r r -7 c.„ G LAT Ctif 47-/ ' L r ce52.4 Atti, Tipp at: After The Murder by Bill Drenas

(Editorial Note: I first "met" the author of this article through the Internet following the publication of his J.D. Tippit Timeline "Car 10 Where Are You" in August 1997. That paper appeared on the John McAdams web page and it immediately struck me as the most comprehensive account of Tippit's death and the few hours preceding it that I had ever read. Bill and I then corresponded regularly and I like to think that I was partly instrumental in arranging his participation at the 1997 JFK-Lancer Conference in . The article which follows was originally written exclusively for The Dealey Plaza Echo and it was on this that Bill's excellent paper at the Dallas conference was age 6 based. I would point out that this article first appeared in The Assassination Chronicles, Vol. 3, Issue 3, Fall 1997 and it appears here with permission.

Whether the Tippit killing is one of your particular interests, or if you have never really studied it in depth, I feel sure that you will gain a lot from what follows! - Ed.)

At the 10th and Patton the DPD tapes, not that of Domingo a man lying there on the street. I murder scene I3enevides, who had mistakenly been didn't wait a minute. I ran to the credited with making the call. telephone. I didn't look in the book or Since publishing my J.D. Tippit anything. I ran to the telephone, Timeline "Car 10 Where Are You?" on While Bowley was giving the police picked it up and dialled 0. I said 'Call page the Internet, I have received many dispatcher the location of the the police, a man's been shot.' After emails with wonderful compliments shooting, Mrs. Frank Wright was also that I went outside to join my and additional Tippit questions. It acting quickly. Mrs. Wright and her husband. It wasn't but a minute till the seems that many of the questions in husband lived at 501 East 10th Street - ambulance got there." the Tippit case have never been about half a block from the shooting. explained in detail and many readers Although Mrs. Wright never testified When the operator forwarded Mrs. are confused about certain issues. Two before the Warren Commission she Wright's call to the police, they in turn of the questions I am most frequently was interviewed by George and pushed a button connecting them by asked are 25 "Why are there no Patricia Nash for their article in The direct line to the ambulance photographs of Tippit's body?" and New Leader magazine of 12th October dispatcher. Study of the DPD radio "Why are there no photographs of the 1964. She stated: "I heard three shots. logs indicates that initially there was chalk outline of his body at the scene From my window I got a clear view of of the murder?" On the surface, it may appear that something sinister is going on but the actual explanation is very simple - as I will 7et explain.

At the time that Tippit was shot and killed in the street outside 404 East 10th Street, , most of the Dallas Police patrol cars assigned to Oak Cliff were in the area of the School Book Depository (1). They had been dispatched there at 12.45pm after the report of the President being shot. Many of them were still there at 1.16pm when a call came over the police radio from ar . a private citizen stating: "There's been a shooting out here." •■■111•=1, (2) That citizen was T.F. Bowley (3). His is The Dudley M Hughes Funeral Home -400 East Jefferson Boulevard - (Photograph Ian Griggs the voice heard on the audio copy of ISA 1/97) THE DEALEY PLAZA ECHO

ambulance had its red emergency wat; lights operating and its siren blaring. kno

I According to Kinsley: "He came out Unt from behind the Texaco station, and poll he was on the median (the median scel strip running down the centre of East bod Jefferson Boulevard in front of the exa Hughes Funeral Home) and he run am across in front of us we (Kinsley ass and Butler) were downgrading him for loa running across in front of us. You ant know, how stupid. Anyone seeing red Oa lights and siren on the ambulance - ; "D and still run out in front of you. And Lit we didn't know who he was from I Adam until we got back to the funeral I By home. And it was on TY, showing the rea Texas Theatre where he was wrestling 1.: with the policeman. And we said 'Well, pr( that's the fool we'd like to hit. (because ho he ran out in front of the ambulance) sir The 1963 Tippit Residence - 238 Glencairn Drive - Photograph Ian Griggs (18/11/97) He was heading for the library." thL (situated at the corner of East some confusion about the actual arrival at 1.18pm, within a minute of Jefferson and Marsalis.) (9) m. location of the shooting. There was no leaving the funeral home (7). th confusion for the ambulance If Kinsley's statements were true and of personnel that picked up Tippit's At 1.18pm. most of the police who accurate, then he witnessed the Ti body, however, because Mrs. Wright's eventually responded to this shooting assailant going on East Jefferson w call had bypassed the police radio were just learning of it or were just towards the library at the corner of w dispatcher. By this time, the police starting to leave Dealey Plaza for the East Jefferson and Marsalis. That is in dispatcher was giving out three murder scene at Oak Cliff (8). totally the opposite direction to the different locations for the shooting - Texas Theatre where Oswald was later 510 East Jefferson, 501 East 10th In 1977, ambulance driver Clayton arrested. The theatre is six tenths of a Street and 501 East Jefferson (4). Butler was interviewed by mile west of the funeral home (10). It investigators for the House Select Could it be possible that Kensley Committee on Assassinations. When mistook the library employee who ran tl The Dudley M. Hughes asked how long it took him to reach excitedly into the library to tell people b Funeral Home the scene, he replied: "I was on the about the President being shot as the tl scene one minute or less. From the man who ran in front of the h The ambulance reached the murder time we received the call in our ambulance? This man was mistaken as t] scene so quickly simply because the dispatch office until Officer Tippit was the Tippit assailant by the police at e central ambulance dispatching point pronounced dead at Methodist 1.34pm. If this was the same man it for southern Dallas was only about Hospital was approximately four does not fit the timeframe because t. three blocks away. It was, and still is, minutes." From the initial call at there is a gap of about 16 minutes the Dudley M. Hughes Funeral Home, 1.18pm, that indicates the ambulance between the man running in front of located at 400 East Jefferson arriving at the hospital at about the ambulance (1.18pm) and the call Boulevard (5). The funeral home is 1.22pm. for the police to investigate the library directly across the street from the (1.34pm). The library was situated at Texaco gas station behind which Just who was this? 542 East Jefferson, which is about two Oswald allegedly ducked before blocks from the Hughes Funeral ti discarding his zipper jacket (6). Ambulance attendant Eddie Kinsley Home. (The library currently at that gave two interviews, in 1978 and location is not the 1963 building but a Dudley M. Hughes, Jr. took the call 1981, in which he told a very new library rebuilt on the same spot at from the police and he immediately important story that could perhaps a later date - Ed.) filled out the ambulance call slip and place very close put it through the time clock where it to the murder scene. He explained that When Clayton Butler was asked if he was stamped at 1.18pm. Hughes then as the ambulance was leaving to go on recognized the man who ran in front dispatched ambulance driver Clayton the Tippit shooting call a man ran in of the ambulance as Oswald he J. Butler, Jr. and assistant Eddie front of the vehicle directly in front of replied: "No sir. I could not positively Kinsley to the scene. The speed with the Hughes Funeral Home. This was identify him.him. It very possibly could which they reached the scene can be despite the fact that at this time the have been Oswald because I was . . . I emergency watching traffic." (11) We may never at the intersection of Zangs Boulevard autopsy. Upon arrival at Parkland ren blaring. know who it was for sure. and Colorado. At this point, Hospital all streets leading into the Davenport's car followed the hospital were barricaded and manned He came out Under normal circumstances, if the ambulance to Methodist Hospital. by uniformed officers. We had to show station, and police had arrived first at the murder that we had a Dallas Police Officer in (the median scene, they would have kept Tippit's Davenport has stated: "I didn't know our ambulance before we were :ntre of East body there for photographs and scene who it was at first and then when they permitted to proceed to the hospital. front of the examination. Because the ambulance started unloading him I saw that it We went through normal DOA and he run arrived first, Butler and Kinsley, was Tippit" Davenport knew Tippit procedures set forth by Parkland we (Kinsley assisted by Bowley, (12) basically just personally because they had gone Hospital in placing Officer Tippit's tding him for loaded the body into the ambulance through police training school body in the County Morgue." of us. You and rushed it to Methodist Hospital, together. According to Davenport's e seeing red Oak Cliff where Tippit was declared Supplemental Offense Report (15): According to the Dallas Police ambulance - "Dead On Arrival" by Dr. Richard "We assisted in getting the officer to Homicide Report of Officer J.D. of you. And Liguori at 1.30pm. (13) the Emergency Room and observed Tippit: "Judge Joe B. Brown ordered e was from the doctors and nurses trying to bring autopsy, transferred to Parkland ) the funeral By the time the first police unit the officer back to life." At 1.30prn, Hospital." (18) Using the best showing the reached the murder scene it was Officer 3 .D. Tippit was pronounced documentation this transfer could as wrestling 1.22pm (14) and the ambulance was dead by Dr. Richard Liguori. have taken place somewhere between e said 'Well, probably at, or approaching, the Davenport also stated: "By request of 2.15pm and 2.30pm. The Autopsy 'at. (because hospital. To explain it briefly and Captain Talbert, Dr. Paul Moellenhoff Report is signed by Dr. Earl Rose at ambulance) simply, the ambulance was close to removed a bullet from Officer Tippit's 3.15pm 11/22/63. Given travel time ie library." the murder scene and responded very stomach so identification could be from Methodist Hospital to Parkland f of East quickly whereas the police units were made as to the caliber of the gun used Hospital and allowing time for the much further away and only reached in the shooting." (16) This also DOA paperwork procedures this the murder scene about four minutes explains why bullets were removed timeframe seems logical. re true and after Tippit's body had been removed. from Tippit at two different locations, iessed the Those straightforward facts explain Methodist Hospital and Parkland In Darwin Payne's book Reporting the Jefferson why no photographs of the corpse Hospital, as stated in his Autopsy Kennedy Assassination we find corner of were taken. Report written up by Dr. Earl Rose. additional confirmation of Tippit's ;. That is in body arriving at Parkland by KBOX :ion to the Examining the suggested These statements about the Methodist radio reporter Ron McAllister Jenkins. Id was later body switch Hospital activities regarding Tippit are Jenkins was trying to get into the tenths of a verified by comments made in an Parkland Hospital Emergency Room :come (10). It has been stated that Tippit's body interview of Emergency Room nurse but he found it impossible as every it Kensley was lost for an hour and that during Lotti Thompson. Because most of the entrance was sealed off. He recalled: ce who ran this time, conspirators switched the police officers were still at the Texas "Since that was part of my beat too I tell people body of the dead police officer with School Book Depository or at the finally figured out I'd go around to shot as the that of the late President. Could this Tippit murder scene, Tippit's body what they called the DOA room. And I t of the have happened? In order to deal with remained at Methodist Hospital until quickly scooted around to the back nistaken as this question objectively I set out to after Oswald was arrested at the Texas side and came in the back door. And police at establish a "chain of possession" (so to Theatre at about 1.50pm. Tippit's the lady who ran the desk was named me man it speak) of Tippit's body. I also set up a supervisor, Sergeant Calvin 'Bud' Fern Elliott. I'm sure a lot of reporters .e because timeline of events after the Tippit Owens, was en route to Methodist will remember her. And I asked her 6 minutes murder. Hospital at 2.02pm. (17) In Sergeant Fern, do you know what's going on?' in front of Owens' Warren Commission testi- and she said 'No, they are not telling id the call We have already established from mony, he stated: "I left the scene me a thing.' And I stayed in the office the library official documentation and eyewitness (Tippit murder) and went to Methodist there, and while I was in there, this situated at interviews that a Hughes Funeral Hospital where Officer Tippit had was some time later, they wheeled in a about two Home ambulance with attendants been taken, and I was taken to the body and one of the ambulance Funeral Butler and Kinsley picked up Tippit's room where he was taken." Sergeant drivers that I knew at that time said: tly at that body from the murder scene. This Owens briefly examined Tippit's 'His name is Tippit.'" ding but a information is corroborated by body. He then went on to say: "I me spot at witnesses at the murder scene. As the remained at the hospital for quite a The switch could not ambulance raced to Methodist time and then I went back to the Oak have taken place Hospital a Dallas Police car with Cliff substation where I was sked if he Patrolman R.A Davenport (a Traffic assigned." It is highly unlikely that a body switch n in front Division School Safety Officer) and could have taken place in Dallas since iwald he another (unidentified) officer were According to Clayton Butler's HSCA the two bodies were never close to one positively racing over the Houston Street interview: "We were given permission another at Parkland. The hearse with bly could Viaduct towards the Tippit shooting from the to President Kennedy's body left x I was scene when the ambulance carrying move Officer Tippit's body to Parkland for Love Field at 2.08prn. Tippit's body passed in front of them Parkland Memorial Hospital for an This is about the time that Sergeant 3 THE DEALEY PLAZA ECHO

Owens was arriving at Methodist 4. Kimbrough/Shearer; transmissions Tippit (see Jesse Curry, Hospital to view Tippit's body, a fact Personal JFK 905, 914, 932, 941. Assassination File, self-published that is corroborated by several 1969: page 84), witnesses there. So, without reviewing 5. See location map opposite. the discrepancies in physical 14. Kimbrough/Shearer; transmission appearance and medical evidence of 6. Warren Commission Report, pages 1011. the two bodies, and unless all the 175-176. people 15. 1982 interview with Patrolman mentioned were involved in a massive 7. Interview of Clayton J. Butler, Jr. - R.A. Davenport. conspiracy, it is impossible to HSCA 180-10107-10180. understand how a body swap could 16. HSCA 180-10119-10049. have taken place. 8. Kimbrough/Shearer; transmissions 920, 925, 933, 943. 17. Kit/through/Shearer; transmissions 1670, 1671. 33 Sources and Endnotes 9. See location map opposite. 18. As 13 above. 1. Kimbrough/Shearer DPI) radio 10. See location map opposite. f. transcripts. 11. 1981 interview of Clayton J. 2. ibid, transmission 900. Butler, Jr.

3. Affidavit of T.F. Bowley, 2nd 12. Affidavit of T.F. Howley, 2nd Bill Drenas, December 1963 (Commission Exhibit December 1963. 12 Carroll Parkway, 2003, page 11 of exhibit - 24H 202). Lowell, 13. Dallas Police Department MA 01851 SP. Homicide Report of Patrolman J.D. United States of America

I t Personal .1FK self-published

transmission th Patrolman

049. transmissions

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