Warren Commission (05 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (05 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mr. WADE. Well, it varies according to who my first assistant has been.
It is varied. If I have a first assistant who likes to try cases, I
usually let him try a lot and I do the administrative. At the present
time I have a very fine administrative assistant, Jim Bowie, whom you
met and I try a few more cases.
I guess I have tried four in the last year probably but two to five a
year are about all the cases I try myself personally.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you have any policy about capital cases as to whether
you should try them or somebody else?
Mr. WADE. I don't try all of them. I try all the cases that are very
aggravated and receive probably some publicity to some extent, and
I don't try all the capital cases. I think we have had quite a few
death penalties but I don't imagine I have been in over half of them,
probably half of them.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you remember where you were at the time you learned of
the assassination of President Kennedy?
Mr. WADE. Well, they were having a party for President Kennedy at
Market Hall and I was out at Market Hall waiting for the President to
arrive.
Mr. RANKIN. How did you learn about the assassination?
Mr. WADE. Well, one of the reporters for one of the newspapers told
me there had been a shooting or something, of course, one of those
things we were getting all kinds of rumors spreading through a crowd
of 3,000-5,000 people, and then they got the radio on and the first
report was they had killed two Secret Service agents, that was on the
radio, and then the press all came running in there and then ran out,
no one knew for sure what was going on until finally they announced
that President had been shot and from the rostrum there the chairman of
the----
Mr. DULLES. Who was the chairman of that meeting, do you recall?
Mr. WADE. Eric Johnson. Eric Johnson.
Mr. RANKIN. Was he mayor then?
Mr. WADE. No; he wasn't mayor, he was the president of Texas Industries
and I believe was president of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. I may
have been wrong on that but he has been president of the chamber
of commerce. He is president of Texas Industries, and this is not
particularly important but he is--that was sort of a bipartisan deal,
in that he is one of the leading Republicans of Dallas and he was
chairman of the meeting.
Mr. RANKIN. What did you do after you heard of the assassination?
Mr. WADE. Well, the first thing, we were set up in a bus to go from
there to Austin to another party that night for President Kennedy, a
group of us, 30 or 40. We got on a bus and went. I went back to the
office and sent my wife home, my wife was with me.
And the first thing that I did was go check the law to see whether it
was a Federal offense or mine. I thought it was a Federal offense when
I first heard about it. We checked the law, and were satisfied that was
no serious Federal offense, or not a capital case, anyhow.
There might be some lesser offense. I talked to the U.S. attorney.
Mr. RANKIN. Who was that?
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