Post by Rob Caprio on Jun 18, 2021 14:12:43 GMT -5
All portions are ©️ Robert Caprio 2006-2024
www.kennedysandking.com/images/2018/tippit-dieugenio/tippit.jpg
time.graphics/uploadedFiles/500/96/6d/966dcbdab4cae0e0f123ff80bb2d5dfd.jpg
The Warren Commission (WC) said Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) shot and killed Dallas Police Offficer J.D.Tippit (JDT) all by himself. There is NO evidence that shows this is correct in the least. In fact, they could NOT even match the alleged murder weapon to the slugs found in JDT.
This post will again look at this crime, but in yet another way.
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The WC’s star witness for the JDT murder was Helen Markham and she said this during her testimony before them.
Mr. BALL. What did you notice then?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Well, I noticed a police car coming.
Mr. BALL. Where was the police car when you first saw it?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He was driving real slow, almost up to this man, well, say this man, and he kept, this man kept walking, you know, and the police car going real slow now, real slow, and they just kept coming into the curb, and finally they got way up there a little ways up, well, it stopped.
Mr. BALL. The police car stopped?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. What about the man? Was he still walking?
Mrs. MARKHAM. The man stopped.
Mr. BALL. Then what did you see the man do?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I saw the man come over to the car very slow, leaned and put his arms just like this, he leaned over in this window and looked in this window.
Mr. BALL. He put his arms on the window ledge?
Mrs. MARKHAM. The window was down.
Mr. BALL. It was?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Ball’s surprise at hearing the window was done is due to other evidence that shows the window was actually UP when others saw the car. Here is some of that evidence.
Mr. BELIN. When you got to Tippit's car, did you take a look at that police car?
Mrs. [Virginia] DAVIS. We didn't touch it.
Mr. BELIN. Did you look at it? Did you notice whether its windows were rolled up or rolled down?
Mrs. DAVIS The one on his side was rolled down.
Mr. BELIN. What about the one on the passenger side of the front seat, did you notice that?
Mrs. DAVIS. Rolled up.
Mr. BELIN. Was that rolled up?
Mrs. DAVIS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. When you got there?
Mrs. DAVIS. Yes.
Virginia Davis said the window was up when she got to the car. For some reason Barbara Davis was NOT asked about this issue when she went to the car and stayed there for five minutes. Why not? No other primary witness would be asked about this, but we do have testimony from another person who was up close to the automobile. That was Sergeant W.E. Barnes of the crime scene search section of the identification bureau. He would say this before the WC.
Mr. BELIN. Now the first one, Barnes Deposition Exhibit A, is a picture of the Dallas Police squadcar No. 10. Was that the Tippit automobile?
Mr. BARNES. It was.
Mr. BELIN. About when did you say you got out to the Tippit scene?
Mr. BARNES. Approximately 1:40.
Mr. BELIN. 1:40 in the afternoon?
Mr. BARNES. Approximately, November 22.
Mr. BELIN. When would you have started taking these pictures?
Mr. BARNES. Shortly afterwards.
Mr. BELIN. Within 5 or 10 minutes?
Mr. BARNES. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Now I notice on the right-front door window it appears that the vent window was open and that the main window is closed. Is that the way that you found the car when you got there?
Mr. BARNES. That is true.
Here is Barnes Exhibit A: www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/pages/WH_Vol19_0066a.jpg
You can see the main window is up so I have no idea what Helen Markham was talking about. In Barnes Exhibit B (second picture in the link above) you will see JDT rated the same as the alleged bag in the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) as we see a circle on the street to emphasize where he was laying. Why? Because the ambulance came in record time to remove his DEAD body, and thus, contaminated the crime scene as without the exact position the body was laying in they could not be 100% sure which direction the shots came from. This is a science and PRECISE information is needed.
Markham continued to tell us what this man did through a CLOSED WINDOW.
Mr. BALL. Put his arms on the window ledge?
Mrs. MARKHAM. On the ledge of the window.
Mr. BALL. And the policeman was sitting where?
Mrs. MARKHAM. On the driver's side.
Mr. BALL. Then what happened?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Well, I didn't think nothing about it; you know, the police are nice and friendly, and I thought friendly conversation. Well, I looked, and there were cars coming, so I had to wait. Well, in a few minutes this man made—
She said she thought the conversation appeared to be a “nice and friendly” one. How does that work if you are asking the person about possibly shooting the President of the United States (POTUS)?
Mr. BALL. What did you see the policeman do?
Mrs. MARKHAM. See the policeman? Well, this man, like I told you, put his arms up, leaned over, he just a minute, and he drew back and he stepped back about two steps. Mr. Tippit—
Mr. BALL. The policeman?
Mrs. MARKHAM. The policeman calmly opened the car door, very slowly, wasn't angry or nothing, he calmly crawled out of this car, and I still just thought a friendly conversation, maybe disturbance in the house, I did not know; well, just as the policeman got—
Mr. BALL. Which way did he walk?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Towards the front of the car. And just as he had gotten even with the wheel on the driver's side—
Mr. BALL. You mean the left front wheel?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes; this man shot the policeman.
She said again the policeman (JDT) showed NO signs of fear, anger or apprehension as he simply “calmly opened the car door” and got out and started to approach the man. Doesn’t this fit with the theory that JDT knew this man more than he was approaching a man he thought might have shot President John F. Kennedy (JFK)? William Scoggins was a witness to the crime and he said he never saw a pistol in JDT’s hand so this again would reinforce the notion that JDT was not afraid of the person he was talking with.
Representative FORD. Were you in your cab?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes.
Representative FORD. When you saw the pistol it wasn't in Officer Tippit's hands?
Mr. SCOGGINS. No, sir; oh, he never did have a pistol in his hand, as far as I know.
Mr. BELIN. You saw him when he was falling?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes; he was holding his stomach.
Mr. BELIN. You saw him holding his stomach as he fell?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Did he have anything in his hands?
Mr. SCOGGINS. If he did I couldn't see it, and I don't think he ever got to his pistol from what I saw.
It does not seem as though JDT was concerned for his life as claimed by the WC in this testimony. However, if we go to Domingo Benavides’ testimony we will see this about the gun.
Mr. BELIN - Did you notice where the gun of the policeman was?
Mr. BENAVIDES - The gun was in his hand and he was partially lying on his gun in his right hand. He was partially lying on his gun and on his hand, too.
How come so many people saw such different things? Could the killer have put the gun in JDT’s hand before leaving? Callaway said the gun was out too, but UNDER his body.
Mr. BALL. When you got there what did you see?
Mr. CALLAWAY. I saw a squad car, and by that time there was four or five people that had gathered, a couple of cars had stopped. Then I saw--I went on up to the squad car and saw the police officer lying in the street. I see he had been shot in the head. So the first thing I did, I ran over to the squad car. I didn't know whether anybody reported it or not. So I got on the police radio and called them, and told them a man had been shot, told them the location, I thought the officer was dead. They said we know about it, stay off the air, so I went back.
By this time an ambulance was coming. The officer was laying on his left side, his pistol was underneath him. I kind of rolled him over and took his gun out from under him. The people wonder whether he ever got his pistol out of his holster. He did.
Mr. BALL. The pistol was out of the holster?
Mr. CALLAWAY. Yes, sir; out of the holster, and it was unsnapped. It was on his right side. He was laying with the gun under him.
So again, why did others not see a gun in JDT’s hand? What could the person have said that would cause JDT to remove his gun to approach him. And why did JDT NOT call the dispatcher with this information? There are no calls from JDT saying he found a suspect so all we have is a claim he did. By the way, if he had his gun out, why was he so surprised by the shooter and did not even get close to firing a shot himself?
Markham would again cause issues for the WC when she was asked about how many shots she heard.
Mr. BALL. You heard the shots, did you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. How many shots did you hear?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Three.
Actually four shots were fired and some WC defenders (David Von Pein and Bill Brown) have posited five could have been fired. Markham would get some corroboration for this claim however from Domingo Benavides as he too said he heard three shots.
Mr. BELIN - How many shots did you hear all told?
Mr. BENAVIDES - I heard three shots.
Mr. BELIN - You heard three shots?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes, sir,
Markham would get more corroboration from William Scoggins, and note what he says about the shots he heard.
Mr. BELIN. How many shots did you hear?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Three or four, in the neighborhood. They was fast.
Mr. BELIN. They were fast shots?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes; they were fast.
Really fast? Was LHO the fastest gun in the South? We have already seen there is NO evidence showing LHO practiced with a handgun for years since his days at boot camp and the limited time in Atsugi, Japan (up to 100 rounds of firing), so how did he get so good with a revolver? Especially when one considers he was confronting a police officer and NOT an older person. JDT was probably much more trained on the revolver than LHO would have been, but we are led to believe LHO out dueled him.
Scoggins received corroboration from Barbara Davis as she too said the shots were very close together. Of course she only heard two though.
Mr. DULLES. Did you say gunshot or gunshots?
Mrs. DAVIS. Shots.
Mr. DULLES. Plural? How many did you hear?
Mrs. DAVIS. Just two, they were pretty close together.
Virginia Davis also would only hear two shots.
Mr. BELIN. How many shots did you hear?
Mrs. DAVIS. We heard the first one and then we thought maybe someone had a blowout like a tire or something and we didn't get up to see. Then we heard the second shot and that is when we ran to the front door.
Mr. BELIN. Well, now, does that mean that you heard two shots?
Mrs. DAVIS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Are you sure there were not more than two, or are you sure that you heard two?
Mrs. DAVIS. We just heard two.
We know JDT was shot four times so how could they just hear two shots? Well, perhaps they heard TWO men firing two shots each. Keep in mind, there are witnesses that said they saw TWO men involved in this shooting.
Von Pein and Brown get corroboration from witness Ted Callaway.
Mr. BALL. What did you hear at that time?
Mr. CALLAWAY. I heard what sounded to me like five pistol shots.
Mr. BALL. Five pistol shots?
Mr. CALLAWAY. Five shots, yes, sir.
Markham’s credibility really went out the window (no pun intended) when she claimed she tried to save JDT’s life. First of all, the ambulance came in record time and got him out of there post haste, and secondly, she testified to not going to JDT’s side immediately because of the shooter. So after a number of minutes had gone by she said this is what happened.
Mr. DULLES. Were there many other, or other people in the block at that time, or were you there with Officer Tippit almost alone?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I was out there, I didn't see anybody. I was there alone by myself.
Mr. DULLES. I see. You didn't see anybody else in the immediate neighborhood?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No; not until everything was over--I never seen anybody until I was at Mr. Tippit's side. I tried to save his life, which was I didn't know at that time I couldn't do something for him.
Mr. DULLES. Mr. Tippit, Officer Tippit, didn't say anything to you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He tried to.
Mr. DULLES. He tried to?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. DULLES. But he didn't succeed?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, I couldn't understand. I was screaming and hollering and I was trying to help him all I could, and I would have. I was with him until they put him in the ambulance.
This for me sinks Markham as a witness for the WC. First of all, numerous other people were around so she is wrong on that simple point. Secondly, others said they did NOT see her there! Thirdly, JDT died instantly so how could he “try to” talk with her? Finally, the ambulance was there just minutes after he was shot (as if it was ready and waiting) so how could she wait minutes and then have this happen?
As we have seen in another post Markham NEVER identified LHO as the man she saw UNTIL the WC’s lawyer violated all legal rules by prompting her to say she picked out the “number two man” which LHO was.
Let’s go back to the car though and resume with Sgt. Barnes’ testimony. They explored his efforts to lift prints from the automobile in this section of his testimony.
Mr. BELIN. Was this police car dirty or clean?
Mr. BARNES. Dirty.
Mr. BELIN. What is the fact as to whether or not this in any way affects your ability to lift fingerprints?
Mr. BARNES. Any dirty surface will create a hardship as far as lifting a latent print.
Mr. BELIN. Were you able to find any identifiable prints?
Mr. BARNES. No legible prints were found.
As I said many years ago when I first read this I find it extremely hard to believe no prints could be found. Supposedly this car had not been washed for a little while and surely someone would have touched it or leaned on it over that time either outside or in the police garage, so why were NO prints that could be identified found?
The next question and answer just floors me.
Mr. BELIN. When you came to the scene, Officer Tippit had already been removed?
Mr. BARNES. That is true.
That is it. There is no question of whether or not this was the PROPER or normal thing to find as the lawyer just moves on! Surely this would have made his job a lot more difficult in terms of knowing which way JDT was facing and what direction the shots came from.
The bottom line here is that nothing happened as it was claimed by the WC and the witnesses did not seem to agree on most of the main points, so this causes a lot of reasonable doubt. No evidence could be obtained from the automobile or the scene, that showed LHO was the shooter, and the witnesses would NOT describe clothes that were actually worn by him.
www.kennedysandking.com/images/2018/tippit-dieugenio/tippit.jpg
time.graphics/uploadedFiles/500/96/6d/966dcbdab4cae0e0f123ff80bb2d5dfd.jpg
The Warren Commission (WC) said Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) shot and killed Dallas Police Offficer J.D.Tippit (JDT) all by himself. There is NO evidence that shows this is correct in the least. In fact, they could NOT even match the alleged murder weapon to the slugs found in JDT.
This post will again look at this crime, but in yet another way.
***********************************************
The WC’s star witness for the JDT murder was Helen Markham and she said this during her testimony before them.
Mr. BALL. What did you notice then?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Well, I noticed a police car coming.
Mr. BALL. Where was the police car when you first saw it?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He was driving real slow, almost up to this man, well, say this man, and he kept, this man kept walking, you know, and the police car going real slow now, real slow, and they just kept coming into the curb, and finally they got way up there a little ways up, well, it stopped.
Mr. BALL. The police car stopped?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. What about the man? Was he still walking?
Mrs. MARKHAM. The man stopped.
Mr. BALL. Then what did you see the man do?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I saw the man come over to the car very slow, leaned and put his arms just like this, he leaned over in this window and looked in this window.
Mr. BALL. He put his arms on the window ledge?
Mrs. MARKHAM. The window was down.
Mr. BALL. It was?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Ball’s surprise at hearing the window was done is due to other evidence that shows the window was actually UP when others saw the car. Here is some of that evidence.
Mr. BELIN. When you got to Tippit's car, did you take a look at that police car?
Mrs. [Virginia] DAVIS. We didn't touch it.
Mr. BELIN. Did you look at it? Did you notice whether its windows were rolled up or rolled down?
Mrs. DAVIS The one on his side was rolled down.
Mr. BELIN. What about the one on the passenger side of the front seat, did you notice that?
Mrs. DAVIS. Rolled up.
Mr. BELIN. Was that rolled up?
Mrs. DAVIS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. When you got there?
Mrs. DAVIS. Yes.
Virginia Davis said the window was up when she got to the car. For some reason Barbara Davis was NOT asked about this issue when she went to the car and stayed there for five minutes. Why not? No other primary witness would be asked about this, but we do have testimony from another person who was up close to the automobile. That was Sergeant W.E. Barnes of the crime scene search section of the identification bureau. He would say this before the WC.
Mr. BELIN. Now the first one, Barnes Deposition Exhibit A, is a picture of the Dallas Police squadcar No. 10. Was that the Tippit automobile?
Mr. BARNES. It was.
Mr. BELIN. About when did you say you got out to the Tippit scene?
Mr. BARNES. Approximately 1:40.
Mr. BELIN. 1:40 in the afternoon?
Mr. BARNES. Approximately, November 22.
Mr. BELIN. When would you have started taking these pictures?
Mr. BARNES. Shortly afterwards.
Mr. BELIN. Within 5 or 10 minutes?
Mr. BARNES. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Now I notice on the right-front door window it appears that the vent window was open and that the main window is closed. Is that the way that you found the car when you got there?
Mr. BARNES. That is true.
Here is Barnes Exhibit A: www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/pages/WH_Vol19_0066a.jpg
You can see the main window is up so I have no idea what Helen Markham was talking about. In Barnes Exhibit B (second picture in the link above) you will see JDT rated the same as the alleged bag in the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) as we see a circle on the street to emphasize where he was laying. Why? Because the ambulance came in record time to remove his DEAD body, and thus, contaminated the crime scene as without the exact position the body was laying in they could not be 100% sure which direction the shots came from. This is a science and PRECISE information is needed.
Markham continued to tell us what this man did through a CLOSED WINDOW.
Mr. BALL. Put his arms on the window ledge?
Mrs. MARKHAM. On the ledge of the window.
Mr. BALL. And the policeman was sitting where?
Mrs. MARKHAM. On the driver's side.
Mr. BALL. Then what happened?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Well, I didn't think nothing about it; you know, the police are nice and friendly, and I thought friendly conversation. Well, I looked, and there were cars coming, so I had to wait. Well, in a few minutes this man made—
She said she thought the conversation appeared to be a “nice and friendly” one. How does that work if you are asking the person about possibly shooting the President of the United States (POTUS)?
Mr. BALL. What did you see the policeman do?
Mrs. MARKHAM. See the policeman? Well, this man, like I told you, put his arms up, leaned over, he just a minute, and he drew back and he stepped back about two steps. Mr. Tippit—
Mr. BALL. The policeman?
Mrs. MARKHAM. The policeman calmly opened the car door, very slowly, wasn't angry or nothing, he calmly crawled out of this car, and I still just thought a friendly conversation, maybe disturbance in the house, I did not know; well, just as the policeman got—
Mr. BALL. Which way did he walk?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Towards the front of the car. And just as he had gotten even with the wheel on the driver's side—
Mr. BALL. You mean the left front wheel?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes; this man shot the policeman.
She said again the policeman (JDT) showed NO signs of fear, anger or apprehension as he simply “calmly opened the car door” and got out and started to approach the man. Doesn’t this fit with the theory that JDT knew this man more than he was approaching a man he thought might have shot President John F. Kennedy (JFK)? William Scoggins was a witness to the crime and he said he never saw a pistol in JDT’s hand so this again would reinforce the notion that JDT was not afraid of the person he was talking with.
Representative FORD. Were you in your cab?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes.
Representative FORD. When you saw the pistol it wasn't in Officer Tippit's hands?
Mr. SCOGGINS. No, sir; oh, he never did have a pistol in his hand, as far as I know.
Mr. BELIN. You saw him when he was falling?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes; he was holding his stomach.
Mr. BELIN. You saw him holding his stomach as he fell?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Did he have anything in his hands?
Mr. SCOGGINS. If he did I couldn't see it, and I don't think he ever got to his pistol from what I saw.
It does not seem as though JDT was concerned for his life as claimed by the WC in this testimony. However, if we go to Domingo Benavides’ testimony we will see this about the gun.
Mr. BELIN - Did you notice where the gun of the policeman was?
Mr. BENAVIDES - The gun was in his hand and he was partially lying on his gun in his right hand. He was partially lying on his gun and on his hand, too.
How come so many people saw such different things? Could the killer have put the gun in JDT’s hand before leaving? Callaway said the gun was out too, but UNDER his body.
Mr. BALL. When you got there what did you see?
Mr. CALLAWAY. I saw a squad car, and by that time there was four or five people that had gathered, a couple of cars had stopped. Then I saw--I went on up to the squad car and saw the police officer lying in the street. I see he had been shot in the head. So the first thing I did, I ran over to the squad car. I didn't know whether anybody reported it or not. So I got on the police radio and called them, and told them a man had been shot, told them the location, I thought the officer was dead. They said we know about it, stay off the air, so I went back.
By this time an ambulance was coming. The officer was laying on his left side, his pistol was underneath him. I kind of rolled him over and took his gun out from under him. The people wonder whether he ever got his pistol out of his holster. He did.
Mr. BALL. The pistol was out of the holster?
Mr. CALLAWAY. Yes, sir; out of the holster, and it was unsnapped. It was on his right side. He was laying with the gun under him.
So again, why did others not see a gun in JDT’s hand? What could the person have said that would cause JDT to remove his gun to approach him. And why did JDT NOT call the dispatcher with this information? There are no calls from JDT saying he found a suspect so all we have is a claim he did. By the way, if he had his gun out, why was he so surprised by the shooter and did not even get close to firing a shot himself?
Markham would again cause issues for the WC when she was asked about how many shots she heard.
Mr. BALL. You heard the shots, did you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. How many shots did you hear?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Three.
Actually four shots were fired and some WC defenders (David Von Pein and Bill Brown) have posited five could have been fired. Markham would get some corroboration for this claim however from Domingo Benavides as he too said he heard three shots.
Mr. BELIN - How many shots did you hear all told?
Mr. BENAVIDES - I heard three shots.
Mr. BELIN - You heard three shots?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes, sir,
Markham would get more corroboration from William Scoggins, and note what he says about the shots he heard.
Mr. BELIN. How many shots did you hear?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Three or four, in the neighborhood. They was fast.
Mr. BELIN. They were fast shots?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes; they were fast.
Really fast? Was LHO the fastest gun in the South? We have already seen there is NO evidence showing LHO practiced with a handgun for years since his days at boot camp and the limited time in Atsugi, Japan (up to 100 rounds of firing), so how did he get so good with a revolver? Especially when one considers he was confronting a police officer and NOT an older person. JDT was probably much more trained on the revolver than LHO would have been, but we are led to believe LHO out dueled him.
Scoggins received corroboration from Barbara Davis as she too said the shots were very close together. Of course she only heard two though.
Mr. DULLES. Did you say gunshot or gunshots?
Mrs. DAVIS. Shots.
Mr. DULLES. Plural? How many did you hear?
Mrs. DAVIS. Just two, they were pretty close together.
Virginia Davis also would only hear two shots.
Mr. BELIN. How many shots did you hear?
Mrs. DAVIS. We heard the first one and then we thought maybe someone had a blowout like a tire or something and we didn't get up to see. Then we heard the second shot and that is when we ran to the front door.
Mr. BELIN. Well, now, does that mean that you heard two shots?
Mrs. DAVIS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Are you sure there were not more than two, or are you sure that you heard two?
Mrs. DAVIS. We just heard two.
We know JDT was shot four times so how could they just hear two shots? Well, perhaps they heard TWO men firing two shots each. Keep in mind, there are witnesses that said they saw TWO men involved in this shooting.
Von Pein and Brown get corroboration from witness Ted Callaway.
Mr. BALL. What did you hear at that time?
Mr. CALLAWAY. I heard what sounded to me like five pistol shots.
Mr. BALL. Five pistol shots?
Mr. CALLAWAY. Five shots, yes, sir.
Markham’s credibility really went out the window (no pun intended) when she claimed she tried to save JDT’s life. First of all, the ambulance came in record time and got him out of there post haste, and secondly, she testified to not going to JDT’s side immediately because of the shooter. So after a number of minutes had gone by she said this is what happened.
Mr. DULLES. Were there many other, or other people in the block at that time, or were you there with Officer Tippit almost alone?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I was out there, I didn't see anybody. I was there alone by myself.
Mr. DULLES. I see. You didn't see anybody else in the immediate neighborhood?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No; not until everything was over--I never seen anybody until I was at Mr. Tippit's side. I tried to save his life, which was I didn't know at that time I couldn't do something for him.
Mr. DULLES. Mr. Tippit, Officer Tippit, didn't say anything to you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He tried to.
Mr. DULLES. He tried to?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. DULLES. But he didn't succeed?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, I couldn't understand. I was screaming and hollering and I was trying to help him all I could, and I would have. I was with him until they put him in the ambulance.
This for me sinks Markham as a witness for the WC. First of all, numerous other people were around so she is wrong on that simple point. Secondly, others said they did NOT see her there! Thirdly, JDT died instantly so how could he “try to” talk with her? Finally, the ambulance was there just minutes after he was shot (as if it was ready and waiting) so how could she wait minutes and then have this happen?
As we have seen in another post Markham NEVER identified LHO as the man she saw UNTIL the WC’s lawyer violated all legal rules by prompting her to say she picked out the “number two man” which LHO was.
Let’s go back to the car though and resume with Sgt. Barnes’ testimony. They explored his efforts to lift prints from the automobile in this section of his testimony.
Mr. BELIN. Was this police car dirty or clean?
Mr. BARNES. Dirty.
Mr. BELIN. What is the fact as to whether or not this in any way affects your ability to lift fingerprints?
Mr. BARNES. Any dirty surface will create a hardship as far as lifting a latent print.
Mr. BELIN. Were you able to find any identifiable prints?
Mr. BARNES. No legible prints were found.
As I said many years ago when I first read this I find it extremely hard to believe no prints could be found. Supposedly this car had not been washed for a little while and surely someone would have touched it or leaned on it over that time either outside or in the police garage, so why were NO prints that could be identified found?
The next question and answer just floors me.
Mr. BELIN. When you came to the scene, Officer Tippit had already been removed?
Mr. BARNES. That is true.
That is it. There is no question of whether or not this was the PROPER or normal thing to find as the lawyer just moves on! Surely this would have made his job a lot more difficult in terms of knowing which way JDT was facing and what direction the shots came from.
The bottom line here is that nothing happened as it was claimed by the WC and the witnesses did not seem to agree on most of the main points, so this causes a lot of reasonable doubt. No evidence could be obtained from the automobile or the scene, that showed LHO was the shooter, and the witnesses would NOT describe clothes that were actually worn by him.