen him as, say, he passed the Texaco station? Robert and/or Mary Brock, of course. Walker doesn't indicate the sex or number of his witnesses ("We have a description"), so it could have been either Mr. or Mrs. Brock, or both.
And, just as the WFAA-TV footage of Reynolds exposes the Walker lie, so it exposes the Brocks' lies. As noted above, Mrs. Brock stated that she informed Reynolds that "she last observed [the suspect] in the parking lot directly behind Ballew's Texaco Service Station". Clearly, she did not so inform him, not without some strong input from Reynolds, who had his own story to tell and was telling it to the cops, that day, and would have told it to her. But she failed to give herself and her husband a lifeline out of the Reynolds morass. A frame-grab is worth a thousand words. Moral: Whatever you do, don't hitch your wagon to Warren Reynolds.
Despite their apparent proximity to the suspect, neither Brock was invited either to attend a lineup or to testify for the Commission. It might have been too easy, then, for people to connect the dots: "over here on Jefferson", "300 E. Jefferson", the Brocks. As the witnesses both closest to 300 E. Jefferson and to the parking lot, the Brocks had to be downplayed, had to be weaned off Jefferson & Beckley and weaned onto the parking lot. (Sgt. Hill didn't just downplay them--he vaporized them, or one of them.) More publicity would have meant more scrutiny, prickly questions. (On that same day--Jan. 21, 1964--Reynolds himself was slipping further into the morass: For his part, he misleadingly told the FBI then that he "last observed the individual to turn north" by the service station: "[The Brocks] informed him the individual had gone through the parking lot." [FBI interview report/WMp544] Naively, he apparently thought that the WFAA footage had been deep-sixed.)
In sum: The jacket was planted, the Texaco jacket witnesses were manufactured, Oswald was, beyond doubt, being framed for Tippit's murder, and Dale Myers was last seen imploding.
dcw
