Reclaiming History

by Vincent Bugliosi

  Captain Fritz is so intent on preventing anyone from harming Oswald or allowing him the opportunity to escape that he pulls Leavelle aside and orders him to handcuff himself to the prisoner.1330

  “Lee, I want you to follow Detective Leavelle when we get downstairs,” Fritz says, “and stay close to him.”

  Fritz realizes that Oswald is clad only in a T-shirt.

  “Do you want something to put over your T-shirt?” he asks.

  “Yes,” Oswald says.

  Fritz orders a detective to go and get some of the clothing police confiscated from Oswald’s room. No more than a minute later, they bring in some clothes on hangers and hand Oswald one of the better-looking items, a light-colored shirt.

  “If it’s all the same to you,” Oswald says, “I’d rather wear that black sweater. That might be a little warmer.”

  Oswald points at a black, Ivy League–type, slip-over sweater that has some ragged holes near the right shoulder. Someone makes a remark that the other shirt looks better, but Oswald insists on the black sweater. They hand it to him as Detective Leavelle releases one of the handcuffs from Oswald’s wrists. Detective Graves helps him pull it over his head.1331 In his black trousers and black sweater, Oswald looks very much the way he did in the backyard photographs, the snapshots where he posed proudly with a rifle and pistol. Captain Fritz asks whether Oswald would like to wear a hat to camouflage his appearance during the transfer, but Oswald doesn’t want to do that.1332

  11:15 a.m.

  In the City Hall basement, Deputy Chief Stevenson corrals Chief Batchelor and Captain Jones.

  “There’s been a change in plans,” he advises them. “We are going to put two cars on the driveway and transfer him in one of them.” Stevenson quickly outlines how the armored truck will now be used as a decoy.

  “Why?” Batchelor wants to know.

  “Curry and the others in homicide have decided using the decoy would be a wise move in case anyone attacks the caravan,” Stevenson says.1333

  By the time Ruby fills out the money order in the Western Union office, there’s only one client ahead of him in line. Doyle Lane, the thirty-five-year-old senior delivery clerk on duty, recognizes Ruby as a fairly frequent customer. Ruby has already filled out the order in large printing, “$25.00, to KAREN BENNETT, WILL CALL, FTH WORTH,” but Lane crosses out “FTH WORTH” and, according to the company regulation, which requires the full destination on the body of a money order, writes “Fort Worth, Texas” in the space provided. He asks Ruby for his own name and address and fills in Ruby’s reply: “Jack Ruby, 13121/2 Commerce.” Doyle writes “Mod FTW,” for “Money Order Department Fort Worth” and “rates” the order, adding a charge of $.55, a toll charge of $1.20, and the tax of $.12, for a total of $26.87. He makes change from $30.00 in bills Ruby gives him, stamps the money order and the receipt with the time clock, which rotates on the counter on a minute-to-minute basis, and hands a copy of the receipt and the change back to Ruby. The time, signifying the end of the transaction and synchronized to the U.S. Naval Observatory time in Washington, D.C., as are all Western Union clocks at eleven every morning, reads 11:17.

  As Doyle puts the money order into the pneumatic tube that blows it upstairs for transmission, he sees Ruby turn from the counter, walk out the door and turn left, toward City Hall at the other end of the block, walking at an ordinary gait.1334

  It will be more than an hour before the money order is wired to Fort Worth. Normally it takes no more than about twenty minutes for a transmission to Fort Worth, but the office has had a lot of reporters running in with their scribbled notes, and the extra traffic has slowed the wire way down.1335

  11:18 a.m.

  In the third-floor Homicide and Robbery Bureau, Captain Fritz steps out into the outer office, where Chief Curry waits.

  “Is everything ready?” Fritz asks.

  “Yes, as far as I know,” Curry replies. “Everything is ready to go. I’ll go on down to the basement. Chief Stevenson and I will meet you at the county jail.”1336

  As Curry leaves, Secret Service agent Sorrels approaches Fritz.

  “If I were you, I would not move Oswald to the county jail at an announced time like this,” Sorrels says. “I would take him out at three or four in the morning when there’s no one around.”

  Personally, Fritz couldn’t agree more. But this is not his show.

  “Chief Curry wants to go along with the press and not try to put anything over on them,” Fritz tells him.1337

  Curry has just exited the Homicide and Robbery Bureau when an officer walks up to him.

  “Mayor Cabell is on the phone for you, Chief.”

  Curry heads to his office down the hall, where he takes the call. Cabell wants to know how everything is progressing, and when Curry plans to transfer Oswald to the county jail.

  “We’re getting set to transfer him now,” Curry says, and quickly brings the mayor up to speed on the transfer.1338

  Four floors below, the public elevator opens onto the basement corridor just outside the jail office, and a crowd of detectives piles out followed by two WBAP cameramen, struggling to push a rolling tripod with a large TV camera perched atop it. When it nearly topples over, a third crewman from the WBAP basement team rushes over and helps them roll it out to the ramp. The word from the two crewmen who have just come from the third floor is that Oswald could be brought down at any moment.1339

  11:19 a.m.

  In Captain Fritz’s office, Oswald stands quietly, his hands manacled in front. Detective Leavelle snaps one end of a second pair of handcuffs on Oswald’s right wrist, the other end on his own left wrist.

  “Lee, if anybody shoots at you, I hope they’re as good a shot as you are,” Leavelle says half-jokingly, not only meaning that he hopes Oswald gets hit and not him, but that he knows Oswald killed Kennedy.

  “Aw, there ain’t going to be anybody shooting at me,” Oswald replies with a laugh, one of the few jovial moments he’s had since his arrest, “you’re just being melodramatic.”

  “Well, if there’s any trouble, you know what to do?” Leavelle says. “Hit the floor.”

  “Captain Fritz told me to follow you,” Oswald answers. “I’ll do whatever you do.”

  “In that case,” Leavelle tells him, “you’ll be on the floor.”1340

  With the Commerce Street exit blocked by the armored truck, Lieutenant Rio S. Pierce, who has been assigned to drive a car with two detectives in front of the armored truck, decides to exit the basement with his squad car via the Main Street ramp (which is actually the entrance into the basement), circle the block, and back up in front of the armored truck. It will mean he’ll have to travel the wrong way on what is normally a one-way ramp, but he has little choice. With Sergeant James Putnam in the passenger seat and Sergeant Billy Joe Maxey in the left backseat, Pierce flips on the flashing red lights, cranks the steering wheel to the right, and inches toward the newsmen lined up across the bottom of the ramp. Captain Talbert splits the group apart so Pierce can get through. As soon as the squad car moves through the line of reporters, the line closes up like water behind a boat.1341 Two more cars, driven by Detectives C. N. Dhority and C.W. Brown, one of which will transport Oswald, begin to move into position at the base of the Commerce Street ramp behind the armored truck.1342

  In the third-floor hallway outside Homicide and Robbery, uniformed officers and plainclothes detectives have begun moving the dozen or so reporters still on the third floor against the far wall of the corridor. They’re told not to move toward Oswald when he comes out, or ask any questions or shout at him. In the basement, two lines of Dallas detectives form to protect Oswald from the jail office door to where the vehicle to be used for the transfer of Oswald will soon appear. They have instructions to close in behind the prisoner as he walks past them.

  Inside the homicide office, Captain Fritz turns to Lieutenant T. L. Baker.

  “Call down and tell them we’re on our way,” he orders.

  The do
or opens into the third-floor hallway and Lieutenant Swain leads the way out, followed by Captain Fritz. As reporters jostle for position, Detective Leavelle steps out the door with Oswald’s right wrist cuffed to Leavelle’s left wrist. Detective L. C. Graves is close behind, holding Oswald’s left arm. Detective L. D. Montgomery follows, covering the rear.1343 As soon as Oswald emerges, several reporters ignore police orders and begin shouting questions at him. A microphone picks up part of Oswald’s response to one question.

  “I’d like to contact a member…representative of the American Civil Liberties Union…”

  Oswald’s words are broken off as he is pulled into the anteroom of the jail elevator. As soon as he disappears, reporters Jerry O’Leary of the Washington Evening Star and Ike Pappas, from New York’s WNEW radio, accompanied by Maurice “Mickey” Carroll of the New York Herald Tribune, bolt for the stairway in their planned bid to get to the basement before Oswald does.1344

  11:20 a.m.

  The telephone in the jail office rings and Lieutenant Woodrow Wiggins, standing at the booking desk, answers it.

  “They’re on their way down,” Lieutenant Baker says. “Is everything ready?”

  “All clear,” Wiggins replies. He hangs up the phone and sees the jail elevator lights cascading downward as the elevator makes its descent.1345

  Patrolman Roy E. Vaughn, assigned to guard the entrance to the Main Street ramp, is surprised to see the squad car driven by Lieutenant Pierce exiting from the entranceway. As the squad car approaches the top of the ramp, Vaughn, who was not standing at the top of the ramp but inside a few feet (apparently to see as much of what was going on below as he could), is forced to step to his right to get out of the way of the car, all the while backing up to the top of the ramp that faces the sidewalk. There are small groups of people on each side of the ramp exit on the sidewalk. He clears them, steps out into the sidewalk, checks for traffic on Main, and waves the car through. Pierce turns left onto Main Street and heads for the top of the Commerce Street exit ramp to position himself in front of the armored truck.1346

  As Ruby, who has walked the long block on Main from the Western Union office to City Hall, approaches the top of the Main Street ramp, he sees, with a quick glance, the officer at the entrance (Vaughn) backing up and stepping to his right, his back toward Ruby. By the time Ruby reaches the entrance to the ramp, Pierce’s car has temporarily stopped at the sidewalk outside the ramp, and Ruby recognizes Pierce. Jack is one of many who call the detective by his middle name, Sam, rather than his first, Rio. Ruby sees Vaughn stoop down to acknowledge the officers in the car. Without breaking his stride, Ruby turns left toward the ramp, slips past the car, and hurries down the ramp, not sure whether Vaughn has seen him or not. He knows from a lifetime of gatecrashing that the best way to get in is to look as though you belong there. Halfway down the ramp he hears someone shout something like, “Hey, you,” but he pays no attention, just keeps walking down the ramp into the basement.1347

  At the bottom of the ramp, there is considerable excitement as the reporters know it’s just a matter of moments before Oswald appears. Adjacent to them, in the level area between the Main Street entrance ramp and the Commerce Street exit ramp, the two unmarked police cars driven by Detectives Dhority and Brown are having a difficult time maneuvering in the tight quarters behind the armored truck.

  Detective Brown swings a pea-green Ford up behind the armored truck, his partner, Detective Dhority, right behind him in an unmarked white sedan. But Brown doesn’t pull far enough forward for Dhority to get his vehicle in line behind it.

  Captain Talbert can see the predicament and hollers to Brown, “Pull forward!”

  When he does, Dhority drives the white sedan onto the Commerce Street ramp, then puts the car into reverse and begins backing up toward the jail entrance to wait for Oswald, but a mass of reporters, who have defied instructions and come out from behind the railing, is blocking his path.

  Chief Stevenson and Captain Jones shout out to them, “Get out of the way.”

  Captain Talbert, along the sedan’s left side, pushes at the newsmen, who do not respond instantly because their attention is fixated on the door where Oswald is expected to emerge.

  “Get back, get back,” he repeats, tugging on their shoulders.

  Detective Dhority finally resorts to blowing the horn at the reporters as he rolls the car back toward the door of the jail office.

  Suddenly, someone shouts, “Here they come!”

  Television floodlights flip on, bathing the garage in a blinding white light as newsmen start rushing as close as they can get to the jail office entrance, craning their necks over the cordon of detectives who are in place to shield Oswald, trying to get a glimpse of him. Stevenson, Jones, Talbert, and other officers hopelessly shout at the wave of humanity, their commands falling on deaf ears, “Get back! Get back!”1348

  Reporters Jerry O’Leary, Ike Pappas, and Mickey Carroll burst out of the basement stairwell as planned, arriving just before the jail elevator. As they rush through the public corridor and out into the garage, a police officer asks O’Leary and Carroll to show identification. They flash their press credentials and Ike Pappas manages to squeeze in close to the doorway where Oswald will emerge from the jail office.1349

  The jail elevator doors open and Lieutenant Swain and Detective Montgomery step off into the jail office, then move aside as Captain Fritz emerges. Fritz turns back and grabs Swain by the arm.

  “I want you to lead the way,” Fritz tells him and motions for him to take the point position.

  As Swain begins making his way around the booking desk toward the exit door, Detectives Leavelle and Graves cautiously step out of the elevator with Oswald between them.

  Multiple voices ripple through the crowd of reporters: “Here he is. Here he comes.”1350

  Two of the three national television networks are on hand to broadcast Oswald’s departure from the City Hall basement. (ABC television opted to cover Oswald’s arrival at the county jail and consequently had no live camera coverage in the basement.)1351 The NBC television network is just concluding a two-minute report from the Kennedy family compound at Hyannis Port when Frank McGee, the anchor in New York, hears through his earphone correspondent Tom Pettit in Dallas shouting, “Give me air! Give me air!” A switch is flipped in New York and the live camera feed from the basement of City Hall comes up on the screens of millions of viewers.1352

  CBS correspondent Nelson Benton is also shouting into his microphone, “Take it, take it, take it! They’re at the door!” CBS cameras are picking up the scene, but the program controllers in New York refuse to cut away from the preparations in Washington, D.C., to move the president’s body from the White House to the Capitol rotunda. Dan Rather, in the local CBS affiliate control room in Dallas, leans on the guys in New York, “You’ve got to come to us now!”

  “Hold on a just a minute,” New York says. “We have to get through this Roger Mudd piece, then Harry Reasoner has a one-minute essay.” Rather can’t believe it. It is clear to him that by the time New York switches over, the transfer will be over.* Only NBC is broadcasting live to the nation.†

  Detectives Leavelle and Graves fall in behind Swain and Captain Fritz as they escort Oswald through the jail office and toward the doorway leading out into the basement garage. Detective Montgomery is right behind them. Fritz looks toward the booking desk, where Lieutenant Wiggins stands.

  “Are they ready?” Fritz asks.

  Wiggins indicates that everything is in place, walks out from behind the desk, and steps through the doorway to the garage just ahead of Swain.1353

  WNEW radio reporter Ike Pappas, just six feet from the doorway, speaks into his microphone, “Now the prisoner, wearing a black sweater, is being moved out toward an armored car. Being led out by Captain Fritz.”

  Lieutenant Swain steps through the doorway of the jail office and into the bright television floodlights. Captain Fritz is a few feet behind him. Swain walks towar
d the sedan that will carry Oswald as it continues to roll back into position. The driver, Detective Dhority, hits the car horn again to clear the media away.

  Leavelle and Graves hesitate momentarily at the doorway, holding Oswald just inside the jail office. “Is it okay?” Leavelle asks. Detective Wilbur J. Cutchshaw, standing just outside the doorway, answers Leavelle, “Okay, come on out, Jim.”1354

  Detectives Leavelle and Graves march out, Oswald firmly between them, but manacled only to Leavelle. For a moment Leavelle and Graves are blinded by their first exposure to the lights, making it impossible for them to observe any movements originating from their left front. But they soon regain their vision and are surprised that nothing is ready. The white sedan that is supposed to be parked about thirteen to fourteen feet just outside the door is still rolling back, struggling to get into position against the tide of reporters who have come around or over the railing they had been ordered to remain behind and are now surging toward Oswald.1355 The driver blasts the horn again as Captain Fritz reaches for the backdoor handle.1356 Oswald and his police escorts nearly come to a halt as the protective lane around Oswald begins to collapse. Detective Graves finds himself rubbing elbows with reporter Ike Pappas on his left.1357

  Pappas thrusts his microphone forward and shouts a question as Oswald turns slightly toward him.

  “Do you have anything to say in your defense?” Pappas asks Oswald.

  Suddenly, a man with a hat lunges from the crowd to Oswald’s left front, his arm outstretched with a gun in his right hand. Detective Don Ray Archer, to the man’s left, thinks it’s someone who has jumped out of the crowd to “take a sock” at Oswald.1358 The man’s face is familiar to Leavelle, and in a split second he realizes the man is Jack Ruby.1359