TRAMPS: 'Frenchie% Ahrvays in Right Place at Worst Possible Time Is the man in the clothes with the continental cut leading the three Compare the sketch of suspect In Dr. "tramps" in the picture at right a mere King's death, top left, with a blowup hobo or one of the most important of the picture of the "tramp" who has men of the 20th Century? The photo been nicknamed "Frenchy" by assas- was taken by a news cameraman in sination buffs. The resemblance of the Dealey Plaza after the "tramps" were suspect at first sought by the FBI arrested as suspects In the John after the Memphis assassination to Kennedy assassination, then released. "Frenchy" is uncanny. The FBI can- Above, the police composite *etch of celled their pickup for the suspect af- a suspect in the 1968 assassination of ter drifter James Earl Ray was charged Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the "lone assassin" of Dr. King. propriate spot in three different cities at the Still other photographs indicated "Frenchy" other view of the "tramps" being escorted by tion buffs — especially comedian-civil rights exact time history was in the making. The the tramp was also casually turning up in police in Dailey Plaza. The picture in the activist Dick Gregory and Ralph Schoenman Dealey tramp photos are being investigated New Orleans at the same time, on the same center shows a man with a striking resem- — are contending that the other two by the Rockefeller Commission looking into corner, when Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused . blance to "Frenchy7 Jacket shine casually "tramps" In the photo at left are Watergate assination of President Kennedy. A few days assassin of President Kennedy, was handing over his shoulder, walking by an Oswald burglars Frank Sturgis and E. Howard Hunt. ago, a Rockefeller investigator interviewed a out pro-Castro leaflets after the unsuccessful demonstration in New Orleans. Compare the But nobody has yet tried to pin an Identity Dallas policeman involved in the arrests. • Bay of Pigs invasion. The photo at left is an- faces in the pictures at right. Some assassins- on "Frenchyr who may have been at the ap- Untold Story of the Tramps' Arrest The conspiracy- proponents was involved in the Kennedy Acted in the \ Watergate scandals. assassin." find out. dubbed the leader of the trio assassination is a • major question The official sketch was an exact SOME ASSASSINATION buffs "Frenchy" because his clothes had mark. • THE "SHORT MAN" or "walking double for "Preachy" the "tramp" have oven questioned the Identity of a continental cut. Numerous pictures of the man" strikingly resembled E. arrested In Dealey Plaza when the policemen herding the "tramps" The disheveled man behind him "tramps" were taken by three Howard Bunt, the CIA "super- Kennedy died. to the county jail on Nov. 22. was called "the tall man." He newspaper photographers snapping spook" who had a penchant for Another picture surfaced. It was But through interviews conducted sometimes grinned during the three- pictures at random in Dealey Plaza assassinations and who master- of a youthful Lee Harvey Oswald, by TATTLER, the circwnstances of fifths mile trek. the day the President was shot. minded the Watergate burglary and the so-called "lone assassin" of the arrest of the "tramps" can now The little guy who seemed to be Underground newspapers began other odds and ends for Richard President Kennedy, handling out be revealed. shielding himself behind "the tall publishing the pictures in 1988. And Nixon. pro-Castro literature in New After the firecracker-souding man" became "the walking man." when Wateitgate blew the lid off the But "Frenchy" is perhaps the Orleans. Oswald is surrounded in the shots were fired into the Kennedy THESE WERE THREE of a dozen Nixon Administration, the pictures moat interesting of the trio. picture by several men. motorcade at 12:30 p.m. a state of people arrested and questioned in took on new fascination among In 1988, after Dr. Martin Luther On Oswald's far right in the street chaos ensued in and around Dealey Dallas on Nov. 22, 1983, the day Americans who never felt the CIA King was shot and 'killed while scene, with head drooped forward, Plaza. President John F. Kennedy was was lilly-white hi the Kennedy making a speech on a Memphis is a man who looks a lot like Policemen Billy Bass, Marvin assassinated. assassination. motel balcony, the FBI moved an "Frenchy." Wise and Roy Vaughn responded to Their identities are not known, but ".The tall man" bore a startling artist's sketch of a suspect in the Who is "Frenchy"? And "the tall a report from railroad switchman their significances in the in- resemblance to Frank Sturgis, a killing. This was before James Earl man"? And "the walking man"? Lee Bowers, who was stationed in a vestigation of whether a conspiracy former CIA agent who was con- Ray was pegged as the "lone Dallas police never bothered to (Continued on Page 341 I THE NATIONAL TATTLER Jun* I; 1975 Pegs 15 tower in the railroad yards about . , three-fifths of a mile, north of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Triple Underpass near where the Depository Building and figured the President was shot. assassination was solved. examination of the photograph, he "Some strange things are going on The "tramps" were released (Hunt) is not that man," Kelley said. down here," Bowers reported to without Dallas police bothering to Comedian-civil rights activist Dallas police. get their names. Dick Gregory is lecturing around the Bowers had seen some men Vaughn would go on to take a country, telling college audiences scurrying around in the yards. controversial place in history. Two the man in the photograph is E. days later, it was Officer Vaughn — Howard Hunt. THE OFFICERS searched the the same policeman who brought the yards and found the tramps hiding in "tramps" out of the gondola at the an open gondola car. point of a shotgun — who was One fact is "Come out of there," Officer assigned to guarding the ramp to the Vaughn ordered. Dallas city Jail basement when dear: The "Go to hell!" came the voice of "the tall man." 'Tramps' were Vaughn climbed atop the gondola Oswald was brought out to be and threw down on the "tramps" transferred to the county jail. not real tramps with his shotgun. • "Yes, sir," said "the tall man" A LITTLE STRIP joint owner named Jack Ruby walked down the Gregory has even testified to this ramp Vaughn was guarding and shot effect before the Rockefeller Officer Vaughn Oswald once in the stomach, Commission investigating domestic silencing the suspect forever.- . spying by the CIA. has unique place . Vaughn has been alternately criticized and defended for his role HUNT HIMSELF has been called in the history in the basement affair, but it hasn't before the Rockefeller panel and has written that •stopped him from rising in the police ranks. Today he is a sergeant in the day in Dallas police intelligence division. Numerous comparisons have been meekly,' who grinned and climbed made — both by laymen and out of the gondola with his hands up. scientists — of the pictures of the Vaughn's role in the "tramps" - "tramps" and pictures of Watergate incident was over, but his role as a testified he was at a footnote in history was only Washington on the day Kennedy was figures. beginning. He left the " tramps " In shot. His witnesses: other . CIA A most acceptable conclusion is agents. the care of the other officers and that the "tall. man" is not Frank. rode a switch engine back to the Many assassination buffs are assassination site. 'Sturgis. "The tall man" is too tall. • convinced of one point: The The "walking man" in the "tramp" "tramps" were not real tramps. The "tramps" were arrested pictures looks a lot like E. Howard about 1:15 p.m., Wise recalled The suspects In pie photographs, Hunt does today, but not like Hunt recently. They were , picked up . though disheveled, had close- looked 12 years ago. minutes after the radio report was cropped hair, indicating recent Both. Hunt and Sturgis have broadcast that Officer J. D. Tripped barbership haircuts. Their clothing had been shot. repeatedly denied- they were in did not appear to be as worn as Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Hunt con- tramps would be. Their shoes had tends he didn't even know Sturgis thick soles. BASS AND WISE turned the then. "tramps" over to Sheriff's Deputy The three men arrested it the Hunt, the old CIA pro who helped railroad yards could have merely Harold E. Elkins at the county jail. alter the course of history behind the Elkins, in his report on his ac- been hobos down on their luck, tivities that afternoon, said that he scenes, has found an ally in the head placed in Dallas by fate on /Soy. 22, •of the FBI. took the "tramps" to the Dallas 1963. But until-their identities are police station and turned them over established and their stories told and CLARENCE KELLEY, to Homicide Capt. Will Fritz. - FBI verified, they'll remain a part of the director, said recently that the Kennedy conspiracy mystery a By then, agency has no evidence to indicate thousand years from now. police had Oswald in that Hunt was at the assassination custody. They had found Ciswald's scene. Carcano-Mannlicher rifle on the John Moulder "To our knowledge and from our Despite critichun over Ruby's action, Vaughn has risen up through ranks of police dePt. Famous Zapruder Movie Still Frames From Assassination Film Show the Warren Commission Was Wrong Dallas dress manufacturer Abraham bargin with Time-Life, Inc., reportedly for a the first to offer copies of the film to the The frames from that home movie Zapruder, a Russian immigrant now in his sum between $150,000 and $250,000, although public; soon thereafter, ads for the film ap- published here come from a print of the film grave, became the one man who experts now some estimates have run as, high as 81 peared in other publications, offerings from believed to have been taken from the copy believe had significant evidence to prove a million.