Warren Commission (02 of 26): Hearings Vol. II (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (02 of 26): Hearings Vol. II (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Now, there is on file in the district attorney's office--I assume you
have the original or copies of it--a report of a paraffin test taken
of Oswald, of both his hands and his face. The test proved, according
to Mr. Curry, and the statement that he made on Saturday, November
23, to the press that Oswald had fired the murder weapon. However, a
reading of the test indicates that one could come to a very different
conclusion.
The test in reference to the face proved negative, indicating that
Oswald had not fired a rifle on November 22, 1963--although the test on
the hands showed positive--indicating, according to the person who did
the analysis, the kinds of patterns consistent with one having fired
a revolver. That was the statement on the test taken and conducted by
a Louis L. Anderson, on November 23, 1963, by the Dallas City County
Crime Investigation Laboratory.
Now, it has, of course, been alleged that after Oswald shot the
President and took a bus and a taxi, and went home and got a jacket,
he then shot and killed Officer Tippit. The affidavit in the district
attorney's office indicates that a person saw a stopped police car,
walked up to the police car, leaned on it with his arms on the window,
or what would be a windowsill or window ledge of the automobile, and
then stepped back a step or two, the officer came out, and this person
shot Officer Tippit to death.
The affidavit is peculiarly sparse in reference to the description of
the assailant, the man who killed Tippit, by an eyewitness who said she
was just 50 feet away.
Her description of this person is found in two different portions of
the affidavit--he was young, white, male, and that is the entire
description present in the affidavit at that time.
I spoke with the deponent, the eyewitness, Helen Louise Markham,
and Mrs. Markham told me--Miss or Mrs., I didn't ask her if she was
married--told me that she was a hundred feet away from the police
car, not the 50 feet which appears in the affidavit. She gave to me
a more detailed description of the man who she said shot Officer
Tippit. She said he was short, a little on the heavy side, and his
hair was somewhat bushy. I think it is fair to state that an accurate
description of Oswald would be average height, quite slender, with thin
and receding hair.
Helen Markham said to me that she was taken to the police station on
that same day, that she was very upset, she of course had never seen
anyone killed in front of her eyes before, and that in the police
station she identified Oswald as the person who had shot Officer Tippit
in the lineup, including three other persons. She said no one pointed
Oswald out to her--she was just shown four people, and she picked
Oswald.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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