Post by Rob Caprio on Jul 7, 2021 14:21:44 GMT -5
All portions ©️ Robert Caprio 2006-2024
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Here are the key portions of Helen Markham’s testimony.
Mrs. Markham was a waitress who worked at the Eat Well restaurant.
Mr. BALL. Where do you work now?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Eat Well Restaurant, 1404 Main Street, Dallas, Tex.
She used the local bus transportation to get to work and left the around the same time each day she worked.
Mr. BALL. You left your home to go to work at some time, didn't you, that day?
Mrs. MARKHAM. At one.
Mr. BALL. One o'clock?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I believe it was a little after 1.
The WC counsel would confirm this time and she would tell us what bus she caught each day.
Mr. BALL. You think it was a little after 1?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I wouldn't be afraid to bet it wasn't 6 or 7 minutes after 1.
Mr. BALL. You know what time you usually get your bus, don't you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. 1:15.
Mr. BALL. So it was before 1:15?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, it was.
Well now we have an interesting dilemma as she said her bus CAME BEFORE 1:15 PM and yet the WC claimed she was still around after Dallas Police officer J.D. Tippit (JDT) was shot at 1:16 PM! How could this happen? The excuse of traffic due to the assassination doesn’t hold water here as this was a good ways away from that incident, so how could she be at the scene of the crime when her bus would have come before the crime happened?
A little later on Mr. Ball asks this very leading question!
Mr. BALL. Did you see any man walking at that time?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes; I seen this man on the opposite side, across the street from me. He was almost across Patton Street.
Mr. BALL. Almost across Patton?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
She would say he was walking south (east) along 10th street, but she was the only one that would say this. She then described the meeting between the man and the police car for us.
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.
Mr. Ball had every right to be surprised by hearing the window was down as witnesses who ran to the car shortly after the shooting said the window was up! Sgt. Barnes also took a photo of the window being up when he processed the car for prints. She continued with her story.
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. He was sitting behind the wheel?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Was he alone in the car?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes.
Let me interrupt here for a second. It was highly unusual for JDT to be out here at this time as every other unit had been called to the downtown area after the shooting of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) had occurred so why was Ball asking IF ANYONE ELSE WAS IN THE CAR? Didn’t he have notes and records that showed JDT HAD NO PARTNER? Even the Dallas Police Department (DPD) logs that supposedly show JDT was assigned this area after JFK was shot have been shown to be wrong or doctored in the years since this day, so who was Ball expecting to be in the car with JDT? Just wondering.
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—
Sorry, I have to ask, how in the heck did she get it was a friendly conversation from what she saw? I mean either the man’s back was to her or the ENTIRE car was in her line of sight! Notice all the confusion in this testimony between here and Ball too.
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.
Mr. BALL. You heard the shots, did you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. How many shots did you hear?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Three.
Mr. BALL. What did you see the policeman do?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He fell to the ground, and his cap went a little ways out on the street.
Of course we all know JDT was shot FOUR times, not three, so even here her testimony is incorrect. Now she describes what the man did and this is key for later on.
Mr. BALL. What did the man do?
Mrs. MARKHAM. The man, he just walked calmly, fooling with his gun.
Mr. BALL. Toward what direction did he walk?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Come back towards me, turned around, and went back.
Mr. BALL. Toward Patton?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir; towards Patton. He didn't run. It just didn't scare him to death. He didn't run. When he saw me he looked at me, stared at me. I put my hands over my face like this, closed my eyes. I gradually opened my fingers like this, and 1 opened my eyes, and when
I did he started off in kind of a little trot.
Mr. BALL. Which way?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Sir?
Mr. BALL. Which way?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Towards Jefferson, right across that way.
Mr. DULLES. Did he have the pistol in his hand at this time?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had the gun when I saw him.
Mr. BALL. Did you yell at him?
Mrs. MARKHAM. When I pulled my fingers down where I could see, I got my hand down, he began to trot off, and then I ran to the policeman.
Mr. BALL. Before you put your hands over your eyes, before you put
your hand over your eyes, did you see the man walk towards the corner?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes.
Mr. BALL. What did he do?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Well, he stared at me.
Mr. BALL. What did you do?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I didn't do anything. I couldn't.
We see here she said he “stared at her” as he came across the street to the side she was standing on. Then she said he stared at her again when he got to the corner. This is key because she would NOT be able to identify the man in the lineups by HIS FACE, only his clothes allegedly. Here is more along these lines!
Mr. BALL. You looked at him?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes.
Mr. BALL. You looked at him
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir. He looked wild. I mean, well, he did to me.
So again, why could she NOT identify him by his face then? She then saw him “fool with his gun”!
Mr. BALL. And you say you saw him fooling with his gun?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had it in his hands.
Mr. BALL. Did you see what he was doing with it?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He was just fooling with it. I didn't know what he was doing. I was afraid he was fixing to kill me.
Mr. BALL. How far away from the police car do you think you were on the corner when you saw the shooting?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Well, I wasn't too far.
And yet a witness said they did NOT see her at the scene as the shooting occurred.
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.
Mr. DULLES. At what stage did you see Mrs. Markham?
Mr. SCOGGINS. After I had gotten back up there. After I had drove around in the neighborhood looking for Oswald or looking for this guy.
Mr. DULLES. It was after that?
Mr. SCOGGINS. It was after that.
Scoggins was pretty much across the street from where she was standing and yet he never saw her. Barbara Davis would say she saw her and Virginia Davis would say she saw her, but admitted she based this off of the news coverage and her sister-in-law’s comments.
Mr. BELIN. How did you know it was Mrs. Markham?
Mrs. Virginia DAVIS. Well, it said in the paper that it was Mrs. Markham, and my sister-in-law said it was Mrs. Markham. My sister-in-law knows Mrs. Markham.
For a third time she would confirm her comments about looking at the man’s face!
Mr. BALL. Did he look at you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. And did you look at him?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I sure did.
Mr. BALL. That was before you put your hands over your eyes?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir; and he kept fooling with his gun, and I slapped my hands up to my face like this.
Yet she couldn’t ID him at the lineup by HIS FACE!
Now comes the most bizarre thing she would say. It was determined JDT was killed instantly and no one else at the scene ever remembered him saying anything or seeing Mrs. Markham kneeling beside him, yet she would claim to have done both.
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.
What? Why would she make this up? Who knows but talk about destroying your credibility!
Now comes the lineup section.
Mr. BALL. We have a map coming from the FBI. We thought it would be here this morning.
Mrs. Markham, you were taken to the Police Department, weren't you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Immediately.
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Later that day they had a show up you went to?
Mrs. MARKHAM. A lineup?
Mr. BALL. A lineup.
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes.
Mr. BALL. How many men were in the lineup?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I believe there were, now I am not positive, I believe there were three besides this man.
Mr. BALL. That would be four people altogether?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I believe that is correct.
So we have four men and LHO is the “number two” man. Notice how the “room was full of policemen” as she was asked to identify the man she saw. Can anyone say intimidation?
Mr. BALL. Were they of anywhere near similar build or size or coloring?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, they were all about the same height.
Mr. BALL. Who were you in the lineup room with?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Who was I in the room where they had this man?
Mr. BALL. Yes.
Mrs. MARKHAM. Policemen.
Mr. Ball realized how this sounded so he tried to soften it with this!
Mr. BALL. More than one?
Mrs. MARKHAM. The room was full.
Mr. BALL. It was. In this lineup room, the room was full of policemen.
Weren't there just one or two men with you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. One or two with me, but I don't know who they were.
Mr. BALL. But there were other officers?
Mrs. MARKHAM. There were all policemen sitting in the back of me, and aside of me.
Mr. BALL. In this room?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir. They were doing something.
Why does he keep saying “This room?” as if she suddenly went to another room or building? After establishing that she had not seen LHO on the television or in the newspapers or that no one gave her a clue at the DPD they moved on. (Ironically they would use quite a few witnesses statements even after learning they had to have seen LHO on the television or in the newspapers – i.e. Brennan) to the lineup.
Mr. BALL. Did anybody tell you that the man you were looking for would be in a certain position in the lineup, or anything like that?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, sir.
But the WC sure would!
Mr. BALL. Now when you went into the room you looked these people over, these four men?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Did you recognize anyone in the lineup?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, sir.
That is a no for the first time!
Mr. BALL. You did not? Did you see anybody--I have asked you that question before did you recognize anybody from their face?
Mrs. MARKHAM. From their face, no.
First of all an OBJECTION could be raised as she has answered the question already, but there was NO need to worry about that since LHO had been gunned down while 75 DPD officers stood around and they did NOT allow him to have an attorney anyway!
Notice the NO for the second time.
Mr. BALL. Did you identify anybody in these four people?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I didn't know nobody.
Mr. BALL. I know you didn't know anybody, but did anybody in that lineup look like anybody you had seen before?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No. I had never seen none of them, none of these men.
Houston, we have a problem! For the third time she has said she recognized NO one in the lineup and LHO was in the lineup!
Mr. BALL. No one of the four?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No one of them.
Strike four!
Mr. BALL. No one of all four?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, sir.
Strike FIVE! Of course, a defense attorney would have put an end to this nonsense long ago, but it is good to show us she RECOGNIZED NO ONE in the lineup! So what to do, what to do? Hmm. I guess we better just lead her to the man in question then!
Mr. BALL. Was there a number two man in there?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Number two is the one I picked.
Shocker!!!!
Mr. BALL. Well, I thought you just told me that you hadn't--
Mrs. MARKHAM. I thought you wanted me to describe their clothing.
What? Remember, she said like 3-4 times she stared at the man and he stared at her, yet we are limited to a clothing description here. Why? They could also never show she is the one who gave the clothing description to the police either despite claiming she did! Does this sound familiar? Can anyone say Howard Brennan?
Mr. BALL. No. I wanted to know if that day when you were in there if you saw anyone in there--
Mrs. MARKHAM. Number two.
Whew! My career teaching kids the law is saved! Too bad I had to break all the rules to do it. Was this a solid identification?
Mr. BALL. What did you say when you saw number two?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Well, let me tell you. I said the second man, and they kept asking me which one, which one. I said, number two. When I said number two, I just got weak.
Mr. BALL. What about number two, what did you mean when you said number two?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Number two was the man I saw shoot the policeman.
Mr. BALL. You recognized him from his appearance?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I asked--I looked at him. When I saw this man I wasn't sure, but I had cold chills just run all over me.
Wow, so chills and weakness are the barometers she used! Why could she NOT identify him by the face when she said she saw his face quite a few times?
Mr. BALL. When you saw him?
Mrs. MARKHAM. When I saw the man. But I wasn't sure, so, you see, I told them I wanted to be sure, and looked, at his face is what I was looking at, mostly is what I looked at, on account of his eyes, the way he looked at me. So I asked them if they would turn him sideways. They did, and then they turned him back around, and I said the second, and they said, which one, and I said number two. So when I said that, well, I just kind of fell over. Everybody in there, you know, was beginning to talk, and I don't know, just—
Why can’t she say this is the man I saw based on his face? She mentions the eyes and then says she had them turn him sideways! How does this make any sense. Finally she got closer to the face and guess what the counsel for the WC did? He changed the subject!
Mr. BALL. Did you recognize him from his clothing?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had on a light short jacket, dark trousers. I looked at his clothing, but I looked at his face, too.
But they don’t care about the face as he goes back to the clothing!
Mr. BALL. Did he have the same clothing on that the man had that you saw shoot the officer?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had, these dark trousers on.
Mr. BALL. Did he have a jacket or a shirt? The man that you saw shoot Officer Tippit and run away, did you notice if he had a jacket on?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had a jacket on when he done it.
Mr. BALL. What kind of a jacket, what general color of jacket?
Mrs. MARKHAM. It was a short jacket open in the front, kind of a grayish tan.
Of course the jacket in evidence is not “grayish-tan” so this is wrong. LHO also would not have had a jacket on at the lineup either unless the DPD gave him one to wear. He seemed to be in a white T-shirt in most of the pictures and films I have seen since they took his shirt early on after he was arrested. Now we get to the basics about the jacket!
Mr. BALL. Did any man in the lineup have a jacket on?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I can't remember that.
Mr. BALL. Did this number two man that you mentioned to the police have any jacket on when he was in the lineup?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, sir.
Mr. BALL. What did he have on?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had on a light shirt and dark trousers. (Representative Ford is now in the Commission hearing room.)
Ah, by light shirt did she mean a WHITE T-shirt? Why did the counsel ask about a jacket and she confirmed a jacket IF NO JACKET was used in the identification? Does this make any sense?
Now they backtrack to the face. Remember that FIVE times she did NOT recognize anyone in the lineup but as soon as the counsel mentioned the NUMBER TWO MAN she ran with it!
Mr. BALL. Did you recognize the man from his clothing or from his face?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Mostly from his face.
Mr. BALL. Were you sure it was the same man you had seen before?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I am sure.
So why did she say she thought they were discussing the clothing earlier when she said FIVE TIMES she did not recognize anyone then? NOW, back to the jacket!
Mr. BALL. I have here an exhibit, Commission Exhibit 162, a jacket.
Did you ever see this before?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No; I did not.
Mr. BALL. Does it look like, anything like, the jacket the man had on?
Mrs. MARKHAM. It is short, open down the front. But that jacket it is a darker jacket than that, I know it was.
Mr. BALL. You don't think it was as light a jacket as that?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, it was darker than that, I know it was. At that moment I was so excited—
Hmm, so the jacket in evidence is NOT like the color she saw! How can this be if this was LHO’s? So how did the WC explain this? They didn’t as they just moved on to the shirt!
Mr. BALL. I show you a shirt here, which is Exhibit 150. Did you ever see a shirt the color of this?
Mrs. MARKHAM. The shirt that this man had, it was a lighter looking shirt than that.
Mr. BALL. The man who shot Tippit?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir; I think it was lighter.
Houston, it is us again! So we see the jacket didn’t match what LHO was supposedly wearing and now the shirt did NOT match either, but the face supposedly did. Was LHO walking around with one of those large cardboard cutouts you put your head on for photographs or what?
Of course, they just moved on instead of answering this tough question.
About the ONLY thing Mrs. Markham was consistent with was the time of the shooting. She said in her sworn affidavit to the DPD that she believed the shooting occurred at 1:06 PM! See it here:
www.historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh24/pages/WH_Vol24_0117a.jpg
Then she told the WC she believed the shooting took place around 1:06 or 1:07 PM!
Mr. BALL. You think it was a little after 1?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I wouldn't be afraid to bet it wasn't 6 or 7 minutes after 1.
She would also consistently tell reporters and researchers over the years this was the time he was shot! LHO could NOT have been at the scene of the crime at this time. It is humanely impossible!
So in the end the WC’s only major witness for the JDT area of the case wound up exonerating the accused for us!
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Here are the key portions of Helen Markham’s testimony.
Mrs. Markham was a waitress who worked at the Eat Well restaurant.
Mr. BALL. Where do you work now?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Eat Well Restaurant, 1404 Main Street, Dallas, Tex.
She used the local bus transportation to get to work and left the around the same time each day she worked.
Mr. BALL. You left your home to go to work at some time, didn't you, that day?
Mrs. MARKHAM. At one.
Mr. BALL. One o'clock?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I believe it was a little after 1.
The WC counsel would confirm this time and she would tell us what bus she caught each day.
Mr. BALL. You think it was a little after 1?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I wouldn't be afraid to bet it wasn't 6 or 7 minutes after 1.
Mr. BALL. You know what time you usually get your bus, don't you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. 1:15.
Mr. BALL. So it was before 1:15?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, it was.
Well now we have an interesting dilemma as she said her bus CAME BEFORE 1:15 PM and yet the WC claimed she was still around after Dallas Police officer J.D. Tippit (JDT) was shot at 1:16 PM! How could this happen? The excuse of traffic due to the assassination doesn’t hold water here as this was a good ways away from that incident, so how could she be at the scene of the crime when her bus would have come before the crime happened?
A little later on Mr. Ball asks this very leading question!
Mr. BALL. Did you see any man walking at that time?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes; I seen this man on the opposite side, across the street from me. He was almost across Patton Street.
Mr. BALL. Almost across Patton?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
She would say he was walking south (east) along 10th street, but she was the only one that would say this. She then described the meeting between the man and the police car for us.
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.
Mr. Ball had every right to be surprised by hearing the window was down as witnesses who ran to the car shortly after the shooting said the window was up! Sgt. Barnes also took a photo of the window being up when he processed the car for prints. She continued with her story.
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. He was sitting behind the wheel?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Was he alone in the car?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes.
Let me interrupt here for a second. It was highly unusual for JDT to be out here at this time as every other unit had been called to the downtown area after the shooting of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) had occurred so why was Ball asking IF ANYONE ELSE WAS IN THE CAR? Didn’t he have notes and records that showed JDT HAD NO PARTNER? Even the Dallas Police Department (DPD) logs that supposedly show JDT was assigned this area after JFK was shot have been shown to be wrong or doctored in the years since this day, so who was Ball expecting to be in the car with JDT? Just wondering.
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—
Sorry, I have to ask, how in the heck did she get it was a friendly conversation from what she saw? I mean either the man’s back was to her or the ENTIRE car was in her line of sight! Notice all the confusion in this testimony between here and Ball too.
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.
Mr. BALL. You heard the shots, did you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. How many shots did you hear?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Three.
Mr. BALL. What did you see the policeman do?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He fell to the ground, and his cap went a little ways out on the street.
Of course we all know JDT was shot FOUR times, not three, so even here her testimony is incorrect. Now she describes what the man did and this is key for later on.
Mr. BALL. What did the man do?
Mrs. MARKHAM. The man, he just walked calmly, fooling with his gun.
Mr. BALL. Toward what direction did he walk?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Come back towards me, turned around, and went back.
Mr. BALL. Toward Patton?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir; towards Patton. He didn't run. It just didn't scare him to death. He didn't run. When he saw me he looked at me, stared at me. I put my hands over my face like this, closed my eyes. I gradually opened my fingers like this, and 1 opened my eyes, and when
I did he started off in kind of a little trot.
Mr. BALL. Which way?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Sir?
Mr. BALL. Which way?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Towards Jefferson, right across that way.
Mr. DULLES. Did he have the pistol in his hand at this time?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had the gun when I saw him.
Mr. BALL. Did you yell at him?
Mrs. MARKHAM. When I pulled my fingers down where I could see, I got my hand down, he began to trot off, and then I ran to the policeman.
Mr. BALL. Before you put your hands over your eyes, before you put
your hand over your eyes, did you see the man walk towards the corner?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes.
Mr. BALL. What did he do?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Well, he stared at me.
Mr. BALL. What did you do?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I didn't do anything. I couldn't.
We see here she said he “stared at her” as he came across the street to the side she was standing on. Then she said he stared at her again when he got to the corner. This is key because she would NOT be able to identify the man in the lineups by HIS FACE, only his clothes allegedly. Here is more along these lines!
Mr. BALL. You looked at him?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes.
Mr. BALL. You looked at him
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir. He looked wild. I mean, well, he did to me.
So again, why could she NOT identify him by his face then? She then saw him “fool with his gun”!
Mr. BALL. And you say you saw him fooling with his gun?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had it in his hands.
Mr. BALL. Did you see what he was doing with it?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He was just fooling with it. I didn't know what he was doing. I was afraid he was fixing to kill me.
Mr. BALL. How far away from the police car do you think you were on the corner when you saw the shooting?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Well, I wasn't too far.
And yet a witness said they did NOT see her at the scene as the shooting occurred.
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.
Mr. DULLES. At what stage did you see Mrs. Markham?
Mr. SCOGGINS. After I had gotten back up there. After I had drove around in the neighborhood looking for Oswald or looking for this guy.
Mr. DULLES. It was after that?
Mr. SCOGGINS. It was after that.
Scoggins was pretty much across the street from where she was standing and yet he never saw her. Barbara Davis would say she saw her and Virginia Davis would say she saw her, but admitted she based this off of the news coverage and her sister-in-law’s comments.
Mr. BELIN. How did you know it was Mrs. Markham?
Mrs. Virginia DAVIS. Well, it said in the paper that it was Mrs. Markham, and my sister-in-law said it was Mrs. Markham. My sister-in-law knows Mrs. Markham.
For a third time she would confirm her comments about looking at the man’s face!
Mr. BALL. Did he look at you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. And did you look at him?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I sure did.
Mr. BALL. That was before you put your hands over your eyes?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir; and he kept fooling with his gun, and I slapped my hands up to my face like this.
Yet she couldn’t ID him at the lineup by HIS FACE!
Now comes the most bizarre thing she would say. It was determined JDT was killed instantly and no one else at the scene ever remembered him saying anything or seeing Mrs. Markham kneeling beside him, yet she would claim to have done both.
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.
What? Why would she make this up? Who knows but talk about destroying your credibility!
Now comes the lineup section.
Mr. BALL. We have a map coming from the FBI. We thought it would be here this morning.
Mrs. Markham, you were taken to the Police Department, weren't you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Immediately.
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Later that day they had a show up you went to?
Mrs. MARKHAM. A lineup?
Mr. BALL. A lineup.
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes.
Mr. BALL. How many men were in the lineup?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I believe there were, now I am not positive, I believe there were three besides this man.
Mr. BALL. That would be four people altogether?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I believe that is correct.
So we have four men and LHO is the “number two” man. Notice how the “room was full of policemen” as she was asked to identify the man she saw. Can anyone say intimidation?
Mr. BALL. Were they of anywhere near similar build or size or coloring?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, they were all about the same height.
Mr. BALL. Who were you in the lineup room with?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Who was I in the room where they had this man?
Mr. BALL. Yes.
Mrs. MARKHAM. Policemen.
Mr. Ball realized how this sounded so he tried to soften it with this!
Mr. BALL. More than one?
Mrs. MARKHAM. The room was full.
Mr. BALL. It was. In this lineup room, the room was full of policemen.
Weren't there just one or two men with you?
Mrs. MARKHAM. One or two with me, but I don't know who they were.
Mr. BALL. But there were other officers?
Mrs. MARKHAM. There were all policemen sitting in the back of me, and aside of me.
Mr. BALL. In this room?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir. They were doing something.
Why does he keep saying “This room?” as if she suddenly went to another room or building? After establishing that she had not seen LHO on the television or in the newspapers or that no one gave her a clue at the DPD they moved on. (Ironically they would use quite a few witnesses statements even after learning they had to have seen LHO on the television or in the newspapers – i.e. Brennan) to the lineup.
Mr. BALL. Did anybody tell you that the man you were looking for would be in a certain position in the lineup, or anything like that?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, sir.
But the WC sure would!
Mr. BALL. Now when you went into the room you looked these people over, these four men?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Did you recognize anyone in the lineup?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, sir.
That is a no for the first time!
Mr. BALL. You did not? Did you see anybody--I have asked you that question before did you recognize anybody from their face?
Mrs. MARKHAM. From their face, no.
First of all an OBJECTION could be raised as she has answered the question already, but there was NO need to worry about that since LHO had been gunned down while 75 DPD officers stood around and they did NOT allow him to have an attorney anyway!
Notice the NO for the second time.
Mr. BALL. Did you identify anybody in these four people?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I didn't know nobody.
Mr. BALL. I know you didn't know anybody, but did anybody in that lineup look like anybody you had seen before?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No. I had never seen none of them, none of these men.
Houston, we have a problem! For the third time she has said she recognized NO one in the lineup and LHO was in the lineup!
Mr. BALL. No one of the four?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No one of them.
Strike four!
Mr. BALL. No one of all four?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, sir.
Strike FIVE! Of course, a defense attorney would have put an end to this nonsense long ago, but it is good to show us she RECOGNIZED NO ONE in the lineup! So what to do, what to do? Hmm. I guess we better just lead her to the man in question then!
Mr. BALL. Was there a number two man in there?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Number two is the one I picked.
Shocker!!!!
Mr. BALL. Well, I thought you just told me that you hadn't--
Mrs. MARKHAM. I thought you wanted me to describe their clothing.
What? Remember, she said like 3-4 times she stared at the man and he stared at her, yet we are limited to a clothing description here. Why? They could also never show she is the one who gave the clothing description to the police either despite claiming she did! Does this sound familiar? Can anyone say Howard Brennan?
Mr. BALL. No. I wanted to know if that day when you were in there if you saw anyone in there--
Mrs. MARKHAM. Number two.
Whew! My career teaching kids the law is saved! Too bad I had to break all the rules to do it. Was this a solid identification?
Mr. BALL. What did you say when you saw number two?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Well, let me tell you. I said the second man, and they kept asking me which one, which one. I said, number two. When I said number two, I just got weak.
Mr. BALL. What about number two, what did you mean when you said number two?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Number two was the man I saw shoot the policeman.
Mr. BALL. You recognized him from his appearance?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I asked--I looked at him. When I saw this man I wasn't sure, but I had cold chills just run all over me.
Wow, so chills and weakness are the barometers she used! Why could she NOT identify him by the face when she said she saw his face quite a few times?
Mr. BALL. When you saw him?
Mrs. MARKHAM. When I saw the man. But I wasn't sure, so, you see, I told them I wanted to be sure, and looked, at his face is what I was looking at, mostly is what I looked at, on account of his eyes, the way he looked at me. So I asked them if they would turn him sideways. They did, and then they turned him back around, and I said the second, and they said, which one, and I said number two. So when I said that, well, I just kind of fell over. Everybody in there, you know, was beginning to talk, and I don't know, just—
Why can’t she say this is the man I saw based on his face? She mentions the eyes and then says she had them turn him sideways! How does this make any sense. Finally she got closer to the face and guess what the counsel for the WC did? He changed the subject!
Mr. BALL. Did you recognize him from his clothing?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had on a light short jacket, dark trousers. I looked at his clothing, but I looked at his face, too.
But they don’t care about the face as he goes back to the clothing!
Mr. BALL. Did he have the same clothing on that the man had that you saw shoot the officer?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had, these dark trousers on.
Mr. BALL. Did he have a jacket or a shirt? The man that you saw shoot Officer Tippit and run away, did you notice if he had a jacket on?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had a jacket on when he done it.
Mr. BALL. What kind of a jacket, what general color of jacket?
Mrs. MARKHAM. It was a short jacket open in the front, kind of a grayish tan.
Of course the jacket in evidence is not “grayish-tan” so this is wrong. LHO also would not have had a jacket on at the lineup either unless the DPD gave him one to wear. He seemed to be in a white T-shirt in most of the pictures and films I have seen since they took his shirt early on after he was arrested. Now we get to the basics about the jacket!
Mr. BALL. Did any man in the lineup have a jacket on?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I can't remember that.
Mr. BALL. Did this number two man that you mentioned to the police have any jacket on when he was in the lineup?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, sir.
Mr. BALL. What did he have on?
Mrs. MARKHAM. He had on a light shirt and dark trousers. (Representative Ford is now in the Commission hearing room.)
Ah, by light shirt did she mean a WHITE T-shirt? Why did the counsel ask about a jacket and she confirmed a jacket IF NO JACKET was used in the identification? Does this make any sense?
Now they backtrack to the face. Remember that FIVE times she did NOT recognize anyone in the lineup but as soon as the counsel mentioned the NUMBER TWO MAN she ran with it!
Mr. BALL. Did you recognize the man from his clothing or from his face?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Mostly from his face.
Mr. BALL. Were you sure it was the same man you had seen before?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I am sure.
So why did she say she thought they were discussing the clothing earlier when she said FIVE TIMES she did not recognize anyone then? NOW, back to the jacket!
Mr. BALL. I have here an exhibit, Commission Exhibit 162, a jacket.
Did you ever see this before?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No; I did not.
Mr. BALL. Does it look like, anything like, the jacket the man had on?
Mrs. MARKHAM. It is short, open down the front. But that jacket it is a darker jacket than that, I know it was.
Mr. BALL. You don't think it was as light a jacket as that?
Mrs. MARKHAM. No, it was darker than that, I know it was. At that moment I was so excited—
Hmm, so the jacket in evidence is NOT like the color she saw! How can this be if this was LHO’s? So how did the WC explain this? They didn’t as they just moved on to the shirt!
Mr. BALL. I show you a shirt here, which is Exhibit 150. Did you ever see a shirt the color of this?
Mrs. MARKHAM. The shirt that this man had, it was a lighter looking shirt than that.
Mr. BALL. The man who shot Tippit?
Mrs. MARKHAM. Yes, sir; I think it was lighter.
Houston, it is us again! So we see the jacket didn’t match what LHO was supposedly wearing and now the shirt did NOT match either, but the face supposedly did. Was LHO walking around with one of those large cardboard cutouts you put your head on for photographs or what?
Of course, they just moved on instead of answering this tough question.
About the ONLY thing Mrs. Markham was consistent with was the time of the shooting. She said in her sworn affidavit to the DPD that she believed the shooting occurred at 1:06 PM! See it here:
www.historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh24/pages/WH_Vol24_0117a.jpg
Then she told the WC she believed the shooting took place around 1:06 or 1:07 PM!
Mr. BALL. You think it was a little after 1?
Mrs. MARKHAM. I wouldn't be afraid to bet it wasn't 6 or 7 minutes after 1.
She would also consistently tell reporters and researchers over the years this was the time he was shot! LHO could NOT have been at the scene of the crime at this time. It is humanely impossible!
So in the end the WC’s only major witness for the JDT area of the case wound up exonerating the accused for us!