Post by Rob Caprio on Apr 13, 2021 12:04:57 GMT -5
All portions are ©️ Robert Caprio 2006-2024
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The Warren Commission (WC) would give the illusion that all the shells found at the J.D. Tippit (JDT) murder scene were accounted for and had the chain of custody intact. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Four shells would be recovered (two by witness Domingo Benavides and one each by Barbara Davis and Virginia Davis), but NONE of the four presented to witnesses by the WC could be verified to be the ones they found on 11/22/63.
Let’s look at this issue in greater detail since a thread has been started about it recently.
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Eyewitness testimony indicated that the shooter of JDT discarded several shells into the shrubbery on the southeast corner lot of Tenth and Patton Streets as he fled from the murder scene. Witness Domingo Benavides picked up two shells and put them into a Winston cigarette package and later apparently handed them to Officer J.M. Poe. Here is the relevant portion of testimony from Benavides on this matter.
Mr. BELIN - Now you saw him throw two shells?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - You saw where he threw the shells?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - Did you later go back in that area and try and find the shells?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes. Well, right after that I went back and I knew exactly where they was at, and I went over and picked up one in my hand, not thinking and I dropped it, that maybe they want fingerprints off it, so I took out an empty pack of cigarettes I had and picked them up with a little stick and put them in this cigarette package; a chrome looking shell.
So we see he picked up TWO shells and put them into a cigarette package to keep his fingerprints off of them.
Mr. BELIN - When you put these two shells that you found in this cigarette package, what did you do with them?
Mr. BENAVIDES - I gave them to an officer.
Mr. BELIN - That came out to the scene shortly after?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - Do you remember the name of the officer?
Mr. BENAVIDES - No, sir; I didn't even ask him. I just told him that this was the shells that he had fired, and I handed them to him. Seemed like he was a young guy, maybe 24.
It would have been very helpful for him to remember the name of the Officer he gave the evidence to, but again, this should NOT be an issue since the Officer should have taken his information when he received the evidence from Benavides. That should take care of that, right? NOT so fast. As with many many other things in this case NOTHING normal or procedural seems to have taken place. Here is Poe’s testimony regarding the receipt of the shells.
Mr. POE. I talked to a Spanish man, but I don't remember his name. Dominique, I believe.
Mr. BALL. Domingo Benavides?
Mr. POE. I believe that is correct; yes, sir.
Dominique? Why would he think the man who gave him the shells was named Dominique? Also, what Mr. Ball did would NOT be permitted with a DEFENSE counsel present as Domingo Benavides is a LOOOOONG way from Dominique! Why didn’t he WRITE his name and information down? This is normal procedure and we saw earlier in this series this was being done by cops in Dealey Plaza (DP) (save for the one who allegedly spoke with Howard Brennan of course), so why NOT here? Belief should NOT be a factor here when he should have simply written his name and information down.
Mr. BALL. What did he tell you?
Mr. POE. He told me, give me the same, or similar description of the man, and told me he was running out across this lawn. He was unloading his pistol as he ran, and he picked the shells up.
Mr. BALL. And what did he say?
Mr. POE. He said he picked the two hulls up.
Mr. BALL. Did he hand you the hulls?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Did you put any markings on the hulls?
Mr. POE. I couldn't swear to it; no, sir.
He couldn’t swear to it? What kind of police work is this? He DOESN’T write the name down of a witness who gives him TWO VALUABLE pieces of evidence and then he says he “can’t swear” to putting his initials on the evidence once he received it? This is shoddy police work. Was he reprimanded for this? I doubt it. It seems Poe couldn’t swear to anything on this day as he said this a little bit earlier.
Mr. BALL. Do you know what the description was?
Mr. POE. White male, about 25, about 5 feet 8, brown hair, medium, and I believe she said had on a white jacket at the time.
Mr. BALL. Did you ever put that description on the radio?
Mr. POE. I believe we did. But I couldn't swear to it.
It seems he “couldn’t swear” to anything even about putting a description of the KILLER out over the radio! Was he really this clueless or was he being kept out of the loop on purpose? Or was he simply NOT willing to lie and used this tactic to cover up what really happened? We will never know for sure of course, but he does NOT instill a ton of confidence into the thought they would actually catch the killer, but guess what? They allegedly did and in ONLY TWO HOURS! Go figure!
Mr. BALL. What did you do with the hulls?
Mr. POE. I turned the hulls into the crime lab, which was at the scene.
Mr. BALL. Do you know the name of the man with the crime lab or from the crime lab?
Mr. POE. I couldn't swear to it. I believe Pete Barnes, but I wouldn't swear to it.
Back to NOT being able to swear to it. What if they had asked him what color socks he wore, could he have sworn to that?
Forget a chain of custody for the shells themselves as we DON’T even have a chain of custody for WHO RECEIVED the shells from the witnesses!
Look at this comment. It seems the thought of writing things down still did NOT occur to him yet. I heard years ago a very true saying – “The WEAKEST ink is stronger than the best memory”, but Poe did NOT seem to believe this.
Mr. BALL. Did you talk to the two Davis girls?
Mr. POE. I talked to one of them, but I can't recall talking to two Davis girls.
What about this comment.
Mr. BALL. Did the Davis girls give you anything? Either one of the Davis girls hand you anything?
Mr. POE. She give me the same general description of the suspect as Mrs. Markham.
Mr. BALL. What was that?
Mr. POE. White male, and in his early 20's, around 5'7" or 8", about 145 pounds, and I believe she said had on a white jacket.
This is of course caused them to go “off the record” as NOW two witnesses said he was wearing a WHITE jacket when the WC had Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) wearing a gray jacket! They skip this and then move on, but this is good. Look at this.
Mr. BALL. We have here a broadcast by Walker. Do you know Walker?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Was Walker there at the scene?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir; he came by the scene after I got there.
Mr. BALL. What is his full name?
Mr. POE. I don't know. I want to say C. T. but I am not positive on that.
Mr. BALL. At 1:22 p.m., on the transcript of the radio log, I note it says, "Have a description of suspect on Jefferson. Last seen about the 300 block of East Jefferson. White male, 30's; 5'8", black hair, slender built, wearing white shirt, black slacks."
Do you know whether you gave Walker that description?
Mr. POE. I remember giving Walker a description. My partner got in the car with Walker.
Mr. BALL. Did you give Walker a description similar to that?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Well, the only difference I see between the description you said you gave the other officer and this was that you said he was in his 20's or 25, and this says about 30. Otherwise it is about the same.
Mr. POE. Yes, sir.
About the same? ONLY in WC fantasy land. One has the man about 25, one has him “early 20’s” and one has him at 30! The height is consistent, but one had him with brown hair and one had him with BLACK hair. The two earlier ones mention the WHITE jacket, while the last one mentions a white shirt and black slacks. Who mentioned the WHITE jacket first?
Mr. BALL. Who told you he had on a white jacket?
Mr. POE. Mrs. Markham told me first.
Mr. BALL. She did?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir; Mrs. Markham was awfully excited, and she. was--looked like about to faint, and I tried to calm her down as much as I could at first and get as much as I could out of her.
So the WC’s OWN STAR witness said the jacket was white! There is NO need to worry for the WC defenders though as TWO witnesses said they never even saw Markham AT THE SCENE shortly after the shooting as she claimed! The first one was William Scoggins.
Mr. BELIN. One more question, Mr. Scoggins. You rode up here to Washington on an airplane with Mrs. Markham, did you not?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Before you saw Mrs. Markham the other day, did you ever recognize her as having seen her from the time of the Tippit shooting at all or not?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes, I saw her down there talking to the policemen after I came back. You see, I saw her talking to them.
Mr. BELIN. You never actually saw her standing on the street, did you?
Mr. SCOGGINS. I never actually observed her there.
Scoggins is CORROBORATED by Ted Callaway. On October 18, 1964, Mr. Callaway did an interview with Marvin Garson and he too said he never observed Mrs. Markham at the scene moments after the shooting as she claimed. Garson was the editor of the San Francisco Express Times.
Now, back to Poe and his marking of the shells.
Mr. BALL. How many cartridges, or empty cartridges or shells were given to you?
Mr. POE. There were two in an empty Winston cigarette package.
Mr. BALL. Did you save the Winston cigarette package?
Mr. POE. I turned it in with the two cartridges.
Mr. BALL. To the crime lab?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Now, I have here a package which has been marked "Q"--FBI lab. Q-74 to Q-77. Would you look those over and see if there is any identification on there by you to indicate that those were the hulls given to you by Benavides?
Mr. POE. I want to say these two are mine, but I couldn't swear to it.
Mr. BALL. Did you make a mark?
Mr. POE. I can't swear to it; no, sir.
We are back to him NOT being able to swear to it. I thought this was normal, standard procedure for the police to do. Otherwise, how can you be sure the evidence you have for trial is the SAME evidence you found at the crime scene?
Mr. BALL. But there is a mark on two of these?
Mr. POE. There is a mark. I believe I put on them, but I couldn't swear to it. I couldn't make them out any more.
Mr. BALL. Now, the ones you said you made a mark on are you think it is 'these two? Q-77 and Q-75?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir; those two there.
Mr. BALL. Both marked Western Special? They both are marked Western Special. How long did you stay there?
Mr. POE. At the scene?
Mr. BALL. Uh-huh.
Did you catch mistakes in the above portion? First of all, since the WC is SAYING HE MARKED TWO OF THE SHELLS (Q-77 and Q-75) , and he said: “Yes, sir; those two there”, why are they allowing him to keep saying he COULDN’T SWEAR TO MARKING THE SHELLS? He OBVIOUSLY MARKED TWO OF THEM based on what he recalls.
Can you imagine if he was a witness that said LHO was NOT the shooter what kind of treatment he would have gotten?
Secondly, he picked a WRONG SHELL as the two shells that were allegedly in the Winston cigarette package were labeled Q-77 and Q-74, NOT Q-75! IF we go to CE-2011, page 415 you will see this:
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On June 15, 1964, the same cartridge cases designated C47-C50, were shown by Special Agent Bardwell D. Odum to Pete Barnes, an officer of the Dallas Police Department assigned to the Crime Laboratory, and he identified his marking on two of two of these cases, which also bear the markings “Q-74” and “Q-77”. He advised these are the two same cartridge cases which he received from Officer J.M. Poe of the Dallas Police Department at Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. (CE 2011, p. 415)
historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh24/html/WH_Vol24_0217a.htm
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This shows Poe picked a WRONG shell and that alone would sink his testimony in a real court setting. He also has stated that he “could NOT swear to marking the two shells” he received from Benavides, but then admits he DID! To make matters worse for the WC Poe would tell FBI Special Agent Odum something DIFFERENT on June 12, 1964.
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Two months after the hearing he told FBI agent Bardwell Odum that "he recalled marking cases before giving them to (DPD Sgt. W.E.) Barnes, but he stated after a thorough examination of the four cartridges shown to him on June 12, 1964, he cannot locate his marks; therefore, he **cannot positively identify any of these cartridges as being the same ones he received from Benavides.**" He later told Odum he had marked two shells with “JMP”. (CE 2011, p. 415)
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It is clear Poe is of NO use in establishing a chain of custody since the shells in evidence do NOT bear a “JMP” on them. What about Sergeant Barnes?
As stated above he was a member of the Crime Lab, thus, he should KNOW about marking evidence, right?
Mr. BELIN. What is your occupation?
Mr. BARNES. I am a policeman for the city of Dallas.
Mr. BELIN. Any particular department?
Mr. BARNES. I am a sergeant in the crime scene search section of the identification bureau.
Now, onto the shells.
Mr. BARNES. I photographed the scene; yes. There was a couple of hulls that was turned over to me.
Mr. BELIN. Do you mean empty shell casings?
Mr. BARNES. Empty .38 caliber hulls was turned over to me at the scene by patrolman--I believe I would be safe in saying Poe, but I am not sure about that.
Mr. BELIN. How do you spell that?
Mr. BARNES. P-o-e, I believe is the way he spells it.
Mr. BELIN. You think he was the one that turned over some shells?
Mr. BELIN. While you were out there, were any additional hulls found other than these two?
Mr. BARNES. Yes. Captain Doughty picked up another hull, .38 caliber.
Mr. BELIN. Did you see Captain Doughty pick it up?
Mr. BARNES. I did not.
Mr. BELIN. Were you advised as to anyone who might have pointed it out to Captain Doughty, or did he get it himself, or what?
Mr. BARNES. I heard that someone pointed it out to him and he picked it up.
The part about Doughty is important as if you go back to CE-2011, page 415 you will see on June 12, 1964 Odum also showed him the four shells and he picked out “Q-75” as the one he got from Virginia Davis. How did he know this? Because Capt. Doughty RECOGNIZED HIS MARK on the shell! Go figure.
As we saw above Pete Barnes marked his shells with a “B” using a diamond point pen. So why did he TOO PICK THE WRONG SHELL CASING?
Mr. BELIN. Sergeant, I will ask you to examine Commission Exhibits Nos. Q-74, Q-75, Q-76, and Q-77, and ask you to state whether or not there appears to be any identification marks on any of these exhibits that appear to show that they were examined or identified by you?
Mr. BARNES. I placed "B", the best that I could, inside of the hull of Exhibit 74---I believe it was Q-74 and Q-75, as you have them identified.
We saw in CE-2011 the two he marked were “Q-74” and “Q-77”, but in his testimony he picked out “Q-74” and “Q-75” instead. This would lead one to believe, despite it NOT being said, the shells he was looking at did NOT have his mark on them. Or at the very least, ONE did not. Again, the chain of custody is worthless here.
What about the witnesses? Domingo Benavides also met with FBI Special Agent Odum on June 11, 1964 and he said the following after being shown the four shells.
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Mr. Benavides stated the all resemble the two cartridge cases which he found on November 22, 1963, Dallas, Texas, but stated he cannot identify any one of these as being the ones which he picked up and gave to an officer of the Dallas Police Department. (Ibid.)
historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh24/html/WH_Vol24_0217a.htm
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Benavides is NO good for a chain of custody claim. Lastly we come to the Davis sisters. On June 18, 1964 FBI Special Agents Kenneth R. Albert and Paul E. Wulff visited Virginia Davis to show her the four cartridge cases as well. They included her comments in CE-2011, page 414 as follows:
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She advised she was unable to identify the cartridge case she found as being one of the four exhibited to her. (CE 2011, p. 414)
historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh24/html/WH_Vol24_0216b.htm
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Needless to say she is NOT any good for chain of custody either. They did NOT even bother to show the cases to Barbara Davis to see if she could ID the one she found and that says a lot.
As you can see, there is NO chain of custody for the four shell cases found near the scene of the murder of Officer Tippit. What’s more, the police on the scene dispatched two summaries describing an AUTOMATIC weapon (.32 and .38) as being the murder weapon and the shells in evidence were all revolver shells. Is this why there is NO chain of custody for them?
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The Warren Commission (WC) would give the illusion that all the shells found at the J.D. Tippit (JDT) murder scene were accounted for and had the chain of custody intact. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Four shells would be recovered (two by witness Domingo Benavides and one each by Barbara Davis and Virginia Davis), but NONE of the four presented to witnesses by the WC could be verified to be the ones they found on 11/22/63.
Let’s look at this issue in greater detail since a thread has been started about it recently.
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Eyewitness testimony indicated that the shooter of JDT discarded several shells into the shrubbery on the southeast corner lot of Tenth and Patton Streets as he fled from the murder scene. Witness Domingo Benavides picked up two shells and put them into a Winston cigarette package and later apparently handed them to Officer J.M. Poe. Here is the relevant portion of testimony from Benavides on this matter.
Mr. BELIN - Now you saw him throw two shells?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - You saw where he threw the shells?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - Did you later go back in that area and try and find the shells?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes. Well, right after that I went back and I knew exactly where they was at, and I went over and picked up one in my hand, not thinking and I dropped it, that maybe they want fingerprints off it, so I took out an empty pack of cigarettes I had and picked them up with a little stick and put them in this cigarette package; a chrome looking shell.
So we see he picked up TWO shells and put them into a cigarette package to keep his fingerprints off of them.
Mr. BELIN - When you put these two shells that you found in this cigarette package, what did you do with them?
Mr. BENAVIDES - I gave them to an officer.
Mr. BELIN - That came out to the scene shortly after?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - Do you remember the name of the officer?
Mr. BENAVIDES - No, sir; I didn't even ask him. I just told him that this was the shells that he had fired, and I handed them to him. Seemed like he was a young guy, maybe 24.
It would have been very helpful for him to remember the name of the Officer he gave the evidence to, but again, this should NOT be an issue since the Officer should have taken his information when he received the evidence from Benavides. That should take care of that, right? NOT so fast. As with many many other things in this case NOTHING normal or procedural seems to have taken place. Here is Poe’s testimony regarding the receipt of the shells.
Mr. POE. I talked to a Spanish man, but I don't remember his name. Dominique, I believe.
Mr. BALL. Domingo Benavides?
Mr. POE. I believe that is correct; yes, sir.
Dominique? Why would he think the man who gave him the shells was named Dominique? Also, what Mr. Ball did would NOT be permitted with a DEFENSE counsel present as Domingo Benavides is a LOOOOONG way from Dominique! Why didn’t he WRITE his name and information down? This is normal procedure and we saw earlier in this series this was being done by cops in Dealey Plaza (DP) (save for the one who allegedly spoke with Howard Brennan of course), so why NOT here? Belief should NOT be a factor here when he should have simply written his name and information down.
Mr. BALL. What did he tell you?
Mr. POE. He told me, give me the same, or similar description of the man, and told me he was running out across this lawn. He was unloading his pistol as he ran, and he picked the shells up.
Mr. BALL. And what did he say?
Mr. POE. He said he picked the two hulls up.
Mr. BALL. Did he hand you the hulls?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Did you put any markings on the hulls?
Mr. POE. I couldn't swear to it; no, sir.
He couldn’t swear to it? What kind of police work is this? He DOESN’T write the name down of a witness who gives him TWO VALUABLE pieces of evidence and then he says he “can’t swear” to putting his initials on the evidence once he received it? This is shoddy police work. Was he reprimanded for this? I doubt it. It seems Poe couldn’t swear to anything on this day as he said this a little bit earlier.
Mr. BALL. Do you know what the description was?
Mr. POE. White male, about 25, about 5 feet 8, brown hair, medium, and I believe she said had on a white jacket at the time.
Mr. BALL. Did you ever put that description on the radio?
Mr. POE. I believe we did. But I couldn't swear to it.
It seems he “couldn’t swear” to anything even about putting a description of the KILLER out over the radio! Was he really this clueless or was he being kept out of the loop on purpose? Or was he simply NOT willing to lie and used this tactic to cover up what really happened? We will never know for sure of course, but he does NOT instill a ton of confidence into the thought they would actually catch the killer, but guess what? They allegedly did and in ONLY TWO HOURS! Go figure!
Mr. BALL. What did you do with the hulls?
Mr. POE. I turned the hulls into the crime lab, which was at the scene.
Mr. BALL. Do you know the name of the man with the crime lab or from the crime lab?
Mr. POE. I couldn't swear to it. I believe Pete Barnes, but I wouldn't swear to it.
Back to NOT being able to swear to it. What if they had asked him what color socks he wore, could he have sworn to that?
Forget a chain of custody for the shells themselves as we DON’T even have a chain of custody for WHO RECEIVED the shells from the witnesses!
Look at this comment. It seems the thought of writing things down still did NOT occur to him yet. I heard years ago a very true saying – “The WEAKEST ink is stronger than the best memory”, but Poe did NOT seem to believe this.
Mr. BALL. Did you talk to the two Davis girls?
Mr. POE. I talked to one of them, but I can't recall talking to two Davis girls.
What about this comment.
Mr. BALL. Did the Davis girls give you anything? Either one of the Davis girls hand you anything?
Mr. POE. She give me the same general description of the suspect as Mrs. Markham.
Mr. BALL. What was that?
Mr. POE. White male, and in his early 20's, around 5'7" or 8", about 145 pounds, and I believe she said had on a white jacket.
This is of course caused them to go “off the record” as NOW two witnesses said he was wearing a WHITE jacket when the WC had Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) wearing a gray jacket! They skip this and then move on, but this is good. Look at this.
Mr. BALL. We have here a broadcast by Walker. Do you know Walker?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Was Walker there at the scene?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir; he came by the scene after I got there.
Mr. BALL. What is his full name?
Mr. POE. I don't know. I want to say C. T. but I am not positive on that.
Mr. BALL. At 1:22 p.m., on the transcript of the radio log, I note it says, "Have a description of suspect on Jefferson. Last seen about the 300 block of East Jefferson. White male, 30's; 5'8", black hair, slender built, wearing white shirt, black slacks."
Do you know whether you gave Walker that description?
Mr. POE. I remember giving Walker a description. My partner got in the car with Walker.
Mr. BALL. Did you give Walker a description similar to that?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Well, the only difference I see between the description you said you gave the other officer and this was that you said he was in his 20's or 25, and this says about 30. Otherwise it is about the same.
Mr. POE. Yes, sir.
About the same? ONLY in WC fantasy land. One has the man about 25, one has him “early 20’s” and one has him at 30! The height is consistent, but one had him with brown hair and one had him with BLACK hair. The two earlier ones mention the WHITE jacket, while the last one mentions a white shirt and black slacks. Who mentioned the WHITE jacket first?
Mr. BALL. Who told you he had on a white jacket?
Mr. POE. Mrs. Markham told me first.
Mr. BALL. She did?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir; Mrs. Markham was awfully excited, and she. was--looked like about to faint, and I tried to calm her down as much as I could at first and get as much as I could out of her.
So the WC’s OWN STAR witness said the jacket was white! There is NO need to worry for the WC defenders though as TWO witnesses said they never even saw Markham AT THE SCENE shortly after the shooting as she claimed! The first one was William Scoggins.
Mr. BELIN. One more question, Mr. Scoggins. You rode up here to Washington on an airplane with Mrs. Markham, did you not?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Before you saw Mrs. Markham the other day, did you ever recognize her as having seen her from the time of the Tippit shooting at all or not?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes, I saw her down there talking to the policemen after I came back. You see, I saw her talking to them.
Mr. BELIN. You never actually saw her standing on the street, did you?
Mr. SCOGGINS. I never actually observed her there.
Scoggins is CORROBORATED by Ted Callaway. On October 18, 1964, Mr. Callaway did an interview with Marvin Garson and he too said he never observed Mrs. Markham at the scene moments after the shooting as she claimed. Garson was the editor of the San Francisco Express Times.
Now, back to Poe and his marking of the shells.
Mr. BALL. How many cartridges, or empty cartridges or shells were given to you?
Mr. POE. There were two in an empty Winston cigarette package.
Mr. BALL. Did you save the Winston cigarette package?
Mr. POE. I turned it in with the two cartridges.
Mr. BALL. To the crime lab?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Now, I have here a package which has been marked "Q"--FBI lab. Q-74 to Q-77. Would you look those over and see if there is any identification on there by you to indicate that those were the hulls given to you by Benavides?
Mr. POE. I want to say these two are mine, but I couldn't swear to it.
Mr. BALL. Did you make a mark?
Mr. POE. I can't swear to it; no, sir.
We are back to him NOT being able to swear to it. I thought this was normal, standard procedure for the police to do. Otherwise, how can you be sure the evidence you have for trial is the SAME evidence you found at the crime scene?
Mr. BALL. But there is a mark on two of these?
Mr. POE. There is a mark. I believe I put on them, but I couldn't swear to it. I couldn't make them out any more.
Mr. BALL. Now, the ones you said you made a mark on are you think it is 'these two? Q-77 and Q-75?
Mr. POE. Yes, sir; those two there.
Mr. BALL. Both marked Western Special? They both are marked Western Special. How long did you stay there?
Mr. POE. At the scene?
Mr. BALL. Uh-huh.
Did you catch mistakes in the above portion? First of all, since the WC is SAYING HE MARKED TWO OF THE SHELLS (Q-77 and Q-75) , and he said: “Yes, sir; those two there”, why are they allowing him to keep saying he COULDN’T SWEAR TO MARKING THE SHELLS? He OBVIOUSLY MARKED TWO OF THEM based on what he recalls.
Can you imagine if he was a witness that said LHO was NOT the shooter what kind of treatment he would have gotten?
Secondly, he picked a WRONG SHELL as the two shells that were allegedly in the Winston cigarette package were labeled Q-77 and Q-74, NOT Q-75! IF we go to CE-2011, page 415 you will see this:
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On June 15, 1964, the same cartridge cases designated C47-C50, were shown by Special Agent Bardwell D. Odum to Pete Barnes, an officer of the Dallas Police Department assigned to the Crime Laboratory, and he identified his marking on two of two of these cases, which also bear the markings “Q-74” and “Q-77”. He advised these are the two same cartridge cases which he received from Officer J.M. Poe of the Dallas Police Department at Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. (CE 2011, p. 415)
historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh24/html/WH_Vol24_0217a.htm
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This shows Poe picked a WRONG shell and that alone would sink his testimony in a real court setting. He also has stated that he “could NOT swear to marking the two shells” he received from Benavides, but then admits he DID! To make matters worse for the WC Poe would tell FBI Special Agent Odum something DIFFERENT on June 12, 1964.
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Two months after the hearing he told FBI agent Bardwell Odum that "he recalled marking cases before giving them to (DPD Sgt. W.E.) Barnes, but he stated after a thorough examination of the four cartridges shown to him on June 12, 1964, he cannot locate his marks; therefore, he **cannot positively identify any of these cartridges as being the same ones he received from Benavides.**" He later told Odum he had marked two shells with “JMP”. (CE 2011, p. 415)
historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh24/html/WH_Vol24_0217a.htm
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It is clear Poe is of NO use in establishing a chain of custody since the shells in evidence do NOT bear a “JMP” on them. What about Sergeant Barnes?
As stated above he was a member of the Crime Lab, thus, he should KNOW about marking evidence, right?
Mr. BELIN. What is your occupation?
Mr. BARNES. I am a policeman for the city of Dallas.
Mr. BELIN. Any particular department?
Mr. BARNES. I am a sergeant in the crime scene search section of the identification bureau.
Now, onto the shells.
Mr. BARNES. I photographed the scene; yes. There was a couple of hulls that was turned over to me.
Mr. BELIN. Do you mean empty shell casings?
Mr. BARNES. Empty .38 caliber hulls was turned over to me at the scene by patrolman--I believe I would be safe in saying Poe, but I am not sure about that.
Mr. BELIN. How do you spell that?
Mr. BARNES. P-o-e, I believe is the way he spells it.
Mr. BELIN. You think he was the one that turned over some shells?
Mr. BELIN. While you were out there, were any additional hulls found other than these two?
Mr. BARNES. Yes. Captain Doughty picked up another hull, .38 caliber.
Mr. BELIN. Did you see Captain Doughty pick it up?
Mr. BARNES. I did not.
Mr. BELIN. Were you advised as to anyone who might have pointed it out to Captain Doughty, or did he get it himself, or what?
Mr. BARNES. I heard that someone pointed it out to him and he picked it up.
The part about Doughty is important as if you go back to CE-2011, page 415 you will see on June 12, 1964 Odum also showed him the four shells and he picked out “Q-75” as the one he got from Virginia Davis. How did he know this? Because Capt. Doughty RECOGNIZED HIS MARK on the shell! Go figure.
As we saw above Pete Barnes marked his shells with a “B” using a diamond point pen. So why did he TOO PICK THE WRONG SHELL CASING?
Mr. BELIN. Sergeant, I will ask you to examine Commission Exhibits Nos. Q-74, Q-75, Q-76, and Q-77, and ask you to state whether or not there appears to be any identification marks on any of these exhibits that appear to show that they were examined or identified by you?
Mr. BARNES. I placed "B", the best that I could, inside of the hull of Exhibit 74---I believe it was Q-74 and Q-75, as you have them identified.
We saw in CE-2011 the two he marked were “Q-74” and “Q-77”, but in his testimony he picked out “Q-74” and “Q-75” instead. This would lead one to believe, despite it NOT being said, the shells he was looking at did NOT have his mark on them. Or at the very least, ONE did not. Again, the chain of custody is worthless here.
What about the witnesses? Domingo Benavides also met with FBI Special Agent Odum on June 11, 1964 and he said the following after being shown the four shells.
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Mr. Benavides stated the all resemble the two cartridge cases which he found on November 22, 1963, Dallas, Texas, but stated he cannot identify any one of these as being the ones which he picked up and gave to an officer of the Dallas Police Department. (Ibid.)
historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh24/html/WH_Vol24_0217a.htm
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Benavides is NO good for a chain of custody claim. Lastly we come to the Davis sisters. On June 18, 1964 FBI Special Agents Kenneth R. Albert and Paul E. Wulff visited Virginia Davis to show her the four cartridge cases as well. They included her comments in CE-2011, page 414 as follows:
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She advised she was unable to identify the cartridge case she found as being one of the four exhibited to her. (CE 2011, p. 414)
historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh24/html/WH_Vol24_0216b.htm
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Needless to say she is NOT any good for chain of custody either. They did NOT even bother to show the cases to Barbara Davis to see if she could ID the one she found and that says a lot.
As you can see, there is NO chain of custody for the four shell cases found near the scene of the murder of Officer Tippit. What’s more, the police on the scene dispatched two summaries describing an AUTOMATIC weapon (.32 and .38) as being the murder weapon and the shells in evidence were all revolver shells. Is this why there is NO chain of custody for them?