Post by John Duncan on Dec 7, 2021 14:12:59 GMT -5
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An Oldsmobile? 1963 Slogan: 1963 New style to invite you ... new luxury to delight you.
New style to delight you! Rocket action to excite you!
Which Car
By Ian Griggs (2006)
(Edited by John Duncan)
At the bottom of this page, there is an Author's Note, apparently written by [Howard] Brennan's co-author which, in attempting to explain Brennan's failure to mention this car before, actually tends to confuse the issue rather than resolve it. It read as follows: "Howard did not report the presence of the car beside the Book Depository Building initially because he did not make an association.
Subsequent to that time he had already made a formal statement and probably realized that to insert this new item might cast some doubt on his testimony. In retrospect, he acknowledged he probably should have reported it, but he wanted to be sure his testimony would stand since it was critical." (1)
When I first read those passages in Howard Leslie Brennan's book, my immediate thoughts centered on two obvious questions. Where else in this case is an Oldsmobile mentioned? Who in this case owned an Oldsmobile? These two mundane questions produced some amazing answers.
The Bowers Sighting Behind The Picket Fence
Lee E. Bowers, Jr. was a railroad switchman employed by the Union Terminal Company. On the day of the assassination he was on duty in the north tower controlling train movements in the railroad yards to the west of the book depository behind the picket fence. He enjoyed a clear view of the area from his 14-feet-high vantage point.
Lee Bowers gave his Warren Commission testimony in Dallas on 2nd April 1964. He described that in the 20 minute period before the arrival of the presidential motorcade he observed three cars which individually entered the area by his tower via the Elm Street extension road, circled that area and then left by the same route. None of these vehicles was familiar to him.
When asked by Assistant Counsel Joseph Ball what time the first of these cars had arrived, he replied: "I do not recall the exact time, but I believe this was approximately 12:10, wouldn't be far off." When asked where the car was, Bowers replied: "The car proceeded in front of the School Depository down across 2 or 3 tracks and circled the area in front of the tower, and to the west of the tower, as if he was searching for a way out, or was checking the area, and then proceeded back through the only way he could, the same outlet he came into." (2)
The following brief exchange then ensued:
BALL: "What was the description of that car?"
BOWERS: "The first car was a 1959 Oldsmobile, blue and white station wagon with out-of-State license."
BALL "Do you know what State?"
BOWERS: "No; I do not. I would know it, I could identify it, I think, if I looked at a list."
BALL: "And, it had something else, some bumper stickers?"
BOWERS: "Had a bumper sticker, one of which was a Goldwater sticker, and the other of which was of some scenic location, I think."
Mr. Ball, who never asked Bowers about the Oldsmobile occupant(s), then went on to the other cars which Bowers had observed. One was a 1957 black Ford "with one male in it that seemed to have a mike or telephone or something... had a Texas license" The third was believed by Bowers to be a 1961 or 1962 Chevrolet four-door Impala. Bowers said that it was "white, showed signs of being on the road. It was muddy up to the windows, bore a similar out-of-state license to the first car I observed, occupied also by one white male." (3)
In summing up Bowers' three sightings and putting them alongside Brennan's, there are several significant similarities. Brennan reported a 1955-57 Oldsmobile (but unfortunately stated neither its color nor its type - sedan, station wagon, etc.). The first of Bowers' cars was a 1959 blue-and-white Oldsmobile station wagon. Bowers' first and third cars were carrying similar out-of-state license plates to one another.
All four vehicles were described as being parked or driven in a suspicious manner.
Jack Ruby - Owner Of An Oldsmobile
Jack Ruby owned and drove a "1960 Oldsmobile, two door, white in color, bearing 1963 Texas License PD-678." (4) This was the car which he drove when he went to the Western Union office and then City Hall where he shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald on 24th November.
Could this have been the car parked beside the Texas School Book Depository which was observed by Howard Leslie Brennan two days earlier? His report of the driver and a policeman engaged in apparently friendly conversation would appear to be a point in favor of this. Despite the denials in the Warren Report, it now seems that a significant percentage of the Dallas Police Department was on good terms with Ruby. Brennan's brief description of the driver (alone, middle-aged and wearing civilian clothes), whilst nowhere near as detailed as his description of the sixth floor assassin, could certainly fit Jack Ruby.
Jack Ruby was in the TSBD area at 12:30.... not in the Dallas Morning News as was believed.
SEE The Fourth Decade, Volume 4, Issue 2
Current Section: Where Was Jack Ruby on November 21 and November 22?,
by Martha A. Moyer & R.F. Gallagher
At the time of the shooting, Jack Ruby was in front of the Texas School Book Depository, not in the Dallas Morning News as he claimed.
Read:
www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=519986
SEE Picture: compare photos. Blown up, the hair and hairlines will prove that the man facing the policeman with his back to the photographer is Jack Ruby.
www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=48697&relPageId=12
www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=48697&relPageId=13
Michael Paine - Another Oldsmobile Owner
Michael Paine was another Oldsmobile owner. In "either October or November, probably the early part of November" 1963, he had purchased a 1956 blue-and-white Oldsmobile sedan for $200. Although his Warren Commission testimony is a little imprecise on this point, it appears that he had offered to sell it to Lee Harvey Oswald. (5) At this time, Michael Paine was also the owner of a Citroen and wife Ruth owned a Chevy station wagon.
For some reason, officers from the DPD Special Service Bureau checked out the various cars parked outside the Paine residence in early January 1965. A report from Detective Roy Westphal to Captain Gannaway, dated 7th January 1965, included details of a 1954/56 Oldsmobile, blue and white in color and bearing Texas plate NY-9880. This is probably the vehicle mentioned above.
The sketchy and incomplete description of the Oldsmobile seen by Brennan certainly matches the known description of this Michael Paine-owned car. Once again, however, we have to rue the fact that Brennan did not mention the color of the car he observed.
The Oldsmobile seen by Lee Bowers was a later model than the Paine car and was described very positively by him as a station wagon and the mysterious zipper jacket was found under an Oldsmobile
It has been suggested, but by no means established as a fact, that the killer of Officer Tippit discarded a white or gray zipper jacket (CE 162) beneath a car at Ballew's Texaco service station as he fled the scene of the Tippit murder. The car has been identified as a 1955 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday Coupe with Texas index tag NL-95. (6)
In a Dallas FBI interview on 21st January 1964, however, Robert Brock, a mechanic employed at that service station, describes that Oldsmobile as a 1954 model. As someone who worked with cars, I would expect his description to be an accurate one. He also confirmed that this car was parked in parking space 17. (7)
As far as I can ascertain, the identity of the owner of this car has not been published.
Footnotes:
1. Howard L. Brennan with J. Edward Cherryholmes: Eyewitness to History, published by Texan Press, Waco, Texas, 1987 (four years after Brennan's death).
2. 6H 285 (Testimony of Lee E. Bowers, Jr.)
3. 6H 286 (Testimony of Lee E. Bowers, Jr.)
4. Smart Exhibit No. 5021 (Copy of an FBI report of an interview with Lieutenant Vernon S. Smart, dated November 25, 1963).
5. 2H 413 (Testimony of Michael R. Paine). See also Carol Hewett, Esq.: Ruth and Michael Paine's Mystery Vehicle, published in the Conference Abstracts of the Second National Conference of COPA, 1995.
6. See Dallas Municipal Archives, John F. Kennedy Collection, Box 12, Folder 45, Item 18. See also photograph on page 142 of Robert Groden's Search for Lee Harvey Oswald
7. Brock (Robert) Exhibit A (19H 182)
An Oldsmobile? 1963 Slogan: 1963 New style to invite you ... new luxury to delight you.
New style to delight you! Rocket action to excite you!
Which Car
By Ian Griggs (2006)
(Edited by John Duncan)
At the bottom of this page, there is an Author's Note, apparently written by [Howard] Brennan's co-author which, in attempting to explain Brennan's failure to mention this car before, actually tends to confuse the issue rather than resolve it. It read as follows: "Howard did not report the presence of the car beside the Book Depository Building initially because he did not make an association.
Subsequent to that time he had already made a formal statement and probably realized that to insert this new item might cast some doubt on his testimony. In retrospect, he acknowledged he probably should have reported it, but he wanted to be sure his testimony would stand since it was critical." (1)
When I first read those passages in Howard Leslie Brennan's book, my immediate thoughts centered on two obvious questions. Where else in this case is an Oldsmobile mentioned? Who in this case owned an Oldsmobile? These two mundane questions produced some amazing answers.
The Bowers Sighting Behind The Picket Fence
Lee E. Bowers, Jr. was a railroad switchman employed by the Union Terminal Company. On the day of the assassination he was on duty in the north tower controlling train movements in the railroad yards to the west of the book depository behind the picket fence. He enjoyed a clear view of the area from his 14-feet-high vantage point.
Lee Bowers gave his Warren Commission testimony in Dallas on 2nd April 1964. He described that in the 20 minute period before the arrival of the presidential motorcade he observed three cars which individually entered the area by his tower via the Elm Street extension road, circled that area and then left by the same route. None of these vehicles was familiar to him.
When asked by Assistant Counsel Joseph Ball what time the first of these cars had arrived, he replied: "I do not recall the exact time, but I believe this was approximately 12:10, wouldn't be far off." When asked where the car was, Bowers replied: "The car proceeded in front of the School Depository down across 2 or 3 tracks and circled the area in front of the tower, and to the west of the tower, as if he was searching for a way out, or was checking the area, and then proceeded back through the only way he could, the same outlet he came into." (2)
The following brief exchange then ensued:
BALL: "What was the description of that car?"
BOWERS: "The first car was a 1959 Oldsmobile, blue and white station wagon with out-of-State license."
BALL "Do you know what State?"
BOWERS: "No; I do not. I would know it, I could identify it, I think, if I looked at a list."
BALL: "And, it had something else, some bumper stickers?"
BOWERS: "Had a bumper sticker, one of which was a Goldwater sticker, and the other of which was of some scenic location, I think."
Mr. Ball, who never asked Bowers about the Oldsmobile occupant(s), then went on to the other cars which Bowers had observed. One was a 1957 black Ford "with one male in it that seemed to have a mike or telephone or something... had a Texas license" The third was believed by Bowers to be a 1961 or 1962 Chevrolet four-door Impala. Bowers said that it was "white, showed signs of being on the road. It was muddy up to the windows, bore a similar out-of-state license to the first car I observed, occupied also by one white male." (3)
In summing up Bowers' three sightings and putting them alongside Brennan's, there are several significant similarities. Brennan reported a 1955-57 Oldsmobile (but unfortunately stated neither its color nor its type - sedan, station wagon, etc.). The first of Bowers' cars was a 1959 blue-and-white Oldsmobile station wagon. Bowers' first and third cars were carrying similar out-of-state license plates to one another.
All four vehicles were described as being parked or driven in a suspicious manner.
Jack Ruby - Owner Of An Oldsmobile
Jack Ruby owned and drove a "1960 Oldsmobile, two door, white in color, bearing 1963 Texas License PD-678." (4) This was the car which he drove when he went to the Western Union office and then City Hall where he shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald on 24th November.
Could this have been the car parked beside the Texas School Book Depository which was observed by Howard Leslie Brennan two days earlier? His report of the driver and a policeman engaged in apparently friendly conversation would appear to be a point in favor of this. Despite the denials in the Warren Report, it now seems that a significant percentage of the Dallas Police Department was on good terms with Ruby. Brennan's brief description of the driver (alone, middle-aged and wearing civilian clothes), whilst nowhere near as detailed as his description of the sixth floor assassin, could certainly fit Jack Ruby.
Jack Ruby was in the TSBD area at 12:30.... not in the Dallas Morning News as was believed.
SEE The Fourth Decade, Volume 4, Issue 2
Current Section: Where Was Jack Ruby on November 21 and November 22?,
by Martha A. Moyer & R.F. Gallagher
At the time of the shooting, Jack Ruby was in front of the Texas School Book Depository, not in the Dallas Morning News as he claimed.
Read:
www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=519986
SEE Picture: compare photos. Blown up, the hair and hairlines will prove that the man facing the policeman with his back to the photographer is Jack Ruby.
www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=48697&relPageId=12
www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=48697&relPageId=13
Michael Paine - Another Oldsmobile Owner
Michael Paine was another Oldsmobile owner. In "either October or November, probably the early part of November" 1963, he had purchased a 1956 blue-and-white Oldsmobile sedan for $200. Although his Warren Commission testimony is a little imprecise on this point, it appears that he had offered to sell it to Lee Harvey Oswald. (5) At this time, Michael Paine was also the owner of a Citroen and wife Ruth owned a Chevy station wagon.
For some reason, officers from the DPD Special Service Bureau checked out the various cars parked outside the Paine residence in early January 1965. A report from Detective Roy Westphal to Captain Gannaway, dated 7th January 1965, included details of a 1954/56 Oldsmobile, blue and white in color and bearing Texas plate NY-9880. This is probably the vehicle mentioned above.
The sketchy and incomplete description of the Oldsmobile seen by Brennan certainly matches the known description of this Michael Paine-owned car. Once again, however, we have to rue the fact that Brennan did not mention the color of the car he observed.
The Oldsmobile seen by Lee Bowers was a later model than the Paine car and was described very positively by him as a station wagon and the mysterious zipper jacket was found under an Oldsmobile
It has been suggested, but by no means established as a fact, that the killer of Officer Tippit discarded a white or gray zipper jacket (CE 162) beneath a car at Ballew's Texaco service station as he fled the scene of the Tippit murder. The car has been identified as a 1955 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday Coupe with Texas index tag NL-95. (6)
In a Dallas FBI interview on 21st January 1964, however, Robert Brock, a mechanic employed at that service station, describes that Oldsmobile as a 1954 model. As someone who worked with cars, I would expect his description to be an accurate one. He also confirmed that this car was parked in parking space 17. (7)
As far as I can ascertain, the identity of the owner of this car has not been published.
Footnotes:
1. Howard L. Brennan with J. Edward Cherryholmes: Eyewitness to History, published by Texan Press, Waco, Texas, 1987 (four years after Brennan's death).
2. 6H 285 (Testimony of Lee E. Bowers, Jr.)
3. 6H 286 (Testimony of Lee E. Bowers, Jr.)
4. Smart Exhibit No. 5021 (Copy of an FBI report of an interview with Lieutenant Vernon S. Smart, dated November 25, 1963).
5. 2H 413 (Testimony of Michael R. Paine). See also Carol Hewett, Esq.: Ruth and Michael Paine's Mystery Vehicle, published in the Conference Abstracts of the Second National Conference of COPA, 1995.
6. See Dallas Municipal Archives, John F. Kennedy Collection, Box 12, Folder 45, Item 18. See also photograph on page 142 of Robert Groden's Search for Lee Harvey Oswald
7. Brock (Robert) Exhibit A (19H 182)