Post by John Duncan on Apr 9, 2023 15:57:00 GMT -5
This is from John Armstrong's book "Harvey and Lee".
Quote on
At 2:15 on November 24 Deputy McCoy, of the Dallas County Sheriff's office received a call from a man who said he was a member of a group of one hundred people. The man wanted the Sheriff's office to know that they had voted one hundred percent to kill Oswald while he was in the process of being transferred to the county jail. He wanted to inform the Sheriff's department so that none of the Deputies would get hurt.
A short time later SA Milton L. Newsom called McCoy and asked if the Sheriff's office had received any calls threatening Oswald's life. McCoy told Newsom about the previous call and then called the Dallas Police Department to see if they had received any threatening phone calls.
At 2:30 a.m. an unknown individual telephoned the Dallas FBI office and asked to speak with the man in charge. After being told that the SAC (Special Agent in Charge) was not present the caller said, "I represent a committee that is neither right nor left wing and tonight, tomorrow morning, or tomorrow night, we are going to kill the man that killed the President. There will be no excitement and we will kill him. We wanted to be sure and tell the FBI, Police Department, and Sheriff's Office, and we will be there and we will kill him." The man who took the call, Vernon Glossup, immediately prepared a memorandum which he furnished to SA Milton Newsom who it turn furnished the information to the Dallas County Sheriff's office and to the Dallas Police Department.
At 3:00 a.m. Dallas Police Officer Billy Grammer received a phone call from a familiar voice warning him that Oswald would be killed if the police didn't transfer him in secret. Grammer was home the next morning watching Oswald's transfer on television when he saw his friend, Jack Ruby, shoot Oswald. He instantly remembered the call from the previous night and realized the caller was Ruby. Grammer gave a sworn affidavit to the Dallas Police but was never asked to testify before the Warren Commission.
Within an hour, between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. someone, probably Jack Ruby, called the FBI, Dallas Sheriff and Dallas Police and told them Oswald would be killed if he were not transferred in secret. The man who placed these calls was probably trying to get the DPD to transfer Oswald in secret so that he would not have to kill Oswald as ordered. SS agent Forrest Sorrels told the Warren Commission, "I did hear that there had been an anonymous call come into the police department that someone would try to kill hem when they removed him."
At 3:45 a.m. SA Newsom called Dallas Police Captain W.B. Frazier and told him about the anonymous call in which the individual and a group of people was going to kill Lee Harvey Oswald that night or the following day and there was nothing that anyone could do about it. Frazier telephoned Captain Fritz at 5:00 a.m. and relayed the information to him.
A short while later Dallas Deputy Sheriff Cox telephoned the Dallas Police and said that Sheriff Decker wanted Oswald transferred to the County Jail as soon as possible. Frazier, then attempted to contact Chief Curry at his residence (about 6:00 a.m.), but was unable to reach him. When Frazier told Captain C.E. Talbert that he was unable to reach Curry by telephone, a squad car was sent to Curry's home with instructions for him to call the office.
Jack Ruby went to bed between 3:30 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., if at all, and was up by 6:30 a.m. Around 7:00 a.m. Ruby parked his 1960 Oldsmobile at the Allright Parking Lot at the corner of Main and Pearl Streets across from the Western Union Building near the police station. He left his dog in the car along with three Dallas newspapers which contained articles about President Kennedy's assassination. In the glove compartment Ruby left his wallet and keys to the trunk of his car. In the trunk he left keys to the ignition of the car, 200 photographs of nearly nude girls, and $873.50 in cash. When parking lot attendant Theodore Jackson arrived at work he noticed that Ruby's 1960 Oldsmobile was already there.
At 8:00 a.m. John A. Smith, a remote video operator for WBAP-TV, saw Ruby standing on the sidewalk next to the police station on Commerce Street. Smith said that about 8:10 a.m. Ruby walked over to his truck and asked, "Have they brought Oswald down yet? Smith said the next time he saw Ruby was about 10:00 a.m., standing on the sidewalk on the Commerce Street side of the Police station next to the ramp leading to the basement.
Mr. I.N. Walker was in the WBAP-TV Mobile Unit truck parked outside of Dallas City Hall on Commerce Street on the morning of November 24th. He remembered that Ruby twice came over to his truck and asked, "Have they brought Oswald down yet?” From these witnesses, it is clear that Ruby arrived at DPD headquarters prior to 8:00 a.m and was planning to kill Oswald.
At 9:30 a.m. Oswald was interrogated for the last time by Captain Fritz with Inspector Kelley, SAC Forrest Sorrels, Postal Inspector Harry Holmes, DPD detectives J.R. Leavelle, L..C. Graves (near the end of questioning), and Captain C.N. Dhority in attendance. (Note: Oswald's final interrogation was the only occasion during which Postal Inspector Harry Holmes was known to have been present).
Skipping Interrogation.
According to Deputy Sheriff Bill Corson it was normally the Sheriff's Department that transferred prisoners from the city to the county jail. He thought that Jesse Curry yielded to political pressure from Mayor Earle Cabell for the Dallas Police to transfer Oswald.
As Oswald was preparing to leave Fritz's office on the 3rd floor Jack Ruby was at the Western Union office, one block east of DPD headquarters, sending a $25.00 money order to Karen Carlin in Fort Worth. After obtaining a time-stamped receipt at 11:17 a.m. he departed for DPD headquarters.
Karen Carlin either knew or suspected that Ruby was somehow involved with Oswald. She told Secret Service Agent Roger Warner that whe was under the impression that Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, and other individuals unknown to her were involved in a plot to assassinate President Kennedy and that she would be killed if she gave any information to the authorities.
As Lee HARVEY Oswald left Captain Fritz's office for the elevator ride to the basement Tom Howard, Jack Ruby's attorney, was standing nearby. Detective H.L. McGee saw Howard enter the basement of the police station through the Harwood Street ramp and walk up to the jail office window. When Oswald was brought off the jail elevator, only moments before he was shot, Howard turned away from the window and went back to the Harwood Street entrance. He waved at Detective McGee and said, "That's all I wanted to see."
As Jack Ruby shot Harvey Oswald, Tom Howard left the Police station and arrived at the Sheriff's office before the ambulance carrying Oswald arrived at Parkland Hospital. Howard was carrying a writ for the purpose of obtaining a release for Ruby, which he apparently prepared even before he visited the police station.
Later that afternoon, after Jack Ruby was in custody, Houston Post reporter Alonzo Hudkins asked Tom Howard if Ruby had the pistol with him at the Friday night press conference in the police station. Howard told Hudkins that Ruby did have the pistol with him at that time. If Howard knew Ruby was carrying a gun at the press conference on Friday night, and prepared a writ early Sunday morning for Ruby's release before he shot Oswald, then it appears Tom Howard knew in advance Ruby was going to shoot Oswald.
A year and four months after Ruby shot Oswald, Tom Howard died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 48, on March 28, 1965.
On November 29, 1963 Detective August, M. Eberhardt wrote a memo to DPD Chief Jesse Curry and reported, "Our Reserve Officer, H.R. Holly, Jr., informed me this date.... that prior to the shooting he observed, or he himself admitted, Jack Ruby to the basement. That Mr. Ruby was wearing a press identification card on his jacket. The Dallas Police ignored the memo and, on December 16, 1963, a panel of 8 police officials reported that they had interviewed 90 police (20 patrolmen, 21 reserves, 30 detectives, and 19 supervisors) of nearly 1200 members of the police force. Chief Curry told the Warren Commission that Ruby had between 25 and 50 acquaintences on the force, when, in fact, Ruby knew several times as many police officers.
Jack Ruby's access to Oswald in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters was thought by many to have been the result of assistance from one or more Dallas Police officers. The Commission published, but ultimately ignored, the statement of former DPD Officer N.J. Daniels who ws at the police station on November 24. Daniels said, "I noticed a white male, approximately 50 years of age, 5-foot 10, weighing about 155-160, wearing a dark single breasted suit, white shirt, and dark colored tie...approaching the ramp from the direction of the Western Union. This person walked in the ramp and into the basement going between Officer Vaughn and the east side of the building. I did not see Officer Vaughn challenge this person nor did he show any signs of recognizing him, nor even being aware that he was passing, but I know that he saw him. The Commission ignored Daniels, and chose instead to rely on the Dallas Police report that cleared all DPD Officers of any collusion with Ruby.
The HSCA disagreed with the Warren Commission and found that Ruby may have had assistance from Dallas police officers in entering the basement. They learned the doors of a stairway near the elevators were left unlocked, and the men guarding these doors were reassigned shortly before Oswald's transfer. The officer responsible for the transfer of the police guard, Sergeant Patrick Dean, was given a polygraph test, which he failed.
On November 24 Frederick A. Biererdorf was a medical student at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and working as a First Aid attendant in the basement of the Police and Courts Building. He was in the basement when he heard a gunshot and ran to the area where Ruby shot Oswald. He saw Ruby lying face up in the jail office lobby and saw Oswald in the same position. Beilberdorf examined Oswald but was unable to detect a pulse or a heartbeat, and began to massage his sternum.
When the ambulance arrived Oswald was placed on a stretcher and lifted into the ambulance. Beiberdorf climbed into the ambulance and continued to massage Oswald's sternum and began to use a cup resuscitator which he placed over Oswald's mouth (oxygen, or any aspirator administered to the victim of a gunshot wound to the stomach can be fatal, as any medical student knows). Approxiamately 5 blocks from the hospital Oswald started thrashing about and resisting Beiberdorf's efforts to massage his sternum and attempted to remove the resuscitator from over his mouth.