Warren Commission (12 of 26): Hearings Vol. XII (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (12 of 26): Hearings Vol. XII (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Captain TALBERT. No, sir, I asked--at that time. I didn't know they had
the gun. I didn't see the gun, so, I thought it was still in the crowd,
and I asked Chief Batchelor for permission to put all of the news media
in the police assembly room for interrogation, or somebody said, "I
don't think we have the gun." One of the officers who was kneeling on
Ruby--literally, you couldn't hardly see Ruby for this officer kneeling
on him--said, "I have the gun." Or perhaps he said, "Graves has the
gun." And then I told Chief Batchelor that it wouldn't be necessary to
search them.
I got a batch of memo pads from the jail office and gave some of them
to Sergeant Everett, passed some out myself, told the officers to get
the names, identification and location at the time of the shooting of
anyone before they let them out of the basement. Chief Batchelor had
told me to go to Parkland and secure it. I immediately got in my car,
got on there and told the dispatcher to gather up all of my squads
and to have them to report to me code 3, at Parkland and followed the
ambulance out to Parkland.
Mr. HUBERT. When did you first hear that Ruby had stated that he had
come down the Main Street ramp?
Captain TALBERT. I started my own investigation. Of course, I had
nothing to do with this official investigation of the incident in the
basement, but it is only natural that a police officer and a police
supervisor is going to instigate his own investigation. I started mine
from the hospital on the phone, and that question would be impossible
to answer. I may have heard it through the news media. I heard--may
have heard it through another officer who had overheard what they said
up in the jail. It could have been something of that sort. I couldn't
tell you exactly, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you, in fact, conduct an independent investigation of
your own?
Captain TALBERT. Just a very cursory one, and during a very brief
period until the official investigation got underway.
Mr. HUBERT. How long a time would that have been?
Captain TALBERT. Well, maybe----
Mr. HUBERT. Put it this way, what did you do by way of instigating the
investigation?
Captain TALBERT. Contacted, attempted to ascertain how Ruby entered
the ramp, or entered the parking area rather. I contacted each of my
officers who were on the entrances, and I did that while I was at the
hospital. That was before the death of--or during the operation on
Oswald, and while we still had the hospital secured by the squads, and
I contacted the supervisors who were there, and after that I was told
that an official investigation would be conducted, and I dropped it.
Mr. HUBERT. Would you say that it was about an hour?
Captain TALBERT. No, sir; I wouldn't estimate the time.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you contact Vaughn particularly?
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