Post by Gil Jesus on Sept 18, 2021 7:31:04 GMT -5
TED CALLAWAY AND SAM GUINYARD
Ted Callaway and Sam Guinyard both worked at a used car lot a block south of the Tippit murder. Callaway was the manager and Guinyard was a lot porter.
The way he told it, either Ted Callaway was the bravest man who ever lived or he was the biggest liar.
Knowing how many car salesmen I've known in my life, the fact that he was a car salesman makes my choice of the two easier.
After hearing gunshots, he confronted an armed man who approached him while himself being unarmed, a man who he testified came within 20 feet of him.
This is the kind of heroism that put Hollywood on the map.
But I doubt it happened this way. I don't believe that either one of these witnesses were ever close enough to the gunman to be able to identify him.
As proof of that I cite their original affidavits given to the Dallas Police on the day of the assassination. Neither witness described the man he saw as being anything other than a "white man".
No description of his clothing.
No description of his weapon.
Nothing.
Another reason to doubt that either of these men got more than a passing glance at the gunman: although they were in the same location and witnessing the same thing, each of them had the gunman running on opposite sides of the street.
Then there's the 1:35 Dallas Police broadcast that the gunman was armed with an automatic weapon, a description attributed to Callaway. Both witnesses described the gunman as holding the weapon with the barrel up. Callaway testified that the gunman got within 20 feet of him, Guinyard testified the gunman was 10 feet away. If Callaway originally described the gun as an automatic, Guinyard testified that it was a revolver. Did they see the weapon or were they guessing ?
How could anyone that close to the gun mistake an automatic for a revolver when they look nothing alike ?
Then there are the lineups from which the witnesses chose Oswald. They witnessed Lineup # 2, which included two police detectives and the police clerk Don Ables.
Jim Leavelle conducted lineup #'s 1,2 and 4 and spoke to the witnesses prior to lineup 2.
Leavelle indicated in testimony that he knew that two officers from the Vice Unit and a jail clerk had been used for the first lineup. ( 7 H 263-264 )
Leavelle testified that he had seen Oswald, " the first day he was arrested and when they brought him in and out of the office taking him to and from the jail, and of course, I had saw him at the lineups, what-have-you ". (7 H 268)
So Leavelle was more than aware that Oswald was the suspect. He knew it.
This is a no-no. See my essay on the police lineups.
Sam Guinyard lied under oath when he testified that no police officer spoke to him prior to his viewing the lineup.
Mr. Ball : Did the police officer say anyhting to you before you went in there ?
Mr. Guinyard : No Sir.
Mr. Ball: Did he say that he thought they had the man who killed the police officer ?
Mr. Guinyard: No sir, he didn't tell me that. (7 H 400)
But Detective Jim Leavelle DID speak to the witnesses before they viewed the lineup. Callaway quoted that Leavelle told himself, Guinyard and McWatters that Tippit's killer was in the lineup before they viewed it:
Mr. CALLAWAY. We first went into the room. There was Jim Leavelle, the detective, Sam Guinyard, and then this busdriver and myself......and Jim told us, "When I show you these guys, be sure, take your time, see if you can make a positive identification.........We want to be sure, we want to try to wrap him up real tight on killing this officer. We think he is the same one that shot the President. But if we can wrap him up tight on killing this officer, we have got him." (3 H 355)
Leavelle influenced their choice by telling the witnesses that the suspect in Tippit's killing and the President's assassination was in the lineup they were about to see.
That's another no-no.
Guinyard also lied when he said that he was at the murder scene before Domingo Benevides and that Benevides didn't drive up until they loaded Tippit into the ambulance. (7 H 398) Benevides was the closest witness to the murder and the fact that he went right to the spot and picked up the cartridge shells is proof that he was present AT THE TIME OF THE SHOOTING.
Guinyard's eyesight was so good that he could see the gunman rolling the cylinder of the gun with his right thumb from almost a block away!!!! (7 H 397)
Give me a break.
The natural reaction when one hears gunshots and sees a man with a gun heading your way is to take cover. The natural instinct is for self-preservation.
Callaway's version of challenging the gunman while himself being unarmed may make for great Hollywood script, but it's unrealistic. He didn't display any courage until he had Tippit's gun in his hand. Then he wanted to go after the guy.
I doubt that these witnesses ever got more than a glimpse of the gunman. The more likely scenario was they saw him coming down the street, took cover by ducking between the cars in the lot, then emerged after the man had passed.
Yet these were two more of the witnesses who the Commission claimed "positively identified" Oswald as the man they saw.
Two witnesses who:
1. Originally could only identify the gunman as nothing more than a white man
2. Saw him fleeing on opposite sides of the street
3. Misidentified his weapon from a distance of 10-20 feet away
4. Lied under oath
5. Were coaxed by a Dallas Police detective in choosing Oswald from a lineup consisting of himself and three police employees.
Those are some credible witnesses.
And that's some positive identification.
But there's more.
NEXT WEEKEND: THE DAVISES