Warren Commission (15 of 26): Hearings Vol. XV (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (15 of 26): Hearings Vol. XV (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
If you mean after the last time I walked down to the armored truck and
got down to the basement--well, it could have been, because it was some
little time after I searched that armored truck, and I didn’t go back
up there.
I say some little time, being probably 15 or 20 minutes, something like
that. I can’t recall definitely the exact time that Talbert asked me
this, but it was during the last period of time I was in the basement.
Mr. HUBERT. What was your understanding, Chief, as to who, if any
individual or group of individuals was responsible for carrying out the
transfer movement?
That is to say, considering that the decision had been made by Chief
Curry as to how it would be done, what route would be followed, what
automobiles would be used, what personnel would be used, who was
to implement that by carrying out the orders; if there was any one
individual or not, then who had responsibility for the various segments?
Chief BATCHELOR. The homicide bureau was responsible for actually
transferring the prisoner. This was supplemented, as far as the guards
in the basement were concerned, with a large number of detectives which
had been told by Chief Stevenson earlier to stand by in the bureaus for
assignment in the basement, and we came down to see about security and
learned that Talbert had anticipated this thing.
And Chief Stevenson talked to Talbert. They sat there in the jail
office and talked a while and found out what Talbert had assigned in
terms of men that he had called in to assign along the route on Main
Street.
And later he changed these men. He assumed that they were going down
Main Street, and he changed them, I believe, to Elm Street. Sent a
supervisor down the street to tell them to move over a block.
And I came down there and found security in the basement going into the
jail office. That is in the records bureau section. There were guards
in there. There was a guard on the stairway that leads up to the first
floor.
I came into the basement and found a large number of officers in the
basement. The cars were all gone. There were not over three or four
cars in the entire basement.
Chief Curry’s car had been pulled out and put on Commerce Street,
double parked to lead the group, and I pulled my car up and parked it
on Commerce Street west of the ramp.
His car was parked east of the ramp and mine was parked west of the
ramp. Now this was done prior to the time that we knew or that I knew
or I think even Chief Curry knew that there was going to be any change
of plans.
We had anticipated this in terms of using the armored truck to be
followed by cars of detectives and to be followed by myself and Chief
Stevenson in the rear car, but of course this never developed.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you remember whether Captain Fritz or anyone else made
any inquiry of you or of anyone else, to your knowledge, prior to the
movement as to whether things were ready to go in the basement area
before starting from the third floor?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account