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
(Discussion off the record.)
Mr. GRIFFIN. Let's go on the record on this.
We have been speaking off the record about other suggestions which
Chief Batchelor has, and one of the things that he has pointed out
is that there is not enough advance notice of what the Presidential
route is going to be to enable the police department to satisfactorily
handle the administrative problems of selecting people to place them at
particular intersections.
Do you want to add any more to that statement that I have made of what
you have just told me?
Chief BATCHELOR. No. I realize there is another aspect on this too,
on the part of the Secret Service, that they want, that is, that they
don't want too much advance notice to the public. This is the reason I
am not criticizing.
(Further discussion off the record.)
Mr. GRIFFIN. Let me go on the record and ask you a question here. Do
you think, Chief, it would have been possible to station people in the
middle of the downtown block with the instructions to watch various
buildings in a periphery of their vision.
Chief BATCHELOR. Yes. This would be feasible. We did have men in the
middle of the downtown, several of them in each block, they were
primarily watching the crowd of people rather than the windows.
When you are in an area of skyscrapers and you are standing right at
the foot of these skyscrapers, you couldn't see windows too far up more
than just a few floors, but we did have men in the middle of the block,
but they weren't instructed to watch the windows as much as they were
to watch the people.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did these men actually have any specific instructions as
to how they were to go about watching the people or the windows?
Chief BATCHELOR. We had experienced detectives down there in the
immediate block watching in the crowd and then we had some reservists,
too, and we had instructed our people in the course of training that
when somebody comes by, that you are supposed to secure, that you are
not supposed to watch that person, but supposed to watch the crowd.
Whether all of them remember this or not--when you don't get a
President here but every number of years, why you don't know. That is
the reason I think that in some places where they have these kind of
people frequently, this is probably routine.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you have men stationed in the neighborhood of Elm
and Houston and the School Book Depository that were instructed to be
watching the crowds?
Chief BATCHELOR. No, sir; I don't think anyone was stationed below
Houston Street. At that point, I don't know whether any crowd along
that particular point was even anticipated or not. It was away from the
business section and it was not any buildings on either side of the
street there, actually.
The School Book Depository faces on Elm Street, which is parallel to
the Elm Street ramp that goes under the triple underpass.
It is a couple of hundred feet across from the street to that Building
and there wasn't anybody placed down there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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